Limitless Path

She waited only a minute before he reappeared from the righthand door, carrying a piece of equipment in each hand. He set them down on the counter, 'them' being an armored pair of pants and an armored chest-piece.

"These are in your size. Try them on while I go look for some heavy gauntlets," he said, motioning to the two pieces. "Oh, pull them on over your current clothing, no need to remove anything." he added quickly, walking back to the same door and disappearing inside again.

Beth started with the pants, grunting in annoyance as she had to kick the boots off again before pulling them on. They fit extremely well, almost molded to her physique, and she was surprised the new cloth pants didn't move or ruffle at all as she pulled the armor on and adjusted it.

The armored pants were of a moderately thick, tough leather either dyed or naturally black, with a large number of mana copper scales, which were a deep, burnished copper color, coating them. The armored shirt was much the same, of the same leather with sleeves that ended at the elbow. It was also covered in copper scales, though there were some areas that were less armored, such as around the elbows and armpits. It was just as easy pulling on and adjusting the armored shirt, and the new clothing-layer shirt moved just as little as the pants had.

Beth walked over to the mirror after putting her boots on, examining herself in the new armor. She thought it looked pretty damn good, moving her arms around to test the fit and see what it looked like. She was quite satisfied with the equipment, knowing that it would bring her a whole new level of survivability. She walked back over to the counter just as Jaq emerged again with a set of gauntlets in-hand. He set them down on the counter before casting a critical eye over her.

"I suppose it will do, though I wouldn't get too cocky with just that," he said in his usual clipped tone. "These, unfortunately, are all I have at the moment in terms of low-level gauntlets. Try them on and see if the weight and fit are decent."

Beth picked the right gauntlet up off the counter, quite surprised at the weight. If this were before all the changes, she would have been grunting and huffing after picking it up just to keep holding it in the air. Now, however, she held in easily in her left hand as she examined it. It was a full gauntlet, with a finely forged cylindrical section that would cover her forearm, ending just below her elbow.

The back of the hand was a large, thick plate that had some kind of inscription or insignia embossed into the middle. The fingers were rather beautifully crafted; at least, in her novice opinion they were. Each segment perfectly interlocked with the next, the top of each segment having a small wedge that extended over the next until the fingertips ended in slight claws. The whole thing was a very deeply burnished mana copper, so dark it was almost a deep brown, but still polished until she could see reflections of the room around her in the metal.

After both examining and admiring the gauntlet, she pulled it on her right hand and forearm. It fit quite nicely, not so well as the two armor pieces she had just put on, by it was fairly firmly secured and not too tight in any place. She stepped back and went through a series of motions, jabs and punches, curling and twisting her hand and wrist, and moving her arm around rapidly while simulating knocking away attacks or lightweight enemies. The fit could have been adjusted slightly, but for something pulled off the shelf and not custom made, it was amazing how well it wore.

"OK, so, the real question is how much?" Beth asked, turning back to Jaq, still giving her a critical eye.

"Fifty silvers for the armor. Fifty silvers for the gauntlets. So, one gold out of the near eleven you just made," he replied simply.

"Shit, why is everything so expensive?" she grumbled, making a gold coin appear on the counter in front of him.

Jaq disappeared the coin near-instantly with a rare laugh. "Expensive, she says. Paying a gold to get armor and weapons stronger than anything ever made on this backwater dirtball."

He gave her a sudden, intense look. "Just keep this to yourself, but most of the individual pieces of equipment that the others in this Hall are wearing run at a minimum into the tens of platinum. Individual pieces."

"Oh, yeah, I guess having to pay two thousand times as much as I did for my three pieces just to get one has to sting," she replied, crossing her arms with a metallic clanking sound as she bit her lip.

"Anything else you need? Maybe want to strip back down and run around licking my display cases?" Jaq asked, clearly ready to move on.

"Yeah, just for my own gratification, do you have any storage items? You know, like a Bag of Holding or something?" she asked with a small quirk of her brow.

"You're talking about Spatial Tools?" he asked in turn.

"Yeah, I guess. It would be like a ring that has a space inside to store stuff. So, I guess they are tools with space in them?" she responded with a frown.

"Right. Spatial Tools. I really do hate to leave you on a sour note, but you're going to have to take down another trial or two before you can invest in one of them," he replied, crossing his arms as he gave her a slight head shake.

"But you do have some, then?" she asked, a gleam starting to shine in her eyes.

"Before you get carried away; yes, I do have some. The cheapest one I have is twelve gold, a backpack that gives you about two cubic meters, by your measurements, of storage inside. After that, the next thing I have that would fit what you're talking about is a necklace that has about four cubic meters of space inside. That one is one platinum and ten gold," he explained.

Beth visibly deflated; the gleam replaced with an emptiness. "Twelve gold for a crummy backpack, and one PLATINUM for a necklace?" she moaned.

Jaq winced slightly, saying, "Do that again and you're banned from the shop for a week. And before you start weeping piteously, I do have another solution."

He walked to the end of the counter opposite the measurement machine before moving through an opening and down the far wall. He stopped in front of a shelf Beth hadn't really looked at and grabbed something off it before walking over to her. He handed her a moderate sized pouch, which she looked at with raised brows.

"And this is?" she asked.

"It's similar to what you were talking about, but it doesn't store the items in a unique space. It's a lower level of tool that just extends the space inside. It's small and you have to both push things in and pull things out, and no, the mouth of the bag doesn't stretch any more than what its regular size currently is," he explained to her.

"OK, again, the catch. How much?" she asked him with a frown.

He walked back around the counter and said, "One gold fifty silver."

"Deal!" Beth exclaimed immediately and slapped the coins down on the counter. She quickly put the pouch on her sword belt, looping the belt through hooks on the armored pants.

"It's slightly more damage resistant than a normal pouch, but if it gets hit hard, it will tear," Jaq warned her.

"Thanks for the tip, and for the gear. Making money to spend money. Can you also sell me emblems, or how does that work?" she asked.

"Copper emblems are two golds apiece, and they can't be sold to someone else. The one you found was bound to you and registered in our records through the systems of the Path, but to register when buying a Copper, the person needs to be present," he explained to her with a sigh. "If you have someone that you want to induct, bring them to the Hall and have them sign up at the front counter. Tazeen will be thrilled to help with the process."

"Right, got it. Thanks for the help," she replied with a nod. She then grabbed her old gauntlets and shoved them in the belt pouch, surprised when they both fit inside. She then grabbed the new clothes and put them in the pouch as well. Ready to move, she turned and led Blood out of the shop area.

She led the way up to the lounge room that a lot of the senior members congregated in when they weren't at the front desk or off at their own rooms. She entered with Blood, looking around to find most of the members were present in the room, minus Jaq, Tazeen, and John. She sauntered over to the corner table that Baelvyr had claimed, sitting down to his right with her back to the wall. Blood sat on her haunches on the floor next to her, Blood's head slightly below Beth's when seated.

Baelvyr had given her a glance when she sat down, continuing to drink from a rather large stone mug. As she rested her elbows on the table and put her chin on her hands, He turned to her and said, "I see ya made a little jump there. Found somethin' interestin'?"

"Yeah, it was something like an endless trial? We fought a hundred enemies a floor for ten floors in a trial. We got some rare stuff out of it and just sold it to Jaq. Think it was a pretty good day. I did have a question I wanted to ask you, though," she replied.

"Yeah, go ahead, what do ya got?" he asked before taking a big quaff.

"We were fighting these enemies that attacked us with a ton of vines. Like, these plants monster things, and we had to try to chop the vines and then get to the core," she started to explain, with Baelvyr grunting at her to continue. "I was fighting really hard, and I was getting overwhelmed during the fight. But, like, I went into this trance-like state, and I just slaughtered the rest of the vines. I don't even remember everything that happened."

"Yeah, that can happen. Ya went into a battle trance during the fight when you were really hard-pressed. It's like a really good state of concentration on fighting, and ya both fight better and improve slightly faster than normal," he replied with a rumble.

"Some kind of mystical mumbo jumbo? I would say I don't believe in that, but magic and monsters and aliens are suddenly real, so why not?" Beth said, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. "You around for training the next two or three days?"

"Yeah, girlie, I'm always 'round here. Just ask Tazeen or Jaq if you can't find me," he replied before draining his mug. He pulled out two different bottles from nowhere and poured a large measure from each into his mug, emptying one of the bottles in the process. "What did those old misers give ya for beating that trial anyway? Was a silver gate, yeah?"

"Yeah, it was a silver level one. The projection thing gave us a choice of these items that, like, increased our stats permanently. I took two for STR and END, Blood picked the pure DEX one and the INT and WIS one," Beth answered.

"Musta left an impression; stat items are a little rarer than what ya might normally get outta a silver level trial," he replied before taking a hefty swig.

"So how tough are the other trials? Like, do you think I could do a gold Endless Trial before one hundred?" she asked, leaning forward again with her arms on the table.

"Hmph," Baelvyr snorted in response. "Not like ya are now. Maybe if you get at least one of those two weapon skills to Journeymen level. But yer gonna need better gear, better skills, and more experience. Ya just don't have the kinda trainin' ya need to handle somethin' like that."

"That's a little bit of a depressing assessment," Beth responded, tracing a circle on the table with the small claw on her left index figure.

"Just reason for ya to work harder," replied Baelvyr, taking another swig. "And knock that off, we don't need to be fixin' the tables already."

"Hmph," Beth responded, mimicking his earlier snort. "Fine, work harder, I get it.”

“But that starts tomorrow," she continued, hopping up from the table and heading towards the far door. She heard Baelvyr snort behind her but just waved over her shoulder in response, giving a nod to Elana, Lyrissa, and Navere as she passed.

She proceeded out into the hallway, Blood trailing after, and headed for the front. She was only slightly surprised to find the whole gaggle of people still in the lobby, gathered around the counter in front of Tazeen. She walked around them and leaned on the counter next to John, a few of the group giving her quick, slightly wide-eyed glances before returning their attention to the argument.

"The hell is this?" she asked John, leaning against her side of the counter casually.

"Like the new gear, you look like an actual member now," he started off laconically. "As to this," he continued, gesturing at the crowd with an eyeroll, "it's the same shit from the other day. We're trespassing and have no rights and zoning regulations and we hate aliens, blah blah blah."

"And Tazeen hasn't just banned them all yet?" she asked curiously.

"Nah, they ain't done anything that bad. Not yet, anyway. Maybe if you point your sword at 'em some more you can stir something up," he said with a little bit of a dark chuckle.

"Yeah, I'll pass. You guys make sure to have fun with it," she responded, straightening up and heading towards the exit. Blood plodded along behind and, once they were outside, Beth mounted up and the two shot off like a red and copper cruise missile. Blood's speed was reaching a pretty crazy level, at least to Beth, who wasn't used to going much faster than highway speeds, and that used to be in a car.

It took only a few minutes total now from the front steps of the CRA Hall to their backdoor, Blood leaping the trench and berm without even exerting effort. It was still early evening, so the light was just starting to fade a little, and there was a group in the backyard that included Beth's family, Sabs, and Zack.