Limitless Path

All-in-all, it was pretty good for what had been just over an hour's work, including the time for the ant dungeon. Beth turned to Blood and said, "Rest for a while and recover. We'll have to ask Jaq if there are healing potions or something today. I want to stop at the neighborhood and get money from the girls. We'll buy Kim a new sword today before we come back home." Blood nodded at her and immediately sat on her haunches, entering into a meditative state.

Beth paced around the clearing and stretched for twenty minutes while Blood recovered, waiting for her to be ready to go again. When Blood was ready, Beth hopped on her back, and they quickly darted back to the neighborhood. They trotted up outside the meeting hall, several people stopping what they were doing to stare open-mouthed at the teenage girl riding a six-hundred-pound wolf through town. Blood stopped in front of the table where Zack, her father, and her mother were all standing discussing something, Beth staying mounted while speaking.

"Hey, I cleared out the ant and wolf dungeon again just now. Their levels are getting higher, so you might want to organize people to actually cull some of the ones outside the dungeon, help them get some levels. Also, do you know where Kim is?"

Zack replied, "Kim and Sophia are at the west side of the development. Go back to that part about higher levels first."

"Stuff's still getting stronger as mana density slowly increases. Beasts in the dungeons and leaving the dungeon to wander around are increasing in level slowly. I don't know how fast things are going to go but give it a couple months and we might have level twenty beasts running around in town. We should have more than just four people with some levels to be able to fight them," she answered.

"I take it you're going somewhere again today?" her mother took the opportunity to ask.

"Yeah, I'll be back by the evening again. See if I can kill another boar for Mr. Williams to skin."

"We need more space set up to process carcasses if you're going to keep killing things," Zack replied promptly. "And we need to secure one or two better transports. And I'm not your personal field dressing assistant, girl; I have other shit I gotta do."

"Right, well, I was just joking. At least, for now. Anything anybody needs before I go?" she asked.

"Nothing right now, you just be careful out there. Our cell phones are starting to have some problems too, so make sure you come back before dark," her mother replied.

"Right, right. I got it. I'll go find Kim," Beth responded casually, waving as Blood turned and trotted off with her still aboard.

The two of them headed just a little further down the center road before taking a left and heading towards the western end of the neighborhood. It only took a minute to reach the far edge of the development, Blood snaking between the houses to come out in one of the backyards.

Beth barely had time to turn her head to start looking around for her sisters when a sharp cracking noise sounded out, Beth recognizing the sound of Soph slinging lightning. The two turned back south for a little, finding Kim standing over the body of what looked like a gopher or maybe a groundhog, but grown to a massive size. Soph was standing on a table with her face scrunched up, clearly not thrilled with the giant rodent.

"Oh, back already?" Kim asked as she glanced up, seeing Beth on Blood.

"Yeah, I need a couple of silvers," Beth replied.

"What do you mean? You robbing people now?" Kim asked with a frown.

"No, I'm buying you a sword, but WE are super poor, so we have to pool our money. Unless you want to keep fighting with that cracked piece of scrap?" Beth replied slightly caustically.

"Right, fine. How much?" Kim asked, walking over and petting Blood's head.

"I have four silvers. The sword is eight," Beth answered.

"I've got two here," Kim replied, handing two to Beth.

"Take it," said Soph huffily, having also walked over while the two were talking. She handed Beth two silvers as well.

"Got it. I cleared both the ant and wolf dungeons with Blood, it'll likely take them until at least tomorrow to refresh. I'll grab a sword for you when I go down to the Hall today, and you guys can start doing dungeon runs again tomorrow. Sabs should be fine for a little bit with her knives," Beth said, looking down at her two sisters while she talked. "Oh, and the beasts in the dungeons are getting stronger slowly. The Great Wolf was level nine and had three level sevens with it, so be aware everything's going to keep getting stronger."

"We'll keep our eyes out, but it's just tearing up the low levels today while we're on guard duty. We're running around the west part of the neighborhood and Sabs is to the east. Zack has some people to the north fighting ants, I think," Kim explained.

"Alright, I'm off, just keep your heads screwed on straight," Beth replied, waving as Blood took off southward at a trot.

"Wish I had an insanely pretty wolf mount," Soph muttered as they disappeared from sight.

"Anything's possible now. Just work hard," Kim replied with a shrug, already heading northward, figuring Beth and Blood would take care of anything near the southwestern part of the neighborhood.

Blood and Beth made it to the highway without encountering anything else, and immediately headed eastward. It didn't take them very long to make it to the point where the road curved north, and they cut south, arriving at the CRA Hall fairly quickly. Beth hopped off Blood at the entrance and walked in to find Tazeen and Lyrissa at the main counter, the room otherwise empty. Beth waved to them as she walked past, Lyrissa absorbed in her videos or whatnot, with Tazeen merely nodding.

The two headed into the depths of the building, but Beth led them on a detour, heading down to the shop first. She entered as usual, again finding no one waiting inside. She approached the counter and leaned on it, waiting for Jaq to appear. After a minute of leaning, with Blood sniffing around the room as usual, Jaq appeared from the right door. Beth narrowed her eyes, suspecting he was emerging from different doors just to mess with her.

"The broke girl returns," he said coldly.

"Not so broke today. You have mana copper hand-and-a-half swords?" she asked in response.

"Yes. Give me one moment," he replied, disappearing back through the door on the right. He returned in just a moment, as he had said, holding a sword in a plain leather sheath. He set the weapon down on the counter in front of her before gesturing at it. Beth picked it up and drew it halfway from the sheath, looking at the blade before re-sheathing it. "Eight silvers."

"Here, eight silvers. I'll be back for the daggers in a few days," she said, dropping basically all her money on the counter.

"Mhmm," he replied noncommittally, the silver disappearing with barely a flicker of movement from him. "Anything else?"

"Yes, actually," she replied. "How much would healing potions or the like cost, assuming you have any?"

Jaq just shook his head slightly in response. "Well out of your price range for anything worthwhile." He held up his hand immediately to preempt Beth's still forming protest. "The cheapest things I have like that would be somewhere between fifteen and twenty silver a piece, depending on which of the two I have in stock. I will repeat here, cheapest," he continued, putting very heavy emphasis on cheapest the second time.

"So that's not happening," Beth said with a shake of her head.

"Right, they would be able to heal you a minor amount, and they would also make you feel like garbage," Jaq replied. "Well, even more like garbage."

"Clever," Beth deadpanned in response.

"Any other inspired questions?" he asked.

"No. Thanks for the help," she said with a quick eyeroll, leaning the new sword against her shoulder as she strolled out, Blood following along behind.

She made her way back up to the lounge, wondering if the other members had some kind of cell phones or communicators. It would be a lot easier to contact Baelvyr rather than running to the lobby or searching the building to find him. There wasn't a need for that today, however, as he was in his usual chair at his usual table, working his way through a large plate of cooked meat. Beth sat down at a chair as he waved to her offhandedly, continuing with his meal as she turned to watch one of the screens.

The match currently playing was between two young men, and immediately piqued her curiosity as one of them was using a greatsword. The other competitor was using a long sword with a slight curve, the silver blade very narrow at only about two inches wide. Beth was interested to see how the greatsword user fought.

The two competitors moved to designated positions on the arena floor, partially translucent walls forming around them. There was no terrain or obstacles set up, the duel area being merely a rectangle of about one hundred feet by sixty feet. When both the men were in position, a referee stepped up to a small square area just outside the ring. He raised a hand at the greatsword wielder and said something, to which the greatsword wielder replied and bowed.

The referee followed the same procedure, raising his other hand to the longsword user, receiving another response and bow. When he was satisfied, he raised his right arm high and seemed to count, finally yelling out as his arm dropped. The two men moved the millisecond the referee's arm moved, closing the distance in a few seconds.

This fight was much slower than the one Beth had a glimpse of the day before, but the speed the two men moved and swung at was still shocking. At least, it was shocking to Beth. She had some idea that basically any of the people she had met so far at the White Hall would make these two fighters look like an absolute joke.

She still focused in on the battle, watching how the greatsword user maneuvered his blade to contend with his opponent. He took advantage of his somewhat longer reach and heavier weapon to keep the longsword user at bay, swinging the greatsword in sweeping chops that didn't move fully across the range of his reach, but instead sliced back and forth in a narrow area in front of him.

The longsword user, meanwhile, seemed to have focused heavily on speed. His blade flickered forward like a striking viper, snaking in and around the greatsword, constantly looking for an opening in the greatsword user's movements. He continued fishing this way for twenty seconds or so, circling the larger and slower fighter as he cut and stabbed. Just as the greatsword user took another swing, the longsword user stepped in and stabbed towards his neck.

"Rookie, just lost," Baelvyr commented suddenly, startling Beth slightly.

"Wha-," was all she had time to reply before the greatsword user stepped into the stab, lowering his center of gravity by leaning forward and bending his knees with the step. The longsword scraped across his shoulder, scoring a thin line across his neck, but his greatsword slammed directly into the opponent's diaphragm. As the blow lifted the longsword user off the ground, the greatsword user uncoiled his legs explosively, shooting forward like a rifle shot.

He passed just to the right of the longsword user, who was still in the air, and slammed his greatsword into the opponent with the force of a runaway freight train. The blow shattered the armor on the longsword user's chest and slung him across the arena like an old ragdoll, his journey stopped abruptly when his back slammed into the force screen, the remaining pieces of armor digging into his flesh.

There was a soft but powerful ringing noise and the ref held up his hand, the one he had originally gestured towards the greatsword user with, indicating his victory. The force screen separating the ring dropped just afterwards, and a pair that seemed to be medics approached the ring. The ring apparently had a similar healing property as the training stage Beth was becoming familiar with, as the longsword user had already sat up and was attempting to stand when the medics reached him. He shrugged off their help before disappearing into the bowels of the arena, clearly not at all happy with his loss.

"How did you know that guy lost when he went for that stab?" Beth asked, turning to Baelvyr with a raised eyebrow.

"Experience. That and a little foreknowledge. The one usin' the big blade had a lot more fights and has won more than half of 'em. The skinny sword punk just doesn't have the experience or judgement; using a thrust like that right after feelin' out the opponent in a duel is pretty dumb. Besides, the big kid was slower, sure, but he's put a lot of points and effort into raisin' his STR. It's not really good for delicate work, but ya should remember that STR can become speed, given a favorable position. The big kid with the big sword knew that lesson well, his experience showin' there. Not really a great fight, but maybe I'm just gettin' too old," he explained, having finished his food, his arms resting at an angle on his massive girth.

"So, you could tell just from watching how they swung that the longsword guy was going to lose? Or was that move he made really just that bad?" Beth continued.

"Ah, a little of column A, a little of Column B. The longsword kid was clearly much newer, even without lookin' at his fight record. The way he constantly probed the other kid's defenses but didn't try for a good hit was one indication. Just a lot of experience in my years of fightin' and teachin', I could see that the bigger kid actually knew his stuff. Still a little risky to charge a stab like that, but he timed his counterthrust really well, gotta say," Baelvyr ruminated.

"Well, it might have been boring to you, but I still found it impressive. How long would it take to train to be at a level like that greatsword user?"

"Hm, the big kid?" Baelvyr asked with a grumble, the table vibrating from it. "Ah, not long, depending on how hard ya work. Maybe six months? If you put in real effort, I could get ya to a point where ya could slap down the big kid in maybe three. But ya'd have to really put the effort in. I'm talkin' trainin' nights and weekends, if ya think ya could handle it."

"I wouldn't really mind that. I want to be able to fight like that, and the faster the better. Hell, I definitely want to be able to fight better than that. The only problem I have right now is money; I'm broke as hell, as Jaq keeps telling me every time I see him," Beth replied, muttering the last part.

"Yeah, I'll give 'em a real good thump the next time I talk to 'em. No reason for him to treat ya like that, even if yer still a Copper," he responded.