Limitless Path

The commotion interrupted the other commotion at the front desk, the crowd turning to see what was happening. The thin man had seemingly found his courage once battle was joined, though his follow-up to his friend's attack consisting of incoherently yelling and flailing at her was less than impressive. Beth's response was to twist back towards him and plant a hammer fist into his gut using a slight bit of her strength. The gangly man doubled up with a pained wheeze, staggering before falling to the side. Two of the members of the group darted over to check the fat man, who was moaning rather pathetically near the center of the lobby, while several more of the members of the group moved towards Beth. The lead man reached down to his belt, where a sword was present, and Beth responded to the motion by taking three quick steps forward, drawing her new sword at the same time. In a quick motion, her blade was at the man's throat, the combination of the length of the greatsword and her arm meaning she was still two steps away while pressing the point of her blade into his jugular.

"I used my fists because they used their fists, but draw a weapon and I won't hold back anymore. Trust me, that won't end well for you," Beth said coldly, pressing forward with more force. The man raised his hands quickly in response in surrender, the rest of the group freezing in place with wide eyes. Beth could see the sweat beading on the man's forehead before she withdrew her blade with a flick, sheathing it in one smooth motion.

"Good job," said John, who Beth had noted was lolling about next to Tazeen, letting him handle all the hard work as usual. After he spoke up, he hurdled the counter in a motion so smooth it looked like he was just taking a step forward. John walked through the crowd with ease, sliding through the small gaps between the mob in a quick, natural motion. He arrived by the fat man and reached down with an easy motion, grabbing the man by the scruff of the neck. The man and woman that had gone over to check him started to protest, but John ignored them and the weak moans of the man as he strode to the main doors. Upon reaching them, he summarily tossed the man out on his ass to a number of half-shouted, half-moaned curses. Dusting his hands off, John turned and returned to the counter so swiftly it looked like he teleported, even to Beth's slightly enhanced senses.

Tazeen sighed and snapped his fingers, Beth a little confused for a second until she heard more cursing at the entryway, glancing over to see the thin man had appeared there. He had clearly appeared directly above the fat man, leading to the latest round of foul language. Beth was reminded of the previous incident a number of days before, where Tazeen had flexed his power and banished a similarly cantankerous member of the general public.

"Be glad she intercepted you before you drew in this establishment," Tazeen said coldly, flexing his power now for the first time. The air around him seemed to be cut apart, Tazeen appearing as if he were a great unsheathed blade piercing the floor of the lobby. The air in the room became extremely heavy, crushing down on everyone there, forcing the civilians to their knees. The group felt like a drawn blade was pressed against their throats, several of them reaching up to clutch their necks, as if to prevent them from being cut apart.

Sweat was now pouring from the man that had nearly drawn on Beth as Tazeen continued, "We take a very, very dim view towards our members being attacked, particularly within the Hall itself. Drawing a weapon is a particular escalation that we take an extremely dim view of, in that I would have killed you myself before young Miss Beth had even drawn, were you quicker to reach for your blade. Be glad you are slow and weak; it is one time where not being a competent warrior actually saved you."

Tazeen withdrew his power, having not even used enough for the image of his Presence to have appeared. He said to Beth, "You acted well within your rights as a Copper Emblem holder within this hall. You may continue about your business, we will handle the rest of this."

"Thanks, both of you," Beth responded, giving both John and Tazeen a nod before moving down the hallway, Blood following after. They moved through the building, heading into the arena section and to the elevators before going down to their floor and heading back to their room. Beth keyed them in, making sure the door shut behind them before shucking her pack, dropping the new sword, the old sword and pouch on her belt, and finally her armor. She got a whiff of herself as she shed the armor, grimacing as she peeled her clothes off on the way into the bathroom.

She took a long shower, relaxing in the heat before helping Blood wash off, once again grumbling as the huge wolf shook herself out right after Beth opened the door. She used several towels to help her companion dry before using one on herself. She threw on some underwear before throwing some food in to heat up, getting Blood some water in the meanwhile.

They ate quickly, Beth packing the food away in record time. She cleaned up when they were done, making sure that the room wasn't too much of a mess. The two of them then headed to bed, Beth not bothering with the covers before they both fell asleep.

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The next morning came quickly, and Beth rubbed her arms as she sat up, glad to see that it wasn't a common occurrence for her to wake up on fire. Blood rolled over with a snort before rolling a second time right off the bed, winding up standing on the floor. Beth just shook her head and hopped up, eager to get the day going and, most especially, get her items checked out.

She prepared food for the two of them and put a match on the screen on the wall as she waited. When the food was ready, they again scarfed it down before she quickly cleaned up and got ready. After she was clothed, armored, and had her new pack on and her new blade to hand, she headed out of the room with Blood in tow, going to the elevators before selecting the lowest basement floor.

The commissary was the same as always, in that the shelves were full and the counter was empty. Beth walked up to the empty counter and set her new sword down before dropping her pack and starting to pull the rest of the items out. She spread the items out across the counter, starting with the silver ring and ending with the potions and painkillers. She looked up after she had everything set down to find Jaq standing in front of her, arms crossed behind his back in a pose that a soldier would take when told "at ease."

"Damn, we need to get you a bell or something," she said, only starting at little at his silent appearance.

"I must, sadly, decline such a generous offer," he replied in his usual deadpan manner.

"Got some stuff to sell and some stuff to identify here," she said, crossing her arms at his reply.

"Well?" he replied, gesturing at the counter of goods.

Beth picked up her first unidentified find and presented it to the ornery merchant. It was the silver ring with the inscriptions carved inside, and Jaq plucked it from her fingers with superhuman dexterity before holding it up to examine. The strange circuitry patterns lit up in his eyes as he inspected the ring for a few moments before he set it back down on the counter.

"It has a simple enchantment that helps resist cold and frost based magics," he stated simply. "Selling or keeping?" he continued.

"Definitely keeping. We found a mine type area with kobolds that have frost aspects, and it leads to a labyrinth that I imagine is more of the same," Beth explained.

With a grunt, Jaq moved on before she could grab the next item, picking up the pouch containing the gems. Opening the pouch, he dumped the gems on the counter, corralling them with a few swift hand motions as they tumbled. He was left with two lines of small, uncut gems before him, which he quickly examined with a critical eye.

"These are small, uncut, and low quality," he stated. "You could get someone to cut them for you and use them in crafting, or I would buy the whole bag for two golds."

Beth held out her hand with a big smile. "Two golds please."

Jaq's eyebrow twitched at her chipper tone as he swept the gems up, returning them to the pouch before making it disappear. He made two gold coins appear from thin air right above her outstretched palm, Beth instantly making them disappear as they hit her gauntlet. As she was beaming happily, he took a glance at the few small mana copper ore pieces that she had grabbed because of their high quality. He hefted each once before giving them an almost cursory inspection.

"Fifty silver," he stated flatly as he gestured at the mana copper ore. Beth simply held her hand out again while grinning, and Jaq made the ore disappear and coins appear.

He examined the necklace with the little silver gem next, coming to a conclusion quickly. “Helps the wearer resist heat,” he said. “It does not help against fire magics, only the environment.”

“And how much?” Beth asked.

“One gold and fifty silvers, if you were selling,” he answered stoically.

“Nah, keeping,” she replied, moving it to the side.

He moved on to the weird piece of blue ore that the Kobold Hulk had dropped upon its gory death, picking it up to get a gauge of its weight while inspecting it. He spent much longer on this piece than the copper pieces, turning it over several times in his hands before setting it back down on the counter. He looked up at her with a slight shake of his head.

"What, no good?" she asked with a frown.

"No, no. It is quite good," he replied. "I was just pondering on your luck. Exploring during the first few years of an integration can usually net you some rather good things, but it seems you have a touch of great luck."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" she shot back, her frown deepening.

"Keep your temper sheathed," he replied with an eyeroll. "I am merely saying the quality of goods you find on your excursions is rather good. Not the best I have ever seen, but more than passable."

Beth's frown didn't lessen any as she just stared at him for a moment. "I feel like there was an insult in there somewhere, but I'm going to ignore it based on all the gold you're giving me."

"What remarkable intuition," Jaq returned, still entirely deadpan.

"The ore, Jaq," she said, tapping the blue chuck of rock impatiently.

"Yes, yes. Mustn't keep you from your overflowing wealth," he replied. "You've found a chunk of Frost Iron."

After waiting for a moment, Beth impatiently waved her hand, saying, "Annnnnnd…?"

"And you could either sell it to me for ten gold, or hang on to it and use it in your smithing," he responded, holding up a hand to forestall her predictable shout of 'SOLD.' He continued on after seeing her bite her lip, "I would recommend the second, in this case. This ore is rare, I have none in stock currently, and the few bars of this we have you wouldn't want to even see the price of. Additionally, it would be a rather good experience learning how to smelt and purify this ore, as it is somewhat more complex and difficult than the regular copper or iron you would normally work with."

"Fine, I can take advice," she replied a bit petulantly, moving the ore off to the side to join the necklace.

Jaq just grunted before picking up the boot knife she had unsheathed from within her boot and set on the counter. He examined it for a few moments before placing it back down and gesturing at her to take it. He explained the knife as she re-sheathed it within her right boot.

"Always good to have a few fallback weapons," he started with. "That boot knife is made of an alloy of true silver, known for its mana conductivity and ability to injure monsters. The alloy you have sacrifices some of its mana conductivity for toughness, but you could still pump quite a bit of mana through it. That is, if you had any kind of skill that affected a weapon, or simply elemental control that let you manipulate and element and direct it."

"Right, good knife that works against monsters," she nodded. "Wish I would've had that against those plant monsters in the trial."

"Its ability to harm things of corruption is not particularly great," he replied. "Better that you hacked through them with that giant butter knife versus that needle."

"Well, how about you identify my new butter knife and see if it's any better?" she said, gesturing at her new greatsword.

Jaq picked up the sheathed blade, examining the scabbard before moving on to the hilt. After thoroughly inspecting the outside, he carefully drew the blade from the scabbard, examining it in great detail. He went so far as to test the edge and check the balance, holding it at different points to test the weight and feel. Lastly, he gave the ruins engraved down the center of the blade a fairly quick look, Beth guessing he was rather conversant with enchantment based on how quickly he always figured them out.

"This is a very fine blade," he started by saying. "It is made of mana steel infused with the essence of several low strength flame gems. It is why the steel is tinged red, and it gives the blade a greater ability to conduct fire-type mana as well as greater effect when wielded against frost- or water-type beasts. The runes allow you to channel mana into the blade to increase the weight and to add a flame to the edge. Against another sapient being, the flame wouldn't do very much; at least, not if they have any skill at all. Against beasts and monsters, it should prove effective at further increasing the damage of your swings. I am assuming that this is not for sale, but just to give you an evaluation, I would say this is worth in the range of fifteen to twenty gold."