Limitless Path

"Apart from you trying to be clever, I'll take that advice," she replied with another sigh.

"So, uh, what exactly is happening?" James asked.

"I'm being pulled from my vastly more important work to babysit the children. Again," Jaq bit off.

"I'm doing what you did earlier; selling things I find to this miserable bastard. But first, he has to identify the stuff, and some of it I keep," Beth replied with a shrug, Jaq's eyes narrowing further as she insulted him. With a *tsk*, he picked the next item up and looked at it.

"Barely passible health potion," he continued. "And before you asked, it heals you when you drink it."

"Thanks chief, couldn't have put that together myself," Beth replied, throwing the potion in her pouch at the same time.

"This is slightly interesting," Jaq continued, ignoring her comments. "A lockbox with something likely somewhat valuable inside. Give it to your little paramour there; I'm sure John can teach you to open it, given a few weeks or so."

"Rude!" exclaimed Sabs, standing from Blood and glaring at Jaq.

"I was being generous," he replied with a frown. "Would you like me to give a more accurate estimate?"

"Don't be an ass," Sabs retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

"Don't let him piss you off, hon," Beth said with a chuckle, placing her left hand on Sabs' shoulder.

"He doesn't have to be so rude for no reason," Sabs grumbled, reaching up and placing her hand atop Beth's.

"As sweet as this is, I have things to do," Jaq grumbled, closely inspecting the two small green gems as Beth coughed and Sabs blushed. James just seemed lost, watching what Jaq was doing closely as he went through the items.

"These are wind emeralds," Jaq said with a grunt, setting the gems down in front of Beth. "One gold each."

"Deal," she said immediately, grabbing the two coins that Jaq made appear on the table.

"This, on the other hand, is much more common," Jaq continued, gesturing at the clay he had unwrapped. "At least, in much of the rest of the universe. It's a form of heavy clay used for scribing, which will prove valuable for an apprentice enchanter."

"I'll hang on to it, then," Beth replied, re-wrapping the clay before putting it back in her pouch.

"Now, this last piece is where your foolish luck comes into play," he said with a slight frown.

"Rather be lucky than good," Beth replied immediately.

"One of your skill would," he retorted with a slight sneer. "Anyway, so that you all vacate my shop much more quickly, this is a skill crystal. It can teach you a rather basic skill, but one that you lot might find useful."

"Well?" Beth asked as he set the crystal down in front of her and glanced at all of them.

"Remember that a crystal like this can only be used once or twice at a time before it needs to recharge," he warned them with a tap of his finger on the top of the crystal. "Secondly, don't be in a rush to just learn a skill as soon as you get it. I'm not going to give you a full lesson on this now, but it's better to have fewer skills that are of higher quality and more closely match your path."

"OK, that's a good lesson non-lesson," Beth replied tersely, "but what IS it?!"

"It's a movement-based skill called Swift," he replied, interrupted by Beth before he could go any further.

"Bahahahaha," she laughed loudly before ending with a snort.

"I fail to find the humor in a skill name," Jaq said with a frown.

"Right, ahahaha, it's just, ha ha, it's just that Blood has it," Beth answered, still laughing.

"The lupine has Swift?" Jaq asked with a raised brow. "You shouldn't use crystals you haven't identified yet."

"No, no. We didn't use the crystal or anything. Swift is a skill that she just learned naturally on her own," Beth replied with a wave of her hand.

"I see," Jaq answered coolly. "If you know the skill, that saves me an explanation. I assume, as always, you can see yourselves out?"

"Hold on," Beth said, dropping the skill crystal into her pouch. Then she gestured to James, "Need to take care of your other customer first."

Jaq's eyebrows climbed. "You know the prices, and I know his level of wealth; I just gave it to him. What is he buying?"

"I assume he'll want armor," Beth said, now staring at James along with the others, causing him to squirm somewhat.

"Y-yeah, armor sounds good," he responded.

"'Sounds good,' he says," Jaq snorted in response before walking down to the far end of the counter. Beth poked James in the back, causing him to jump with a gasp, in turn causing Beth and Sabs to laugh. She gestured for him to move down to the end of the counter, where Jaq had kicked the scanner platform on.

"Uh, what's this?" asked James, giving the arms on the sides of the platform quite a scrunched-eye look.

"Stand on it and hold your arms out. It'll measure you for armor and whatever," Beth explained, motioning him to hop on. James tentatively stepped up with his right foot, gaining a little confidence when the device didn't grab ahold of him or snap closed. He raised his arms, tentatively at first, glancing around at the rest of the group. Jaq was examining something under the counter, Blood was sniffing the cabinets, and Beth and Sabs were a lot more interested in each other than anything else. The device whirred for a second and was silent, James glancing back at it while still holding his arms up.

"Put your arms down, boy, you look ridiculous," Jaq snapped after a moment, James starting before sheepishly lowering his arms. "I assume he will want proper attire?"

"Yeah, get him some clothes," Beth said, moving back to the center of the counter. "And a sword and the regular armored pants and shirt."

"I don't think I can afford that," James said with a frown.

Jaq, meanwhile, caused four sets of clothing to appear, this time with something similar to boxers instead of a bra and panties. He disappeared into the back through the left door to reappear through the right door almost instantly, Beth narrowing her eyes to the extreme at noticing that. He dropped armored pants and a chest piece on the counter before moving back through the middle door, re-emerging from the same door a moment later to drop a mana copper longsword on the counter.

"I want some of those boxers," Beth commented suddenly. Jaq just rolled his eyes and made half a dozen pairs appear from the slot that he used to…create?...the clothes and set them down in front of her with a sigh.

"It's one gold and fifteen silvers for this, assuming you don't currently want gloves, boots, bags, or any other inane implement," Jaq said, back to his frustrated deadpan.

"OK, I definitely can't afford this," James said while holding up his hands.

"Put what you have on the table," Beth said with a gesture. James plopped fifty-one silvers and thirty coppers on the counter. "Keep the coppers."

As James returned the copper coins to his status screen, Beth dropped sixty-four silver coins on the counter. Jaq made the coins disappear as soon as the two finished adding and subtracting coins from the pile. Beth gestured for James to grab everything on the counter except the six pairs of boxers in her size, which she pocketed with a quick movement that elicited a snicker from Sabs. Beth gave her an elbow before motioning James to follow.

"See ya later, Jaq," Beth waved over her shoulder, earning a dismissive grunt for her trouble.

"Where to now?" asked James.

"Since you let Elana get her claws in you, it's the forge next," Beth said, leading the way back down the hall and all the way to the other end of the underworks. She opened the forge area and led the others inside, quickly pointing a few things out for James, "The metal stock is mostly along the back, and you can just grab a bench and a forge to get working."

"This is a lot to take in," James said looking around.

"Elana'll walk you through it all. Just remember this is at the back end of the bottom level," Beth said, leading the way back out and shutting the doors behind them.

"Where to now?" asked Sabs.

"The lounge for James, then the room for us," Beth answered, walking down to the elevators again.

They went back up to the arena area and Beth led the way to the lounge, dropping James and his armload of new gear off with Elana. Beth then led the way back out of the lounge and down into the underworks, finally letting the three of them into the room. She closed the door behind them before dropping her pack in the corner. She took her sword belt off and dropped it on the table in front of the couch before she took her armored outer layer off and tossed it in the corner.

"Don't toss your stuff like that," Sabs said with a frown, belying her seriousness with a giggle.

"It's fine; beasts scratch it up and it's good, getting dropped on the floor won't hurt it," she replied.

"But still…" Sabs replied before Beth grabbed her by the waist and lifted her into the air, eliciting a high-pitched squeak from the small girl. She brought Sabs in close, both instinctually leaning forward as their lips met, getting lost in a deep kiss. That was, until Blood finally interrupted them with a cold nose to the back of Beth's neck, causing the two to break apart as she spluttered.

"Right, you need food and water," she said apologetically to the wolf.

"I think we all could use some food and drink," Sabs pitched in, moving to the kitchen after Beth put her down from their interrupted kiss. Beth followed her into the kitchen, helping start the food heating and getting water for Blood. They finished the meal prep with plenty of shoulder and hip bumping, taking everything back out to the main room, where they sat and ate. Blood sat off to the side while the other two sat on the couch, Sabs close enough to reach out and ruffle Blood's ears.

Beth leaned back as she finished and let out a loud belch, causing Sabs to chuckle. "I give it a seven."

"That was only a seven?" Beth asked, wrapping her right arm around the petite girl.

"A ten would have to pop my eardrums or something," Sabs responded as she snuggled against Beth's side.

"Even with enhanced stats, I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon," Beth replied before leaning into Sabs, kissing the top of her head.

The two stayed entangled for a while before Sabs broke free, beginning to clean up after their dinner. Beth pitched in to help before sitting back down at the couch, pulling her belt pouch over and opening it. She took out the potions, ready to add them to the medical kit in her backpack, as well as the elixir. She set the lockbox down to the side, going to let Sabs have it for practice, and set aside the little enchanting cube and grey clay as well. She grabbed the Swift skill crystal and held it against her forehead, feeling the sensation of a huge amount of information being packed into her head. At the same time, unlike the crystal to learn the language, she also felt her body getting hot and a slight burning sensation in her arms and legs. Thankfully, it passed relatively quickly, and she came back to herself to find Blood lying on the floor and Sabs leaning against her.

"Did it work?" Sabs asked.

"Yep," Beth replied with a nod, seeing the skill appear at copper[0] in her status screen.

"Think it's still got enough juice for me?" asked Sabs, in response to which Beth wrapped an arm around Sabs and pulled her into her lap. She then wrapped her left arm around Sabs' waist and her used her right to press the crystal against Sabs' forehead. It took a minute, but Sabs eventually reached up and gently moved Beth's hand away, and Beth set the crystal down on the table. Sabs reached out and captured Beth's free hand, interlocking their fingers, and Beth responded by leaning down and kissing Sabs' right ear. Sabs shuddered a little before sliding slightly to the side and twisting to look up, causing their lips to lock together.

They got lost in the feeling of each other's lips, Beth enjoying the softness while Sabs delighted in the feeling of Beth's arms around her. The two spent some time locked together before Sabs finally broke them apart, panting lightly, and wiggled a little to get Beth to let her up.

"I need to use the bathroom, sorry," she said apologetically.

"We should probably shower at some point," Beth replied. "And I want to use this elixir as soon as I can."

"Will the elixir put you out of it or something?" Sabs asked, biting at her lower lip.

"It really depends," Beth answered. "The last elixirs I took just hurt for a minute and then I was fine. I assume this one might be a little more in-depth, but it should be fine. I will have to do it in the bath anyway."

"Can I watch?" Sabs asked, still biting her lip and now bouncing foot to foot.

"Sure, but you better go pee first before you wet yourself," Beth said with a chuckle.

Sabs darted into the bathroom quickly, intent on some relief. Beth moved the enchanting supplies for Soph off to the side and pulled up her backpack. She retrieved the medical kit and slipped the potions, other than the elixir, into the kit and returned it to the pack. She set the pack back in the corner and put her sword belt with her pouch in the corner as well. She made sure her gloves were out and sitting by her armor and her boots were just beside them. Satisfied that everything was good, she dug in the belt pouch for the new underwear before heading into the bedroom. She tossed the underwear in the top drawer, keeping one pair and grabbing a bra.

She moved back into the main room and snatched the elixir off the table with her left hand before pushing open the door to the bathroom. Sabs had just finished up and was starting to wash her hands. She startled a little when the door opened before giving a little sigh and continuing to wash her hands.