Limitless Path

What they were currently exploring, in contrast, seemed to be not just living quarters, but an entire living area. She was assuming she might run into a whole city at some point, if the trend of the areas becoming larger and more complicated continued the deeper she went. She wasn't sure if there could be another dungeon so close, especially considering the one they had found in the mining area seemed rather large and powerful, but she made a mental note to keep her eyes peeled as they continued to progress.

"Left or right, girl?" Beth asked Blood as they stood at the intersection, the wolf immediately turning and padding into the leftward area. "Guess it's left."

The two started exploring in much the same way as the previous area, Beth entering the places that branched off the large corridor while Blood stood watch. It was left to Beth to explore primarily because Blood lacked the ability to easily open containers and move bulky objects, relegating her to the guard role for much of the time. Beth had put her sword back on its clasps after they had swept the final suite in the last area so she could more easily loot with both hands, but she drew it again now as she began the initial process of clearing the area of enemies.

Glancing around as they entered the area, she made note that the hallway continued down for several dozen feet before branching out. There was a T-intersection opposite where they had just entered from the main tunnel, indicating the areas were growing yet larger and more complex. Beth decided to clear left-to-right, starting with the first doorway on the left and moving her way down.

The doorways here had a little more carving around them and were a little cleaner, but each section still wasn't really carved up into a proper building. The first room she entered was another mix of entryway and seating area, with two doors leading further into the suite, both on opposite sides of the back wall. There were no beasts present, and she scanned the room quickly, finding that instead of a lamp, there was a light source hanging from the ceiling, which she moved up to and lit with a thread of mana. It was a simple sphere of glass, the material a little bit bubbly, as if someone of lower skill had blown it, and had a small stone within that used a teeny tiny amount of mana to generate a yellowish light.

With the first room lit, she moved to the rear left-hand door, holding her sword in front of her as she peered inside. She found a sleeping area within, looking like it was meant for several people to use, as it had multiple bedframes and several chairs taking up the space. There were no enemies present, and a door at the back led to what looked like a bathroom. She spotted another light fixture on the ceiling, which she lit, thinking that while one wasn't a problem, two hundred of the things would have her stopping to meditate.

She wasn't very concerned with the content of the rooms at this point, knowing that they were in an area where beasts could be present, and focused more on clearing the area of enemies than on checking what was what. She moved back into the common area after having quickly checked the bathroom, heading into the right-hand door. This room was an office with space set up for multiple people to work, as there were several desks and a table with six chairs, as well as some shelves around the room. There was no additional doorway leading out of this room, and no beast or monster leaping for her.

She exited the suite as a whole, nodding to Blood and saying, "All clear. I'll keep going."

The huge wolf barked in response as Beth moved into the next suite. She cleared this one the same as the last, finding no enemies lying in wait. She returned to the central area and gave Blood a nod before continuing into the third set of rooms on the left, where she was greeted by a snuffling snarl. She had more than enough time to take a step backward and swing in a lazy but precise parry, knocking away a short sword. She used Identify to check what she was up against as Blood circled behind, ready to help or intercept any other beasts that might appear.

Level 21 Kobold Fighter

Not particularly impressive, but something more than most anybody else could handle. She wasn't exactly sure what the dungeon team was at now in terms of level, having not Identified them in a while, but she thought they might not be at a place where the whole group could handle one of these together.

She was not them, however, and opened against the kobold with a brutal slash powered by Monstrous Blow that tore apart the crummy leather armor the kobold was wearing. Beth's blade was so large and heavy that powerful blows acted more as a cleaving action, rending apart armor and flesh in its path. A beast above level twenty was too resistant for even an empowered slash to tear apart in a single strike, but the amount of damage to the kobold's torso was rather significant. The beast also stumbled a step back, taking a second half step to stabilize itself. Beth took advantage of this moment of weakness and followed up after her first attack, stepping forward into a second, her sword coming back from her left in another crossing slash that pulped the already damaged kobold's chest. She received the kill notification after the second strike, the accumulated damage too much for the beast to survive.

Level 21 Kobold Fighter slain.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

Beth grunted, having avoided the blood much better this time, and looked around, noting Blood still hovering in the background. Seeing no other enemies, she stepped over the fresh corpse of her opponent, carefully surveying the interior of the main room of the next suite. She found no other kobolds waiting for her, slowly moving up to the lamp in the middle of the room before tapping a trickle of mana into it, careful to watch the yawning maws of the other doors as she did so.

If there were any more beasts in the other rooms, they failed to react to the light, and Beth only saw some scuffles in the dust on the ground where the previous opponent had shuffled toward her at a rapid pace. She was back to being a little more cautious as she cleared the rest of the rooms of this block, finding no other kobolds present. She returned to the main area, patting Blood on the side as she passed by, moving to the next set of rooms.

She cleared another two sets of rooms before she had any other encounters, having another kobold lunge for her in the sixth set of rooms. She put it down quickly, using only two strikes to take care of this one after noting that it was also level twenty-one. She cleaned her blade off roughly before continuing her exploration, moving through the set of rooms she was in before returning to the central hall. She had proceeded some way down the hall by this point, clearing the sets of rooms on the left side as she went, and she could now see that the end of the hallway was definitely a T-junction. The hallway split to the left and right at ninety degrees, with more rooms down each side.

Blood had kept pace with Beth as they went, staying in the hall in case any kobolds from the other rooms were attracted by the sound of fighting. Beth continued clearing the last few rooms as Blood paced her, encountering another kobold just before the junction in the hallway. She had fully cleared the left side of the main hall, and now moved into the left branch of the T-junction to continue clearing rooms. Fortunately for Beth's patience, which was beginning to diminish, the side halls had only a few rooms in either direction.

Unfortunately, or perhaps even more fortunately, the beasts in the side hall were close enough to each other that her engaging the first one she found attracted the rest. Even in the twenties in terms of level, these opponents showed no cunning or grasp of even simple strategy, sprinting directly at the girls and trying to mash them with the simple blades grasped in their grimy mitts, often throwing in an off-hand swipe with their free hand before they could recover from the swing. It made them generally uninteresting foes, as Beth's skills were more than a match for such basic attacks, and Blood fared just as well, able to languidly dodge even the most desperate of strikes.

The enemies all rushing them at once did make clearing the area easy, as they were able to smash the half dozen opponents apart in short order without sustaining any injuries. Beth still did a check of the handful of suites in that part of the hall, finding no more beasts lurking within. They moved over to the other area branching off the intersection, quickly engaging in a very similar fight. Even being swarmed, Beth was able to easily keep the beasts from striking her, having to backhand away a sword at one point, the dull blade of the kobold not even leaving a scratch on the thick metal of her gauntlet.

After a quick check of the rest of the rooms at the end of this area, Beth went back to clearing the main hallway, working her back down the 'right' side of the hall, clearing all the suites as she went. It was tedious and monotonous work, Beth once again finding the dull side of adventuring work to be a bulk of the time she was spending in the field. When she was sure that they had cleared the entire area, she circled back up with Blood at the start of the main hallway.

"Divide and conquer?" she asked Blood, the wolf giving a nod and a short bark in response. Beth split off to the left, beginning to examine the rooms along that side of the hallway, while Blood split to the right, looking through what she could on that side. The two met back up at the junction before splitting again, Beth taking the left while Blood took the right, working through the small handful of rooms relatively quickly.

After turning over the whole area, they came up with a few coins and two more mana steel bars, Beth stashing them in her pack. The two returned to the central tunnel from which they had entered the area and proceeded across the intersection into the opposing area. This area was more of the same, and while Beth was still cautious, she also knew she highly out-leveled everything at this stratum of the underground. She and Blood moved through the area quickly, killing every kobold in the rooms in short order before sweeping back through looking for loot.

It was sweeping this area that Blood's preternatural sense for treasure succeeded for them again, the large wolf finding a hidden door in an office, though she did need Beth's help to actually open said door. It was another simple mechanism hidden in a light on the desk in the office, Beth lifting the little light and twisting it to unlock the door. She was cautious when opening the hidden compartment, but they had yet to run into any kind of trap or monster when finding such little secret stashes. This was the same, as nothing burned, blasted, burst, or otherwise tried to take a bite out of Beth when she got the door open.

Inside was a little box and yet another vial of liquid. Inspecting the vial first, Beth was fairly sure it was a restorative potion, likely healing, but she couldn't be sure. The potion went in her belt pouch as she picked up the box for a closer look. Unlike the other small boxes and cases she had found, this one seemed to be locked. Try as she might to pry or twist, the box refused to open. It was about five inches a side, and she spread open the top of her pouch and dropped it in, careful not to shatter a bottle in the process.

She seemed to be getting quite a few bottles and vials today, still lamenting her lack of item identifying skill as she hoped something was worth it. The rest of the rooms were subpar at best, offering a small number of coins and a single mana steel bar, bringing Beth's total to four, not counting the whole chest of them in the other tunnel. They moved back to the main tunnel, continuing ever further into the chill, musty depths.

More dreary trudging down a monotonous tunnel followed, with the girls staying alert, but also moving rather quickly. There was always a danger of something out of the ordinary popping up, but the pattern that this area followed seemed to stay relatively consistent. It took another fifteen minutes at a quick walk, a ground devouring pace considering their stats, to find the next section that was anything more than rough stone.

Beth supposed there was still a decently restrictive limit to what could 'appear' or be built on Earth considering the time they had been part of the Path as well as the mana density, as it appeared they had reached the last stop down this tunnel. The pathway dumped them out into a large, open area that appeared to be divided into sections. The area had some small semblance of the end of the other 'main' tunnel, as Beth thought of them, as it was a large area with six sides leading to six different sections. Well, five different sections plus the path they had used to get down to this bit.

Unlike the other area that contained the offices, warehouse, and gateway to the dungeon, this area was clearly occupied, as the initial room the tunnel dumped out into had several kobolds listlessly meandering in small areas they seemed to patrol. None were close enough to detect the girls right away as they entered the room, Beth taking plenty of time to observe what they were walking into. She counted about half a dozen enemies when the nearest wandered a little closer and focused on Beth and Blood. Apparently, the lightstone's light was enough of a disturbance at that distance that it triggered the beast's seemingly always simmering rage, resulting in an angry screech and a charge. The screech was the main problem, as it actually attracted the attention of the other enemies present.