Limitless Path

Blood chuffed in response and moved forward to study the two items sitting before them. The objects seemed almost tailor made for the two, or at least, it seemed there was a pretty clear bias in the rewards. On the left pillar was a harness with some cloth stretched between some of the sections. Alongside this arrangement was a pile of metal pieces, which Beth quickly realized were metal plates that could be attached to the harness as armor. While she didn't have an item identifying skill, the Path helpfully provided a nice little textbox for both items. The harness was exactly what it looked like, a war harness for a wolf complete with padding and a full set of frost iron armor plates.

As Blood sniffed at the harness, seeming quite happy with the item, Beth turned her attention to what she felt was 'her' reward for the dungeon clear. What was sitting on the second pillar sent her eyebrows into her hairline, something she found slightly more amusing based on what she was looking at. Staring back at her from the top of the pillar was a set of eyes. No skull or other parts, no vat or jar holding them, just a large pair of eyes. Fortunately, even for Beth's toughened stomach, they weren't all bloody or gross, simply sitting there and staring at her. The greater part of the eye was white, but the iris was an iridescent blue with darker lines of frost shot throughout, while both the pupils were a dark, chilly silver. Beth wasn't really sure just what the hell was staring back at her and decided to take advantage of the explanation provided to her.

Eyes of the FrostFlame Lord

{Eyes of an ancient lord that hold the power of piercing cold. Able to see through many of the basic, and a few of the greater, truths of the universe. To apply, hold eyes up to user's eyes and touch them while emitting a brief pulse of mana.}

"Uh, so…my reward is freaky eyes?" Beth asked nobody in particular, Blood looking over and cocking her head to the side, left ear flopping a little as she examined the eyes on the pedestal.

'Are you going to eat those, sister?' Blood asked through their bond, Beth immediately making a gagging sound in reply.

"Ew, fucking gross," she said, glaring at the wolf, who continued to look over with her head tilted. "I'm going to do something less gross and way crazier, but first, let's get that harness situated."

Putting actions to words, Beth helped Blood get the harness on, strapping everything in place until it was tight but not pinching. She then added in the armor plates, attaching them to mounting brackets on the harness. Blood wasn't fully covered, with her head, neck, limbs, and sections where the plates didn't overlap not armored, but it was a damn site better than she had before. Hopefully, there would be far less breaking of bones for a while with this new addition to their equipment.

"OK, stand watch for me," Beth said with a little tremor in her voice before stepping over to the remaining pillar, the first having disappeared when all items were removed. Beth wasn't sure that was really necessary, as everything would either be deleted or reset when they left the dungeon, considering it was instance based and theirs was over. Shaking her head to clear all the distracting thoughts, she reached forward quickly and plucked the eyes from the platform. She could feel a deep, bone-cracking chill even through the armor of her gauntlets, but she didn't hesitate any further. Pushing the foreign eyes up to her own, she pressed one set of pupils to another before pushing a small thread of mana through her eyes.

That little trickle was all it took, as Beth immediately collapsed forward onto her hands and knees, just barely suppressing a scream as she locked her jaw tight. She had thought the pain of the Ironblood elixir was bad, and it certainly was, but this felt like someone was drilling into her eye sockets with a drill made of a combination of molten metal and deep space ice. The pain was so overwhelming she couldn't even think, couldn't feel Blood next to her offering comfort, couldn't feel her hands digging into the rough stone ground, cracking and shattering it from the force she was exerting.

The agony continued for minutes, Beth unaware, as she had lost all track of time after two seconds. Eventually, just as she felt her consciousness fading away, the pain began to rapidly fade away. She stayed on her hands and knees, only now realizing basically her entire fists were rammed into the hard stone ground. She felt something wet and chill running down her face, realizing after a moment that it was blood pouring out of her eyes. She slowly blinked several times, clearing away the blood and mess, before taking stock of her current condition.

She found she was actually able to see again, the boss's room coming into clear, very sharp focus. As she looked around, she noticed several peculiar things. Firstly, it seemed as if she had gained some kind of heat vision. As she looked at Blood, she noticed a dark blue color on her body, realizing immediately it was the armor plates. In comparison, blood herself glowed a bright red yellow, the glowing color blending in a strange way with her dark red fur.

The second thing Beth noted was that her vision was far clearer, as she was able to pick out fine details on the furthest wall away from her. This led to her also noting that besides being able to see into the infrared, it appeared she had far better low light, even potentially no-light, vision. She was able to pick out every single detail of everything in the room, from the details of the boss's corpse to every fine detail of Blood's fur.

The very last thing she noticed was almost an accidental discovery, as she stared quite hard at her sword to note all the fine details with her new eyes. As she did so, she was rather surprised to see an informational window pop up in her vision. Apparently, one of her biggest desires since starting on the Path, the ability to see the information of inanimate objects, had just been granted to her.

'Are you alright now, sister?' Blood asked as she poked her nose against Beth's cheek.

"I will be," Beth replied, panting lightly as she made to stand, putting her right hand on the back of Blood's neck and digging her fingers in.

'Your eyes have changed, sister,' Blood sent, growling lightly in pleasure at Beth's scratching.

"Oh, I know. I felt it, and I see it," Beth replied with a heavy sigh.

'No, sister. I mean, they look different,' Blood sent back.

"Oh. Different how?" Beth asked, rubbing Blood behind the ears.

'Silver and blue and silver,' Blood responded.

"I think I just need to see it," Beth replied, pulling back out one of the canteens, which were made of a bright, highly polished metal. Looking at her reflection in the side of the canteen, she saw that Blood was entirely correct. Beth's sclera were a bright silver, a little difficult to tell at first, but they were definitely no longer white. Her irises were now a bright, gemlike blue, with fractured dark veins of a deeper blue shot throughout. Her pupils were a dark, burnished silver that seemed to drink in the light and glow faintly.

"Well…that's something," Beth said, eyebrows climbing and mouth hanging open.

'They're very pretty, sister. They suit you quite well,' Blood sent, licking the side of Beth's face as she continued staring into the side of the canteen.

"Thank you, lovely," Beth replied with a chuckle, snapping out of her daze and putting the canteen away before returning to vigorously scratching Blood for a few moments. Eventually she finished, signaling Blood to follow, saying, "I think we should get out of here and back home. Luckily, it seems that other than causing blood to pour out my eye sockets, absorbing those eyes fully topped me off on mana."

Blood just grunted and followed along as they approached the back of the room. After Beth had focused on the reward, a glowing portal very similar to the one they had entered the whole ordeal through had appeared at the back of the boss room. They now walked over to it and stepped through, finding themselves instantly reappearing in the entry room at the opposite end of the hexagonal room. There was no one and nothing around, and the two proceeded to head into the hexagonal room before entering the tunnel that led back to the surface.

It still seemed that the kobolds within the tunnels leading down from the surface, unlike their labyrinth peers, were not interested in wandering from very fixed locations. None of those locations were in or next to the main tunnel, so they encountered nothing as they made their way up to the surface. Beth checked her phone as they made their way to the top of the spiraling ramp, noting that it was now midday of Wednesday, four days after they had last been at the Hall. She found it slightly ironic that the biggest chunk of time, even with the time compression, was her and Blood farming in the special area formed by Ancient World Gate.

As Beth and Blood stepped out of the shaft leading down to the labyrinth, Blood turned to the east and let out a powerful growl. Before Beth could even ask what was wrong, her newly enhanced vision showed her a man walking across the field towards them. Beth could clearly see he had scale-like patterns on his cheeks and neck, as well as the unarmored back of his hands. Beth motioned for Blood to move away from the yawning pit right behind them, not wanting to take a very nasty, likely lethal, tumble if this turned into something bad.

"Hail, stranger!" the unknown man called out as he approached, waving to them as he got to within a couple dozen paces.

"Uh, hail?" Beth replied cautiously, gripping the hilt of her sword with her right hand. She took advantage of the still closing distance to Identify the man.

Derek Rothande, level 60 Swordsman

"I happen to be a stranger here," the man continued, "and I was wondering if I could get a little help?"

"Uh, sure, if it's not asking too much," Beth replied, eying the man with a bit of a squint and frown as he stopped about a dozen steps from her, Blood letting out another small, low growl.

"Come, let us head down towards the dungeon that is clearly below while we discuss," the man said with a bright smile.

"Uh, that's not gonna happen, pal," Beth answered with a quick shake of her head. "I'm not going down into the dark pit with the unknown Wayfarer."

"Well, perhaps you won't have much of a choice," he said in a dark tone, hands moving to rest on the hilts of the dual longswords on his hips.

Beth unsheathed her sword while Blood's growl, already unfriendly, became deeply menacing, the strange man pausing slightly as he could feel the force of it in his chest. Firmly gripping the hilts of his swords, he grinned, saying, "Not just pretty faces, but some actual fun."

"Fuck off, creep," Beth snarled, pointing her blade right at the man as he started moving. His speed was impressive, but nothing that she couldn't follow, at least to start with. Whether he was using his full range of abilities or not was a different matter, but she met a double-hand chop at her midsection with a swift deflection. The man's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, something Beth's new vision let her notice, responding with a vicious grin.

The man riposted with a fluid movement, swinging his left sword high and faster than the right, forcing Beth to perform two quick deflections in a row as he slashed at her left side. She didn't get any rest, as his left blade was again seeking her throat right after the second deflection. Beth continued to work steadily on parrying his strikes, getting a feel for the speed he moved at. Blood had circled to his back, but she was a little stymied because, unlike their usual beast opponents, this bastard was fully armored from head to toe.

Even though she couldn't get in for the hit and run attacks that she typically performed, Blood did have advantages that she could make use of, namely her size. As the lizardman stabbed towards Beth after a slightly sloppy parry, Blood darted in behind him and shoulder checked him, causing the foe to stagger to the left a little. It didn't throw him off as much as Blood had hoped, and he almost instantly responded with a backhanded slash that shallowly scored a line right above Blood's new armor.

The man didn't seem to have much trouble dealing with both of them at once, though Blood was able to throw him off a second time after another three furious exchanges with Beth. Beth took advantage of the reach of her blade to send a fast cut at his neck while his footing was unsteady, but he merely leaned back and slightly to the side. Beth used her massive STR to correct herself mid-swing, causing the last inch of her blade to dig into the man's left cheek.

With a snarl, the man sped up, becoming a blur for a few seconds, slashing out a quick series of five strokes starting with his righthand blade. Beth blocked first to her left, then right, then left again before his final two strikes came almost simultaneously, Beth only countering the one from her right. His left blade bit into her cheek, returning the slash she had just given him. Beth didn't even flinch, instead boosting herself to the max with Swift as he slowed down, clearly having used a temporary but powerful skill to get the hit on her. She took a very fast step forward, noticing his eyes quite visibly widen this time, slashing at him with a quick cut from her left and adding in a partially charged Monstrous Blow during the swing.

Once more the man displayed surprise as he deflected the blow, likely having expected to get his swords in the way and retaliate quickly. The power behind her strike clearly rattled him a little, and he grimaced as their blades met again. "At least you know how to use Powerstrike, little bitch."

"It's not Powerstrike," Beth replied coldly as he slashed at her in a flurry of quick chops. "It's better."