Limitless Path

She poked through the first two offices, finding very little other than a few coins, before looking around the third and largest office. She found a small pamphlet on the first of the two shelves on the left side of the office, but found it was all gobbledygook. She poked around the seating area and found nothing before moving on to the desk and checking the drawers. It was on the fourth drawer she was reminded why she always brought a rogue class in video games, as opening the drawer sprayed a load of what turned out to be poison almost directly in her face.

Beth only got half a face-full of poison, swearing up a storm while she tried to rub it off with the less armored elbow of her top. She growled in frustration as her right eye watered and burned, shucking her right gauntlet with a *thunk* before wiping her face mostly clean. She got up and grabbed her gauntlet, walking quickly out of the office area and into the bathrooms, where Blood was sniffing around. The wolf turned to her before growling, moving as if to lick Beth's face before the tall girl pushed the wolf away.

"It's fine," she said, receiving a bark in response. "OK, it's not fine. But I can fix it; just watch the area while I heal through this shit."

Blood barked an affirmative response, pacing around the area at the entrance to the large bathroom. Beth, meanwhile, checked the taps to see if any of the plumbing happened to work, finding that only the bathtub seemed to. She tossed her gauntlet on the vanity, undoing the left one before tossing it with the first. She then proceeded to use the running water, which felt like it should have been ice, to clean her face. After she was quite sure she had gotten all of the substance she could out of her eye and off her face, she sat down and meditated, began to use Lordly Reconstruction to fight off the effects of the poison. Luckily for her, she had the Toxic Resistance skill with a few levels in it, allowing her to resist most of the effects of the poison until she could get it purged.

She eventually managed to take care of everything, standing up with a weary sigh and moving over to the vanity. This one had a very large and very clear mirror set into the wall, and she examined her reflection in it, finding herself a little bedraggled, but otherwise none-the-worse for wear. She was glad that it had been poison, something that had tried to mess with her heart and cardiovascular system, rather than an acid. It would have really sucked to have lost most of the hair on the side of her head, Beth not thinking a buzz cut would have looked particularly good on her. She checked her notifications to see if anything had popped up from her incident or before.

Focused Meditation Copper[7] acquired.

Toxic Resistance Copper[5] acquired.

She had apparently been doused in something strong enough to get her one level in her Toxic Resistance. She had also meditated enough over the last however many days that she had gotten one level in her meditation skill, the slowest skill overall of hers to level. She could make an argument the resistance skills were more difficult, but that was mainly because she wasn't bathing in poison or lightning on the regular.

She grabbed her gauntlets and slid them back on, locking them firmly in place before making sure pack, pouch, and sword were secured. She moved out of the room and was promptly bumped into by Blood, who rubbed her massive head against Beth's chest and neck, Beth responding by digging her gauntleted fingers into Blood's neck and rubbing hard.

"It's alright girl, nothing we haven't dealt with already," she said, mumbling into the wolf's forehead for a moment.

After a few minutes, she pushed the shaggy head of the massive wolf away and rolled her shoulders, resetting herself. "Let me go see what was worth me getting sprayed in the face," she said to Blood. The wolf just stared at her, Beth realizing after a second what was up. "Right, I guess you do fully understand everything I say."

She led the way back to the office area, moving into the third office and over to the desk. She knelt down and checked the same drawer, holding her hand between her face and the drawer as she finished pulling it open. When no other noxious red liquids sprayed out at her, she finally lowered her arm and peered into the drawer itself. She saw what appeared to be a cylinder of glass hooked up to a little mechanism with a tab that stuck up. Apparently, when she pulled the drawer open, the tab was flipped and triggered the mechanism to shove the poison up and out in a spray. A crude and poorly slapped together device, but more than enough to give her half a face of poison.

She finished pulling the drawer out to the limit of where it could go without disassembling it, looking at the one item inside. It was a crystal and, while Beth couldn't be absolutely sure, it seemed like some kind of memory crystal. Whether it had information, secret knowledge, a skill, or even something more esoteric, she had absolutely no idea. Yet another one for the senior enforcers to look at.

It would depend on what the crystal was, but it was likely that it was worth her poison bath and then some. She finished checking the last few drawers in the desk, making sure to block the rest of her face with her armored gauntlet as she opened them, a lesson she likely would not soon forget. Nothing else of interest appeared during her examination, so she hopped up and returned to the central area with Blood before moving into the deeper living quarters.

This area was presented as being somewhat luxuriously appointed, but the lack of mattresses on the beds and general empty nature put lie to that show. Either fortunately or unfortunately, there was nothing of any interest to the girls in this area, Beth finding a small pile of six copper coins on a shelf, noticing after she grabbed them that she was a little over twelve gold coins in total wealth.

"Alright, girl, time to head back," Beth said with a nod to Blood, leading the way out of the fancier dwelling and the overall area into the central room. They crossed the large central cavern and entered the central tunnel that led down from the left-hand opening back in the shaft to the surface. They journeyed up the tunnel, Beth making sure to keep an eye out for anything popping up that might threaten them.

"You might not be on the bed tonight, Blood," she said to the wolf, getting a growl in response. "Hey, we'll see what Sabs wants to do."

Blood bumped her in the back with her nose, Beth just grunting in response before saying, "Look, you don't have to stay, you could always go back with Soph."

Blood gave a loud bark in response before chuffing, Beth laughing as she picked up the meaning of 'Don't try to get rid of me that easily.' The two continued up the tunnel until they eventually reached the shaft down, crossing over to the ramp before ascending to the field above. It took only a handful of minutes for them to reach the surface, and Beth found it was late afternoon, still light but heading towards dark. She mounted up on Blood and the two took off, making the nearly twenty-minute run back to the Hall.

They arrived outside to find the Hall the same as always, Beth dismounting before glancing at the statues. She still hadn't inquired about what exactly was going on with them or what they meant, but that was rather low on a priority list that constantly had more items being added to the top. She gave Blood a pat and a nod before turning and heading into the lobby, the wolf following right on her heels.

Beth paused as she entered upon seeing a familiar face standing at the front counter haggling with Tazeen before walking forward again. The young man, James, seemingly having filled out a little more as he got a few more levels in him, was gesturing at something on the counter as she approached, Blood trailing after. Beth noted it was a small pouch opened to reveal a few crystals inside.

"I can get in with this much, surely," James was saying to Tazeen.

"As I said, I should not be the one to handle this," the elf responded. "One moment."

Tazeen pulled out a strange crystal from somewhere on his person and held it in his right hand up near his face. He tapped the crystal and said something, though his words were obscured. He returned the crystal to wherever he had pulled it from just as James was opening his mouth to protest. Before the words could actually escape, there was a slight *bang* as Jaq appeared in the lobby, likely having moved at an inordinate speed from his usual haunt in the basement.

"And what is all this, now?" he asked, glaring around the lobby in his usual manner, as if the building itself had done something to offend him.

"This young man has some items to sell which I believe will exceed the two golds required to obtain an emblem," Tazeen replied, unruffled. "I would not want to deny a promising member entry, but neither would I want to take over the duties of our illustrious commissar."

Mumbling something that sounded very much like an invective to Beth, Jaq stomped over to the counter before picking up the crystals from the bag and examining them. After looking at all the items present, he turned to James and said, "Two golds and fifty silvers."

"Surely they're worth more than that," James protested as Beth winced, knowing where this was going.

"You can take the money or take your crystals on a long walk off a short cliff," Jaq snapped back.

"Now, now," interjected Tazeen, giving Jaq a slightly lowered eyebrow, a stern admonishment from him. Jaq didn't even twitch, ignoring the elf entirely as he glared at James.

"Take the gold and join the club," Beth said as she walked up to James and placed a hand on his shoulder, noting she still looked down slightly to look him in the eye. "Everything's negotiable, except with this miser. He'll wring blood from a stone and still consider it a loss."

"Your humor is as dull as your commentary, as ever," Jaq replied with one of his patented frowns, still waiting for a response.

"Well, I'll take the deal, I guess," James replied with a shrug. Jaq immediately made the pouch and crystals disappear, slapping the fifty-two coins on the counter.

"Before you just whoosh away, what were they, anyway?" Beth asked him.

"Mana crystals, which I believe you have even brought me before. Nothing special or powerful, but worth a couple dozen silvers each," he replied shortly. "Anything else?"

"No, no. Go back to your hidey-hole," she replied with an airy wave. With a snort, Jaq disappeared with a louder bang, a wave of air causing everyone else's clothes to flutter, along with the edge of the rug he had been standing on.

"He's kind of an asshole," muttered James.

"He is, but he's super strong and he runs the shop, so what can you do?" Beth said with a shrug.

"Yes, what can you do?" Tazeen said with a polite cough, Beth patting James on the shoulder again before she moved to the side and leaned against the counter. "I am assuming you would like to use the two gold coins to apply for a membership?" the elf continued, this time re-engaging James in the conversation.

"Yes, please," James replied with a nod, pushing the two golds over to Tazeen.

"Stash the silver coins in your stat screen," Beth instructed James with a wave at the coins from the side.

"Yes," Tazeen interjected again before James could respond, "it's always a good idea to immediately store any loose coins. You will not find any thieves in this Hall, but I am sure there are some on your world, let alone in the wider galaxy."

"Right, sorry, good advice," James replied.

As he made the remaining fifty coins disappear into his inventory, Tazeen has set about getting everything ready for the creation of a new emblem. As soon as the coins were gone, Tazeen slid a form and pen in front of James on the counter, instructing him on what portions to fill out and how. Once the form had been completed to the elf's satisfaction, he made the pen disappear while sliding the form into a drawer, at the same time directing James where to place his hand to imprint his mana for the CRA's records as well as to link with his new emblem.

Once all the paperwork and processes were complete, James seemed a bit lost. He asked Tazeen a little hesitantly, "I can head back there now, right?"

"Yes," the stoic elf replied.

"Ooooookay…" he answered, seeming a little nonplussed.

"Alright," Beth sighed, giving Tazeen a frown to which he responded with a slightly arched left eyebrow. "Let me give you the five-dollar tour."

"You don't have to…" James trailed off as Beth walked by and waved an arm at him, indicating he should follow.

"So back here," she began, "are some general areas with different rooms for meetings, relaxation, and so on. There's a cafeteria, but I don't know if anyone uses it."

"We can't eat the food?" James asked as he hurried to catch up, falling in beside her.

"Nah, it's just that the training rooms have stuff in for when people are practicing, and I have a room rented that comes with food. It's all perfectly edible," she replied with a quick shake of her head. Blood made a noise somewhere between a grunt a sneeze in response to the food comment.

"You have a room here? How'd you manage that?" James asked, giving her a bit of a squint-eyed gaze.

"You can rent them," she replied with a shrug. "They're really not that expensive, as cheap as like twenty coppers a day or something. I have one for one silver a day."