Limitless Path

She was done playing around at this point, and pumped mana into her arms and torso following the patterns of the skill to activate Monstrous Blow, bringing her sword around as the kobold recovered from the improvised flame slash and lunged at her. The center of her new, longer, heavier sword smashed into the side of the beast's torso, the rings of the mail shirt shattering as the blade passed right through. She continued the motion, twisting with her hips as her blade dug in, shearing through the kobold's flesh following the tear she had already made across the chest, nearly cleaving the beast apart. The kobold's blood, with a kind of bluish tinge that gave much of it a slight purple hue, fountain outward in a wide arc, Beth grunting in displeasure. Monstrous Blow didn’t really give her a lot of options to rapidly maneuver, thus forcing her to take a face- and chest-full of sour blood.

Beth shook her head as she took a step back, trying to simply fling some of the blood clear. With a grunt, she slammed the tip of her sword into the rocky floor of the side tunnel, slinging her pack around to dig for a cloth. Luckily, she had a few extras in the bag that she would normally use for cleaning her blade, and proceeded to retrieve one of them to clean her face. Once she had the cloth, she slung the pack back onto her back as she wiped her face, looking at the last doorway to make sure nothing else charged out in the meantime.

With her face fully clean, she tossed the cloth in her belt pouch and grabbed her sword, lifting it free of the ground with a slight clanging sound before holding it in front of her, angled up and to the left, as she re-entered the fifth doorway of the area. This time there was no scream or scraping charge as she entered, and she carefully scanned the moderately large room for any signs of trouble. Seeing nothing immediately present, and noting Blood now in the doorway to watch her back, she sidled forward to the standard table in the center of the room, lighting the lamp with a touch of mana.

The room was larger than the other central rooms of the suites they had found so far, containing several shelves and a few small furniture pieces other than the table and a few stools. She ignored everything else at first, noting that there were three doorways other than the one she had used to enter. She made her way over to the leftmost door, sword still at the ready, and peered inside. The combination of the lamp and the lightstone provided plenty of light, at least for the first room, as she could see a further doorway on the other side of this second room.

It seemed like this room was some kind of meeting room, considering the fact there was a large central table with nearly a dozen simple chairs set around it. The table itself was rather plain, and the rest of the room was empty save for a rather small desk in the far back left corner, likely for some kind of secretary or note-taker to use. There didn't seem to really be anything of interest in this room, and Beth moved forward to the adjoining door, peering into the next room. She wasn't really surprised to find an office inside, with a small seating area, large desk, and a few shelves around the room.

Having taken a quick look around and found no enemies in either of those rooms, she returned to the main room and continued her sweep. The second door, directly across from where she had entered, led into further living quarters. The first room of this set was like a combination living room and dining area, from what she could determine, and had a door further in. The next room through that door was a bedroom, likely meant to be rather sumptuous, but the random variability of how these Path-based constructs appeared meant it was all a little sparse and lackluster. There was a further door on the right side of the bedroom, which she found led into something likely meant to be a bathroom, though there was only the vague shape of a tub and a cabinet on the wall.

Having cleared the second set of rooms and finding no opponents, she returned to the central room and headed into the third door. This room was larger than any of the others but fortunately had no other doors connecting it. It looked to her like some kind of storage room or warehouse, as there were a handful of free-standing shelves in the central area of the room, as well as a few crates scattered around the walls. She returned to the central room and nodded to Blood.

"Seems clear," she said, the wolf chuffing an agreement. "Let's explore this set, but we should keep in mind there's always the possibility of something wandering up, even though the kobolds don't seem to like to move."

The two then split up, Blood moving into the storage area first while Beth decided to examine the meeting room and office. The meeting room was fairly simple, there being no shelves or containers, and a rather quick look showed nothing of any interest apart from the slightly dusty and musty furniture. She moved on to the office, hoping for more than a few coppers, but not exactly holding her breath, considering the state of this set of rooms.

The office did have something on one of the shelves, which she had subconsciously noted in her first sweep, being more concerned about things trying to kill her at the time. The object was a small cube, likely only a little more than an inch per side, made of a very dark silver material. She carefully picked it up with her gauntlet tips, examining it closer in the light of her lightstone. She noted a number of engravings on each surface, but couldn't make heads or tails of them, her best guess being that they were some kind of enchantment. She carefully plopped the cube in her pouch before scanning the rest of the shelves and the room in general, finding nothing of interest.

Making her way to the desk, she checked on and under it before she started on the drawers. The first drawer had a silver coin in and not much else, eliciting a slight frown from her, but she pressed onward after making the silver piece disappear into her status screen. The next few drawers were a bust, but she got rather lucky on the final drawer. At first, she thought she had fully struck out, but when she attempted to push this last drawer back into the bottom right side of the desk with a sigh, it jammed. Not just that, but the jam felt strange, as if it had stuck on something.

Now intrigued, Beth tugged the drawer out to its limit, finding it stopped when fully open. She gave a few short, sharp tugs to test it, finding that the drawer wouldn't simply pull out of the slot. She frowned a little and wiggled it, testing the fit, finding the drawer slewed slightly, but was fairly firmly in place. Thinking for a moment, she held the handle with her right hand and placed her left hand under the drawer, lifting before pulling. This was clearly how the drawer was installed/uninstalled, as it popped up and slid the rest of the way out with a small click. Beth pushed the desk chair, a bulky stone thing with four solid legs and, of course, no wheels, further towards the back wall with a grunt. She set down the drawer in the free space to the side before reaching down to her belt and grabbing the lightstone, carefully detaching it before holding it up to the open drawer slot.

She peered into the black rectangle, the darkness pushed back by the warmth of the light in her hand, and saw an open rectangular space with a groove on each side to fit the drawer. The interesting part came at the back, where the back wall of the drawer slot was tilted inward at an angle. Beth reached back with her left hand, her arm sliding into the slot just past her elbow before she touched the back wall, and carefully grasped at the left edge of the panel with her finger tips. She gave a gentle tug but felt basically no movement, so directed somewhat more force into the motion. With a slight squeak, the back panel of the slot popped off in her hand, which she quickly pulled back out to examine.

The back panel itself was unremarkable, but she made sure to take a good look at it, some memories of secret panels being trapped with poison surfacing in her mind. It appeared that this secret compartment wasn't that advanced, as the panel in her hand was a thin piece of stone that appeared to be slate, no substances or hidden sharp edges present. She set the secret panel down carefully before peering into the drawer slot again, shining the light in to get a good look. She saw a glimmering reflection at the back of the slot, narrowing her eyes before she figured out it was another bottle containing some unknown substance.

She carefully reached in again with her left hand and gently grasped the bottle, slowly pulling it out of the slot to where she could take a closer look at it. She was always keeping in mind just how strange and unexplored this new world was, being a little cautious better than accidentally shaking the magic equivalent of nitro glycerin. The bottle fit within her palm, Beth able to curl her fingers around it to fully hide the bottle, leaving only the glass stopper at the top sticking out above her thumb. The liquid inside was a dark grey, almost a gunmetal color, and had a few flecks of what looked like yellow or gold material suspended in it. She was absolutely clueless as to what it could be, guessing it wasn’t any kind of restoration potion, but then again, they didn't really have to follow the typical video game logic of being red or blue or green.

She straightened up with a shrug, carefully sliding the potion into her belt pouch, deciding to leave the desk drawer on the ground with the secret panel. She made her way back through the meeting room to the central room before walking directly across to the storage area where Blood had disappeared. She stuck her head in as she re-attached the lightstone to her belt, finding the wolf had cleared the shelves and was nosing about the few crates.

"Find anything, girl?" Beth asked, pulling Blood's attention from the final box. The wolf padded over with a growl more like a grunt, bumping her nose against Beth's cheek before indicating an item on the nearest shelf. Beth noted the little bit of slobber on the item as she picked it up, likely Blood have moved it close with her only reliable conveyance, her mouth. The item itself was a bar of metal, Beth instantly identifying it as good quality mana steel, matching the whole crate she had stashed of the stuff. She slung her pack around and tossed the bar inside, at which point Blood held up a paw and made a silver coin appear before disappearing it again.

"Nice, anything else?" she asked. Blood shrugged, as much as a wolf could shrug, and walked over to one of the crates. She bumped it with her nose before making the shrugging motion again, indicating there could be something inside. "Right," Beth commented, "no opposable thumbs."

Blood snorted in response as Beth walked over to the crate, half-kneeling to grab the lid and pry it open. The insides contained a rough collection of ropes, metal clasps, and some small metal bits that she was unsure of the use of at first glance. Blood looked over her shoulder and grunted, padding off to investigate something else. Beth sighed and tossed the lid back on the crate, moving around the room to pry all the lids off the crates in quick order. The other four crates proved just as worthless, Beth now knowing the location of enough old rope to wrap the CRA Hall three times around but having nothing else to show for it.

She returned to the central room after she was finished with the crates and followed after Blood into the living area of the suite. The living room and dining room combination had very little of interest, the furniture made of stone with cheap padding, and the rest of the room empty and barren. Beth moved into the bedroom, finding Blood nosing the area under the bed before standing up and letting out a tremendous sneeze. The wolf coughed for a moment afterward before giving up and moving to the side, letting Beth circle around to the bathroom. She took just a moment to glance over the room again before stepping over to the cabinet and opening it, checking for any medicine or interesting items. The cabinet had a single item, a packaging that Beth picked up and read, the Universal Standard indicating that it was an antiseptic bandage. Beth set her pack down for a second to rummage around and pull out the first aid kit, filling the last remaining space in the kit with the bandage.

She slung the pack back on as she returned through the bedroom, waving to Blood to follow her out. They exited the suite entirely, a few coins and one mysterious potion richer. They then made their way back to the main tunnel, only a small walk as the little enclave of suites branched directly off from it, and resumed their journey downwards. They strolled forward for some time, Beth noting that despite her massive size and weight, Blood was silent as a ghost, even across rough stone.

The two eventually came to a new area apart from the endless tunnels they had been trudging down. This area had openings to both sides, both openings leading immediately into large halls with numerous doorways along their length. Beth couldn't see the end of the first hallway she peered into at a glance, not seeing a large and fancy suite as an endcap like the section they had just explored. She was starting to get an idea of the area they were in in this overall tunnel. What they had explored yesterday was filled with rough miners' quarters and offices, leading into a dungeon that seemed like it might be a confusing jumble of mining tunnels.