Limitless Path

"Wouldn't I do better in the Ruby Hall?" Soph asked as soon as Jaq seemed finished with his explanation.

"There is nothing that restricts you, at lower ranks, from joining another Hall," Jaq replied a bit acerbically. "There are restrictions to changing your 'Home Hall,' as it were, at higher ranks, but that will not apply to you for a long time.

"Despite what others from the various Halls will tell you when you speak with them, and I say this with as little bias as possible; the absolute best of the best wind up in the White Hall. People like Baelvyr in the Milky Way Galaxy can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and he is a senior member of our Hall. I will not denigrate those of the other Halls, but if you were to compare the representatives of the other Halls to those of the White Hall here on Earth, you would find them more numerous but less individually capable.

"If that is not enough to convince you, young bookworm, then you should ask Rissa. She would be happy to expound on just how great the teaching of the Ruby Hall is and how it compares to her tender ministrations. I am sure that she will be able to elucidate all the petty details that I hardly care for."

"I think I'll do just that," Soph said, sticking her nose in the air and turning on her heel to march out. An action that was halted with a squawk from her as Beth snagged her youngest sister by the back of the armor.

"After we finish this discussion about supplies," Beth reprimanded, getting a "humph," and crossed arms from the little brat.

"So, no resistance granting gear of any kind?" Beth asked Jaq, finally bringing the discussion back to one of the handful of things she wanted to tick off her list.

"No. I could sell you something expensive, or I could sell you un-enchanted items made of mana silver, mana gold, or other materials that you could use to make your own items."

"How much?" Beth asked with narrowed eyes.

"The simplest items would be fifty silvers apiece. The better items would run in the golds, and yes, that is the un-enchanted versions."

"We could barely afford one each," Beth said, also indicating with that statement that her current pool of wealth was rather shallow. "And then Soph would have to enchant each. If she messed one up, we would be kinda fucked."

"I wouldn't mess up something like that," Soph replied with a flip of her hair, earning her a flick to the side of the head from Beth.

"You're talking about gambling with all the money we have right now, which we also need for other things, like supplies. Until we can get more money or more items, I think the three of you will just have to suffer until you get higher END."

"That sucks," Kim sighed, rubbing at her right temple with her right hand.

"Is there something else I can help you with, or is there some other reason for you to loiter in my fine establishment?" Jaq asked with a frown.

"Fine is pushing it," Beth muttered, getting a light elbow from Sabs in return. "We need more lightstones and ration bars, as well as some other miscellaneous supplies."

"I certainly have extras of those," Jaq replied with a nod. The other girls all wound up spending thirty silvers, part of it going to lightstones, and part going to slightly armored belt pouches. The pouches weren't enchanted with any extra space the way Beth's was, but they did provide a handy way to carry a lightstone, a canteen, and a few ration bars around without tying up anybody's hands.

Beth also spent twenty silvers buying another large pack of rations to replenish her rapidly depleting supply, shoving the whole pack in her backpack. With their purchases complete, the girls said goodbye to Jaq, earning a snort in response, before trooping out of the commissary. They all headed to Beth's room, her sisters taking advantage of the luxurious bathroom to wash off and get cleaned up.

Soph insisted on returning home, as it was not that late yet, even after her rather long bath, and she wanted to sleep in her own bed that night. The two younger sisters bid the rest of the group adieu before heading out, making their way back to the neighborhood. Beth, Sabs, and Blood ate and cleaned themselves up before turning in for the night.

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The next morning arrived in no time, and Beth and Sabs were up early to prepare for another day of fighting. Beth hoped to play chaperone for another couple days before the girls were strong enough to start farming the kobolds apart from the dungeon without her supervision.

They woke Blood when they entered the main room and went about preparing and eating breakfast before taking care of their daily ablutions. Afterwards, they geared up and headed out for the day, Beth pocketing the room key acting to remind her she needed to stop at the front desk before they left. They stopped in the lounge to pick up Beth's sisters, John and Navere both present to see their protégés being taken for the day.

Stopping at the front desk in the lobby as the others continued to the main door, Beth said to Tazeen, "Hey, can I get a second room key? One that just works on my same room."

Tazeen's eyes flicked momentarily to Sabs, a movement so slight Beth had trouble noticing, as he said, "Certainly. Give me just one moment."

The tall elf then moved his hands about quite quickly in a long-practiced series of gestures before holding a small black rectangle identical to the one in Beth's pouch out to her. She thanked him and took it, turning to catch up with the rest of the group. When she drew even with them, she held the key out to Sabs.

"What's this?" asked the older girl, giving it a frown as she took it from Beth.

"Key to our room."

"Our room. I like the sound of that," Sabs responded.

"Get a room," Kim huffed with a shake of her head.

"What do you think I just did?" Beth snipped back.

"Ugh," was Kim's response.

The five made their way south, taking just slightly less time today due to the slightly increased stats of Sabs and Kim. Soph's stat changes didn't really matter, as she comfortably rode Blood, and her speed was far beyond reproach. It was only a little less than a half-hour before they were making their way down the ramp into the pit, and another ten minutes to move to where their first fight of the day before had been.

They started by checking this area, but found no re-spawned kobold within. Apparently, the rate for these enemies reappearing was different than for the ants and wolves, which did make at least some sense, as they weren't, to Beth's knowledge, actually within a dungeon or special zone here. It was merely an underground tunnel system of slightly higher mana density with a concentration of frost mana, and whether the latter was a byproduct or instigator of the frost kobolds, she was entirely unsure.

It was, in fact, until they reached the area they had left off the day before that they encountered any kobolds. There was just a single level twenty-three kobold within this area, and the low-level trio dispatched it easily. Beth wondered if this meant the respawn would happen from bottom to top which, while possible, raised even further questions. Even assuming the mana concentration was denser further down, why would the enemies appear in so ordered a manner? Did it appear here, or spawn further down and move up here such as the ants did?

Beth shook her head to clear out the cobwebs as she followed the rest of the party down the main tunnel, making their way to the next kobold kill-zone. They continued with their battles, the party not finding anything of note nor leveling before hitting the hub room at the end of the main tunnel. They stopped in the doorway, the members new to this area peering out cautiously, noting the wandering patrols of kobolds. The full number of patrols that Beth and Blood had waded through a few weeks ago were back, and they were all at least level twenty-four.

"I don't know if we can do this without help, Beth," Kim said, turning to look at her older sister with a frown. "We might be able to handle one or two, but if we get any more than that, we'll be in big trouble."

"Basically the whole room will aggro when you start the fight," Beth replied with a nod. "Blood and I can help here, if you feel confident in being able to fight and even kill them with our support."

Kim chewed her lip for a minute as she examined the room, eyes wandering back and forth with a slight faraway look. She came back to herself after a moment and nodded, saying, "I think it will be worth it, and we should be able to get through it with your help. As long as Sabs and Soph are OK with it."

"I'm more than ready," Sabs chimed in with a nod, gripping the hilts of her daggers tightly.

"I have no problem standing at the back and getting some easy kills," Soph added, sticking her nose in the air. "The openness of this room will finally let me really let loose."

"Just be a little cautious," Beth chided. "You've seen how they hate fire, and I'm also a little concerned about throwing around fire and ice underground. I don't know how sturdy this place really is, and thermal shock underground is never a good thing."

"You think it might collapse on our heads?" Kim asked with a hitch in her voice, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes.

"Unlikely," Beth answered with a shake of her head. "Even with using fire and ice spells, I don't think we pack quite that level of punch just yet. I'm just saying that we should remember to be cautious."

"Right," Kim said, still staring at the ceiling for a moment longer. It was one of those things, sometimes you don't even think about it, but once it's in your mind, you can't seem to shake it. Being buried under tons of stone and dirt was just such a thing on Kim's mind right now, but she pulled herself back to the present with a shake and a run of her gloved fingers through her hair. "How are we going to split this?"

"Blood and I will lead. You three, follow," Beth said simply, matching actions to words before Kim could further clarify.

The tall girl strode forth into the cavern, drawing her sword from its mooring on her backpack as she advanced. The light from the stone on her belt illuminated a greater part of the cavern and, as such, shone on many of the kobolds within. This was not to their liking, and they reacted quite inimically, shrieking to make sure every last beast was alerted before charging Beth with abandon. As they closed with her, Blood flowed out into the room, a dark crimson shadow intermixing in the interplay of light and dark from the lightstones.

The fight was laughably easy, even with Beth and Blood doing nothing more than deflecting attacks and occasionally hacking at an unarmored leg. Beth spent the two minutes it took the others to kill the kobolds while she tanked to work on her form, moving her sword the bare minimum distance required with the least possible strength she could use. She frowned as she tripped the last kobold, which had turned to Sabs after a particularly nasty hit from her daggers attracted its focus. She definitely needed to spend some serious time with Baelvyr working on her weaponskills now that she was in Journeymen in both.

The group moved to the side of the area they had fought, sitting to have a rest after cleaning their weapons. The fact that all but Blood had lightstones attached to their belts meant that there was quite a bit of light in the cavern with the four of them gathered today, but Beth still moved around while the others started their rest and lit the mana lamps attached to the pillars. She glanced in the other areas as she did so, noting that the largest area with the strongest enemies now had level twenty-eights at the entrance.

Beth glanced at the others as she returned to the group, marking that they had hit level twenty. They'd be able to keep going for a little bit, but it would be fairly dangerous to go into the area of level twenty-eight plus enemies so far down in level. She stood watch as the group continued resting for a little bit, waiting primarily for Soph to refill a little of her mana before continuing on.

They spent the rest of the day fighting up in level, clearing out some of the other areas off the hub room. Beth wasn't sure how much her and Blood lending some help from time to time counteracted the experience boost from fighting higher level beasts. They had ration bars for lunch again, with everyone having their own canteen now, and each of them had at least two of Beth's ration bars.

They returned to the Hall late in the evening, the lower-leveled members quite satisfied with close to two levels of progress in a single day. Beth's sisters split off, not bothering to enter the Hall as they headed for home. Sabs, Blood, and Beth entered the Hall and made their way down to Beth's room, Sabs eagerly stepping forward and using her key to open the door.

"We need to see how long it takes for the kobolds down there to respawn. We also need to monitor how quickly levels for everything are increasing," Beth said as they started preparing food and getting drinks.

"We do need to check on the neighborhood as well," Sabs replied.

"Have Kim and Soph not been taking care of the dungeons?"

"I think the idea is they've been helping just a little, as some of the other people in the neighborhood have been killing the beasts around and even in the start of the dungeons to level."

"Well, that's good at least," Beth replied with a nod. "But you're right, we should swing by once or twice a week and check what's going on."

"Let's make that priority number one tomorrow," Sabs agreed with a little hip bump.

"We'll either need to check, or maybe I should ask Tazeen, if my high level will affect being in a low level dungeon."

"In what way?" Sabs asked as they moved to the table with their food.

"There has to be some kind of point where more people or, in our case, higher levels mean you don't get the reward. I know that it affects the amount of experience low-leveled people get, which is annoying, but I don't know where the line is."

"I didn't even think about that," Sabs said as she started eating. "You think we're at that level difference already?"

"Possible," Beth grunted in between shoveling bites of dinner in her mouth.

The three finished their food, Blood drinking a lot of extra water, possibly from having Soph riding her half the day. The three took turns in the bathroom to clean up, or rather, Sabs bathed separately before Beth helped Blood wash off and then washed herself. When they were in their pajamas, which really meant their underwear, Beth got Blood more water before the two bipedal group members retired to bed.

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