Limitless Path

Beth woke a little fitfully quite a few hours later, releasing Sabs' waist to reach up and rub at her eyes and face. She might still be getting used to all the changes from the day before, and she sighed as she thought of everything that had happened.

"Beth?" Sabs mumbled sleepily.

Beth didn’t answer, instead pulling her left arm back a little so Sabs' head was cupped in her hand before rolling onto all fours on top of the smaller girl. Sabs started to mumble something again but was cut off by Beth's lips pressing firmly against her own. Sabs found the feeling both pleasant and warm and, rather than waking her further, she enjoyed drifting in a half-asleep state as Beth stroked her scalp with her left hand and ran the fingers of her right through Sabs' hair. The two stayed locked in a muzzy series of kisses before Sabs fully woke and pushed Beth away gently.

"I need to pee, Beth," she grumbled, sitting up as Beth rolled away from overtop of her.

"So do I, but I'll wait till you're done," Beth replied with a grunt, hopping out of the bed and sliding the light switch up halfway. The lights awoke with an almost imperceptible buzz as a soft golden warmth dimly filled the room. She then moved into the living room, bringing the lights up to only a quarter in here to allow Blood to continue to rest, if she so desired. The large wolf flicked one ear from her spot sprawled in the middle of the floor but didn't otherwise respond.

Sabs passed Beth by, slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. Beth moved into the kitchenette and fiddled with what she really hoped was a kettle, getting close to half a gallon of water heating to make tea. She made sure there was a kind safe for human consumption before turning the kettle on, noting a few small lights illuminated the glass carafe when it was heating, a nice little feature.

She moved back into the main room and sprawled on the couch, not bothering with anything apart from the underwear she had worn to bed. She flicked the screen on, noting that Blood had rolled over so her back faced the screen. Beth began scrolling, trawling for something she might find interesting apart from the battle content. She found a program that claimed to examine basic skills in-depth and turned it on with some interest.

As the lecturer, if that's what she should be called, started her explanations, the bathroom door opened and Sabs emerged, also foregoing anything but underwear. Beth paused the show and got up, swapping places with Sabs. "Don't start that without me, please."

"Got it, hon," Sabs replied sweetly from the couch, propping her feet on the table as she waited for Beth to finish her morning business.

When Beth was done, she moved into the kitchenette first to start the tea steeping before sprawling on the couch next to Sabs. "I have tea steeping for us," she commented lazily.

"Thanks, hon," Sabs replied. "What's the plan today?"

"I really want to rest, but I think I'm going to head back down into the belly of the beast at some point. You can come with us if you want, I have to carry stuff back that won't fit in my bag anyway," Beth explained.

"I'm a little confused, Beth," Sabs replied with scrunched brows. "What do you mean, 'belly of the beast?' And what do you have to carry?"

"Uh, the place where Blood and I have been leveling and did that dungeon, with all the kobolds," Beth explained, tapping her chin. "Also, the place where we encountered that stupid asshole yesterday that Baelvyr killed."

"What happened with that, exactly?" Sabs interjected before Beth could get any farther.

"Blood and I got back out of the underground area, which is in a field kinda like the ant nest," she replied. "When we got up, some weird guy approached us, Identified as a level sixty Swordsman, and acted super shady. Things escalated quickly, and we were locked in a life-and-death struggle almost immediately. I figured we couldn't win, so we tried to run, and when that didn't work, I sent Blood off and tried to hold him down myself."

'That was a foolish move, sister,' Blood chided, raising her head to glare at Beth before slumping back to the floor.

"Yeah, yeah," Beth muttered. "Anyway, I can’t remember if you were there for that conversation, but the Copper Emblems have a limited communication function that works in emergencies, which I used to call Jaq and let him know I was about to die. It was only a handful of seconds, but the weird creep never stood a chance. Jaq blew his arm off from, like, a mile away and Baelvyr shoulder-checked him so hard it sounded like his ribcage turned into a firework show."

"Holy shit, Beth!" Sabs exclaimed after hearing the story, clutching at Beth's arm and leaning against her. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Honestly, it is fucking with my head a little still, but I'll just have to deal with it," Beth replied with a shrug.

"Elizabeth Anne Bell," Sabs admonished with a finger wag that copied Beth's mother's identically, "I told you this before; don't try to do it all alone. If you need to talk or need help, I'm here, and I'm sure the CRA has more resources that can help you as well. Also, I'm sure all the therapists on Earth haven't just vanished, even with the moderate chaos the changes have caused."

"Yeah, yeah," Beth muttered, "I hear you. I just want to be a big girl and toughen up."

"That's some real boomer talk, Beth," Sabs huffed crossly, wagging her finger even more fervently. Unfortunately for Sabs, while she was a DEX-based build, Beth's stats were through the roof, making it quite easy for the younger girl to lunge forward and catch the older girl's finger directly in her mouth, sucking on it with a "Hmph!"

Sabs gave a small squeal at the sudden movement before making a throatier noise as Beth played with the digit with her tongue. They were interrupted, not by Blood, but by the timer in the kitchen making a beeping noise.

"The hell is that?" Sabs asked with a huff, sneakily retrieving her finger from Beth's mouth as the younger girl became distracted.

"Tea's ready," Beth grumbled, standing with a big stretch, Sabs fixing her gaze on her girlfriend's very ample rear. Beth finished the stretch and entered the kitchenette to finish the tea, bringing two large cups out to the table before plopping down next to Sabs again.

"So, what was it you were carrying?" Sabs asked with a raised brow.

"Got a box of ingots down in that cold shithole," Beth replied, rolling her eyes as Sabs muttered "Language!" before taking a sip of her tea. "It's too big and unwieldy to shove in my pack, at least, I think it is. So, I'll have to just carry the damn thing and spend an hour jogging back here with it."

"Not concerned somebody's gonna take it in the meantime?" Sabs asked as she blew on her tea to try to cool it.

"I mean, I hope there aren't any more douchebags like yesterday's around," Beth replied caustically, "but I doubt it. The area has level twenty and up kobolds in it, so I don't think many other people from Earth can do much down there."

"Will I be safe if I come with?" Sabs asked with a frown.

"Check my level, babe," Beth responded with a grin, the corners of her mouth climbing higher as Sabs checked with a mouthful of tea and spluttered a gasping cough.

"Dammit, Beth!" she choked out. "Warn me when I'm drinking!"

"Relax, you're fine," Beth said with a chuckle. "Besides, I'd absolutely give you all the mouth-to-mouth you need if you actually choked."

"Stop!" Sabs huffed, slapping Beth's arm with her free hand before taking another sip. "I take it the dungeon's a bit much for us?"

"Yeah, sorry," Beth replied with a sigh, running the fingers of her left hand through her hair. "The kobolds in the dungeon down there start at level thirty-eight or thirty-nine, not sure how the increasing mana density will affect it. But, and this is a big but, there are a bunch of kobolds outside the dungeon that start as low as around level fifteen."

"That's better, but still not great, though in the other direction," Sabs replied with a frown.

"Ah, they go up into the twenties," Beth answered quickly. "There's two main paths, and one leads to, like, this housing area that just has a shit-ton of kobolds in it, with some being in the upper twenties at the end. Might not hurt to spend a few days down there with the whole group. Blood and I can help you guys farm some levels."

"I really appreciate it, and I'm sure the girls do as well, but you guys don't have to go out of your way to babysit us," Sabs said with a soft smile, giving Beth a light kiss on the cheek.

"It's not a bother, babe," Beth replied, returning the kiss. "I need a little time not going at a thousand percent, and I think Blood might agree. It would be nice to take a few days easy. It would also probably be a good idea to help tomorrow with the stuff for the neighborhood."

"I'm never going to say no to taking a break," Sabs replied languidly, snuggling against Beth as the tall girl finished her tea.

When they were both done with their morning drinks, and had spent some time snuggling, Beth got up and cleaned up their cups before putting in some food to heat for breakfast. The meal packs that continued to pop up in the fridge were surprisingly good, though Beth still liked Sabs' cooking even better. She waited for the packs to heat up before taking them out to the main room, returning to grab enough to drink for all three of them.

They finished their food pretty quickly, Beth noting it was still fairly early in the morning. She cleaned up alongside Sabs before the two of them threw clothes on, completing their prep by gearing up in their armor and equipment. They helped Blood pull on her harness and armor before they were ready for the rest of the day.

"I want to check in with Jaq quick before we do anything else," Beth said as they headed out the door.

"Got stuff to sell?" Sabs asked with a single quirked brow.

"Nope. The grand total of what Blood and I got for the last few days is a handful of silver, her harness, and my eyes. And I certainly don't intend on selling the eyes," Beth replied, glancing at Sabs and waggling her eyebrows.

"You're a doofus," Sabs replied with a sigh, grabbing Beth's unarmored left hand in her right.

The two made their way to the commissary, Beth barging in as usual. The room was empty, also as usual, and Beth leaned against the counter and wrapped an arm around Sabs, giving her a squeeze while they waited. Blood sniffed around the room in the meantime, more interested in the displays than watching Beth and Sabs suck each other's faces.

Jaq emerged from the middle door with a sigh, Beth estimating he had taken the breath for it before the door opened. He gave her a narrowed-eye glare for a moment, glancing between her and Sabs before frowning and leaning against his side of the counter.

"What," he said in a way that made it clear it was a command, not a question.

"Mana steel, you glitchy calculator," Beth replied with a frown.

"You've figured out it exists; I'm so proud," Jaq responded, entirely deadpan.

Beth thumped her broken left gauntlet on the counter in response, saying, "You have these in mana steel?"

"Not ones like that, unfortunately," Jaq replied, lifting the damaged gauntlet to inspect it. "Honestly, you should get some more lessons from Elana or Tazeen and have them help you repair it as part of the deal."

"That's…actually not a bad idea," Beth said with a slight narrowing of her eyes, tapping her chin with her left index finger.

"I do have my moments," Jaq continued in his deadpan tone.

"Do you have any helmets?" Beth suddenly asked.

"A little non sequitur, but yes," Jaq replied with a slight frown. "What are you looking for?"

"Something to protect my head, duh," Beth replied with a shake of said head, crossing her arms under her breasts as she glared at him.

"It's like talking to a slightly stupid dog," Jaq muttered as he turned and disappeared through the right door.

"Hey! I fucking heard that!" Beth shouted after him.

"Chill, Beth," Sabs said with a chuckle, grabbing Beth's left arm in both of hers and tugging, pulling the tall girl down into a firm kiss. She broke it off rather quickly, flashing Beth an impish grin before returning her attention to behind the counter as Jaq emerged from the left door.

"Try this," he said, handing Beth what looked like a fancy metal holder for a bowl or crystal ball.

"What in God's name is this," Beth asked incredulously, holding the thing by the cylinder of mana steel that made up the base.

"Red abyss," Jaq muttered hotly before reaching out and opening the front of the device with a snap. "The large metal ring is a gorget, an armored piece to protect the neck. The four tines that rise in a curve up out of it will bracket your face and the back of your head. When you seal the gorget closed around your neck, it will activate the main enchantment of the device. If someone attempts to slash, smash, or otherwise rearrange that ugly mug of yours, a force screen will snap into place and disburse all force."

Beth glared at the taciturn salesmen for a moment before sliding the mana steel collar around her neck and pushing it closed. It fit her fairly tightly without being too much, and seemed somewhat flexible, shrinking and adjusting once it was sealed. Her entire neck was now protected in a sheath of mana steel, with a thick spike of mana steel running up the edge of each side of her face, and one each running up the edges of the back of her head under her hair.