Limitless Path

Beth was amused, but far less so when she had to quickly step over and pull her mother away from the statue with the scales in its hand. She was pretty sure it wasn't a direct attack, but the statues seemed to be imbued with some kind of power, maybe even from the people they were carved to resemble, that far surpassed something a person below level one hundred with no rebirths should be tampering with.

"What was that?!" Rachel asked, trying to slow her breathing back down.

"Yeah, don't look at the statues, they're some kind of crazy artefacts that still have the powers of the people they're made to look like. Or something like that, nobody's really explained them; we could ask Tazeen," Beth answered, rounding everyone up and urging them up the steps into the lobby, plucking Soph off Blood in the process.

"What'd you do that for?!" Soph whined.

"We don't ride mounts inside. Why am I the chaperone today?" Beth responded, leading the way over to the counter.

Tazeen was in the righthand position, as per usual, and Navere was in the left-hand position. Beth was secretly amused, looking at the reaction of the rest of the group to the two tall, handsome elves with unusual eyes staring almost unblinking at them. Beth walked up to the counter next to Tazeen and leaned against it, making six gold coins appear on the counter.

"And what may I help you with today, young Wayfarer?" Tazeen asked her calmly, giving the coins a brief glance before looking at the group she had brought.

"The three younger ones in the group, sorry mom," she said, turning to her mom briefly with an impish grin, "are going to sign up for emblems. My mom has some questions or something she wants to ask."

"Of course. If you would step up to the counter, I can assist you with everything you need," Tazeen said to the group. Sabs stepped up first, more comfortable with this kind of thing than the younger girls. Tazeen picked up the six gold coins and began walking Sabs through the process, Kim and Soph stepping up to watch the explanation. Tazeen gave all three of them the necessary forms and assisted them in filling everything in, quick and precise in his actions.

Once all the forms were taken care of, Tazeen pulled out a device from behind the counter that was somewhat larger than a large coffeemaker. It was made from some kind of sleek black material and had a set of controls on the back. Tazeen then produced three copper emblems before inserting the first of them into a slot on his side of the machine. He then instructed Sabs to hold her hand on the machine and infuse a small amount of mana into it. The device lit up for a moment with a reddish color before returning to a neutral state.

The process was repeated for the other two girls, Tazeen pressing each of the emblems to a device in another location behind the counter before handing them to each girl in turn. Once everyone had their emblem, Tazeen declared the process complete and asked if they needed anything else.

"I do have quite a number of questions," their mother stepped up to the counter, a serious look on her face.

As their mother started in on her interrogation, Beth tapped the others on the shoulder quickly and made a small motion. The five of them slipped away, the rest following her deeper into the building. She led them to the elevators, showing them the location and operation of them, before taking them to the library.

"Why are we in the library?" Kim asked in confusion, sharing a look with Sabs, while Soph looked like she was now in heaven.

"To learn how to read and talk," Beth replied with a smirk.

"What?"

"What?"

Both of the girls asked while Soph was still in a daze. Beth led them to the shelf with the crystal for standard, Blood bumping Soph to get her to follow along. Beth picked the crystal up and passed it to Sabs first, who took it in hand and just looked at her.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she said, looking down at the crystal, then back up to Beth with raised eyebrows.

"Hold it against your forehead. You'll know when everything is done," Beth replied.

"Oooookay," said Sabs before holding the crystal to her forehead, still with raised eyebrows. Her eyes went a little vacant for a moment before she pulled the crystal away from her forehead a minute later, her eyebrows now near her hairline. "That's crazy."

"Let me try," Kim said, taking the crystal from Sabs and holding it to her forehead. Again, a minute passed before Kim had her eyes widen and her eyebrows climb up her forehead.

"What? What is happening?" Soph asked a little petulantly, and Kim simply pressed the crystal against her forehead to a mild squawk of protest. It again didn't take very long for Soph's expression to mirror the others. "What the hell is this thing?"

"There are crystals like this that can give you knowledge or even skills. This is the language that a lot of people use, and the CRA uses it everywhere. So, you can communicate with people, and you can read. Helpful for the signs in here," Beth explained.

"I can read? All these books?" Soph asked eagerly.

"Yeah, they're all free to read. You just can't take stuff out of here, as far as I know."

Soph grabbed her arm, staring at her hard. "How can I stay here?!"

"Pfffft," Beth couldn't help herself from laughing, seeing the others tamping it down themselves. "You can rent a room in the CRA Hall and stay there, but they cost a bunch of coppers at a minimum. And I don't think mom and dad would be very happy with that."

"Oh, I can take care of mom and dad," Soph said, a hungry look on her face.

"OK, that's both weird and crazy. Maybe take it down a notch," Beth said, rapping her knuckles on the top of Soph's head.

"Ow! That shit hurts!" Soph said, clutching her head.

"Sorry. We're not done yet, though. Let's go," said Beth.

"Damn, just leave me here. I just want to read," Soph snapped, but was silenced when Beth grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and set her on Blood's back.

"Fall in," Beth said, to several eyerolls, leading the way back to the elevators.

She took them back to the first floor, leading them to the lounge room that the senior members frequently used. The whole cast was again assembled at various tables, and their attention immediately focused on the new members in the room. The various members congregated at Baelvyr's table without a word, and Beth led the group over to sit across from the seniors.

"Brought yer friends, have ya?" Baelvyr asked, drinking something that was steaming out of a large cup.

"My sisters," Beth said, poking the two of them. "And my girlfriend," she continued, poking Sabs.

"And so, what are we looking at here?" Elana asked calmly.

Beth pointed at the three girls in order of Soph, Kim, and Sabs, saying, "Mage, tank, and rogue."

"Little simple. Give us some more details there," said Lyrissa.

"Uh, m-me?" asked Soph very nervously. The others were clearly fairly overwhelmed with the panel of high leveled Wayfarers staring at them.

"Are there three other new members here?" asked Lyrissa, shading her eyes and looking around the lounge.

"W-well, OK. I, uh, I'm Sophia, and I'm an Early Sorceress. I use the skill Elemental Casting in combat to blast enemies, usually with lightning, and now sometimes frost and fire. Uh, there's not really much else. What should I say?" Soph said.

"I think that's enough for a start. Next?" Lyrissa said.

"Uh, hi. I’m Kimberly, and I'm a Tempered Fighter. I use a sword right now and act as the frontline fighter a lot of the time for the team, and I have the skill Sweep that I've leveled most of the way through copper. I don't really use a shield right now, but we haven't really been able to fully equip ourselves yet, so maybe I'll get one now. I don't really know what else to say," Kim answered.

"Good enough for the initial response. Last but not least, the pretty girlfriend," Lyrissa said with a bright smile.

"Don't throw jabs at kids, Rissa," said John coolly.

"Right, sorry. Next?" she replied with a slight grin, giving Beth a quick wink before Sabs started to speak.

"Uh, yeah, hi. I'm Sabrina, and I'm currently classed as a Young Duelist. I wield dual knives and have the skill Dice in the middle of copper rank. I usually work to keep too many enemies from assaulting Kim or finish off enemies Soph hasn't killed outright with her spells. That's about it," Sabs said.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of ya, but I think this is pretty easy," said Baelvyr.

"Easy for you to say, with your young prodigy there already," John replied lazily.

"Well, do ya have some different thoughts?"

"Yeah, sure, why not? I'm sure you're thinkin' Elana picks up the fighter, but why not Navere?" John asked.

"Well, it's an option. Ya don't have to just go with somebody without any thought of yer own," said Baelvyr in response.

"So, what are they talking about?" Sabs asked Beth while the senior members were going back and forth.

"Senior members on a new world will take people on as mentees to train, often for free for the first few months, so they're bantering back and forth about who's gonna train the three of you," Beth replied.

"Alright, fine, I'll get 'em," said Baelvyr, finishing the discussion they were having. He stood up and moved around the table, the other girls in Beth's group staring at his truly massive frame with wide eyes. He disappeared out the door, and a minute later Navere entered and assumed his place at the table.

"Well, this is mostly easy," said Lyrissa once Navere was seated. "For Nav, the slightly taller of the younger girls is Kimberly and wields a single sword. It is between her training under Elana or you currently. As for the others, I would offer to train Sophia and John would offer to train Sabrina. Is that acceptable."

"I don't have any problems with that," answered Sabs firmly.

"S-sure, if that's what we're doing," Soph answered with a little more hesitance.

"As to Kimberly, you have a choice. I will let the two different senior members explain their forte and how you would train with them," Lyrissa said.

"Standard stuff at your level, girl," said Elana. "Sword and shield training for general combat. Simple spell work later for standard battle practice. Practice in using and fighting in heavy or ultra-heavy armor types."

"I would train you in single or dual wield swords with a focus on a powerful cutting style. My Path is one of the overwhelming sword, and I would train you with simple methods merely in the hope of raising your Swords skill and combat knowledge to a high degree," Navere explained.

"I'm sorry, but what do you mean when you say your 'Path?'" asked Kim.

"It's something you won't need to worry about for a long time," answered John before anyone else could say anything. "You reach a point much later where you have to have your own Path to keep growing. There's different kinds and ways, but you likely have a couple centuries before worrying about that. Your Mana Physique is a lot more important, and you have lotsa time before even that's a thing."

"My mana what?" Kim asked again.

"Look, never you mind. Focus on what you can handle first. Worry about the rest later. You just go on and pick someone," John replied somewhat testily.

"Um, OK," Kim said, looking between everyone. "I will, uh, train with Navere. That's my choice."

"Well, excellent. Find me someone I can hammer into shape soon girl. You're collecting them, aren't you?" Elana said with a snort, looking at Beth.

"Sorry, all out of siblings and girlfriends. You'll have to find your own students," Beth said with a grin.

"Well, that's settled," Lyrissa said with a quick clap. "Let's split up then, shall we."

"Tough luck girl, your trainer's on desk duty now," Elana said to Beth as she returned to her table.

"We should make a stop before everyone goes everywhere," Beth said to the rest as they stood.

"Oh?" asked Lyrissa.

"I still have a little money and they need new equipment. Better to know what they're going to wear before they start training," Beth replied.

"The rest of us will be here," Navere said with a nod, moving over to one of the few central tables with John and Lyrissa.

Beth led her group out of the lounge and into the arena area, leading them to the nearest set of elevators that connected to the underworks. They moved down several floors and Beth led the group out and down the halls to the commissary. They entered as a group, Beth gesturing around the large room.

"Time to shop," she said with a chuckle.

"This is awesome. Look at how much stuff there is!" Kim exclaimed, immediately starting to flit around the shop looking at everything on display at once.

Beth walked forward and leaned back against the counter, watching everyone else, including Blood, who liked to investigate, wander around the shop and inspect the items. Even with her highly enhanced body, she failed to hear or sense in any way the central door open, only becoming aware of Jaq's presence as he cleared his throat loudly.

"Jesus, you scared me," Beth said sharply as she half turned, glaring at him.

"I don't know who that is, but you have been in here enough times to know I would walk out when I detected people in the commissary," Jaq said. "More to the point, this is the commissary, not a daycare."

"You should quit this shop-keeping thing and go into comedy," Beth replied sarcastically.

"Yes, a hundred stop tour of every dive in this quadrant. My name in lights and crowds of cackling rubes. I can't wait," Jaq replied in the most deadpan tone Beth had ever heard.

"I knew you'd catch on," replied Beth with a chuckle.

"Yes, well, what exactly do you need?" Jaq asked, seemingly tired of the banter already.

"They're all copper level members now. I'd like to get them measured and get armor that suits them. The smallest one is Soph, and she uses magic; Lyrissa will train her. The next smallest one is actually the oldest, my girlfriend Sabs. She's a rogue and John's going to train her. Lastly is my middle sister, Kim. She's going to be training the sword under Navere and acts as our frontliner. I don't know if that really makes a difference at this level," Beth explained.