Limitless Path

Beth finished her water and climbed onto the stage, moving to stand in the circle. What happened next was two hours of pure torture for her. When she stood in the circle, a dummy appeared across from her, but it didn't attack. Instead, the first drills consisted of her copying the dummy in its stance and movements.

They grew more complex from there, with her false opponent moving towards or away from her, requiring her to keep an exacting distance and precise foot positioning. If she stepped out of line or made a mistake, the dummy would lunge forward and strike. She could block this blow, if she was fast and prepared, meaning she needed to keep her guard up at all times and intently focus on what the dummy was doing.

After over two hours, with only one water break in the middle, Baelvyr stopped them. She hadn't even gotten to a point where they progressed beyond footwork, nor had she gained any skill levels. She knew it was a worthy investment of her time, however, as she felt already like she understood how to move and position herself in battle much better.

She grabbed a third bottle from the training room fridge and sat on a bench near Blood while Baelvyr played back some of the training, which the room had recorded, on the TV. He made a few comments on some of her positioning, freezing the playback and pointing to spots where her feet were set poorly, or her body was not positioned quite right. Beth nodded along, asking a few questions about how to step correctly during his lecture.

A while later, Baelvyr said, "That's enough for today. At your level of END, I don't want to push ya too far too soon. We'll work more tomorrow on footwork and movement. 'Sides, ya need to stop and meet our commissar before leaving, unless ya can contact your people now?"

Beth pulled her phone out and checked it after he reminded her about checking in, noting it was already mid-afternoon. She wanted to make sure to head home while it was still light out, and she noted that she had no signal currently, though she wasn't sure if that was because of being in the basement. Baelvyr looked down at the device as he came up next to her.

"Some kinda old tech there, kid. Take the armor off and rack the sword now that we're done. Let's go talk to Jaq while we're on it, yeah?" he said, motioning her to follow while he walked out of the training room.

Beth quickly stored the sword on the rack and pulled the armor off, trying to see where to put it. Not knowing and not wanting to keep the ogre waiting, she spread it all out on a bench, hoping it would dry at least. She exited the room a moment later, finding her mentor waiting with both hands resting atop his great girth. The ogre simply turned and walked off, heading in the direction they had come from. They made their way back to the elevators, where he chose to go down to the lowest basement.

The elevator let them out into a hall that very well could have been the one they just had been in a moment ago, but Baelvyr didn't hesitate in exiting the elevator and striding off to the right. Beth and Blood followed behind him, occasionally glancing at the illegible plaques by the doors they passed. They walked for a minute before arriving outside a thick set of double-doors with a large sign over the top. Baelvyr simply pushed the right door open with a flick of a finger, the massive piece of stone and metal not even a paperweight to him.

They entered a large room with a number of racks and shelves scattered around the periphery. There were nearly a dozen rows of display cases stretching out from the door side of the room that stopped just short of a long counter that took up the length of the back wall. There were three doors behind the counter, all closed, and nobody else in the room. The whole place was full of weapons, armor, potions, pills, books, crystals, bags, packs, jewelry, and a hundred other things Beth couldn't even identify. She quickly started looking through what was in the rows of cases as Baelvyr walked back to the counter.

"Jaq, ya little bastard, get out here," his voice boomed, rattling all the glass cases and causing both Beth and Blood to start. There was silence for a moment afterwards, before the middle door slid silently open. A tall, thin, wiry man walked out from the door, wearing what looked like some kind of long duster jacket. She could see he had some kind of armored pants on underneath, with a set of heavy calf-length boots on his feet. He wore some type of cap, looking almost like a military beret, and had a set of fingerless gloves on made of some kind of dark red material. These blended well with the black coat, the dark red of the armored pants, and the black boots. The beret was black with a red badge of some kind on the front.

The man looked at them with striking purple eyes, like a storm of bright lightning swirled in his irises. As Beth walked over to stand by Baelvyr by the counter, she noticed a pattern looking much like circuitry branching out from his irises covering all of his sclera. He had a nonplussed look on his face as he squinted at Baelvyr before glancing over at her. The brief moment his eyes were on her Beth felt a danger like nothing she'd ever experienced before, taking a step back while bringing her hands up out of sheer reflex.

"What do you want, you daft brute? And why are you bringing children into my workspaces?" the man asked in a surprisingly deep voice for such a gangly build, something that would have occupied more of Beth's attention if she wasn't still recovering from the imminent presence of death.

"Don't ya give me that shit. And don't scare the girlie, she's a copper emblem carrier already. Brought her down here to meet yer dumbass, tin-head," Baelvyr replied, frowning at the man. As the two bantered, Beth Identified him.

Jaq Rezzar, Level 299 Cyborg Technological Savant

That was certainly…new. It appeared the world really wasn't all swords and sorcery, the TV and the circuits she had seen around being actual technology, and not just some kind of rune looking like it. It was also kind of telling that in the place that would normally say race it just listed Cyborg. Was that a race, or just some part of his class? Or was that part of his class descriptor because he modified himself with machinery or something?

"Well, as flattered as I am, I doubt she has much that could interest me. What do you think I could sell her for a copper?" Jaq had meanwhile retorted to Baelvyr coolly.

"She's got a good handful of silver, and I could lend her a couple more if needed. Ya ought to treat yer customers with some more care, ya damn bot brain," The ogre replied.

"Fine, fine. What do you need, child?" Jaq said, turning to her once more. This time, the feeling of impending doom was gone, his gaze only giving her the feeling of someone strong looking at someone weak, a feeling of slight suppression.

"Show 'em yer communicator first," Baelvyr said to her before glowering at Jaq again.

Beth pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and handed it to the man, who quirked an eyebrow at it as he inspected it, flipping it over in his hand after a moment. He looked at the outside for a few more moments, noting the few buttons and sockets, before he tapped a finger to the top of the phone. The screen lit up, and Jaq's eyes glowed very faintly for a few seconds before returning to their normal passive state. He set the phone on the counter between them with a harrumph and looked at her again.

"Not at all passable, even pre-integration. Your people really were dallying about with useless blather before the Path appeared, weren't they?" he said.

"Bein' an ass to her ain't gonna do anything but frustrate me, bot boy," Baelvyr commented.

"Your insults are as dull as your lamentable wit, you brutish rock herder," Jaq responded lazily, as if going through the banter by rote. "What do you want me to do about this?" he asked Beth, gesturing at the phone.

"Uh, can you, like, make it better or something? Would that be really expensive?" she asked in response, shifting her feet as she watched the two men go back to laconically glowering at each other.

"One silver coin," he replied, holding out his hand. Beth narrowed her eyes a little and looked to Baelvyr, who looked down at her and nodded in response. She was loathe to part with a silver, but knew she could make more farming the dungeons by her house, which would also help keep them culled properly. With a sigh, she made a silver appear from her stat screen and handed it to the cyborg.

Jaq took the coin and picked her phone up again, holding it upside-down with his left hand while hovering his right index finger above it. A strand of, well, something fell out of the tip of his finger into the charging port, and he flipped the phone so he was holding it in a "normal" grip. He simply stared at the phone for about fifteen seconds, his eyes again glowing very faintly as he did, well, something. He then finished whatever it was, as his eyes returned to normal and he handed the phone back to Beth.

"Not terrible, if I must say so. You will find that device to have much increased storage, processing capacity, a better camera, quicker response times, easier connectivity to several different kinds of networks, and, to top it off, it will now passively absorb a little mana to help the battery slowly recharge. It would take about twenty minutes in a decently mana dense area to fully charge, so not my finest work, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Oh, also, don't expose it to too much mana, I was only able to harden it so much with that little bit of tech I inserted," he explained calmly, like a lazy salesman giving a pitch after the sale was already finalized.

"Wow. I mean, thanks a lot, that's a ton of stuff for a silver," Beth replied, staring at the phone in surprise.

"It is, but I am somewhat bored. Also, I don't want to hear this tub of lard and gristle moaning about how stingy I am for another week. We don't want a repeat of the Althany incident," he said with a small frown.

"Sucks to be called out on yer bullshit sometimes, don't it," Baelvyr said with a grin, hands resting on his huge stomach as he snickered at the commissar.

"Yes, yes. Is that all? I have several experiments running in this low mana atmosphere that I should keep an eye on, after all," Jaq waved off Baelvyr's comment, the slight frown persisting.

"Do you have any low-level weapons or armor that I might be able to purchase? I just have a normal steel sword and some gloves and boots of normal leather; I'm looking to get even one upgrade," Beth hastily interjected.

"Hm, I might have something. Is there anything in particular you're actually looking for? If not, I will bring you a few of my most basic pieces," he asked her.

"Just bring a good mana copper greatsword and some Ralk or Rend Boar armor pieces; gloves and boots to start," Baelvyr interjected, seemingly having a good idea of what she would need.

"Hmph, plenty of that lying around. Give me a few moments," Jaq replied, walking over to the door on the far right behind the counter and entering it. The group waited a few minutes before he returned, Beth playing around with her phone, pretty awed by how fast everything loaded, as well as the fact it seemed she had almost ten times the storage space somehow. When he was before them again, Jaq set a sword in a sheath as well as some armor pieces on the counter.

He picked the sword up and handed it to Beth first, who unsheathed it to look at the blade. The blade was about three-and-a-half feet long, tapering from six inches wide at the base to about four inches near the tip, which narrowed down into a sharp point. The entire blade was a dark copper, polished to a mirror sheen, reflecting Beth's somewhat surprised face as she looked over the blade. "A copper sword? Didn't people use these before they figured out how to make iron ones?"

"Indeed, that is a standard progression in most civilizations. You will find that things change under the Path. This sword, for example, is not made of copper, but is instead made from mana copper. The difference might not seem terribly large, but mana copper is several times stronger than non-infused steel would be. That blade will be enough to carry you through a few dozen levels at the least, even if you do not have any blade related skills," Jaq explained.

"Give the boots and gloves a look now. They should be in your size, and they have a very minor enchant for fitting that should allow them to remold a little to fit you, but have a look," he continued, motioning for her to test the armor pieces. They were made of moderately thick leather, the gloves fairly standard pieces with a handful of thin discs of mana copper on the back and wrists. The boots were knee-boots, with thick laces and a metal plate of mana copper stitched in over each knee. There were a number of overlapping mana copper discs on the calf of each boot, preventing something from easily slicing the back of the bottom of her legs.

Beth pulled the boots on first, the fit almost perfect, and as she straightened up from lacing them, they seemed to form perfectly to her feet and lower legs. She took a few steps, and then took a half lap around the shop, feeling the fit of them as she walked and then jogged. Returning to the counter, she grabbed the gloves and pulled them on. They fit quite well, almost like a glove, in fact. As she finished settling them, they also seemed to mold to her hands and the lower parts of her forearms, fitting perfectly.