LimitlessPath

A New Star Chapter 27

I led us back down through the common room, getting nods from a couple of Pietr's strongest enforcers. The others might not really understand my power, but the strongest knew, both my overall strength as well as my particularly swift growth. I noted that the materials I had dropped off had all been moved, and I grabbed my empty backpack from beside the door, double-checking that nothing else had been inserted before throwing both straps over a shoulder. I walked out the front door, the count ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Eight

"Interesting," said Fallon, glancing at her rune. "You're only a Journeyman currently."  He said it as a statement but Beth still replied, "

"Interesting," said Fallon, glancing at her rune. "You're only a Journeyman currently."  He said it as a statement but Beth still replied, "

"Interesting," said Fallon, glancing at her rune. "You're only a Journeyman currently." 

He said it as a statement but Beth still replied, "Yes, Journeyman[3]." 

"A better...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Seven

It was, for the most part, a waiting game right now, though Beth had given Mortaine the details on their current location, so she had some expectation that he would just pop up at some point. Otherwise, Alex was still working and Selene was still on her trip, with no word sent, and they didn't have any other leads on the rest of Beth's materials. They could maybe, maybe, get a lead on the hearts she needed, but they were rather rare and hard to find. There was no way they could get t...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Six

"Congratulations," Sera said to Blood as they returned to the small room that had led into the larger room with the crystal. 

"Huh?" Beth asked, looking between them. 

"She increased her humanization," Sera said simply. 

"Oh wow, really?" Beth asked, looking at Blood. 

"Not that much," the wolf said with a casual shrug. 

"Don't be so modest," Sera chided. 

"I'm not. It's not," Blood grumbled. 

They came up to the pas...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Five

This whole thing was going to be Blood's show, as was rather evident when the wolf dipped a long claw into a small pool of blood, lifting it out to sniff it before making it disappear with a gesture. She didn't say anything, just turned and led the way into the system of caves and caverns that were filled with the mana type of her namesake. Blood was right at home in this place, and Sera and Beth had to just follow along behind, occasionally fighting a rogue beast or monster. They had to be a...

A New Star Chapter 26

We walked, or rather moved at a light jog, with me leading the way back down the mountain. I routed us around the worst of the estate’s defenses, easily avoiding the rest even without walking through the dark paths, which I'm sure both the count and my grandfather made note of as we continued. Well, the count and I continued, as my grandfather begged off for several reason that sounded more like excuses, but the count walked along behind me still, continuing as if he were out on a lazy stro...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Four

Reporting back to the commander was something the whole team had to do, as they had to divvy up the rewards and loot. The commander had them gather in a large room, expressly for the purpose of having space to dump out their loot, and had them go over the delve. Bolt was very professional in his report, little surprise considering how well and efficiently he had run their little delve. The commander listened to everything, two aides there taking notes and writing detailed reports on their own...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Three

"It's unstable," Beth said immediately, examining the rent in space as she grabbed a three-rebirth monster by the head and Spatial Obliterated it by squeezing her hand and crushing its head like it was caught in a vise. 

"Is that good? Or bad?" asked Ash. 

"Good, I would think," Beth answered as she offhandedly killed monsters, something the rest of the group had certainly noticed. 

"Is there anything you can do about it?" Bolt asked while the...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-Two

Beth grabbed Sera and Blood and left the main building, taking them out to one of the buildings that was acting as temporary housing. They took the free time to get a hot shower and get cleaned up, Beth looking over their gear to make sure everything was in good shape. The two hours passed very quickly, the commander calling them to get to the main building and get ready. They found the other members of the expedition already assembled, excepting for one Enlightened that showed up right after...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty-One

The ship carried them east, and Beth and Sera relaxed for few moments before spending some time studying. The airship was fast, but nothing like the speed of a starship, and it took them hours to make it to the mountain range in question. Blood loved piloting the ship even on a 'normal' day of flying, and Beth was just happy that she enjoyed it so much. She and Sera, on the other hand, spent the whole time studying, only paying attention to what was happening when Blood informed them they wer...

A New Star Chapter 25

I had thoroughly dissected the beast, of course, and stored away its core and a few other choice items, leaving most of the meat. I remembered the meat of bears on my homeworld was not only gamey but could even have a toxic component. Perhaps I was misremembering that, but I did remember they were at the very least unpleasant eating. I was sure as an alchemist I could use many of its organs for my purposes, but I chose to only keep the heart and liver, as I didn't want to lug around all that ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Forty

They spent something like a month working on their skills, just trying to get a couple levels while they had a little free time with no crisis on their hands. That month, of course, was objective time, making it closer to ten months that they spent focused solely on their crafts. Even with that, Beth was seeing a long, long road ahead, as they had all managed just two levels with their profession skills in that time. If that was the kind of time sink they were talking about at Journeyman, she...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Nine

"Not bad. What about you?" he asked Sera. 

"Well, sure," said the dragon calmly, grabbing one of the bars as Beth put hers back in the fire. 

"You ever use your fire in smithing?" Erosh asked mildly. 

"Not yet," Sera answered. 

"Good. Don't even start trying that till late Expert. You won't have the control; you'll just melt stuff," he explained. 

"I have pretty good breath control," Sera countered. 

"Not about the breath," he ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Eight

The whole barter section proceeded like that, with Beth spending a lot of time searching. Not everyone posted what they wanted, or contacted someone even if they had something another person had posted as being desired, so it was a lot of digging through the system and calling people. It was also a lot of going and talking to people, as some people preferred in person negotiation, though the trading firm had plenty of staff on hand to facilitate the trades, making sure no one had to meet in p...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Seven

"Good to see you," Beth said as they broke apart.  

"Good to see me? Good to see you! We expected you a bit sooner," Alex replied with a grin. "Especially since we heard a nasty rumor that you were on-world and hadn't stopped in." 

"We were busy; always busy with something," Beth said, shaking her head.  

"I see that you have been busy," Alex said, clearly examining their levels. "Ready for yet another rebirth so soon." 

"Hoping to get some...

A New Star Chapter 24

A/N: Quick note, I accidentally said the duke's father was watching the duel in secret last chapter; was supposed to be the duchess's father, which I've already corrected.

I stared at the man, Count Emmanuel, I suppose, with just a touch of suspicion, which I'm sure he could see. He hadn't particularly impressed in our little impromptu duel, not that he had been going all-out, but then again, randomly attacking a six-year-old, even one who was rumored to be rather advanced, was n...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Six

The three of them were earning quite a bit, but the real prize was the experience they were farming towards their next levels. Levels didn't exactly come easy in the high two hundreds, but progress was still steady, Beth trying to do the math as they slowly approached three hundred. It would be pretty close, but she thought they would at least get there before the auction, though it would be just by the skin of their teeth. If they didn't, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Five

"Sorry," she said, sitting down next to Beth, on the opposite side as Sera, and dashing at her eyes. 

"Take your time," Beth said, patting the much stronger woman on the shoulder.  

"I just…I thought I'd lost her. I thought it wouldn't be until we were both gone that I might even have a chance at seeing her again," Liveria said quietly.  

"It's alright," Beth said, wrapping an arm around the much stronger woman's shoulders. They stayed like that for a few mo...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Four

Beth walked over to where everyone stood, panting a bit as she still tried to recover from the ordeal of fighting a baker's dozen Ascended at once. She was running her healing full tilt right now, trying to piece herself back together as best she could, and Sera put a worried hand on her shoulder when she was standing with the others. Before she could say anything, however, there was a flash of light and the box, the Reliquary, turned into a long, thin stream of light that slammed into Beth. ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Three

"You do not have to use the device," Mortaine said calmly. "In fact, I'm rather confident you don't need it." 

"But it would save us all time and effort and you'd have what you want today," Beth said leadingly. 

"That is true," he sighed. 

"We'll just get this over with then," Beth said with a shrug. "Turns out, we can be left to our own devices sooner that anybody thought." 

"Very well then," he said. He made a flicking gesture at her and then cont...

A New Star Chapter 23

The thrust was supposed to tap the young smartass in the chest to demonstrate she still had a way to go, but I found myself rather surprised as she deflected and dodged the old walking stick. The stick was no ordinary cane, as it was made of a special kind of ironwood with a lacquer that strengthened it. It also, much to several unsuspecting enemies' chagrin, contained a sword, a swift twist and click enough to unsheathe the steel blade.  

I didn't use the blade, of course; I ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-Two

Their next stop was to a place that sold consumables, as Beth was starting to appreciate how a good potion or pill could be worth more than its weight in gold in the right situation. It turned out to be a profitable stop, though that was because the girls unloaded some of their unneeded inventory on the happy alchemist. They didn't drive a hard bargain, but still walked away with a diamond coin or so for a pile of potions and pills that they didn't need. Beth had also snagged a half-dozen ver...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty-One

"So good to see you all," was the bright cheery greeting he gave them, getting a strong nod from Baelvyr but disgruntled snorts from the rest. "Not in a good mood, are we?" 

"Everything sucks," Beth replied succinctly, getting a hearty laugh from the mysterious man of many dimensions. 

"Sounds like you just need a vacation," he returned. 

"And to do some shopping," Beth added. 

"So, that's how it is," Mortaine said, giving her a knowing look. <...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Thirty

Hell. It was hell.  

That was the only thing that could possibly come to mind as they entered the dungeon and were immediately swarmed by tens of thousands of insects. The place was well below zero in terms of temperature and, with all the ice mana flying about and in the air, was something that actually pinged against their resistances. And that was before considering the enemies were also attacking using ice mana and further freezing the air and just directly hitting their resist...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Twenty-Nine

Maybe it was something about them, about the speed they were clearing with, or something about the dungeon itself, but they only needed four spikes to normalize the feline dungeon. That took a total of a little over three days, and then they rested for about thirty minutes, using Beth's gate to stretch that into five hours. After that, they made their way over to the moles, wanting to save the frost and insect dungeon for last. Putting it off wasn't going to make it any better, but Beth was a...

A New Star Chapter 22

The next day dawned bright and clear, with a bit of a crisp breeze blowing, though I only felt that after I was washed and readied by my maids. They fussed and futzed over me extra this morning until I kicked them out, shaking my head at their overzealous worry. After dismissing them, I made my way to the kitchens, where I ate a typical breakfast before heading out to the training yard. I had replaced my swords a little while ago; I still didn't have anything really impressive, but I was now ...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Twenty-Eight

Baelvyr walked them through the process of filling out all the forms, in triplicate, before getting the spikes to manipulate the dungeons. The commissar at this Hall was a pleasant, mild-mannered woman who was almost the polar opposite of Jaq and was very accommodating with all their needs. She handed the mana spikes to Beth after all the forms were filled, filed, and double-checked. Each spike was the length of Beth's forearm and about half the thickness, with complex series of runes spirali...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Twenty-Seven

Baelvyr had them return to the annex before anything else, with Jaq and Tazeen leaving immediately afterward. They still had a little time they were responsible for Earth before they would move on to other duties, but it didn't really hurt for them to step away for a few days at a time, especially when it was to do CRA work. Baelvyr let them go ahead and let the girls get a little bit of rest before getting everyone moving, the group having to jump through a dozen teleports, including a coupl...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Twenty-Six

Baelvyr did just what he suggested, calling Jaq and Tazeen, who didn't come over immediately, but showed up a few hours later. Beth, Sera, and Blood had retired to one of the handful of suites in the annex to get a bit of sleep and rest before rejoining Baelvyr and Mortaine in the meeting room. Mortaine was working on some kind of magic or…something, Beth couldn't really tell what. Baelvyr, true to form, was drinking, heavily, and watching something on the wallscreen while he did so.

...

Limitless Path Chapter Four Hundred Twenty-Five

The teleport went just like any other they had done, with somebody popping into the rather cramped teleporter room they had wound up in to check them. The person that had appeared was likely a bit stronger than Beth, but not by a really crazy amount, and they introduced themselves to Baelvyr as the person-in-charge at the annex. Beth was starting to see another reason why a bandit group was able to threaten the place; not that she didn't expect it, with how Baelvyr described the CRA presence ...