Limitless Path

Beth rocketed towards the level sixes, ignoring all the wolves going on alert before starting to rush her. She charged Crush in both her fists and wrists as she pounded across the clearing, tearing small chunks out of the grassy ground from the force of her steps. She arrived in front of the two level sixes in just under two seconds. She didn't waste any time, knowing every tenth of a second was the equivalent of an eternity. The two wolves had been slightly surprised by her fast approach and were just now crouching to leap at her. She gave them no time at all, rushing right between them and sending both her fists darting out at the same time. There were two horrific crunching sounds echoing out in stereo, and Beth leapt forward, focused on the level five.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

She almost immediately had to plant her left foot solidly and dive forward and to her left, the massive Great Wolf sailing just over and behind her. She rolled as she hit the ground, coming up immediately into a sprint, going head-to-head with the level five as it charged her in kind. She empowered just her right fist and wrist, not wasting mana or time as she leapt on the wolf, slamming into it right as it began to rise in its leap for her throat. Her right fist smashed into the left side of the beast's head, crushing it with yet more wet crunching noises.

Grey Wolf Level 5 slain.

Beth was already running again, practically feeling the breath of the Great Wolf on the back of her neck. She charged across the clearing, rushing to the northeast at the level ones. She heard a loud snarl right behind her, all the warning she would get, and threw herself to the right. It was a good reaction, but not quite fast enough. The Great Wolf sailed past her, twisting its head in the air to snap at her. She had managed to avoid the jaws, but the right foreleg of the wolf impacted her left arm, the heavy claws of the wolf shredding the sleeve of her shirt as well as much of the outside of the upper part of the arm.

"Shit!" Beth yelled, leaping back to her feet and starting to run again. The Great Wolf was making a loping turn in front of her, and she dashed to the side, right into two more wolves. She didn't bother wasting any mana on these, slamming her right fist into first one then the other's head, caving in their skulls.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

She didn't bother with the notifications, once again pounding across the clearing. She had managed to take out more than half the lower-leveled wolves, but this fight was not going all her way. Even with her levels of Pain Tolerance, the wounds on her arm hurt terribly. She snarled, responding in kind to the remaining wolves, and forced the pain down, using a surprisingly solid strength of will to focus on the situation.

She needed to take out the remaining four weak wolves for her strategy, but the Great Wolf was fully intent on tearing her apart. It was even now charging at her again as she raced for the level ones, closing in on her extremely rapidly. Its Dexterity had to be twenty if not more, and Beth knew this was going to be rough, dodging it over and over. She managed to reach the level ones, aided by the fact that even they were charging her, and brutally slapped two of them to death before leaping to the side.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

The Great Wolf sailed over her, but again managed to slice her, shallowly scoring across her left shoulder with its claws. Beth hissed at the pain but didn't lose focus in the slightest. A spark of anger burned within her, and she channeled that inner fire to ignore the wounds and leap for the last level one. She crushed its whole torso with a powerful rising kick before screaming in pain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

The last remaining level two had jumped at her while she was focused on finishing the level ones and dodging the bigger beast, sinking its teeth into her right bicep. With a roar of anger, she lifted her right arm and used her left arm to grab the beast by the scruff of the neck, ripping its teeth from her arm before slamming the wolf down into the ground with all her might. There was a sharp snapping noise before the wolf started struggling weakly, only its head and front legs moving at all, Beth having shattered its spine when she slammed it down.

She stood straight again and lifted her arms to slam down on the wolf again, which likely saved her life. She was suddenly lifted off the ground and carried to the side before slamming into the trunk of a large oak. She screamed in agony, the Great Wolf's fangs sunk deeply into her chest, stomach, and back. Her anger fully ignited now, Beth lifted both arms even higher above her head and pumped them full of mana. She flooded her hands, wrists, forearms, and elbows with the pulsing strength of Crush, her whole body vibrating with the power. The Great Wolf sensed something was wrong and tried to let her go, but it was far too late.

"Fuck you!" Beth screamed, slamming both her fists down as well as she could while being held in the wolf's jaws. Despite the awkward angle, the amount of power she had channeled into the limbs was terrifying, especially for a level six human. Her fists impacted the side of the beast's head right behind its jaws. There were no crunching or squelching noises this time; instead, a sound like a rifle shot rang out, the wolf's lower jaw blowing off in a shower of gore. The beast was sent skidding away, its fangs ripped from Beth's body, eliciting yet another scream. She felt herself losing consciousness, the clearing darkening as her vision faded. She held on, flexing her damaged arms, hissing as an even greater surge of pain jolted her back to being fully aware.

She then charged forward across the clearing, taking four large steps as she empowered her left foot, ankle, and even lower leg. She slammed the top of her foot into the horror show that used to be the Great Wolf's face, cracking sounds ringing out. Not satisfied at just that, she pulled her leg back and empowered it again, jumping forward on her right leg and slamming her left into the wolf's head a second time. This time there was a loud booming noise, the wolf flopping back and the light leaving its eyes.

Grey Great Wolf Level 8 slain.

Pain Tolerance Copper[6] acquired.

Pain Tolerance Copper[7] acquired.

Crush Copper[8] acquired.

One silver gained for clearing Wolf's Breeding Ground.

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Four silver gained for clearing Wolf's Breeding Ground solo below level ten.

Bonded Companion awarded for second solo clear of a dungeon under level ten.

Beth's eyes opened wide, but not in pain, as a huge cage appeared in front of her containing a wolf. The beast was the color of fresh blood, its red fur shining in the light, as if it had just been thoroughly brushed. The wolf opened its eyes and looked at Beth, immediately entrancing her. Those eyes shone a brilliant green, like freshly polished emeralds, with flecks of shimmering, glistening gold spotted throughout. Just as Beth started to shake herself awake, the cage faded away and a new message popped up.

Bond Level 0 wolf as a companion?

{Yes/No}

Beth didn't hesitate a moment, immediately thinking YES.

Name companion.

A new window appeared, asking her to name the red wolf. Beth thought for a moment before coming up with a simple answer.

Blood.

She had never had a particularly good naming sense but now wasn't really the time to mull over such things.

Name accepted. Companion Blood now bonded.

Beth faintly felt a sense of warmth in her mind and looked at the wolf. She decided first to use Identify on her new companion to see what she was.

Blood, Level 0, Red Wolf Queen

Well, thought Beth, this is certainly something. A Queen; does that mean it's stronger than a Great Wolf?

Hearing a plaintive whine followed by a snarl, she looked at Blood questioningly for a second before looking around. Blood trotted over to her side as she looked at the clearing, realizing there was still a level two wolf alive. Before Beth could do anything else, Blood leapt forward onto the wolf, latching her jaws around its throat and digging her fangs in deep. The wolf tried to put up a feeble resistance, but the beast was too weakened from the massive damage Beth had dealt to it earlier to do anything to Blood. With a sudden sharp twist of her head, Blood broke the grey wolf's neck.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Companion Blood Level 1 acquired.

Beth stared at the notification as Blood trotted back to her, already looking a little bigger. She was at a height where the top of her head was just at Beth's waist not counting her ears, and Beth reached down to ruffle her head as Blood stopped in front of her. She hissed then with a wince as she petted Blood, the pain of her injuries flooding through her again. She sat on the ground beside her new companion, Blood worriedly licking her face. Beth sighed and closed her eyes, focusing within. She still had a decent reserve of mana even after such an intense fight and started forming a mana thread as she meditated to heal her wounds. It was slow going, but she first took care of her left arm and shoulder, afterwards moving on to her torso.

Focused Meditation Copper[2] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[3] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[4] acquired.

She didn't have enough mana to fully heal all the punctures on her torso and the remaining damage from where the lower-level wolf grabbed her right arm, so she meditated for almost two hours. This restored enough for her to finish fully healing her wounds, leaving her almost entirely drained yet again. She looked at her arms through the tatters that were left of her sleeves, seeing some small white marks where the injuries had been. It looked like she would be racking up some scarring for a while, though improving Lordly Reconstruction might help with that.

With a sigh, Beth got to her feet and Blood followed suit, looking up at her expectantly. Beth knelt, wrapping her arms around Blood's neck and nuzzling her face against Blood's, hugging her tight. Blood made a deep rumbling noise in response, leaning against Beth as she did so. After a minute of hugging her, Beth let up and stood again, motioning for Blood to follow.

She led her new companion out of the wooded area into the surrounding field. They encountered no more wolves in the Breeding Grounds as they made their way out and were soon walking northward toward the neighborhood. Beth followed a similar route to the morning, hitting the highway near the eastern end of the neighborhood. A single car sped by opposite her heading west, and she and Blood quickly darted across the road right afterward.

They circled to the east of the neighborhood, following Beth's route from the morning once again. She didn't want to take Blood through the neighborhood quite yet, afraid somebody might try to attack her. She also wanted to go up to the area around the ant nest and see if she could get Blood another level. It was mid-afternoon, and she wanted to stay out until the evening, at the least.

The two trotted along the outside of the development, heading northward. After about ten minutes they reached the northern end of the neighborhood, moving northwest into the woodlot. They passed through here too, finding no ants. It seemed that her clearing of the dungeon had halted extraneous ant production. The two crossed the empty field and wove through the trees on the other side, coming out right by the nest. There were currently no ants in the area, and Beth led Blood northward past the nest. There should still be some ants in that direction, surviving their culling of them earlier in the week.

It didn't take very long to find a couple ants, standing together with antennae wiggling. Beth used Identify on them, just to be sure, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

Common Ant Level 2

Common Ant Level 2

She motioned to Blood, who seemed to instinctively understand what Beth was intending. She leapt forward at the ants, charging them head-on. The ants noticed her and turned to charge her in kind, single file as always. Blood continued forward at a rapid pace until she was right in front of the ants. She leapt forward and to the side, landing on her front paws before pushing off and twisting back to the left. She slammed into the ant, her jaws clamping down on its neck from its left. With a vicious shake, Blood tore the ant's neck apart.

Common Ant Level 2 slain.

Blood let go of the first corpse and turned to face the second ant. She swiftly ran to the side, beginning to circle the creature at a rapid pace. The ant attempted to turn with her, but it was already unable to keep up with Blood's higher Dexterity. They continued like this for a few moments until Blood had almost entirely circled the ant, lunging in from the ant's right side and clamping its neck in her powerful jaws. There was a splintering sound as Blood's jaws cracked apart the chitin of the ant's neck, and then she stepped back with a jerk, ripping out a huge chunk of the ant's neck. The creature flopped to the ground, ichor gushing out before it died.

Common Ant Level 2 slain.

Blood spat out a little ichor, her snout scrunching up, before trotting back over to Beth. Beth was quite impressed, the young wolf having demolished the ants in seconds without any trouble. She spent some time scratching Blood behind the ears and murmuring praises to her before they set out again. Much of the rest of the afternoon proceeded in this manner, with the two of them cleaning up ants in the area until the light started to fade. The last ant was a level three and even provided Blood another level.

Common Ant Level 3 slain.

Companion Blood Level 2 acquired.

Beth scratched Blood's ears absentmindedly, walking with her back towards the nest at first. When they reached it, they turned south, heading home. Beth decided to see if she could bring up Blood's status screen while they walked. Somewhat unsurprisingly, she could, likely because Blood was her bonded companion.

It seemed that Blood didn't have a class but still gained a large number of points per level. If it worked similar to Beth, she would have gained two points at level one and then six points at level two. Beth supposed she would have to get Blood to level three and see if she gained six points there to confirm her theory. It would mean that Blood would be just as strong as her, gaining just as many points per level. Beth thought for a moment before deciding on how she would distribute her companion's stats. She put three into Strength, three into Endurance, and two into Dexterity. This kept the wolf's Dexterity advantage while also shoring up her Strength and Endurance. Beth would likely dump some more into Strength and Endurance the next level or two as well, then pump Blood's Dexterity high.