Limitless Path

She looked at her blade, trying to determine if she should re-sheath it with a little of ant guts still on it. After pondering a moment, she gave up with a shrug and returned it to the sheath. Standing up, she looked around before walking the length of the room, hoping to find some hidden stash or treasure in the last room of the floor. Again, she came up short, finding nothing but dirt and moss. With a weary sigh she returned to the first tunnel and made her way back.

When she emerged from the top of the nest the sun was just setting, casting everything in hues of creamy orange and fiery red. Beth surveyed the area from atop the small hill, seeing nothing unusual. The groups of level threes were still in the distance in three directions, so she made a mental note of their placement and trudged down the outer ramp. She headed south towards home, trudging through the copse first, followed by the open field. There was still an ant on the far side of the field to the west near a very small stream, but Beth ignored it and continued into the wood lot.

After a few minutes she emerged at the northern end of the neighborhood to a surprise. There was a ditch dug about three-foot-deep, set ten or so feet from the start of the wood. The dirt had been piled on the far side at the back of the yards of the houses, forming a mound that one could stand on. It looked like there had been several teams working on beginning the building of the defenses while Beth had been hunting.

She walked forward and easily hopped over the ditch onto the berm, realizing her strength had increased noticeably again, making the ditch not even a small impairment. She hopped down on the other side of the berm into her yard to see a few people gathered at the two large tables. Her family was there as well as the Smiths and Scotts.

"Beth!" her mother exclaimed. "We were getting worried." She approached Beth but stopped a short distance away wrinkling her nose, "What in heavens name have you been up to?"

"Killing ants. A lot of ants," she replied with a sigh, walking over to grab one of the sharpening kits and some rags off the edge of one of the tables. She plonked down in one of a handful of wooden chairs that were on the patio around the back door and started wiping the ichor and guts off her sword.

"Well, there's plenty of food. You should eat before you wash up," her mother continued, sitting back down at one of the tables.

Both of the Smith and Scott wives were present; pretty, middle-aged women with easy smiles and light laughs. The Smiths had two sons, both somewhat older than Beth, with even the younger being about to start their second year at community college. The Scotts were similar, but with two girls, the younger of whom was just starting her first year of community college this fall. Mr. Smith was to Beth's right on another wooden chair between her and the other large table.

"What's with the ditch? Part of the wall plan?" she asked him as she continued cleaning her blade.

"That's right. Your father figured a more old-school approach would be good for now. Dig a ditch, pile up the earth, then use wood stake or logs piled up at the top to make a simple wall. Not gonna stop anything really strong, but a couple ants? Sure as shootin'," he answered.

"Yeah, we had digging duty today. Hot and boring. What exactly were you doing?" asked John, the older Smith boy.

"I wanted to see where the ants are coming from, so I headed north, killing ants on the way. I eventually found their nest, which is a dungeon, and started exploring it. Only got part way in before I got pretty tired, and it was getting late. Came back to eat and rest," Beth answered, getting out one of the whetstones now to do a little sharpening.

"A dungeon, did you say? And it is where the ants originate?" her father perked up, leaning forward in the chair opposite her.

"Yeah. The ants spread from the dungeon based on strength, I guess. The ants here are level one, but the closer you go, the higher they get. The ants in the first level of the nest were level four and in groups of at least two. New ants emerge from the depths of the dungeon every once in a while and head out into the surrounding area. Don't know if that's from me killing 'em, or if it's natural, or if it's something else," she explained, everyone now paying attention.

"Don't tell me you fought groups of level four ants alone?" her mother questioned sharply.

"I can handle level fours without too much trouble. I only killed three groups before I stopped. I'm pretty confident in knowing my limit, though I don't suggest anyone else try it," Beth answered calmly.

"You think we couldn't kill some measly ants?" asked James, the younger Smith boy.

Beth used Identify on him quickly.

James Smith Level 0 Human

"I'm level four now with a Copper[3] skill that is good against the ants, and I need to hit them multiple times to kill them," Beth replied. "I think if a level 0 human like you tried to fight a level four, you would be maimed or killed."

"You're saying I'm weak!" James retorted, starting to get worked up.

"James. Sit," said Jack coldly. James immediately sat down but still sported a dark look on his face.

"Look, it's late. I'd be happy to take people out into the woods tomorrow and show them how strong higher-level ants are," Beth stated.

"I think Zack and a few others might take you up on that. He's eager to get people trained to fight now that there are threats popping up all over," her father replied.

"What do you mean 'all over'?" Beth asked in return.

"We had two people get hurt by a wolf that charged at them out of that big field of scrubs and some trees south of the development," Bill Scott answered her. "They're alright now, but it seems ants aren't the only threat."

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"Hm, wolves would be an interesting fight," Beth muttered, tapping her chin as she paused in her sharpening for a moment.

"Beth…" her mother replied in a warning tone.

"Yeah, yeah," Beth answered, going back to the last bit of sharpening.

Beth's father had pulled out his notebook and now started asking questions about the dungeon. Beth answered with everything she knew about the ants and the dungeon so far as he rapidly jotted notes. When she was done taking care of her sword, she stood and re-sheathed it, walking over to get food.

The rest of the group discussed the work on the ditch and news from the wider world as she gorged herself. She listened in, learning they had quite a few people on the wall building project, and had around a quarter of the neighborhood covered with the basic ditch. The group discussed the state of emergency that had been declared worldwide, with authorities urging people to shelter-in-place as far as they could.

Beth was interested to learn that many governments had apparently actually taken some actions, mobilizing troops and government workers to aid in protecting food supplies and critical infrastructure. It looked like there might be some issues with food supply, but the group also thought animals and plants growing both rapidly and larger might provide a good offset to supply chain issues.

Beth was on her second massive plate and second large drink when Zack appeared, walking around the side of the house. He greeted everyone and grabbed a chair on the patio behind Beth and beside her father to sit in.

"I've got some questions when you finish chow," he said to Beth.

"She's offered to take some people out into the ant area tomorrow already, Zack. I think some hands-on experience might be the best answer to most of what you want to know," her father responded.

"Likely true. I still want a couple answers tonight. No sense in going into an op unprepared when you have a good intel source," Zack responded.

Beth finished her second plate and replied, "That's fine, let me just finish eating." She then got up and proceeded to fill her third massive plate and get her third large drink.

After finishing her third plate, with many wide-eyed glances from the rest of the group, Beth turned to Zack. "Alright, what's up?"

"I think you're the only one that's ventured northward since this whole thing started," Zack began. "I'd like some intel on what you've found out."

"Like I said earlier, the ants get higher leveled. They follow a pattern of a few individual ants and then a group of the same level. Just into the field of the farm to the north, I don't remember who owns it, is an ant nest. It's considered a dungeon, meaning both a lot of strong ants as well as that's where they spawn. I haven't fully explored the dungeon, and it would be too dangerous for anyone else to enter until they got more levels."

"Sound like more digging tomorrow," John sighed.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll pick a few people to go with Beth tomorrow morning to do additional scouting. If you didn't know, there is no school this week, including colleges. Most offices and businesses are closed; only food service, medical, and people critical to infrastructure operation and maintenance are going to be heading out this week," Zack replied to John, outlining some of the current situation for the group. He continued, "The meeting hall is, obviously, our meeting spot. I want everyone there by nine hundred tomorrow morning. We'll divvy up who does what for the day, including who gets to join Beth, at that time. Clear?"

"Understood," replied many of the parents and a few of the kids.

"I'd like to go wash the ant guts out of my hair now," Beth said, getting up and heading into the house.

When she got up to her room, she took off her sword and leaned it against the wall in the corner. After locking her door, she stripped out of her armor and dirty clothes, throwing the clothes in the hamper, and hopped in the shower. After cleaning up, she enjoyed the hot water for a few extra minutes before exiting and throwing on some underwear and a loose shirt.

She then sat at her desk to go over her gains. Thinking for just a moment, she dumped her two free points in Intelligence and opened her status screen.

The only stat she had below ten now was Wisdom. Based on what other people had shared online and the little she could glean, ten was not average but fairly high for a stat. Someone with ten Strength was a very fit person, and someone with eleven or twelve would be a top professional athlete or weightlifter. Somebody at thirteen Strength would be the absolute top of humans, like that man who had played the huge warrior on that famous TV show. Beth heard he had broken some kind of thousand-year-old record for lifting a crazy amount of weight. Somebody like that would likely have at least thirteen Strength, maybe even fourteen, but she wasn't sure anyone naturally had fourteen in a stat.

Beth was also somewhat satisfied with her skill progress. Gaining the Swords weapon skill after a part of the day was pretty good and gave her some variety in her fighting methods. She would need to do a little more to level Crush again, and she knew it would take even more to level Unarmed.

Beth was tired, but it felt like a good kind of tired. She grabbed her phone and plugged it into the charger, setting it on her nightstand. She rolled into bed and picked the phone up briefly to check for any notifications before changing her alarm from the usual seven AM for weekdays to eight AM. She wanted to be up in time to have breakfast and head over to the meeting hall a little early. She set her phone down and rolled over, asleep as soon as she stopped moving.

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Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Her typical alarm, a loud bell ringing, woke Beth at eight AM. She felt pretty good, swiping the alarm off and hopping out of bed. Maybe it was the difference having a lot more Endurance made, but she felt totally refreshed after a regular night's sleep, even with how much she did the day before. As she was enjoying the feeling, her stomach made known its emptiness. Beth quickly powered through her morning routine and, grabbing her phone, was out of her room and down the stairs.

She entered the kitchen to find only her mother and father present, her sisters nowhere yet in sight. Her parents were both working on finishing up a huge breakfast spread, seemingly also taking into account Beth's new high caloric requirements.

"Morning," Beth said happily, sitting at the island and grabbing a plate.

"Good morning," both her parents replied as she loaded the plate high with food.

"The jock and the princess still asleep?" she asked jokingly, digging into the huge amount of eggs and hash browns she had taken.

"I'll get them in another few minutes if they don't show," said her mother, giving her a side-eye, but whether it was from the food or the light insult, she couldn't tell.

As Beth finished shredding her way through her first plate, Kim showed up, tiredly slumping into the kitchen while scratching her stomach. She slouched onto a stool and grabbed a plate, slowly dishing some food onto it.

"Late night?" Beth asked, now filling her second large plate.

"I slept like crap. And I had to help dig while standing guard, not like some wild child out in the woods," Kim grumbled in response.

"Hey, I offered. Someone wanted to take a nap instead of go look for treasure," Beth replied before starting to shovel food into her mouth like an industrial earth mover filling a gaping pit.

Their mother left the kitchen heading for the stairs at a brisk clip. A few moments later, they heard from upstairs. "Sophia, it's time to get up. Breakfast is waiting." There must have come some kind of reply because it was followed by, "Sophia Stephanie Bell, if I do not see you in the kitchen in sixty seconds you will be on ditch digging duty all week, no questions asked."

A moment later their mother reappeared in the kitchen and primly sat on one of the stools, beginning her own breakfast. Less than a minute later, a bleary-eyed Soph stumbled into the kitchen, hair frazzled.

"It was less than a minute," she pronounced. "I will not be forced to perform, ugh, manual labor, this week or any week."

"We will see about that, young lady," their mother responded. "Physical work builds character."