Limitless Path

"Good job, that was pretty impressive," Beth commented.

"Hah, thanks," Sabs replied, starting to recover. "I didn't think I would be able to kill both of them like that without help."

"You're tougher than you think," Beth replied, still with her hand on Sabs' back.

"Thanks. You're pretty great, yourself," Sabs responded before brushing her shoulder against Beth's.

"Let's head over to the nest for a little. We should see if another level four came up, and we could camp there a while and stop any other ants from coming out," Beth said, giving Sabs' back another quick rub before dropping her hand and turning toward the nest.

The two headed back to the nest and looked to make sure there wasn't another level four present, even climbing to the top of the outer ramp and checking the entrance. Sabs got the dungeon notification for stepping over the lip of the top of the nest, and asked Beth if she had gotten something similar. Beth confirmed it was the same message, and the two climbed back down the outer ramp.

Beth led them over to the edge of the copse where there was a big chunk of rock, letting them sit and watch the nest, waiting for anything to show up. It didn't take long at all before they started to chat aimlessly.

"When do you think we'll be going back to school? My classes at the community college are all paused," Sabs said.

"I think it might be a while. It's going to take a while for things to get figured out, and things are going to get worse. The amount of mana across the whole planet is going to go up for a while, which means stronger monsters and more weird stuff," Beth answered.

"How do you know all that?"

"People have been talking online about it. Just the past couple days they've been trying to figure stuff out. It's just a guess, but I think it's the most accurate," Beth replied.

"That really sucks. I wonder if it'll be difficult to get together with friends as well," Sabs mused.

"I think it depends on a lot of things. One of the easiest ways to make sure you can do what you want is to get strong. You're already doing a good job there," Beth stated.

"I really hope so. What about you? What's your goal?" Sabs turned to Beth, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I want to see how far I can go," Beth answered, leaning back and staring across the field. "I want to try to get as far as I possibly can, to see what's at the end of the Path. There're things I want to do, and reasons I want to get there, but just saying I want to be stronger, you get that, right?"

"Yeah, I get you. I want to be able to do what I want. That's never really changed. Now that the world's all crazy, it's going to be harder. But there's new ways to get there," Sabs leaned back as well, slightly leaning against Beth's right side. Beth returned the lean a little, and the two sat together, watching the nest and the area beyond.

Sometime later, the rest of the group came back, using the nest as a point of reference. When everyone had gathered, the girls hopped up and followed the group back into the neighborhood.

The next two days proceeded in much the same manner, with Beth helping take many people out to at least get them level one. Despite the talk of rotations for most people, Beth couldn't help but notice Sabs showing up again on Wednesday to group up with her.

The ant population had been greatly curtailed and, at the Thursday morning meeting, it was decided that everyone would help with the wall efforts. Beth decided that helping dig a ditch or build a fence wasn't exactly furthering her plans. In fact, her plans to get stronger would be more help to the neighborhood than digging a ditch would be; at least, that was her stance on the matter.

As the meeting closed out, Beth trotted up the street amidst a group going to start on the wall work again. At some point at the end of the neighborhood, she broke off from the group and headed for her house. Slipping around to the backyard, she made sure she had all her equipment ready. Besides the sword, boots, and gloves, she also had grabbed a heavy water bottle that she could hook on her belt and an LED flashlight she could slide in her pocket.

She set out through the woodlot, heading for the nest. It took her a handful of minutes, but she reached the nest without having to fight any weaker ants, having only seen one. She was determined to explore deeper today and knew that it was likely that all the level fours were back. Looking up to the top of the ramp, she saw that she was spot on, as a large ant stood there.

Beth interlaced her fingers and flexed her hands, cracking her knuckles. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, getting focused. She approached the foot of the ramp that led to the top of the nest and drew her sword, focusing on the ant at the top as she started her climb. Identify.

Common Ant Level 4

She approached the replacement guardian, and it charged her before she was more than two steps up the ramp. She held her sword ready as she continued walking, swinging just as the ant came within range. She smashed the sword into the side of the ant's head and, as the ant staggered from the blow, stepped forward again. Swinging again as she took the forward step, she mashed the left side of the ant's head into pulp. Seeing no message, she swung a third time, the sword embedding three-quarters of the way through the ant's head.

Common Ant Level 4 slain.

Swords Apprentice[1] acquired.

"Damn nice!" Beth exclaimed, elated at the level in the weapon skill. After having used her sword almost exclusively the last three days as she helped with the hunter training, the payoff of a level in the skill felt good. She wrenched the blade out of the paste that remained of the beast's head and wiped it quickly with a cloth.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

She moved up the ramp and stopped for a moment, making sure that nothing was coming after her, either from the surrounding area or the nest. Assured of that, she moved down into the dungeon and began her first full-clear attempt. She worked her way through the level four ants on the first floor, being careful to not get badly injured as she went. Even with her care, she did take some damage, mainly to her jeans, cursing at losing another pair. Looking more closely, maybe they could be saved, but she wasn't quite sure.

She encountered level five ants on the second floor down, finding them slightly tougher than the previous batch. She had to rely on her one attack ability in the end, as her sword wasn't quite cutting it anymore. She could still damage them with her blade, but it was becoming tougher to deal meaningful harm to the level fives with her current weapon. She eventually killed the first of the level five ants, getting several pleasant notifications in the process.

Common Ant Level 5 slain.

Crush Copper[5] acquired.

Level 5 acquired.

Pain Tolerance Copper[5] acquired.

Beth couldn't help a massive grin spreading across her face. She could feel the new level of strength in her body, feeling better than she ever had before. She stretched languidly, hearing and feeling her back, hips, and even sternum crack slightly. She felt even better after the stretch and started thinking about what to do with her new stat points. She wanted to keep everything balanced, but she knew her stats were still even at the moment.

She felt like her biggest problem currently was damage. Every time she grew even a little stronger, she quickly found herself facing ants a level or two higher, and she felt their Endurance and defense increases outpaced her damage increases. Making up her mind, she dumped both her points in Strength and looked at her stat sheet.

She was quite happy with the new level of power. She was likely a little stronger at this point than the strongest humans on the planet; at least, the strongest humans on Earth before the change. She stretched, feeling her spine crack again and her shoulders pop a little. The warm comfortable feeling returned, and she grinned gleefully.

She was eager to find another ant and test herself. Four more Strength plus another level in Crush would make her quite a bit more powerful. The level in Pain Tolerance was nice as well, as her feet, shins, and knees did get rather bruised when hitting the higher-level ants. It even seemed to slightly help with the light aching that had started in her muscles from so much fighting.

She worked her way through the level fives, clearing the second underground floor of all the level fives before moving on to the third floor. Here she found level sixes, which presented even more challenge than the fives. The first room had two of the new, higher-level ants, which proved to be a real challenge. She had now officially hit the point where her blade did little more than mar the chitin of the beasts with all but her strongest swings, and she was forced to abandon her blade to go fist-to-mandible with the ants. The level sixes proved both tougher and faster, dishing out several wounds before she was able to fell them.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

She slowly walked over a few steps to where her sword lay while holding her side. She bent down and picked the blade up with a pained grunt, taking the time to wipe the blade off before re-sheathing it. She guzzled some water from her bottle, leaving it with about a quarter left after she was done. She looked down at her side and thought about whether she could go on, thinking that she should probably head back for now.

As she was thinking this, information flooded into the forefront of her mind. Beth staggered slightly, holding her head with one hand and her side with the other. She sat down to keep from falling, trying to understand what she was seeing. After a minute or so, she realized the memories were from the legacy that Liveria had left her, and it seemed to be something she could use immediately.

The memories detailed a method of meditating to look inside one's body. It wasn't something that many Awoken decided to practice when first starting adventuring. That always turned out to be a somewhat foolish decision, as it had a huge number of benefits. It allowed a greater understanding of oneself, which could help a great deal with many skills and abilities, as well as understanding better as one's strength grew. It also allowed one to begin to see how mana sat and flowed in the body, useful for a host of things in this new world. It also was a great idea to start early, as it was very beneficial when attempting many complex tasks later in one's development.

For Beth right now, it would be helpful in allowing her to analyze her wounds as well as try to start treating them. The knowledge was not only of a way to look inward, but a way to circulate one's mana to forcibly regenerate wounds. These concepts took the form of two skills, Focused Meditation and Lordly Reconstruction. The skill for meditation was an intermediate one, better than a basic Meditate skill, but certainly not something at the top of what was possible. The regenerative skill, on the other hand, was powerful, even at Copper level. Liveria had acquired the skill from a difficult trial shortly after becoming an Ascended, marking it as fairly valuable.

Beth followed the pattern displayed in the memories, using her Pain Tolerance to crush down the ache in her side and begin to focus internally. She moved into a state of deeper concentration, closing her eyes and looking inside herself. The skill felt weird to use, but she could faintly see into her own torso. There was a glowing lump in the center of her chest next to her heart, looking like a small pouch partially filled with silver-colored liquid. She knew instinctively that this was her Mana Reservoir. She was able to see she was at about half on her mana; even the process of learning the skill was already providing her with great value.

As she looked around in her own torso, she could see two dark red areas on her left side. There was a small, thin line on her hip, and a thicker, deeper line a little above it. These were the two wounds she had received from the two different ants marring her side. She focused closer on the wounds, seeing the missing flesh of her side, the severed capillaries and smaller veins, and even the fraying in her obliques on the deeper cut.

While she was inspecting the wounds in her side, she began to pull on her mana, trying to circulate it through her body. It was extremely difficult at first, like grabbing water with a hand she never knew she had. Concentrating on her Mana Reservoir, she focused on the mana itself and how to control it.

She was slowly, over the course of several minutes, able to coax a thin thread of mana out of her Reservoir and began to move it through her torso. She was so excited she almost lost her focus but managed to calm down before she lost the thread.

The next part of the skill required her to move the thread of mana into the wound. Keeping control of the thread as it got farther from her Reservoir became slightly harder, but she persevered and managed to move the end of the thin thread to the larger wound in her side. As the thread hit the wound, she began pushing the end of it outward, spreading it across the wound like she was pouring liquid onto an upside-down bowl.

Once the wound was mostly coated, she began to follow the method in the memory of the skill to integrate her mana with the edge of the wound. She forced the mana to transition into flesh, directly restoring the wounded flesh. She continued to concentrate as the wound filled in, maintaining the thread and using it to keep the wound coated. It really took all her concentration to keep everything running smoothly and, by the time she was done fixing the large injury, she was covered in sweat and panting heavily.

Focused Meditation Copper[0] acquired.

Focused Meditation Copper[1] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[0] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[1] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[2] acquired.

Beth gasped, tired and wrung out, but now no longer carrying a moderate wound. She grabbed her water bottle and guzzled the rest of it while wrinkling her nose. The ant blood and guts scattered around really didn't help the water be any more refreshing. She sighed and stood up, stretching fully. She was tired, and just a quick glance showed her mana reservoir almost empty, but she was still quite happy. The two skills she had gained from the memories would be insanely useful, not just now, but well into the future.