Limitless Path

"Leveling up. Why, what does it look like?" Beth replied.

"What?" Both Kim and their mother said at the same time.

"What level are you?" Beth asked, turning to Kim.

"One! Wait, it says class change menu available, is this what you mentioned inside earlier?" Kim exclaimed, looking over at Beth excitedly.

"While I'm very happy for you dear, you girls shouldn't be running around like this fighting. It's not safe," their mother admonished.

"I understand what you're saying, but if my knowledge of these things is anything to go on, we're gonna need to fight," Beth replied.

"Oh, you're an expert in weird monsters appearing now, are you?" their mother asked snippily.

"Well, actually, something like that, yeah," Beth replied with a shrug and a small grin.

"I don't appreciate the snark," their mother replied. "You two go back inside for now; it's too dangerous out here."

"Sure, Mom," Beth said, leading Kim back inside. They stopped in the mudroom to remove their shoes before heading into the kitchen and sitting at the island, Beth grabbing a glass of water.

"So, tell me," Beth said, plonking down on a barstool beside Kim.

"Tell you what?" Kim asked.

"Don't be a dummy, what classes do you have? What are you going for?"

"Woah, calm down Beth, you know I don't really play games or anything. What do I do?" Kim responded.

"Alright, what you have to do is just think about selecting or opening the class selection menu. After that, a menu with a few options will pop up," Beth responded excitedly, gesturing in the air with her right index finger like she was pointing at things on a list.

Kim's eyes narrowed slightly then, after a few seconds, widened in surprise. She was looking at what Beth assumed was her class selection menu and Beth watched her face, nearly vibrating with excitement.

"Well?!" Beth couldn't take it and grabbed her sister's right arm after a minute.

"Geez, relax," Kim grunted, poking Beth in the side. "I have three options. Young Warrior, Young Mage, and Tempered Fighter. What does that mean?"

"Well, I had the first two, but I had my Brawler option instead of that third one. What's the description of it say?" Beth started tapping her chin, decidedly ignoring any mention of the princess option.

"One who has faced varied challenges, tempering themselves as a balanced warrior. That doesn't seem that helpful, or good?" Kim's face scrunched a little.

"Actually, it might be the best of your three. What does it say for stat points?"

"Uh, stat points? Um, it says +1 to each Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Wisdom per level and 2 free points per level," Kim said.

"I can't make this decision for you, but I say Tempered Fighter. It seems already like the other two are some kind of default classes that everyone might get, but this third one is more tailored to you. If I remember right, the others also give a total of five points every level, while this special one gives six. Maybe there's things we don't know about stats yet, but that alone would make it my pick. Being level eleven and having ten more points than a Young Warrior might make a huge difference," Beth rattled off almost without taking a breath.

"Okay, Okay. You're such a damn nerd sometimes," Kim replied with another poke before she got a far-away look in her eyes for a moment. "OK, I'm a Tempered Fighter now, whatever that means."

"You should have gotten some free points for getting to level one. You should probably spend those as well," Beth ignored both the real and virtual jabs.

"What should I spend those on then? What did you use your points on?" Kim asked.

"I'm not an athlete super star like you, so my Endurance was only four. I put both my points in Endurance to catch it up to my other stats. Endurance is important for both stamina and resistance to damage, so I definitely wanted to catch up on that first."

"OK, my Intelligence is only 5, should I increase that?" Kim asked doubtfully.

"Can you show me just your stats?"

"Sure," Kim replied with a weird little hand wave. Beth assumed she was associating gestures with actions like with modern touch screens.

"OK, yeah, I'd do Intelligence. You're gonna get everything but Intelligence if you fight monsters and level up, so that's going to be your weak point for a while. Maybe there's another way to get stats or something, but you'll definitely need Intelligence."

"OK," Kim nodded decisively and looked into the distance momentarily. "Done. Thanks for all the help, Beth."

"Sure. I know mom's upset, but the ants are pretty easy to kill. We could maybe kill a couple more this week to level up."

"This week! But, what about school?!" Kim exclaimed.

"Kim, you think we're going to have school the week after a world altering calamity changed the whole planet?" Beth asked, flicking her sister's forehead lightly.

"But it was the big Track and Field meet this Wednesday! You mean it's not going to happen?!" Kim cried out, much more upset over the potential cancellation of the school week than the ramifications of the entire world changing.

Beth gave Kim yet another side hug and reassured her. "I'm sure it's fine. I think we've got more to be worried about right now."

"You're in here, good. Where's your sister?" Their mother asked as both their parents emerged from the mudroom and stepped into the kitchen.

"I think she's in her room," Beth responded.

"Soph! Down here please," their mother called up the stairs after walking partway back down the hall.

"Fine!" Echoed back down from upstairs. There was a sound of stomping feet, and a few moments later Soph joined the rest of the family in the kitchen.

"Okay, I know it's already been a long day even though it's just after noon. Your father and I wanted to go over a few things, and then I'm going to make some pasta and salads for lunch," their mother said once the family was fully assembled.

"Alright, girls," their father continued where their mother left off, "we're either all undergoing the same mass delusion at once, or the whole world has radically changed. It seems like there are monsters everywhere, many stronger than the ants in our own backyard. I want you girls to stay in the house for now and not go outside. I'm looking at you in particular, Beth. I know you've always been a bit of a scrapper; don't sneak out to fight things. It's too dangerous."

"Fine. I got it," Beth sighed in response, a frown darkening her features.

"This isn't a game, sweetie. You could get far more seriously hurt or even killed out there now. We're going to be trying to stay in the house for the next week and figure out what's happening," he continued.

"You mean no school?!" Soph exclaimed.

"I doubt there will be school this week. Even if there were, I would not feel comfortable letting you girls go there until we had a better grasp of the situation and knew that your safety could be guaranteed."

"So, we're going to be stuck at home possibly for weeks? Without even being allowed to go outside?" Kim asked with a dawning look of horror. The most outgoing and athletic of the girls, being stuck inside without being able to go even into the backyard for a couple days might unhinge her.

"I'm sure it will only be a few days at the most before we can at least use the backyard. In fact, it might be a good idea to try to work with the neighbors and build or reinforce fencing around everyone's yard. We might have to do a lot of the heavy lifting with this. Our older neighbors like Mr. Jones won't be able to help quickly build something like a fence or wall."

"Well, it's outside at least," Kim immediately started to brighten up.

"Manual labor," muttered Soph under her breath with a frown on her face at the same time. It seemed like Beth was the only one who heard her, as the others didn't even glance at her grumbling.

"Now, no more fighting ants, at least until we say it's okay. I'm going to get the food going. You girls behave," their mother finished the conversation before turning and starting her meal prep. Soph immediately tore off toward the stairs, followed close behind by an admonishment from their father "Don't run inside!"

Kim got up from the island, saying, "Mom, let me get that."

Their father turned to look at Beth, asking, "How confident are you in fighting these ants?"

"Thom! She's not fighting the ants," their mother said over Kim's head as they were starting to cook.

"It's just a question. Merely for scientific curiosity," their father hastily defended himself.

"Well, they only really can hurt me with their mandibles, and as long as I'm not right in front of the head I can avoid them. I could even help everyone else get to level one like I did with Kim," Beth responded, the words tumbling out while her eyes lit up.

"Alright, sweetie, let's just calm down a little. I understand you are excited, but we must be cautious here. I noticed you dragging Kimberly over to fight that ant got her to level one. We could use your help to get the rest of us there. Maybe we will try that tomorrow. Coincidentally, what is Kimberly now?" Thomas turned to look at the middle daughter of the family, mixing greens in a large bowl, as he finished speaking.

"If you mean my class, I picked Tempered Fighter. It seems like a starter warrior that's a little smarter, I guess? Beth said it was good because it got six stat points per level and the other options only got five, so I figured it couldn't be bad," Kim replied, shrugging a bit as the got some more things out of the fridge.

"Sounds interesting. You got this by getting to level one as well? And it only took killing one ant?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, it was-" Kim started before being interrupted by a knock at the front door and someone ringing the doorbell.

"I've got it," their father said, setting his laptop down and walking out to the door, Beth following along.

Beth looked on from over their father's shoulder as he opened the door, finding three neighbors standing there. "Ya folks alright?" asked the man who had knocked, Mr. Smith from the house right next door to the Bells'. He was a little older than Beth's parents and a little "folksy," as their father would say, but a very nice man.

"Oh, we're alright, Jack," Beth's father responded to Mr. Smith. "Everyone's home and unhurt."

"Oh good. We're going around this part of the neighborhood with a couple other groups trying to get a head count and make sure nobody got hurt. Also had to fight off a giant ant just earlier," Mr. Smith replied, shaking his head.

"Our young fighter here managed to kill two of them earlier," Beth's father replied with a slight grin, patting Beth's shoulder.

"Two of them you say?!" Exclaimed Mr. Scott.

"That's right Bill. You all want to come in and have a seat and discuss it, or do you have more houses to get to," replied Beth's father.

"We should really finish our patrol, but to kill two…" replied Mr. White, fidgeting a little.

"Why don't I go with them?" Beth asked as a new, troublesome glint entered her eyes.

"What?!" The entire group exclaimed, but before any of them could interject further, she continued. "Look, I can kill the ants, easy-peasy. I can go with these guys and help them make sure everybody's safe."

"It's dangerous out here now, young miss. I wouldn't want you getting hurt on our watch. We're recommending everyone to stay inside, other than the patrol groups, for now," Mr. Smith replied.

After frowning at Beth for a moment her father answered, "You can go help Jack and his group, if you promise to stay with them in the area and not run off trying to fight all the monsters. I know you, young lady. No going it alone. Not today."

"I promise!" Beth shouted at the same time as she leaped around Mr. Smith into the midst of the patrol group. "Let's go!" she declared confidently and started walking down the front walk to the street.

"Good to know y'all are fine. Give us a holler if ya need something," Mr. Smith finished speaking to her father before the group turned and followed Beth out to the street.

"We're just walking around the rest of the cul-de-sac and the side street. We're going to go back afterwards and check a couple houses to see if people have made it home that were out when all this craziness started," Mr. White explained, and the group started heading to the next house in the opposite direction of Mr. Smith's.

The group walked up to the door and Mr. Smith again knocked. They waited for a few moments but didn't hear anything in the house. It was the Nguyens' house, and it seemed no one was home. After a second knock and some more waiting, Mr. Scott made a note in a small notebook he pulled out of a pocket, and the group moved on.

The next two neighbors were home and fine, and the group continued after exchanging a few pleasantries with each of them. The fourth house was Mr. White's, which they skipped, as they knew his family was home and doing fine. The next house was the only one that faced the somewhat short street that led to the cul-de-sac on the western part. Opposite were two houses on the eastern side of the feeder street, but the group had started from them and gone around counterclockwise.

They moved out of the cul-de-sac from there, heading onto the road that ran in front of their houses. As they walked out around to the main road, Beth looked around. It seemed like the neighborhood was typical as always, other than there being nobody but patrol groups outside. A normal Saturday at the very beginning of fall would have seen a load of people out and about, especially with school having just started back up. A lot of the kids would already be bursting to run around and go crazy outside after the week of classes, homework, after school activities, and chores. This made the absence of most sounds and people all the starker.

The group proceeded on around Mr. Jones' property, the big house on the corner, heading to the west down one of the three east-west streets that made up the neighborhood. The area had a central road that ran north-south coming in from a highway at the southern end. It then had the three east-west roads, most of which had cul-de-sacs branching off, and ended either in a cul-de-sac or by looping around back on themselves. Beth's house was in the northeastern-most part of the neighborhood, meaning their group was headed west along the very top of the neighborhood, checking a section of the northern-most houses.