Limitless Path

Before doing anything else, other than replying to her mother to get the knocking to stop, she sat up and examined the CRA emblem again. It felt heavy in her hand, solid in a way that once again helped drive home the reality of her new, well, reality. She inspected it to see if she could glean any more information about it.

Combat Ranking Association Copper Emblem

{This badge provides proof of basic membership in the Combat Ranking Association. This allows limited access to certain arena Ladders, the Association Commissary, and will let the wielder discover the nearest established Association Hall when used on any settled world from a safe area.}

Discover a location? She thought. What does that mean?

Holding the badge in her hand, she tried to think about finding a CRA location. She thought something impressive might happen with tons of lights and sounds. It was magic, after all.

Nearest CRA Hall six miles southeast.

A textbox. Well, she thought, it is magic. Still…that was lame.

At least now she knew where the nearest Hall was. The distance and direction would put it right beside the next closest large town, basically sitting right outside of it. It would be too far for her to be able to reach quickly, especially with beasts around, but it was at least good to know where it was. It was now a top goal of hers to make it to the Hall, knowing that there would be tons of information, experience, and even items to discover. She didn't know of a good way to get there other than walking, not confident in other people's strength or that a car would be safe either.

Her only option was to rely on herself, circling back to what she had thought last night: getting stronger. She should be able to use the Ancient World Gate skill within another day or two without it straining her, and she was curious how fast the high-level ants would repopulate in the dungeon. She also wanted to see what was up with the wolves to the south of the neighborhood in the scrub fields and wooded areas.

She got out of bed and threw one of her dwindling pairs of uncut jeans and a t-shirt on, heading into her bathroom to get ready. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she opened the door to her room to find Wiggles, the family cat, sitting upright in the hallway just outside her door, looking up at her. She squatted down in front of him, rubbing the sides of his face and scratching behind his ears. He purred enthusiastically at the treatment, and Beth picked him up as she headed downstairs. He continued purring and rubbed his face against her chest as she held him, burrowing into the crook of her arm.

She entered the kitchen and set Wiggles down on a stool by the island. Nobody else seemed to be up yet, which was just fine with her. Her family was focusing too intently on the wall building and not enough on getting stronger, and she certainly didn't have time for any of that nonsense. She quickly ate a large breakfast as fast as she could without choking and then cleaned up, moving out after giving the family cat a last pet.

She found her sword in the mudroom and strapped it on. It wasn't useful for the high-level ants, but she could still practice with it against lower-level beasts. She headed back inside before putting on her boots, grabbing her water bottle and filling it quickly. That accomplished, she strapped on her boots, noting the metal studs were scratched while the metal strip on the left shin was dented. She thought about how her gear, made with good steel, was quickly getting battered into scrap, knowing she needed better, and soon.

Grabbing her gloves and heading outside, she made her way into the woodlot and across the field, moving at a quick trot. She ran into a level three ant as she moved through the copse before the farmer's field, but didn't even slow down, literally kicking its head off.

She reached the nest not long after and trotted up the ramp. There was no ant at the top, and she headed inside, dismissing the standard dungeon message that appeared. The first room was also empty, as were the second and third. The final room had a single level five ant in it. She was curious to see if the rest of the dungeon was refilled, but thought it might be unlikely, based on the speed she had seen ants be produced at and the level they appeared at. She decided it was time to check out the wolves.

Retracing her steps, she left the nest and moved back toward the neighborhood at an angle, heading eastward at the same time. She passed a few ants along the way, but she left them alone other than using Identify. The highest-level ones were level two, and she had a good idea of their sensory ranges after constantly fighting them.

She circled around the eastern side of the neighborhood, staying outside of the ring of the ditch many of the people had been working on. She moved down toward the main road, coming out on the sidewalk along the small highway in just under ten minutes. She looked around, seeing no cars moving in either direction. The emptiness where there were normally so many people made it all just a bit eerie.

Shaking off the feeling, she jogged across the road, making sure to keep an eye out so as not to get hit by a random driver out of nowhere. On the other side of the road, she found the large field she was familiar with. There were clumps of trees here and there just in from the sidewalk to act as a barrier from the road, but there were also open spaces without trees or bushes. She moved through one of these spaces and was immediately set upon.

A wolf lunged at her, jaws stretched wide and tongue lolling. Beth was surprised but reacted quickly, not bothering to reach for her sword, and simply punched the creature in the head. Again, her impressive Strength made itself known, a cracking sound echoing out as her fist connected, the wolf spinning off to the side. As it bounced on the ground, she used Identify on it.

Grey Wolf Level 1

It didn't bear the 'common' moniker like the ants, but she supposed different species and types of creatures would have different kinds of classifications. It seemed simple wolves were just labeled using basic colors and noted as wolfs. She hadn't killed this one, but it certainly wasn't looking to be in good shape after that first punch.

Charging just her right fist with Crush, she stepped forward as the wolf was hopping onto its feet and punched the top of its head. The top of the beast's skull shattered, fragments exploding through its brain and tearing out the bottom of its jaw.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Beth felt a little bad, having perhaps a little deeper connection to the mammal than she would an ant. She remembered the people that had already been hurt by the wolves, as well as her talk with Liveria. Things were going to get worse, and there was no way she could afford to start being squeamish now.

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Making her way forward, she encountered more wolves. At first, it was single wolves, leaping at her with abandon, trying to clamp her throat in their slavering jaws. After the first few outliers, killed with a slash or a punch, it was small groups, eventually ending with a group of three; two level fours and a single level five. These wolves used a bit of tactics in their attack, though Beth wasn't sure if that was just because they all chose different attacks at the same time, but they attempted to bite different parts of her body at slightly different times. Luckily, they weren't perfectly coordinated, and their timing was off, allowing her enough time to strike down first one, then the next beast with rapid slashes of her blade. It didn't take long after that to kill the level five and finish off the wounded level fours.

Continuing through the field for another couple of minutes she came to a small area of woods. She didn't really remember this being here, but she also didn't really come down into the old field below the neighborhood much either. She approached the wooded area, which was a rough square a couple hundred feet to a side. She couldn't really see much in the area and decided to cautiously enter. As soon as she stepped inside a message popped up in her vision.

Wolf's Breeding Ground

{You have entered the breeding ground of a type of common beast. Beasts are born and grow herein before leaving in search of prey and battle. Defeating the leader(s) of a breeding ground will halt its operation for a set amount of time.}

She read through the message, noticing that it was different from the dungeon message displayed for the ant dungeon. It seemed that this was something of a separate space, reality being stretched a little to make the place a bit special. Still, there wasn't any kind of restriction on entering or leaving, so she wasn't too worried about it. She proceeded deeper into the wooded area, still having a fair way to go to get to the boss, or bosses.

She moved forward through the area, proceeding slowly so as not to get jumped by a pack of wolves hiding in the underbrush. She soon found a clearing in the wooded area with several wolves in it. She used Identify to figure out what she would be up against.

Grey Wolf Level 5

Grey Wolf Level 4

Grey Wolf Level 4

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

There were half a dozen wolves prowling about, but three of them were 'new' wolves. She wasn't particularly worried about them and decided she could afford to speed this up. She would have plenty of time even in the near-term to work on her swordsmanship; she would rather get through this area quickly and return to exploring the wider area around the neighborhood.

She tore through this first clearing full of wolves, barely slowly down as she chopped and slashed them apart. Moving on from there, she encountered several more clearings of a similar nature, all connected by paths between the clearings. Walking down these paths, she occasionally encountered low-level wolves, seemingly freshly spawned, mainly trying to make their way out of the Breeding Ground.

She eventually got a good lay of the land, figuring out the place consisted of two rings of clearings, all connected by paths between. She knew there had to be something at the center of it all and fought her way through the latest clearing before taking a short rest, slightly tired from having plowed through several rooms back-to-back. She checked to make sure that she had gotten everything in the room and see if there was anything new in her status.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

Level 6 acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 5 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

The level up had slightly refreshed her in the middle of the admittedly not very tough fight; it was more the constant fights that had her just a bit tired. She took a few deep breaths to calm down and focus before checking her stats. She decided to keep leaning into her strengths, Strength in this case, but also catch her lagging stat up. She threw one point in each Strength and Wisdom and looked at her progress.

Eighteen Strength was simply monstrous. The strongest people in the world pre-change would have just barely been able to be counted at thirteen; it was likely at this point she could even bend some weaker metal bars with just her raw physical strength. The improved Dexterity and Endurance were also nice, making her body strangely feel both more flexible and more solid at once. She marveled at her stats and huge wealth, increased by a whole copper. Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she refocused and started moving forward once more.

It didn't take very long for her to reach the next clearing, but here she stopped and fully focused, becoming serious. The clearing had a varied group of wolves in like the others, but there was also a monster of a wolf in the center of them all, the other wolves seemingly deferring to it. She used Identify to see what she was up against.

Grey Great Wolf Level 8

Grey Wolf Level 6

Grey Wolf Level 6

Grey Wolf Level 5

Grey Wolf Level 2

Grey Wolf Level 2

Grey Wolf Level 2

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

This…this could be a problem. The large wolf was no longer just a wolf anymore, but was now a Great Wolf, and level eight to boot. All the other wolves, even combined, didn't really worry her, but the level eight was truly a different beast. She would have some trouble fighting with that monster, let alone while being harassed or even held down by the other beasts. She took a minute to pause and think, trying to formulate some kind of strategy.

Using the sword was out; it would likely do some damage to even the level sixes, but the level eight would ignore it with no trouble. She had to try to figure out a way to either deal with the lead wolf extremely quickly or slaughter the other beasts without the leader mauling her to death in the process. The only thing she could think of was to make use of her good stats and rush the lower-leveled wolves, trying to take out the sixes and the five before being overwhelmed.

Observing the clearing for a while longer, she decided there was nothing for it but to try it. She had just leveled, but the large level eight would likely give her a heap of experience; combined with maybe killing the ant princess again in a day or two, she would be well on her way to level seven herself. She steeled herself, standing on the same trail just at the edge of the clearing, before bending her knees and pushing forward, exploding into the midst of the wolves like she had been fired from a cannon. Strength itself was a great aid in boosting her speed; the higher her Strength, the faster she could force herself to move.