Limitless Path

As she was finished stretching and started tapping her chin, trying to figure out what to do, an ant trundled into the room. She hit it with an Identify.

Common Ant Level 1

Shaking her head, she strode towards the ant. The ant charged her, and she stepped into its charge, smashing her right fist into the ant's head. It exploded like an overripe melon hit with a sledgehammer.

Common Ant Level 1 slain.

Beth moved aside from the corpse and looked at the tunnel to the next room. She didn't want to leave, but she also didn't want to keep fighting groups of level six ants with no mana. She spent a minute tapping her chin, unsure of what to do. Finally, she decided to split the difference and wait. She pulled out her phone and checked the time, sighing as her stomach rumbled. It was 1:00 PM. She would wait a while and regen her mana, then try to finish the floor. She really wished she had some kind of inventory that she could put things in, or a special item or backpack with storage. She had already tried pushing her water bottle into her stat screen to no effect.

Sighing, she clipped her water bottle back to her belt loop and continued, moving through the rest of the floor. She cleared another room with two level six ants, taking little damage in the process as she was both more careful and had a better idea of the exact speed and toughness of the stronger beasts. The third room on this floor had a new, slightly poor surprise, as it presented three level sixes for her to kill. This fight took a little longer, and she concentrated on being far more precise with her attacks and mana usage as she fought.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Crush Copper[6] acquired.

Unarmed Apprentice[2] acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper.

Beth, flexing her hands and arms slightly, grinned a wide, full grin. Another level in her main damaging skill, another level in her main weapon skill, and another copper coin. Recovering a little, she regretted being out of water and decided to meditate and see if she could heal the other minor injuries she had. Sitting a little past the middle of the room, away from the ant corpses, she glanced at the next tunnel before closing her eyes. She calmed her breathing and fell into her Focused Meditation, examining her body while she rested. She noticed after a minute or so that it seemed she was calmer, and her mana seemed to recover a teeny amount faster.

She used some of the little mana she had left while she relaxed and focused to address the two small cuts with Lordly Reconstruction. She found drawing out the mana thread from her reservoir a little easier and moved it down to the other small cut on her hip. It took only a single coating of mana and a quick thought to heal, Beth even more impressed with the skill. She moved the microscopically thin thread down to her thigh and did the same on the last cut. Finally, she decided against using it on the bruising, sure that she would at least partially heal up while she meditated.

After another hour or so of meditation, being interrupted by three low-level ants, Beth was back to about half mana in her reservoir. She got up with a sigh and stretched, feeling her back pop. She moved over to the tunnel leading to the fourth and hopefully final room of the third floor and started walking down it. After almost two minutes she arrived at the final room but immediately saw that this was different.

The room was larger than the previous rooms, it being almost one hundred feet across. There were no other tunnel entrances or doorways leading out of the room, and there were three ants in the center. Beth used Identify to get an idea what she was up against.

Common Ant Level 6

Common Ant Level 6

Princess Ant Level 7

Shit, she thought, I don't know about this.

The third ant was in the center of the other two and was larger than them, with an elongated abdomen and darker coloring. It was clearly going to be a different kind of challenge than the level six ants had posed. She was confident in taking out the level six ants, but didn't know if she could get them before the level seven joined in. And what if the level seven led the charge? There was a lot that could go wrong in this room. At the same time, it was the end of the dungeon, and Beth wasn't willing to give up without even trying.

She thought for a minute, watching the room. As she watched, an area in front of the princess lit up brightly. After half a minute, the light died down, and a fully formed ant was standing there. The ant waved its antennae at the princess, who seemed to respond, then turned and headed for the tunnel. Beth retreated a way down the tunnel, waiting for the new ant to approach, using Identify on it when it drew near.

Common Ant Level 3

She let the ant charge her after it noticed her, waiting for it to draw close. When it was in range, she charged Crush in her right fist with a little mana and stepped forward, slamming her hand into the ant's head. It shattered from the force of the blow, chunks of chitin and brain matter splattering across the tunnel.

Common Ant Level 3 slain.

Beth wiped her glove and body off perfunctorily, moving back toward the final room. When she was in the hall just outside the fourth room again, she took a deep breath and shook out her shoulders, getting ready for battle. After calming down and focusing, she stepped forward into the room, watching for the ants' responses.

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She was able to take advantage of her knowledge of the ants' patterns and exact strength and speed to tilt the fight in her favor. The second thing that helped, as she crushed through the first ant's head, avoiding the spray of ichor, was that the princess had retreated instead of attacking, allowing her two 'guards' to do the work for her. That suited Beth just fine, as she mulched through those two level six ants in just over a minute before turning her attention to the princess.

In engaging the princess, her first thought was 'Fast!'

The boss ant moved far faster than the level sixes, likely far faster than a 'normal' ant at level seven would, able to outmaneuver Beth with relative ease. She took a few hits, one to her leg and one to her torso, though she was able to avoid being badly injured thanks to her improved stats and growing wealth of combat experience.

The fight was a real slog, but she eventually prevailed, taking the princess down with the last of her mana as she collapsed to one knee, panting from the sheer effort she had to exert to clear the dungeon. It had been very hard fought, and she had absorbed several injuries, including busting several knuckles on her right hand when she smashed it through the princess' head to clear the fight. And clear the fight she did, as she immediately saw:

Princess Ant Level 7 slain.

Crush Copper[7] acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

One silver gained for clearing Basic Ant Dungeon.

Four silvers gained for clearing Basic Ant Dungeon solo below level ten.

Copper Combat Ranking Association Emblem gained for first clear of the Basic Ant Dungeon by a solo participant at sub level ten.

Beth looked at all the messages with widened eyes, mouth hanging slightly open. The ant princess' corpse tugging on her arm, exacerbating her broken knuckles and cuts, pulled her out of her stupor with a hiss. She grabbed the head with her left hand and ripped her right arm out, hissing a second time at the pain from the various injuries. She moved away from the ant bodies and tried to use what clean parts of the cloths she had brought with her were left to wipe herself off. The results were mixed, to put it generously.

She next sat on the ground while lightly cradling her right hand before entering meditation. She was most concerned with her broken knuckles, the base knuckle of both the pointer and middle finger. Fortunately, she had used less mana in this room than she thought, so she focused on dropping into meditation, remembering that ants may still spawn in the room. She wasn't worried; if something like the princess didn't spawn again right away, she had time. She focused on forming the mana thread, finding it to be even easier this time. She had enough mana to just barely fix her broken knuckles but was tapped out afterwards.

After resting another few minutes, she opened her eyes with a sigh and stood up. Stretching to crack her back, she also looked around to make sure nothing was out of the usual. Frowning, she double-checked the area near her, then checked her messages again. It said she had been awarded some kind of emblem, but she didn't see it anywhere. Curious, she checked her stats page.

She had an entirely new section at the bottom with the label Emblems. She didn't really know what this was and focused on the CRA Copper Emblem. A token appeared in her right hand causing her to start before staring at it. The token was a half-inch thick copper shield about three inches across and four inches high. There was a sword engraved laid horizontal close to the bottom of the token, with a large tree engraved in the middle of the shield face above it. Above the tree branches was a series of letters or words engraved, Beth wasn't sure which, but they did look similar to what was on a Path-made copper coin.

Speaking of coins, she thought about putting the emblem away and it disappeared, she assumed returning to whatever magic storage her coins also sat in. She summoned a silver coin and looked at it, seeing the coin looked exactly like the copper coins but made of pure silver. When she held the coin between her thumb and forefinger and squeezed, the tiniest mote of energy left her and entered the coin. A silver symbol glowed above the coin for a few seconds then faded. It seemed different than the copper coins' floating symbol, but she still had no idea what they meant.

Putting the coin away, Beth started looking around for anything interesting. The room was just like all the others, containing plenty of dirt and weird moss. She sighed with a slight frown after a few minutes. Weren't boss rooms supposed to be full of treasure? Or have magic swords in them? It looked like the silver coins and the experience earned were the only rewards. She still wasn't sure just how valuable a silver coin was, but she supposed if a group cleared out the dungeon after it refilled with ants and each got one silver coin, it might prove quite valuable.

She began the long trudge out of the nest, passing through room after room with nothing but dirt, moss, ichor, and ant corpses in them. It was a little depressing, in a way, but Beth ignored it, knowing that these beasts were aggressive creatures that would attack anything as soon as they saw it. After an interminable length of trudging and some grumbling, she was back on the ramp leading up to the top of the nest. When she emerged a minute later, the sun was setting, casting the sky in orange and lavender hues. She looked around for a moment to make sure nothing was about to attack her, then took a minute to admire the sunset.

With a roll of her shoulders and a sharp twist of her head to crack her neck, Beth descended the outer ramp of the hive and started heading for her home. After some time of walking, she emerged from the woodlot to see the ditch and earthen berm. The berm wasn't quite high enough to block her sight, and she could see her family along with several other people in their backyard, talking and laughing.

"Elizabeth!" She sighed as her mother's voice rang out in a warning tone, focusing a burning gaze on her.

"Never mind, I think I'll stay with the ants tonight," Beth responded, starting to turn around, causing much laughter to ring out across the yard.

"You will hold it right there, young lady," her mother said, getting up and walking to the berm.

Beth turned around with a sigh and faced her mother. "Yeah, yeah. Can I at least get food while you lecture me?"

"Yes, you may; but do not for a second think you are not in deep trouble," her mother responded acidly.

Beth nodded and took a step forward. "What are you-" her mother started to ask before Beth leaped, using her new stats to not just clear the ditch, but even sail past her mother on the berm and land behind her.

"What the hell happened to you?!" Kim exclaimed, followed immediately by a "Language!" from their mother.

"I fought. Ants," she replied, moving over to where there was a ton of food in dishes and bowls covered by foil. She loaded a large plate up with a mass of food and grabbed a drink, setting them at a spot at a table. She unhooked her sword and tossed it aside before peeling off her gloves and setting them on the table.

"You should treat your equipment better than that," commented Zack, nodding his head at her sword.

"It's already scrap. Besides, it's a chunk of metal; tossing it isn't going to hurt it," she replied as she sat down and started eating.

"Still, shouldn't be so rough. And what do you mean that it's already scrap?" Zack replied with a frown.

Beth finished what she was chewing before replying, "Ants are too tough. Level six ants it just bounces off."

"You fought level six ants?!" her mother exclaimed.

"And a level seven," she replied before resuming stuffing her face.

"Where and when? I need details," Zack commanded, both he and her father getting out notebooks.

After explaining all the details of her adventures, or misadventures, as her mother's lectures clearly made the older woman's opinions on the subject known, she was ready for bed. She didn't stay out with the others anymore that night, but headed into the house, where she took a long shower and hit the hay. She was out before her head had even hit the pillow, not waking until her mother pounded on her door the following morning.