Limitless Path

The group gave Chris a moment to go over his level up and class selection, then set out again following Beth. She dipped back towards the neighborhood somewhat, traveling into the wooded area closer to the houses. After a minute or so, she spotted an ant and confirmed it with Identify.

Common Ant Level 1

"Level one. We have two people left," she said.

"I'll go," Jessica stepped forward, medical kit secured in the small backpack she was wearing.

Jessica approached the ant and drew her knife, looking somewhat nervous. The ant charged her, and she began taking deep breaths as it approached. When it got close, she slashed horizontally, going for a deep cut across the head. The ant responded by coming to a halt, but as a level one was not able to get very far out of the way. Jessica took advantage of this and slashed the knife back across the ant's head, this time digging into the chitin.

The ant was wounded but not dead, slashing its head back and forth with a hissing sound. Beth was ready to move forward and finish it off, but before she could do so, Jessica lunged forward with a quick movement and slashed the ant again. The cut across its head widened and it attempted to grab the enemy in front of it, but Jessica gave it no chance, slashing a fourth and final time, cutting the ant's head very deeply. It was apparently enough for a fatal blow, as the ant collapsed.

Jessica was panting a little more than the exertion would have called for and seemed a little pale, but she had done it. The group waited for her to regain her composure, and then for her to go through her level up and class selection. Once this was done, they resumed following Beth westward. She led them through the woods, looking for a last ant to get the group a level. She quickly found one and used Identify.

Common Ant Level 1

She turned to Sabrina, "Your turn."

Sabrina nodded and stepped up beside her. "Any other advice?" she asked.

"Watch your feet and try to keep away from the sharp parts," Beth replied.

Sabrina nodded and walked forward, drawing her wicked-looking dual knives from their hip sheaths. As she approached the ant, it turned and charged her, but she didn't stop. She glided towards it and stepped forward and to the side of the ant. With a quick, snapping motion, she sliced clean through the top joint of the ant's front left leg. She continued with a quick step, followed by another quick slice to the next leg. The ant tottered and collapsed, trying to turn to face Sabrina but unable to balance while missing a third of its legs.

Sabrina remained cool and collected as she removed the third leg with a quick slice. She seemed to almost effortlessly glide around the beast, repositioning to the front with a quick and graceful two steps. With a quick jerk, she stabbed one of her daggers into the neck of the ant. With another quick movement, she twisted her wrist and pulled, the head of the ant seeming to pop off almost of its own volition. Sabrina was standing to the side but still stepped back to avoid the spurt of ichor before stopping to check her screens.

"Damn," Beth muttered, mouth open and eyes slightly wide.

"Well, that's everyone. Let's go back to your original route Beth. Now that we all have levels and classes, we should be able to follow along without being in too much danger," Zack spoke up, motioning for Beth to return to the original path.

The group followed her back eastward and out of the woodlot. They were again in the open field that Mr. Jones also owned, almost directly behind the Bell's house again. Beth led them northward through the field and into the copse of trees. The first section of the little wood was empty, as they didn't encounter any ants until they came to where the group of level threes was the day before. There was a single one of the darker ants here.

Beth assumed that the ants in the area all came from the nest. If that were true, it seemed like the nest was a little slow to repopulate the ants. This meant they might be able to effectively cull the ants. She mentioned the supposition to Zack.

"Right, you think they come from the same place, and they are only produced so fast, so it makes some sense. If that really is true, we might even be able to get a good handle on this," Zack responded.

"Observe the ant," Beth commanded, turning to the rest of the group. "What do you notice?"

"It looks the same as the last one, right?" Andy asked a little hesitantly.

"Look closer," Beth replied.

The group looked for a few more moments before Beth's mother spoke up, "It looks a little different. I think the coloring is different than the others."

Beth nodded in response. "That's right. Go ahead and use Identify now." Beth did so as well.

Common Ant Level 3

"What's the difference now?" Zack asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

"They aren't really much faster, but these ones are tougher. So, you have an ant that moves at the level two speed, but it can take a lot more of a beating," Beth explained to the group.

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"Alright. Do you want the honors here?" Zack asked her.

"Wait. Let me try," Sabrina spoke up.

"I don't really mind either way, a level three isn't going to do a huge amount for me now," Beth responded.

"Oh, why's that?" Her mother asked.

"Just use Identify," Beth replied, a little exasperated.

"Tone, young lady," her mother responded before her eyes slightly unfocused for moment. She then exclaimed, "Level four!"

"What?", "No way!", "Really?!" The rest of the group chimed in before also using Identify on Beth.

"You really have been taking the fight to the enemy. Good work on that." Zack nodded with approval.

"Alright, now that we've all been amazed, Sabrina can go ahead and try it. I will move up right behind you for this one. If you have any trouble, just step back right away. I can take this guy out without too much trouble; no sense in getting hurt if you don't have to," Beth turned to face the other girl, looking right into her light blue eyes.

"Thanks. And call me Sabs," The girl replied before walking forward. Beth wasn't sure, but she thought the other girl had blushed faintly.

Beth followed her forward, staying a few steps behind her. Sabrina, or Sabs now, strode forward until she got within range of the ant noticing her. She drew her kukris and waited as the ant charged. Beth watched closely to make sure that nothing would go wrong with her new…friend?

The ant closed on Sabs and barreled toward her right leg. She waited for it to get closer and then attempted the same strategy as last time, stepping forward at an angle and swinging at the front leg. This time, however, her knife slammed into the joint and stuck. She was almost pulled off her feet as the ant lurched back, but held on, managing to pull the knife out and regain her balance. The wound had been enough to draw blood, but it didn't seem to greatly hamper the ant.

Beth watched on, having taken a step forward when Sabs' initial attack went wrong, but stepping back when she righted herself. Sabs watched the ant carefully, but it was not a creature of any great intellect. It simply went back to what it knew: charge. Sabs was more careful this time, attacking the same joint but with even greater strength. The strategy was successful the second time through; the already weakened spot couldn't hold, and the lower part of the leg flopped to the ground in a spurt of ichor.

She capitalized on this opportunity by moving in a step and stabbing down with her right hand. The knife pierced into the ant's left eye, ichor shooting out around the blade. With a swift tug, Sabs pulled out the wickedly sharp dagger and took a step to the side, sticking to the ant's now blind side. She went for the joint of the second leg on the left side, slamming her left knife in. Again, the blade stuck, but this time she twisted the blade and struck with her other hand. Her right dagger entered the wound in the joint and finished shearing through it, the second leg plopping to the ground in another spurt of ichor.

The ant, now unable to balance properly, staggered about. Unlike the lower-level ants, it seemed it could at least retain its footing, though it was having great trouble due to the missing legs. Sabs didn't give it any more chances, stepping forward and to her left to close on its head. She thrust her left dagger forward, slamming it into the wounded eye socket. She then pushed to the left with her left arm and slammed her right dagger into the exposed neck of the beasts. With a sharp tug she partially severed the neck.

The combined damage was enough to kill the beast, and the body of the ant flopped down as soon as Sabs removed her left dagger. She got a faraway look for only a second, likely seeing the kill confirm message, but she turned and walked up to Beth.

"Good job, nice recovery there," Beth said, patting Sabs on the shoulder. "Here, clean your daggers," she continued, handing Sabs one of several rags she had brought with her this time. Looking at Sabs' face, there was a noticeable blush now as she responded with a fast "Thanks!"

As Sabs started wiping her daggers clean, the others walked over. They waited for her to finish, then Beth led them out of the copse and into the farmer's field. The group was rather surprised by the large mound.

"I take it this is the enemy base of operations," Zack questioned as the others made some surprised noises.

"Yeah, that's right. We should avoid it for now, though," Beth replied.

"And why is that?" Zack asked. Beth was sure he knew but was likely using this to drive home the point to the rest of the group.

"It's not just full of ants, but level four ants. You saw how Sabs had difficulty with one level three. Well, level fours are even tougher and faster. They also always show up in groups in there, so it's not somewhere we should just be wandering around," Beth answered.

"Alright, where are the closest enemy combatants?" Zack continued, nodding at her answer.

"Either east or west of the mound a little ways are a group of two level three ants. Those would probably be the closest to us unless one walks out of the nest while we stand here," Beth replied.

"Let's head eastward," Zack ordered.

Beth led the group to the east and then turned north. They approached the group of level three ants Beth had seen the day before. When they were close, she used Identify just to make sure.

Common Ant Level 3

Common Ant Level 3

It was like she thought; two level three ants. She motioned to the group to stop and looked at Zack questioningly.

"I want to try something," he answered the unspoken question.

Following this declaration, he undid the safety strap on his holster and drew his pistol. "Stand back, and you'll probably want to cover your ears. Beth, I want you to keep a lookout; I don't have a silencer on this, and it is going to be loud," he instructed.

The group, except for Beth, backed up and plugged their ears. Beth moved to the side a little bit, but didn't even bother with plugging her ears. She knew the weapon would be loud, but she both needed to get used to all kinds of noises in combat as well as needing to be able to hear if anything approached making a lot of noise. She also knew that her much higher Endurance would let her ears endure the noise without really suffering any damage.

Zack took a few steps forward and lined up on the ants. It would be a long shot for a pistol at about fifty feet, but he was a talented marksman who had earned expert badges in both the service rifle and pistol classes. Even after his retirement from the service, he had diligently maintained both his physical fitness as well as his weapon proficiency.

He lined up on the closer ant and fired. The shot hit the ant in the thorax and pushed it to the side slightly. The other ant turned toward the source of the disturbance and began skittering forward. It locked on Zack as it got closer and charged towards him. He calmly lined up on the second ant and pulled the trigger again. There was another sharp report as the ant's left eye exploded in a fountain of ichor and gore.

The second ant collapsed dead on the ground, leaving only the first ant that was painfully staggering at Zack. He lined up on the ant as it approached and calmly squeezed off a third shot, the bark of the pistol happening almost simultaneously with a burst of gore from the back of the ant's head. He had drilled a hole clean through it, and the ant's head's exoskeleton was much the worse for the attention, cracked and warped all over.

"Well, that's two ugly bastards down. Oorah!" he said, checking the chamber and flicking what Beth assumed was the safety before holstering his pistol. He also spent a moment looking for the casings of the rounds he just fired, not wanting to leave loose brass lying around.

Beth looked northwest toward the ants beyond the mound of the nest. She didn't see any movement from that direction. She then glanced to her left, looking toward the nest itself. There she did spot movement, an ant trundling down the ramp and toward them. She knew this could be trouble and started jogging toward the nest.

"Beth," her mother called out, but Beth waved her off. As she got close, she used Identify on the new ant.

Common Ant Level 4

Luckily, she had spotted it and moved to intercept. Zack would likely be able to take it out, but she also wanted the experience. She left her sword sheathed and charged Crush in her right hand and wrist. Closing with the ant, she stepped forward and to the side, smashing her fist into the side of the beast's head. There was a loud crunching noise as the left side of the ant's head splintered, ichor oozing out.

The creature still wasn't dead, despite Beth's now improved stats compared to the day prior. She wasn't deterred at all and rapidly drew her fist back, empowering it and her wrist again. With a quick rotation for extra force, she slammed her fist into the already crushed side of the ant's head. This time there was a soft cracking sound followed by a loud squelching noise as Beth's lightly armored glove plunged through the ant's head, stopping right before the other side.

Common Ant Level 4 slain.

Crush Copper[4] acquired.