Limitless Path

When the four girls were ready, they moved out with Blood trotting along behind. They headed through the yard and into the woods, not encountering any ants in the woodlot. They did see one in the field and Beth took over, leading the group forward before stopping them and getting into trainer mode.

"Has everyone distributed their points from their level ups?" she started off with.

"Yes.", "No.", "No," she immediately received in reply.

"Okay, Kim is good, let's take care of you two. Stats page Sabs," Beth continued. Sabs made her stat page visible to the group:

"Okay, not bad stats. Young Duelist sounds cool, probably something really good along that path. All six points still free? Hmm, let's see," Beth thought a moment as she examined Sabs' stats. "Alright, my recommendation is two Strength, three Endurance, one Intelligence. I assume you get Dexterity every level?"

"Yeah," Sabs replied, "I get one Strength, two Dexterity, one Endurance, and two free points, of course."

"Okay, you're physical fighting based, so we want to pump that a little here to give you a good chance against the lower-level enemies. Getting two more levels will really help bump those stats, and you can drop two more into Strength as well. Endurance is important for stamina and taking hits, while Intelligence is important for mana reserves, as well as…well…intelligence," Beth explained.

"So, you think I should boost my physical stats to have an easier time fighting, then use some more free points to get them a little ahead of the curve?" Sabs confirmed.

"Right. You don't want to neglect Intelligence or Wisdom as a physical class, they will be important, but early on you're killing shit by hitting it, and surviving by not getting hit. We're not at the kind of Endurance with the kind of armor where we can just shrug off attacks. Any attack is a dangerous attack; remember that. Bring your Intelligence up a little, then pump physical stats for a while to keep up with or even get an edge on the beasts," Beth carried on explaining.

"Alright, I'll do that, sounds as good as anything else," Sabs agreed, distributing her points immediately.

"Alright, Soph. Your turn," Beth said, turning to her youngest sister. Soph shared her stat page next:

"OK," said Beth. "We don't want to skew too far, like I was just explaining. You need Intelligence and Wisdom for your class, but we need to balance that with some physical stats. You need to be able to move around the battlefield, jump when needed, run and sprint when needed. You're not doing that with those stats. What do you get per level?"

"I get 2 Intelligence, 2 Wisdom, and 2 free points," Soph responded.

"Same suggestion. You need to pump those awful physical stats. Hit Strength and Endurance with a point, then do it again next level. Hit Dexterity with two at level four and Strength and Endurance with one again at level five. I would be concerned for a little with just shoring up your physical stats. You won't last long in a fight if you can't move around or get tired after beating one enemy," Beth expounded, tapping her chin while she reviewed Soph's stats.

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"I don't want to become a gorilla like you," Soph replied with a little moue of a frown while squinting at her eldest sister.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. With those stats and two free points a level it'll take you a thousand levels just to get to gorilla strength," Beth replied lightly, a slight gleam in her eye.

"Fine, fine. I'll follow your advice," Soph pouted slightly but distributed her points as Beth suggested, nonetheless.

"Alright, here's the plan," Beth told the group. "We're going to check the ant nest. Depending on what's in there, we'll clear it out. It will give you all a chance to fight and level, as well as let us practice working together, which will likely be key later on for fighting tougher beasts and monsters. Any questions?"

The group, including Blood, shook their heads at her ending question. Beth led the group closer to the ant on the other side of the large open field behind the woodlot, stopping a little out of its detection range.

"OK, what's first, class?" she asked the group with a slight smirk.

"Rushing it while screaming a battle cry, likely," Soph scoffed in response.

"Wrong, minus one point. Anyone else?" Beth shot back.

"Use Identify to check the enemy if you can, scan it by eye as well to try to judge its strength," Sabs answered.

"Correct, plus one point. What next?" Beth continued.

"Playing favorites," Soph muttered.

"I'm not giving her points because she's cute, I'm giving them for correct answers." Beth snapped back tartly.

"Fine. I get it," Soph mumbled while Sabs blushed deeply.

"Once you figure out how strong it is, fight it if you think you can?" Kim interjected, sticking strictly to business.

"I will give you a point, but I would put that at step three. Step two is to check the area and make sure there isn't another enemy or something natural, like a storm or something, that will interfere with the fight. Then attack the beast or monster if you think you can win," Beth explained, tapping her chin again.

"It's level two, not really much of a threat. Are we going to fight it?" Kim asked.

"No, we are not going to fight it, you are going to fight it. You, specifically. You will all be fighting, alone or as a group, today. I will be watching and coaching. I will only help if needed," Beth replied.

"Why do you get to loaf around?" asked Soph huffily.

"Because I'm level six and could kick all four of your asses together," Beth replied, flexing at her younger sister. "Also, these guys won't give me much experience or skill practice; better for me to watch and give some pointers. I'll help if somebody gets in a tight spot."

"Alright, I've got this," Kim replied, once again bringing them back on track. She set out toward the ant, drawing her sword as she did so. When the ant noticed her, it turned and charged like all the rest. Kim remained calm and continued forward, waiting for the ant to be within range. As it approached directly in front of her, she activated Sweep and chopped across the beast, slicing its head apart.

"Easy," she said, flicking her blade clean.

"Not bad at all. Alright, let's keep this moving," Beth replied, motioning the group forward. They trotted on through the field and into the copse of trees near the farmer's field. They encountered another ant at the edge of the field, just inside the trees.

"Level three," called out Sabs.

"You're up Soph," Beth commanded.

"Me?!" Soph squeaked.

"Is there another Soph here?" Beth asked, peering around as if to locate her missing third sister.

"Fine, fine. I'll do it," Soph said and walked forward, moving toward the ant. As she started to get close to the zone where it would notice her, lightning began to dance across the fingers of her right hand. When she was close enough that the ant noticed her and charged, she stopped and stood for a moment, more electricity now coursing over the back of her hand. When the ant was about fifteen feet away, she pointed her right index finger at it and said, "Shock."

A bolt of electricity about half the thickness of Soph's long, delicate finger leapt from said finger's tip and slammed into the head of the ant, boring into it. The ant spasmed for a few seconds before dropping dead on the ground, smoke rising from the hole in its forehead.

"Pretty impressive. How many of those babies can you throw?" Beth asked.

"I should be able to throw ten of those, ugh, 'babies' before I have to rest," Soph responded.

"Yeah, we need to get you some levels and stats. That's at most ten kills, and I could guarantee that you'll need at least two if not three babies for a level five as you are now," Beth replied.

"Can we not call lightning bolts I shoot from my fingers 'babies'?" Soph asked with a slight whine in her voice, shoulders already slumping a little from her sister's antics.

"Alright," Beth continued, ignoring her youngest sister's pleas. "Let's head to the nest."

She led them out of the tree line and towards the ant nest. As they drew near, they saw that there was an ant standing at the top of the nest. When they were just out from the bottom of the ramp, Beth signaled the group to stop.

"First?" she asked.

Kim looked at the ant and responded, "Level four."

"Next?" Beth continued.

"Nothing else around," answered Sabs.

"Alright, go ahead and give it a blast Soph," Beth ordered.

"Me? Why am I doing all the work," Soph replied.

"I think you might be surprised here. Just give it a blast," Beth answered.

Soph walked forward onto the ramp and drew the ant's attention. As the ant charged down the ramp toward her, she again summoned lightning upon the back of her fingers. She pointed at the ant as it drew near and again commanded "Shock."

This time was a little different, as Beth had suspected might happen. The bolt of lightning shot out of Soph's finger and into the head of the ant, smashing a large, fractured pattern across the top of its head. It did not, however, punch a hole right through as it had with the previous ant. The level four ant staggered for a few moments, reeling from both the amount of energy as well as the nature of it, that being electrical, that had just slammed into it.

"Kim, take care of it," Beth ordered.

Soph backpedaled, hurriedly trying to get off the ramp and out of the way, seeming out of breath just from that small exertion. Kim climbed up to the ant, drawing her sword as she approached. The ant was just recovering as she stepped up to it, and with an adroit lunge, skewered the creature's head, taking advantage of Soph having halfway blasted it apart already.

"Exactly what I meant. You're still at a low enough level, with low enough stats and skills, that you can't just waltz around blasting everything. A level four would take you two hits. A level seven might take all your mana to bring down. How would you hit it with all your mana when you need to spend it all just getting far enough to see a level seven ant?" Beth turned to Soph, now recovered beside her, continuing her lecture.

"Fine, fine. I understand. You don't need to go on about it," Soph replied with an eyeroll and a slight sniff.

"Alright, up and in," Beth continued.

Beth led the group up the outer ramp of the nest and inside, descending the long inner ramp to the first room. She took them through the first room, having them kill the ants, which they accomplished with ease, though it did tire them out a bit.

"We have plenty of time today; everyone rest for a little, I'll kill any ants that come up while you recover. Do any of you know how to meditate?" she said to the group.

"I do," Soph responded, easing down onto the dirt floor with a slight grimace.

"Alright, go ahead and start." Beth commanded her. Turning to the rest of the group, she attempted to explain meditation. Her skill level wasn't high enough in Focused Meditation for her to have a chance of teaching it to the others. She got the sense she would need it in Silver at the very least, and more likely in Gold to have any chance of successfully instructing someone in the technique. Even so, under her direction, the other three, including Blood, closed their eyes and relaxed their breathing. Beth continued to talk them through looking inward in a calm voice, helping them relax and enter that deeper state of inner concentration.

Beth stood guard over the group as they meditated, walking over to the tunnel entrance heading toward room four a couple minutes later and pulverizing the head of a level three just as it walked out. She returned to the group, simply standing watch while taking a few sips from her water bottle. After a little under half an hour Soph was the first to stand up.

"Done already?" Beth asked, her eyebrows inching up.

"Yeah, I have something a little better than regular Meditation, and I've leveled it up a decent number of times already this week. I'm not back to full, but I'm already over 75% again," Soph explained a little airily, clearly taking pride in her skill.

"Nice. I have an improved version of mediation too, but it takes me a while longer to regen," Beth responded, Soph's eyebrows climbing in turn at the news Beth also had a more powerful meditation skill.

It wasn't too much longer before the other three opened their eyes and stood up. "Any luck?" Beth asked the group, ruffling Blood's ears as she shook herself out.

"Yep, Meditation Copper[0]." Kim answered.

"Yeah, Meditation Copper[1]," said Sabs, giving Kim a slightly sheepish look. Kim just stepped over and patted the older girl's shoulder, not upset in the least by being slightly one-upped.

"Yip," Blood replied. Beth checked her stat page to see even Blood had managed to somehow get Meditation Copper[0]. Maybe it was because, even though she was low-level, she already had the 'Queen' moniker in her race description? Beth wasn't sure but she dismissed it for now, it being a point of pride, not concern, if anything.

"Okay," Beth continued, clapping her hands, "let's move on. It will get a little tougher from here, but it shouldn't be too bad."

True to form, their next challenge was to take out a level five ant. Without having leveled, they were a little lacking in juice to take something like that down, proven as Soph's lightning bolt shocked the ant and lightly injured it but didn't do any serious damage. It took both Sabs and Kim acting in concert, backed by several blasts from Soph, to take down the ant. Beth admonished Soph slightly, much to her chagrin, for firing spells so wildly near her teammates, and they moved on to the next room, where two level five ants waited.

This was an even tougher fight, as Kim and Sabs basically had to go head-to-head with an opponent that was above their weight class, each taking on one of the ants while Soph more carefully dished out the lightning. It took more than five minutes for them to kill the two ants and keeping up that level of focus in combat for so long was clearly taxing for the new adventurers. Beth had kept an eye on the tunnel and the group while they fought, making sure that no new ants joined the fight and that the girls didn't get overwhelmed. When both ants were dead, she smiled a little as she got ready to address the group.