Limitless Path

"Okay," Beth said, clapping her hands as she moved to the center of the room. "Well done. What could we have done better?"

The other girls thought for a few moments as Blood walked up to Beth, Beth stroking the wolf's ears and neck while the others pondered. Finally, Kim spoke up, "I think we did pretty well. Maybe we should have let them come to us?"

"I think that wouldn't have really made much of a difference. That would be letting them dictate the pace, but with their single file charges they wouldn't have really gotten an advantage from that. Anything else?" Beth responded.

"Maybe have Sabs and Blood split to help cripple both?" Soph asked.

"That could also work, but the two teams you made did just fine. My only other observation from standing back and watching was you need to move better, Soph. You shifted left when the fighting started, which put Kim and the ant you were fighting between you and Sabs' group. If they needed a quick hand from you with some kind of spell, you would have had to sprint around the ant you were fighting. Everybody needs to try to keep their positioning in mind when fighting in a group," Beth answered.

Deciding not to give them another rest until after the next room, Beth led the group through the tunnel to the last room on floor two. This room was the same as the last, and Beth stood aside to let the others plan their attack. The group kept the teams the same and led off the same way. The fight went the same in nearly all points, this time with Soph staying toward the center of their formation, circling to Kim's right as she engaged the leftward ant.

After both ants had been felled there was general excitement and some fist pumping among the group. Even with the experience being split four ways, they were only level twos, apart from Sabs, who had spent more time with Beth at the start of the week hunting. Kim and Soph popped their new points in, Soph following Beth's suggestion to pump Strength and Endurance for now, while Beth pulled up Blood's stats.

None of Blood's stats had gone up when she hit three, but she had six free points, confirming Beth's suspicion that Blood was gaining just as many free points per level as the rest of them got in total points. Beth dumped two points each into Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance for Blood, focusing on her physical stats as well. She took a glance at Blood's sheet afterward, indicating for the group to take a short meditation break while she stood guard.

They moved on through the dungeon, clearing rooms and taking down ants as they did so. They had to rest again several more rooms in, then they were focused again for an hour or so while they continued to fight. They got through the rest of the level fives and had to take a second, slightly longer break to get ready.

After over an hour-and-a-half, the group was ready to move on, Soph being mostly topped up on mana again, their biggest weakness right now. Meditating would help greatly with mana regen and slightly with stamina, but it would be many, many skill levels before it could take the place of actual rest and even sleep. The group followed Beth through the next tunnel, soon arriving outside of the second-to-last room of the nest. Looking in, there were some muttered curses and frowns as the girls saw the three level sixes waiting for them.

"Think you can handle it?" Beth addressed the group.

"I think we might be able to do it. We should at least try," Kim replied, settling further into her role as the de facto leader as her confidence increased.

They started as they had for several rooms now, Soph leading with a double blast of blue bolts. The leftmost ant staggered and collapsed, its skull and neck lightly smoking. The remaining two ants charged the group, and Soph got one more good blast off before they were forced to engage, slowing one of the ants from the shock.

It was tougher going this time, but the four of them persisted and, in the end, managed to take down the level sixes. That left just a single room of the dungeon, but Beth told them to take another, much shorter break before they moved forward. The others rested for a couple minutes, a bit tired after taking out three level sixes with no help from Beth, but soon enough, they were ready to go again.

Beth led them through the last tunnel to the fourth room of the third floor, stopping still just inside the tunnel. She waited for the others to Identify the room and was surprised herself when Sabs exclaimed, "What the fuck?! Two level sevens?!"

Beth quickly scanned the room herself and noticed that it was very slightly different than her first clear.

Common Ant Level 6

Common Ant Level 7

Princess Ant Level 7

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The two 'guard' ants for the princess were still there and marked as common ants, but one of them had now been upgraded to level seven. It was a good reminder to Beth not to become complacent, as well as showing that mana density was still rising on Earth. She imagined the nest would have more and more rapid production, as well as the level of the ants inside increasing, over the coming weeks and months.

"This is only very slightly different from last time," Beth started. "I soloed this room when I was weaker with lower-level skills. The only difference is both the common ants were level six last time I did it."

"So, you think we should just get good and do it?" Kim asked, one eyebrow raised.

"We can stop at any time; I'm not going to force you to do things you don't want to do. Take a minute and decide what you want to do and how," Beth answered.

The four gathered around and spoke, other than Blood, who just nodded or shook her head as the other three talked. They decided to go through with it and worked out a mostly passable plan, though Beth was ready to intervene with this one. When they had all prepared themselves and taken a deep breath, they turned to face the room.

"Alright, we ready?" Kim nodded at Beth before looking to the group as a whole. Receiving confirmations all around, she gestured for Soph to lead them off. Soph charged up both hands before blasting out two lightning strikes in quick succession against the level seven. Unlike the level sixes, the two blasts weren't enough to fully incapacitate the level seven, and it started to charge slightly behind the level six.

Soph stepped out into the room and to the side, prepping both hands with electricity again as the ants closed. When the level six was getting near, Kim stepped up to receive it, slamming her sword into its head. Soph ignored the group taking on the first ant, releasing another thunderous salvo at the second ant. This ant wasn't any faster, just much tougher, and didn't even attempt to avoid the attacks.

This proved a bad strategy, as four bolts was too much for it to handle, the ant collapsing in a twitching, writhing heap. The level seven was not yet dead, but it was certainly in no shape to continue fighting, and Soph was charging up yet another double-dealing of electric pain, eyes narrowed and frowning deeply.

The rest of the group was faring well against the level six, their strategy of Kim playing main focus while Sabs and Blood cut through the legs was working well against the less maneuverable opponent. By this point the ant was already down two legs, and Blood was worrying at a third. Sabs moved back instead of going after the second leg on her side, timing a jump at the ant right after Kim finished a powerful Sweep. Sabs' attack slammed into the ant's neck, causing deep wounds and knocking it off balance as Blood tore out the third leg.

Meanwhile, Soph was finishing off her ant, with blast five deeply charring its head into a massive spiderweb of burning cracks before bolt six blew it apart, smoking pieces of ant head sailing far across the room. One of the pieces hit the princess, who decided that it was time to step in, and charged Soph head-on. Beth decided that it was also time for her to interfere, and stepped into the path of the princess, charging up Crush in her entire right arm.

The other girls were just finishing the level six and looked over to see the princess bearing down on Beth. "Beth!" Sabs called out, fear in her voice, watching as the girl she was starting to develop a deeper level of feelings toward faced the beast without flinching.

The other girls' worries were unfounded. Beth was no longer the same person she was the first time she faced this creature, and as the ant appeared in front of her, lunging for her torso, she stepped forward into its attack. Beth planted her right foot in front of her with a stomp, driving her fist straight into the ant's face. There was a horrifying crunching noise that went on for far too long, like a steamroller running across a mile of thin glass. The princess' entire head was pulped and her corpse slid backwards away from Beth, spinning as it grinded across the ground.

Princess Ant Level 7 slain.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

One silver gained for clearing Basic Ant Dungeon.

"Well…that was, uh, impressive," Kim stammered, the whole group, even Blood, staring at Beth with wide eyes and open mouths.

"Beth angry. Beth smash," said Beth in response, flexing her arms.

"Being a barbarian only gets you so far," Soph replied, already recovered as she stuck her nose up.

"Did we just get an entire silver for that?" Sabs asked, seemingly just noticing the silver coin reward for clearing the dungeon.

"Yeah, not really sure how valuable the coins are yet. Seems like they're somewhat hard to get; might be worth a lot," Beth replied.

"People are offering to buy a single copper coin for multiple USD online, for what it's worth," Soph put in.

"Ah yeah, I haven't really taken time the last couple days to check what's happening online. Should just hold on to them for now," Beth said before motioning everyone to follow her.

The group returned through the now empty nest, seeing the sun again for the first time in hours. Squinting and scanning the area around the nest, Beth looked to make sure there weren't any nearby threats. She hadn't encountered any birds or other flying creatures that had turned into beasts yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

Descending the outer ramp in the mid-afternoon light, the five headed back to the development. Beth could only shake her head as they came up on the ditch, giving a small chuckle as their entire group, minus Soph, was able to not just jump the ditch but the earthen berm beyond it as well. She led the group over to one of the tables where they set their weapons down.

"Weapons first. Soph, could you go just grab a pack of drinks and bring it out, please? Doesn't matter what," Beth said, addressing the group.

"I am not your servant," Soph said haughtily, but followed with, "I guess I could grab something while you work."

She entered the house while the other girls sat down and began cleaning and sharpening their blades. Blood sat between two chairs on her haunches, tall enough already that her head rose above the level of the table while sitting. The blades of the group were a general mess, but it didn't take too long for the basic cleaning to be done, Soph returning with a supply of drinks in the meanwhile. The girls all grabbed a drink while Soph put a bowl of water down for Blood and stroked the wolf's ears as she lapped up the cool liquid.

The group got to the real work now, sharpening their blades, while Soph sat and closed her eyes, dropping into her meditation technique. The rest of them talked quietly, focusing on the task at hand for a few minutes. As they were finishing up, Beth brought up lunch.

"We need some food. I wonder if any places are open again, I could really go for a pizza," she said.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen for a while. There're monsters all over the place. Just getting food to the supermarkets seems to be taking all the resources available," Soph responded, opening her eyes as she finished meditating.

Beth sighed, saying, "I guess we'll have to cook something. What a pain."

She stood up and headed in toward the house. The whole group followed, Beth and Kim leaving their swords sheathed on the table while Sabs had her daggers stashed on her person. They made their way into the kitchen, where they began raiding the fridge and freezer for things to cook.

It took a bit, but they cooked and ate enough that even her appetite had been sated by the end. She was thinking about their level of consumption but didn't really know what to do about it. Afterall, everything came back to needing to get to a CRA Hall and get more information. She decided she would work with the group again tomorrow and then try to get to the CRA Hall the day after, even if she had to walk.

"What now?" asked Kim as they cleared away the dishes and cleaned up.

"Now we rest. It's important to rest well when you're fighting hard. Especially as we're still low level. The more Endurance I've gotten the better I've been rested after a decent night's sleep. We still have people with single digit Endurance, meaning we need to rest well after a long day of fighting," Beth explained to the group.

"I will be in my room. I assume we are doing the same thing tomorrow?" Soph asked.

"Same time, same place," Beth confirmed. "You staying here?" she continued, turning to Sabs.

"No, uh, not now. I'm, uh, gonna go home for now. I'll see you tomorrow morning," Sabs stammered out. Before she could make good her escape, Beth stepped over to her and grabbed her in a hug. Sabs was surprised for a moment but quickly returned it.

"Get a damn room you two," Soph said with a sniff before walking out of the kitchen, heading to her own room to rest.

"I-I'll head out now," Sabs stammered again, blushing as Beth let go of her before she darted out of the house, heading toward her own home.

"Let's head upstairs," Beth said to Blood, who just looked at her, head tilted slightly, before following her upstairs.

Beth locked the door to her room once they were inside and turned to Blood. "Don't freak out or anything. Watch this," she said before turning to the center of her bedroom and bringing up the menu for the Ancient World Gate skill.

Ancient World Gate[0]

{A legacy of a Transcendent Ruler from before the Age of Dreaming. This skill allows the wielder to create a gate linked to a temporal space full of battle. The higher the skill level, the more one has control over the temporal space and the gate itself.

Current Gates: Ant, Wolf.

Current Modifier: 2x, 3x}

It looked like her skill had changed or improved without even leveling up. She was now able to create an area that contained wolves? Or both wolves and ants? And the modifier had a new entry with 3X being in the list. She decided to try selecting Ant as well as 3X and see if the gate had just ants in. She assumed, and would check by keeping track with her phone, that the 3X was just an improvement over the 2X and gave the zone triple time compression.

The dirt arch arose in the middle of her room like it had the previous times, Blood tilting her head quite far to the right as she observed the strange phenomenon. After the arch rose fully and contained its matte black sheet, Blood merely looked up at Beth, her large eyes slightly squinted.