Limitless Path

The group of five trotted out of the backyard with the little ditch, as Beth thought of it, proving no obstacle to them. Moving out around the development, they headed first east, then south, crossing the highway. They found a lone wolf on the other side, surprising the others by leaping from behind a bush. Despite the shouted curses and shock, the group still handled the wolf quickly, moving on to the entrance to the Breeding Ground.

"Okay, this is the dungeon. Last time I was in here it was pretty simple; a wooded area with game trails linking clearings together. I didn't really care to explore so I just pushed into the center and fought the boss. We might want to take some extra time in here, since the levels and numbers are going to be above you, so it'll be a good time to grind," she explained.

"What do you mean by grind, again?" Kim asked, eyebrows scrunched up.

"It's a gaming term. It's like from grinding a blade to sharpen it; doing a very repetitive task for a long time to get some gains. In this case, we're talking about killing low- to moderate-leveled enemies a whole bunch, over and over again, to gain levels ourselves. The boss of this place was a level eight Great Wolf last time, which would absolutely require me and/or Blood to kill it. The other wolves range up to level six, I think, and they come in groups as big as seven or eight in one clearing," Beth continued her explanations.

"And we're supposed to fight eight level sixes without help?" Soph asked archly.

"No, the early groups will be something like a level five, a few level fours, and a handful of level ones. It's a breeding ground, so this is where the level one and twos come from," she shook her head at Soph, explaining the groups would be a little easier than what they had interpreted from her first explanation.

"Let's head in and try the first clearing. Blood and I will be backup for now, but don't rely on us to save you. If one of those wolves tears out your throat, you die. This isn't a game, trust me on that," Beth said, unconsciously rubbing her torso where the Great Wolf had grabbed her in its jaws.

It took a bit of time for them to work out their coordination, but by the second room, the other three were humming along, killing the wolves with little trouble. Beth led them around the dungeon, having them clear most of the clearings within before lining them up for the boss. The group had to rest three times, the last time right outside the boss room, to make sure to maintain their mana and stamina.

Confronting the boss, the group managed the fight well, with Beth only having to interfere at the end to keep the boss from tearing Kim apart. That did mean the group got less experience from the room, but they weren't complaining. The three lower-level members of the team were exhausted after the long, brutal fight, and they took plenty of time to rest.

The group stayed in the clearing for an hour before they were rested enough to move out. Heading back out of the dungeon, it only took fifteen or so minutes to emerge back into the fields. They headed across the fields, only having to kill a couple low-level wolves before reaching the highway.

They carefully crossed back to the northern side of the highway, before starting to circle the edge of the development on the east side, heading north towards the Bells' house. As they were making their way through the sort of scruffy tree area on the eastern side of the neighborhood, an area without enough trees to be called a woodlot, but not just open space, they encountered a new beast. A large boar was in front of them, facing to the group's right, snorting at the ground. Beth used Identify to see what they had found.

Wild Boar Level 6

She was confident in their ability to take out the beast but was a little hesitant over its size. It was close in height to Blood, but had to be twice her weight or more, a real monster of a pig. Beth motioned for the other girls to stay put, then motioned to Blood before pointing to the boar. Blood nodded in response, trotting forward and to the side as Beth approached the beast head-on.

The beast didn't notice her until she was only a few steps from it, turning to her and seeming almost surprised. Beth darted forward as the surprise in the boar's eyes was turning to anger, slamming a fully empowered right fist into the left side of the beast's head. The group, still standing back a distance, heard the cracking of the boar's skull shattering as Beth's entire fist was buried in the beast's head.

"That shit's gross," Soph muttered, both Kim and Sabs slowly turning to stare at her, surprised at the normally prissy girl's swearing. "What?" she continued. "It is."

"Riiight," said Kim slowly before they turned and walked up to where Beth stood by the dead boar.

"Hey Soph, go find dad or Zack or both and tell them we need somebody who knows how to hunt and skin at the house," Beth said.

"What?" Soph asked, nonplussed.

"Find somebody who can get people from the neighborhood who know how to dress a kill," she said again before grabbing the massive animal and lifting it up onto her back.

"What the actual fuck?" exclaimed Sabs, staring at Beth carrying a five-hundred or more-pound pig without help.

"Twenty-four Strength, baby. Impressive, right?" Beth answered as she continued toward the house.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

It took some extra time, but Beth soon hopped over the trench, an impressive feat with a boar three times her size on her back. She dropped the boar at the edge of the backyard, not wanting to make the whole area into a bloody mess.

"Showers. I'll wait out here," Beth told the group, and Kim and Sabs went into the house to clean up.

About twenty minutes later, Kim and Sabs had both cleaned up. Sabs was now wearing a set of Beth's clothes, which Beth noted by their bagginess as the two returned to the backyard. Zack and Bill entered the backyard, being trailed by Soph, who entered the house with a sniff, likely off to take a shower herself. Zack started in immediately before he even realized what was lying at the edge of the yard.

"What's this about needing someone who hunts-holy shit!" Zack cut himself off in the middle of a brewing lecture when he realized there was a quarter-ton boar corpse behind Beth.

"Think you could help with that?" Beth asked with a grin, waving a thumb at the dead boar.

"Holy hell, where'd this come from?" asked Bill, walking over to the body as Zack was standing, scratching the side of his head.

"We walked into it coming back from fighting some wolves to the south of town. Took it out before it could really react," Beth answered.

Zack walked over to the corpse of the boar and crouched next to it, looking it over. Bill grabbed the head by one of the tusks protruding from the mouth and turned it, exposing part of the left side of the head with a fist-shaped crater in.

"The hell did you do to this thing?" asked Zack.

"I punched it," answered Beth. "Really hard."

"I…see," Zack replied.

"Yeah, let's get our tools. Some real good meat on this thing, Zack, shame to let it go to waste. I got some tarps we can use," Bill commented, getting back on task.

"Roger. I'll get my gear," Zack stood up from beside the boar and headed back around the front of the house, followed by Bill. They reappeared in about fifteen minutes with knives, tarps, some cloths, and a few other pieces of equipment for processing game kills easier. Both men were experienced hunters, usually bagging a few bucks during deer season, and they set up quickly.

Zack asked, "Can you give us a hand with this?" to Beth, who simply stepped over and picked the boar body up before stepping over and dumping it on the tarps. "Damn, that's some crazy strength. What the hell are you at right now?"

"Got up to twenty-four," Beth answered with a grin, flexing her arm as the two men bent down to get to work.

"Maybe you can use that to keep helping," Zack responded pointedly.

"What do you mean?" asked Beth.

"We need to drain this thing first. That means we're going to need to hoist it up," Zack said, now looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes and the hint of a smirk about his mouth.

"I'm not going to enjoy this, am I?" Beth replied with a sigh.

She did not, in fact, enjoy what followed. The effort consisted of her lifting the boar again and carrying it into the woodlot, where she was able to assist the hunters in stringing the kill up from a particularly sturdy tree with some heavy nylon ropes. The following was a messy affair of blood and guts as the giant pig was drained and gutted, with Bill setting the heart and liver aside for later use.

Eventually, she was dismissed to her own recognizance by Zack after she had aided them in getting the corpse down and onto a tarp. The men continued with dressing the boar while Beth, somewhat bloodier, made her way inside the house.

Luckily, she hadn't been coated in blood and viscera in the way the others had been during the wolf boss fight, though the boar blood on her clothes was a mess. She was able to carefully make her way to her room, Blood padding along behind, without painting any of the house red. She quickly stripped down and showered off, Blood not even entering the bathroom this time. Beth threw on some loose clothes after she was dry and headed back downstairs, throwing on some sandals before joining Sabs and Kim at a table. The girls proceeded to discuss the day's fights, glancing at the butchering job from time to time.

The three of them spent some time talking about what they did well, what they could do better, and Beth offered a breakdown, with what knowledge she had, of their strengths and weaknesses. It took them some time and was made more difficult by the lack of Soph, still up in her room being a lone princess, but they covered everything that had happened that day.

"Is it the same plan tomorrow?" Sabs asked, looking to Beth as the ultimate leader of the whole team.

"Nah, not tomorrow. I have some things to work on that will take me and Blood the whole day or more to do," Beth replied.

"I second that," Kim added. "I basically broke my sword today on the higher levels; I can't fight until I get it fixed or a new one." She set her blade on the table unsheathed, showing cracks in several places along the length.

"Right, that's a big problem we're having. I'm going to see if I can head down to a building nearby that was set up by others from a faction called the Combat Ranking Association. They have all kinds of members and connections; it seems like a good place to get everything, including gear. I'll see if I can pick up some stuff, but it might be too expensive. We won't know till I go, so that's my plan for tomorrow and maybe the next couple days," Beth explained.

"Need any help on the trip?" Sabs asked a little hesitantly.

"Nah, I'm good. I wouldn't mind having you along, but I think Blood can only carry one person. It also is better for me to go as I have this," Beth answered, pulling out her emblem and showing it to the others.

"Damn, where'd you find this?" Kim asked.

"Special reward I got for first clearing the ant dungeon," Beth responded, sticking to at least half the truth.

After the others were done marveling at the emblem, Beth put it back in her stats page and went inside to grab some drinks. She brought out a case, setting it on the table and taking a few sports drinks over to Bill and Zack, who were still working on their somewhat grisly task. They thanked her for the consideration, stopping to drain a good portion of their bottles before capping them and getting back to carefully slicing and chopping.

Beth returned to the table and sat with the others for a time, making idle chatter and keeping track of the butchering. It turned from mid-afternoon to early evening, and Beth's parents returned, followed along by some of the neighbors. A discussion was immediately had about food, Beth's father helping with the final parts of the butchering and prep of the meat.

Beth and Sabs sat next to each other at the left-hand table. The two had casually, but still somewhat tentatively, held hands under the table. That got a glance and an eyeroll from Kim, but nobody else seemed to notice.

Zack and Bill had finished their work and washed up a little with the hose, and there was a huge amount of useable meat from the boar. They had managed to get the thick hide off without damaging it, and Zack mentioned they would need to stretch and dry it to make it usable. Beth just acknowledged the comment, not really caring much other than the fact that it would help augment their food supply to kill such beasts.

The evening was fairly sedate, with Zack, Sabs, and the Scotts leaving rather early to rest up. The efforts to secure the neighborhood were proceeding apace, and they were soon going to start working on a wall, a rather strong one.

After the group had split up and the sun had set, the Bells headed inside, with the parents taking up their usual evening station at the island in the kitchen. Kim and Soph occupied the living room, while Beth headed upstairs trailed by Blood.

The two used the bathroom to wash up, Beth grumbling about having to try to wash the massive wolf off in what she used to think of as a large shower. After they were both cleaned and relatively dried, they got ready for bed before Beth browsed the internet for an hour or so.

They finally slept, with Beth placing her phone on the nightstand before turning out the lights. She was surprised her phone was still working fine, and intact, considering what she put it through, but it hadn't failed her yet. Blood had curled up on the floor into a ball-like shape and tucked her face into her huge, bushy tail.