Limitless Path

"Good job, that was pretty impressive," Beth commented.

"Hah, thanks," Sabs replied, starting to recover. "I didn't think I would be able to kill both of them like that without help."

"You're tougher than you think," Beth replied, still with her hand on Sabs' back.

"Thanks. You're pretty great, yourself," Sabs responded before brushing her shoulder against Beth's.

"Let's head over to the nest for a little. We should see if another level four came up, and we could camp there a while and stop any other ants from coming out," Beth said, giving Sabs' back another quick rub before dropping her hand and turning toward the nest.

The two headed back to the nest and looked to make sure there wasn't another level four present, even climbing to the top of the outer ramp and checking the entrance. Sabs got the dungeon notification for stepping over the lip of the top of the nest, and asked Beth if she had gotten something similar. Beth confirmed it was the same message, and the two climbed back down the outer ramp.

Beth led them over to the edge of the copse where there was a big chunk of rock, letting them sit and watch the nest, waiting for anything to show up. It didn't take long at all before they started to chat aimlessly.

"When do you think we'll be going back to school? My classes at the community college are all paused," Sabs said.

"I think it might be a while. It's going to take a while for things to get figured out, and things are going to get worse. The amount of mana across the whole planet is going to go up for a while, which means stronger monsters and more weird stuff," Beth answered.

"How do you know all that?"

"People have been talking online about it. Just the past couple days they've been trying to figure stuff out. It's just a guess, but I think it's the most accurate," Beth replied.

"That really sucks. I wonder if it'll be difficult to get together with friends as well," Sabs mused.

"I think it depends on a lot of things. One of the easiest ways to make sure you can do what you want is to get strong. You're already doing a good job there," Beth stated.

"I really hope so. What about you? What's your goal?" Sabs turned to Beth, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I want to see how far I can go," Beth answered, leaning back and staring across the field. "I want to try to get as far as I possibly can, to see what's at the end of the Path. There're things I want to do, and reasons I want to get there, but just saying I want to be stronger, you get that, right?"

"Yeah, I get you. I want to be able to do what I want. That's never really changed. Now that the world's all crazy, it's going to be harder. But there's new ways to get there," Sabs leaned back as well, slightly leaning against Beth's right side. Beth returned the lean a little, and the two sat together, watching the nest and the area beyond.

Sometime later, the rest of the group came back, using the nest as a point of reference. When everyone had gathered, the girls hopped up and followed the group back into the neighborhood.

The next two days proceeded in much the same manner, with Beth helping take many people out to at least get them level one. Despite the talk of rotations for most people, Beth couldn't help but notice Sabs showing up again on Wednesday to group up with her.

The ant population had been greatly curtailed and, at the Thursday morning meeting, it was decided that everyone would help with the wall efforts. Beth decided that helping dig a ditch or build a fence wasn't exactly furthering her plans. In fact, her plans to get stronger would be more help to the neighborhood than digging a ditch would be; at least, that was her stance on the matter.

As the meeting closed out, Beth trotted up the street amidst a group going to start on the wall work again. At some point at the end of the neighborhood, she broke off from the group and headed for her house. Slipping around to the backyard, she made sure she had all her equipment ready. Besides the sword, boots, and gloves, she also had grabbed a heavy water bottle that she could hook on her belt and an LED flashlight she could slide in her pocket.

She set out through the woodlot, heading for the nest. It took her a handful of minutes, but she reached the nest without having to fight any weaker ants, having only seen one. She was determined to explore deeper today and knew that it was likely that all the level fours were back. Looking up to the top of the ramp, she saw that she was spot on, as a large ant stood there.

Beth interlaced her fingers and flexed her hands, cracking her knuckles. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, getting focused. She approached the foot of the ramp that led to the top of the nest and drew her sword, focusing on the ant at the top as she started her climb. Identify.

Common Ant Level 4

She approached the replacement guardian, and it charged her before she was more than two steps up the ramp. She held her sword ready as she continued walking, swinging just as the ant came within range. She smashed the sword into the side of the ant's head and, as the ant staggered from the blow, stepped forward again. Swinging again as she took the forward step, she mashed the left side of the ant's head into pulp. Seeing no message, she swung a third time, the sword embedding three-quarters of the way through the ant's head.

Common Ant Level 4 slain.

Swords Apprentice[1] acquired.

"Damn nice!" Beth exclaimed, elated at the level in the weapon skill. After having used her sword almost exclusively the last three days as she helped with the hunter training, the payoff of a level in the skill felt good. She wrenched the blade out of the paste that remained of the beast's head and wiped it quickly with a cloth.

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

She moved up the ramp and stopped for a moment, making sure that nothing was coming after her, either from the surrounding area or the nest. Assured of that, she moved down into the dungeon and began her first full-clear attempt. She worked her way through the level four ants on the first floor, being careful to not get badly injured as she went. Even with her care, she did take some damage, mainly to her jeans, cursing at losing another pair. Looking more closely, maybe they could be saved, but she wasn't quite sure.

She encountered level five ants on the second floor down, finding them slightly tougher than the previous batch. She had to rely on her one attack ability in the end, as her sword wasn't quite cutting it anymore. She could still damage them with her blade, but it was becoming tougher to deal meaningful harm to the level fives with her current weapon. She eventually killed the first of the level five ants, getting several pleasant notifications in the process.

Common Ant Level 5 slain.

Crush Copper[5] acquired.

Level 5 acquired.

Pain Tolerance Copper[5] acquired.

Beth couldn't help a massive grin spreading across her face. She could feel the new level of strength in her body, feeling better than she ever had before. She stretched languidly, hearing and feeling her back, hips, and even sternum crack slightly. She felt even better after the stretch and started thinking about what to do with her new stat points. She wanted to keep everything balanced, but she knew her stats were still even at the moment.

She felt like her biggest problem currently was damage. Every time she grew even a little stronger, she quickly found herself facing ants a level or two higher, and she felt their Endurance and defense increases outpaced her damage increases. Making up her mind, she dumped both her points in Strength and looked at her stat sheet.