Limitless Path

"This is unbelievable," Sera said, looking around.

"It's pretty great, but it's not really that mind-blowing," Beth said with a chuckle.

"You don't really get it," Sera said. "And, I'm not trying to insult you here, and I sound like a rich bitch, but knowing how rare and expensive activating a gate like this is from my family and connections gives me perspective. This is an incredible power, Beth, something that people would definitely fight over."

"Yeah, I get it, but we'll just have to get so strong nobody would think about doing anything," Beth said.

"Oh no, you don't get it, I mean most people would fight to throw money at your face," Sera said. "At least, at first; they might try nefarious means later."

"Oh, I see," Beth said, nonplussed.

"Ten times multiplier on the time acceleration is great," Sera continued. "My family has something like this and it can go up to a hundred times, but that's so expensive."

"We don't have to fight goblins, or in a grassland, either," Beth then commented.

"Wow, that's pretty crazy! You can change the layout?!" Sera asked excitedly.

"I can change the layout to a huge amount of different terrain types and I can generate basically any enemy I've killed before," Beth explained.

"Whoa, that's way more versatile than ours. It's just hobgoblins, hobgoblins, hobgoblins. And all in some stinky, shitty cave that you have to drudge through in the damp and wet. It really fucking sucks," Sera ranted.

"Well, we can do caves if you want?" Beth asked with a small smirk, getting a deep frown from Sera in response.

"Very funny," Sera scoffed, rolling her eyes as she turned and walked back through the portal.

"What's up?" Beth asked after following her out.

"The stuff around the portal was your level, which wouldn’t be good for me," Sera explained. "You should level some."

"Not how it works," Beth replied, shaking her head.

"Oh, what do you mean?" Sera asked, one brow arching slightly.

"The stuff gets higher level the further out you go," Blood chimed in from the couch. "If you go far enough out, stuff is forty, fifty levels higher than we are right now."

"Also, I can set the starting level to within a certain range. Right now, it's within a hundred levels of my level, so I could set the nearby beasts to be at level two-seventy, if that's what we wanted," Beth continued the explanation.

"Okay, even more powerful than I thought," Sera muttered. She then said, "I think two-seventy is a bit much for us right now, even as a group. But we could start at two hundred and spend a few days getting some levels."

"Sure," Beth said with a shrug. "Wouldn't hurt to get to or past level two hundred before taking care of these two missions. The extra stats would certainly help."

"Then let's get started," Sera said, to a smile from Beth and a groan from Blood.

The great thing about Beth's gate power was the time dilation, as they could spend seventy days in the gate, and seven days would have passed outside. That was what they did for their first run, and Sera had no problem keeping up. Beth had been a little concerned, not about the dragon's stamina, as her body and stats were just fine, but about her mental fortitude. She knew that both she and Blood were a bit crazy in their ability to fight for weeks, even months, on end with little more than a handful of sleep cycles. Sera, it turned out, despite her generally lackadaisical attitude, was more than able to keep up, fighting the enemies along with them for over two months just fine.

They came up for air, so to speak, after the first week, Beth wanting to restock on some supplies as well as poke around outside for a bit. She also needed to add some time to their room, now that they were determined to be there for a couple months or more, objective time, and that's what she took care of first. She found Morne at the desk this day as well, and paid him fifty gold for a hundred days, giving them a total of another hundred and two days on the room. Three months should be more than enough for now for them to get some missions done, get some levels under their belt, and start seriously considering their next rebirths.

The next place Beth stopped was down in the commissary, finding a petite, slightly shy angel with six wings manning the counter, a stark contrast to what she got back home. Beth was almost a bit flabbergasted, and the little angel looked rather nervous at Beth's confusion, but Beth knew that anybody that could get to level three hundred and ninety couldn't really be that timid.

"I-is there, uh, anything I can g-get you?" the angel asked.

"Sorry, the commissary manager at my home Hall is a total asshole…it's just a really stark contrast," Beth explained. "But I already like you better. A lot better."

"O-oh, uh, th-thanks?" the woman said.

"Sorry, didn't mean to be weird. What's your name?" Beth asked.

"Alicia," said the woman quietly.

"Nice to meet you, Alicia, I'm Beth," Beth said with a big smile. "I need some supplies, by the way."

"O-oh, right. What can I g-get you?" the woman asked quietly.

"I need five of the regular packs of rations," Beth stated.

"O-oh, that's a lot. Give me a moment," Alicia said, disappearing for just a second before reappearing and setting five of the large packs on the table. "H-here you are."

"How much?" Beth asked.

"F-fifty silvers for them a-all," Alicia said quietly.

"Here," Beth gave her the coins, only making the ration packs disappear after Alicia had made the coins disappear.

"Th-thanks. Anything else?" she asked.

"I need new clothes," Beth stated. When Alicia just looked at her blankly for a moment, Beth elaborated, "I need at least five sets of CRA clothes, but with the silver stripe on. I think I'll be getting Gold in not too long, but I want some Silver sets for now."

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"O-oh, right! Do, uh, you need your measurements taken?" Alicia asked.

"I probably should," Beth replied. "I think I've changed just a bit since the last time I got measured. I want the clothes to fit precisely without have to rely on the stretchiness at all."

"O-okay, let me deploy the platform," Alicia said, messing with something before the platform Beth was familiar with appeared at one end of the counter. "S-step on it, p-please."

"Sure, I know what to do," Beth said with a nod, stepping on the platform and letting it measure her. After it was done, Alicia messed with some things for a moment before she generated five full sets of clothes, including socks and underwear. Beth didn't really need it all, but it was cheap, and it took up practically no space, so she paid the few silvers and stashed them away.

"A-anything else?" Alicia asked.

"No, thanks, that was really helpful," Beth said with a big smile, getting a small grin back from the woman for her trouble.

"Thank you for stopping by," Alicia said, giving a small bow as Beth nodded and then left.

When she got back to the room, she said to Sera and Blood, "Can I see your stats? I want to check where we're at."

"You know you can just look at mine," Blood said.

"I just figured I'd make sure," Beth said.

"I'll give you access to mine," Sera said nonchalantly, flicking a gesture at Beth. Beth walked over and plopped down in Sera's lap after making her equipment disappear and looked at their stat pages.