Limitless Path

Beth wanted to check Sera's Mana Physique; well, she wanted to check them all, but other than Sera and Blood, she was going to wait and not push the others. Them having shared what they managed to make in terms of rank, if they had been truthful, was more than enough. Not that any of them lied about making a Mana Physique, as they had all been fully successful in their rebirths, but prying into their Physiques could be rather rude. She didn't have the same qualms with Sera, nor really Blood, but she was going to cut the wolf a break for a bit and only nose into her fiancée's business.

Sera's Mana Physique was rather powerful, at least at first glance. It looked strong and Beth was sure it would give her a good bit more power, but it was only after talking with Sera for a little bit that she realized just how truly powerful it was. Even after all this time, she was sometimes surprised by the Path and how many different things either acted or interacted to create certain effects and powers. It was also worth remembering that Mana Physiques, like skills, followed the typical ranks, meaning that there were quite a few ranks beyond Diamond. If Sera's Diamond Mana Physique was anything to go off of, Mithril Mana Physiques must be truly unbelievable.

Dragon Ruler of Iron Stars [Diamond]

{The wielder of this Mana Physique possess an unbreakable, unquenchable body of scale and fire that will outlast even the iron stars, commanding them as they fade. They can bend the very heart of the stars to their will.}

Beth had expected something related to Sera's void affinity, but the dragon had explained that that wasn't necessarily the best way to go. Matching a Mana Physique to either an affinity or an area of specialization was one way to multiply a person's power by quite a bit. Another thought was to fill in a gap that the person had in their build or use their Mana Physique to correct a weakness or vulnerability, but Sera hadn't gone for that either. In fact, her whole idea had been to make herself far more durable and enduring, and she had succeeded at that in spades. One of the several things that Beth had realized after thinking about it and discussing things with Sera was that the dragon was now immortal. Sera could still be killed in fighting, to be clear, but a Mana Physique of the kind and level she now had meant that she would no longer age, nor would many simple diseases or infection harm her. Functionally, she was now immortal, with an infinite lifespan, and it made Beth wonder if Tazeen had something similar, as she knew he was functionally immortal and was only an Enlightened currently.

Beyond the description sounding really cool, the last line talking about bending the heart of stars to her will had some surprising ramifications. Sera pointed out that technically, at least some blackholes were the former hearts of stars, meaning Sera would have a limited level of control there. That was something to note down to ask Zane about the next time they talked to him, as he was largely the reason why the space station he and Fallon shared was surrounded by singularities. Beth supposed Sera would have to get some kind of stellar magic or fusion magic or something to take advantage of the power of her Mana Physique, but the main thrust of her new power was on her being tougher. Considering it was a Diamond-level Mana Physique, which was about the best that most people would ever get or see, and that it was about being tougher and more resistant, Sera was now tougher to an insane degree.

A final piece that Beth was informed of by Sera centered around her ability to command stars gave her an extra conduit to power. Sera told Beth that, while she needed to do a lot of testing, she felt like she could pull energy out of the heart of a star. That would give her near-limitless energy, if there were no downsides or effort involved in doing it, and she needed to check how that all worked. With the discussion nearly complete, Beth was taking a closer look at Sera when she noticed that her fiancée had both a few more scales and that her scales were subtly different. They were still black with a faint iridescence to them, but they also had an effect like a faint light glowed deep in their centers. It was a fascinating, and quite beautiful, effect that Beth thought was directly related to Sera's new Mana Physique, though having such an effect was rather rare.

Now that everyone had been successful, to varying degrees, it was time to think about the next steps, though those steps would be a bit different for everyone. Beth and Sera were kidnapping Blood and taking her off to work on crafting for a while, depending on how long the crafter with the token would tolerate them. Val was going to take care of something with her Ancestor, though she insisted it wouldn't take very long and that she'd catch up with them shortly. Bjorn and Kris both had things to do, though separately, and would let Beth know when they were done with their small pieces of personal business. Neph, Andrea, and Adam all went off to start slowly leveling together, though they were going to spend some time relaxing first. Adam also insisted they spend some time fighting in the arena, as he was a rather avid participant of individual duels.

Beth and Sera grabbed Blood and headed out after a day of rest, more for Sera than anything, though ironically her new Mana Physique, coupled with her high Endurance and body skills, meant she recovered the fastest even having pushed herself the hardest. They had quite a few nodes to teleport through, having to jump off the CRA's network for several hops not once, nor twice, but on three separate occasions. It was during the last of those that Sera took them on a little detour, though it was well worth it in Beth's opinion.

The object in question was a wall, but calling it that was like calling an ocean a drop of water. The thing stretched for billions of miles, blocking off a large part of an entire solar system. Constructing a wall to do that would seem rather foolish, but this construct created a shield that protected the inner system in a sphere, at that sphere also absorbed much of the energy of the sun, allowing only some of it to pass out through the screen. The wall itself was more than a hundred miles high and more than a mile thick and occupied what would be an orbit slightly further out than Mars in Sol System. Beth's mind boggled at the whole thing, in particular the absolutely astounding amount of metal that must have been used in its construction.

"What the hell is this?" she asked Sera.

"It's the Last Wall of the Smith King," she said with a nod, as if that explained everything.

"Okay, I need more than that, Ser," Beth replied.

"Right, well, how to explain?" Sera asked rhetorically, running the claws of her right hand through her hair. "It's like this; the guy who built this was an absolute monster, certainly in terms of his smithing. Even so, building this wall took his all, and I mean that literally. He poured not just his blood, sweat, and tears into this thing, he put his very lifeforce into it. He built alone something that might have taken an entire empire a decade to complete, and he did it all in one year."

"I could bullshit on so many things," Beth scoffed. "He did it alone? In a year? Without help? Where'd he even get this much metal or material?"

"Well, the wall isn't fully solid," Sera explained. "The inside is hollow, or has tunnels in it, at least, so it's not just a chunk of metal that size. Also, you can get a lot of metal if you're rich, not to mention things like starlifting exist. Still, it is impressive."

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"I don't believe he did it in a year," Beth said, shaking her head.

"I don't, either," Sera confirmed. "I think that's just supposed to be part of the mystique. The rumors say he probably spent somewhere between a century and three centuries building it, but who knows. He was one of the best smiths who has ever lived in the Milky Way; nobody knows what somebody like that can do. Most people don't even hit Sage these days, and hardly anybody gets anywhere beyond that."

"Any idea what the metal is?" Blood asked, much less interested than the other two but still slightly impressed.

"Some kind of alloy based on sky steel," Sera replied with a slight shrug. "I don't know if anybody knows what he did for sure, even in terms of materials used. He made the wall about five hundred thousand years ago and its still here and hasn't degraded at all in that time, which even enchanted steel shouldn't have lasted just like that. Whatever it is, he likely found some kind of incredible source for it, likely a dungeon over level five hundred that produced the metal in bulk. That still wouldn't explain everything, but he clearly had sources, since the wall's here."

"You said he used his lifeforce when he made this. Did he…die?" Beth asked, studying the wall from a distance.

"Supposedly lived through it and disappeared," Sera said, rolling her eyes. "You know how that goes."

"Right," Beth muttered, shaking her head.

"Let's move on," Blood urged, getting them headed towards their destination.

That destination, it turned out, was a shack in the middle of nowhere. Well, shack might have been just a bit derogatory; it was a small house with a workshop attached to the side. Even as they approached, they could hear hammering in the forge, and Beth could see a dwarf inside through the wide open shop doors, which were a large set of heavy-duty wood and steel constructs set on rollers. Beth stuck her head into the forge, almost stumbling slightly when she found it was spatially expanded, though nothing too crazy, but it was definitely larger and more advanced inside than what the outer shell would lead one to believe.

"I help ya kids?" asked the dwarf, turning to look at them while he shoved the piece he was hammering back in the forge.

"I think this is yours?" Beth said, showing him the token.

"Ah, yeah, wondered when that'd bite me in the arse," he muttered. "So, ya got the token from that old kook, huh?"

"If you mean Mortaine, then ya," Beth said. "He told us where to find you, too."

"No problem, no problem," the dwarf said, motioning them inside. "Ya lasses can just call me Old Tom, or Tom, if'n ya want."

"We don't mean to be a bother," Sera said as they walked over to him, Blood sniffing at some of the tools and workstations.

"It's fine; I knew that token was still out there, anyway," he said, making a dismissive motion with one hand. The man was a classic dwarf in Beth's mind; short, broad, thick-armed and thick-legged, long hair bound by a leather cord, and a thick, braided beard that fell down past his waist. His hair was nearly snow white, with only a little gray in it, and his face bore quite a few weathered wrinkles, but he gave off a strong air of vitality and power.

"What're you doing all the way out here? Considering your talent, I'd think you'd be somewhere other than a low mana world backwater like this just doing random projects," Sera said.

"Got into a dispute with somebody a long time ago," the dwarf said with a shrug. "Man wound up stealin' most of my business and driving me off. He got rich and I barely kept my shirt, but that happened a long time ago. Now, I work on what I want, when I went. Let me get this piece finished."

He took the metal out of the fire and started hammering at it again.

"So, what about the guy that took everything from you? He sounds like he won," Beth said as Old Tom worked.

"I 'spose you could say that, in a manner," he answered, hammering at the sword.

"Don't you want to get back at him?" Beth asked.

"See, kid, that's where you ain't got it," he said, gesturing at her with his hammer before hitting the metal again.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG

"He used his position, his wealth, his talent, to try to drag me down…"

CLANG, CLANG

"Now I'm here in this shack. But say I did the same to him?"

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG

"I spent a hundred years with revenge burning in my heart, working and scheming to do the same back to him. What then?"

CLANG

"Then you're both in shacks?" Sera asked.

"See, you kids are clever," he said, pointing the hammer at her. "I ain't the kinda guy that wants us all living in shacks, so I moved on with my life. Hasn't stopped me swinging my hammer yet."

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG

After the last few hammer blows, he raised the sword up, holding the blade vertically so the two could inspect it. Beth couldn't help but gasp when she saw it; it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen, second only, perhaps, to the woman standing to her right. The smith had shaped the metal by hammering and folding, twisting and pushing, working it with his mana until the blade was made up of a thousand coruscating waves, flowing and surging up the blue steel from the hilt to the tip, at which point they crashed together in a spectacular swirl of perfectly molded steel.

"It's the most beautiful piece of art I've ever seen!" Beth gushed.

"I knew you had the eye for it, kid," he said, pointing his hammer at Beth.

"It's, uh, a nice sword," Blood commented.

Beth frowned while Old Tom raised his eyebrows and pointed his hammer at Blood before they said in unison, "You don't get it!"

Blood huffed and crossed her arms, frowning at the rest of them. The smith moved over to a large barrel in the meantime, plunging the blade into some kind of oil. Beth checked to figure out what it was:

Loam Toad Oil Barrel [Fresh]

She couldn't help it, letting out a cackle as Old Tom dunked the blade.

"What's so funny about a quench, kid?" he asked with a snort.

"I just had the image of you, a toad in each hand, standing over the barrel trying to squeeze them while a hundred more hopped all over the shop," Beth said.

"You're not too far off," the old man chuckled.

"The hell?" Beth snapped, brow scrunched.

"Except, it ain't me," the old man said. "It's old man Cai."

"He milks toads?" Sera asked, incredulous.

"Don't give me that look," the smith chided. "Loam toads secrete a natural oil that coats their back and legs. The use it to move through dirt and also nourish it. Lets a nice mushroom, crunchy and earthy and a little sweet, grow; makes great fryin'. Anyway, they love eating the mushrooms, and they don't grow real big. The old coot raises 'em. They can release more oil than they need, and if you feed 'em well, they just keep making more. Doesn't hurt 'em or anything to get the extra oil."

"That's pretty weird," Sera said with a slight frown.

"Oh, you want weird, kid?" he asked, pointing the hammer at her.

"No, but I feel like you're gonna tell me anyway," she replied with a sigh.

"You ever squeezed an oily toad?" he asked with another snort as he pulled the sword from the oil.

"That's fucking gross," Sera responded, gagging.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure what it's even supposed to mean, but I'll fucking take a hard pass on that," Beth said, holding up her hands defensively.

"A hard pass," the smith laughed, pointing his hammer at Beth. "I see what you did there, girlie."

"Again, gross," Sera interjected.