Limitless Path

Beth walked over to Sera, rolling her shoulders a little before saying, "You want to impress even further, or was that good?"

"I think I know what you're thinking, and I think we can hold off on that. We can also put on a little demonstration if that much already wasn't enough to get the point across," Sera said with a massive grin. "You really didn't give him a chance, huh?"

"He's a really standard asshole, the dime a dozen kind. Beside, he talked shit on you, so I had to cave his face in," Beth said, looking back to where the medic and ref were finishing up with Barnabas. The man was dazed and confused, looking lost as he resumed his feet and just looked around the arena for a moment, as if he couldn't get his bearings. Beth knew it wasn't from any injuries, but from the fact that he had been so thoroughly crushed twice in a row that he was so out of sorts.

"I-I, it can't, I don't…" Barnabas stammered as they all cleared the dueling field. "Not once, but twice…"

"Having some issues, Barny?" Beth asked, giving the dragon man a false, sickly-sweet smile.

"I can understand, perhaps, that she has brought in someone," he said, looking between them. "I just, I don't understand. She also beat me somehow, which is not how it's supposed to work. There must be some plot."

"Oh no, I think we broke him, Ser," Beth said, laughing at the man's confusion.

"He'll live," Sera said with a dismissive shrug. "He's lost before, he'll lose again. If he can't figure out how to move on after a simple loss or two, he'll never amount to much anyway."

"Lotta big talk for a big loser," Beth closed with a shrug.

The two walked away from the red dragon as he was still muttering about some kind of conspiracy and getting to the bottom of it, but Beth wasn't worried. Sera had far eclipsed the man in strength, and Beth eclipsed Sera in strength by a decent bit; if Barnabas tried to make a bigger issue of it than that, they could take care of it. They would have to see him again, most likely, as they still needed to get Sera's winning bet out of the man, which was no small amount of coin.

"You know," Beth said, as they left the arena, "there's something we should consider."

"Oh? What's up?" Sera asked, glancing down at her girlfriend.

"When you went to work for Laselle the first time, you were less experience, in many ways. You were also much lower rebirth, which doesn't matter all that much for the kind of work you were doing at the Rose, but there's still a draw there. An Allure," Beth said slowly.

"Right. I'm following so far," Sera said, nodding.

"So, let's say, just as a hypothetical, you went to Laselle again, right now, and wanted to sign the maximum Pledge of the Path. A five year deal. Thinking about everything, how much do you think she'd pay…?" Beth asked, trailing off at the end.

"Oh. Ohhhh," Sera said, picking up on what Beth was hinting at.

"Right?" Beth said.

"Hmm, I wonder how much we could fleece him for?" Sera asked with a grin.

"Please," said Beth. "With how damned pretty you are? With how incredible your body is and how it's just perfect? And your crazy good skills on top of everything? You have to be worth four or five times what that first contract was negotiated for."

"Five times…that's a bit much…" Sera replied hesitantly, reaching up and scratching a horn as they walked. "I don't have a problem giving Barnabas another beating, or rather, giving his wallet a beating, but there's two problems."

"Okay, what's that?" Beth asked, as they reentered the main building.

"First, we can't go too crazy because, despite being a total asshole, he's not that stupid," Sera said. "I know that doesn't sound very convincing, but if we try to say I'm worth thirty mithrils or something now, he's just not going to buy it. That's going to limit us a little bit, but we can still open with a high number and try to get him to have to barter down."

"Just seeing the look on his face if we said you're worth thirty orichalcum would be worth it," Beth said with a snicker.

"Oh, it's orichalcum now?" Sera asked.

"Well, if we're talking about still within some realm of reason," Beth said with a laugh. "If it were me, I'd say thirty Dream Gold with hesitation."

"Well, let's keep it reasonable," Sera replied, but she did squeeze Beth's hand and smile down at her.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelFire.

"Anyway, what's reason two?" Beth asked.

"Right, well, even if we could get Barnabas to buy into it, that's only the first problem," Sera said with a sigh. "I don't know what his money situation is like, but I doubt he could easily cover the fee."

"What? It's not that much, though. Even if we talk it up, it would still be a fairly small amount," Beth argued.

"Well, small to us, my love," Sera said. "We already have a bit of a warped view of money. I serviced people at the Rose that saved up for years just to afford the one trip. But there's an even bigger reason behind it."

"Oh, really? Do tell," Beth said as they returned to Sera's rooms and walked inside.

"Barnabas likely makes decent money between everything he does, but also likely spends it just as fast if not faster," Sera explained. "He's the wealthy young elite of one of the dragon clans. There's a lot of expectations with that kind of position; trust me on this, I know. He probably spends more than he makes some years, which would not be all that crazy, and his family and clan as a whole covers the expenses. He has to impress, and do it in every way, whether that's dressing or drinking or feasting or his equipment. Everything, and I mean everything, has to be both top quality and extremely fancy. All that, combined with the fact he probably spends a fortune on things like compressed time to train, likely making up for time he spends drinking and feasting, and he's not walking around with millions in his pockets like we are."

"I have to confess, and maybe this makes me a bit of a bad person, but I always forget just how big of an advantage my gate gives us. We still have to do a lot of heavy lifting, and in more areas than just gaining levels, but it is such a big bonus to have such a strong skill," Beth said.

"That's right," Sera said. "I'm glad I can ride friend privilege for it. Even as the heir to the Black Dragon Clan, I didn't think I'd get free access to something like that. Most people have to pay even family for something like that."

"I'd never charge you anything. I can't even imagine," Beth said, following Sera into the bedroom.

"You're sweet," Sera said, kissing Beth. "Some people that have similar skills, which there are a tiny, tiny handful in that category, are very strict with their rules. I mean, I get it, it's easy to get taken advantage of, and some people require more than just a little spiritual strain and soul pressure to run their gates or manufactured dungeons, but it's still annoying. It's so nice having you to just power such a strong skill without having to worry about cost."

"That is something to consider," Beth said as they made their armor disappear and moved into one of the bathrooms. "I forget that these kinds of skills are almost all unique skills; they work similar overall, but things like cost and how much the instance is manipulated vary wildly. I'd hate to have to pay something, like burn a ton of beast cores and resources, to start my gate every time."

"Yeah, some powers are really annoying in their requirements, and it's usually not something that can be solved with simple ingredients. They want tier four or five beast cores or the like, things from level three hundred or four hundred beasts and the like," Sera said, turning the shower to lava hot before relaxing under the water with a sigh. The two washed each other off, though they moved quickly, as Sera had started the tub. In a long ago time, her maidservant might have done the duty, but the Black Dragon Clan was nothing if not modern, and Sera could start the tub with just her communicator. The two got all the sweat and grime off in the shower and then slid into the tub to relax in each other's arms in the boiling water.

"So, we can't just wring the cocky bastard out for all he's worth, huh?" Beth asked as she settled in Sera's lap.

"Yeah, that's the problem," Sera sighed again, wrapping her arms and tail around Beth. "If we try to push him and take a lot, he probably doesn't have the coin, which means he would be pulling on the family accounts. We'd be taking coin from the Red Dragon Clan, which is not something that's totally awful, but it would turn into an absolute ton of wrangling. I'm good at it, and I do it, but I don't like it; it's one of the main reasons why I not only left, but stayed away so long. I'm tempted to just send him a copy of my contract with Laselle and underline the price premium section that lays out my total remuneration and see what he does with that."

"Well, come on, we have to upsell him. Just a little?" Beth said, snuggling back against Sera and holding up her right hand to show a small gap between her thumb and index finger.

"Well, maybe…" Sera said, giving Beth a squeeze beneath the water as she leaned back and looked off into the distance for a moment. Beth was happy to let her cook, or maybe steep or stew would be better, considering their current position. Sera was very laid back, but she had a keen mind and a good understanding of people. It didn't really surprise Beth when she claimed to be at least a decent hand at politicks, and she was confident Sera could get both a good deal and good satisfaction out of the arrangement. Beth personally felt like punching the twerps face in earlier wasn't quite enough, but she was being a bit too protective there; Sera could certainly handle herself.

"Thought?" Beth asked after a minute, stroking Sera's scaly thighs under the water.

"Plenty," Sera replied with a light snort.

"How about sharing some?" Beth asked lightly, her tone teasing.

"The thing I was thinking, but I just don't know how I'd make it really fly, is arguing that the original bet wasn't valid because it was for too long a period of time. That would really be the only angle, and that's weak, but if I could whip something up, we could argue that the original time was all time I should have had free to do what I wanted," Sera explained slowly while scratching Beth's stomach. "If we could establish that, in our little pretend scenario, we could say I was owed compensation for that time. The only reason I'm thinking of it gets messy, though, because you bought out my final year, which means you're technically owed something in here? That's where it kind of falls down a bit, but we could try to play that up, and then we could say he owes the contract amount for losing the bet and then the amount again for wasting my time."

"I say my way is better," Beth said, flicking her now shoulder-length hair, which she had had trimmed fairly recently. "We just go hard right from the start. I mean, yes, we'll need some justifications when he tries to argue, but we don't need this house of cards yet, or maybe at all. Just say he owes what you're worth at the Royal Rose, which would be X, like a mithril coin, and when he balks, we start punching it out. Well, verbally."

"I'm just thinking of those justifications now because they're going to be extra important here," Sera replied. "The problem is he's going to run back to mommy and daddy; hell, he might have already. Once that becomes the situation, we need to have more force than just saying: we want lots of money. They're going to balk at even paying my original fee and try to use a much lower compensation rate. That's why I was just tempted to hit him with the contract with the underline."

"Nah, let's not start from a position of weakness. Let's draw something up quick and hammer him from a position of strength. If he calls mommy and daddy in and makes it a big deal, it just makes him look poor. Poor in character and poor in actual wealth," Beth said, lifting a hand from its caressing of Sera to wave it in the air.

"Well, you're the leader, and hitting them hard always works," Sera said, Beth easily feeling the shrug through her body.

"Well, it doesn't always work," Beth clarified. "Sometimes, you have to hit them harder."

"Oh, I don’t like that look," Sera said after tilting Beth's head back to look at her face.

"Oh, we can do quite a bit here," Beth said, giggling.

"In more ways than one," Sera muttered, but leaned down and kissed Beth, preempting any response.

"Well, that was nice, but let's get out and get to work," Beth said, rubbing her hands together before standing. She was stopped for a moment when Sera reached out and grabbed her butt, giving it a healthy squish with both hands, but the dragon then let her go and followed her lead. They left the tub and dried off before wandering back into the bedroom and sitting down on the plan. Beth started drawing up the plans for what exactly they were going to send to Barnabas to prompt his payment of the bet, and they stuck their heads together for a handful of minutes before Beth had the message hammered out.

"It's really what you want to go with?" Sera asked.

"Listen, like I said, start from a position of strength," Beth replied with a smirk. "We start with this, explaining in simple terms what he has to pay and why, and when he balks, we hit him with the follow-up. That's likely to cause him to go nuclear, including bringing mommy and daddy or whoever in to try to apply pressure, but we're ready for that, too."

"You know what, you're kinda devious when you want to be," Sera said, grabbing Beth's message and sending it to Barnabas before leaning forward and showing Beth with kisses.