Limitless Path

As the party continued, Val showed up once again, moving through the room and speaking with nobles and royals, though never pausing for long. Blood's girlfriend was a sight to behold, in all aspects, and she expertly navigated the soiree until she was beside Beth. She pulled Beth close, looking as if she was hugging her and pressing a kiss to her neck as she bent down, but instead she whispered, "Relic." Beth felt something pressing against her stomach at the same time and didn't even need to think about it, instantly absorbing it into the reliquary after wrapping it in her spatial power. The exchange happened so fast that nobody else could have even started to sense something, and Beth's control of spatial manipulation was so fine and precise that only another spatial user, or someone hundreds of times stronger, could have detected what she did.

"Done," Beth whispered, directing the sound only into Val's ear, though she gave Val an actual kiss on the neck before the kresnik straightened.

"Don't stay out too long," Val said, pretending to admonish her but showing to any watching that it was in jest as she also carefully touched Beth's cheek.

They didn't even use their communicators, though they were very hard to hack, for fear of leaking what they were up to. Val continued on, sweeping across the room before disappearing a few minutes later, and Beth cast her gaze inward, looking at a spot in the reliquary where she had set up a small platform to put goods on that she didn't want in her necklace. There, on a little cloth that she had left on a corner so more delicate items weren't sitting directly on the stone, was an entombed heart, softly pulsing with powerful mana. Several of the Empyreans teleported over to examine the item before generally losing interest and returning to whatever they had been working on. All of them were still obsessing over the observations of Beth's Ideal and what it meant for their ability to form one and obtain both their freedom, as well as their long-cherished dreams.

The Empyreans aside, the entombed heart radiated power, and while a big group of peak-Ascended might not be interested in it, it could either help Beth's group immensely by have one of them directly absorb its strength, or they could sell it. She'd have to look at it when she wasn't in the middle of a big party that they had just stolen the heart from, but from the power she was sensing, the item was both of a high level and a high rarity. The thing would likely cause a feeding frenzy once they brought it out, provided they were going to sell it, but she kept it tucked away in her reliquary for now. The reliquary was already of Boundless rarity, which was unbelievable, but she had asked the empyreans about it, and they agreed that it was also the equivalent of a level one thousand item, despite not having that in the description. If there were any Exalted about, which she knew for a fact there weren't, they might, just might, be able to peek into the reliquary, but even that was doubtful. The only people she knew who could likely look into it would be Zane and Fallon, and they were literally the only two beings at that level of power in the entire galaxy.

She finished the party late that night, drinking and fighting and feasting to her hearts content. Despite not being able to get drunk, she certainly consumed enough alcohol; no reason not to drink if it was on somebody else's dime. She also ate enough food for a dozen people, at least, but she'd always had a big appetite and having reach Enlightened hadn't slowed her down any. She returned to their shared quarters late enough that it was early the next morning by the time she was back, though she didn't have anywhere else she needed to be. She had long ago proved that her gate power was of an exceptional capability, and she used that now to open a gate in the Grand Palace, entering with the others before heading deep into the gate and blocking out any scrying with a formation Val set up. It was a crazy level of precaution, but so far, they had gotten away scot-free with taking the heart, so they were taking no chances.

"Well?" Sera asked, looking at Beth expectantly.

"Well…" she said, making a rather broad gesture with her hand, the heart appearing in her grasp at the end.

"Holy…!" Sera said, having not seen the heart herself yet.

"Blood stole it, handed it off to me at some point, and I brought it to you," Val explained absently as they all stared at it.

Entombed Heart of an Inferno Salamander King

Despite all her advancements, Beth couldn't see any further information about the heart, but that wasn't really necessary. The fact that it talked about inferno and a salamander king in the name gave a rather good idea of what it would do. The heart might even be good for her to use directly, but she wasn't a beast, and so the heart would do little for her. It was a foolish thing, but her group didn't have a beast that had any kind of fire affinity, so nobody in the group could get much use from the heart directly. Inferno was a powerful form of fire mana that could ignite almost anything, but even somebody with fire or flame or such aspects could use it, provided they were a sapient beast.

"We could get someone to refine it," Val said as they stared at the heart.

"Wouldn't that be a waste?" asked Beth.

"Well, usually, but if we had a powerful enough alchemist…" Val said.

"Even so, we still couldn't use the elixir that they made, right?" Beth said, putting the heart away in the reliquary once again.

"Well, not very effectively," Val agreed. "It would, if we got a strong enough alchemist to work on it, increase its value, though the heart itself is already incredibly valuable."

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"I suppose the question is if we should sell it or not?" Sera said.

"Why wouldn't we sell it?" Beth asked.

"We could hold it to use for trade or bargaining later," Sera replied. "We can always make more money, that's not hard for our group, but finding such a rare and powerful entombed heart is something that's not at all easy. Better that we hold onto it until we're desperate or, better yet, find someone else who's desperate and is willing to trade an unimaginable fortune for it."

"I don't necessarily like the idea of having something so powerful just sitting around collecting dust in my storage," Beth said with a sigh.

"We have adamantine levels of wealth right now, and not just one, but two ships," Val said, rolling her eyes. "We don't need to get any more wealth right now. Even if we did, we have tons of ways to get it without selling something so valuable. It would be a lot better to find an Exalted or somebody that has had a hard time with their humanization and trade it to them for something incredibly rare and valuable."

"I suppose that makes sense," Beth said, shrugging.

"We might be able to get something from one of the other clans, but I don't think anybody else has an active Exalted in our galaxy other than my clan," Sera said. "We really wouldn't get as much value out of it from trading it to an Ascended, so we should hang onto it and wait for somebody very specific."

"We might also be able to trade it to somebody overwhelmingly strong for a good deal," Beth said then, tapping her chin. "Zane and Fallon might not need it, but they're rich as fuck. It wouldn't be hard for them to pay an insane price for it even if they didn't have a direct use. We could sell it to them as a bargaining chip for them to use with other Manumitted."

"Not a bad idea," Sera said.

"You're referring to Zane Farstrider?" Val asked.

"Yeah. I have his contact details," Beth explained.

"Of course you do," Val said, rolling her eyes.

"That's for later," Blood grunted.

"Right. We need to focus on this project," Beth said, explaining the announcement the king had made. "I think we have a really good chance of making a powerful weapon that would be in the running for the top prize. Sera and I are about to reach Master in our smithing, and if we push hard, we can make a very powerful weapon. If Val can add very good enchantments to the blade or spear we make, then I think we can at least place top three, if not win outright."

"What's our plan?" Sera asked.

"Spear or sword?" Beth asked in response.

"Spear," Sera said.

"Spear would be easier," Val agreed.

"Do we use our own workspace?" Beth asked, but she knew the answer even before the others agreed. "Okay, then, we'll have Blood stand guard. Watch from outside the suite; we don't want even our little shadow, the team manager, to figure out what we're up to. We'll start working on it today and then we'll take a bit of a break to watch some matches and so I can have a presence in the arena still. It won't be good if we just lock ourselves away for three straight days without showing up anywhere else."

"Sounds like a plan," Sera said, Blood grunted an agreement before disappearing out of the gate.

They were already in the residential setting of the gate, and they moved into the forge to work. It was the first time the three of them worked together, and the first time Beth had worked directly with an enchanter on a piece she was smithing. It added some new considerations to the work, as they had to take into account metal composition, weapon size, configuration, and more when considering where and how Val would place the runes. It required a new level of precision in the work, but Beth and Sera felt they were up for the work and that it was something that could push them to a new level in their own crafting. They had settled on making a spear that was about seven feet in length in total, including the entire haft, pommel, and head.

Beth started with forging the spearhead, which they would make as a separate piece and then attach to the haft. They were using an alloy that was a combination of mana sky steel and mana mithril, though only a dash of the latter. That would give the spearhead a lot of rigidity without making it too hard, allowing a slight flexibility. The alloy they made would also allow for a high level of enchantment, right up to the limit of Val's current skills, without having to sacrifice the potency or complexity. It was going to be an expensive piece, especially as the haft was being made from solid mana sky steel with a mana dark iron core, which would make it extremely heavy and durable. The enchanting on the haft would be all about durability and repair and would make the metal pole practically indestructible for its level and application. The pommel was made of a mana silver and mana sky steel blend that would provide strength while also allowing a high level of mana conductivity that would let them place a carved mana gem in the center to help with power all the rest of the enchantments.

Beth stopped her work on the head after a handful of hours and went out to the arena, passing by Blood and letting her know that she could cycle with the others for a minute. She went down and watched some of the losers' bracket matches, thought they weren't exactly thrilling for her. Not to disparage the others too much, but they just didn't fight at a level that produced something interesting for her to watch. Not only could she easily clean the floor with any of the teams, watching them fight each other was fairly boring, as they weren't fast, strong, or skilled enough to show her anything interesting. She could still learn a few things, particularly about fighting with different skills than what she was used to using, but it was overall a bit boring. She could learn just as much from watching recorded matches once they were out of the dungeon, and she mainly just went down to see and be seen.

Still, she accomplished her goal, not that others wouldn't suspect they were working on a weapon for the king's request, but they might be thrown off by seeing Beth, and members of her team, out and about even while others were struggling with the task. Beth wasn't sure of the level of crafting skill among the other competitors, but she suspected it would be the Elders saving the other teams apart from the dungeon-generated teams. The young heirs and their buddies had likely put very little effort into learning crafts in their relatively short lives, but some of the Elders were either Masters or even Grandmasters, which is where the biggest competition would be coming from.

Beth returned to the suite after her mingling and entered the gate, resuming her work on the spearhead. The others had continued with their work just a bit while she had been out, though they had also showed their faces a bit as they wanted to keep up appearances. It was not just for trying to hide their work, but was also for trying to obfuscate their involvement in the theft of the entombed heart. The palace's alert level appeared to have increased slightly, though Blood said it was like a kicked beehive under the surface, but them acting normally and showing up in various places was helping divert suspicion from their team. The inability of the others to find any kind of trace or scent of the heart on them, with the reliquary's ability to hide the thing perfectly, meant that they weren't under pretty much any suspicion of stealing it. Blood had really done a very good job in swiping it, both with the act itself and the timing, and there were two other teams that were being scrutinized for the theft.

Beth's work on the spearhead took her another day, which wasn't that bad, but she and Sera still had to make the pommel piece before welding all the pieces together. Val had already started on the enchanting, but she needed the smithing work to be fully finished before she could do the bulk of her work. Them trying to avoid the fallout of the theft and also keep an eye on the competition slowed the work down, but they still managed to finish the whole thing before the deadline. Beth was pretty sure they would be a top five entry with the quality of the spear, but she had hopes of getting a podium place with the level it was finished at.