Limitless Path

Beth, meanwhile, had retreated to her room. She threw away her bloody, torn up shirt. The jeans were salvageable, and she threw them in the hamper to be washed. It looked like she was going to be rocking the punk torn-up jeans look from now on. At least, until she could get or make some decent leg armor.

Grumbling in frustration, she went into her bathroom and started the shower. Stepping in, she began scrubbing herself furiously, still muttering. When she was fully scrubbed, she cranked the heat and just stood under the blasting hot water, her dark hair clinging to her face and neck. She was too tired to care, too spent to do anything but stand and think.

Once she had stood under the water for a time and relaxed a little, she remembered something she had yet to check. Shutting the shower off and hopping out, she toweled herself dry before walking into her room and throwing on some underwear and a loose shirt. She sat on the edge of her bed and pulled out the CRA badge again. She hadn't really inspected it earlier and wanted to see if she could tell what else it did. She thought about expanding the information on it.

Combat Ranking Association Copper Badge

{This badge provides proof of basic membership in the Combat Ranking Association. This allows limited access to certain arena ladders, the Association Commissary, and will let the wielder discover the nearest established Association Hall when used on any settled world from a safe area.}

Discover a location? She thought. What does that mean?

Holding the badge in her hand, she tried to think about finding a CRA location. She thought something really impressive might happen with tons of lights and sounds. It was magic, after all.

Nearest CRA Hall six miles southeast.

A textbox. Well, she thought, it IS magic. Still…that was lame.

At least now she knew where the nearest hall was. The distance and direction would put it somewhat outside the nearest major city. She also had some sense of where the building was. It seemed a hall had either appeared or even been constructed somewhat south of the nearest large city, which was about six miles directly east of Beth's hometown.

It was too far for her to easily be able to get to quickly, especially with monsters around, but it was at least good to know where it was. It was now a top goal of hers to make it to the hall, knowing that there would be tons of information, experience, and even items to discover. She just needed some kind of way to get there. She wasn't confident in relying on someone to drive her, especially with how weak everyone else was and how many monsters seemed to be roaming around.

She decided she would spend a few days trying to get stronger. She should be able to use the Ancient World Gate power within another day or two, and she was curious how fast the high-level ants would repopulate. She also wanted to see what was up with the wolves to the south of the neighborhood in the scrub fields and wooded areas.

She returned the CRA badge again to its home in her Emblems tab and pulled out her phone. It was, surprisingly, undamaged from the day’s fighting. She plugged it into the charger on her nightstand before turning off her lights and hopping into bed for the night.

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Beth woke up the next morning as her alarm beeped. She swiped it off as she sat up, glancing at her phone screen and realizing it was Thursday already. Not that time mattered much since the drastic change in the world.

She got out of bed and threw one of her dwindling pairs of uncut jeans and a t-shirt on, heading into her bathroom to get ready. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she opened the door to her room to find Wiggles sitting upright in the hallway just outside her door, looking up at her. She squatted down in front of him, rubbing the sides of his face and scratching behind his ears. He purred enthusiastically at the treatment, and Beth picked him up as she headed downstairs. He continued purring and rubbed his face against her chest as she held him, burrowing into the crook of her arm.

She entered the kitchen and set Wiggles down on a stool by the island. Nobody else seemed to be up yet, which was just fine with her. Her family seemed pretty intent on holding her back, and she certainly didn't have time for any of that nonsense. She roamed around the kitchen, getting out cereal, juice, bagels, and a bunch of oatmeal. She started the oatmeal cooking and put some bagels in the toaster while she filled one of the largest bowls in the kitchen with cereal and milk. She started in on the bowl while the rest of the food cooked.

She finished up the first bowl of cereal just in time for the multiple bagels to be done in the large toaster. She slathered them in peanut butter while checking on the oatmeal. It was coming along, so she started devouring the bagels. In another fifteen minutes she went through the bagels, all the oatmeal, another bowl of cereal, and a whole carton of juice. She rinsed everything out and gave Wiggles some water and food in his bowls before heading out back.

She found her sword in the mudroom and strapped it on. It wasn't useful for the high-level ants, but she could still practice with it against lower-level beasts. She headed back inside before putting on her boots and grabbed her water bottle, filling it quickly. That accomplished, she strapped on her boots, noting the metal studs were scratched while the metal strip on the left shin was dented. She definitely needed better gear.

Grabbing her gloves and heading outside, she made her way into the woodlot and across the field, moving at a quick trot. She ran into a level three ant as she moved through the copse before the farmer's field, but didn't even slow down, literally kicking its head off.

She reached the nest not long after and trotted up the ramp. There was no ant at the top, and she headed inside, dismissing the standard dungeon message that appeared. The first room was also empty, as were the second and third. The final room had a single level five ant in it. She was curious to see if the rest of the dungeon was refilled, but thought it might be unlikely, based on the speed she had seen ants be produced at and the level they appeared at. She decided it was time to check out the wolves.

Retracing her steps, she left the nest and moved back toward the neighborhood at an angle, heading eastward at the same time. She passed a few ants along the way, but she left them alone other than using Identify. The highest-level ones were level two, and she had a good idea of their sensory ranges after constantly fighting them.

She circled around the eastern side of the neighborhood, staying outside of the ring of the ditch many of the people had been working on. She moved down toward the main road, coming out on the sidewalk along the small highway in just under ten minutes. She looked around, seeing no cars moving in either direction. It was a little eerie.

Shaking off the feeling, she jogged across the road, making sure to keep an eye out so as not to get hit by a random driver out of nowhere. On the other side of the road, she found the large field she was familiar with. There were clumps of trees here and there just in from the sidewalk to act as a barrier from the road, but there were also open spaces without trees or bushes. She moved through one of these spaces and was immediately set upon.

A wolf lunged at her, jaws stretched wide and tongue lolling. Beth was surprised but reacted quickly, not bothering to reach for her sword, and simply punched the creature in the head. Again, her impressive STR made itself known, a cracking sound echoing as her fist connected, the wolf spinning off to the side. As it bounced on the ground, she used Identify on it.

Grey Wolf Level 1

It wasn't labeled as common like the ants, but she supposed different species and types of creatures would have different kinds of classifications. It seemed simple wolves were just labeled using basic colors and noted as wolfs. She hadn't killed this one, but it certainly wasn't looking to be in good shape after that first punch.

Charging just her right fist with Crush, she stepped forward as the wolf was hopping onto its feet and punched the top of its head. The top of the beast's skull shattered, fragments exploding through its brain and tearing out the bottom of its jaw.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Beth felt a little bad, having perhaps a little deeper connection to the mammal than she would an ant. She remembered the people that had already been hurt by the wolves, as well as her talk with Liveria. Things were going to get worse. She couldn't be squeamish now.

Making her way forward, she encountered more wolves. At first, it was single wolves, leaping at her with abandon, trying to clamp her throat in their slavering jaws. After the first few outliers, killed with a slash or a punch, it was small groups, eventually ending with a group of three, two level fours and level five. These wolves used a bit of tactics in their attack, though Beth wasn't sure if that was just because they all chose different attacks at the same time, but they attempted to bite different parts of her body at slightly different times. Luckily, they weren't perfectly coordinated, and their timing was off, allowing her enough time to strike down first one, then the next beast with rapid slashes of her blade. It didn't take long after that to kill the level five and finish off the wounded level fours.

Continuing through the field for another couple of minutes she came to a small area of woods. She didn't really remember this being here, but she also didn't really come down into the old field below the neighborhood much either. She approached the wooded area, which was a rough square a couple hundred feet to a side. She couldn't really see much in the area and decided to cautiously enter. As soon as she stepped inside a message popped up in her vision.

Wolf's Breeding Ground

{You have entered the breeding ground of a type of common beast. Beasts are born and grow herein before leaving in search of prey and battle. Defeating the leader(s) of a breeding ground will halt its operation for a set amount of time.}

She read through the message, noticing that it was fairly different from the dungeon message displayed for the ant dungeon. It seemed that this was something of a separate space, reality being stretched a little to make the place a bit special. Still, there didn't seem to be any kind of restriction on entering or leaving, so she wasn't really too worried about it. She proceeded deeper into the wooded area, seeming to still have a fair way to go to get to the boss or bosses.

She moved forward through the area, proceeding slowly so as not to get jumped by a pack of wolves hiding in the underbrush. She soon found a clearing in the wooded area with a number of wolves in it. She used Identify to figure out what she would be up against.

Grey Wolf Level 5

Grey Wolf Level 4

Grey Wolf Level 4

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

Grey Wolf Level 1

There were half a dozen wolves prowling about, but three of them were "new" wolves. She wasn't particularly worried about them, but decided she could afford to speed this up. She would have plenty of time even in the near-term to work on her swordsmanship, she would rather get through this area quickly and return to exploring the wider area around the neighborhood.

She tore through this first clearing full of wolves, barely slowly down as she chopped and slashed them apart. Moving on from there, she encountered several more clearings of a similar nature, all connected by paths between the clearings. Walking down these paths, she occasionally encountered low-level wolves, seemingly freshly spawned, mainly trying to make their way out of the Breeding Ground.

She eventually got a good lay-of-the-land, figuring out the place consisted of two rings of clearings, all connected by paths between. She knew there had to be something at the center of it all and fought her way through the last clearing before taking a short rest, slightly tired from having plowed through several rooms back-to-back. She checked to make sure that she had gotten everything in the room and see if there was anything new.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

Level 6 acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

Grey Wolf Level 6 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 5 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 2 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Grey Wolf Level 1 slain.

Beth wasn't even winded, the level up having slightly refreshed her in the middle of the admittedly not very tough fight. She took a few deep breaths to calm down and focus before checking her stats. She decided to keep leaning into her strengths, STR in this case, but also catch her lagging stat up. She threw one point in each STR and WIS and looked at her progress.

Name

Elizabeth Anne Bell

Class

Brawler

Level

6

Strength

18

Dexterity

12

Endurance

12

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

10

Free Points

0

Titles

Silver Flame Empress Inheritor

Skills

Ancient World Gate[0]

Crush Copper[7]

Focused Meditation Copper[1]

Identify Copper[2]

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[2]

Pain Tolerance Copper[5]

Swords Apprentice[1]

Unarmed Apprentice[2]

Wealth

5s 6c

Emblems

CRA Copper Badge

Eighteen STR was simply monstrous. The strongest people in the world pre-change would have just barely been able to be counted at thirteen; it was likely at this point she could even bend some weaker metal bars with just her raw physical strength. The improved DEX and END were also nice, making her body strangely feel both more flexible and more solid at once. She marveled at her stats and huge wealth, increased by a whole copper. Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she refocused and started moving forward once more.