Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Ninety-Two (Patreon)

A/N: Just a quick reminder, book three is available over on amazon here. Also, if you haven't taken a few seconds to leave a rating on it, they really help, even more so on Amazon than other sites, so I would really, really appreciate it if you could drop a rating. Thanks for all your continued support and enjoy today's chapter. END A/N

“And who’s this?” Beth asked, nodding at the woman.

“Don’t get any ideas, girlie,” Baelvyr said in a disapproving tone.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Beth fired back, frowning aggressively at the ogre.

“Ya know what it means,” he replied with a shake of his head.

“Ahem,” the lady interrupted, clearing her throat. “I am Tia, an old friend of Baelvyr’s. He called me in to help with a certain…problem his team encountered. We needed some specific materials, which is why we attended the auction.”

“Look, she can speak plainly. Why can’t you?” Beth harangued Baelvyr while the others greeted Tia.

“Ah, leave off, girlie,” Baelvyr said.

“You ready to let us in on what’s going on now?” Sera asked, practically sitting on Beth to stop the back-and-forth.

“Not yet,” Baelvyr shut that down immediately. “Ya need to be ready to get into the Eternal Depths before we start goin’ into all that. As it is now, we got some work to do and we need some extra hands to get somethin’ done. Ya’ll need to focus on some rebirths before you can help.”

“Well, we have things of our own to take care of, so tell us what’s going on and we’ll see what we can do,” Beth replied, sitting back in her chair, though she kept hold of Sera’s hands and rubbed her fingers as she spoke.

“We got most of what we need, but we need somebody to gather some specific materials. We can do it, but it would slow us down and waste a lot of time. If ya can get what we need, we can give ya some help with some of what ya need comin’ up,” Baelvyr said. “’Course, ya ain’t gotta agree. We got other ways we can get the stuff.”

“Tell us what it is and how much, first,” Val said, making a sushing motion at Beth.

“Five hundred split cores,” Baelvyr said. Seeing Beth’s look, he said, “Beast cores at level five hundred can handle two energy inputs. We need five hundred of a certain type. Ya would have to get ‘em fast, too.”

“Yeah, I think you can farm this one out,” Beth said. Seeing her own words cause a bit of confusion, she clarified, “We’ve got other stuff we have to do right now. You can hire someone to get this done without our help.”

“The pay’s good,” Tia added.

“We’re not in a big hurt for money right now,” Beth said, waving a hand dismissively.

It was true, too. They had made quite a lot at the auction, not quite enough to pay for all their purchases, but they had plenty of money still in the bank, as it were. Well, they had it split between all of them in their status screens, but they still had quite a lot in the bank. Enough that they didn’t have to worry about any of the taxes on their properties on any of their other expenses for quite some time. And that was assuming they weren’t going to be making any more money any time soon, which was absolutely not true, even with them taking some time to work on other things.

“None of ya are interested?” Baelvyr asked, looking at the group.

There was not a lot of interest from Beth’s group, with a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads. The group had been doing a lot of intense work lately, burning through the rebirths and fights one after the other. They were way ahead of people at their same age or experience level, certainly ahead of the average and even beyond many elites, so they didn’t feel all that much pressure to perform right now. Without any real need of money or fights, the team was more interested in relaxing than anything else right now.

“I think we aren’t all that interested,” Beth said after taking the temperature of the room.

“Well, that figures,” Baelvyr muttered, glancing around before figuring a few things, looking like he was thinking pretty hard.

“Don’t strain yourself, big guy,” Beth said, getting a chuckle from the room.

“Bah, we’ll have ta get some of them hires in that don’t know shit,” Baelvyr muttered. “I guess we can let it out to those bastards been crawlin’ round the edges. Well, anyway, if ya ain’t gonna help, then we got business we gotta go take care of, startin’ with hirin’ some people. Before I head out, though, I gotta warn ya about that bastard I put down. Small-minded little prick; don’t even know how he managed to get to Exalted, and he ain’t exactly the best of the bunch. I think he’s barely done five rebirths since hittin’ Exalted, which should tell ya everything ya need to know. He holds grudges like nobody’s business, though, and so do I, which is what some of that was about. Watch out that he don’t make yer life miserable. If ya know it’s him fuckin’ with ya, give me a call. I’ll put him down again, maybe this time for good.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open,” Beth replied, shaking her head. “What’s with him, anyway?”

“Just got a sour personality. Ain’t many that can rock his clock like that around, so he throws his weight around without much fear. Truth is, most of us that ain’t sour little wimps got too much shit to do to worry about the little matters he gets in,” Baelvyr said. “Then again, sometimes he tries to throw his weight around too much or with the wrong people, forgettin’ he ain’t all that hot shit, and then…well, ya all saw what happened. Ain’t the first time somebody’s finally had enough ‘o his shit and decided to crack ‘im a good one to put him back in line. He shouldn’t bother ya for a while, but keep yer eyes open.”

“Understood,” Beth said.

After that, there really wasn’t anything more to say. Baelvyr had, surprisingly for him, been shot down, but the group was a bit tired of other people’s busy work at this point and wanted a break. He also had delivered the info on Maximus, which wasn’t anything all that revelatory, considering the man’s attitude and the beatdown Baelvyr had given him. Beth was curious about Tia; where she had come from, what she was doing with Baelvyr’s group, who she was, and so on, but she didn’t push it. The ogre left, taking the elven woman with him, and the team turned to their own matters after that.

Beth opened the gateway to the residential area, allowing people access to the workshops therein to start on their professions, before she and Sera went shopping. They needed to help with the furniture selection, and had a host of other things they wanted to pick up. It wasn’t going to be cheap, but it wasn’t anything like what they had just spent on the auction, so they had plenty of funds to get everything the new house, and they personally, needed.

After that, it was going to be another trip, this one heading off to visit Old Tom, though Beth wasn’t sure if that group would be interested in anything she had or wanted. Ideally, she would get a little more training from them, but her real goal was to see if she could lure Old Tom into a commission, though he only took those once in a blue moon, if even that. She really wanted a good set of armor, particularly a chest piece and boots that could withstand the kind of forces she, and her opponents, were now putting out. If she could wrangle him into making a set of pants as well, so much the better, but at the least she wanted something better for her feet. It might be strange that that was the priority, but she both attacked and blocked with her feet and lower legs, so having that armor be much better would be a double boost.

She had maybe underestimated just how bored Old Tom and the others were and just how happy they would be at Beth and Sera stopping by, even if they had just done it as a social call. Studying alone in the mountains and living the life of a hermit was great, for some people, but it bred a certain lonely disposition that the crafters weren’t quite used to. They conversed with each other, and only each other, and that got a bit stale after the first five hundred years, so having someone else to talk to was quite nice. Beth had hoped she could get the empyreans to pop out and join them, but that wasn’t going to be happening before they had a serious conversation, which wasn’t going to happen at Old Tom’s.

“Well, well,” Tom said, once they were there. He barely even got that out before others started popping up, including Old Cai and several of the others in this little crafting village, if it even was a village. More like a handful of retreats all near each other. “And you lot! Scram! This is my forge!”

“Oh, let off it, old fellow,” Cai said, making a series of runes appear in the air that blasted Old Tom with cold wind.

“Not in the forge!” Old Tom snapped, swinging his hammer at empty air but still knocking Old Cai, and his cold air, out of the room with the gesture.

“Damn, maybe we should leave,” Beth muttered.

“No!” the others chorused, clearly not to be deprived of the reprieve in their boredom.

“So, what are you lassies in for, huh? Need our help with something?” Old Tom asked slyly, eying them up and down.

“Well, we’re all working on our professions right now; that includes my full group, who are back at home, which is nine of us in total. I want to try to push for Grandmaster now, and so does Sera. We were hoping you lot might be willing to lend a little help? Maybe just some good advice or a few little tricks you know?” Beth asked, trailing off in a leading tone.

“Well, well, I remember makin’ it to Grandmaster,” Old Tom said, stroking his luxurious beard.

“You don’t remember shit, old fellow,” Cai said, stepping back into the workshop and dusting himself off. “You don’t remember what you had for breakfast yesterday.”

“Earning Grandmaster is a lot more important than what kind of oatmeal I ate yesterday!” Old Tom huffed, waving his hammer about theatrically.

“I bet you don’t even remember what decade you made Grandmaster,” Old Cai said, crossing his arms and glaring at Old Tom.

“Well now, let’s see, it was back before that tourney winner asked for the shield,” Old Tom started, trailing off into incoherent muttering about some millennia-old commission and something about hammering metal too slowly.

“He doesn’t even have the century right,” Old Cai whispered to Sera, hiding his mouth behind his hand and leaning towards her with a too obvious gesture.

“It’s right! I swear it’s right…” Old Tom said, starting to mumble again as he tried to work out a series of dates and events that meant nothing to Beth.

“I don’t think my clan ancestor was even born when that one happened,” Sera interjected cheerfully, though it clearly didn’t help Old Tom any.

“Aw, enough of this!” he said. “We can definitely help you lassies get to Grandmaster. It ain’t as easy as all that, but with us here, you don’t need to worry. But you said there were two things?”

“Right,” Beth said, nodding and taking a deep breath. “I really don’t have any good armor anymore. My gloves and helm are pretty decent, if not really good for my current level, but my chest piece, leg guards, and boots all kinda suck. I mean, they’re great work for what they are, don’t get me wrong. The smiths who made them are pretty talented and they charged a fair price, but I’ve started outgrowing my current gear by quite a bit.”

“Well, well, let’s see what we’re working with first,” Tom said, indicating the table.

Beth laid out all her current equipment, from her armor to her sword to her peripherals, though she had very few of those. Come to think of it, she currently didn’t have any accessories or secondary items apart from her necklace, and she didn’t use that all that much. That was the original necklace from the Trial of Celestial Awakening, not the medallion, the latter of which she used frequently. She could definitely stand to get a new necklace and a few rings, if nothing else. She also knew people wore enchanted earrings as well, and, while she had never been much for earrings, if it would benefit her in battle, she could definitely pick a few up.

Tom and Cai both had started inspecting her gear in the meantime, muttering to themselves and each other as they looked over her armor. Old Tom spent quite a while on her sword, seemingly rather impressed with the level of craftsmanship, though what he produced as a random little trinket was usually ten times better than the blade. The comparison was a little unfair, but Old Tom looked like he really appreciated the work and took a few notes before passing the blade to Old Cai.

Cai was less impressed, muttering about sloppy work and poor connections, which Beth assumed meant he didn’t like the way the runes in the gear were linked together. She wasn’t really surprised, either, as much of the gear had been enchanted by sub-par enchanters, even compared to the smiths that made it. Even the stuff made by smiths at Grandmaster or Sage level, ones who infused the gear with runes during the creation process, would seem amateur and cheap by Old Cai’s standards. He didn’t have a high opinion of the low level set of legendaries Beth was still using for her chest, legs, and boots, and he was only moderately more forgiving of the helm and sword. He did have some very faint praise for her gauntlets, which she had upgraded herself with a powerful item a few years ago, but that was about the best of it.

“Yeah, I can see it,” Old Tom said eventually. “The legendary set is dwarven work, sure as sure. Not half bad, but that group has a long way to go.”

“You could tell it was a group just by looking at it?” Beth asked, genuinely intrigued by the comment.

“Sure can,” Tom replied, showing her and Sera how he could tell by the different processes that the different dwarves had used, each with their own slight changes or differences compared to the other crafters. “Can tell just by the hammer strokes and rune arrangements. Gotta have a lot of experience to see that.”

“Well, it’s interesting to know, but that wasn’t why I showed you the armor,” Beth said with a chuckle.

“Right, right. You want something better than this, isn’t it?” Old Tom asked idly, casting a critical eye over the armor and then her.

“Yep. Got some rare materials that might be interesting,” Beth replied, dumping some stuff from her necklace on the workshop floor, including some of the special liquid.

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