Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-Two (Patreon)

Things just kept getting worse as they had a close encounter with a unit from the Count's guards in the town, nearly getting caught while scouting businesses operated directed by the Count. They were almost caught thanks to Beth's fumbling, even her increasing DEX not able to make her any more stealthy or circumspect. She managed to use her massive STR to counter her fumbling, leaping to the top of a six-story building in a single smooth, near-silent movement that threw the guards off her trail.  

After that disaster, they had nothing else that they could come up with other than breaching the castle itself. They attempted it after two days of preparation, but they were just not espionage material, and they were finding out just how far Blood's little bit of scouting experience was from actual stealth capability. They managed to approach the castle at night without being noticed, thanks in part to Beth's now in-built heat vision, able to avoid not just people, but also some detection equipment and magics that had a slightly different temperature, making it stand out in her sight.  

Once at the castle, they were even able to successfully infiltrate, boosting their confidence that they weren’t exactly entirely awful at this whole sneaking thing. That confidence remained for a few more minutes, as they were able to move quickly and quietly across a mainly empty yard and behind a few small outbuildings. Not only that, but they were also able to navigate to the castle and up one of the walls in the corner closest to the mountain before slipping in an unattended window. That was about the last bit that went well for them in any way, shape, or form, as they were about a minute into moving through the castle when they were discovered. 

It wasn't just anyone that discovered them, either, but one of the two commanders of the Count's forces, a man who they would later learn had already undergone two rebirths and had an improved class. He was far stronger than them, even when they combined their power to attack him in a two-on-one, using pincer attacks such as they had on the stage twenty-five boss. The noise of their clash, the sounds of metal smashing against metal and the shrieking scrape of mana steel across mana steel, attracted the attention of far more people. Guards and attendants rushed to find out what was happening, surrounding Beth and Blood and attacking them en masse.  

That ballooning disaster quickly spelled the end of the stage for them, as the entire point was to gather information and evidence while entirely avoiding detection. Having a massive, running battle through a large part of the target of interest's castle was not exactly avoiding detection, and they found themselves experiencing a momentary sense of disorientation and whiteout before landing back in the array room. They were also given a very clear indication in their vision that they had failed, the two of them staring at it discontentedly, with furrowed brows and heavy frowns, a brooding that was interrupted by a Warder barking at them. They shot the Warder a look, but still hurried away from the array at the center of the room before heading over to the counter that they were well-used to visiting.  

Beth had a bit of a heavy heart, having had a slim hope that they might make it all the way to stage thirty. It was the double effect of encountering a stage that was a very bad match-up for their still burgeoning skills combined with that stage being a late stage in the process. Every stage had been more and more difficult in a variety of ways, whether it was the strength of the enemies, the stringency of the clear conditions, or the overall challenge presented, and the factors kept piling up until they hit something too difficult. Beth wore a bit of a frown as they stopped before the counter, catching the attention of one of the two workers that manned the counter within the array room. 

"Hit the end of your Trial?" the woman asked. 

"Unfortunately, yes," Beth replied with a heavy sigh. 

"Don't feel so down about it-" the woman started before she was interrupted by a condescending laugh. 

"So these no-names finally failed?" Beth turned her head to see the same dwarven woman they had bumped into step up to the counter next to them while giving her a haughty glare. 

"Likely did a lot better than your sorry ass," Beth bit back immediately. 

"Excuse me?! What was that?!" the dwarven woman replied hotly, handing reaching down for the hilt of her mace. The attendant at the counter clearing her throat and giving the dwarf a glare, coupled with a bit of pressure from her Presence, was enough to stop her in her tracks. The dwarf straightened and stuck her nose in the air before ignoring Beth and turning to the counter, saying, "I'm here to claim my rewards." 

"As I said before you started to use the rest of your rest after your failure at stage twenty, the rewards are claimed from the main counter in the lobby," the woman said with a slight sarcastic bite to her words. 

"Oh…right," the dwarf seemed a little deflated, though she still shot Beth a smirk, as if saying 'see how far I got?' 

"And as for you two," the woman behind the counter continued, ignoring the dwarf. "I see that you failed out in the middle of stage twenty-seven. When you are-" 

She didn't get any further before the dwarf interrupted again. "Twenty-seven! Bullshit!" 

The counter worker turned an icy glare on the dwarf, saying in a cold voice, "Do not continue to interrupt me." 

"But-" the dwarf started, only getting the one word out before she was cut off. 

"No buts. You are at the point of interfering with Trial business. Would you like part of your reward revoked?" 

"No, no, no. Of course not!" the dwarf said, holding her hands up defensively under the continuing glacial glare. 

"You've not learned all the lessons you need to achieve the kind of success you hope for," the counter worker continued. 

"What?" the dwarf asked, growing irritated again. 

"Despite having undergone the Trial and made it through quite a few stages, you still carry with you some ideals and prejudices that will hamper you long-term," the counter worker explained very calmly. "You have assumptions about others' standing and skill based on a number of factors that don't really matter as much as you believe. You see these two here and correctly understand they are new to the Path and are from a background of rather modest means, but you incorrectly assume that means they lack skill, ability, and tenacity. They have excelled far more than you in virtually the same amount of time thanks to their drive and innate talent, something you would do well to remember." 

The dwarven lady's mouth was slightly hanging open by the end of the reprimand, and she spluttered slightly as the counter worker turned back to Beth, though she couldn't seem to get her thoughts together. While she was still piecing herself together, the worker continued her explanation to Beth, saying, "As I was explaining, you can claim your rewards at the main counter in the lobby. You may also use the rest of your rest days, which would be four, to remain here and, as the name implies, rest. Whenever you are ready to return to where you entered the Trial from, speak to the people at the main counter in the lobby. I must also caution, just as a last little piece, you will be returned to exactly where you entered from, so bear that in mind if you entered under…adverse circumstances." 

"We entered from the arena floor of our local CRA, which still probably isn't in use yet," Beth replied with a shrug. "Thanks for all your help, both now and during our efforts." 

"It's no problem," the woman replied with a smile. "Your stages that you requested privacy on will remain so, which for you…seems like all of them? You'll be given an item with recordings of all of your stages along with your prizes at the main counter." 

"Oh no," said Beth with a wince. 

"Is that a problem?" the woman asked with some concern in her voice. 

"Well, I mean, my instructor is not going to be nice about our performance," Beth said, Blood joining her in the wince now that the thought of Baelvyr's chastisement entered her mind as well. 

"Oh, well," the woman seemed a little nonplused before continuing, "I'm glad that it's nothing too serious." 

"Well, thanks for your help, and we'll go hit up the counter," Beth said before giving the woman a nod and leading Blood away from the array room counter, walking around the still surprised dwarf. 

They made their way out of the array room for the final time, Beth glancing back one last time at the massive construct brimming with so much mana it was palpable, making the air hum. She turned as they walked through the door, glancing around the lobby as they made their way to the opposite end where the main counter was located. There were two of the typical multi-winged workers behind that counter, and Beth approached the man on the right as he gave her a nod. They stopped before him, giving him a nod in response as he greeted them. 

"Good to see you," he said. 

"Thanks, good to see you," Beth replied. "We just finished out our, uh, run, I guess you could say. We were told to check this counter for our reward." 

"Indeed, give me just a moment," the man said before fiddling with something like a computer interface on the counter in front of him. "My name is Revare, by the way." 

"Beth," Beth replied with another nod. 

"And this is Blood with you," Revare said in a matter-of-fact manner, getting a nod from the wolf. "First things first, here's your recording." He extracted an item from under the counter and handed it to Beth. It seemed something similar to a flash drive, and Beth turned the black device over in her hand for a moment before pocketing it. 

"You can view that on basically any computer or wallscreen," Revare explained. "But I'm sure you're more interested in the rewards for your placement?" 

"Yeah, actually, I am kind of getting a little hyped," Beth said with a grin. Blood snorted while her ears flicked slightly, but she couldn't hide her own slight grin. 

"Well, let's start with what might be the best," Revare said, reaching under the counter and pulling out two small, rectangular boxes. Beth, even though she pretty much never wore jewelry, recognized the boxes as jewelry boxes. The man set the boxes down facing the two girls and flipped them open, revealing each box contained a necklace made from what looked like mana platinum. They were made of very complexly woven chains, and each had a white, opalescent gem set in an oval filigree which would sit at the base of the person's throat when worn.  

Beth withdrew the necklace in front of her before looking at Revare and asking with an excited hitch in her voice, "Are these what I think they are?" 

"If you think they are spatial items, then yes, they are what you think they are," he replied with a small grin. "Drop a single drop of blood onto the necklace and pulse your mana into it at the same time." 

Beth and Blood both did as instructed, removing their gauntlets before nicking the side of their hands shallowly, just enough to squeeze out a drop of blood onto their respective necklaces. They moved a bit of mana through their hands and into the jewelry at the same time, both feeling a bond form with the item within their mind. Beth immediately probed that feeling, having something almost like a sixth sense open up in her mind, though it wasn't quite a sixth sense. She just intrinsically knew there was a space located within the necklace…well, not quite within the necklace, but it was a pocket dimension that was anchored to the necklace. Upon closer examination of the physical object, she could see that there were numerous and varied runes engraved on every single surface, from the chain to the clasp to the artful work around the gem to the gem itself.  

Further exploring the connection in her mind, she found the space was actually quite large, enough to easily store everything she carried with her and much more. With nothing more than a quick thought, she sent the sword from where it was clasped on her backpack into the space, noting the five-foot blade taking up only a small portion of the available volume. Base on the size of the blade and how much the space stretched up and out, she was able to roughly estimate that the pocket space bound to the necklace was a cube of about twenty feet to a side, meaning they had just been given storage items that had a roughly eight thousand cubic feet internal area. 

"These are so fucking big!" she exclaimed, still gawking at the necklace. 

"The rewards for reaching as far as you did are generous, and this is only the first of the several things you have earned." 

"That's crazy," Beth said before reaching up and securing the necklace around her neck. "Can it store my backpack?" 

"Since your backpack and belt pouch are only spatially expanded, and minimally at that, it should be fine. You can't store a full spatial item such as the necklace within another spatial item. There are only a few rare exceptions to that, and such items would be on the level of Legendary Relics," Revare explained. 

Beth nodded and with another thought, made her backpack disappear from her back. With a second thought, she made it reappear, but she hadn't quite accounted for the straps, and the bag dropped to the ground with a thump. As she picked the pack up a little abashedly, Revare explained, "Putting on clothes or equipment like that does take some practice. Once you are able to understand how to fully visual yourself in three dimensions in your mind and the equipment appearing on that model, it will come naturally to you." 

Beth made the pack disappear again, noting that Blood had done the same, minus the embarrassing fumble of trying to re-equip the bag. Revare added as they turned their attention back to him, "Those necklaces are largely indestructible; part of the difficulty in crafting them is making them so durable. They can be destroyed by enough force or by a skilled mage with enough time, but the level of power or knowledge needed is absolutely enormous. Planet shattering, in fact." 

"Good to know," Beth nodded in response. 

"Right, you are interested in what else we have in store for you," he said with a large smile, tapping the screen in the counter before raising an eyebrow in surprise. "It's quite an impressive list, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised, considering how far you progressed." 

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