Beth watched as their levels rose by another two, having gained one during the stage as well. Three levels wasn't amazing for a stage, but it wasn’t anything to sneeze at, and was still a lot better pace than what they'd likely be doing outside of the Trial. They quickly cleared out of the vicinity of the array at a glower from one of the Warders, heading back to their room for a rest. They showered, slept, and then ate before they were back in the array room, ready for yet another new stage. They hadn't really been fully utilizing their extra down time, nor had they tapped into the extra days of rest they were allotted, but Beth felt like they were still fairly fresh and ready to go.

After telling the workers at the counter they were ready for stage thirteen and that they wanted to keep it private, they headed over to the array. On a signal from one of the Warders, they hopped into the portal, now a dark yellow color. They went through the typical momentary whiteout of their senses before they arrived in the next stage.

Beth looked around as they regained their senses, seeing that they were in some kind of large, fortified town. The place probably housed about five thousand residents, with some room for more in hotels and inns. It had roads paved in a dark substance that was similar to but wasn't exactly the same as asphalt, though it was similar enough to operate in the same way. There was a wall of smooth stone around the town, about fifteen feet in height and, even from where they had entered near the center of town, Beth could make out inscriptions on the inside glowing with power.

As was usual with these scenarios, Beth saw someone official-looking walking up to them immediately. It was a tall man in a nicely polished set of silver armor with a cloak draped over his back and a longsword at his waist. His skin was a dark grey and he had short tusks that protruded from his bottom lip, likely marking him as having some kind of troll ancestry.

"Hail, Enforcer! Good that you could join us," he said.

"Hail!" Beth replied, mimicking the man's greeting and tone. "Glad to be here."

"I'm glad we have someone of your capabilities to pioneer this dungeon," the man continued, getting straight to the point.

"Can you give me more details about this dungeon, mister…" Beth responded.

"Ah yes, forgive me. My name is Fulken, and I am the knight commander of the guard of this outpost town. While the town is currently relatively safe," he said, leaning in during the last sentence and lowering his voice to whisper, "as safe as an outpost town could be," before straightening again and continuing, "there's trouble brewing in the wilderness. We have reports of an as yet unknown dungeon out there somewhere. We're glad the CRA decided to assign such a capable junior to help pioneer it."

"So, the situation is that there is an unknown dungeon out there that needs to be tamed before it overflows and causes a tide to hit the town? Do we have any more information or specifics on the dungeon itself, sir Fulken?" Beth asked.

"Just Fulken is fine, young Enforcer," the man replied with a small smile. "We have reports of a large dungeon somewhere to the west. The surrounding terrain is rather hostile, a series of broken escarpments of jagged rock set among low hills that already contain a plethora of beasts. The biggest threats are rock lizards far larger than a man, twelve or more feet in length, that lay in wait for days at a time. Though they are made of toughened stone, they are very fast in short bursts, and quite a few explorers and wayfarers have lost their lives over the past ten years out there.

"The dungeon would likely have some kind of stone or earth theming, though we don't have any idea for sure. It's been some time since the first reports of the dungeon, at least six months, so we're starting to become very concerned. I don't have the manpower with the guard to send anyone into that area while keeping the town defended, though I could help you with supplies and provisions. Anything you could need for the pioneering of the dungeon, within reason, I can provide to you."

"Well, I won't turn down free food," Beth quipped with a smile. "Depending on just how good the food is, that is."

"I think we can do right by you, young Enforcer," Fulken replied with a grin before turning on his heel and leading the way across the square. He took them to a large building on the west end of the square, the guards' headquarters building. This was separate from their barracks and primary armory, but it did contain several storage rooms filled with supplies. He was able to give Beth a pack of rations that he claimed exceeded the pack she currently had, though she would put her money on the supplies she bought from Jaq. He also provided her with an extra two coils of slim but strong rope, as well as an extra lantern that was rather small but could be set to a quite bright setting. Beth accepted it all and tucked it into her backpack, which always transitioned with her into the stage without issue.

Done with Fulken, and with a parting wish for good luck, the two made their way first out of the guards’ headquarters before departing the town entirely. The gates to the town were made of thick mana steel inscribed with a host of runes, far more complex than anything else Beth had yet seen. They stood closed, as apparently the outlying town didn't receive much traffic, and safety was also a far larger concern here.

The guards didn't even need to speak with them, apparently already informed of who they were and what they were doing. The right gate swung open partially on surprisingly silent hinges, allowing the two to duck out in the warm morning light before the gate near-silently clanked shut behind them. Beth glanced back at the impressive work of artifice before turning and leading the way to the west, traveling down a dirt path into the wilds. There were apparently a few people out this way, most of those being in a logging camp a handful of miles from the city, but beyond that they'd be in largely uncharted territory.

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They increased their pace over the next half hour until they were moving at what was a moderate jog for them but would have been well beyond a sprint for even an athlete before the appearance of the Path. It didn't take them very long to pass the logging camp, a road just as wide and well maintained splitting off to the south. The better indication was the sign by the path proclaiming it to be "Felson Logging Zone," and they quickly moved on without stopping.

The main road started fading away shortly after, the logging camp clearly being the last thing in the area that saw any regular traffic. Within fifteen minutes it would be very hard to call what they traversed a road, and within an hour they were jogging through a moderately dense forest, no path of any kind to be found. There were, of course, game trails and the like, but nothing that headed directly westward, nor did they need to hunt, so they left what they found alone.

Despite their overall speed, they didn't make it to the edge of the forest until it was getting dark, Beth choosing to set up their tent just within the edge of the forest. They'd encountered a handful of beasts on the way, mostly in the low seventies in level and quite familiar to Beth and Blood. A mixture of boars, wolves, giant insects, and a deer with massive antlers whose veins pulsed with a dark green energy and that attacked as soon as it saw them. The deer was also the only pleasant surprise of the group, as Beth carved it open to allow Blood to eat and they discovered a small beast core in the process. The things were quite useful in crafting and Beth thought about selling it before remembering that they were within a stage in the trial. Maybe the core could at least count for some extra points towards an experience reward at the end…

The two took turns sleeping that night, with Blood taking the first watch as Beth slept about four hours. They then switched places, with Blood sleeping a little over four hours while Beth kept watch. With about nine hours of down time total, it was still dark as they packed up the camp and headed out for the day, not even the grey of a pre-dawn light coating the sky yet. They moved out of the forest onto a broad plain as soon as Beth had her pack filled and on her back, moving through the waist-high grass at an even brisker pace than the day before.

The plain turned out to be a real annoyance as it was full of a mole-like beast that burrowed around everywhere. They were almost constantly fighting from when they'd made it about two miles into the field, and the burrows everywhere didn't do anything to make the footing any better, either for travel or for battle. On top of that, there were also some kind of jackal-like enemies in the grasses that moved in groups of three to five and were in the high seventies in level, making for especially annoying fights.

Fortunately, they managed to make their way across the plains by early afternoon, stopping to eat a good handful of rations each and drink plenty from the canteens. Unfortunately, making it across the plain meant they had reached their destination or, at the very least, they had reached the area of broken hills and escarpments where the new dungeon was supposedly located. Now they would have to scout the area to try to find the entrance to the dungeon while avoiding getting devoured by the rock lizards. Beth scanned the area as they stood at the edge of the plains, seeing the brown and red rock jutting into the air, only a few tenacious scrub and bushes managing to cling on among the ragged landscape.

The two made their way forward after getting a look at what they'd be walking into, Beth carefully scanning for any sign of the lizards. She wasn't able to spot anything that seemed out of place or unusual, finding just more rock and a handful of scrubby plants as they walked along a long ridge of brown stone. The area was fairly hot under the harsh rays of the afternoon sun, the lack of anything but stone meaning the area absorbed and retained heat during the day like an oven. Beth shielded her eyes as they walked, looking around before glancing into the air, noting the birds circling overhead.

Wait.

Birds overhead?

"Blood, move!" Beth shouted, diving off to the side. The warning had been just in time as the beasts that had flown above them swept down right at that moment. They were some kind of rat-like being, with long, sleek bodies covered in a smooth fur that ranged between grey and a blueish black kind of color. They had four spindly limbs with paws that each had four wickedly sharp talons, while their narrow, wedge shaped heads sported mouths with multiple rows of serrated teeth. Their attack had been a fast dive, pulling up at the very last moment as they tried to rake the girls with their talons, their fat, hairless tails swishing and lashing out as they missed their initial strikes. Beth checked what they were even as she was diving out of the way, not surprised by the results.

Level 80 Storm Rat

The rats beat their two pairs of wings after the failed ambush, clawing for altitude so they could circle around for a second pass. The girls weren't about to let them go unchallenged, as they both leapt upon an opponent, quite literally leaping into the air to attack the rats. Neither of the girls were particularly adept at aerial maneuvers, but they didn't necessarily need to be, as they just needed to ground the flying rats. With their stats, the girls could leap twenty or more feet into the air and do it at quite a high speed, leading to both their first attacks being successful.

For Blood, this meant simply latching onto a wing and savaging it while dragging the beast down with her sheer weight. Beth couldn't quite do the same with her weight, thought it was a bit too much for the rat she had grabbed as it started losing altitude. Her weight was the least of that rat's problems, however, as she had grabbed one wing with her left gauntlet and now proceeded to grab the second on that same side with her right gauntlet. With a massive twist, she trashed both wings, hearing and feeling the snapping of the more fragile bones as she clenched her hands and bent her elbows.

Both the targeted rats plummeted to the ground with both girls managed to land on top of them, only doing a slight bit of damage as they hadn't really been at any great height. While the landing wasn't fatal for the rats, the absolute beating they immediately took certainly was, Beth finishing hers with a fist to the back of the skull after a series of quick, precise strikes from her mana steel clad fists. Blood didn't bother with any other attacks, going for the throat right away and tearing it apart, letting the beast drown in its own blood.

The pack that had attacked them still had another four beasts in it, which dove down right as they finished off their first two opponents. Luckily, beasts at this level still lacked even a basic awareness of the flow of battle, unable to do anything but attack and kill. This let them continue to use the same tactics of dodging the dive bomb before leaping up and grabbing the enemy until all the storm rats were dead. As Beth had noticed already, outside of boss monsters in dungeons, adaptability wasn't really something that beasts had before level one hundred and even afterwards, from what she had heard, they still weren't great.

They didn't bother to do anything with the corpses, as they couldn't take anything out of the stage anyway, leaving them to bake in the late afternoon sun as they moved further down the ridge. The next half hour saw them attacked by the flying rodents twice more before they encountered anything else, this being a group of fast-moving beasts that looked like some kind of armored dog. They bore a little bit of a resemblance to a Great Dane, only with more teeth and armor plates. They were vicious bastards, and big to boot, though Blood was still taller at the shoulder and easily out massed them individually. These beasts, going by the name grull, were also at level eighty and fairly tough, though they had met a rather bad opponent in Beth, who pulverized their armor easily.