Following Sera's advice, they got done all the housekeeping they needed over the next few hours before stocking up on food. They didn't really need to grab too much, as they still had an absolute ton from Lori, even considering Sera's new eating habits. When they were ready, had fully stocked up, had taken an hour to relax and plan, Beth opened the gate and they got started.

  Their goal was level two hundred and sixty, which was about forty levels from where they were right now. Beth had checked their stat screens, noting that after their last leveling session before doing the third and fourth Gold missions, they had hit two-twenty. She had also gained quite a bit in Lightning Resistance from a certain event, but it was still in Silver, thankfully, meaning she could still go with her plan to merge her resistances. There wasn't much else of note, other than that Sera had almost completed the Copper level of Spatial Step, adapting to the new skill quite well. She would give their stat screens a check after this major block of grinding over the next few objective weeks.

  Forty levels in the two hundreds would normally take them a year or so to do, but with three of them, though they were splitting experience, they were powerful enough to fight up twenty or thirty levels in the two hundred range. This even included the large power bump beasts got at level two hundred and fifty; not quite as big as at level two hundred or three hundred, but still a significant bump in strength. The three of them together could fight moderate-sized groups of beasts at once, taking on more than three beasts at a time. It got to a point where they were chain-pulling multiple groups, not even finishing killing every member of the current group before getting the attention of the next group.

  "I can't believe the two of you fight like this, let alone constantly," Sera panted as they were taking a break after a couple days.

  "Well, we don't normally go quite this fast, but we've got a deadline to get through," Beth replied. "Also, there's other stuff I want to focus on, so I kinda want to get done with this Laselle and Mortaine stuff for now and focus on our own shit."

  "The experience and money gains are insane, at least," Sera tried to look on the bright side.

  "We don't have to go so fast if you can't handle it," Beth said.

  "I'm not weak; I can hold my own," Sera scoffed.

  "I wasn’t implying anything with it, Ser. I know I'm not, uh, normal…" Beth said with a small headshake.

  "You can say that again," Blood muttered, getting a glare from both of the others. "Hey, that's not fair."

  "Well, get your little lover here and then it'll be even," Beth replied with a shake of her head.

  "Wait, wait, wait. Blood has a lover?" Sera asked, looking back and forth between them.

  "Oh yeah-" Beth started at the same Blood vehemently denied it by saying, "No she's not-"

  "So, there's some dispute…" Sera said with a grin.

  "Only from her," Beth replied, grinning at the wolf, who growled back.

  "And who is this little lover?" Sera asked.

  "Val," Beth answered. When Sera just gave her a flat look, she elaborated, "You know, Vallenna Sanguinia."

  "Beth, let me ask this just to make sure I'm tracking," Sera started.

  "Okay," Beth said.

  "Blood, your bonded companion, is in a romantic relationship with Vallenna Sanguinia, the leader of the Young Scions? Did this happen before or after the fight with Norveren?" Sera asked, exasperation clear in her tone.

  "Oh, after," Beth said cheerily. "We met him first, then we met the Young Scions. Then we met them again later and Val started expressing interest, extreme interest, in Blood."

  "It wasn't like that," the wolf growled, glaring at Beth.

  "Oh, no, of course not. Then tell us, what was it like?" Beth retorted, her voice dripping sarcasm.

  "Well, uh, it's like, uh, we really just kinda, uh, enjoy spending time together. And, uh, we really like each other's company, and she's, uh, a really good talker, and I, uh, really, really like listening to her voice, so we just, uh, hang out a lot together," Blood stammered.

  "Blood, that was one of the most unconvincing things I've ever heard in my life, and nobody in my extended family can lie worth a damn," Sera said, staring at the wolf with both eyes wide, her face a mask of incredulity.

  "Well, we like spending time together and our looks and each other," Blood said quickly.

  "Well, good that you admit it," Beth said with a laugh.

  "I didn't admit anything!" Blood hollered.

  "Alright, alright, that's enough," Sera said, though she was grinning wide enough all her fang-tips were showing.

  "Back to it," Beth said as Blood grumbled to herself.

  It was a lot more of the same, with little breaks and naps during the grind, but they rarely stopped to sleep. It was weeks that turned into months, all inside the gate, the three of them burning through their rations and even some of the meals they had from restaurants in their storage spaces. Despite the pressure and stress of it, Beth loved every minute of it, never getting tired of fighting, of hitting beasts, of learning more about battle and about herself. She could tell the other two weren't as thrilled, but even the laziest of them all, Blood, still enjoyed the hunt and liked seeing the numbers on her stat screen rapidly increase.

  It was a bit longer than Beth had hoped, but all three of them hit level two hundred and sixty after around two hundred and fifty days of endless slaughter. That much killing of high level two hundred beasts had certainly padded their pocket books, with each of them earning multiple diamond coins from the effort. That didn't sound like a whole lot, but most people in the world of the Path struggled to earn even a gold a month, so earning the equivalent of tens of thousands of gold coins in eight months was pretty damn good. It would get even crazier when they were ready to start fighting beasts above level three hundred, as the payouts from the Path for those kills were even higher and, considering the jump in strength that happened at that level, it was well warranted.

  "We are fucking ripe!" Sera cursed as they left the gate, their stench much more noticeable in the clean smelling suite.

  "Shower. Now," Beth agreed, herding them all into the bathroom, damaged and dented armor and torn up clothes disappearing into necklaces and storage skills at great speed.

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  Sera wasn't delicate with the shower, setting it at close to max heat and the high-power spray while the other two piled in behind her. It was probably the best shower Beth had ever had, having never spent that long out in the mud and blood before returning to civilization. Just letting the near-boiling water flow over her and sluice away dirt she didn't even know she had caked into her skin and hair was heaven. Beyond that was the sheer joy of soaping up and getting truly clean for the first time in two-thirds of a year. It was only matched by the joy of soaping Sera up, the dragon having gone halfway catatonic in the hot water, barely moving as Beth started lathering her up and scrubbing her thoroughly.

  Beth eventually had to pick Sera up and carry her out of the shower to get her to move, though it was only to carry her to the bath, where she set Sera down in one of the spaces and then sat on her lap. Blood was across from them, snoozing away with her arms propped up on the back of the tub, her breasts peeking out above the water and bobbing up and down as she breathed in and out. Sera, even in her partially unconscious state, still grabbed Beth around the waist with one hand and draped her other arm over the back of the tub in a partial mirror of Blood.

  It fell to Beth to be the responsible leader and end tub time when they started to prune, kicking open the drain from her position in Sera's lap. She let the water fully drain before rousing the dragon, the very tall girl using a bit too much fire to dry them off, but their resistances were more than enough to compensate. It wasn't even enough fire to singe any of their hair, though Beth felt like it would have left even more than third degree burns if she got hit with it with her pre-Path body. After they were thoroughly dry and toasty, it fell to Beth to lift both of her larger, heavier companions and carry the two beasts to bed. Luckily, she was strong enough to rip pre-Path steel apart with just her fingers, so carrying two tall, heavy beauties to her bed didn't pose a problem.

  The next day they slept in fairly late, at least for them, the sun well above the horizon. Even having thousands and thousands of points in END couldn't make up for the insane grind that they had just undergone. Beth wasn't a harsh taskmistress, but the other two fought hard to keep up with her insane pace with very few complaints and she wasn’t about to begrudge them their rest or free time. She woke up with Blood entangled with her with Sera lying on top of both of them in what was becoming a very typical arrangement for the three of them. She tangled a hand in Blood's fur and scratched her while using her other hand to caress the scales along Sera's spine. Blood grumbled just slightly but simply snuggled tighter against her while Sera played a brick much better, not responding at all. Then again, it's not like the tall dragon girl could flop on top of them any further.

  Beth didn't make any move to disturb either of them after that, just caressing them until one of them, predictably Blood, decided it was time to get up. That still took quite a while, but the wolf eventually had to use the facilities, which necessitated pushing the dragon girl off. That partially woke Sera up, and Beth scooped her up and snuggled her for a moment in a seated position before scooting to the edge of the bed with her. The tall girl became a bit more active, wrapping her arms around Beth and rubbing her face against Beth's neck.

  Beth let that go on for a minute before standing up and leaving the bedroom, carrying Sera in her arms through the suite and into the bathroom. Blood hadn't yet finished her business, but Beth ignored her to set the dragon on the counter before starting to get ready for the day. It mainly just involved washing up a bit and waiting for the toilet to be free, as they were going to have breakfast in a minute, after which it would be time to take care of dental hygiene. Beth could repair her mouth with her regeneration skill, but that did nothing to stop bad breath or that scummy feeling that not brushing would bring.

  After breakfast and fully waking up, Sera and Blood immediately flopped on the couch together and passed out, while Beth started to see about their True Rebirth materials. She had the lists from all three of them, and it would likely take them a decent bit of time and effort to track down all the supplies they required. Fortunately, rebirths wouldn't require anything other than materials for quite some time yet, even once they started building their Mana Physiques, so it was just a matter of some difficult and time-consuming shopping. Beth checked both their lists and their current stat screens before getting ready to head out of the suite.

  Beth:

  500 Tier 3 Beast Cores

  50 Tier 4 Beast Cores

  5 Level 300 Legendary Weapons

  2 Star Cores

  1 Drop Ancient Ruler's Blood

  Blood:

  200 Tier 4 Beast Cores

  1 Evolved Wolf Heart's Blood

  5 Monster Blood Gems

  50 Concentrated Blood Essence

  Sera:

  250 Tier 4 Beast Cores

  1 Void Mana Jewel

  10 Void Enhancing Elixirs

  100 Dragon Flame Cores

  The lists weren't as long this time, at least not for Blood and Sera, but they were composed of stuff that sounded quite rare. Beth had no idea where she would get most of that, though it seemed like more than half of her list would just be spending a bunch of money. She was assuming the problems would be the Star Cores and the drop of blood. Meanwhile, the beast cores could be bought for the other two, but the rest of it was a headscratcher for her. It also brought to mind a salient point that had flown over her head so far.

  "Hey, Ser," Beth said, walking over before getting dressed and sitting on the dragon girl's massive butt.

  "Mhmm," Sera answered lazily.

  "Is your mana aspect void?" Beth asked with a slight smirk the facedown dragon couldn't see.

  "Mhmm," Sera replied.

  "Not giving me much to work on, but I'm assuming that's a yes?" Beth asked.

  "It's a yes," Sera grunted, tilting her head to look back at Beth with one purple and golden eye.

  "Would this be useful?" Beth asked, pulling the entombed heart out of her necklace.

  Sera slowly reached up and grabbed the heart, bringing it up to her face to closely inspect it. She studied for a few moments before slowly twisting in place so Beth was sitting in her lap before sitting up. She didn't stop the motion but wrapped her arms around Beth and planted a very firm and warm kiss on her lips, totally subsuming her in it. Beth loved the feeling of Sera wrapping around her, the bigger girl's body, arms, legs, and tail able to fully envelop her while they made out.

  "Would you like to sit with me while I use it?" Sera asked when she eventually broke off the kiss.

  "Yes, of course," Beth said, giving Sera a quick but very warm kiss.

  The dragon girl picked her up, standing before grabbing Blood, the wolf grumbling in anger as she was interrupted from…more sleep. Sera walked back to the bedroom with them both in her arms, depositing Beth at the head of the bed and Blood to the side. She then lay down, putting her head in Beth's lap and holding the entombed heart in her left hand over her chest. Blood had woken up enough that she was watching what was happening through narrowed eyes, and Beth reached down and held Sera's head, stroking her hair with one hand and caressing a horn with the other.

  "Ready?" Sera asked, glancing between them.

  "It's your thing, Ser," Beth said with a laugh.

  "Hmm," was all Blood added.

  "Okay then, here goes," Sera said, making a small cut on the side of her hand and letting a single drop of blood squeeze out and fall onto the heart. A wave of mana and energy poured out into the room, and Beth watched in fascination as the process started.