She made her way down to her room in the basement, finding Blood waiting outside. She let the both of them in, saying to the wolf, "Don’t know where you've been going, but we've gotta make a trip home tomorrow. Also, gotta hit the dungeons up." Blood gave a clear nod while flicking her ears in response, letting Beth know she understood.
Beth shucked her equipment in the living room of the suite before heading into the bathroom to use the toilet and shower off. When she was done, she threw a fresh set of clothes on before grabbing all the dirty stuff she had and making her way to the laundry. She set the clothes to wash before going back to the suite and making food for herself and Blood. She set the food and drinks out before jogging down to the laundry and changing the clothes over to the dryer, returning to the room to scarf down her food while they went through the cycle. She cleaned up after their meal before she headed down and grabbed the clean clothes from the laundry, heading back to the room and dumping them in the dresser in the room before collapsing on the bed.
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Beth woke early the next morning feeling fresh and ready to go, hopping out of bed and heading to the bathroom with an urgent need. After she had taken care of business, she readied herself for the day ahead, taking a quick sniff of herself to check that she hadn't gotten particularly musty sleeping in her clothes. She deemed it fine and went about quickly preparing breakfast for herself and her companion before they departed for the day.
She led Blood out of the room after they were done eating, heading up into the arena area proper before moving into the front building. It was still rather early, the sun just rising at this point in the day, and Beth wanted to get back home shortly after it had fully risen. She passed through the front building, finding Navere and John in the lobby at this time. Navere mimicked Tazeen with his stoic gaze constantly monitoring the empty room, while John was clearly slacking off, watching something on a screen pulled up in front of him while he slouched in a chair.
Beth nodded to the two men, receiving a nod from both in return even though John's eyes never left his screen. She and Blood left the lobby and Beth quickly jumped on Blood's back, not wanting to dawdle in any way that morning. The wolf coursed through the corner of the open field to the west of the CRA Hall before entering the band of woods that was north of it, nimbly sprinting through the trees and undergrowth without slowing. The massive lupine's speed was quite amazing, covering a distance of several miles in a bare handful of minutes.
The two had circled the neighborhood this morning, heading to the back of the Bell house. They jumped the ditch and wooden wall with almost practiced ease, landing in the middle of Beth's backyard with hardly a sound. Beth let them in to the back door, using a little combo key-box to retrieve the spare housekey and unlock it. She stuck the key back in the box and spun it off as Blood trotted into the house ahead of her, closing the door behind her as she followed the large wolf inside.
She poked her head into the kitchen first, finding nobody up and about yet, so she went into the living room to sit and wait. It had been just over four weeks since the change had occurred, one month having passed in a snap, and the failure of the TV to do much more than turn on was yet another indication of the progression of the changes. She supposed it was so much junk now; likely that they would need to eventually get an entirely new unit, hopefully something like the screen in her suite, to have functioning viewing again.
She didn't have to wait very long, fortunately, as the usual progression of waking happened. First was a knock on the front door, Beth quickly opening it to a sudden hug from her girlfriend. As the two sat and chatted quietly in the living room, next was Kim, heading down to start breakfast prep. Third was Soph, staggering in while still rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes, her END just not doing enough to make her more alert at the crack of dawn. Last, but not least, and surprising for the early time, were Beth's parents, joining the group for breakfast in the kitchen.
Beth sat on a stool close to Sabs, right arm draped loosely around her waist while Sabs ate breakfast. Blood and Beth were just on standby at that point, as they had eaten before they returned to the house, and they just listened in on the breakfast conversation. Beth was drawn in, eventually, when her father turned to her as he changed the topic.
"We've been getting a little concerned about food, and we'd like to ask for you and the girls to help us with securing some more meat," he said in a serious tone. "Zack has managed to get his hands on at least one of the trucks he was talking about, with the help of Mr. Jones, and we want to essentially go on a hunting trip."
"I don't think that would be a problem, but we can't really spend too much time on it," Beth replied, leaning her chin against her left hand with her elbow propped on the table. "It's important to secure food, I get that, but we also have to keep training. At least, I'm super busy with training and studying right now. The other girls might have more time; or not, it's up to them."
"Well, I would appreciate it if you girls could come over and meet with Zack and the others this morning," Thomas responded.
"Why don't we go do the dungeons first and then meet back here. We'll likely get these others a level in the meantime," Beth answered, rubbing Sabs' side absentmindedly.
"That's fine. We'll have Zack and the others come over to the house while you all take care of your dungeon fighting," Thomas replied with a nod.
"Alright. When everyone's finished eating, gear up," Beth said to the group. "We'll do the usual order, then head back here to help with the hunters today."
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"Right.", "Okay.", "Understood," she got from the rest of the group, standing first and heading out with Blood. She stopped in the mudroom to put her boots back on and grab her sword before she stepped outside. The rest of the group joined her within ten minutes, the five of them making their way up to the dungeon.
They breezed through the early floors of the ant dungeon, only slowing down at the final floor to give the lower leveled girls time to fight the higher leveled ants, as usual. The group got a level out of it, apart from Blood and Beth, as the only time Beth stepped in to help on the floor was a quick assist to Kim, crippling the boss to relieve the pressure on her sister.
They moved on from the ant dungeon quickly, heading up and out before circling around the neighborhood, hitting the wolf dungeon next. This dungeon was typically a little trickier, but they still made short work of it. They took a moment to rest after the wolf dungeon, meditating for a minute or two to get a quick refresh before heading out and back to the neighborhood.
They made their way in through the new front gate today, Soph riding on Blood's back while the other girls hoofed it. They headed down the streets to the Bell household, noting as they approached a pair of large trucks sitting in the cul-de-sac. They entered the Bell house using the front door, leaving their weapons and boots in the entry hall. They found everyone gathered in the living room, the Bell parents there along with Zack, Scott, and Jack. Jack's eldest son, John, was also in attendance, the group currently discussing the plans for the rest of the day.
Thomas turned to the girls as they piled in, commenting, "That was rather fast."
"We don’t really have much trouble with the two closest dungeons at this point," Kim replied. "Especially with Beth and Blood there, we don't really have to worry about being outleveled or taking it slow."
"You should still be careful," their mother warned sternly. "This is not a game; you could get seriously hurt."
While the rest of the girls responded dutifully, if duly, Beth just rolled her eyes, thinking about the several close encounters she had had already. The warning was a little bit of shutting the barn door after the animals escaped, but she hoped the other girls would be even a little more careful because of it.
"Are we all ready?" Beth asked. "I have things to do at the Association."
"We need a plan before we run off," Zack replied with a frown. "Let's go over what we're doing today.
"I've secured two heavy transports that we can use for various purposes, but today we'll use them for a hunting mission. Considering the size and weight of animals and beasts after the changes, we need something more than a normal pickup truck to haul carcasses. We'll take the trucks to an area northeast of here where Beth has reconnoitered a group of the same kind of massive hogs she keeps killing.
"When we arrive on-site, we'll disembark and secure the area. We prioritize safety and security over other mission objectives. We'll then be relying on our frontline fighters to guarantee our safety and secure the mission objective. Any questions?"
"Yeah," replied Kim. "What did you just say?"
"We're gonna drive to where the boars are, make sure no random beasts hurt anybody, kill the pigs and bring 'em home," Beth replied before Zack could, seeing the vein pulsing at his temple.
"Right. Any other questions?" he asked, the vein calming down.
"I don’t think so," Beth pre-empted the rest of the group by saying. "This should be pretty simple, even without Blood and I overwhelming most things out there."
"Being confident isn't bad, but don't get cocky," Zack rebuffed a little gruffly as he stood, the rest of the group following suit.
The girls headed out with the rest, stopping in the front entry to re-equip weapons and toss on boots before exiting the front door. They found the two trucks waiting, Scott and Jack each taking the wheel of one. The rest of the group distributed themselves among the two vehicles, many sitting on benches in the back that folded down, as the trucks were the kind with only a single wide seat in the cabin. They appeared to be fairly generic military-type vehicles to Beth, including that the large beds were currently covered with a stiff canvas roof and the whole of both vehicles were painted in a simplistic green-camouflage style.
Beth eschewed the trucks, hopping on the back of Blood and quickly moving to the front of their little convoy. Once they were all lined up and moving, she led them down the neighborhood streets to the large, crude wooden gate at the entrance to the development. The two neighbors watching the gate swung it fully open at a gesture from Zack, Beth hearing them muttering about splinters from the rough logs as they pushed the gates.
The small convoy took a left out of the gates, heading down the road the same way the girls did to get to the CRA Hall. Beth had to give Blood a quick reminder to hold off, as she could easily accelerate faster than the trucks that were following behind. She also thought, other factors notwithstanding, Blood might be able to hit a higher top speed than the old trucks could manage as well.
It didn't take the group too long to get up to the spot by the edge of the field where Beth had found the concentration of boars. Having faithfully obeyed all traffic laws up to this point, it was now time to deviate a little bit, as the trucks followed right behind Blood in cutting across the opposing lanes and driving onto the edge of the field.
The area was rather large, a section of several different patchworks of farmed area together. It looked like the farmer or company that owned the area used it for corn and wheat in alternating blocks, though Beth could only tell by best guess, the fields already empty at this point in October. The rest of the group piled out of the trucks as Beth finished surveying the area.
"Alright, fall in," Zack grunted out, stepping up next to Beth as he took a quick accounting of the area.
"What's the plan here?" asked Scott, standing in the middle of the loose grouping of the rest of the participants behind Beth and Zack.
"Kill the boars, throw them in the trucks, drive home," Beth quickly spat rapid-fire just as Zack was opening his mouth.
"That, but with a little more organization," he added, giving Beth a bit of a glare from the side before returning to his inspection of the area.
Beth just rolled her eyes and started forward, Blood trailing behind, as Zack began outlining the operation for the rest of the group. She stopped about a hundred feet into the field, looking at the nearest boar about fifty yards in front of her. She again rolled her eyes at the result of Identify.
Wild Boar Level 5
Looked like more babysitting work for the day. She wouldn't guarantee it at this point, but she doubted even the hulking "boss" boar in the distance would be a challenge for the dungeon clearing team, much less her and Blood. It would just be a day of spending time watching and keeping the group safe.
"That's a damn big pig," Zack muttered as he stepped up beside her. "We're going to take down one of these closer ones first and both see how that goes as well as see how difficult getting it into the trucks is."
Beth shrugged in response, saying, "I'm on over-watch, like usual."
Zack just grunted before motioning the rest of the group forward. It looked like their brief discussion earlier when Beth had moved forward resulted in them deciding Jack's eldest, John, would take a crack at the first boar. It seems the rest of the dungeon party was backup, as they followed a little distance behind him, ready to intervene if necessary. Beth checked John's level with Identify as he approached the boar.
John Smith, Level 3 Young Warrior