Making sure to take care of Blood's needs at the same time, Beth made enough to feed a small group before the changes in the world, tucking in by herself in the kitchen while everyone continued the long and drawn-out discussions outside. She polished off everything in just over twenty minutes, almost a new record, before cleaning up the mess she had made. Well, cleaning so far as washing everything with a quick rinse before leaving it sitting in and around the sink.
She rejoined the group outside just as Rachel was getting into a deep discussion with the rest of the "adults" about the value of the new currency and what they needed to do in regard to trying to earn money. They went back and forth discussing the general value of the new money and what they could do to earn it before they finally turned to Beth to bring her into the discussion.
As Beth was leaning against the edge of one of the tables, rolling her eyes at both Sabs and Kim being asleep in chairs next to each other, her mother asked, "Beth; how do you think we should go about tackling this money problem?"
Beth turned to look at the group with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean 'we?'"
"This problem concerns everybody, Beth, so don't be like that," her mother responded. "We need actual, workable solutions to this problem. You should know that as well as anyone."
"And you all should know my answer," Beth replied with a quick shake of her head. "Level up."
"I don't believe that will be the answer to all our problems, sweetie," responded her father, cutting in as he sensed Rachel about to explode. "We need to figure out more reliable ways to go about this."
"There aren't any more reliable ways," Beth said in response, frowning slightly as she shook her head again. Once again pre-empting her mother's explosion, she continued, "Just name me some of the ways we could possibly make money right now. And assume that we had access to somebody or something that had the money to pay for things if that's part of your answer."
"We could create some kind of product to sell, I suppose. We have quite a few good minds just in this neighborhood, and a number of people with some good business savvy, this old soldier included," Zack replied as Rachel's frown took on a more thoughtful look and Thomas started rubbing his chin with his left hand, a habit that often left a little ink there due to his preference to still take some pen and paper notes during the day.
"Leaving aside what we would make that would have any value to anyone, like the CRA, who actually has some money, where do we get the resources to make it?" Beth asked.
"I'm not some kind of savant here, girl, I'm just suggesting an option," Zack replied with a frown. "I know there are people in the area involved in businesses that have access to resources. Mr. Jones has a hand in at least one business like that, something to do with harvesting new growth timber and replanting the areas."
"I'm not trying to be a dick," Beth replied, Rachel wrinkling her nose at her daughter's language choices, "but that's not going to work, and this is part of what I'm getting at. Again, we make another big assumption and say that whoever we're going to sell to wants things made from non-mana imbued wood, my question is the same; how do we get it?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," Zack responded a little testily. "I don't really know what you're getting at, but I have a line out on a set of trucks we can use for transporting things. We already discussed this, though keeping them fueled will be a big problem."
"Yeah, this part is exactly what I'm getting at with this example," Beth said. "Not the fuel part, or even getting trucks. What happens when you and Mr. Scott take two trucks to go get this wood to work on and that level twelve bear I keep seeing around attacks you?"
"Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, basically any one of you girls could handle it fairly easily," Zack replied, himself now joining the frowning club.
"Thus, proving my point," Beth said, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking a little.
"I don't know that we've conclusively proven your point," Thomas replied, completing the frowning club membership.
"We've already gotten to the point where we're used to the girls being able to facilitate things without even questioning it," said Rachel with a sigh. "The reason they can do that is because they have class and skill levels. If the girls weren't high leveled, we wouldn't have nearly as many options or be able to do some of what we're assuming we need to do."
"Which proves her point," Zack said, turning to a new page of his notebook as he spoke. "If we look at it like a war or a battle, we need trained troops fighting the battles to make progress. We're still thinking of this as the same old world, just with a few new problems. That's just not going to work. We have to treat this as the war it is, and that means we need the soldiers to fight. And soldiers mean people with levels and fighting experience."
"I don't know that the war analogy is wholly appropriate," said Thomas. "But we can argue semantics later. We do need to start looking at this in a different light." Turning to Beth, he asked, "What do you believe should be our next step?"
"I know this sounds dumb, but level up," Beth replied. "We need more people with more levels. Levels let us do everything, now and in the future. If we actually want to make money, we're going to do that through either getting treasure out of dungeons or getting raw materials and refining them. It doesn't matter what it is, all of it needs people with levels and combat experience to do it."
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"This is going to be a real pain in the ass," Rachel said with a deep sigh.
"Buck up soldier, we'll get it done," Zack replied, already writing out a whole series of notes. "It's been years since I had anything to do with Basic, but we'll get a fighting force whipped into shape in no time. Especially if we have a little help from our more seasoned members."
Beth just lifted her right arm from over her chest to wave lazily a moment before turning to the sleeping members of her party. "I guess we need to take care of this at some point," she said as she walked over to them.
"Can you take care of them?" asked Rachel. "Or would you like help?"
"I got it," Beth replied before leaning forward and picking up Kim.
"Hrnm, Beth…?" Kim mumbled groggily.
"Relax Kim, it's bedtime," Beth replied with a chuckle as she carried her sister into the house and upstairs. She plonked Kim down in her own bed before closing the door and heading back down to the backyard. There, she grabbed Sabs in a princess carry, leaning the smaller girl's head against her left shoulder.
"Beth, wha…?" Sabs started, but Beth cut her off with a quick kiss to the forehead.
"Shh, it's fine," Beth said, carrying her into the house and upstairs. She set Sabs down on her bed, the older girl grumbling and immediately rolling over, burying her face in the pillow.
Beth headed back downstairs and out to the backyard where the leadership group, as she thought of them, still had their heads together. She interrupted them for a moment to ask her mother for Sabs' mother's number, using it to send a quick message that Sabs was going to be staying at the Bell household for the night. She then made sure the armor, which the two sleeping beauties had managed to shuck before passing out, was tossed in the mudroom.
She left the brain trust to their work, noting that it was getting dark fast, before heading back inside and up to her room. Blood was curled up in the center of the floor, and Beth padded quietly around her to complete her nightly routine in getting ready for bed. Sabs was still passed out in Beth's bed on her stomach, face towards the wall, and Beth slid in behind her once she had changed into loose pajamas and set her phone on the nightstand.
Turning out the lights, she wrapped an arm around Sabs, getting an unconscious response from the small girl, who turned toward her. This let Beth deftly slide her second arm under Sabs as her girlfriend pressed against her. The taller girl quickly nodded off thereafter, enjoying the comfortable feeling of holding someone rather warm and soft.
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Sabs woke up feeling quite rested and refreshed, next noticing arms wrapped around her. She was puzzled for a minute, not understanding where she was or how she got there. The pieces started to fall into place as she heard Beth say, "Good morning, sleepyhead."
"Beth? Where are we?" she replied rather cogently.
"Oh, sorry. We're in my bed," The younger girl replied as she sat up, moving over to the edge of the bed. "I messaged your mom to say you're staying here last night, so you don't have to worry about that."
"Well, I'm a little depressed that I don't remember the first time we slept together," Sabs said with a small, impish grin.
"Trust me, it wasn't as great as you'd think," Beth replied, trying to wipe a small puddle of drool off her shoulder.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Sabs gasped, trying to help before Beth grabbed her and pulled her into her lap, planting a quick kiss on her cheek before Sabs squirmed away.
"Enough of that!" she reproached rather huffily, blushing as she stood up. "I need a shower."
Beth just laughed as Sabs fled into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her firmly. Beth stood up and stretched as she heard the water start to run. She changed into a set of her new clothes, courtesy of the CRA, before sitting next to Blood to hug the massive wolf while waiting for Sabs.
Sabs eventually stuck her head out of the bathroom a little sheepishly, asking Beth, "Hey, uh, can you grab me one of my sets of new clothes?"
Laughing, Beth got up as she replied, "Sure, let me go down and grab your stuff out of the mudroom." She then proceeded to head downstairs and do just that, grabbing a set of the clothes Sabs had gotten before bringing them back up and handing them through the bathroom door.
Once Sabs was dressed and ready, Beth took over the bathroom to take care of her morning routine. Once she was done, she led Sabs and Blood downstairs to get breakfast going. The other girls trudged into the kitchen partway through the preparation efforts, helping to finish making the meal before eating it. Once done, they headed back to the mudroom to get equipped before heading out for the dungeons first, the group consisting of just the younger girls and Blood today. It would be a good idea for them to cull the dungeons from time to time, and the dungeons were still able to provide the younger sisters and Sabs with experience.
They entered the ant dungeon only ten minutes later, not bothering with taking their time this time through. Beth and Blood participated in the fighting, allowing them to clear the way to the room before the boss in just a few minutes. Beth slowed Blood down here, allowing the other girls to do a lion's share of the work in this room as well as the boss room next, letting them earn more experience from the fights.
They moved onto the wolf dungeon quickly, ignoring the enemies outside, as they were too low level to matter. Besides, Zack and the others were using them as training fights; best at this time to leave them. The wolf dungeon was even quicker, as they didn't need to clear all the rooms, just fighting through three of them. Beth and Blood had to help very little, as the girls were strong and skilled enough that, in combination with Soph's ability to nuke the enemies as an opener, they could defeat even the boss room with little struggle.
The group left the dungeon immediately, moving on to the CRA Hall. They arrived after only a handful of minutes, walking into the lobby to find Tazeen and Navere at the front counter. Tazeen merely made a slight hand gesture to Navere, who left the counter and accompanied the group back to the lounge, wherein they split up to go with their respective trainers.
Beth's training focused again on the basics, as Baelvyr had her run through a long series of drills moving towards and away from a single attacking enemy. He had her focus on her footwork first, stopping her numerous times throughout the day to explain something about her positioning or movement. Despite the impression he might give through his looks and mannerisms, Baelvyr had both a keen mind and an easy way of explaining fighting theory that made him a top tier instructor. It would take long years before Beth would realize just how lucky she had been to have him as her first combat trainer.
The end of the afternoon produced a change, as Baelvyr wanted to work her and Blood together on their dual fight tactics. It quickly became apparent that the two of them, while having some comfort with fighting as team, had a long way to go to be a truly lethal duo. Baelvyr used much the same tactics for this lesson, working on the two's movement and positioning before even discussing attack types, angles, or tactics.
The group of girls reconvened hours later in the lounge, even Soph exhausted from the intense work Lyrissa had piled on her. While they were worn out, they still decided to return home, as they wanted to keep the routine of clearing the two nearby dungeons every one to two days fairly constant. The group made rather good time in returning to the Bell household, and they made a moderate sized dinner that evening, as they had all had quite a few of the nutrient bars and packets that the training rooms stocked during the day.
After eating, the group cleaned up before heading upstairs, Beth seeing Sabs to the front door. Having shared a quick goodbye kiss, Sabs darted off down the street while Beth locked the door and headed upstairs herself, going through her nightly routine before relaxing for a little while. Once the tiredness was really gripping her, she moved to her bed, setting her phone on the nightstand before dropping down and drifting off to sleep.
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