Rell, it turned out, was a fellow connoisseur when it came to arena matches, though he was not himself a frequent participant. He was able to quickly and easily navigate to a section of the best of the most recent fights, pulling up something from a team match. The rules for the five-versus-five format were quite similar to the singles duels, other than a person considered 'dead' getting teleported out of the ring immediately. The match he brought up was between two well-known teams, and Rell clearly had a favorite, cheering for one and wincing or cursing whenever they got in a bad bind. The others displayed varying levels of interest, from Beth who was also quite into it, to Blood, who looked to have fallen asleep beside Beth on the couch.
Their prime viewing was interrupted by a knocking on the door, which Beth answered with some alacrity. She found a tall, thin, beautiful young woman standing outside who clearly radiated power. She had dark blue and purple feathers instead of hair and her eyes glowed softly with a pulsing, blue light, and Beth didn't even need her skills to tell the woman was a phoenix. She was a little confused, as this was supposed to be Andrea's friend, but wasn't Adam's friend supposed to be the biggest ringer of the group?
"Hello," the woman said as Beth gawked for a moment. "Is Andrea here?"
Well, that really put that mystery to rest, and Beth replied, "Yes, of course. Please, come in."
The woman entered and saw the assembled group, asking, "Is this the group for the special challenge?"
"All but one, Kris," Andrea replied with enthusiasm, bounding up and hugging the tall woman. "This is Kris, one of my good friends and a member of one of the branches of the Phoenix Clan."
"Hello," Kris said a bit shyly to the room, greeting the rest with a nod. Everyone nodded back except Itharion, who went so far as to stand and offer the young woman a bow. Must be a bird thing.
The phoenix woman joined them in watching the wallscreen, taking a seat next to Andrea as they waited for their eighth teammate to show up. Beth was perfectly content to give Rell control of the system and watch what he wanted, especially considering he seemed a knowledgeable fan, and the others mostly made small talk or worked on their own things in the interim. Beth mainly discussed the matches with Rell until one of the side discussions caught her interest and pulled her away from the screen.
"I don't know how easy getting one of those will be," Andrea said with a frown, her brow scrunched as she glanced at Kris.
"Such items are quite rare, as I'm sure you know," Itharion added in.
"What items?" Beth asked, having only been half listening to their discussion.
"I'm having some trouble on my humanization," Kris said quietly. "My progress has really slowed down lately, and I was hoping to find something like an entombed heart or beast gem to help my progress get back on track. Of course, even then, I'd have to find one that aligns to me."
"What's a beast gem?" Beth asked.
"Similar to entombed hearts," Itharion replied. "They form when a powerful beast with a beast core has that core mutate or transform. They're not as helpful as entombed hearts, but they still provide good insights into body adjustment and elemental affinity."
"What kinda heart or gem are you looking for?" Beth asked then.
"My elements are water and void lighting," Kris said calmly. "Void lightning is a very rare affinity, which makes me strong for my level, but its difficult to understand. Also, because it's rare, it's difficult to find anything, whether training from an expert or items that are of the same affinity, that can help me push my understanding further."
"Yeah, I've never encountered anything like that," Beth replied with a shrug and a slight frown. "Sounds like something that might pop up in the auction."
"Auction?" Kris asked with a slight look of confusion.
"This thug somehow got a personal token for the Seven Lights Trading Firm," Andrea declared sarcastically, causing Rell to almost choke on his pipe stem.
"Seven Lights, lassie?!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," Beth answered with a quick shrug before pulling out the emerald token.
"Emerald?!" Rell cried, Beth afraid for a moment he might pass out.
"Is that a big deal?" Kris asked in her quiet voice.
"'Is that a big deal?' A big deal?!" Rell exclaimed before catching himself and calming down a bit. "Aye, lassie, that's a damned big deal. Seven Lights is one of the wealthiest and most well-connected tradin’ firms in this whole galaxy. High-level access to such a firm is worth ten times its weight in gold."
"Well, that's impressive," Kris said, the widening of her eyes and slight opening of her mouth showing her surprise.
"I can take others into the monthly auction," Beth then dropped the next bombshell. "I have a limit, but that's one of the other things we're thinking about. If we can gather enough rare stuff, we can even offer it up for sale using my connections, and we can use that money to buy rare stuff from the auction that we need."
"Ah, I see your game, lassie," Rell said with a knowing smirk, pointing his pipe stem at her.
"No game, just trying to get stronger," Beth replied with another shrug, having stored the emblem again. She hadn't mentioned the entombed heart she and Blood had acquired some time ago and even diverted the discussion as she wasn't sure she could fully trust anybody else in the room yet, other than Blood.
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They fell back into small talk for a time after that, Rell leaving briefly to get some alcohol before returning to suck on his pipe stem while watching the matches. Their discussions and viewing were interrupted just after noon by a resounding, heavy knocking on the door, Beth hopping up to answer it. When she opened the door, it was the first time in a little while that she had to strain her neck as she tilted her head up…and up…and up to find the other person's face. The man standing in the hallway would put even Baelvyr to shame and give that massive minotaur Boros a good run for his money. He was well over eight feet tall, nearly nine feet, and displayed no secondary characteristics at all, marking him as human, or something closely resembling a human, only several times larger. He had a very square, rugged face, bright green eyes with strange purple symbols in them, and long, dark brown hair that was held back in a band.
"Adam here?" he rumbled in a voice like two thunderstorms fighting.
"Yeah, sure. I take it you're his help?" Beth asked with a slight smirk, moving out of the way to let the man in. Despite the height of all CRA doors, he still had to crouch just slightly to make it into the room.
"Something like that," the man replied in his deep voice.
"Bjorn, good to see you," Adam said, standing to give the huge man a handshake, clasping his forearm before they thumped each other on the back.
"Likewise," the big man replied. "Heard this could be good?"
"Eight-man, level two-sixty special challenge related to devils," Rell explained as Adam resumed his seat and Bjorn took a spot on the floor. The big man sat on the carpet and still came close to the heights of the others on the furniture.
"You wanna take the couch?" Beth asked the big man, gesturing at her seat.
"It's fine," he rumbled. "I have furniture, but I'm guessing we're heading out soon?"
"That's right," Beth nodded. "Let's make sure everyone knows everybody, then we can go over the plan. We'll leave after that."
"Right, lassie," Rell turned the wallscreen off. "I'm Rell Stonefist, a Hammerguard and one of the Lord of Traversal's on-planet representatives."
"Itharion Amellion. Swordsman and the other of said representatives," Itharion said.
"Andrea Rose, Brawler," Andrea introduced herself.
"Adam Wright, Defender," Adam said.
"Beth Bell, Crushing Hierophant," Beth said, getting a few raised brows at that.
"Blood Bell. I'm a wolf," Blood said lazily, getting a few chuckles.
"I just go by Kris. I’m a member of the White Phoenix Clan," Kris said hesitantly.
"Bjorn," the giant man said. "Sovereign Brute."
"Rell's already said," Beth said after everyone introduced themselves. "But I'll repeat. Our goal is a level two-sixty special challenge that we found near the western edge of this continent. Right now, a lot of us aren't at a good level to challenge that, so our first order of business is to spend the next week, or possibly more, leveling. After we feel like we're fully prepared, we'll tackle the special challenge. I own an airship with decent capabilities and more than enough room for all of us, so we will be using that as our mobile base. Any questions so far?"
"Type of challenge?" asked Bjorn in his resounding voice.
"Indefatigable Frost Devil Plain is the name, if that clues you in," Andrea filled in.
"Devils," Bjorn grunted. "Be a good challenge."
"How much are we looking to level?" Kris asked.
"I think it would be good that we get everyone below two hundred over that level," Beth replied. "I know Blood and I are the lowest, but we're both pretty damn strong, so based on what we can find with the airship, I'm confident of at least getting pretty far in two weeks."
"That seems…aggressive," Kris commented quietly.
"Well, Blood and I fight a lot more than other people," Beth replied with a shrug. "Besides, we have some contingencies that we can use to speed it up."
"Sounds like a plan," Bjorn commented.
"We've got no problems," Rell added, getting a nod from Itharion.
"We can always either miss the next monthly auction or attend that one without much to sell before doing the special challenge," Andrea commented.
"That's also true. We're not under an urgent time crunch on the leveling; better safe than sorry," Beth said.
"I like that, it’s a good saying" Kris said with a small smile.
"Hey, random question, I know, but are you a giant, Bjorn?" Beth said.
"No," Bjorn replied stoically. After a moment, he followed up with, "I have titan blood flowing in my veins."
"But, with the way you phrased that, you're not a titan?" Beth asked, scrunching her eyes and frowning slightly.
"Titans and giants are gone, lassie," Rell said, pointing at her with his pipe stem.
"What do you mean by 'gone?'" Beth asked.
Seeing that no one, even Bjorn, was eager to rush to answer, Rell took up the explanation. "I meant what I said, lassie. All the giants and titans disappeared, in the span of no more than a year. I don't just mean here, either, but everywhere, across the entire universe. No one knows what happened to them, at least, no one below the level of our Lord or even greater. Who knows the secrets some Exalted, Manumitted, or beyond might know? But as for the rest of us, we just know that at some point quite a few thousand years ago, all the giants and titans, both of which being extremely powerful and noble lineages, disappeared. Only a few of their descendants and possibly one or two who didn't get taken or teleported or even, dare I say it, no offense Bjorn, killed, were left over."
"I'm one," Bjorn said, acknowledging Rell's apology with a nod. "My ancestors, many times removed, were titans, but I am not wholly of titan blood. I still carry part of their legacy within me, including having access to several skills that are very difficult for non-titans to learn, but I am not a full-blooded titan."
"Sorry, I didn't know," Beth apologized, feeling she might have stepped on a bit of a landmine with the subject.
"It's no problem," Bjorn said calmly. "But, I take it you are not very familiar with the Path?"
"If that's a way to ask if we're new to the Path, then yes," Beth explained. "It hasn't been much more than a standard year since my world was integrated into the Path. Blood came to me as a bonded companion for completing a dungeon near my home on my home planet solo very early on, so she lacks knowledge to a similar degree."
"I only know one or two things vaguely from what's granted me from my wolf lineage," Blood shrugged.
"Magic of sapient beasts can awaken one or two memories in their descendants without the need to read or study about the topic," Kris confirmed quietly.
"Do we have anything else to cover?" Rell then asked the group. When no one spoke up, he said, "Well then, it's time to head out."
He then clapped his hands on his knees and rose, heading for the door. The rest of the group filed out after him, with Beth being last and closing the door behind her. Andrea and Kris walked by each other and discussed some business related to a third friend that wasn't there, while Adam and Bjorn exchanged a few words. Rell seemed to know the way quite well, leading them out of the CRA Hall and then to the edge of the city. Beth took over at that point and led them to where she had deployed the airship last time, summoning the cube before having them all stand back.
"A compactible, too?" Rell said, glancing at her.
"It's pretty sweet," Beth replied with a grin, sending the signal for the ship to unfold at the same time. The four that hadn't seen the ship yet made suitably impressed noises, other than Bjorn, but Beth was already getting a vibe from him that reminded her of Navere, a man of few words and decisive action.
"A damned impressive ship, lassie," Rell said as they approached the ramp.
"I would hope so," Beth replied with a chuckle, "considering how much it cost me."
"I won't ask, lassie," Rell answered with a chuckle of his own.
The group made their way to the bridge, following behind Blood, who had assumed her usual habit of taking the lead. None of the rest of the group were accustomed to scouting duty, so Blood was the natural and only fit for the role. Once she had led them to the bridge and ensconced herself in the pilot's chair, she got the ship warmed up and took off as the others settled into seats. With the additional jump seats at the back of the bridge, all eight of the team members at least had a chair, with most of them at one or the other of the stations. Beth made sure to assign the rest of the group guest accesses once they were all situated and ready to go.
"Destination?" Blood asked as she started the ship moving.
"Let's head northward first," Rell responded, having taken one of the jump seats in the back with Bjorn. "There's plenty of beasts that swarm in that area that need culled, with a ton o' packs that range in the two hundreds in level. Shouldn't be hard ta find somethin' there."
"Sounds good," Beth agreed with a nod, signaling to Blood to punch it in.