Beth yawned and stretched as they arrived back in the basement of 'their' Hall, Baelvyr having brought them back without any further interruptions, including from his old drinking buddy, Boros. The ogre took off as soon as they were back, telling them he had things to work on and that they should check with Tazeen for another mission before bothering him again. That didn't get Beth's hopes up, considering the only mission she knew was still sitting there was the diplomatic one, but she resigned herself with a sigh to likely having to take care of that one before they could cross Blood's Silver Emblem off their to-do list.
But first, before all that, they needed to take a rest, making their way back to the room where they cleaned up before heading to bed. It was somewhat late at night already, once again time zones messing with them, and Sabs was already in bed, Beth joining her and wrapping her arms around the smaller girl. Sabs responded instinctively, pushing into Beth and rubbing against her before settling back into a deep sleep, Beth herself dropping off for a couple hours.
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They were up early the next morning, despite the late night, Sabs not even surprised to wake up in Beth's arms. They got ready for the day before walking upstairs, Sabs back in fighting/training mode while Beth and Blood had never stopped. The short girl stopped in the lounge while the other two continued on down the hall to the lobby, finding Tazeen and Lyrissa both behind the counter this morning. They approached Tazeen, giving Lyrissa a friendly nod, before engaging the tall elf in conversation.
"Please, tell me you have something else for us?" Beth asked hopefully.
"Diplomacy," Tazeen answered calmly. Beth looked over at Blood, who looked back with a frown but just sighed.
"If that's all there is-" Beth started but was interrupted by Tazeen.
"We have one other mission at Silver, though the difficulty might be equivalent to an easier Gold mission," he said.
"What is it?" Beth asked eagerly, both girls' eyes lighting up, causing Lyrissa to openly laugh at their expressions.
"It is not something you will easily be able to complete," Tazeen warned, give the two a stern look.
"Challenges are fun," Beth shot back with a slight scoff.
"Very well, allow me to elaborate," Tazeen said, miming clearing his throat. "There is a very simple reason for this mission to touch on the edge of Gold, and that is rank. The overall objective is quite simple, really, but the difficulty level is rather high. You will be tasked with clearing a single dungeon, though you must do so multiple times. The real difficulty comes from the fact that this dungeon, thankfully located rather far from any of the current population centers, is quite high level. In fact, it is a level two hundred dungeon that is rather overpopulated. If we leave it alone for much longer, we could be looking at some serious trouble, including the formation of a minor beast tide.
"Not only will you need to tackle a quite difficult dungeon, something that we would normally perhaps not even ask of a Silver member, you will have to do it multiple times. Exploring and taming the dungeon is merely the start and, by my estimates, this dungeon will take a dozen runs to complete. Based on your current levels, I would say this mission, should Ms. Blood accept it, will take you some time to accomplish."
After Tazeen was done with his explanation, Beth exchanged a glance with Blood. The two of them seemed to be thinking much along the same lines, not needing to speak before Blood handed her emblem to Tazeen. He slightly raised his right brow while looking at the two of them, a rather curious look from the stoic elf, but eventually registered Blood for the mission. With that done, the wolf gained access to the mission brief, which she shared with Beth, the two of them reviewing what they needed to do. It was much as Tazeen described, with scant other information present on the dungeon itself, something else they would have to fill in as part of their work.
This mission would, perhaps unknowingly for the CRA members, or perhaps with perfect clarity for them, knock down a few birds with one stone. One of the two of their current goals was to level and try to hit two hundred, so this dungeon, at a minimum, provided a great excuse to once again engage Beth's power and grind. They could also use it, depending on just what level the beasts were at, to make that last push to two hundred while clearing the dungeon. Then, it just came down to what kind of requirements doing the even more advanced 'true' versions of their rebirths listed out and they could potentially hit the first rebirth rather soon. Then again, thinking about the close to one month it took them to go from around level one-twenty to one-fifty, this was still going to be at least a couple months to get to two hundred.
The two were going to need to strategize, and they were also going to need to grab a few more supplies, depending on how long they were going to be gone. Beth didn't necessarily want to be out and about for months on end this time as well, but the way Tazeen and the documents made it sound, they were under a bit of a time crunch on this one, made more severe by the fact they had at least a few objective-time weeks of grinding to get to a point where they could safely challenge the dungeon just for the first of many times. They stopped very briefly in the shop and spent a few handfuls of silver coins to grab some more food and minor supplies before heading down to their room. Sabs was out for the day, which allowed them to discuss the mission, including planning their use of Beth's power, without anyone overhearing anything.
"So, how are we doing this?" Blood asked, slumped in her chair.
"Well obviously, we're using my gate power," Beth replied, sitting on the couch and leaning forward over the coffee table. "And I still can't use it too often, especially if we're using it for the equivalent of months at a time. So, we're going to need to go out…somewhere, and once there farm up a bunch of levels like we did a couple weeks ago."
"We maybe shouldn't stay out for so long this time," Blood said.
"Just over three weeks isn't that long," Beth responded, tapping her chin with her index finger. "But still, we need to figure out some way to manage this."
"Go to the kobold area, open the gate and kill shit, just like last time. Simple," said Blood.
"Not that simple," Beth argued immediately. "We were able to get away with it last time because of a couple vague explanations and a few dumb excuses. We're gonna have to tell Sabs what we're doing, at least in general terms, and she's gonna rightly then ask some questions. If she asks where we're going and we say a five minute jog away and then say we won't be back for, like, four weeks, she's gonna blow her top. We gotta figure some other way to navigate that."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Well, since we're already in the business of lying to her, why don't we just lie again? Say we're going somewhere really far away for two weeks. Or, we're teleporting somewhere and it's too expensive to come back so often," Blood said.
"Ah, teleporting won't work as an excuse. Too easy to track and figure out we're not actually using the teleporters," Beth said, tapping at her chin quicker. "We just tell her we're going somewhere difficult to get to, and in and out of, and that we can only come back a couple times during the whole process. We can use the gate power to grind for a month, or probably more, and we just come back every couple weeks for a day to chill."
"We'll have to have more downtime than that," Blood lolled idly. "If we come back after being gone for two weeks and only stick around for a couple hours, Sabs'll also blow her top at that."
"Shit, you're right," Beth muttered. "Then we'll go out for, like, two weeks, and then come back for a weekend. Well, for two days, weekends don't really matter anymore."
"What's the goal?" Blood asked.
"We get to one-ninety before the first dungeon attempt, depending on what the dungeon's at when we first scout it. Then we use the clears to try to get close to or even to level two hundred. We'll try to get it all done as fast as possible, and afterwards we see what we need at level two hundred to do the true rebirth," Beth explained.
"Don't we have to do a quest?" Blood asked somewhat rhetorically.
"It's not really a quest," Beth said, even though she was pretty sure Blood was just being a bit rhetorical. "It's more like a list of rare items and materials we have to get before initiating the rebirth sequence at level two hundred. Even for the very first rebirth, it's usually a pretty…well, not long, but expensive list."
"Think Jaq can get it?" Blood asked.
"For our first one, almost definitely, but it's another good reason to farm and save all these crazy random items we find. Sometimes the list will ask for things like 'an elder plant heart,' or something like that, and having that golden rose heart would more than qualify. It's a good reason to not just sell everything we get, or make it into armor or elixirs; why I've been hanging onto a handful of the rarer things," Beth explained.
"We have supplies, we have a plan; time to wait for Sabs," Blood grunted, taking control of the wallscreen.
Fortunately for Beth, the conversation with Sabs went much easier than what she had expected. The older girl seemed to accept the explanations about them training in a dangerous place that was hard to get in and out of without really becoming suspicious since…well, it was actually quite a good excuse. She wasn't particularly happy that they would be disappearing for a couple weeks at a time, but Beth tried to make that up to her with a very long, very pleasant night.
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They were up just before the crack of dawn the next morning, all three of them going through their morning routine quickly. Sabs left before the other two, however, Beth and Blood needing an extra minute to prep and talk shop. Beth also didn't want to say goodbye, for now, to Sabs in the lounge or the hall, so they shared a very long farewell kiss in the privacy of their rooms before the short girl headed up to the lounge. Once she was out, Beth and Blood took care of the last minute of stuff they had to wrap before giving each other a quick nod and slipping out of the room, making sure it was secure behind them.
The plan, as it was, was quite simple; run into the rural areas until they got quite far away from any of the still holding out cities, find somewhere unlikely for anybody to show up at, and open the gate and farm. The getting away from everybody part wasn't particularly difficult, as people had really grouped together at this point. There weren't any holdouts left outside of a large town or a city, and even a few of the towns were having a bit of trouble and might have to have everyone move to one of the cities. The finding somewhere secure part, where people wouldn't show up but wasn't totally overrun by beasts, was a little trickier. They had to move for most of the morning until they found a spot, way out in the middle of the woods, far from even old campgrounds, that they thought would do the trick. Nobody was anywhere close and they could pick a precise spot that didn't have random beasts wandering by that could stumble into the portal, though Beth wasn't even sure that that could happen, as nothing had ever done it so far.
After picking their spot, they didn't even have to set up camp, as they would do that within the gate, in the clear area right where it spawned, and only when they needed rest. Beth picked the options, including the highest time dilation she could select, which was still ten-times at this point, and opened the gate. They weren't doing anything fancy, just fighting randomized enemies in a standard forest layout, something that was just enough variety to stave off the boredom of killing identical beasts for hundreds of hours.
That hundreds of hours number turned into thousands, as roughly two weeks of time in the outside world translated to more than twenty weeks in the gate. Beth and Blood also spent a huge amount of time fighting, not just fighting the equivalent of fourteen or sixteen hours a day, but sometimes fighting for days on end before stopping to rest. They had the stamina, and even moreso, fighting tired was something they had started to get used to and that Beth believed was a valuable skill to cultivate.
Twenty weeks of subjective time was a long time, but at the same time it was no time at all. They had spent as much time as they possibly could fighting during that period, and the results were somewhat less than what Beth had hoped for. They were taking well over a week per level at this point, and that meant their first stint of crazy grinding had only bought them about twelve levels overall. The higher their level went, the longer it took to secure the next one, though it wasn't a massive ballooning in needed experience, it was still enough that what took eight days became nine, then ten, then eleven. At this rate, they'd be getting not even ten levels from twenty weeks of grinding by either the next session or the one after that, and Beth tried to run the numbers quickly, checking their stats to see where they were overall.
Name
Elizabeth Anne Bell
Class
Brawler
Level
164
Strength
468
Dexterity
264
Endurance
300
Intelligence
60
Wisdom
60
Free Points
0
Titles
Silver Flame Empress' Inheritor
Skills
Acid Resistance Copper[5]
Ancient World Gate[2]
Beastly Body Silver[8]
Blacksmithing Apprentice[9]
Celestial Annihilation Silver[2]
Crush Silver[9]
Earth Resistance Copper[8]
Flame Resistance Copper[9]
Focused Meditation Copper[9]
FrostFlame Eye Silver[2]
Ice Resistance Copper[8]
Indomitable Heart Silver[3]
Lightning Resistance Copper[8]
Lordly Reconstruction Silver[5]
Monstrous Blow Copper[9]
Pain Tolerance Silver[9]
Spatial Step Copper[9]
Swift Silver[2]
Swords Journeyman[9]
Toxic Resistance Silver[2]
Unarmed Journeyman[9]
Wealth
1d 15p 61g 10s 4c
Emblems
CRA Silver Badge (150CP)
Bonds
Blood
Name
Blood
Race
Red Wolf Queen
Level
164
Strength
300
Dexterity
440
Endurance
200
Intelligence
60
Wisdom
60
Free Points
0
Titles
-
Skills
Acid Resistance Copper[3]
Blood Queen's Claws Silver[7]
Earth Resistance Copper[6]
Eyes of Hallowed Truth Copper[9]
Flame Resistance Copper[7]
Ice Resistance Copper[7]
Leatherworking Apprentice[5]
Lightning Resistance Copper[6]
Meditation Copper[9]
Pain Tolerance Silver[5]
Regeneration Copper[9]
Rending Bite Copper[9]
Swift Silver[9]
Toxic Resistance Silver[1]
Unarmed Journeyman[2]
Wealth
28p 95g 24s 77c
Emblem
CRA Copper Badge (100CP)
She was pretty happy with their progress, noting that both her and Blood had figured out a way to change the view slightly to get their current Contribution points to show. That made her give a slight sigh, looking not just at their small number of points, but at Blood sitting at fifty less. She gave herself a little shake right away, though, thinking that that was just what they were there to solve. She was otherwise fairly happy with their progress and noted that Blood had dumped some stats into END to bring her stamina up a bit more, thinking that it would also increase her overall toughness by a nice little bit. Otherwise, they had gained one or two skill levels here and there, Beth getting a little half grin as she thought about her use of the acid to level, while Blood had just laid her ears back and snarled at the offer of the acid during one of their breaks. Oh well, her loss.