"What did we learn?" Baelvyr rumbled the question as they drank.

"He's a cheater," replied Blood.

"He's an asshole, picking on us," Beth snorted, rolling her eyes.

"If you weren't so weak, you might have a chance," Jaq replied coldly.

"What's your Daggers at, anyway," Beth replied, ignoring the jibe.

"Grandmaster[9]," he replied calmly.

"Yeah, bullshit," Beth snorted. "We're not even a full year into our training and leveling and we're supposed to fight Grandmasters? I don't care how cracked we're supposed to be, that's stupid."

"Ya'll meet people like that," Baelvyr snorted. "There're people who are just as young an' green as ya and already have amazing abilities. It's called the 'Limitless Path' for a damn reason, despite that everybody always seems to forget that."

"We did actually see at least two people like that at the Trial, now that you mention it," Beth said. "There was a woman who had her spear skill at least at Expert, and then there was a guy there that I'm pretty sure was a Master with the sword, even though he couldn't have been older than thirty, at most."

"Yep," Baelvyr nodded. "There ain't no limit to what ya can do if ya really try."

"There are some limits," Jaq butted in with a scoff. "Don't throw yourself off the roof just because you get it in your head that you'll be able to fly by believing it."

"The two of you telling us two different things at once isn't very helpful," Blood said caustically, both of her ears twitching.

"Right, it's like this," Baelvyr said, holding a hand up to stop the rest from continuing. "Ya can do basically anything on the Path, right? But here's the deal; ya gotta have the knowledge and understandin' to do it. Not only that, but some things are also sometimes just beyond ya; can't get everythin' for free. I've seen people do things ya wouldn't believe, but some of them have paid a lot for it. Includin' all the way up to sacrificin' their life for that crazy thing. There's always some kinda balance that ya gotta keep in mind."

"So, let me sum this up," Beth said, right hand on her hip while her left index finger was tapping at her chin. "There are gonna be people out there who are just so good that their skills, levels, whatever, are way higher than they 'should' be at their age or experience level. And basically, anybody can do it, but if you try too hard and don't have the knowledge, skill, or strong enough body to handle it, you could face serious consequences, all the way up to death."

"I guess it takes one blockhead to be able to translate another's words," Jaq commented acerbically.

"Enough," Baelvyr grumbled. He then refocused them on the task at hand, going over Beth and Blood's gains from the Trial and making several comments and notes before saying, "Yer doin' well so far, but we've got a lot more to work on. I'll see both of ya tomorrow for more of this."

"Rome wasn't built in a day," Beth quipped with a sigh.

"And come see me to restock your supplies," Jaq said. "I also want to look at your current equipment before you run off anywhere actually dangerous."

After Jaq finished speaking, he disappeared with a *bang*, seemingly done with his babysitting efforts for the day. Baelvyr was never as flashy, though with his pillar-like legs he didn't need to be, ambling out the door and down the hall and still disappearing in a blink. Beth and Blood trailed after; having returned in the middle of the day, they made their way to the lounge now that it was the evening. They wanted to see if they could catch the rest of their group there or if they would need to just meet up with Sabs in their suite for now and catch the other girls later.

They were somewhat surprised to find the lounge exceptionally lively, at least, by the standards they had been used to. The place was packed with seemingly new recruits, Beth only recognizing a single face in the crowd, that being of one of the women who had joined shortly before they left for the Trial. Neither Sabs nor her sisters were in the lounge, though both Lyrissa and John were present, meaning it was rather unlikely the other girls were training today, or they had all finished and left already. Beth didn't stay in the room, leading Blood out the door and down the hallway to the front lobby, stopping in front of Tazeen when they got there.

"Beth," the stoic elf said with a very slight nod.

"Tazeen, good to see you," Beth said. There was no one else currently in the lobby, but a young man walked in from outside and moved to the head to the back as they spoke. Beth assumed the place was really starting to pick up now that the changes had had almost half a year to percolate through society. "We need to get Blood an emblem and I wanted to talk about upgrading mine."

"Certainly. Let's take care of young Miss Blood's emblem first, then we can speak on yours," Tazeen replied with another nod. He then walked through the process of signing Blood up, the wolf now being an official member on her own. Beth thought it was important that she had the full package now that she had a human form, especially since there were times the two of them weren't together and Blood would be better served being a full member herself. Beth also made sure Blood had a working key for the room before they did anything else.

"Now, as to your other request," Tazeen said after Blood had been sorted out. "As you may recall from our discussion before you left for the Trial, we covered the requirements for upgrading to a Silver Emblem."

"I remember," Beth replied with a nod. "It was to do three Silver-rank missions and to take a test that was split into two parts. I think that's right?"

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"Indeed," Tazeen said. "The test is not particularly difficult, but I am assuming, based on how soon afterwards you used your Trial token, that you have not had time to study the material I recommended?"

"No, we haven't," Beth answered with a shake of her head.

"Right, then I might suggest that as your first task," Tazeen said. "I would recommend you start that right away. At your current level of strength, completing three missions will not be especially difficult nor time-consuming, so I suggest you start the studying immediately. That will, by far, consume the bulk of your time leading up to your qualification for Silver."

"Just to confirm, do we have any missions here yet? Or will I need to go somewhere else to get those missions?" Beth asked.

"Do not fret, arrangements can be made," Tazeen answered smoothly.

"Right, well then, I guess studying is priority one," Beth said with a sigh. "Thanks for the help, Tazeen. We'll come back once I've worked my way through that list you recommended."

"It's no trouble. Simply let one of us know if you have questions," he said.

Beth then led the way back through the halls and into the arena before they made their way down to the basement. They approached the familiar door and Beth quickly fished out her key from her pouch, swiping it over the reader before the door beeped and slid open. She sighed as she stepped inside before grumbling a little as Blood hip-checked her out of the way so she could saunter inside. As she closed the door behind her, she heard a voice saying, "Beth?" in a bit of a tremulous manner, turning to see Sabs sticking her head out of the kitchenette.

"I'm back," Beth said with a big smile.

"And who, uh, is this?" Sabs asked, walking into the living room cautiously as she looked at Blood.

"Blood," said Beth.

"Wait, this is Blood," Sabs gasped, taking a step towards the strange woman and leaning forward. Blood suddenly took a step back and there was a brief moment of twisting in space and the massive red wolf stood there, her armored vest still equipped. Blood made the vest disappear with a thought, clearly storing it in her necklace, before she transformed again, once again standing before them in her human form.

"Holy shit!" Sabs exclaimed, practically jumping out of her own skin from shock.

"It's good to see you, too," Beth said with a roll of her eyes, causing Sabs to blush and fling herself at her girlfriend.

"Sorry, it's so good to see you," Sabs said as she buried her head in Beth's chest.

"I see we weren't the only ones with improvements," Blood said, causing Sabs to once again jump with a yelp.

"You-! You can talk!" Sabs exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Blood.

"Of course, I can talk," Blood replied, flicking her left ear and frowning slightly.

"This is crazy," Sabs said. "You two just got back and already everything's nuts. Why's it always like this with you?"

"You need at least a little excitement in your life," Beth replied with a grin.

"Might be too much…" Sabs muttered.

Blood walked across the room to one of the armchairs, taking off her gauntlets and boots by making them disappear before sitting down, throwing a leg over the arm and leaning back. Beth grabbed hold of Sabs and picked her up, kissing her firmly before the smaller woman could protest before walking over to the couch and sitting with Sabs in her lap. They continued kissing while Blood grabbed the remote and turned on the wallscreen, flipping through selections as the two continued their make-out session.

Sabs eventually forced them to come up for air, leaning back and saying, "Yes, it is good to see you again."

Beth gave Sabs another quick kiss before easily picking her up and spinning her around in her lap. This led to Sabs not only being able to see the wallscreen but also Blood, who seemed to have decided that clothes were too confining. She exclaimed, "Blood!" while covering her face and making a frustrated noise, Beth just laughing at her girlfriend's reaction, earning herself an elbow in the short ribs.

"Sorry, sorry," Beth chuckled. "If it bothers you, we can set a no nudity rule."

"No, no," Sabs replied, lowering her hands and staring determinedly at the wallscreen. "It's just surprising, especially considering that it seems like we keep just adding more hot women to the suite."

"Agreed," said Blood before Beth could respond. "It would be even better if we had more join us. The tiny lightning terror, for instance."

"We are not having my sisters join us," Beth replied hotly.

"Just a thought," Blood shrugged, Beth narrowing her eyes at the lupine woman.

"So…" Sabs said, looking back and up at Beth.

"'So' what?" asked Beth.

"C'mon. Tell me all about it!" Sabs exclaimed.

"I can do even better than tell you. I can show you," Beth said with a grin, holding up her hand and producing the flash drive.

"What's that? And how the hell did you do that?" Sabs asked, narrowing her eyes as she picked up the device.

"It's basically a high-tech flash drive," Beth said. "And as for where I got it…"

She then slid the necklace out of her shirt, showing it to Sabs, the older woman taking it in one of her hands to inspect it closely. After looking over the inscriptions quite intently, she looked at Beth with a raised brow, a question in her eyes.

"It's a spatial item," Beth explained, continuing, "It has more space in than this room and lets me teleport items in and out instantly with just a thought. Pretty cool, huh?"

"And you got this for that Trial thing? God, Beth, how much is something like that worth?"

"Dunno," Beth shrugged. "Jaq was telling me about a spatial item he had that he wanted multiple platinum coins for, and I'm pretty sure that one had way less internal volume than this one."

"I have to say," Sabs said, fingering the gem on the necklace, "that I am a bit envious."

"I'm sure we can get you one, even if it isn't quite as good at first," Beth said with a chuckle, kissing Sabs's cheek.

"So, how does this work?" Sabs asked, grabbing the flash drive from Beth.

"Here, I'll show you," Beth replied, showing Sabs how to load the device into the panel of connectors next to the wallscreen. Blood sprawled back in her chair as Beth took over control of the screen, seemingly disinterested in going back over their work in the Trial a second time in just one day. Beth just ignored her, bringing up the information and going over the general outline with Sabs before going through some individual stages.

After a few hours they paused to make some food, at which point Blood commandeered control of the screen while the other two were distracted with prepping the meal. They ate quite a bit, Sabs having to go through a meal to get used to how much both Beth and Blood ate again. They moved into the bathroom after they were done eating, Sabs grumbling a little even as she blushed at how the other two could just make their clothes disappear and she had to actually undress. Blood hopped in the shower first while Beth got the tub ready, wanting to take plenty of time to relax now that they were back.

Blood washed hastily, not wanting to share a shower stall with the other two considering just how all over each other they were. She was already finishing rinsing just by the time Beth and Sabs entered the huge shower stall, slipping out as the two started making out under the hot water. She went over to the tub and slipped in, monitoring it as it filled up with steaming hot water before shutting the taps off. She laid back in one of the four large corners, turning a jet on to swirl the water while she laid her arms on the tub's back and slouched in her seat.

Beth and Sabs, meanwhile, were quite deeply into a very, very long kiss, with Sabs eventually having to break it off and complain that she did actually need to shower after her day's activities. Beth didn't mind at all, taking the opportunity to spend even more quality time by carefully and thoroughly washing Sabs off, ignoring the grumbled protests that she could do it herself. She let the smaller woman turn the tables on her then, scrubbing Beth off, though she insisted Sabs put a lot of force into it. When they were both rinsed off Sabs quickly escaped the shower while Beth shut it down, laughing as she followed her girlfriend to the tub.

She picked Sabs, who had just sat in the corner opposite Blood, up and slid into her spot, plopping the smaller woman on her lap. Blood gave them a glance before leaning her head back on the lip of the tub and closing her eyes. Beth wrapped her arms around Sabs and leaned her head down, nuzzling against her girlfriend's neck while Sabs overlapped her arms with Beth's. They stayed like that for a while until eventually they had had enough, with Sabs complaining about pruning as she broke free of Beth's grip. All three dried off before finishing their bedtime prep and moving back into the living room where Blood sprawled on the couch, putting something on the wallscreen as she got comfortable.