Limitless Path

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any kind of super trick questions or prompts anywhere that would get her a pass or even bonuses for being thorough. That being that, she wrote her name in the topline where it was indicated, smirking a little at not having basically written anything physically for months. She read the first question, finding that the first couple pages were multiple choice, though they were fairly densely packed, meaning there were a decent few just of those. The next handful of pages wanted short answers for each question, and she did remember that the pages were all double-sided and to fill out both sides. She got through the first ten pages pretty easily, only unsure on one of the questions for the short answer, though she could've flubbed something else without knowing. The last section was not going to be as quick and easy, however, as it was several long-form answer or essay questions.

She dug into the first one, two complex paragraphs asking about a dispute with a contract involving multiple parties. She knew these last questions would also be open to some level of interpretation, including by the examiner grading it, so she just did the best she could. After the contract law was a question about missions and contribution structure, followed by one about the arenas and ranked tournaments. Then there was one about the duties of branch members during various states, such as a beast tide, followed closely by one about the different levels of responsibility and requirement for each rank, including what was expected as part of their regular duties.

She finished the rest of the essay questions, sitting back with a sigh and rubbing her eyes. She looked up to find Baelvyr still drinking, Navere still meditating, and John still carrying on with his gags. She took a few minutes, when none of them indicated she was under some kind of time crunch, to review the pages to see if she had done anything obviously stupid before handing them back to Baelvyr. He took a quick glance at a couple and nodded before making them disappear.

"Now, let's get through the grillin'," he said, waking Navere and causing John to make his props disappear.

"I don't like the sound of that," Beth grumbled in response, earning only wicked smiles from two of the three faces and a raised eyebrow from Navere. With a sigh, she readied herself and they got started, ‘grilling’ her on a bunch of the things involved in being a member of the CRA with some standing. It was about thirty minutes or just over of intense question and answer, leaving her mentally drained and grumpy by the end of it.

"Alright, it ain't for Gold," Baelvyr finally grumbled, the other two sitting back again. He pulled her papers out right there and went over them for a few minutes, marking something on one of the short answers, though she didn't catch what. He took a minute or two for each of the essays, reading through her paragraphs and making a couple marks on two of the half dozen questions. Finally, he finished up and paged back through everything, likely double-checking his tally was correct.

"Grats, ya pass," he grumbled, the other two giving her their congratulations before standing to leave.

"That's it?" she asked.

"Ya gotta go talk to Tazeen to get yer emblem upgraded," Baelvyr noted, making her test disappear and standing himself.

"Hope you didn't expect a parade or nothin'," John commented sarcastically as he moved to leave the room.

"Just seems a little…anti-climactic," she commented a little lamely.

"It's a Silver, girlie," Baelvyr grumbled. "We'll throw a party when ya get Diamond."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, following the others out. They all split off to go in various directions, though she found herself following Baelvyr, as he made his way to the front desk. He passed Tazeen her test papers and then another stack of papers that appeared to be notes on her verbal test before telling Tazeen to finish the procedures. He thumped away then, disappearing down one of the two hallways leading back into the building.

"Ms. Beth," Tazeen said with a slight nod. "May I see your emblem?"

Beth pulled out her emblem and handed it to Tazeen, watching in fascination as he placed it on the part of the counter that was colored slightly dark in front of him. It had some kind of runes or machinery under it, and he had used it before for several operations, such as activating keys and the like. Now, however, he placed her emblem upon it and pressed a series of keys on the interface in the air before him that only he could see. There was a low humming noise, and a little flash and Beth's emblem was sitting there, identical except that it was now made from a pure silver metal instead of copper. Tazeen picked the emblem up, inspected it for a moment, then handed it to her.

"That's everything?" she asked.

"That's everything," he confirmed.

"Hey, do you have-"

"No, we do not have any other missions available at this Hall at this time," he cut her off, knowing exactly where she was going.

"Well…damn," she groaned before stashing her emblem in her status screen. "Anyway, thanks for the help."

"Not a problem. May I assist you with anything else?" he asked.

"Not now, Tazeen. Thanks," she answered as she walked away, receiving a nod from him in response.

She moved back through the building, stopping by the cafeteria to order a ton of food. She still marveled at how cheap it was, especially as she looked at her still close to one diamond coin worth of funds. It was doubly good with her necklace, as she could order the kitchen equipment to make a dozen simple dishes and stash them all in her storage object without them ever getting cold.

With food in hand, or necklace, as the case may be, she headed through the arena and down to their room. She found the other two not doing much, though Sabs did have some kind of physical book or journal that she was paging through. Beth saw when she sat down that it was more like a large glossary or encyclopedia, as Sabs was flipping back and forth looking for specific information on…something.

"So, how did it go?" Sabs asked, turning to face Beth only to get a surprise kiss.

"Here," Beth said after breaking it off, her new, shiny silver emblem appearing in her hand.

"Beth! Good job!" Sabs cried, hugging her and giving her another kiss before grabbing the emblem and looking it over. "It…it looks the same?"

"Yeah, it looks the same basically the whole way up to Diamond," Beth said. "Just, a different color and a slightly different feel because, ya know, different metal."

"It's still cool," Sabs said definitively, holding it out to Blood who just glanced at it before grunting and ignoring them again. Sabs shrugged and gave it back to Beth, who made it disappear into her status screen. "So, what now?"

"I mean, now, we've still got a bunch of stuff to do," Beth said, tapping her chin as she thought. "We need to do three missions for Blood so she can get to Silver, then we need to do some leveling, then I should really focus on getting my Blacksmithing up if I ever want to use all these mats I'm getting, and after that we already have something planned because of that thing we found underground."

"What thing? What underground?" Sabs asked, confused evident on her face.

"Oh, yeah, uh, here," Beth said, making the letter appear and handing it to Sabs. The short girl took a minute to read through it, turning it over to make sure she didn't miss anything on the back before handing it back to Beth with a humming noise.

"So, you're leaving? Again?" Sabs asked in a low voice and Beth winced. Maybe this wasn't the best way to broach this topic.

"Yeah, sorry," Beth said before continuing, "we'll be investigating whatever this is, though we won't leave for a while. There's still a ton we have to get done before accepting this invitation thing."

"It's just…I wish you were here more, but I know I'm being a little selfish," Sabs sighed.

"I don't think it's selfish, Sabs, to want your partner to be around," Beth said, wrapping an arm around her and nuzzling against her cheek.

"I do want you here, but I know you're so good at…this. All this," she said, waving her arm around. "I don't want to hold you back, but I want to spend time with you."

"We'll keep working on it, Sabs, but it might be rough for a while, since we, well, we can't really take you with us," Beth said with a slight wince.

"I know, I know," Sabs sighed again. "I tried even just keeping up, and that didn't work. I'll go at my own pace and, some day, I'll be able to do stuff with you."

"I kinda don't want to say it," Beth said, giving Sabs a squeeze and looking pensive.

"What?" Sabs demanded.

"Well, we'll be able to do some stuff on the next lap around," Beth said with a bit of a strained chuckle.

"What do you mean?" Sabs was a bit puzzled, looking at Beth with a bit of a squint.

"Blood and I could already Rebirth," Beth explained. "But we're waiting to the max to get more benefits. If we spend some time here and there over the next few months leveling, we'll hit that max and then go back to level one. As we level again, we'll be at a point for a while where we can group up, though we might still pass you kinda quick…"

"Well, at least it's something to look forward to," Sabs grumped before she was distracted by another kiss. "That won't work every time."

"It'll work this time," Beth laughed and kissed her again, the two losing themselves in the kiss for a long minute before Beth stood, taking Sabs with her. She made off with her girlfriend then, taking her back into the bedroom so they wouldn't bother Blood with their antics. They were pre-occupied for quite a while before moving from the bedroom to the bathroom to clean up, after which their stomachs let them know it was certainly time for some food.

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The next morning, Beth and Sabs were both up early, though Blood was very recalcitrant on doing much of anything but sleeping fully spread across the length of the couch. She was still rocking the wolf ears instead of the human ears, but she had kept the new height, new beauty, and even a slight, almost unnoticeable extra width at both hip and shoulder. Beth thought it rounded her out quite well with the few extra inches of height and gave her companion a quick once over before doing what she had done a number of days ago, lifting her partially to sit under her. Sabs copied her, with even more grumbling from Blood, but it was very clear that she actually enjoyed it, as she rubbed against the two of them once they were seated while growling quietly. She didn't even love the scratching that much as compared to just contact, as she was as happy if not even happier when Sabs finished her drink and just slouched against Blood’s back, pressing their bodies together.

Beth eventually roused Blood, later than they normally would have set out, but still in the morning, sending her to the bathroom before giving Sabs a very warm kiss. She moved through the rest of her morning routine quickly and herded Blood out of the apartment and to the lounge. She was running herd on the wolf because that was the next of their current objectives; getting her through her own three missions so she could take the test and hit Silver herself. Silver wouldn't give either of them too much authority, but they could basically tell any Copper-levels to piss off without consequence, as well as had just a bit more authority when dealing with non-CRA members.

They headed to the lounge first as Beth wanted to check with Baelvyr before they did anything else. He was sitting at his usual table in the corner, drinking something probably quite heavy and eating off a massive platter. Beth and Blood sat at his table, with Blood slumping and looking out of sorts, while Beth gestured at Baelvyr's drink.

"Go to the cafeteria, girlie," he grunted at her and, to an amused grunt, she instantly stood up and walked off. She walked with a heavy tread to the cafeteria, though she was not stomping, and ordered a huge mug of Hunting Spice. It had to be at least a quart of liquid, and she stomp-, no, walked firmly back to the lounge and back to the table, setting the mug down with a thump. Baelvyr gave another snort like a phonebook tearing down the middle and kept eating, watching out of the corner of his eye as Beth took a heavy swig from the mug, setting it down and immediately belching. Blood, curious now, grabbed the mug from Beth and took a mouthful herself before setting the drink down with a pensive look, standing and disappearing after a moment.

"Gotta be careful, girlie. That'll put hair on yer chest," Baelvyr grumbled at her, chuckling as Blood returned immediately with her own mug.

"That's stuff just made up to keep young people from drinking actual good shit," Beth muttered, taking another pull of her own mug.

"Suit yerself," Baelvyr rumbled, finishing his plate as he watched the two battle their mugs.

"Anyway, we need missions," Beth said before tilting her head back and belching even louder. She glanced around the room but saw that there was no one else present, so didn't bother excusing herself. Blood seemed to still be indecisive over the drink, taking big swigs and then staring at the mug with narrowed eyes.

"I know," Baelvyr said, making the rest of his stuff disappear. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Beth asked as she got up and followed him, Blood trailing behind her. The two had grabbed their mugs before following; who was going to tell them not to drink in the hall? And if someone did do so, they could just stash the drinks…till the person wasn't looking.

"To get ya work, ya blockhead," Baelvyr rumbled out as he led them through the arena down into a section of the bottom floor they hadn't yet been to. It always seemed to Beth that the Hall just had way more rooms and way more space than she realized. Every time one of the Senior Enforcers took them somewhere or showed them something, she realized that she still didn't know just what her Hall had available.