Chương 132: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred FIfty-Seven

"Twenty diamond question; how much?" she asked.

"Five golds," he answered, smiling slightly as Beth sighed while making the coins appear on the counter. She thanked the man before taking her old equipment and walking back to the room with it, chucking it in the corner. She then led Blood to the lounge at the end of their hallway, finding a woman sitting behind the bar. She stood immediately on Beth's entry, and Beth approached before asking what she recommended to drink.

The woman quickly laid out four choices, and Beth picked the one that sounded best, asking Blood if she wanted any. The wolf seemed disinclined, so Beth took the drink when the barkeep had finished it and moved over to a comfortable seating area. The two enjoyed an hour to rest, with Beth feeling a bit of a buzz from the drink before it faded fairly quickly. Considering her Toxic Resistance, she was a little surprised the drink managed to do anything, but then again, magic alcohol and all that.

When she felt the two were properly rested, she led the way to the array room, where they went through the typical process. After signaling that she wanted the stage kept private, she was directed to one of the Warders. When he was ready, he signaled them to enter a yellow portal of a darker nature, leading them into stage ten. When the brief flash of white light had passed, the two found themselves standing in a luxuriously appointed room.

There was what appeared to be, from his dress and his current actions of preparing tea, a servant in the room, and there was a closed set of double doors on the far wall, with frosted glass panels in the center. As the servant was finishing his preparations, the far doors opened and two men entered the room followed by a woman in an elaborate battledress.

The dress was very well-made, with a lot of care taken with all the stitching, and it was quite obvious it had metal plates woven in throughout the entirety of the piece.

"Good, you've arrived," the woman said without preamble, sitting in a chair opposite Beth while the two men with her assumed positions behind each shoulder. Beth set her bag down to the side before sitting in her own chair, finding it well padded, before replying, "I suppose we have."

"I am, if you were somehow unaware, Lady Amanda Bronella Wakefield, and this is the city of Goan. You have arrived just in time to actively assist in this case," the woman said primly, not even moving her eyes as the servant placed a cup of tea in front of her, simply picking up the cup in a natural, smooth motion.

"Ah, yes, Lady Wakefield, a pleasure," Beth stumbled a little, trying to buy some time to orientate herself.

"And, uh, what, exactly, is the nature of this 'case' that you require assistance with?"

"You were not informed before being dispatched?" Lady Wakefield replied, arching one perfectly groomed eyebrow just so.

"Terrible. They really are getting sloppy these days." The lady took a deep sip and paused for a moment before continuing, "The city of Goan, over which I preside as mayor, is currently facing an untold crisis." Before the lady could continue further, the assistant on her left cleared his throat at that statement, eliciting a sigh from the lady.

"Yes, yes. I, perhaps, exaggerate the scope of our trouble just a hair."

"Please, Lady Wakefield, explain the situation," Beth said, nodding at the servant as he handed her a cup of tea.

"Yes, yes," the lady replied, clearing her throat after taking a sip.

"As you know, the city of Goan is home to some hundred thousand or so residents, though our number of actual Wayfarers is miniscule. We have noticed throughout the last six months that there has been a large increase in criminal activity within the city. Specifically, the sale of narcotics and illegally modified weapons has gone through the proverbial roof. Not just that, but the rate of crime we believe directly associated with this activity has increased, leading to much unrest throughout the city.

The number of fights, mainly in the form of criminals attacking each other, has risen by over one hundred percent. The number of both murders and unexplained deaths has risen by more than twenty percent.

"We have done our own investigations, of course, and believe there is a new group that moved into the city shortly before the unrest began. The group is from the other side of the planet, and has some kind of ties to Duke Lemly. We are able to provide you all the evidence we have gathered on the group thus far, including their links to more senior politicians. We suspect they are taking advantage of a shielding hand to operate nearly without limits within my city.

"This is why we put in a request to an independent organization for the purposes of investigation and cleanup. I simply cannot trust anyone outside of my close inner circle with dealing with this… this gang! They simply must be taken care of at the earliest moment possible, for the sake of our citizens, and the prosperity of the city!" Beth had a pretty good idea of the scenario now, considering Lady Wakefield was pretty much the pop-up screen that sometimes appeared to describe a mission or objective.

They were apparently supposed to sniff out the criminal activity of a large gang that allegedly had some very powerful political connections. Beth wasn't particularly keen on detective work, but on the other hand, it was something she was likely to encounter more than she liked as she rose through the ranks at the CRA. She thought about the best way to conduct the investigation as she sipped her tea. The main problem, in her mind, was the overall strength of the gang.

Of course, identifying the membership and their activities was very important, but that was legwork that could be done with enough effort. The real problem that she foresaw was what happened when she figured out the membership and discovered that they were far more powerful than her. She imagined that the scenario wasn't going to do anything too crazy, considering how the stages had operated up to this point, but she had to remain on her guard.

Even worse, the manner many criminal organizations like this tended to operate in led to them having a small number of locations with a large concentration of members. Getting overwhelmed while trying to eliminate or even just investigate the gang was a real possibility, and something she was determined to avoid. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Lady Wakefield," Beth began, addressing her opposite after thinking for a moment.

"I do wonder if you have any idea as to the overall strength of this gang? Number of members, overall level, quality of equipment, that sort of thing."

"Yes, yes. My people have managed to gather quite a bit of information on this group, though we don't yet know everything. It will all be available for your perusal after our discussion has concluded," Lady Wakefield replied before taking another sip.

"As to a rough answer to your question, I believe the membership numbers no more than two hundred individuals, and their level of strength should actually be rather low. I don't know that we've discovered anyone within the gang above level seventy-five, though, as I understand it, their equipment is quite good. At least, good in terms of what you could expect some organizations of scum to be able to access." The advisor to the Lady's right cleared his throat, saying, "If I may, ma'am?"

At his Lady's affirmative wave, he continued, "I can explain, briefly, some of their disposition. Our city, as you may know, is divided into five districts, though the distinction between districts is not always cut-and-dry. The gang is currently most active within the Labor District, which is often called the Warehouse District by many in the city, and within the General District, often called the Commons District.

They appear to have a main location they operate out of somewhere within the Labor District, though we haven't figured out exactly where. They also have a number of places they either own or are simply making use of to do business. A full list of such things will be made available to you.

"In terms of overall strength, I would again reinforce my Lady's point that they are not particularly powerful. We have discovered no one of more than level seventy-five within the organization, and no one possessing any special classes or skills. We believe most of the equipment they have access to is well crafted mana copper, with a number of them using some pieces of mana steel. Overall, it is their covert actions and connections to other political entities that concern us more than their overall strength."

Beth digested that for a moment before asking, "And say I need some extra muscle to take care of this gang problem? Are there any you would trust to work with me?"

"I would hesitate to use any random guard," the same advisor answered, earning a "tsk" from Lady Wakefield.

"Apologies, ma'am, but you know it to be true." Lady Wakefield waved dismissively, and the man continued, "We have four personal guards of Lady Wakefield's that you may make use of during this investigation. None of them are quite at your current level of power, but they should prove themselves quite capable, nonetheless."

"I think I have everything," Beth responded with a nod.

"Exactly how long do you think this should take?"

"I expect it would take no more than a week, considering the amount of information we already have available and your own…skills," Lady Wakefield answered a bit hesitantly.

"I would say, no more than two weeks at the outside." Beth wasn't sure what that really meant and was going to try to get everything done with two days, but it could be the stage's way of indicating that for such an unusual task, the time was dilated to give the participant more of a chance at ferreting out the gang and dealing with them.

She hoped that she could wrap this up quickly, as it honestly seemed a bit of a pain in the ass to her, but she wasn't sure her or Blood's detective skills would be quite up to snuff for a speedy resolution.

"Is there anything else, Lady Wakefield?" Beth asked, wanting to get done with the meeting and started with destroying the gang.

"I believe that is everything," Lady Wakefield responded, setting her tea cup down with a definitive click before rising.

"Please let me know any other resources you need. My advisor, Walter, will lead to you a room we have prepared with all the necessary documents." The lady swept out of the room after she finished speaking, the second of her attendants that had described the strength of the gang remaining to guide Beth and Blood to a different room. The room was within the same building, the city hall, apparently, and was a large square with a heavy table in the middle and several desks and shelves around the perimeter.

The large central table had documents piled atop it, easy to study with the bright lights around the room.

"This room has copies of all of our current investigative efforts into the gang," the advisor, Walter, explained.

"They refer to themselves as the Yellow Leaves, though we have been referring to them within the city governance as Criminal Group A."

"And just so I have the information, the four guards the Lady said we could utilized for this? How can we contact them? Or you, for that matter, when we need something?" Beth asked.

"I have a communicator, if you would permit me to exchange contact information for this period," Walter replied.

"Of course," Beth said, accepting a handshake and with it, the transfer of his contact details.

"As to the other four, I can contact them whenever you require their help. They will be on standby for the duration of your investigation. If you need anything else, please do not hesitate in contacting me."

"Right, just one more question before we look through this," Beth said.

"I'll answer to the best of my knowledge," Walter replied.

"Can you go over, more precisely, what you and Lady Wakefield are looking for in terms of resolution to this situation? Is there an expectation of completely eliminating the gang? What, exactly, is the Lady looking for?" Beth asked.

"We need this criminal gang dealt with," Walter explained.

"How you do that we will leave mostly up to you. I would advise you to discover their operations center and destroy it, but any way you see appropriate to ensure they cease causing the city trouble is valid. As long as the leaders of the gang are killed, captured, or otherwise expelled from the city, we will be satisfied."

"Alright, understood," Beth said with a nod, dismissing the man. She then started reviewing the materials on the table, able to read through things rather quickly. She took an hour to read several of the detailed documents before taking another fifteen minutes to quickly skim through a large amount of additional details. She also did a quick scan of what was present on the shelves around the room, finding a lot of individual files for various criminals who were either expected or confirmed to be part of the gang.

"Alright, so let's go over what the hell we're doing," she said to Blood, sitting in one of the chairs in the room while the wolf sat on her haunches on the floor and stared at her.

"So, we have to figure out where this gang is, who the members are, and how we can attack them to get this problem cleared up," Beth started.

"The 'where' shouldn't really be too hard, considering we have a bunch of research done by the guard on their possible locations. A little groundwork should be able to cover that over the course of a few hours, depending on how well we can do with tracking.

"The 'who' is a little tougher, but I don't think we have to really identify every single member of the gang. We just need to figure out the senior members, which will be a chore, but not impossible. We also have to try to figure out the exact where of the leadership, if they hang out with the other members or live and work somewhere else.

"Lastly, after we figure out the 'who' and the 'where,' we must figure out the 'how.' Whether we're going to smash them, tear their business apart, try to assassinate just the leaders, or deal with them some other way."' I can work to track them,' Blood commented.

"You think you can do it without actually having a scent for them? Just from the pictures and descriptions we have and the general area?"' It shouldn't be difficult. My blood sings for the hunt,' Blood replied.

"A little odd thing to say, but I believe in you. Do you need some help?" Beth asked.' No. I'll take care of it,' Blood replied.

"Alright, well, I'll figure out more of the 'who' from the files and try to get a little more familiar with the 'where' while you're out," Beth said, standing and moving to the table again as Blood padded out the door.