Chương 186: Limitless Path Chapter Two Hundred Ten

She led the group across the field, casually killing a wolf as it leapt at her, earning an aborted shout from Zack. She couldn't hear him grumbling from where he was behind her, but she could imagine it with a small chuckle of her own. She entered the Wolf Breeding Ground to find that it was different, but not by that much. It was larger, the clearings and paths were more complex and interconnected, and there were far more wolves, but there wasn't anything particularly special about it.

The rest of the group tagged along as Beth easily slaughtered her way to and through the boss, clearing the dungeon in five minutes. Moving out of the wolf dungeon, they started for the CRA Hall, eating up the distance in only a few minutes. Even their lowest stat member, Soph, was able to move quite quickly at this point, not to mention the fact that Blood was spending as much time as she could taking advantage of her humanoid form to interact with Soph, including carrying her everywhere.

The tiny terror protested and pouted, by it was pretty clear to Beth from her body language and a number of other factors that she was actually enjoying the attention. When they were back in the CRA Hall, the others moved back to the lounge to meet up with their instructors or others, while Beth and Blood stayed at the front counter with Tazeen. Beth said to him, "Good morning, Tazeen."

"Good morning, Beth," he replied.

"Baelvyr said something about Silver missions being available?" Beth asked.

"Yes," he answered stoically.

"However, I must inform you that, for the purpose of a Silver Emblem, you and your companion each must pass all the requirements."

"Meaning…?" Beth asked.

"Meaning, each of you must complete three Silver missions. Of course, operating as a party, as you are wont to do, basically means that you will need to complete six missions instead of three. It is more a formality, as a mission is registered to a specific individual and that same person is credited with the completion of the mission. So, each of you must register three Silver-level missions and you must complete all six of those missions for your Emblem upgrade," he explained.

"This also means that you must both, separately, take and pass the tests to qualify for Silver. Those include both the written exam and the oral exam by a panel."

"Ah, right, the tests," Beth said while scratching her head a little.

"I guess we've got some studying to do."

"Indeed," Tazeen said.

"But, fortunately for you, we have a new mission in, bringing our total at this Hall to three, which would fulfill half of your requirement."

"Yeah, but Baelvyr said that one of them was a diplomacy mission. I'm really not interested in that sort of thing," Beth said with an airy wave of her left hand.

"You are, of course, free to pick which missions you take and which you don't, to an extent," he said.

"That freedom becomes a little narrower at the higher ranks but is still present. In this case, there is no requirement at all for either of you, Copper-level emblems, to take any missions. Just bear in mind that you each need three missions to qualify for Silver."

"What are the missions?" Beth asked with a sigh.

"The first is the…'diplomatic' mission, as it were," Tazeen explained.

"It is a request from the Association to liaison with local forces, including military forces. The mission does have a definitive set of requirements, as opposed to other missions of the type that are more open-ended and often are limited to a specific amount of time. The objectives include establishing a working relationship with local forces as well as providing limited aid to such parties.

It also includes negotiating an Agreement of Cooperation with such forces, which is an agreement wherein the other party and the CRA agree on who has jurisdiction over what issues and who will respond to certain incidents.

"The second mission is an exploration-type mission, wherein you will have to go to a number of points of interest and document what is there. Just between us, these are points that were documented by your favorite commissar, and you will have to interact with him for the mission. These missions are rather popular, though they can be rather dangerous, as you are going into the unknown with little backup.

"The third mission is a matter you are more familiar with, as it involves culling and monitoring the situation with the kobolds. On many worlds, such things would be taken care of by the local authorities, however, we currently are the local authorities. This mission could also be considered an exploration mission, though we have a much clearer idea of what is there, so it is more an extermination and monitoring mission than anything else. Do you have any questions?"

"I don't have any questions, but we will take missions two and three," Beth responded instantly.

"Who would like to accept them?" Tazeen asked as he pulled several items out from under the counter.

"Just register them both to her," Blood said, pointing her thumb at Beth.

"You sure?" Beth asked her.

"Let's just get you qualified first," Blood said with a nod. Tazeen, meanwhile, had pulled out two square plates from under the counter and run them across several scanners. The plates were about the size of a playing card and half-an-inch in thickness, made of some kind of reflective, silvery metal. Tazeen finished what he was doing with them and handed them both to Beth, whereupon she investigated them closely.

She found the front had a small jewel embedded in the center that was mainly clear, likely a diamond, and the back had an engraving of the same sword and tree that her CRA Emblem contained.

"Press your CRA Emblem to the front," Tazeen instructed. Beth made her CRA Emblem appear and pressed it to the front of one of the two plates and a window appeared that only she could see. It had information about the job, including a list of coordinates to explore and the information that was required, at bare minimum, to be in the report. It also mentioned that the job was being coordinated through Jaq and to consult with him about further details. Enjoying this book?

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"The plates are not just set to require a CRA Emblem to reveal the details, but they are specifically keyed to your emblem. To anyone else, even your companion, they would appear as just pieces of metal with a gem in. Of course, with the CRA cenotaph on the back, few would mistake these for anything other than a piece of official CRA business, but the universe is made of all kinds," Tazeen explained.

"I understand," Beth replied with a nod before making the plates disappear into her necklace.

"I'm going to head down to talk to…him…"

"Let me know if you need anything else," Tazeen said.

"Thanks, Tazeen." Beth led the way down the hall towards the arena, giving a young woman they passed on the way a nod. The woman smiled slightly and edged around the two of them quickly in the hallway before dashing off. Beth just shrugged as they continued into the arena area, heading into the back areas before taking an elevator down into the underworks. She led them back to the shop, Blood an ever-present shadow behind her, opening the door to find the place was not empty, much to her surprise.

There were two young men standing at the counter, apparently trying to convince Jaq of something, which really seemed like a losing proposition to her. She walked up to the end of the counter near the machine to take measurements before leaning against it with her right hip and watching the show. The whole point seemed to be the shorter of the two men trying to convince Jaq to give them some kind of package deal.

The conversation appeared to be humming along the same for a minute, but Beth was picking up the subtle changes in Jaq's expression and the little tick in the corner of his eye that the young man seemed not to notice. The whole thing culminated in Jaq booting the two out, in the shorter one's case literally, and banning them from the shop for a week, something Beth remembered being threatened with before.

He returned behind the counter and readjusted his beret before giving her a stink eye, ignoring Blood browsing through the shelves.

"What," he said in a way that made it seem not a question but a command. Beth made the plate for his mission appear before saying, "Picked this mission up. Figured we'd ask you about it."

"Let me explain so your small brain might be able to follow along," he said, getting an eyeroll from her in return.

"There's a list of places included in the mission. You go to the places, figure out what's there, and then tell me about it. To make it even simpler; go place, see thing, tell me. Got it?"

"What if I just smash everything there?" Beth asked, ignoring the jabs.

"I, quite frankly, don't care. I care about you confirming what it was and how it operated. If it's a dungeon, a Trial entrance, a magical herb, and so on. If you break it or steal it or do the Blood Stars know what, I don't care, just get me the data."

"Okay, and one more thing; how the fuck do I know where to go?" she growled at him.

"The numbers," he replied with a sigh.

"They're coordinates. That means they tell you a position on a map where you can go."

"Yes, Jaq, I know what coordinates are. But I can't exactly plug your coordinates into my map and get them to work," she said.

"I think it's about time for you to get a communicator," Jaq responded with a frown, sighing again.

"Way ahead of you," Beth said.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we've already got them," she answered a little smugly. Jaq merely held out his hand in the handshake gesture, and she responded by shaking his hand. He didn't send her a simple friend request because, of course, nothing could ever be simple with Jaq, but instead she felt a wave of energy travel up her arm and into her chest. She merely stood there, glowering, as he did whatever he intended, waiting as he seemed to scan something.

He finally let go of her hand, but not before sending her a contact request, which she accepted.

"You have a map, by the way," he said coldly.

"What do you mean, 'I have a map'?" she asked.

"Think about the map functionality in the same way you bring up your contacts," he answered with a smirk. Beth did as instructed and a map immediately popped up in her vision, even going as far as to show topographical markings. She took a moment to play with it as well, finding that it had a load of functions, including the ability to switch between different saved maps, which included entirely different planets.

The system also, she quickly found, had coordinates in the same manner as what Jaq's instructions used.

"Okay, that's better," she said after a moment.

"Is there anything else?" he asked in a snippy tone.

"Well, yeah, I mean, didn't you tell us to come see you later?" Beth asked.

"Hmm, I did," he replied.

"I see that you've upgraded your armor; that will do, for now. You might have to upgrade again if you intend to go beyond level one hundred fifty."

"We're going all the way," Beth said with a smirk.

"Yes, amusing," he said.

"As for your weapons, let me look at them." Beth made her sword appear and Blood made her claws appear on the counter. Jaq picked each up in turn and inspected them, giving her sword a critical eye and Blood's claws a much more appreciative eye before setting them back down. Beth and Blood made the weapons disappear as soon as Jaq was done with them, returning them to their necklaces.

"Also, stop being so obvious about that," he said.

"Nobody here will try to take those from you; the Enforcers won't want them, and the others are too weak to worry about, but you should try to flaunt your use of a spatial item a little less."

"Noted," said Beth with a nod.

"Those claws are quality work," he continued.

"That sword, while nice, might start struggling to keep up after one-fifty. You should either be prepared to buy a new sword, or finally take time to get that Blacksmithing high enough to make your own, though it will take you considerable time to get to the point where you can outclass that weapon. Fortunately for you, you're now at the level of gear where I have a large selection available, and replacing your armor or sword will be much easier, provided you have the funds."

"You're being rather helpful today," Beth said with narrowed eyes.

"I wouldn't want to lose my best customer," he replied.

"You've seen what else I have to work with."

"Right, well, thanks for the help. We're gonna go look into the kobold situation first," she said.

"Try not to die," he replied acerbically. Beth just grunted as she turned and left, Blood following her out of the shop and through the underworks. They rode an elevator up to the main arena section and exited the building through one of the secondary doors, their emblems allowing them through. Moving south, they encountered few beasts that were of any interest, making very good time to the area that led down to the kobolds' domain even without using Swift.

It was now easy to tell when they were at the right place by the fact there were several high-level kobolds wandering around the previously empty field. Beth killed a kobold that was wandering northward towards where they typically approached the field from, noting that it was level seventy-eight. Whatever was going on, this place would be way too much for anyone other than her and Blood to handle, or, of course, the other Enforcers.

She moved forward as she scanned the area, Blood following behind her while keeping her eyes and ears peeled, Beth slamming into a pair of kobolds and killing them with three quick, brutal hits each.

"I would tell you to scout, but I don't think that would make much of a difference," Beth said to Blood.

"Maybe, maybe not. Let me lead the way down," Blood replied, staring down into the shaft in the center of the field.

"Be my guest," Beth answered, gesturing at the ramp. Blood took the lead, walking down the spiraling ramp at a quick pace with Beth hanging back a little way. It was something that she had learned; when you had a scout, it kind of defeated the point if you stayed right on their ass the whole time. She let Blood range ahead a bit, still close enough that Beth could reach her decently quickly, but giving enough space that the lupine woman could do what she was skilled at.

Blood killed several kobolds on the way down, and then had to kill a group of three that were seemingly arguing about something at the bottom. It wasn't any kind of intelligent argument, just grunting and shoving, which was left unresolved when their heads left their bodies. Blood moved into the lefthand tunnel first, moving down to investigate what they had thought of as the kobold 'living area' before they left.

Beth followed some distance behind, not really concerned about the beasts or the kills, their levels so low they weren't worth any experience and the amount of money they would drop would be negligible.