Chương 586: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Eight

Arbitus Prime was unlike what Beth had expected, though she wasn't exactly sure where her notions had come from in hindsight. Maybe, because of the work the CRA did and the people she had met while working for them, she had expected something a bit more eclectic or even more military-themed. Arbitus was nothing like that, and in many ways was exactly what she would expect as the perfect model of a modern, well-developed city.

Even just walking out of the CRA Hall they had teleported to and looking around showed the city was built with walking and movement skills in mind, with broad, curving paths between the buildings and plenty of open space.

The city, she learned upon a quick data search, also had a robust public transportation network that covered the entire planet and was free for anybody with a Silver Emblem or above while remaining extremely cheap for those that were Coppers or non-members, being only a silver coin for a month-long pass.

There was also a huge amount of wildlife, though no beasts, but there were trees, vines, flowers, and various kinds of bushes and shrubs all over the city, including lining and even down the center of the walkways and paths. There were also animals in many places, whether it was birds or insects or cats or dogs or even cows, it seemed the city had been designed with large volumes of both flora and fauna in mind.

She also noted how clear and crisp the air was, which, adding on the pleasant floral scents and notes of pine and old leaves, made for an incredibly refreshing experience just breathing and focusing on the pleasant atmosphere. Beth took a minute to examine the area before turning and heading back inside the Hall, moving to the counter to wait in line, which was very long, though it would be no surprise, given where they were.

Her requests were more than the counter could handle, apparently, and she and the team were shunted off to a meeting room to wait for someone who could handle what they were asking for.

"Elizabeth Bell?" a short, muscular woman asked as she entered the room they were in at the head of a group of three.

"That's me," Beth nodded, waving slightly with one hand.

"Good. Let's review the process," the woman said, sitting down with the other two.

"I'm Leigh Langcrow, and these are Tane Nah'ven and Jara Ta'man." The other two the woman introduced, a man and a woman, respectively, were both elves, which was made obvious by both their features and their names.

"Good to meet you," Beth said.

"Not sure why it needs three people."

"Since you came to Arbitus to seek your Platinum promotion, which is not uncommon, we have standard systems in place for this," Leigh explained.

"We will be three of the eventual seven members of your review panel, but for now, you need more missions and field experience before you can test for promotion. If I'm reading your files correctly, you haven't done any Platinum missions at this point?"

"That's correct, only Gold missions," Beth confirmed after exchanging a glance with her group.

"Good, that's to be expected," Leigh said, making a note.

"The first thing I'd like to confirm is who, exactly, is seeking the promotion. I know you mentioned your group was looking to get promoted, but I'd like specifics."

"Everyone here," Beth replied immediately.

"Our group consists of nine, with a tenth member that rotates in on rare occasions, but these five here, including myself, are the ones interested in getting a Platinum Emblem."

"Very good," Leigh said.

"Though, unfortunately, that's going to be a bit of a problem right now, as we don't have nearly enough missions for five people to promote. Not only that, but we can't just give your group every available mission and every new Platinum mission that comes in; I'm sure you understand."

"We figured it might be something like that," Beth said.

"I can say, however, that we're more than prepared, both to take as much time as needed, but we have more than enough strength to tackle Platinum missions."

"Oh, you think so?" Tane asked, the first time the man had spoken since entering the room. Beth flared her Ideal, the faces of the three examiners immediately undergoing some not-so-subtle transformations before she made the fire disappear.

"I am, in fact, quite confident in this group's ability to carry out Platinum missions. I don't think we'll have any trouble taking care of any problems that might crop up."

"Yes, I see, well…" Leigh said, at a bit of a loss for words for a moment before she covered with a slight cough and clearing of her throat.

"Ahem, yes, I can see how your group might be a bit different than the people we normally get in looking to increase their rank. Knowing what you just revealed, I can say that your entire group's promotion won't take nearly as long as we were just discussing."

"Just like that?" Val asked a bit skeptically.

"Not 'just like that,' no, but it will be fast," the other woman, Jara, said immediately.

"You will still have to meet the requirements for the missions, all of you, and you will still need to be tested. However, normally we would make sure that a team like yours took their time and was given missions slowly, both to acclimate to the increased difficulty and to offer us a period of review of your strength and skill.

Considering you are being led by someone who has already completed their full Ideal at just Enlightened, such time constraints can be vastly narrowed, though we still won't just wave the requirements, nor will we just give you all the open missions."

"I understand what you're saying," Val answered with a nod, and she did understand. After seeing Beth's little demonstration, the adjudicators had decided they were going to get the team enough missions to move on to their tests without having to wait years, possibly more than a decade, to slowly complete the missions requirements. It still wouldn't be instant, as they weren't getting unlimited access and priority, but things would move much faster now that the review panel had seen Beth's display.

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"How many missions do we need?" Beth asked.

"If you're asking if we're going to waive anything, then we're not," Leigh said firmly.

"Requirements for Platinum are Enlightened, fifteen Platinum missions, at least five years as a Gold, though with some exceptions, a written test, an oral test, a combat test, and one year suborned to a Diamond or higher Hall Master to review the running and management of a Hall. We will not be waving the requirements, though we understand that passing most of them will be easy for such a group as yours.

Still, you must do everything, including the combat test, though I suspect we will have several Diamond Emblems who are eager to simply battle one with an Ideal to get further inspiration for their own."

"Be that as it may," Tane took over smoothly, "that means that your group will require a total of seventy-five Platinum missions if you all wish to advance to Platinum as stated. Those are not missions that just grow on trees, and many of them are snatched up the second they are posted. We only have limited power, as an appointed review panel, to inject ourselves into that process.

For example, there are currently seven open Platinum missions that are directly through Arbitus, and another five that are open with no one assigned in other parts of the galaxy. Seeing as how we have new Platinum Emblem test participants, we can secure five of those twelve jobs, though I am telling you right now, you will likely get all five off-world missions to work on."

"We don't mind travel, though I will ask if there's any teleporter reimbursement, considering we'll be using them for active CRA work?" Beth said.

"As long as you have an assigned job at Platinum, you don't have to pay to use the teleporters," Leigh said before getting rather stern.

"That does not mean, however, like some of our members like to think, that you can just pick up a Platinum mission and teleport around for free for the next ten years before turning the mission in. We do monitor for what you're doing, particularly when teleporting, and we will impose fines or worse for abuse of the system."

"Considering how eager we are to get this done, I don't think you'll have to worry about us holding onto missions to try to dodge teleporter fees. Not in the future, either," Beth said, shaking her head.

"That's a good understanding to have at the start," Leigh said.

"Anyway, Tane is correct in that we can get you a few more missions a bit more quickly, but that will still likely be missions all over the galaxy."

"Surely some missions on Arbitus Prime will be necessary. We don't intend to stop at Platinum, after all, and knowing how things assigned at the headquarters work would be very beneficial," Val cut in.

"Don't think you're the greatest political maneuverer since the Old Iron King just because you led the Young Scions," Leigh instantly replied with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Considering your team's strength and capabilities, it will be rather likely that you will be assigned one or more missions directly through Arbitus Prime's main branch, but don't think you will be receiving any special treatment in either direction. You are a group of Golds going for Platinum, nothing more, nothing less."

"Impartiality is good," Beth said, cutting off something clearly cutting that Val was about to retort with.

"The CRA's impartiality in all matters is well known," Val just said with a very fake smile on her face, one that didn't look all that fake. Her practice with the Young Scions clearly paid some dividends.

"Good that you know," Leigh said, paging through the notebook she had walked in with.

"As for your first missions, they will be assigned before you leave here today and your performance reviewed. Considering these are promotions missions and not just you taking missions to earn points for exchange, they will be scrutinized far more closely than other, similar missions, though we review every mission members complete, galaxy-wide."

"I expected to be put under the microscope for Platinum, anyway," Beth replied with a shrug.

"Just understand that Platinum missions are important and often sensitive in nature," Tane said.

"The procedures are always scrutinized, not just the results, and it will be more for your group because they will all be judged for your promotion criteria. Seventy-five missions of this caliber will not be easy, and especially not fast, so how you handle mission twelve or thirteen two years from now will have as much or more weight as how you handle these first missions.

Do not slack off because you grow tired or bored; we have no problem failing even future Exalted if they do not take the assigned duties of a Platinum Emblem seriously."

"I think you won't have to worry about how seriously we take things," Sera replied for the group, leaning forward and grinning, which showed rather a lot of very long, sharp fangs. Even with a group of Platinum and Diamond Emblems sitting across from them, they still had a small reaction to such a large, strong, intimidating person moving towards them and grinning.

It was subtle, little movements of the eyes, the mouth, the chin, twitches of the shoulder, but Beth could tell they all reacted in one manner or another. Sera was, in many ways, even better than Bjorn, as the man was just a bit too stoic and unconcerned to pull off the intimidating factor all that well.

"Does your group have any other questions or concerns at this time?" Leigh asked after the examiners had taken a second to settle.

"No, no, I think we have everything we need," Beth said, preempting her group.

"I just wonder have quickly we can get those missions and get started?"

"Follow me when we leave and I'll have five missions assigned your group," Tane said, rising even before the others. Based on everything that had happened, even without looking it up, Beth was assuming that Tane and Leigh were Diamond Emblems and Jara was a Platinum, but that was just her initial guess. The elf certainly seemed more knowledgeable, and more assertive, than Leigh, and Beth's scan of him had shown he was an Ascended, unless he was duping her eye power with a skill of his own.

Still, twenty-two rebirths seemed about right for the power she was sensing, making him an early Ascended, which made his likely holding of a Diamond Emblem fairly impressive.

"That's all," Leigh said then, dismissing the group as she and Jara stood and exited the room first.

"This way," Tane told them, turning the opposite direction in the corridor and taking their group back to a room that had several desks and a system of filing cabinets.

"Physical records are rarely used, but we keep important ones on Arbitus, though most Platinum missions don't count. What's in this room are physical copies of reports for Diamond and Mithril missions and issues."

"How many Mithrils can we get a year or even a decade? Aren't there, like, three mithrils in the galaxy or something?" Beth asked, looking around at the files.

"You're correct in your second guess," Tane replied, sitting at one of the desks and logging into the computer.

"We get maybe one every twenty years or so, which is always a pain in the ass. It's not for public consumption, but the Association Master for the galaxy, Baelvyr Kron, and Amanda Highwall are our only three current Mithril emblems in the galaxy. It would also look a bit bad if the Master for the galaxy was running around doing missions, for political reasons, you understand? That leave Baelvyr and Amanda, and both of them have other duties as well as their own personal work and interests to maintain.

Even one Mithril request every twenty years is already more than enough for us, and the galaxy isn't getting any more peaceful." He had been typing while he explained, and now Beth and the team got pings on their communicators.

"Missions have been assigned, details enclosed in the sent data packets. Please take a moment to review the summary, at least, and let me know if you have questions before I log off and get started on some other work."

"Give us just a minute," Beth said, seeing Tane wave his hand as she started scanning the file, checking what mission she had been assigned. Much as Tane had said, she was assigned a mission on the opposite end of the galaxy, one that would take four or five teleports to get to, about as remote as could be given how interconnected Arbitus Prime was to the rest of the teleporter network.

The brief talked about a problem with a lone, rogue monster that had started to whip beasts into a massive tide, not something she was unfamiliar with. There was more than enough in her brief for them to go on, so she just waited to see if any of the other four had any questions.