Beth left the training room a strange combination of peeved and overawed. Jaine had spent the last minute 'killing' her dozens of times, Beth unable to keep up with the woman's movements or attacks. It was even more impressive to consider that Jaine hadn't used any other skills or her very high stats to achieve that effect; it was simply her unbelievable skill with the sword that so totally outclassed Beth. She shook her head as Blood trailed her down to the front desk, where she paid a single platinum coin for the last two hours of intensive training.

Beth decided they had seen enough for the first day, and Blood didn't share any different opinion, so they returned to the suite in the early evening. Once Beth had made sure the door automatically locked behind them, she and Blood shed their clothes and made their way into the room she had mistaken for a swimming pool at first. It wasn't quite that excessive, but the room had two large shower stalls that had multiple heads embedded in the ceiling and walls, as well as two separate vanities with full-size mirrors that had a wide assortment of soaps and creams. The bathtub itself was the centerpiece and true ruler of the room, not quite a swimming pool but still the largest tub Beth had ever even seen. She estimated it could comfortably hold more than a dozen people; even if the people were Baelvyr or Bjorn-sized, it could still likely hold ten of them.

Filling such a tub was not a feat to be done with regular pipes, though they could certainly help in the effort. Instead, this epitome of luxury had multiple rune formations that would fill it with crystal clear water and heat that water to the desired temperature in under a minute. Beth marveled at the massive, steaming pool of hot water, having thought it would take a lot longer to fill. Blood finally nudged her, waking her from her stupor and the two tried one of the showers, impressed with the volume and pressure of the water. They soaked in the bath afterwards, Beth a little confused whether to feel guilty for wasting so much water on the two of them when it was almost all magically conjured.

They left the tub after an hour before getting some food. The kitchen not only had every device and implement used for cooking that Beth could think of, and a few she could not, but was stocked with a huge array of food. The refrigerator was the size of a small walk-in closet and stuffed so full the doors creaked heavily on swinging open or closed and there wasn't enough room for Beth to reach an arm in past the front of the shelves. She wound up going a bit fancier than normal, using garlic butter to pan sear multiple high-quality steaks before finishing them in the oven while making a pot of noodles so large even Beth thought she might have got a bit carried away.

The two ate and then cleaned up, Beth figuring out the dishwasher was some kind of magic device that perfectly cleaned cooking implements run through it in under a minute. It clearly used some kind of magic, but Beth wasn't really interested in diving into the minutiae of cleaning apparatus. The two of them returned to the lounge area after they were done cleaning up, Blood resuming the show she had put on while they ate. Beth didn't really care for it and decided to do something she had been putting off for a little. Her communicator rang a couple times before a voice answered her. Fortunately, she had checked the time first and found it was midday where she was calling.

"Beth?" her mother's voice asked a touch hesitantly.

"Hi mom," she said, though she wasn't speaking out loud.

"Is something wrong?" her mother asked after a moment, concern tinging her voice.

"No, nothing like that," Beth said quickly. "I just haven't, uh, called in a while, and thought I'd check in."

"Well, it's nice to hear from you," Rachel said just a bit awkwardly. "Are things going well…wherever you are?"

"Yes, actually, we're doing really well," Beth started.

"'We?' Is Blood still with you?" Rachel interrupted.

"Yes. I doubt she's going anywhere," Beth answered with a slight chuckle. "We took care of the first big job for the important person we're working with, and now we're waiting. He said it would be one to two weeks for the next job, but I guess as a reward for doing so well on the first one, he brought us to a place to relax and train until he's ready. It's an entire planet focused on fighting and practicing with weapons and skills."

"Based on what I know of you, my erstwhile daughter, it sounds like heaven," Rachel commented, both a bit amused and a slight bit bitter.

"It's really great," Beth said, glossing over the slight bitterness. "I was super lucky today and got to train with someone at the Sage level for two hours. Not only that, because her first client ditched her, they only charged me a platinum for the whole session."

"And what is a Sage, exactly?" Rachel asked, her tone splitting between amused at Beth's enthusiasm and clinical interest. Both her and Beth's father, Thomas, had analytical minds and had started cataloguing and compiling all the data they could from early on after the Path appeared.

"So, weaponskills don't use Copper, Silver, etc., which I'm sure you know," Beth said. At an affirming noise from her mother, she continued, "They use a system that has ranks starting from Apprentice and continuing through Journeyman, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, and finally, Sage."

"I see," Rachel said, a bit surprised at the level. "And Sage is the highest?"

"No, I don't think so. The Sage I trained with today mentioned something about reaching Divine-level in a weaponskill, so I think there's at least one more after Sage," she explained.

"And you spent a platinum coin on that? Did I hear that right?" Rachel inquired further.

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"Yeah, I know. It's so cheap. I think I might just train like crazy for the next week, if the prices are all gonna be like that," Beth gushed, already dreaming about getting a level in her weaponskills in just a week.

"We're still scrimping and counting our silvers back here and you're spending platinum coins on training," Rachel said with a sigh.

"How is everyone doing? Now that you guys have the reinforced wall and the water system Jaq helped set up, you should be pretty good. Oh, and you guys should have power, too," Beth said, remembering the work she had helped with, though her contribution was mainly carrying heavy things.

"Water and power are still fine," Rachel said. "The walls are nice, but even with their spells to stop enemies from leaping over, there's only so much they can do. A big group of beasts attacked the town the other day and they were running over each other's corpses to get to the top of the wall. It was pretty dicey for a while."

"More than Sabs and Kim and them could handle?" Beth asked, a little surprised.

"It was a lot of beasts, Beth," Rachel chided gently. "Even Sabs, the strongest of the group, can get tired and overwhelmed."

"But they're all fine, right?" Beth asked, concern tinging her voice.

"Yes, Beth, your sisters and your ex are fine," Rachel replied, the grin coming through in her voice.

"That's good to hear," Beth said, frowning a bit at the mention of Sabs as her ex.

"You should talk with your father as well, honey," Rachel said.

"I'll call him next," Beth promised.

"Good. It's very good to hear from you…I wish you'd call more often," Rachel said.

"I'll try, but after this week I'll be busy again. I've spent a lot of time in the last couple weeks in dungeons," Beth said, the excuse sounding a little lame even to her.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay and having fun," Rachel said. "Call your father and talk to him. I have to go take care of something with the guards, but I love you and miss you."

"I'll talk to you later," Beth said before her mother ended the call. She leaned back in the couch and sighed; even though the conversation went well, talking with her mother always felt like a worse battle than a boss, for some reason.

"You alright?" Blood asked, glancing at her.

"Fine. Just family stuff," Beth replied.

"Huh," Blood grunted in response, turning back to the screen.

Beth reset her mental state for a moment before calling her father. Her mother must have warned him or simply told him about their call, as his warm voice immediately answered, "Hi, sweetie."

"Hi, Dad," Beth replied a little lamely.

"Your mother said you just called. How are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm doing well. Better than well right now, as I'm basically relaxing for a week before our next big thing," Beth answered.

"That's good to hear, sweetie. I hope you know you can always come back home and rest, or even just stay here, whenever you want," he said.

"I know, Dad, but I think I'm going to see just how far I can push myself," Beth answered. "I always dreamed of…more. Of doing more, more than was even possible on our old world. I feel like I can actually walk a Path I dreamed about now."

"Well, I'm very glad you're happy. Just try to not do anything too reckless out there, okay, kiddo?" he said.

"Don't worry, we know how hard to push ourselves," Beth replied.

"That companion of yours, too. Make sure you're both not working too hard," he said, emphasizing his point.

"I got it, Dad. We're always careful," Beth said, a few of her near-death experiences flashing through her mind briefly.

"Anything interesting you've found?" he asked, trying to move the conversation on now that he was sure his admonishment had stuck.

"Little piece I learned today; not super important, but good to know. Every time you move a skill up a bracket, like from Copper to Silver, it takes longer to acclimate to the new bracket. It's true a lot more for weaponskills than it is for other types of skills as well," Beth said, sharing what Jaine had taught.

"That's good to know," since they were communicating basically mind-to-mind, she couldn't hear the scratching of his pen like she would on a cellphone, but she was sure he was writing. "What's the highest level you've gotten something to?"

"It's considered quite rude to ask someone that," Beth replied, but her jocular tone undercut the reprimand. "Both of my weaponskills are at Expert."

"Both? I know you use the sword, sweetie, but I didn't know you were practicing another weapon to that extent," he said with some surprise in his tone.

"Yeah, it's Unarmed. I don't just use a sword, but my fists and feet when I fight. Well, and elbows and knees and even my head. Gotta be good for something, right?" she said, chuckling a bit.

"Always hit someone in the soft part of their face with your forehead if you headbutt them, sweetie," her dad replied.

"I don't know if I want to know how you know that," Beth replied with a slight chuckle.

"Best we don't discuss some things on an open line, though I don't think the people we would normally joke about are the ones that might be listening," he said, some warmth and humor in his voice.

"Yeah, though I would never put it past all the guys that used to do that for a living to work something out," Beth said. "Speaking of which, just offhand, but what's the world government situation looking like on Earth right now? Has anyone figured anything out yet?"

"Well, it's a little of column A, a little of column B," he replied. "Some places have really good local governance, from what I've heard, including some relatively large cities. One of the cities in North Africa is doing very well, Tokyo is running even better than ever, and I think one of the Scandinavian capitals is doing great. On the other hand, I hear a lot of places in the Middle East have basically totally collapsed. Though, speaking of the Middle East, I also heard through the same grapevine the other day that there's a very weird tower there."

"A weird tower," Beth asked, her brow scrunching on the couch. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"I don't know all the details, sweetie, but it's apparently very tall and made of some kind of unknown metal. Somebody tried attacking it with something powerful and wasn't even able to scratch the paint. From what I heard, there's two, uh, 'aliens' standing guard outside the first floor that charge some kind of insane price to get in. This is a lot of rumor, mind you, but I heard someone mention something about diamonds or something like that," he explained.

"That's something I'll have to check out," Beth replied, turning thoughtful. "The coin denomination after platinum is diamond. If there's some kind of tower charging diamond coins just to get inside, it's likely to be some kind of either really valuable challenge or a really great place to learn…something. Good to know there's stuff on Earth that could be at our level when we get back."

"Well, all I know are rumors, and that's the only really crazy thing I've heard about from outside the area. Most of the rest of it is just about different dungeons or beasts that people have seen different places," he said.

"Anything really high-level?" Beth asked.

"I have heard of plenty of things in the range from level one hundred to two hundred. If you girls are looking for something higher than level two hundred, nobody in our little town has heard about any of it. Or, not that they've told me or your mother, anyway," he replied.

"Well, I know of one over level two hundred dungeon on Earth. I'm sure there's more, or will be, eventually," Beth said.

"Send me the details on that when you get a chance, kiddo," he requested.

"Sure. Is there anything else you guys need? I'm not infinitely wealthy, but I have a good bit of coin; enough that I can buy all kinds of stuff, teleport home with it, and teleport back to wherever and still have plenty of money," Beth said.

"No, that's alright sweetie. At this point, we could use a couple more good fighters, but then again, at the level I think you and that young wolf lady are at, I think you're still overkill for us. That, and we're still working on training people up here. I don't know how much more helpful two more really strong people would be, especially since a lot of the fighters have at least basic CRA memberships now," he explained.

"Alright, well, let me know if you guys really need anything and I can either get it or send money to you. In fact, speaking of that, I don't really know how interplanetary banking works; that's probably something we should figure out," Beth said.

"I know your mother said coin was tight when she was talking to you, as she says that everyday to people wanting access to the town funds, but we're not that hard-up. We can still buy all the food and even equipment we need with what we make right now. Just worry about yourself out there, sweetie, and come stop by some time soon," he said.

"Don't worry, Dad, we'll be back at some point soon," Beth said, leaving it vague.

"Alright, sweetie, I should go help your mother now. I love you and can't wait to see you again," he said.

"I'll see you later, Dad," Beth replied before he disconnected the call.

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