It didn't take long for the others to settle into the area, the initial occupants of the first shuttle enough to fill all the suites that branched out from that common area. Val was present but didn't come sit with them, at least not initially, as she had her press people following with her. Beth just observed the area for a time, seeing several unfamiliar faces filter in and out. She was most concerned about anyone that gave off a particularly strong impression, but she didn't really get that sense from anyone apart from Val. Maybe the other strong challengers were just assigned to different areas? That must be it.

The first afternoon passed like that, with Beth and Blood slouching on a couch, just taking up space and being content, though Beth felt her mind stirring a bit. She wasn't totally out of it just yet, but she had the desire to fight and get some real battle in, most of which would be satisfied on the world they were currently flying towards, but she still felt they could do more. They had a way to go until they hit the cap for their next rebirth, and the two hundreds always took quite a bit of time, but she felt they could make use of their power for something constructive. They went to bed that night after a quick cleanup and rushing their evening routine, getting a good night's sleep before getting up the next morning early.

Beth found Mortaine in the living room of their suite early the next morning, drinking something that resembled very strong coffee, the scent filling the room entirely. She gave him a nod before moving to the kitchen to prepare a huge amount of food for her and Blood. She didn't stick with the norms of breakfast but often cooked a huge amount of meat with some kind of steamed vegetable, something that would be too heavy for most others, but would be great as a foundation for the day for them. She was mostly finished when Blood joined her and helped prepare, and thoroughly consume, the rest before hitting the bathroom and getting ready.

Joining Mortaine back in the living room, she asked, "Can't someone like you just teleport us all there? What's the point of the starship?"

"I can't always be running errands for people," he answered. "People shouldn't get used to my ability to teleport. Besides, the other big reason is this ship is going to stay in orbit to monitor and oversee the first month."

"But you're heading out?" Beth confirmed.

"Yes, that's right. Like I said, I will check back in some time after the competition is done. I should have at least a couple quick errands for you by that point," he replied.

"Well, I hope to get quite a bit out of this, so don't worry. We'll be better than ever the next time you see us," Beth said.

"Hmm, if you need anything for your next rebirths, send me a message sooner rather than later. I will charge you a nominal fee, but if I have some time to source materials, I can make sure you have most or all of what you lack," Mortaine said after giving them a quick glance.

"I don't know if we'll reach that by the end of this, but I'll let you know," Beth said.

"Good. Your time for the next few days is your own," he said.

"Awesome. We're gonna train, if that's alright," Beth said.

"The ship has plenty of facilities," Mortaine commented idly.

"We don't need those," Beth replied with a shake of her head.

"Oh?" he responded a bit skeptically.

"Just watch," Beth said with a grin. She first moved to make sure the outer door to the common area was locked before standing in the center of the living room and engaging her power, summoning a gate. Mortaine hopped up immediately and inspected it before they went through, staring at both the shimmering portal and the arch itself.

"Interesting. I didn't know you were Liveria's successor," he said calmly.

"Oh, you knew her?" Beth asked, eager to see if Mortaine would share more than Baelvyr.

"I knew of her," he dashed her hopes. "She was an…interesting woman. I know she had this specific power, assuming that this is the Ancient World Gate?"

"It is," Beth affirmed.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Mortaine asked, glancing at Beth. She couldn't quite tell from his look, but it really seemed academic curiosity and nothing more.

"Sorry, I don't," Beth said with a shake of her head. "I found a crystal with her memories and this skill right after our home world was integrated. She said something, just a single line, about something she was attempting to do with mana and if someone found this crystal it likely meant she failed. I don't know anything more than that."

"Interesting. It seems I know more than you," Mortaine said, returning to his seat. "She was an Ascended, and a powerful one at that. The last I heard of her, she was at the precipice, the cusp of Exalted, but there is a monumental gap between the two. Those of us who've been around for a few millennia or longer, despite it being rather arrogant of us, consider that to be the true defining line between those able to be considered powerful and those who are just…not suited to be Wayfarers. Many consider that the jump at the tenth rebirth, but someone who can't even pass that isn't worth even thinking about, as cruel as it is of me to say."

"And she couldn't cross that gap? She failed to become an Exalted?" Beth asked quietly.

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"It's not easy," Mortaine answered with a small smile. "I would not be surprised if she became twisted and warped. She could have died from it, as well, or even been trapped in some way. The jump to Exalted is not easy or simple, and so very much can go wrong. Some would argue it is one of the hardest jumps to make, even harder than Exalted to Manumitted, though I'm not sure that's entirely true."

"So, she might still be alive somewhere?" Beth asked with a spark of hope coloring her voice.

"Possible, but don't count on it," Mortaine replied. "If she's been gone this long, and the Path gave you her legacy crystal, then she's likely dead. The only other possibility that has any hope is that she's trapped somewhere, but I wouldn't count on it."

"Well, that's good information to get. Thanks, Mortaine," Beth said.

He waved a hand dismissively, "These are things I have no doubt you'll learn, and in the near future. You are one of the most promising young Wayfarers I have seen in a few centuries. Do try not to die out there too young; Baelvyr and I would be so disappointed."

"We've got this. Trust me on that," Beth said with a cocky grin.

"Well, don't let me stop you. I'll make sure no one bumbles into the suite over the next two days. How much dilation does your skill have right now?"

"I can go up to ten-to-one without any issues," Beth answered.

"Always use the highest setting. It's better for your training, and it will push your soul more," Mortaine said before giving another perfunctory wave.

"Any other words of wisdom?" Beth asked, but just got a headshake in response.

"Let's go," she said to Blood, who just grunted in response before following her in.

They spent the next two days, or close to twenty days subjective time, in the gate, trying to boost their levels a bit. Every little bit would count in the upcoming contest, and Beth wanted to put in a good showing. She had noticed that her gate power had gained another level, but she didn't delve into the new unlocks yet, not really concerned with investigating after seeing the level didn't give her higher time compression.

Twenty days of fighting up-level had gotten them a little over four levels, and Beth and Blood took an hour to cleanup and rest a bit after the frenetic pace before the ship arrived in orbit. There was no great ceremony or anything once they arrived; if anything, the United Stellar Hegemony people seemed all too eager to get the competition started and to get the participants off the ship. Beth had a suspicion, based on a single throwaway sentence from Mortaine, that they were much more eager to get the 'chaperones' and powerful seniors off the ship than the contestants.

The contestants themselves were loaded up on different shuttles and quickly taken down to the planet, where they were dropped at different locations. Beth scanned the info packet each team was provided, seeing that the planet had a wide range of climates and locales. The current mana rating, based on the standard CRA scale, was about a four, but if the planet were well managed, it might increase over time. A four wasn't too terribly dangerous, but there would be areas with beasts into the high two hundreds guaranteed, and likely some areas with beasts at or just over level three hundred.

Beth and Blood were dropped in a huge forest, the place absolutely crawling with beasts. Other teams might have been a bit upset at being thrown into such a desolate place with so many opponents and being told to figure it out, but Beth was excited. They had their badges tucked into parts of their armor, magnetized to the inside of their chest pieces. After the badges were extolled as being practically unbreakable, Beth figured the least they could be used for would be a little extra protection in a vital area. With the badges secure, all they had to focus on was killing and mapping as much as they could in thirty days.

The mapping part wasn't quite as easy as it first sounded. Just moving around and checking different areas was worth some score for the mapping, but observing and analyzing plants, beasts, monsters, natural treasures, unusual environmental factors, and more, was worth more than just running around randomly. The detail of the analysis had a sway on the final point counts, and the better someone did in their scouting and reporting, the more they could earn for the mapping 'half' of the first thirty days of the competition.

The other 'half' would be Beth and Blood's specialty; killing lots of things quickly. The badges recorded every enemy they fought and every enemy they killed, giving more points for higher-leveled and rarer beasts. Monsters, which were always more dangerous and deadly than beasts of the same level range, were also worth commensurately more than beast kills, but Beth wasn't counting on bumping into many monsters, even on an undeveloped world. That left them to kill as many beasts as they could, as fast as they could, while they scouted the area, taking detailed notes on what they found and what they observed.

The mapping did have one other slight subcomponent, and that was rare finds, otherwise labeled as high-value items in the briefing. Anything from a dungeon, to a special challenge, to a strange gate to some kind of secret opportunity, it would all count for more points in the mapping portion. While the challengers were barred from leaving the planet, the hosts had been very specific with the language, allowing the challengers the opportunity to explore anywhere special if they felt it worth it. Kills in a dungeon would be counted, though if they encountered something like the Endless Trial that Beth had done so long ago, it would be judged on a case-by-case basis whether that would count. Most of it would, but sometimes there were specific trials or special zones set up by some factions, ancient power, or the Path itself that might give a contestant a little bit too much of an advantage in terms of kills, so it would be excluded from the final tally. The contestants not knowing what sort of special places would wind up on the exclusionary list also made the decision whether to dive into an instance or not a little more complex and challenging.

Beth didn't really have to think too deeply about it, as her strategy was quite simple; any dungeon that didn't massively out level them, they would clear. Anything else they would take detailed notes of, made even easier with Blood's eye power at Gold, and move on quickly. That way they could get the most bang for their buck. What Beth might think of as a regular dungeon could be cleared relatively quickly, giving them kill points while not hampering their mapping speed too much. Anything else simply wasn't worth the risk, in her opinion, as she planned on placing quite high after the first thirty days just based on their kill score.

The very first thing they set about was scouting the forest they were dropped in. With Blood's speed, her increasing capabilities with stealth, and Beth there to act as a big distraction for anything too perceptive, the wolf was able to cover huge tracts of ground quite quickly. Beth followed along at a somewhat slower pace, killing anything she encountered and looking around for any herbs or ores that might be quite obvious she could mark and even harvest. Anything they got from dungeon rewards or the like would be theirs, but they had been asked to turn in anything they harvested from the planet as part of the mapping section of the competition. Beth didn't really mind; she could go out exploring alone or with Blood at any time and get a big harvest, so turning in herbs and minerals didn't really make her that upset.

A lot of what she encountered while following Blood was the standard forest fare she had come to expect, with a lot of wolves, bears, boars, some giant angry deer with scales instead of fur, and a handful of other common beasts such as weasels. It was hours before they encountered anything stand-out, and that just so happened to be a dungeon. Beth got a message from Blood and finished the big bear she was wrestling using a single punch to the skull before darting off, heading to the lupine woman's location. The wolf had found a dungeon entrance wedged back in a little cleft of stone away from the light of day, the two juts of rock just tight enough at one point that Beth had to push with some force to get her large chest and rear through, even turned sideways.

"You could have crawled," Blood commented, pointing to the cleft being wider at the bottom.

Beth turned back and looked down for a second before saying, "Oops. Oh well, at least I could force my way through. I can't image you doing that with your gigantic tits."

"I like my big tits," Blood said, looking down at her chest, somewhat compressed and less defined in her armor.

"I like your big tits, too, but they can be a real pain sometimes," Beth grumbled back, scanning the dungeon entrance as she stepped up beside Blood. She was once again impressed at her companion, as the dungeon entry was a closed stone door on the back wall of this small cave. Anybody else would have easily missed it, only stumbling into the little cleft by total chance, but Beth was sure Blood would say she 'sniffed it out' somehow, even though that didn't make total sense.

"We gonna do this one?" Blood asked.

"Level two-forty, standard type, orcs as enemies. I miss anything?" Beth asked after scanning the info.

"It's gonna be hot," Blood growled.

"Eh, we can handle hot, even magically hot," Beth shrugged.

"Then let's get one run done and move on," Blood grumbled, stepping into the gate with Beth following a second later.

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