Baelvyr had them return to the annex before anything else, with Jaq and Tazeen leaving immediately afterward. They still had a little time they were responsible for Earth before they would move on to other duties, but it didn't really hurt for them to step away for a few days at a time, especially when it was to do CRA work. Baelvyr let them go ahead and let the girls get a little bit of rest before getting everyone moving, the group having to jump through a dozen teleports, including a couple off the CRA network, until they got to the destination he had in mind.

The world reminded Beth a little of Luttraine, where she had the bit of a run-in with the planetary governor, and where she often met Selene and Alex…she dismissed those thoughts with a shake of her head. This place wasn't quite the same, the city they were in being located in a rather arid clime and the buildings made of a dark, reddish brown stone. It was also a larger and more bustling city than anything they had experienced on Luttraine, with quite a few tens of thousands of people out and about on the streets throughout the city during the day. There was also quite a large section of the city that would count as a more developed downtown, with very tall buildings and lots of businesses and offices. The CRA Hall was set out on the edge of the city as it was many other places, though still within the walls of the city.

Once they had been checked, by someone far more powerful than the person that had been in charge of the annex, they went up to a conference room in the main building of the CRA Hall. Baelvyr was able to sit in a chair in there without having to use his own, just his body language showing he was happy to be back in civilization. He waited for them to be seated and ready before he pulled up some information on the wallscreen in the room to review. There was a lot of data to go over, including tons of information about beasts of many different types and levels.

"Okay, so, here's the deal," Baelvyr said. "We got a big problem here with a couple dungeons. They're too close together, for one thing, though that's a whole separate thing. Long and short is that they're out in a bad place, deep in the wilderness, and they're startin' to overrun. Got two sets of Gold-level missions to clean the area and the dungeons up; ya three can each get two Gold missions for doin' this. Go over the information before ya ask any questions."

Beth and Sera and Blood took twenty minutes to review the data, seeing that the area was a confluence of three dungeons; rare, but it happened from time-to-time, including an area much like by Beth's house, where two dungeons were more than close enough for their spheres of influence to overlap. This place had it far worse, and the planet was currently stretched very thin on resources for multiple reasons, including an upcoming visit by a minister of the polity that ruled the place. Getting the dungeons and surrounding area was not just necessary, but getting it done before the State visit would be a feather in the CRA's cap that would reflect well on them all. Beth frowned at that a bit, seeing the timeline, but she understood the situation involved a lot of politics, something she would have to really learn to deal with over the upcoming years.

The three dungeons were each of a very different type, in all aspects. The southern dungeon was an open dungeon that wasn't instanced, it would just accept anybody entering and fighting inside up to a certain number of people. It was populated by feline-type beasts, including tigers that breathed lightning and leopards that could stalk through the shadows to ambush anybody that wasn't paying careful enough attention. The mana types were mixed, and the place was hell to slog through, but the rewards were enough that it still attracted a handful of diehard individuals and teams to brave it on rotation. Those teams, including a few more that preferred the other dungeons, were either out with injuries, too weak to handle a surge, or tied up in other business, leaving the dungeons almost untended as well, which was one the things that had led to the problem spiraling so badly.

The northeastern dungeon was in a small little group of hills about four miles or just under from the other two, with the entrance in an area surrounded by five different steep sections. One had to either come in from the air, scale one of three cliff faces, or go down one of two long, scree-covered slopes to get down to it. The cliffs were just high enough that most people would have trouble jumping down them, even in a couple jumps, and the long, steep hillsides were a real nightmare to navigate. That was all just getting to the dungeon, but once there, the real nightmare began, and that was almost literal, as the beasts in the dungeon could project mental attacks against anything around them. It wasn't illusion magic, and it wasn't mind control, but it would cause dizziness, disorientation, loss of balance, hearing strange noises, and even seeing odd shapes that weren't real in the corner of ones' eye, among many other minor irritants.

The beasts themselves were highly aggressive mole-like creatures with six legs and claws longer than Sera's fingers, which were quite long. They dug towards an opponent while starting to blast them with mental barrages while they were still both distant and underground, ramping up the pressure as they got closer. The beasts themselves weren't super impressive, and their mental magic was more annoying than anything else…if they were fought alone. The beasts concentrated in groups or large waves were a real threat, with their mental attacks being the worst part. A dungeon where hordes of underground beasts with mental attacks constantly assaulted one while, oh yes, one was also in a complex maze of tunnels underground themselves, sounded like a recipe for a bad time. Perhaps that's why it was by far the least favorite of the three and barely saw enough traffic to keep it from having problems in the very best of times. As to the last dungeon…

"Baelvyr, you can't be serious," Beth said, having just finished all the data.

"What's the problem, girlie?" he asked, his tone making him sound legitimately puzzled.

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"The third dungeon is an ice cave full of millions upon millions of insect that use water and frost mana to drown and freeze their opponents while they swarm them," Beth retorted. Seeing his continued puzzled look, she said, "You want us to go into that? I think I'd rather gnaw my own arm off first."

"Hey, tough shit, girlie. When ya work for the Association, sometimes ya gotta do the shit jobs. Some people gotta shovel shit, some people get stuck in the shit. Complain all ya want, but this is the kind of work ya'll be doin' for years and years. Ya can not like a dungeon or somethin', but it's still gotta get cleared out, however much ya bitch about it."

"And we need to secure the area first, which has turned into a living nightmare," Sera said with a dissatisfied grunt.

"And ya gotta run all three dungeons multiple times. Yer lucky, cuz we got some stuff that can help ya; otherwise, even with other reinforcements, ya'd be out here for a year or two," he said.

"I saw that mentioned," Blood said. "What are mana reinforcing spikes?"

"Yeah, somethin' we don't use all that much, but it's warranted here," he said. "They're a device that ya can latch to a dungeon and cause it to ramp up the mana it uses to reinforce an instance."

"Isn't that, like, really bad?" Beth interrupted. "I thought the whole problem was there was too much mana? Now we're going to cause there to be more mana. That doesn't sound right."

"It's cause it ain't right, girlie, keep yer pants on," he grumbled. "Let me finish the damn explanation. First off, yeah, yer right, the problem is too much mana, specifically too much mana in the dungeons. So, we gotta bleed mana off the dungeons, which will take them back to somethin' that could be called normal. Now, here's the problem; ya three can't do that, even if each of ya took one dungeon. Not in a reasonable amount of time, and maybe not at all. However, the real eggheads that work on this shit came up with somethin' to fix that a long time ago."

"The mana spikes," Sera supplied.

"Right. So, the way they work is, they force the dungeon to supercharge an instance, or just the dungeon itself if it don't have separate instance cells, with mana. That means ya get a way, way tougher run than what ya would have, as that instance will be filled to overflowin' with all kinds of nasties, and much stronger than ya'd think. The upside is two-fold; ya get to drain the mana really fast, which clears an overflowin' dungeon super quick, and ya get rewarded for it. The superchargin' part means that the monster will drop more coin, will give more experience, their hides and bones and shit'll be much stronger and more valuable, and the end reward each run will be somethin' else," he explained.

"So, the idea is, we use a device that overloads a run, forcing the dungeon to use shit tons of mana to make our run really hard, but that drains a lot of excess mana?" Beth asked for clarification.

"Basically, ya got it," he said. "Ya've done this before on Earth, clearin' a dungeon that was at or almost at overflow. This experience is gonna be a lot worse, I ain't gonna lie, and that's even before ya get into the dungeons. Yer gonna get crazy rewards for it, though, and it's gonna be faster. The Earth shit took ya a few months to do in total, right?"

"Yeah, we spent a couple months clearing that lizard-people dungeon," Beth said. "And we were doing runs fast; like, really fucking fast."

"Yeah, superchargin' 'em changes the equation," Baelvyr said. "So, I'll say this; barrin' any problems, and I ain't gonna rule shit out, situation here's a mess, but barrin' any problems, ya only gotta do maybe five runs to clear each dungeon."

"Holy fuck, why didn't we have these back then?" Beth asked.

"Cuz there wasn't no time crunch," Baelvyr grunted back. "They're fuckin' expensive to make, and they make everythin' twenty times harder. Ya had plenty of time and nowhere to be, so we weren't blowin' up to a couple diamond coins worth o' gear for ya to get done faster. 'Sides, ya were still learnin' a lot of the ropes back then; the experience was worth it, and it woulda been a lot more risky for ya."

"I can see that," Beth said with a nod. "But these spike things aren't illegal or anything, right?"

"Course not, girlie; they're just damned expensive and a frustratin' thing for enchanters to make," he answered with a shake of his head.

"Okay, good, cuz I want to grab a couple of them," Beth said.

"Not from our stock, but ya can find them certain places on the open market. They ain't contraband, and even if they were, CRA members have latitude with certain items they need for their jobs," he said.

"How does that work?" Sera asked, not having heard about that before.

"It's more a governmental thing," Baelvyr said. Continuing at their confused looks, he explained, "Ya gotta deal with different governments all over the place and nobody agrees on ninety percent of what should be banned or highly regulated. Sure, pretty much everywhere bans Star Glimmer, which is a nasty fuckin' drug, by the way, but even that ain't a hundred percent. And sure, everyone really seriously regulates and oversees antimatter, but the dumb shit I've seen people do, especially in rogue stations…"

Sera paled and shook her head while Beth just quirked a brow and Blood grunted in disinterest. Seeing their looks, he added, "CRA members have some leeway, cuz we need shit to do our jobs that might be banned here or banned there. We try to not raise too big a stink about anythin' or flaunt we're doin' something illegal, but we can't keep track of all the different governments' laws all over the whole damn universe. That does not, however, mean ya can abuse the privilege. That's a good way to get yerself in ten worlds of hurt, takin' liberties with what ya can both have and use because of yer status in the CRA. Yer Silvers right now, but it gets more serious when yer Golds and up, especially Platinum and up. Yer given more freedom, but ya got more responsibilities and are held to a higher standard. I don't wanna hear about any of ya abusin' yer privilege to get or use shit ya shouldn't."

"I don't do drugs," Beth said, Sera snorting at that. "What? What's that about?"

"Honey, Red-Gold Salt is a drug," Sera said quietly.

"Well, okay, I do drugs, but not, like, those kind of drugs," Beth defended herself as Baelvyr shook his head and rubbed his eyes.

"Look, we're gonna requisition twenty spikes for ya to handle this, and no, ya can't keep the extras on ya afterwards. They're expensive enough the inventory is tracked carefully," he said, giving Beth a glare as she looked away and started whistling. Poorly.

"We understand," Sera said, poking Beth in the side to get her to stop.

"Good. I got other shit I gotta do, but I'll be around if ya get yerselves in over yer heads. I'll go out there with ya to look at the current state of the place first, but I can't stick around for the next month and babysit," he said.

"Maybe we can get a good old, ya know, woohoo, bang bang with the hammer before you go?" Beth asked, making the noises sound like smacking sounds.

"I ain't yer nanny, but maybe I can flatten an area for ya to park," he said with a sigh. "Now come on, we gotta go get all the supplies and shit. This is gonna take a while, cuz we gotta fill out some forms to track what high-end supply we're requisitioning."

"Oh, paperwork, yay," said Beth in a monotone.

"I got a couple dozen stacks of that I could hand to ya if yer that thrilled with it," Baelvyr said, shaking his head with a grunt that was meant to be a small chuckle as Beth got up and bolted. "Ya ain't even know where we're goin'. Get back here!"

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