"Sorry," she said, sitting down next to Beth, on the opposite side as Sera, and dashing at her eyes.

"Take your time," Beth said, patting the much stronger woman on the shoulder.

"I just…I thought I'd lost her. I thought it wouldn't be until we were both gone that I might even have a chance at seeing her again," Liveria said quietly.

"It's alright," Beth said, wrapping an arm around the much stronger woman's shoulders. They stayed like that for a few moments, long enough for Liveria to get herself back under control.

"It's just such a relief, overall," Liveria said, mastering herself again. "We need to try to get to her."

"It's on the agenda, but it isn't exactly something that's going to happen tomorrow," Beth said with a small sigh.

"Right. Anything you need from me, you've got," Liveria said.

"Directions to your treasury might be nice," Sera said with a wink.

"The treasury belongs to the empire," Liveria said. "That being said…my inheritance vault only belonged to me."

"You have my attention," Beth said, still with an arm around the older woman.

"There's something you need to find, first," Liveria said, passing a message to Beth through their communicators.

"Right, sure, another wild goose chase," Beth grunted, pulling her arm from around Liveria's shoulders and sitting forward.

"It won't take you particularly long," the empress said with a small chuckle.

"What does that mean, when you say it won't that long?" asked Beth.

"Well, I'm sure you could do it before you even got to Ascended," Liveria said with a small grin.

"Great," Beth replied coolly.

"Here," Liveria said, handing the book back to Beth. "I trust you to do what is necessary."

The empyrean disappeared after that, returning to the box which Mortaine was still examining. He was scanning the box not just with his eyes, and likely other powers, but with a small cube he held in his left hand. It was a little device made of a brownish metal with a bit of a copper sheen and was absolutely covered, on all six sides, with tiny runes, to the point Beth wasn't sure if the thing was just made of runes pressed together in the shape of a cube. It emitted a very faint hum as Mortaine manipulated it, all the runes glowing with a faint golden light. He frowned a bit and muttered to himself for a minute as he scanned the reliquary, not exactly liking, or maybe not expecting whatever it was he found.

"Anything interesting?" Beth asked.

"Yes and no," he replied absentmindedly. "The construction of this box is quite…interesting, for lack of a better term. They've done something with a rare form of adamantine that I can't, to be quite blunt, make heads or tails of. More fascinating is the way they have embedded an entire pocket dimension within the framework of magic they built into the structure of the box. That magic framework is some old, highly skilled work, something I would easily expect of a Divine, and an experienced one. Not that anybody gets to Divine without loads of experience, but some have such a broad knowledge base and understanding of their craft that they rise above even their peers."

"You're talking about the pocket dimension," Sera interrupted. "But, as far as I know, it's not really any different than our storage items or powers."

"Au contraire, my young workhorse," Mortaine said, holding up a finger. "The things that most of your storage items and powers have are little pocket spaces that are carved out of our overall spatial fabric. The distinction is lost on most people, and is often academic, not mattering one way or the other, but you do not have an entire, complete dimension at your disposal. This goes for your storage power and their necklaces. This box, and Beth's special inheritance power, which we will discuss more at a later time, have an entire dimension, or universal boundary domain, in her case, within them. What that means is that the spaces inside are not necessarily bound by the same rules that the rest of this universe is bound by. There are some other subtle niceties that make dimensions sealed within an artefact or power more powerful and desirable but just know that they are better and more nuanced than what I would call 'regular' storage items and powers."

"That was…a bit confusing, but I think I understand what you're saying," Sera said with a nod.

"It really isn't either here nor there for most people. Until you become at least a Sage in your profession, other than Enchanting, it doesn't really matter, and by that point you should be much more knowledgeable about these things just from your overall education and practice," Mortaine explained. "The only thing you have to worry about for now is whether something says it is an independent dimension or pocket reality. If it is a separate space, or just a contained space, or really anything along those lines, it's not the same. You will find the descriptions of your necklaces say something similar."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Beth checked her necklace quickly, noted that he was absolutely right in that it talked about storing items in a contained space. It was language she hadn't really thought about before, other than identifying that it was a storage item. It was a very useful tip for now on, especially if they were going to keep encountering relics and skills of such rarity and power that they made even Exalted surprised and awed.

"Right, well, we got the box," Beth said, refocusing the conversation. "And we had to go through even more trouble than what you had already promised."

"Yes, yes, I can see where this is going," Mortaine said with a sigh, glancing at her before resuming examining the box.

"Well, a little compensation would be nice," Beth said. "And when I say a little, I mean a lot. Like, a whole lot."

"What about money?" he asked her hopefully.

"What about money?" she replied in a facetious tone.

"So, that's a no?" he said with a frown.

"That's a no, chief," Beth replied.

"Well, damn," he said with another sigh. "Alright, here's what I'm going to do. I have a favor owed me, a favor that I think would be very valuable for you. I'll let you cash it in, which will be quite helpful for you right now, especially as you are at loose ends now and have some free time."

After saying so, he withdrew a thin, glimmering crystal card, which he handed to Beth. On accepting it, she inspected it closely, finding it made of some kind of material that she couldn't identify at all. It was a mostly clear crystal with a slight golden tinge, and on each face was engraved a sigil with some kind of white metal. Each of the faces had a different symbol, and they were only engraved a tiny fraction of an inch into the face itself, though they were somehow not visible from the other side even though the crystal was clear. One side of the token or card had a sigil like eight long leaves intertwined in a circle with a cross in the center. The other side had two swords, angled so they were crossed at the center of the blades, with a large hammer underneath laid horizontally.

"What's this?" Beth asked, frowning at the card for a moment before handing it to Sera.

"A token to cash in a favor with a solitary, recalcitrant blacksmith," Mortaine explained. "He is not really a, uh, people person, as the saying goes, but he is a man of honor and respects debts. If you give him that card, he will honor an old debt, whether you want him to teach you his craft, or forge for you an artefact of great power."

"I mean, that's nice, but for all the trouble…" Beth said leadingly.

"Beth, he's a Divine," Mortaine replied calmly, entirely unperturbed by her fishing.

"Oh, well, that's different," Beth said. "But I think you still owe us."

"Fine, I'll give you one other thing," Mortaine said with yet another sigh. "I don't do this lightly, but I'll give you three access to my sub-dimensional chamber. For one use only, however."

"I don't even know what that means," Beth said, looking at Sera and seeing her puzzled look mirrored on her lover's face.

"It's a special training zone that allows you to set far more parameters in a far more controlled environment than your gate does," Mortaine explained. "It is extremely expensive to run, so much so that I wasn't originally going to even offer it to you as your original reward. I will let you all run through it once, provided you give me at least a full day to study the reliquary."

"That won't be a problem," Beth said, glancing at the other two just to get a quick confirmation.

"I'm more than happy," said Sera.

"I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick, but whatever," Blood growled.

"You are not a smith, but watching a Divine will be enormously helpful regardless of what profession you decide to pursue," Mortaine said quietly. "Such crafters do things that are beyond the understanding of mortals, only possible by breaking through the barrier that separates the normal and the abnormal. Understanding how a Divine crafts will open doors for you that you simply did not even know existed."

"Well, that's a bit better," Blood harrumphed, sitting back in her chair in a more relaxed posture.

"Well, let's head out then," Beth said, getting ready to stand. "Unless you have something else for us?"

"No. I'll send you the blacksmith's coordinates. You might have to make a bit of a trek to get to him, but he's not totally disconnected. He still needs supplies and other things from other Wayfarers, so he's not impossible to get to," Mortaine said, flicking Beth some information. "I'll pop in when it's convenient to study the reliquary."

"I'm sure we'll be duly surprised," Beth laughed, accepting the message and having the reliquary disappear back into her soul before standing.

She led the other two out, intending to spend a little time on their own before seeing about any more business, even the rewards from Mortaine. He had sent along information on how to get to his special dungeon or gate that he was letting them use, the message also acting as an entrance pass for them. With that, they just had to expect the unexpected, knowing he would pop in at a totally random and likely inconvenient time to further analyze the box for which Beth was now the proud owner. She led the way down to the nearest teleporters, getting them back into the CRA network first before getting them to a world of her choosing.

In her mind, they had just a bit of time before the next yearly Seven Lights auction would run, a few months, really, which was just enough time for adventure. If they pushed hard, they might get another rebirth done, which would be a welcome power boost, though at the very least, they could get to max level before the big auction. Such a place was also a good time for secondary exchanges, not just for buying and selling through the firm itself, and she foresaw them being able to acquire rebirth materials more easily, if not exactly more cheaply. The big thing would be for them to just get the levels, as they needed to get up to level three hundred this time, which wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Even with their vastly increased and increasing strength, the upper end was always the struggle, as they would be fighting the toughest enemies while requiring the most experience.

Beth took them to more familiar grounds, though she didn't take them home yet, as she wasn't exactly in a huge hurry to get back to Earth. There were plenty of places they could go, but they knew and were known on Luttraine, offering them both familiarity and that certain privacy that familiarity could bring. Beth didn't think anybody would bother them in a CRA suite for the time, which would let them use her power to its fullest, though she didn't know if they could get almost forty levels in just under four months, which is how long they had until the next Seven Lights auction. She was also counting on all the stuff they had dumped at the other branch of the firm giving them a nice little line of credit that could really help with their next set of purchases.

Speaking of purchases, as well, she was always in the market for a new sword, even considering she now had that lightning blade from the titan's factory. She planned on asking the blacksmith that they had the token for to teach them, which is what Mortaine had assumed they would do with it, meaning any new swords would still be purchases for a while. The epic, level two hundred greatsword that she had used the gem on was currently her second-best weapon, and she was a bit nervous about not having any other high-level weapon of any kind.

Sera didn't really have anything helpful to contribute, as work like that would either be a custom order from a good smith, or something they would have to stumble on or acquire through something like the auction. Beth was a little miffed that they kept getting such an eclectic assortment of weapons nobody in their group used, including plenty of daggers and long knives, but that was just how things worked. There was no luck stat, hidden or otherwise, that would affect what trials rewarded or dungeons produced, so it was just total chance in whatever they got.

They used the gate almost constantly, though they did come up for air a little more often so they could eat, particularly so they could feed Sera, who was still working on her gluttony-type skill. That required enormous amounts of food, and their reserves were currently bone dry, so they had to stop and go purchase more every couple subjective months, which certainly made several of the local merchants happy. They kept a large supply of restaurant meals on hand as well, mainly for the flavor, though that was basically all Blood ate anymore. It's not like their wallets were exactly hurting, either, as they were fighting level two hundred ninety to three hundred enemies, thousands and thousands a day, which would drop several silver coins each.

It was always at least three coins at that level and sometimes more, which didn't sound like a lot, but three silver coins multiplied by five thousand was quite a lot of earnings per day, multiplied by forty or fifty days and…it added up. Fifteen thousand silver coins was a hundred and fifty gold, or one platinum and fifty gold, meaning that in thirty days, they were making about half a diamond coin or a little less. That thirty days was only three objective days as well, meaning that an objective month would be anywhere between four and five diamond coins just from the number of beasts they killed. They made even more through Blood's efforts in skinning and butchering the beasts, the parts worth more per beast than the coin drops.

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