Beth opened up the data packet that Mortaine had sent her before he pulled his soda pop (quite literally) act of disappearing. He had sent her quite a bit this time, which surprised her, as the old Exalted normally gave her about three sentences to go on, if that. This time, he gave her more than twenty pages of material, which was even more impressive considering one of the pages was a list of references and materials they should study for the next job. That took the provided materials from a few dozen pages to a few thousand, which certainly piqued Beth's interest. She skimmed through the material as they made their way to the Hall and, thankfully, she was a fast reader.

  The gist of it was rather simple, overall; Mortaine had a big project he was working on, something that was more of a one-off compared to what he usually did. Beth wasn't entirely sure of all the details, though he did include some documentation about it, but suffice it to say it was big and complicated. It wasn't priority number one right now, but it would prove useful within a few years, though Beth was pretty sure Mortaine's idea of a few years might be different than hers. Anyway, his task for them was to acquire or make a number of components for the project, things that he didn't have on-hand and didn't have the time or inclination to source himself. Their list was pretty extensive, and on skimming through it, she noted that some stuff was located in or obtained from places that they would still struggle to survive. Their timeline wasn't infinite, but they could backburner the Mortaine work for a while and just level and grow stronger.

  They headed back through the Hall, Beth giving Tazeen and John a nod, as the two were on front counter duty today. That was another thing they should work on; their CRA Emblems. They would need to level Neph some, as she had said, and then they could get her a Silver Emblem pretty easily. The other three should also keep working on their Gold Emblems, which would likely require them to go off-world again, but they could keep slowly moving through that. They returned to their room, Beth moving into the kitchen to make food as the others sat around on the couches.

  "So, what now?" Blood asked.

  "We've got a couple things to do," Beth called back from the kitchen. "And I was serious about the leveling thing. I think we should take a day or two to relax still, then take a handful of days, if you know what I mean, to level."

  "Fine," Blood grumbled, already naked and sprawled on the couch. Neph seemed to enjoy cuddling with her bond, snuggling up on top of Blood as the wolf dozed off. Sera sat next to them, legs splayed on the coffee table and arms spread along the back of the couch.

  "What a view," Beth chuckled as she returned to the living room and sat some drinks down.

  "You're welcome to join," Sera said, gesturing at her expansive lap.

  "Food first, love," Beth said with a laugh, stepping around the back of the couch and leaning down over Sera to kiss her, upside-down. Sera reached up with both her arms and her tail and wrapped Beth up, leaning back and up into the kiss with vigor. Beth let Sera's hands and tail wander for a little before breaking off, saying, "I still have to cook, Ser."

  "Make some for me, too," Sera said.

  "Already working on it," Beth said with a small chuckle, returning to the kitchen and getting even more food out of the fridge.

  She continued working for more than half-an-hour, making a ton of stuff that was fairly fast and light, though it would be more than enough for the rest of them. If Sera wanted to engage her gluttony skill, it wouldn't be enough to fill a tenth of her bottomless gut, but that's why they had extra supplies, just for her. Besides, Sera could always spend a handful of silver coins to get a huge amount from the cafeteria on the first floor. It was both good food and would do enough to fill her up, even with her eating skill active, that they wouldn't have to worry about not having enough.

  Beth just used a couple trips to bring it all to the living room, where they ate on the couch. It was the one time when Beth found it inconvenient to be on Sera's lap, and the same was true for Neph and Blood. All four of them sat hip-to-hip on the couch, eating enough for their fill, though Neph didn't eat as much as the others. She was still supplementing herself with a bit of honey and royal jelly, though they would have plenty left when she was satisfied. Both were extremely valuable ingredients for many professions, alchemists especially, and Beth thought about them getting one to work with them closely. That did also bring up another thought, which she addressed as she started cleaning up.

  "Neph. Do you have any profession you're interested in?" Beth asked, nearly stumbling at the answer.

  "I really wanna be an alchemist," Neph answered brightly. "It seems really interesting, and I think making potions that we could use would be nice."

  "Just need an enchanter and engineer now, to get all the major stuff," Sera said.

  "We have an enchanter; just need an engineer," Beth replied.

  "We do? Who's the enchanter?" Sera asked, confusion evident in her voice.

  "Her girlfriend," Beth replied, sticking her head out of the kitchen and nodding at Blood.

  "She's not my girlfriend," Blood growled, looking between the other three angrily.

  "Oh? Bet?" asked Beth with a huge grin, still leaning out of the kitchen.

  "Yes, er, no! I don't want to bet," Blood growled, crossing her arms in a huff.

  "Hehe, you'll see her real soon," Beth said before ducking back into the kitchen.

  "What?! What does that mean? Beth!" Blood growled, standing up with Neph in her arms to march into the kitchen.

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  "You'll see," Beth replied with a cackle, dodging several swipes from the wolf while she finished cleaning up after their lunch.

  "You!" Blood growled, finally being intercepted by Neph, who uncurled herself and hugged Blood around the waist, slowly pushing her back into the living room and to the couch.

  "Don’t worry, it'll be fun," Beth said when she was done in the kitchen, scurrying out to jump into Sera's lap. "We've got some other stuff to do first. First of which is to take the rest of today off. We're relaxing for at least the rest of today."

  "Finally," Blood growled before yelping as Beth threw a pillow from the couch in her face.

  "Don't 'finally' me, we just took a break. We're not going to lay around all the time doing nothing," Beth stated.

  "It wasn't even a week," Blood whined, blocking the next pillow from hitting her face. "Okay, okay. Whatever."

  They relaxed the rest of that day and that night, sleeping for most of the night. Sera needed the least sleep, with her high END and skills, but she still slept the second most. Neph still needed the most sleep, and she stay comfortably curled up on Blood's lap throughout the entire night. Beth eventually got them all up and moving at the same time the next morning, getting them all in the bathroom to shower and clean before getting them all down to the cafeteria for breakfast. They ate what the automated systems made, with Sera ordering a couple dozens of servings to feed her skill before they were satisfied.

  "So, now what?" Blood asked.

  "We can split up for today," Beth replied. "I want to practice in the forge a little, and Sera can join me or not. You and Neph can do whatever, but Neph should see about starting alchemy training. At least get the skill in the next couple days, if she can."

  "Sounds good," Blood said with a shrug, splitting from them to take Neph somewhere. Beth seemed to recall that John was an alchemist, so he would likely be the one training Neph while they were on Earth.

  "Forge?" Sera asked with a jerk of her head towards the arena.

  "Yep," Beth answered, leading the dragon girl into the underworks and to the forge at the back.

  Though they were doing profession work, Beth found it pretty relaxing, so she considered this also to be a break day. She and Sera occupied two workstations next to each other at the far end of the room and spent until the late afternoon working on their smithing skills. Beth was still at the start of Journeyman and wanted to improve through the ranks, but increasing a profession required slow and steady work. Leveling her smithing wasn't something that could be rushed in a few weeks or even months, so they would just have to hammer away at it.

  They returned to the room in the early even to find Blood there and Neph not, the wolf saying the bee was still training her alchemy. Beth sent Neph a message on her communicator to come back to eat while also ordering a mountain of food from the cafeteria. She went down and picked it up herself, stashing it all in her necklace before bringing it up to the coffee table in the living room, setting most of it in front of Sera. Once they ate, and she returned the dishes downstairs, they relaxed for the rest of the evening and night before getting ready to head out the next morning.

  "How was the alchemy yesterday?" Beth asked, having not asked Neph about it last night.

  "It was great," Neph bounced on her toes as her eyes shone. "It was really interesting and John knows so much about everything. He did keep trying to teach me about the best way to make poisons, which I thought was weird, but it was so fun!"

  "Hmm, maybe I'll have a word with him, then," Beth muttered as they left the room after breakfast.

  "About what?" Neph asked innocently.

  "Nothing, nothing," Beth said, shaking her head. "We'll stop by the town and see what they're up to first. We can see if Zack wants some training as well, then we'll decide what to do after that."

  "Okay," the others answered, all nodding.

  Blood led the way, coursing across the ground at a blistering pace, though she wasn't even making use of Swift. She was just so fast from the sheer amount of stats she had that a decent jog was a crazy pace. They made the town in near-record time, at least Beth thought they did, and they were let in without any fuss today. Beth supposed that Zack had managed to beat some sense into the town guard at last, as they were recognized right away and were barely challenged. The same re-occurred at the town hall, the guard at the front doors opening them for the girls and giving them a nod when they entered.

  The girls found both Beth's parents, Zack, and a man Beth didn't recognize in the office that morning. The man was tall and thin, with dark chocolate skin, salt-and-pepper hair, and a thick mustache on his upper lip. He looked over at the girls as they entered with a bit of surprise on his face, but didn't say anything when he saw the looks of recognition on the others' faces.

  "Beth. You're back," Rachel said, leaning back in her chair and smiling slightly. "And the others too, of course."

  "Hey, yeah. Wanted to just stop in quick and check in. Also, wanted to know if Zack wanted the training," Beth said.

  "What training?" asked Zack at the same time as the other man asked, "Who is this?"

  "Sorry, first things first," Thomas said. "Malcolm, these are our daughters. Well, Beth is our biological daughter, the girl with wolf ears is adopted, you could say, and the tall girl is Beth's girlfriend. The fourth of their group is the wolf's companion and welcome here anytime."

  "Yes, right, I'm Malcolm Jones," he introduced himself.

  "Any relation to Mr. Jones?" asked Beth with a quirked brow.

  "Yes, of course, the old codger's my uncle, if you can believe it. My mother's brother," Malcolm explained. "I moved here to help with everything about, oh, a year ago. Uncle's also needed someone help with his business, which I helped with decades ago when I was still a young man. I told him he should've sold it a few years ago; would've put him in a much better position now, but that's old news."

  "Malcolm's been helping both with Mr. Jones' business, which the old fellow still runs, and with some town administration things," Thomas explained. "He'll likely have a key role in overseeing the greenhouse, if we can agree on where to build the stupid thing."

  "Just expand your wall a little and put it there," Sera said with a shrug, leaning her large butt against a table at the side of the room that creaked ominously but managed to hold.

  "Well, yes, but we can't really afford to expand right now," Thomas said with a shake of his head. "Look, it's complicated, but you girls don't need to get involved."

  "No, we certainly don't," Beth said, giving Sera a bit of a glare, which the dragon girl just shrugged off blithely.

  "What was that about training?" Zack asked again.

  "Oh, yeah, right," Beth said. "So, I talked to Dad yesterday, and I offered to take a few people and train them a little. It wouldn't be a huge amount of training, and it wouldn't take that long, but I could take a few people through their first rebirth. Dad said it wasn't a good time for most people, but that taking one person from the admin group wasn't a bad idea. You're supposed to be the guard captain, anyway, so it might as well be you."

  "Well, I've got a lot to do," Zack replied with a sigh, rubbing his right hand over his face. "How long did you say it would take?"

  "I didn't, but I think we could get you to two hundred in about two weeks, maybe a little more, if you're willing to put the work in," Beth said, eyeing Zack up and down. "After that, we could do another week or two to get you back up to around a hundred or so, so call it a month? Maybe even less, depending on how much effort you're willing to put in."

  "Wait, you can get somebody through the high hundred and back to a hundred in four weeks?" Malcolm asked in shock.

  "If they're willing to work hard," Beth said with a shrug. "I'm not going to level for him; he still has to fight and kill tens of thousands of beasts to do it. I can just give him the opportunity."

  "The time doesn't work, though," Malcolm said with a frown. "You can't fight that much in four weeks; it's not possible."

  "You can with time compression," Beth replied. Seeing his look, she quickly explained, "I can get him access to somewhere that time passes faster. Every day he spends in that place fighting, two hours passes outside. In two weeks, he'll have spent twenty weeks fighting. Same for leveling from one to a hundred; two weeks of fighting can be twenty weeks."

  "Oh, wow. How much does this cost?" Malcolm asked, writing a quick note.

  "It can be very expensive," Sera cut in. "Hi, Sera's the name. My family is the largest and most powerful dragon clan in the Milky Way. I have a lot of experience with a lot of topics, so I can speak on stuff like this. For what Beth just described, it would normally cost about ten platinum coins, but she can access a place like that for much, much less. It's a very good deal, and not one you'll get any time soon, or any other time, for that matter."

  "What she said," Beth said, pointing at Sera with a grin.