Despite the oddity, nothing else really unusual happened, nor did they have anything else to do there, and that was doubly bad, since they didn't have any other good leads currently. They just had to spend a little time running around all over the galaxy, looking for places where there were unclaimed Gold missions they could snatch up before anybody else could jump on them. It was days of jumping from place to place, trying to find somewhere that had open missions. Beth, unfortunately, didn't have a very developed network within the CRA, funny as that was; she could claim multiple Exalted and Manumitted as contacts, but none of them really dealt with CRA business. Other than Baelvyr, who had given them one or two tips and told them good luck and try not to take a decade to get it done.

The next two worlds they stopped at didn't have anything available other than Silver missions, which was rather a disappointment. That was doubly so considering they had to physically go to several of the Halls on both of those worlds to check what they had or inquire with the Hall Masters. That wasn't always the case, but every time they went somewhere and got the runaround just to come out with nothing, it really slowed them down and was rather annoying. The third planet they stopped on didn't have anything for them yet, but if they waited an extra week, there was a situation brewing that they could get a Gold mission for. Beth didn't want to sit around for a week, but at the same time, Gold missions didn't grow on trees, and the ones that did were snapped up before they could even hear about them. They could spend the week in her gate, working on professions and getting some training done, all under the tutelage of some of the Ascended she had stashed in a box. A box hidden in her soul.

Beth and Sera spent the whole time in compressed time working on their smithing, which netted them another level for their efforts. They were making slow but steady progress, though it would still be some time before they made it through the last bit of Journeyman. Blood was working on her leatherworking, though she wasn't dedicating quite as much time to it, so it would take her a bit longer to make it through Journeyman, but she was only going to be a secondary observer when they used the token. Bjorn and Kris spent time studying weapons with some of the Ascended, with Kris having a renewed interest in working on her weapon skills after having been in the presence of so many Masters. Sera also was spending some extra time here and there, what little she had, on working on her Spears, as she was just about to hit Master and she was sure she could get there within another month.

Beth was merciful enough to give them a day off before they took the mission, though she wasn't really enforcing the work right now. Sera was just as committed as she was and Blood did her own thing. Bjorn and Kris were just rather happy to take care of themselves and to work with such knowledgeable people, though Bjorn had an awful lot of knowledge locked up in that big head of his that many others didn't have, including a lot of knowledge about various weapons and the various stages of weapon skills. It was still rather nice to have people at those skills levels to train with or be instructed by, but Bjorn needed it less than the others, though he wasn't complaining. Kris was backed by a powerful clan, but she wasn't the top of the top in that clan, nor would she really be, so the help was a good bit more valuable to her than it was to her boyfriend.

After the day off, the mission still wasn't ready, which led to Beth exploring the city they were currently in with Sera for a while, as it was a rather large place. Nothing like some of the places they had seen, but it was a lot more than the farming world that they had started on at Baelvyr's suggestion. They toured the shopping district, or what Beth thought of as such, a large area of the city near the city center that had a ton of shops and various businesses selling random goods and odds and ends. Beth didn't really need anything, other than some extra restaurant meals to restock her necklace a bit, but she did buy a few other provisions, including some packets to make hunting spice, which could be brewed very similar to tea back on Earth. The packs she got were quite similar, with little cloth bags with little strings on top that could be steeped in near-boiling water to create the drink before being discarded in a waste chute or trash can. Beth got a large box of the packets, which contained over a thousands of them all neatly arranged and packed tightly. She also grabbed a little of the redgold salt that she liked to add to hunting spice and tea, as she was running a bit low. She was glad the stuff was only a mild stimulant and that, beyond psychologically, it wasn't physiologically addictive, and she found that she herself didn't really crave it all that much.

Sera bought what felt like half a store's worth of wine, some of even the cheap stuff, but Beth saw some of the price tags and shuddered. She suspected Sera was going to be using her newfound booze cache to compete with Veren the next time he was around, which was fine, but she didn't want to spend that kind of money on a drink. Her own purchases were bad enough, in her opinion, and they would last her months, if not close to a year, while Sera was likely to mow through those bottles in two months or less. Not that the dragon was an alcoholic, but she certainly liked to drink, and the more mild drinks didn't affect her nearly as much, even with the mana they contained. Beth assumed it was a combination of a taste thing, a feeling thing, and likely an emotion thing. Well, Sera had plenty of money, and they could always get a lot more, though she suspected the liquor budget was only going to grow in the future.

The day of shopping was nice, and the night after was quite pleasant as well, and the following day finally brought them what they wanted. It was another singleton mission, at least in terms of the credit it would provide them once completed, and they had Sera accept it. They were going in order, with Beth first, then Sera, then Blood. They would rotate like that until they all had ten Gold missions under their belt and were ready for the test, or tests, in this case. They would each have to pass not just one test this time, but several, though Beth wasn't really all that worried. They had done an awful lot of studying when they were getting ready for the Silver test, and they had now done a lot more besides. If anything, the testing should be a breeze, as they would be doing a written exam, an oral exam, and a field test. The written exam would likely be the hardest, as it would be testing for their general knowledge and understanding of CRA operations, but that knowledge included a lot of legalese and administrative junk. The oral exam was more an interview, and Beth doubted any of the three of them would have trouble for the Gold exam, though she could see that part being much more onerous for the Platinum exam. The last part, the field test, was basically there to demonstrate the person had the strength to join the ranks of Senior Enforcer, and Beth was not worried at all about that part.

The mission the Hall Master had given, incidentally, dealt tangentially with such issues, as they were tasked with hunting down a group that had been stealing from several depots in the outskirts. This world, Xeta IV, had large material processing and manufacturing sectors, and there were an awful lot of outlying warehouses and shipping centers. Nobody wanted that manufacturing in the city center, or the city itself, and the goods that were produced, as a consequence, were often stored near the site they were made before transportation. The warehouses and depots had guards, but a lot of those places weren't hiring Enlightened or Ascended to guard them. Many were hiring Awoken, though ones with two or three rebirths under their belt, and a few would hire Empowered, though not ones like Beth's group. The problem was, if somebody did a little scouting, or had even a low-level inside man in one of the companies, they could figure out some places with weak guards, not to mention places that had lax guards. Swoop in during the worst part of the worst shift, usually the graveyard shift, with a small, powerful team, disable the guards through any of quite a few means, grab a few thousand golds worth of goods, get out. Overall, fairly simple smash-and-grab type operations, but the group of bandits running it were fairly strong, decently skilled, and clearly had some kind of access.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The first order of business wasn't hunting the bandits, it was investigatory, as they had to figure out how this small but elite group of thieves was locating and timing their raids so well. The Hall Master showed them some data showing that it was a lot more than coincidence that the raids happened when they did, and it was even developing into a pattern of where they struck. Certain depots and companies had been avoided entirely, and it was starting to look like it might be because the bandits didn't have any info on those particular places. That was a bit helpful, as it narrowed it down to certain people and places that could be selling out the schedules. Bjorn had listened in to the brief and commented that he had handled a few similar cases and that he would suggest starting with the guards themselves. Not necessarily the guards on duty during the raids, or even assigned to the raided depots, but a lot of the smaller manufacturing companies in places like this had problems with the guards. Places were often stingy, paying the guards a few silvers a day, maybe a little over a gold, depending on the guard's strength and the job. Taking a cut of a platinum or two from a bandit group to sell them a schedule or a bit of low-level organizational data was mighty tempting for some people. A big enough cut, and some guards could damn near retire on it, especially if they already had something squirrelled away before taking a cut.

"You think it's the guards?" Beth asked, the group still in the Hall Masters office.

"I think it might be a guard," Bjorn replied. "I think you have a single mole that's selling secrets to fatten his pockets. The guards were either incapacitated or killed, with a decent number being killed. I doubt any of the guards on the ground are in on it; it looks more like a shift supervisor is selling data about guard schedules and warehouse loading times."

"I think you're onto something," Beth said. "In fact, I think you already figured it out."

"It's the same company," Blood commented.

"It's different companies getting raided," the Hall Master, a dwarf with a mighty impressive beard and thick, long hair bound in heavy braids and secured by a loop of dark leather, stated gruffly.

"It's different companies getting raided," Blood grunted. When the Hall Master gave her a glare, she clarified, "It's five different security companies, or groups, all doing the guarding. Five different security companies all managed and scheduled by Stellar Scheduling, LLC. Somebody at the stupid scheduling company, who knows the guards, their schedules, what they're guarding, when they guarding it, and how much they're guarding, is selling data to the bandits. Or they're a senior member of the bandit's crew."

"The question is," Sera interjected before the Hall Master could comment, "does Stellar Scheduling itself know? Is this a bottom rung employee selling data behind the companies back and getting these security contractors killed? Or is the scheduling company itself responsible?"

"That company's local," the Hall Master grunted.

"Clean record?" Bjorn asked.

"Check the file," the Hall Master said with a dismissive wave, sending them the CRA's file on the company. "Oh, and also, get outta me damned office!"

"Right, sorry," Beth snorted, standing and leading the group to their suite as she scanned the file.

"These bastards are in it up to their eyeballs," Blood said as they entered their suite.

"It's a small company that has gotten in trouble in the past for money laundering and financial fraud," Kris said quietly. "There's absolutely no way, at a company this size, with what we have on the files, that it's not known within the company what's happening. I doubt there's one rogue employee at a company of sixty that's doing all this."

"Can't jump to too many conclusions," Bjorn grunted.

"Well, Mr. Gold Emblem, would you like to accompany us to their offices, in case we need a bit of administrative force on top of our physical force?" Beth asked with a faux-sweet smile.

"No, but I'll do it," Bjorn acquiesced grumpily.

"The company owner just became an Enlightened recently," Kris pointed out.

"And?" Beth asked, raising her eyebrow, though she got a couple strange looks from the others.

"He'll be rather strong, dear," Sera said.

"He can try me," Beth said, flexing a bit before cracking her knuckles and chuckling darkly.

"Well, who could ever doubt that?" Blood asked sarcastically.

"Come on, it'll be fine," Beth retorted, leading the group out of the suite. "We just go in there, ask to see the manager, they say no, we insist, with a Gold Emblem, they panic and try to stop us, and I beat some sense into them. Easy as can be."

"I'm not sure this is a great plan," Kris protested.

"You can stay in the suite, Kris. These aren't your missions," Beth said to the feathered woman.

"No, I'm just pointing out the obvious," Kris said with a very slight smirk.

"Right. Okay. From all sides today, huh?" Beth replied with a frown, shaking her head.

"It's just that your brilliant plans sometimes astound us all," Sera said as they exited the Hall and turned left on the street outside.

"Oh, right, sure," Beth said with a sage nod. "I know I have that effect on people sometimes. I just can't hide my greatness. How unfortunate."

"I can't imagine living a life of such suffering," Sera replied in a mock sympathetic voice. "But we should also turn here and take the train. It's quite a way on foot and cities like this one take a dim view of high-level people sprinting around at outrageous speeds."

"Good suggestion," Beth said, ignoring the first part of Sera's reply entirely. "Let's see how we get a damn ticket."

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