Months ticking by got Beth much closer to the next layer of the stone cube, but the matrix was incredibly difficult. Maybe a person who was a lot more advanced, like someone who had really studied runes, and not just runes, but spatial runes, would smash through the layers of the strange object effortlessly, but she just wasn't that knowledgeable. She also didn't have the fundamental understanding of spatial mana on a deep enough level; certainly, she didn't have it on the level that whom, or whatever, had so created it clearly expected of any competent solution to each layer. If anything, she felt like she was again a rank amateur, even though she was more knowledgeable about much of what was going on than many of the other fools who might have bought the thing at the auction. In any case, she was very close to figuring out how the puzzle worked, as in figuring out how all the pieces moved and slotted into place, not figuring out the rules for the thing. That was another thing she needed to check at some point; just how malleable were the rules and just how far could she push someone facing them to get the best concession for the price.

Her work on the cube continued as their leveling continued apace, their levels shooting through the hundreds and the two hundreds before slowing down significantly at around three hundred. Even fighting up a hundred levels, the three hundreds were still slow for them, though their level of strength allowed them to consistently fight up a hundred levels all the way through level three hundred fifty. The grind was a bit mind-numbing for the team, other than Beth, who could fight the same enemies for thousands of hours without getting bored. That did necessitate a couple of breaks for the team to relax and recover their mental states, but they were still making incredibly good time. Well, they were making great time until Beth walked out of the portal to take a break one day and caught up on her queued messages; she couldn't get anything on the communicator while in the gate and would get a big data dump when she walked out.

Young Beth,

I have news for you and business that we must handle. Contact me at your earliest.

Signed,

Tazeen 'Sword Tide' M'Tun

It was short and to the point, but it was the first time Tazeen had reached out to her without them already having a mission or some such from him. It made her both a little excited and a bit nervous, especially considering just some of the things she knew Baelvyr's team and network were getting up to and working on. Anything that he either wanted help on or wanted Beth's group to look at while he was busy was likely to be something both sensitive and difficult, though her team was always up for a challenge. Maybe she could call in a bit of extra backup for this one, though she wanted to know just want the mission was before sending out a call. Besides, there were only really two people she might call up, and neither of them would accept an invitation based off 'my strong friend has an interesting mission.' She was going to need a little more detail to grab anybody else, especially the one person she would really call in a pinch.

"Tazeen," Beth subvocalized, having called him.

"Young Beth," he replied mildly. "I see you have received my message. It was some time."

"Yeah, real sorry about that," Beth said. "We've been using my power to level and have been losing track of the time a little. Most of my team is close to or just a distance away from Enlightened and we're making a push to get their ASAP. We've been out of communicator range a lot."

"I understand, though your skills are more important in general," Tazeen said. "Do not worry as much about rushing through the ranks, especially after you have a Mana Physique."

"Yeah, well…" Beth said, scratching at the back of her head a bit at his admonishment. "We'll slow down a bit here soon. But anyway, that's not the important thing. What's this mysterious thing you dropped us a note about? Care to share some more details."

"You may be familiar with my work with Baelvyr and across the galaxy?" Tazeen asked, clearly probing for just how familiar she was with their operations.

"Well, I know you guys are cooking up some stuff. I also know you're the best duelist and single combatant around, maybe excepting Baelvyr, though I'm not sure about that. I also know you often handle problems of a more, uh, sapient nature," Beth recounted, ticking things off on her fingers as she leaned back on her couch.

"These are all correct, but do not encompass everything I am tasked with," Tazeen said. "However, for our purposes today, that is more than enough. It is my task of-how did you put it? 'Dealing with problems of a more sapient nature' that I contacted you."

"Well, I don't know what help we can be, if you can't handle it," Beth said, frowning at the opposite wall as she tapped her chin absentmindedly.

"It is, in fact, because of just that gap that you will be helpful," Tazeen replied. "Let me explain before you ask anything else. I have run into a situation where I need to defeat several people in individual duels; these are all exceptional individuals, to be sure, but there is a bigger problem. I am not trying to kill these people, and the duels have to be undertaken under certain conditions, conditions that I can't match. It is, in point of fact, because I am as strong as I am that I cannot handle what I need to finish here, but need some assistance."

"If I'm reading you right," Beth said, "you're basically saying that you can't fight several duels you need to fight because…you're too strong? Is that it?"

"That is essentially correct," Tazeen answered. "There are two components to this; first, there are several people I need to duel that are below Enlightened and the duels cannot be Limited Duels. That makes it difficult because they refuse to duel someone who is Enlightened or equivalent. I suppose it is rather fortunate your team hasn't quite hit that point yet. The other component, before you ask, is that my skill levels are too high. While I am, yes, technically an Enlightened, my level of skill, particularly with the sword, is quite well known and rather feared. There are two people I need to duel who are Enlightened, but they will not duel someone of my skill level, and they would likely not even accept a Limited Duel, were that even possible. For reasons I can explain further in person, none of these duels are supposed to be limited, and I cannot or may not fight in any of them, essentially."

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"And so, you thought of us," Beth stated.

"Indeed," Tazeen replied calmly. "Despite your relatively young ages, your team has an exceptional level of strength. The only place I would have concern are the two Enlightened, but that is more because of a difference in skill. I do not believe that anyone on your team has reached Grandmaster, correct?"

"If you mean weapon skills, then no. The best we have across the team are Masters," Beth said.

"That is unfortunate," Tazeen sighed slightly, a great show of emotion from the stoic elf.

"Now, hang on a minute," Beth said. "We can still cheat."

"Cheat? Explain," Tazeen said.

"Well, nobody on my permanent team has those kinds of weapon skills," Beth said leadingly. "Buuut…we do have a ringer."

"I am unfamiliar with the term, though I understand what you are implying," Tazeen replied coolly. "You mean you have someone who you can contact who would be willing to fight and that is Grandmaster in skill, yes?"

"That's it exactly," Beth replied, nodding even though Tazeen wouldn't be able to see it.

"Well, that might be possible, then, but the two skilled duelists may put up some resistance," Tazeen muttered, sounding like he was lost in thought. "There are things I can do to get both of them to fight your chosen representative, and perhaps some more can be negotiated, depending on who it is. Are you able to call this 'ringer' and ensure their cooperation?"

"I can get them on board," Beth said. "As long as they're not busy. At very worst, they still owe me a big favor, and I could cash in on that. What's our timeline like on this?"

"The point will become moot, and not in a good way, if more than two weeks pass. Is that sufficient time for your team, and your 'ringers,' to be ready?" Tazeen asked.

"Yeah, that's no problem. I expect teleportation fees will be reimbursed? Considering this is us coming to you," Beth said.

"Of course. Do not worry, you can take the Association teleporters the whole way. It will be simple," Tazeen said.

"Don't jinx us before we get started with talk of things being simple," Beth said with a slight shudder.

"My apologies. I will send you the coordinates after this," Tazeen replied, unruffled by her unease.

"Right, do that. I'll reach out to my contacts and get everything organized. I assume you'll have more to fill us in on once we get to wherever it is we need to go?" Beth said.

"Yes. There are additional details I will need to fill you in on," Tazeen said.

"Right, we'll see you then," Beth said.

"I look forward to it," Tazeen said calmly before cutting the line.

"Something up?" Sera asked her after Beth started looking around.

"Something came up," Beth said. "I've got another call to make and then I'll say. Can you make sure everybody's gathered up? Don't want anybody wandering off, even back into the gate."

"Sure, no problem," Sera said, hopping up to get the crew together.

Beth then had one more call to put and didn't want to beat around the bush, as it were, and sent that out right away. She got an immediate answer, though it clearly wasn't a very thrilled one. Then again, this person was always cranky to some degree, or annoyed, or just a bit of a misanthrope in general.

"Yes," he demanded.

"Veren, so good to talk to you. It's been a long time, I know, but let's catch up-" Beth said, needling him a bit.

"Get to the point or I'm disconnecting," Veren said tartly.

"Got a job, assigned from Tazeen, not CRA related but something personal. He's looking for duelists, strong duelists, to fight a group of people in his stead. He's too strong. When he was talking about the final two opponents, he asked if we had a Grandmaster, and I said I knew a guy and might be able to get back to him on it. You interested," Beth said, trying to quickly lay everything out in a concise manner.

"It doesn't sound like that much of a challenge," Veren replied, his tone rather bored.

"Well, sorry about that, but you're the only Grandmaster I know. He was very specific about needing someone at least Grandmaster to do it, and that we wouldn't be able to handle it as Masters, even with our strength," Beth said.

"I'm slightly more interested now," Veren said, Beth hearing in his tone that he had perked up quite a bit.

"Well, look, I don't know what you're up to right now, but if you have a couple days free, come to the coordinates and check it out. We'll be there tomorrow, by the current Universal Standard Time, and we'll be getting more information then. Maybe the briefing will be enough to convince you it's worthwhile," Beth said.

"Possibly. Possibly not," Veren replied noncommittally. "I'll come over and look at it. Send me the coordinates."

"Done and done," Beth replied, forwarding him the coordinates. "So, do you need anything else?"

She waited a second but then glanced over and realized the call had already been disconnected. "Son of a bitch," she swore.

"What's wrong, my love?" asked Sera, coming back after informing everyone else.

"Veren hung up on me, the asshole," Beth grumbled.

"What an asshole," Sera agreed, nodding in commiseration.

Beth waited until the whole team was gathered before filling them in. "We've got a mission to go do, though not through the CRA. Tazeen, whom basically all of you met, called me up with a little something; he has some duels that he needs done, for some reason, and he can't do them himself. Basically, he needs people strong enough that they can participate and likely win, but not too strong to get disqualified. Where we're at right now is basically the perfect position and he asked for us to go do them."

"Duels? Nice, I'm always in," Andrea said, bouncing in her chair.

"Fighting is always educational," Adam replied, which wasn't roaring enthusiasm, but Beth would still take it.

"I always need more Arena wins," Bjorn grunted.

"I'm not much of a duelist, but if you need me…" Kris added quietly.

"Well, I'm not really sure of all the details," Beth explained. "Tazeen will fill us in tomorrow. I do know that there is some number of people that we should be able to handle pretty easily, and then there are two people where he asked us about having anybody at Grandmaster level."

"We don't have any Grandmasters," Andrea said then, bemused.

"Well, not as a permanent part of the team," Beth said, tone a bit leading. "But, we do have access to your surly, neighborhood Veren when we need him. I called him up just now and he said he would at least come over to check it out. We can started the trip whenever everybody's ready."

"It might be best for me to stay to the background," Val said a bit hesitantly. "My fame is still rather high, you know, and I might attract a bit too much attention."

"Well, just wear the silly hat you think hides your pretty face while we travel and we'll see what the situation is once we get there," Sera said, laughing as Val made a rude gesture at her.

"Any other questions, concerns, ideas, etc.?" Beth asked.

When the rest of the room all shook their heads, she got them up and moving. The multiple teleports they would have to do, along with a couple interchanges, would take a couple hours, and then they would have to find a place to get themselves set up once they were at the destination planet. They were still there and ready plenty early, but they had to wait for both Tazeen to be ready and for Veren to show up, as he had been rather literal about meaning to be there for the briefing and, possibly, nothing else after that.

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