Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Seventy-One (Patreon)

“Maybe we should just throw our valiant diplomat out to the wolves?” Beth asked then with a raised eyebrow. “Did you know she’s the heir to the kresnik clan? And the former leader of the Young Scions?”

“Stop,” Val huffed, though she didn’t looked particularly upset.

“I think leadership of the Young Scions counts for a little less here,” Isoldorra said with a small smile. “Though the heir of the kresniks, and a diplomat at that, might serve your needs better.”

“The background is nice,” Beth said then, cutting into the rhetoric, “but we’re here about making a purchase, or, at the very least, a lease on a building or unit.”

“Right, yes,” Isoldorra said, sitting up a littler straighter and crossing her hands over her stomach. “I’ve already gone over some of the political angle, but I am afraid to say that walking in and just outright buying a property would be rather difficult. There’s, essentially, nothing free at the moment; a purchase in the City itself almost always involves buying from someone who owns…how shall I phrase it? An extra property? An investment?”

“I understand what you’re getting at,” Beth said, others in her group nodding.

“Right. There are also people who lose their homes or lots, typically by buying beyond their means; very few people can afford to fully purchase a property here. Even teams with vast wealth often have to either rent a place, which is somewhat rare, or take a loan to make a purchase,” she continued. “Let’s just say…not every team is as lucky, or skilled, as every other. Some teams fall onto hard times, some teams are driven to hard times, and some teams disappear, an event that is, unfortunately, more common as of late.”

“Put a pin in that more common idea, but teams just disappear?” Sera asked, leaning forward slightly.

“Yes,” Isoldorra nodded calmly. “It not always, or doesn’t have to be, the whole team. I’m not trying to cast aspersions at anyone, but many teams aren’t as universally strong or well-rounded as your team appears to be. Even the loss of two or three members of a team can be devastating. This is far more true when jockeying for position on Millennia’s Echo and in the City than elsewhere; a team that losses a member on another world won’t feel it nearly as keenly, operationally speaking, as they would here. Some teams have one or two members that are key anchors to the team, wherein the rest of the team is more of a support unit for those one or two individuals. Such a team can afford one or two losses, if those losses are secondary members, as harsh as that is to say. What they cannot afford is the loss of one of those pillar members holding the whole team together.”

“Surely people form large teams or guilds to get around this issue?” Beth asked. “We know of at least one company that operates out of here that has quite a few people working for it.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true, but they wouldn’t be ones selling any property,” Isoldorra replied, making Beth blink for a second.

“Of course, you’re speaking specifically to our situation,” Val replied smoothly.

“That’s correct,” she nodded. “Your best bets are, roughly in this order, to go for a team that is collapsing, as mercenary as that sounds, to purchase an ‘extra’ unit from someone who has more than one, and finally to work together with someone more closely to earn housing.”

“What about the CRA?” Beth asked, curious what Isoldorra’s response would be.

“What about them?” she replied with a raise eyebrow, Beth thinking how she kept her eyes closed made her expressions even nicer. “If you mean to imply, what about housing from the CRA, then all I can tell you is good luck. There are waiting lists for everything here, including every suite and apartment in the several CRA Halls in the City. Even the other CRA Halls on the world have waiting lists, and they are not nearly as in-demand as the local Halls. If you mean any other housing they may have, I would be highly doubtful; I am not a CRA member, beyond Copper, of course, and do not have much insight to their inner workings. However, what I will say is that even Diamond Emblems aren’t given preferential treatment here, to my knowledge.”

“Oof, rough,” Beth muttered.

“What about the Black Ships? Illiem recommended us and surely your company has positioning here?” Val asked.

“We do…” Isoldorra replied slowly, pondering the group as she did so. “The problem is that all of our units are either spoken for or reserved in some manner. To be brutally honest, a recommendation from Illiem and your current performance is not enough for us to consider shuffling people or freeing a unit for your lease or purchase.”

“Not totally surprising,” Beth said, cutting off something Andrea had been about to say. “You had something, Andrea?”

“Something witty,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Enough,” Beth replied, though there was no heat to her voice.

“So, what’s the answer?” Sera asked. “We have resources and connections. How do we actually secure a living space here?”

“Well, you might not like this, but wait three months,” Isoldorra said. “There’s going to be an auction that will include at least one piece of property. It’s not going to be cheap, and when I say that it won’t be cheap, I mean you should make sure you’re bringing neutronium, at the least.”

“At the least? I don’t like the sound of that,” muttered Val.

“Things here are not cheap. It is, however, a full purchase of a unit,” Isoldorra said. “You will, of course, have to pay the property tax on the unit, but the unit will belong to whoever wins the purchase free and clear.”

Beth exchanged a look with Sera before exchanging just as pointed of a one with Val and then the rest of the group. The team didn’t even really need to talk at this point, finding themselves able to communicate with just a little body language and a few gestures. Beth had some ideas about what they could do to secure properties, including if the auction didn’t work out. Relying on such an…unreliable method to acquire a piece of property wasn’t really something she wanted to do, but they had a few advantages. It really circled back to what Isoldorra had commented on at the start of the conversation; Beth’s team was incredibly strong. On top of that, they had her gate, which they really used a lot for farming experience and the quests for True Rebirths, but it had quite a lot of money-making potential. She had thought they were pretty good on money at this point, but now she was planing on pulling in some more money for the auction.

“Nothing any easier, even if more expensive?” Beth asked, just trying to confirm.

“Not right now,” Isoldorra said, shaking her head. “If you had a higher standing with us, perhaps, but you don’t. You could work with us and improve your standing, but that’s not something that’s going to happen overnight; we are not such a young or desperate company that a big find or well executed job will make a massive difference for us. It would take multiple remarkable performances in a row, which is certainly possible, don’t get me wrong, but you would still have to commit quite a lot of time and effort to working for us to get there.”

“Looks like we have a strategy,” Beth said with a bit of a sigh. Farming for money was not always the most thrilling thing, but it was something they had known they were going to need to do in earnest for a while now. Maybe Mortaine or somebody had a job they would pay really well for that had a bunch of rare materials along the way, or maybe they could hit up Fallon and see if he knew of any juicy spots or jobs. There were places they could potentially go like the Eternal Depths, but the really amazing spots like that were still a little out of their strength range at the moment.

“How does one get into this auction?” Val asked then, giving Beth a bit of a side-eye.

“Yeah, yeah, should have asked.”

“That won’t be an issue,” Isoldorra said quietly, waving a hand in a negative gesture. “We can easily secure a pass for your team, if that is what you want?”

“Please do so,” Beth said firmly, several other team members nodding in agreement.

“Very well. I will have a pass for the auction for you by the end of the day. Would you like me to send it somewhere, or would you like me to contact you so you can pick it up when it’s ready?” she said.

“Contact us,” Beth said, reaching over and touching Isoldorra’s hand, exchanging contact information.

“Very well, that will be no issue to arrange. There will be a five mithril fee, if that is alright?” her tone had gone up slightly at the end, not just making it a question, but also seeming to ask if that kind of money was easy for them to fork over.

“As much as it still stings, yes, five mithril isn’t something we’re sweating over right now,” Beth said, sighing a little.

“Good. What else can I help you with at the moment?” Isoldorra asked.

“Nothing at the moment,” Beth said. “We will likely have things to sell, even possibly at the auction. Can we work through you for all that?”

“Of course. Feel free to use any of our representatives, including Illiem, to not just sell items, but arrange for consignment,” Isoldorra said with a small smile.

“I think that covers everything, then,” Beth said, glancing around at the team. Not that she was dismissing the others, but Sera and Val would have the most to contribute here, and if they didn’t have any other questions or anything they needed, the team could leave.

“We should head out,” Val agreed, and they made to do that.

The others filed out first, with Beth second-to-last, noticing that Isoldorra had lingered in the room, and for a very obvious reason. As Sera got up to leave, Isoldorra did as well, very smoothly moving next to the dragon and brushing against her, including brushing her hand gently. Sera shot Beth a very quick glance, and Beth flicked her eyes and wiggled her eyebrows just slightly before walking out of the room. Not that hooking up with the person handling their setup on the planet was something she wanted them to do to gain advantage, but they were all adults here. If Sera and Isoldorra could keep business and pleasure separate, then it was more than fine with her.

She gathered the others on the way out, Val giving her yet another look, which Beth had fun replying to with a poker face. Val then made a face that screamed ‘Really?!’ to which Beth just shrugged, herding everyone back to the CRA Hall. It was really odd to have to teleport away from a world that they wanted to be on, but as had been explained, everywhere was booked solid. Even the hotels didn’t have any openings, requiring at least a few weeks of notice. This was in stark contrast to pretty much every other world, other than Zephyr Prime and Arbitus, and even those two worlds weren’t quite as jam packed. Zephyr had places that were available immediately, for the right price, and Arbitus, being a wholly CRA controlled world, had space for CRA members there on business. Millennia’s Echo was vastly different in that it was considered, essentially, the true hub of the Milky Way, and competition for every square foot of real estate was very tight.

Beth sort of preferred Zephyr, anyway, and their group had plenty of work to do that didn’t require them to be on Millennia’s Echo or in the City. Farming was the name of the game, and the first thing they would be doing would be a bit of research. Even the lazier or less interested members of the team could spend a little time on research, trying to find places they could go to make some profit or what was currently in high demand that they could spend time farming. Beth and Val also used their networks to reach out to people, contacting friends and business associates to see if there was any word on the street about rare finds or in-demand materials. Beth got very little out of that; her contacts were all extremely high level, but that sometimes beget the problem that the only things they had were beyond even Beth’s groups ability. They also typically were extremely busy, even Selene and Alex, so they had little time to give to Beth’s team.

Val did a bit better, her contact network from her time leading the Young Scions being rather robust and extensive. There were still plenty of people enamored with Val, and she acted as a hub between different people and factions to link them together, as well as reviewing some of the young up-and-comers of the galaxy. That last point had been, after all, the point of the Young Scions; inspire the youth to take up arms and push themselves hard to create a new generation of heroes. Beth wasn’t sure how well the marketing had actually done in that regard, or if it hadn’t just gotten some extra quotient of young hotheads killed, but it did have an effect, at the least.

Val’s contacts had come back with two things that were hot button issues right now that Beth’s team could handle, though they would have to review both. Val’s network ranged all over the place, which included in terms of level and strength, so she could get information on things that were way below their purview and things that were as powerful as anything Beth’s connections recommended. Well, excepting Zane and Fallon, as Val’s network didn’t include an Manumitted, but Zane was still off on Maze of Eternity business and Fallon didn’t have anything they could tackle before they hit Ascended at a minimum, which was kind of beside the point. By the time the team hit Ascended, they could start doing the Eternal Depths, looking into Forbidden Zones, and start working on more difficult expeditions. It wasn’t quite a catch-22, but they Beth was in the amusing position of where she needed to be even stronger to do the jobs her connections had, but if she were stronger, she could handle her own outstanding jobs, which would be just as profitable.

That was something to worry about later, as at least one of Val’s jobs was something they could not just handle, but would make them at least some decent coin. With Beth’s loot power really coming along, a lot of jobs that might not have made as much, or be as valuable for other teams, were better for them. The first job Val’s contacts had was a low-level sweep for beasts; it was work that needed doing, but a waste of time for their team. The second job, however, was hunting down a large amount of rare resources on a newly settled, high mana density world. Such a place would have zones that would dangerous for even Ascended to tread, and the fact the mission centered around rare, valuable resources already had Beth seeing dollar signs.

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