Mantle of the Gods

They were all sitting in front of the boss door.

I was pacing, because I had no idea how to start the conversation. With Ether, she’d figured it out, so I had been on the defensive but now, I had a chance to ease Aelin in and I felt like I needed to find a way to explain the gravity of the situation without scaring her.

Considering what I’d done to Edward earlier this morning, I was going to have a harder time with that.

“Aelin.” I closed my eyes. "I’ve got something really important to tell you.”

“Atlas, I know I’m fabulous, but I’m kinda in a thing right now.” Aelin blushed. "Besides, you have Ether, unless…” She turned to Ether. "Did you know he was building a harem?”

Ether shrugged. "I could see it.”

“Wow.” She turned back to me. "I mean, maybe, but I don’t think you’re going to get Justia, so I don’t think that I would want to join.” She gasped. "Wait, is this about Rix?!? Are you going to try to get her in the harem?”

“There’s not a harem!” I could feel myself getting embarrassed and she was derailing the conversation.

“Yet.” Aelin sulked. "Wait, is this why you need my harden skill? For the…”

“Aelin!” It would have been easier to keep her focused if Ether and Justia hadn’t started snickering. “This is important, so please just listen.”

I glared at the other two women. "And you aren’t helping.”

“Sorry.” Ether apologized.

Justia just looked at her feet.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not like everyone else here.”

Aelin started to say something. I glared at her and she closed her mouth, biting her lips to keep them closed, but still smirking.

“This is because I’m an Abnormal.”

“Like Edward?” Her smile vanished.

“No, not Like Edward.” I shook my head. "Instead of an unusual stat distribution, I have unusual stats.”

“Like how unusual?”

“I can class in every stat.”

“You have ten in everything?!?” Aelin looked at the other two women. "And you knew?”

“Justia got brought in to help cover for me.” I nodded at Ether. "And Ether figured it out.”

“Is that why the two of you..?” Aelin motioned between us.

“We had a connection before she figured it out.” I sighed. "That’s not the point. The point is that there are a lot of people who will see my base stats as a threat and try to kill me before I can get strong.”

“Before you get strong?” She looked confused. "How strong can you get?”

“He started with sixty-two stats instead of thirty-five.” Ether cut in. "If he gets to Mr Vowler’s level, then he’ll have one thousand six hundred more total stats more than our teacher.”

“That’s…” She looked at me. "Wow.”

I hadn’t done the math to figure out that number, but actually hearing it when we only had ten, or in my case, twelve, as the max in a stat, made it sound daunting.

“That’s not all.” I looked at Ether. "I learned two abilities.”

That got her to show a little surprise.

“What else did you get?” Aelin was speaking fast, she was getting excited.

“Dash.” I felt my body tingle, but I didn’t trip since I wasn’t moving.

“What does that do?” Aelin blurted.

I took a deep breath and started running away from the door. "Dash.”

I sped up, but since I was already running, it was easier to manage. It lasted for about two seconds and then I slowed back down. I came to a stop and turned around. I’d run about three hundred feet in about four seconds. I turned around and started running.

“Dash.”

Once the feeling ended, I was back at the door. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have used it to get back, because if it’d lasted longer, I’d have run into the boss room by myself.

“You can move fast!” Aelin exclaimed.

“It’s a little hard to control and I don’t think I could use it to turn corners, but it’ll be great to get away from something.” I looked at our Buffer. "But that’s why this is so important. You can’t tell anyone about it or any of the Abnormal things that I can do.”

“Okay!” She smiled. "I can do that.”

I’d been expecting resistance. I don’t know why, but maybe I was expecting to have to outline everything like I had for Ether. I looked at everyone.

“Well.” I swallowed. "Are you ready to take on the boss?”