Mantle of the Gods

“I’ll start with the fight.”

Trent looked at Ether and Justia. "I assume you were told that the Yellow team came to haze my new class?”

They nodded.

“And how our little fireball here would have killed two of them if their teacher, Miss Hayz Clax, she’s the one who interrogated all of you, hadn’t intervened”

“I wondered how they got healed so fast.” I looked at Justia. "You had to know that there is no way a level…” I turned back to Trent.

“Seven.”

“A level seven Healer could heal two slashed throats, a stab wound, and a concussion in a few minutes.”

“I was a little more focused on other things.” The brunette held up her hands.

“Like me!” Aelin laughed as she elbowed Justia. The Healer blushed.

Trent cleared his throat. “Anyway, I saw this as a teachable moment for both teams, so I instructed them to follow you and take Aelin hostage.” He pulled a crystal out of the band on his wrist and handed it to me. "I believe this is yours?”

I took the level sixteen crystal from him. "I thought this was gone forever.” I registered what he was saying and leaned forward. "Wait, you were behind all of this?”

“Focus.” He snapped his fingers in my face, pushing me back in my seat. "When Rix offered herself instead, I told Wrye to take the deal, but up the ante.” He looked at Rix. "Very brave of you by the way.”

The redhead just shrugged.

“Anyway, while we were trying to figure out what to do with Rix, she slipped her bindings and found a trapdoor to the third floor” He nodded at her again. "Thanks to you, that cave has been marked and partitioned off so students won’t accidentally fall down it.”

He smiled. "Which gave me the pleasure of directing what became a hide-and-seek match.” He chuckled. "I disabled the Yellow team's skills and spells and had them spend the last four days trying to find Rix. Not only did she elude them the entire time, she managed to farm enough that she leveled up.”

“Way to go Rix!” Aelin held up her hand for a high five. “Come on! You can’t leave me hanging!”

Rix gave in and slapped hands with Aelin. I saw a hint of a smile flash across her face for just a moment.

“I’m sorry that Edward didn’t work out.” He looked at me. "I applaud your farming method, especially splitting your party in half to try to double up on experience.”

“Thanks.” I had to ask. "Is Edward going to be okay?”

“The Rene are a family of Berzerkers.” He shook his head. "This most recent generation of Rene has been having trouble controlling themselves. It seems that the Berserk ability has started manifesting earlier than the thirties, and in both Edward and his oldest brother’s cases, it manifested without them knowing how to control it or turn it off.”

“In his brother’s case, they were on a raid for the level thirty floor boss. He enraged and turned on the party, which resulted in a lot of Adventurers, including him, dying.” He shook his head. "Bethil Reder was part of that group. It took her a while to get over the shock, she just transferred here as a teacher this year to try to ease herself back into the Dungeon.”

I now knew the answer to the mystery of Edward’s older brother and Bethil’s personality shift.

Trent continued. "Atlas, as brutal as it was, what you did probably saved Edwards' life. He would have kept chasing you into the boss room, which would have either disrupted your fight or had him fight it alone.” He waved his hand. "I’m sorry you had to make that call, but I needed to know what type of leader you are.” Trent looked at me. "As for Edward, he was healed and sedated before he woke up. He’s currently on his way to his family for treatment, then he’ll be transferred to one of the Temples to finish his apprenticeship.”

“So does that mean we’ll be getting another woman for Atlas to add to his harem?” Aelin batted her eyes at me.

“Excuse me?” Trent looked at the bubbly blonde.

“The harem.” She pointed at Ether. "It started with Ether, then he’s going to charm Rix.”

Rix went rigid as she looked at me.

“It’s a delusion, don’t listen to her.” I smiled to try to put Rix at ease. It didn’t look like it worked. "Don’t worry, I’m not going to come on to you.”

“Until you want him to.” Aelin wiggled her eyebrows.

“I…” I turned to Trent. "Would you continue so she’ll stop this?”