Mantle of the Gods

We farmed snakes for almost four hours.

The short nap had given me enough energy to keep up the pace until nightfall. As soon as the sun began to set, I knew that it was going to get too dangerous to keep farming. I was barely staying ahead of the snakes as it was. Without at least fire, it was going to be difficult for the other four to hit the snakes properly. The margin for error was just too high.

“I think that’s the last one.” I sat down on the trail. "It’s starting to get too dark to fight anymore.”

“Whew…” Edward collapsed across from me. "I’ve been hoping you’d say that.”

“You’ve been hoping he’d say that since we got here.” Aelin picked up the crystal.

“I’m not built for this kind of torture.” The blonde Noble looked for support, but found none. "This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!”

“What did you think you were going to be doing in the dungeon?” Ether sat down next to me. “Did you think you’d just walk in and watch everyone else fight?”

The look on his face told me that was exactly what he’d thought. His demeanor matched a ranged fighter much better than a melee one. I wondered if he might be able to allocate his stat points in a way that targeted that type of style. It was something to talk to Trent about once we got through this test.

That reminded me of our deadline. "How many was that?”

“I’m counting!” Aelin waved me off. "Don’t interrupt me!”

I nodded and braced myself as Ether leaned on me. I could tell that everyone was tired, but I had a feeling that we were far behind our goal for the day.

“Thirty-One!” The Buffer exclaimed. "That makes seventy-four snakes and three skellies!”

“Just over fifteen experience." I muttered, not wanting to cast the gloom I was feeling over her joy. None of us had more than forty experience and we had only three more days to collect at least twenty experience per day and we still had a boss to fight.

“We’re going to have to change how we’re farming.”

“But we’ve got so much crystal!” Aelin ran her hands through all of the crystals in the bag. "Do you know what we could buy with this?”

I nodded. There were over a hundred and sixty crystals in the bag. Split six ways, that was barely thirty each, which would be enough to get us some better gear. I looked at the broken blade in Edward’s hand. It had made sense to give it back to him since he could cut through the snake’s skin better than the women. I could tell that it was getting dull because his cuts weren’t as smooth.

“We need to sharpen that.” I pointed at the blade. “Do you know how?”

Edward looked insulted. "My family has been making weapons for generations, we have…”

“Do you know how to make weapons?” I cut him off.

“I mean." the blonde Noble looked around. "If I had the materials, I might be able to make something, but it wouldn’t be that good.”

I was surprised that he wasn’t bragging about how amazing his creation would be. “Ether, you worked with the Crystal Weavers, how much did you pick up?”

The white-haired Tank looked up from my shoulder where she was resting. "I’ve seen it done, but I don’t think I could do it.” She shook her head. "It was always a Caster or a Buffer who did the extracting.”

It was something worth thinking about later when we had the time, but right now we needed to focus on what we had.

“Edward, can you sharpen the blades and Justia’s ax?”

“I’d need to find the right type of stone and get some oil.” He snapped his fingers. "I think I know what I could do.” His excitement waned. "Do I have to do it now? I’m really tired.”

“Tell you what.” I hoped Justia or the other women wouldn’t fight me on this. "Once you get the weapons sharpened, you can go to bed.”

His weariness vanished. "Really! Let’s go!” He got up and gathered the knife from Aelin and the ax from Justia.

I watched him take off down the trail by himself. I got up and nodded after him. "We better go, we don’t want him to wander off and lose all our weapons.”

Aelin chuckled, then realized that it might actually happen. "Edward! Wait up!” the brown-skinned woman chased after him.

I helped Ether up and the three of us followed after them.