Mantle of the Gods

There was a labyrinth under the cathedral.

Trent led us down a flight of stairs after we had walked through the training room and then snaked his way even deeper and further underground. We finally reached the room where the mouth of the dungeon was. A lone Priest sitting behind a desk with a magazine that I would not have expected a Priest to be absorbing. The brown haired man in his mid-30s snapped to attention and tossed the magazine behind the desk.

Trent nodded towards the dungeon entrance, “Has anyone else gone in?”

The attendant looked at the screen in front of him, “No, we don’t have any of the other teams down.” He looked up at us, “None of them have scheduled to go in until next week.”

“Good.” Trent said and nodded towards the dungeon ring, “Would you please deactivate that so that I can take the students in?”

The attendant looked over at us and then back at Trent. “They’re first years.”

“I'm not.” My teacher sighed, “Are you going to take down the shield or do I have to do your job?”

The mild threat worked and the Priest punched a few buttons into the computer. There was a buzzing as the shield vanished allowing us access inside.

“Thank you.” Trent said as he motioned for us to walk in.

Once we were all inside, I looked around. I was amazed at how different the dungeon looked compared to the one in Zeb. The dungeon at Zeb had been fields with rolling hills that had different groups of bovine looking monsters. They varied in size and aggression depending on how deep of floors you went. There were rumors of cowmen further down as well as vicious monsters with tusks as long as my arm. This dungeon was a wooded area with small knee length underbrush. There was a very well defined trail through the trees that we entered on. When I looked behind us I could plainly see the dungeon wall spreading out from the sides of the dungeon’s mouth. The dungeon wall in Zeb had been an illusion that kept going, so unless you knew where to look you might think that you could keep walking in that direction for miles until you ran into the wall. This wall on the other hand was black which did blend in a little bit with the underbrush and shadowy trees, but for the most part the dungeon wall looked like it would be easy to follow.

“Now.” Trent stopped us before we could get very far down the trail, “Second lesson.” He looked at us, “How many of you know about the stats?”

Justia, Edward, Ether, and myself all raised our hands.

Trent looked at Aelin and Rix, “Since we have some inexperienced then I'll go into this a little right now.” He touched the white stone on his wrist and began sweeping it over us.

“There are six stats which affect your abilities. Power is how hard you can hit something, how much you can lift, how far you can jump, among other things.” He pointed at Edward. “Edward is our Hitter. At level one he has ten points in his power, three points in defense, six in speed, two in Magic, six in recovery, and eight in aura. Usually a level one will have a thirty-five point stat spread in a ten-eight-six-four-four-three distribution.” He nodded at Edward. “Edward has an abnormal pattern for his stats.”

“Is there anything special about an abnormal?” Aelin interrupted

Trent shrugged, “Sometimes their stat spread makes it easier for them to multi-class and then unlock a much more advanced class. But with a few points in the wrong thing and an abnormal could wind up with the same exact stat spread as any of you.

He pointed at Ether. “Next we have defense. Ether has ten points in defense, making her main class Tank. The more defense you have, the more resistant to damage you are.”

He picked up a small stick and handed it to Edward, then raised his right arm in front of him. “Hit me.”

Edward looked back at us.

“Don't look at them.” Trent snapped his fingers. “We're having a demonstration and your teacher just gave you an order. Hit. Me.” He emphasized the last two words.

Edward trembled as he pulled back the stick and swung it as hard as he could. The wood whistled as it sliced through the air then exploded on Trent's arm.

“This is what happens when you have a lot more points in defense than your opponent has in damage.” He brushed the splinters off the arm of his overcoat. “Defense is vital for a Tank because they are the ones who are going to be having the monsters focus all the damage towards them so the rest of you can take down the monsters.”

He pointed at Rix, “Next then. We have speed. Speed is how fast you can do things but it also affects things like your hand-eye coordination. Higher speed will make it much easier for you to handle bows, crossbows, or other ranged weapons.”

I wondered if Rix might have used that high-speed stat in order to evade me in the morning but considering my speed was also at ten, I still should have been able to detect her.

“That brings us to magic.” He snapped his finger and a little flame appeared at the tip of his index finger. He pointed the flame at me and pulled down his thumb like he was shooting a gun. Instead of the flame shooting out it just went out.

“The higher your magic the better you are at spells. Spells are usually where most of your AOE damage is going to come from.”

He looked at Justia, “You’re next. Recovery is probably the most important class of all of them. Sure if you have high enough defense then things can't hurt you. Like Edward swinging the stick at me, but in a battle at your level it falls on the Healer to make sure everyone stays healthy and are able to finish the fight.” He nodded at her, “Which means everyone needs to make sure to protect your Healer.”

“Finally, we have the last stat.” He smiled at Aelin. “Aura. Aura determines just how far away you're able to affect things.” He waved his hand, “The buffer will be able to provide everyone with buffs that can not only raise your base stats but also buffs that can reduce incoming damage or even deflect it entirely. Just because you won't be able to actively see what the Buffer is doing don't think for a second that they aren't contributing to your party.”

“Any questions?” Trent asked. When no one answered, he smiled. “Good.” He picked up a stick and pointed it down the trail. “Let’s find your first fight.”