Mantle of the Gods

“I'm wiped.”

Aelin landed face first into her bed.

I looked at the rest of us. We were all pretty tired. We had spent the entire day on the first floor and now it was dark and almost time for bed.

“I don't suppose you can do anything for this?” Ether sat down on her bed and held up her arms showing scrapes and cuts all the way up to her shoulders.

I felt bad for her but Justia didn’t know any healing magic. I looked at our teacher as I sat on my bed.

“Can we get one of the Priests to heal her?” I asked

Trent shrugged. “Sure, but you'll have to pay them to do it.”

“What!” Aelin and Ether exclaimed at the same time.

They began chattering about how unfair that was and while they were arguing with the teacher I looked at the other members of our team. Rix had stayed quiet and to the side of our party for almost the entire day. Edward was already asleep with only one shoe off and the other shoe was in his hand. Justia looked a little frustrated, but really the only one of us who had been injured at all, other than when Aelin slipped on some wet leaves, had been Ether.

I switched beds and sat on Justia’s. She bristled as I got close, which halted my advance.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing.” I lowered my voice, “Nothing more.”

She nodded slowly as if she was willing herself to believe me.

I wished there was something more I could do for her, but I had no idea how to convince her that I wasn’t going to try to hurt her.

We both looked at the two women who were still arguing with our teacher. I stuck my hand in my pocket and realized we hadn't even distributed our loot yet.

“Hey!” I waved my hand to stop the argument, “Where do we cash out these crystals?”

Trent smirked like he had been waiting for us to ask that question. “There isn't a Dispatch here and you won't be allowed out of the Cathedral for some time, so…,” His face got fraudulently serious. “How about this?” He went over to his desk, sat down, then wove his fingers together. “I'll be your Dispatch counter.”

“Yeah right.” Aelin scoffed, “Like you would give us a fair price. You’re going to lowball us.”

Trent raised an eyebrow. “You do realize just how high my level is don't you?”

The blonde woman looked at the rest of us for some help but none of us knew what his level was.

“Okay, last lecture for the day.” He leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms behind his neck for support. “Each time you level up you'll wind up with two points that you can put in whatever you want and the mantle will increase those stats for you.” he looked over at Edward, “Somebody wake him up so I don't have to repeat this.”

Aelin slapped the Hitter on the ass. The sleeping man lifted his head but did little else to indicate that he was awake.

“Do you have any more of those water things?” Aelin smirked

I reached into my pocket but Trent had made me give him all the ones that I hadn't used so I couldn't use them during the exercise. “No,” I pointed at the bathroom, “There's more than one place to get water.”

Ether suddenly had more energy and ran into the bathroom. She came back out with her hands cupped. She held them over the blonde man's head and then released her package. Cold water splashed over his head, getting him to sit straight up.

“Wha- ?!?!” he explained

“You fell asleep in class.” Aelin turned his face so that he was looking at our teacher, “Pay attention.”

“What?” He repeated. His voice was sluggish and still full of sleep.

“He's not awake yet.” Aelin looked at Ether, “Go get more water.”

“I'm awake! I'm awake!” Edward pleaded, “I'm awake!” He said a third time a little slower but still kept his eyes fixed on the teacher.

“About stats.” The teacher began, “Each time you level you get two and each time your level hits a multiple of ten your stats double.” He looked around the room, “So you can understand just how much stronger someone of a higher level is and how much harder the depths become at each value of ten.”

“So could I just put all my points into power and then smash everything by the time I'm level fifty?” Scoffed Edward

“Yes, you could, but if you don't invest points correctly at the lower levels, then by the time you reach the higher levels your stats will be so skewed that you won't be able to descend anymore.” When he saw the confused look on Edward’s face, he elaborated, “Because you won't be able to one-shot the monsters on the floor that is the same as your level and since you have no defense or speed, they’ll kill you with a counterattack.”

“Oh…” Edward still looked like he didn’t understand.

Trent began drawing a small diagram on the in the air with his finger. “Look, one point at level ten is worth two points from ten to twenty. Four points from twenty to thirty. Eight points from thirty to forty. Sixteen points from forty to fifty and thirty-two points from fifty to sixty.” he paused for a second. “Bethil is at the middle of the thirties, while Cilia and Warder are at the high end of the forties.” He straightened, “I'm Sixty-two myself and the highest that we know of was level sixty-two before they disappeared in the depths.” He looked at each of us for emphasis. “I cannot stress how important it is for each one of you to invest your points wisely during these first ten levels. The importance of proper stat allocation is why most Crystal bands are not given until after level ten.” He crossed his fingers in front of himself. “That means each of you will have to go through me in order to increase your stats.” He rested his eyes on me, “The monsters that you fought today, I could destroy simply by kicking them and I'm a Caster. I wouldn’t cheat you on their crystals because it would be much easier for me to go down to the teens or twenties floors and farm a few monsters there and I would make much much more than what that pocket full of crystals is worth. Don't worry I'm not going to cheat you on your hard-earned crystals.”