Mantle of the Gods

I emptied my pocket onto his desk.

We all watched as our teacher counted out how many crystals there were. I made sure to pull out my pockets to be certain that I hadn't left the one in there. While I was digging around I realized that I had something in the pocket of my shorts that I was wearing under my jumpsuit. It was the crystal that Paul had thrown me as a bonus before my trial. I had never stayed around to see just how much each crystal was worth but if what Trent said was true then this crystal that had been farmed on the fourteenth floor would be worth significantly more than any of those crystals.

I thought about the little bit of money that I had stashed back at the Dispatchers. Since there weren't any Dispatchers here that wasn't going to help me out. But if I sold this crystal to my teacher, then that might give us a boost at the beginning. The thought scared me a little. I had known these people for less than a full day and was already thinking about them in terms of ‘us’. I had never had an ‘us’ but yesterday I had received a mantle and had been bound together with Justia, my teacher, and the ArchBishop, which I guess meant that I had two ‘Uses’, both of which Justia was part of. I was starting to kind of see her as the person who was going to be my confidant. Even though it seemed like my presence disturbed her. I was going to have to figure out what that was about but I figured that if I pressed her now it might scare her even more. I turned back to the scene that Aelin was making.

“How much do we get?”

I was more concerned about what one was worth. I knew how many were in the pile because we had been in the dungeon for fourteen hours and it had been taking us about thirty minutes to find a monster and kill it. Which meant there were twenty-eight crystals on his desk. The problem was that the amount didn't split six ways. I had a feeling that might be a problem, I had a solution, but I didn’t know how Justia would take it. I had a feeling that she would go along with it regardless of how she felt on the matter. She seemed dedicated to her responsibility to me, as long as I wasn’t getting too close to her.

I wanted to find a way to ask her about it, but I didn't want to do it in front of everyone. Considering that eventually, I would be much stronger than even our teacher, I could make it up to her later.

“So,” Aelin repeated, “how much is it worth?”

Our teacher looked like he was doing math in his head and then he pulled out six coins. Each one had a five on it which meant our excursion into the dungeon had earned us five Alls.

While each God's realm usually issued its own currency, the one currency that was universal was the currency used by the All-Temple. In order to simplify the naming it was simply called an All. The All-Temple would convert any unique currency from any God’s realm into the universal currency.

“If you were buying our crystals,” I stood up, “I can only assume that you're the one we would have to buy items from as well.”

Everyone looked at me and then looked at our teacher. Apparently, most of them had not considered where they were going to buy supplies.

Trent smiled, “I'm sure you could find a Priest or two who would be willing to sell you something. You might even be able to buy some things off of the other teachers or students. But yes, I will be the most accessible of the traders you have access to.”

Aelin picked up one of the coins, “What can we buy with this?”

“Well,” he began, “How about ration bars for dinner tonight?”

The look she gave him was one of complete horror.

“You mean you're not going to give us any more?” Edward stammered, “I thought you were supposed to be taking care of us while you were teaching us?”

“I am taking care of you.” Trent smiled, “I'm teaching you how to get your own food, while also teaching you how to survive in the dungeon, and progress the new power that you have received.” He spread out his arms, “You can gripe about your situation or we can talk about dinner.”

I looked at the others and then at the teacher. “How much for a ration bar?”

Our teacher pulled a box out of his band and placed it on the desk in front of him. “This has 20 ration bars in it.” He said, “I'll sell it to you for half an All.”

While the ration bars weren't the best tasting thing that there was it was vastly cheaper than the amount it would cost to eat for a whole week, well half as much anyway. It usually cost one All to get enough food for a week. I looked at the others and could tell that the two Nobles had no idea how much money was worth. I nodded to the other three and to my surprise even Rix nodded her agreement.

“Okay, we'll take six boxes.” I said, “Now what else can we buy?”