Mantle of the Gods

“That's not possible!”

I didn’t blame her disbelief. Everything I had been told about the mantle trial had been that there are six mantles that can be bestowed. One for each stat. I knew there were more now, but it was theoretically possible for a non-Godling dual class to exist.

“I had never heard of it either. But that's what the crystal said.” I put my other hand on her other shoulder, then turned her so that we were facing each other instead of being side by side. The sling bag strap hung off of my elbow as I stood up with her.

“The ArchBishop is trying to keep this under wraps since he believes that I'll be able to become one of the strongest adventures of this generation.”

It wasn't actually a lie. The ArchBishop was trying to keep this under wraps and he did believe that I was going to be the strongest adventure of this generation.

“What's your secondary class?”

I had been expecting that question and already had an answer. I had told everyone that my power was eight, and they would assume that my magic was ten. This left me having to decide which of the other four classes to choose from. Honestly, it would have been easier for me to have said that I had ten power, but I didn't want to have to keep up with two different numbers for that stat when talking to different people. Defense might have allowed the two of us to bond, but I had to make a believable argument for why Justia had been brought in on the facade. Which meant that there was really only one answer.

“It’s recovery. That’s why they brought in Justia.” I looked over at our brown-haired Healer. “When we start leveling, there's a chance that I'll also get healing spells.” I nodded at the ax-wielding woman. “She's supposed to cover for me so that I can train in that as well.”

I searched Ether's face to see if she was buying the story. It wasn't too far off from the truth. Actually, it was a part of the truth since I assumed that Trent was going to want me to train in all six of the disciplines at some point.

“That makes sense.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, “Yeah.” I started walking towards the camp, “I think she resents it a little that I might be able to do her job better in the future. Which might be why she ruined our fun.”

Ether giggled, “Well we'll just have to find a way to ditch her.”

I smiled, “I'm sure we'll think of something.”

“Took you guys long enough.” Aelin looked us over, “I thought you might have fallen in.”

“It was really sticky.” I turned the bag inside out and shook it trying to dry it off. The bag itself seemed to be waterproof, so I had no doubt it would be dry pretty soon.

“Where does everyone want to try to hunt today?” I looked up at the sky. We were getting a much later start today than we had the last two days.

Everyone looked over at Rix who just shrugged. When our Shooter didn't say anything the rest of them looked at me. Even if we killed fifty monsters a day for the next six days that would only be fifty more experience for each of us. That wouldn't get us to level two, but there wasn't really much else that we could try to do. I didn't know if there were any other types of monsters on this floor, but what I did know was that every monster gave experience based on the floor it was on. This meant that we wouldn't be getting any extra experience even if we defeated monsters on a higher floor. Monsters up to the 10th floor would all give the same amount of experience, so even if somehow we were able to make it to the second floor we wouldn't be getting any additional experience to level ourselves faster. but there was one other thing that we might be able to do despite the similarity in experience.

The floor boss did have one mechanic that made up for its increased difficulty. There was the possibility of drops other than just crystals from the floor boss.

I started to propose that as a goal then decided we were not outfitted for such an endeavor, but that didn't mean that we couldn't find where the floor boss was.

“How about we look for the floor boss’s room?”

“Why?” Justia demanded

“We're going to have to fight it eventually, and it might help if we knew right where to go when we are ready.”

“I’m done fighting this week.” Edward sat down. His eyes wandered over to the broken sword on Rix’s hip. “We don't have any weapons, so I’m done.”

“I know. I’m not saying that we go fight it now, but knowing where it is can give us a goal. And who knows maybe there will be something different that spawns around the boss room.”

“Can’t we stay here for a bit longer?” Edward complained, “I haven’t slept well since I got to this ungodly place.” He looked at the rest of us, “Why do you want to leave so bad?”

“To level up?” Aelin offered

“And then what?” Edward scoffed, “We can level once we leave this place.” He sat down, “I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t mandatory for those newly mantled to go through a Temple-approved training regiment.”

“What about finding your brother?” Aelin countered, “You said that’s what you hoped to accomplish.”

“Yes, but that won’t happen while I’m here. My brother didn’t disappear in the Cathedral Dungeon.” He sat down, “I have to be in the thirties to start looking around the floor where he disappeared. And I’m not going to get to that level here, and definitely not like this!” He crossed his arms, “If that crazy teacher is going to trap me in here, then I’m not going to kill myself before I can get out.”

I wanted to slap him, but if he was going to complain the entire time, I honestly would rather him not be with us.

“You can stay here, but we’re not splitting the crystals we get today with you.” I said

“Then give me my crystals from yesterday.”

I started to argue but decided that I didn’t care if he lost his crystals and it would make things easier to split later.

I fished eight crystals out of the front pocket. I zipped it back, then walked over and handed it over.

He counted the eight and smiled, “At least you can acknowledge my contribution.”

I just grinned, too afraid that if I spoke, I’d say something to start a fight. He had only helped with forty-five monsters last night, which meant he’d earned seven and a half. We’d killed eight throughout the night, so giving him eight crystals meant that each of the rest of us would get nine and none of us would have to listen to him complain.

I motioned away from the stream. “Let’s head out!”