Mantle of the Gods

The ArchBishop ignored me for the rest of the drive.

We stopped for a moment and the ArchBishop got out a phone and made a call.

“We’re here.” After a moment, the ArchBishop banged on the divider between the front and back seats, then closed his phone.

The car started moving again, but we must have traveled through something because I felt tingles run over my skin. The car stopped almost as soon as the tingling did.

The balding old man turned to me, “Follow me. Talk to no one.”

A nasty-looking Priest wearing a much nastier-looking gun as well as a sword opened the car door.

“ArchBishop.” The Priest grunted

The ArchBishop just nodded and got up out of the car. I smiled weakly as I scooted over, but the Priest gave no reaction. I slipped past him as fast as I could, intent on catching up to the ArchBishop. Instead, I was dumbfounded by the sight in front of me. It was a huge mansion that stretched for as far as I could see in either direction. I had heard stories about the All-Temple Cathedral, but to actually see it. I shook my head, there was no way for me to know that this was actually the All-Temple Cathedral, but if it wasn’t I couldn’t imagine how much grander the Cathedral was.

According to rumor, the Cathedral had been made out of nothing but dungeon material, giving it a defense unlike almost anything ever built. I turned around to see the gate that we must have driven through as well as a guard tower above the gate. The tingling must have been the barrier, and I could only imagine how strong it had to be to protect a place like this.

The ArchBishop did not wait for me to gawk at the shrubbery or pillars or even the tops of the cathedral as he just marched forward.

I looked around, "Hey!” I ran to catch up to him, “Where are the others?

The ArchBishop turned and looked at me. “I said no talking.”

He nodded to the burley Priest who nudged me forward with the tip of the gun that was hanging from his shoulder. I began walking and realized that I was keeping up with the old man, who was jogging, without having to run. Someone of his level should have been severely outpacing me and I would never have been able to catch up to them before receiving a mantle. The stat boost of my mantle was already taking effect, which made me feel a little less anxious about the maze I was being led through. I tried to memorize the turns as we walked but there were too many. It surprised me that the ArchBishop actually took stairs as he climbed the towers, at least I thought they were towers, I really had no idea where we were going or what we were doing except that we went up several flights of stairs.

I hadn’t seen the outside in a while when we turned down a long hallway. Halfway down the ArchBishop stopped and walked inside as if he owned the room. To be fair, he walked around everywhere as if he owned the room. But when I looked at the name over the door it proudly read ArchBishop Mavry. The ArchBishop was already behind his desk when I walked into the room. Before I could ask him anything, all my questions vanished as I saw the sheer amount of rare conversation pieces that adorned the large office. After a day of farming, sometimes I would be too tired to do anything other than lay in the Dispatchers bunkroom and listen to the Adventurers talk about items of legend. Either these were replicas, or the ArchBishop had an invaluable collection.

The scary Priest closing the door to the office snapped me out of my wonder.

“Can I talk now?” I was starting to lose patience. Given how much I was being ordered around, annoyance felt like a decent way to exert a little control over the situation.

The ArchBishop glared at me from the other side of his desk and nodded at a chair near the back wall. I took that as a no so instead I sat down and began to think about what I was going to do to pass the time. The ArchBishop was almost completely absorbed in whatever he was doing on the computer in front of him, which had me wondering how far I could get before he realized I was gone. The speed at which he snapped his fingers when I started to get up told me I wouldn’t be able to get out of the room.

It wasn't long before someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.” the ArchBishop didn’t bother looking up from his project.

The man who walked in gave off the vibe of being older than the ArchBishop even if he didn’t look it. He did have white hair and brown eyes and was wearing an open blue overcoat.

The ArchBishop nodded from the older man to me. “Trent Vowler, your new student, Atlas Zeb.”

“I already have a full class.” Trent crossed his arms

“Not anymore.” the ArchBishop pulled out a file and walked around his desk to hand it to the teacher, “This is your new assignment.” As the teacher began reading the file the ArchBishop continued, “And there is no one else that I would trust with this.”

Trent just shook his head as he flipped through the file. Partway through he paused and turned to look at me. “Is this true?”

I had no idea what was in the file or if he was even talking to me, so I just shrugged, still unsure whether or not the ArchBishop wanted me to speak. It was one thing to give the old man grief when we were alone, but this teacher was an unknown and it was better to play it safe with unknowns.

Trent looked from me to the ArchBishop, “It doesn’t say anything about him being mute.”

“You can speak now.”

I opened my mouth.

“If it's relevant.” the ArchBishop warned.

I wasn’t quite sure what he was threatening me with. I was pretty sure he wanted me for something, which gave me a little room to act out. But I honestly didn’t want to know what the old man would do to someone who really crossed that line.

“I don't know what you have,” I got up to try to see what was in the files, but the teacher closed the file and turned to the ArchBishop like I wasn’t even there.

“So you took away my class to train this level 10 with terrible stat allocation and who has no idea what he is?” Trent opened the file to look at it again, “What even is this stat spread?”

“First of all,” the ArchBishop creased his brow, “He isn’t a level ten. I oversaw him getting his mantle a few hours ago.”

“Seriously?” Trent looked at me and then looked at the ArchBishop, “Then his stat spread makes no sense, unless...” he started flipping through the files again.

The ArchBishop nodded, “You are the only one I could think of who might be able to handle this situation.”

Trent flipped a few more pages and on every page, the place where it should have listed my class was censored.

“What exactly is his class?” Trent closed the file again, not finding the answer he was looking for.

The ArchBishop held up his finger, “Not yet there is still one more person coming so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

Trent raised an eyebrow, “Okay, so how about this one. You obviously aren’t going to record his real class, so you need me to be the one to teach him since his magic is his highest stat so that you can pass him off as a Caster.”

The ArchBishop nodded, “I have Gerald modifying the courtyard stone so that it will respond with Caster instead of his actual class as well as modifying those stats so that the other students and teachers won’t get suspicious.”

Trent shook his head, “You’re going to have me train him with a group?” He shook his head, “That’s a big risk.”

“He’ll develop faster with a team, besides, I have my reasons for wanting him on a team.” There was a knock on the door, “And there she is!” He nodded for Trent to open the door.

The brown-haired, blue-eyed beauty that walked through the door was not what I was expecting. She was my age, but held herself well, which meant she was used to being around people of this power level, so I knew she was a Noble.

She bowed slightly to the ArchBishop, “You sent for me?”

The ArchBishop waited until the door closed to speak. “Justia Publian,” He pointed at me, “meet your God.”