Mantle of the Gods

They were both still asleep when I got up.

I needed to talk to Gesai before the others got up and get her to set the teams to the group I needed to farm the boss over and over again.

It seemed everyone else was still asleep at six in the morning. Everyone except for Rix and Trent it seemed. Though I had my doubts that either of those slept at all. They always seemed to be awake when I went to bed and up before I woke up.

The flap to Rix’s tent was open, but she was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t doubt that she wasn’t somewhere around. Probably watching the locals somewhere.

Trent on the other hand was leaning up against one of the Chasers. He saw me and waved me over.

“What’s up?” I walked out of the camp and leaned against the chaser that was across from the one he was on.

“Waiting for Celia to get up.” He shook his head, “Gesai isn’t planning on getting people up for another hour. What are you doing up?”

“Old habits, I guess.” I got in the Chaser and sat in the seat sideways, “I was going to talk to Gesai about the teams for today.”

“That’s sooner than I expected…” Trent stroked his short beard.

“What is?”

“You going into the dungeon without supervision.” He grinned, “I thought you’d at least last two days above ground before you got bored.”

“It’s not..!” I let my shoulders sag, “Are you going to stop me?”

The old man laughed, “In my experience students eventually do what they want regardless of how many times a teacher stops them.” He raised an eyebrow, “So the better question is, are you willing to pay the consequence of your actions?”

I swallowed, “Which is?”

“Depends on the infraction. But I’m sure I can find something creative.”

I had a bad feeling that I wasn’t going to like whatever he came up with. “By the way, the Blacksmith in town asked me to put in a good word for him with you.”

“Tophua drew you in?”

“Do you know him?” It seemed like the Blacksmith had only known about my teacher by reputation.

“Never met him.” He pushed himself off of the vehicle, “Ah! Perfect timing. It looks like both of our meetings are about to start.” He nodded at Gesai’s tent. The red-haired woman was just getting up. He started walking towards the building beside ours where Celia was heading. The brown-haired woman looked angry, but maybe that was her default setting.

“You’re up early.” Gesai walked over to the Chaser I was sitting in and leaned on the front of it with her elbows.

“I wanted to talk about the group setups for today.” I turned in the seat so I could face her. “I was thinking about Oz, Ether, Aelin, myself, and Ren staying here this morning and doing some more exploring around town.” I nodded towards the south, “Maybe see what the Blacksmith can do with our gear.”

“Hmm…That works, I guess.” She eyed me, “You’re not planning on getting into trouble?”

“I’m trying to find a ring for Oz.” I motioned towards the south, “I’m going to try to get into the supply store and see what they have.” I nodded back towards camp, “And there’s something off with Aelin. I’m going to try to figure out what that is too.”

“Okay…” She shook her head, “Just don’t get into trouble okay. I can’t protect you if you’re up here while I'm in there.”

“Don’t worry.” I gave her my best smile. “We’ll be fine. But there is one other thing. Could you take the other group out first? I want to give Ether and Oz some time to sleep in. We were up…kinda late last night, um, talking about what to do while we’re here.”

“Talking… Ri-i-ight.” Gesai shrugged, “Sure, I’ll take the others outfirst so your girlfriends can sleep in.” She turned to go back into camp.

I hopped out of the Chaser and caught up to her before she made it back inside the fence. I turned her around and pulled her close to me. She was a Tier Four, so if she wanted to resist, there was no way that I’d be able to budge her. I could feel her heart beating wildly against my chest as she started breathing faster. I put my forehead against hers.

“Wait.” She put her hand against my chest, “I’m not supposed to until the end of the year because I…”

Ouch. I knew she’d gotten in trouble for pushing Fray, but that seemed a little extreme. Though if someone told me that extreme was Trent’s middle name, I’d believe it.

“Then don’t.” I tilted her chin up, “But no one told me I can’t.”

Her eyes lit up as I kissed her quickly. I could tell she wanted to lean into it, but did a decent job of restraining herself. She was beaming as she smiled at me when I stepped back.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” I looked around the camp, “I’ll be here at noon when you get back.”

She nodded wordlessly and went to go wake up the first team. I smiled as I went back into my tent. I’d let the others sleep a little while longer, then get them up. We’d be able to do a boss every twenty minutes, so we should have plenty of time to get enough kills in to find a ring or two before we needed to get back to camp.