Mantle of the Gods

Gesai sat down behind me.

It was times like this when I forgot that she was seven years older than me. Right now, she just felt like another member of the team.

“Rix found one of their hideouts.” Trent motioned at the woman standing beside him, “They’re taking advantage of the portals within the Dungeon here to hide their own portals to pocket dungeons.” He waited for a second for that to sink in.

“What does that mean?” Ether was the first one brave enough to ask.

“It means that we’re going to have to be more careful while you do your training.” The white-haired man looked over at Gesai, “From now on, stick to the explored paths for farming. I don’t want you accidentally stumbling on one of their pocket dungeons.” He looked over at Rix. “So that it looks like you’re still trying to explore, Rix is going to start mapping the rest of the third floor.” He swallowed, “That information will stay with just us and the Black team.”

That got a reaction from most of us.

“Why!” I stood up, “Why are we..?”

Ether pulled on my sleeve for me to sit down..

“They’re in on it too.” Ether gave the answer. “This whole mission is a ruse to try to flush out the Cultists. Which means you and Celia are really…” Her eyes widened as she started making connections, “There are Cultists in the Scribs! And for one that’s strong enough to make pocket dungeons… is Fyth..?”

“Fyth Kane is clean as far as we can tell.” Trent shook his head, “The only way that the pocket dungeons have been able to stay hidden until now is if there are Mappers on the teams that are able to keep their bases off the maps as well as alert them when a Mapping team is getting close.”

“So if you’ve been looking into the Mappers…” I let the implication hang in the air.

“Celia and I have been following them into the dungeon and observing them.” He shrugged, "So far, none of them has done anything suspicious.”

“So we’re supposed to keep walking around down there being bait?!” Jovena waved her hands in front of her, “I don’t think so!” She looked over at Gesai, “And you gave us a HEALER to protect us?” She shivered, “We could be dead right now!”

I wondered who was going to tell her about Gesai’s scars that were hiding under the elbow length white gloves that she wore. About how she was Tier Four and had gotten that way by killing the most wanted, and deadly, criminal in the world. But no one spoke in her defense.

“I assure you.” Trent walked over and patted Gesai’s shoulder, “Gesai here is more than capable of taking on any of the Cultists.” He looked over at the young Shooter, “Since you have such a low opinion of Healers, this next part is going to be one that you really don’t like…”

We all turned to follow his hand as we waved towards the front of the camp.

I recognized the white-haired, red-eyed man as the drunk from the bar yesterday. He was wearing the same gray uniform that marked him as a member of the Authority. He looked a lot better today, even though he had a frown on his face.

“This is Sandez Boly.” Trent walked over to the other man and shook his hand, “He’s going to be taking over the Green team for the duration of our stay here, while Gesai.” He nodded at our teacher, “Will be leading the Blue team.”

“I thought we were going to be farming on the third floor.” Oz looked around, “We’re all level two.”

“Oh, you won't be on level three for that long.” There was a mischievous gleam in his eyes, “And the teams will be the ones Atlas broke you into this morning.”

I swallowed as everyone looked at me.

Our punishment had just begun.