Mantle of the Gods

We spent twelve hours in the dungeon.

That included stopping to eat, which we were only allowed ration bars and water. Given that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a ration bar, the wood tasting bar banished my appetite after the first bite. I finished it though, because I knew that if I didn’t, I’d be weaker and that could lead to mistakes, especially against an at level floor boss.

Gesai had settled into teacher mode as the rest of us collapsed in front of the door to the floor boss.

“This is a Zombie Lizard.” Gesai projected an image of it in front of us. It was about four feet tall at its shoulders, which made me imagine what it’d be like to ride one.

I raised my hand.

“Atlas?”

“What would I need to do to summon one?”

“Really?” Aelin stuck out her tongue, “Eww.. I mean, I could understand if it was one of those crawlers from Tres and you wanted to play Hero with someone…” She wiggled her eyebrows as she glanced at the other women.

I was starting to wonder why I had wanted the old Aelin back. “I think it might be interesting to use as a mount.” I pointed at Aelin, whose mouth had opened in an O, “Not like that.”

“Phew.” The blonde wiped her brow,

I shook my head and turned back to the teacher, “I know I’d need a skill, but is that all?”

“It eats up a lot of Mana to summon a monster.” Gesai tapper on her CB to put a display over the top of the monster.

Floor Boss Zombie Giant Lizard - Level 4

13 Power 14 Defense 11 Speed

10 Magic 1 Recovery 11 Aura

Skill: Cursed Bite, Cursed Slash,

Charge: Cursed Acid

Passive: Undead, Poison Immunity

“It’s got better stats than any of you.” She looked at us. “Its stat total is sixty, which…” She pulled up my stats

Atlas Vowler - Level 3

Age: 18, Hair: White, Eye color: Green, Height: 6’

259.1 Exp

Caster

10 Power 6 Defense 6 Speed

12 Magic 3 Recovery 3 Aura

Stat Points: 0 - Mana:36/36

Skills: Dash (1), Earth Shot (2), Bind (5), Siphon (10),…

Passive: Targeting, Mana Recovery

It looked the same as my display except for the Mana statistic as well as the numbers after the skills.

“Your Mana level is equal to twice the combination of your Magic, Recovery, and Aura stats.” She pointed at the thirty-six, “You only have thirty-six Mana, and the Zombie Giant Lizard costs sixty, which means…” She turned back to me, “You’d need to get twelve more stat points in one of those three before you’d be able to summon one of these.”

Ether gave me a sideways look. Aelin was the other person here who knew that I actually had tens in every stat and twelve in Magic. Which meant that I really had sixty-four Mana. Yet another thing I was going to have to keep my eye on going forward.

“Gotcha.” I shrugged, “It was a thought.”

“Even a level one floor boss would be too much for you at the moment.” Gesai shook her head, “They take forty-eight Mana to summon, which is at least three more levels away.”

Ren held up her hand, “Or he could get some gear with stats on it!”

Gesai nodded, “True, but getting gear to drop with a stat, especially one that you want, isn't very common.” She eyed me, “How many bosses did you farm yesterday?”

“Nine.” There was no point in lying. I’m sure Trent had already told her the number.

“And how many of those items had stats?”

“Three.” I nodded at Oz. “Zombie Leather Gloves and a Ring of Speed for Oz.” I nodded at Ether, “A Barrier Sword for Ether.”

“Accessories throw the distribution off, but finding stats on armor or weapons is about one in ten.” Gesai shook her head, “You got lucky, but with six stats, that drops the chance even lower to get one you want. Add in that there are five pieces of armor and usually two weapons and you’re looking at trying to find seven items you’d need to run a boss…” She started typing on her CB.

“About thirteen hundred times.” Ether finished for her, “At a rate of ten bosses per day, it would take us over three months of constant farming just to equip one person.” The white haired woman shook her head, “And we’d be level eleven, at which point adding just one stat point won’t be nearly as helpful and we’d have to start all over again.”

Gesai looked up from her CB and nodded, “So sure, you could do it, but it's not very rewarding.” She turned back to the monster, “This thing has a charge move of spitting poison, so try to stay away from Ether when it's charging.” She looked at us, “Any questions?’

We all shook our heads.

“Then get in there.” She motioned towards the door.