Mantle of the Gods

It took us a half hour.

Over a half hour in that stinky room until the boss vanished into smoke.

Every time it used its charge attack the smell got worse. Even Gesai didn’t even stop to talk to us about the fight, she just ran through the room with her face in the bend of her elbow.

Oz grabbed the item and crystal and ran after her.

Once we were on the fourth floor and breathing in as much non-polluted air as we could, I looked at Oz.

“What did we get?” I sat down.

“Elixir of Power.” She held up the Red vial, “Maxes out the current tier of Power for one hour.” Oz looked at Gesai, so does that mean that my power wouldn’t go up at all since it's ten and I’m Tier Zero, or would it treat the ten as like zero and raise it to twenty?”

“Raise it to twenty.” Gesai shook her head, “I forgot how nasty some of these places can be.”

“Wait…” Ether looked at Gesai, “How did you get into the boss room if you hadn’t been here before?”

“Trent brought Rix and I down here last night and he did most of the bosses with me.” The red-haired woman yawned, “It was a long night.”

Aelin copied the yawn, “Speaking of long nights, I’m ready to spend one in bed.”

“Don’t get too comfortable.” Gesai started to open the gate up to take us back to the surface, “We’re coming back in here at six.”

“Ugh…” Aelin pouted, “Why..?”

“Because you decided to sneak into the dungeon unsupervised.” Gesai got the gate open, “And you aren’t the only one who has to come down here too early in the morning.”

“Then can’t you wait for a few hours before you get us up?” Aelin got on her knees to beg.

“I’ve tried sleeping in…” Ether bumped into me, “I’m not doing that again.”

“Ugh… Atlas!” Aelin got up.

“Do you really think Trent wouldn’t get someone else to do it if I boycotted with you?” I chuckled.

“Trent still having students use those waterballs to wake up students who oversleep?” Gesai looked at Ether.

“Yes.” Ether bumped into me again, “Atlas got roped into being his culprit.”

Gesai clicked her tongue, “See? No sleeping in for any of us.”

We made it to the surface and headed back to camp.

Once there Ether, Oz, Ren, and I went back to our tent. Aelin and Gesai went to theirs.

“What do you think we’ll be doing tomorrow?” Ren sat cross legged by the door.

“We’re probably too low level to try to Farm on the fourth floor.” I laid down on the floor mattress that was taking up the back half of the tent.

“And we weren’t too low level to survive almost empty-handed on the first floor?” Ether shook her head, “I get the feeling that while they don’t want us stumbling into a pocket dungeon accidentally, we’re still bait.” The white-haired woman laid down next to me and rested her head on my chest.

“Which means we'll probably be on the fourth floor tomorrow with a limit to how many Zombies we can kill.”

“That was…different.” Ren shook her head. “How long do you think we’ll be here?”

“I get the feeling that they aren’t just looking for Cultists.” I shrugged, “I have no idea what they’re looking for, but did you see how much Rix is mapping that place out?”

“With her invisibility skill, she can basically just run around and never have to fight anything.” Oz peeled herself out of her armor, “That would be really useful in these ‘training sessions’.”

I looked up at the ceiling and closed my eyes. It was only seven, but I was wiped. Maybe with a good night's sleep I’d be able to feel more rested in the morning. I drifted off while the others kept talking about what might be happening and what we might have to do. I had a feeling that we’d know everything as soon as Trent wanted us to.