Mantle of the Gods

We ‘Farmed’ on the third floor for the next three days.

I was glad it wasn’t the fourth floor, just because there was an Event there. It was a pocket the size of a boss room with rapidly respawning monsters. Once you killed a certain amount, an Event boss would spawn. I hadn't been given any information about it, but from what I’d seen from my days as a Porter, the Events were a good place to both Farm and level.

I had a feeling that if we’d had to farm the Event, we’d have a cap on the number of monsters we could kill, which would mean only being able to summon the boss a set number of times. Though I’m sure Trent could have come up with some weird rule for how we were supposed to take it down.

We ended each day with the third floor boss, which we got better at beating. The only problem was that it was dropping level four items as we were all either level two or three. Aelin was fine with that since we got Jumping Scale Boots and a Sneaking necklace that we gave to her. Once she hit level four, she was going to have a lot of fun with both of those.

On the third day we got a Zombie Slayer, which was a sword that Oz would be able to use once she hit level four, though I doubted we’d still be on the island by the time she was that level.

We’d just got back to camp when Trent called us in the middle of the tents. Sandez wasn’t there, which didn’t really surprise me. The older man already had a place in the city where he was staying, so there was no reason for him to camp out with us.

The other team looked like they were in fairly high spirits despite our ‘training’. Aelin was over by Justia and Jenne, while Fray and Jovena had joined Ether, Oz, Ren and myself on the other side. I hadn’t been expecting Jovena to sit with me, but the lippy Shooter took her place on the dirt within arms reach without a word.

That left Mitchel as an odd man out. I felt bad for him. It wasn’t like we were trying to segregate him, and no one would have told him to move if he wouldn’ve sat with us, so maybe he preferred to be by himself.

“Why are we here?” Jovena folded her arms before Trent even had time to speak.

“I’m getting to that.” Trent waved his hands and I felt my ears pop. “Now we can talk.”

I noticed that Rix was off to the side as well. Her being in this meeting, but not up in the center meant that she was being looped into something as well.

“I have been on a mission to look into the Cult of Wurn and what they’ve been doing here.” Trent looked around, “By the looks on your faces, most of you have figured that out already.”

“Rix has made great headway in mapping out the lower floors and we now know where most of the pocket dungeons are in the lower four floors, as well as the locations of a couple Tunnels to other dungeons.” The old man shook his head, “There’s one to Vefe, to the Dispatcher’s dungeon in Gaus, and to Slece’s private dungeon that we know of.” He sighed, “There might be more that we’re unaware of, but for now, these are all that we know about.”

He waited for that to sink in. “I’ve coordinated with Celia and we are going to strike at the Mundane in the dungeon and arrest them. Fyth has already been made aware of this and has prepared a special pocket dungeon just for them. Jart Spari has been put in charge of watching it.” Trent tapped his CB, “I just sent you all the pocket dungeons that you each are supposed to hit. You are to arrest whoever is in there and bring them to Jart at the Authority Station. Do not kill anyone.” He looked directly at me.

I nodded. The seal that he’d placed on me would get overridden if I killed someone and gained the PK modifier. That would mean that if anyone tried to scan me, they’d be able to tell that I was a Godling and not really a Caster.

“If you run into an Adventurer, then leave it to either Gesai or Rix.”

“What about you?” I felt like the pause was long enough that he wouldn’t mind us asking questions.

“There’s been a disturbance on the sixtieth floor,” He shook his head, “So Arlo, Celia, Sandez, Fyth, and Zorna are going down there with me to check it out.” He looked down at his display, “We’re going to leave in just a few minutes. We wanted to give the Mappers time to naturally get out of the dungeon before we go down there. When we do, the rest of you will head out.”

“What about the Black team?” Aelin’s voice wavered just a little, “If you’re taking Mister Heema, Mister Boly, and Miss Taray with you, who is going to be looking after them?”

“Celia has brought in someone to help with that, don’t worry about the Black team. Just focus on your assignments.” He nodded at Rix, “Rix will go with the Blue team to the second floor, while Gesai will go with the Green team to the first floor. The Black team is handling the third floor.” Trent took a deep breath, “I want to remind you that these are Mundane, but they can still kill you and you can easily accidentally kill one of them. Be careful.” He waved at someone at the front gate, “My group is here. Good luck everyone.”