Mantle of the Gods

The ‘city’ was mostly tents with a few wooden houses.

It’d been almost seventy-five years and the Desolation of Wurn was still under Dispatcher control. The main reason was that the floors were like a maze of rooms, but just because you went through the portal on your left didn’t mean you moved into the room on the left. Every room had at least two portals in it and it was taking forever for the Dispatchers to map a way to the boss room, let alone mapping out the entire dungeon. The dungeon had calmed down years ago, but the lack of a mapping system is what had kept it under Dispatcher control for so long.

Trent’s Chaser pulled up to a worn wooden building that was smaller than our dorm had been before being remodeled. There was one other Chaser here, but it didn’t look like one of the ones that Celia had taken. This one was a completely different style and much older.

Our teacher waved for us to stay in the Chasers as he walked inside.

“Where’s the dungeon?” Fray craned her neck to look around.

“Probably in one of these buildings…” The dungeon wasn’t at the top of my worries. It was how there were quite a few people in gray uniforms walking around. The Authority handled matters involving the people outside the dungeon, while the Dispatchers policed those inside the dungeon. The Temple was the one who took care of those that neither felt was worth their time or resources to help. I’d lived almost my entire life in either the Temple or Dispatcher’s care, so I’d never really had any interactions with the Authority, except what I’d overheard from Adventurers. None of it had been any good.

This was supposed to be a dungeon issue. I couldn’t imagine why there would need to be this much Authority.

“Isn’t it strange?” Ether broke me out of my thoughts. “We’ve seen those Wurn Cultists everywhere we’ve gone, but here in the Desolation of Wurn, there aren’t any.”

Suddenly the presence of so many Authority started to make more sense.

“Maybe they’re all out in the other cities?” Fray was leaning on the back of my seat as she looked around.

“Probably.” I didn’t believe that, but it was what I was going to go with for the moment.

Trent walked out of the building and waved for everyone to follow him. Ether navigated us to a cleared spot at the northwest edge of the small town. There wasn’t too far to go since the entire place was only a four block square.

Trent got out of the Chaser again and pointed around us. The perimeter lit up around us in a soft blue glow. “This is where we’ll be staying while we’re here.” He looked at the other teacher, “Gesai, start putting up a fence. Ether, you can start supervising people putting up the tents.”

He started pulling tents out of his crystal band and throwing them on the ground in front of his Chaser. Once the white-haired man was finished, he pointed at the building diagonally to the southeast. “That’s where the dungeon is, but…” He looked at us, “We can only send in one team at a time.” He tapped on his crystal band, “This is what has been explored of the first three floors as well as the fastest known path to the boss rooms.” Trent cleared his throat, “Do NOT get in the Black team’s way. The team that stays topside can work on improving our camp, then I’m told there is a Summoner here that we can use.” He pointed at the building that was to our east. “I will be in there negotiating with Celia and the Dispatchers. If anyone needs me, then send a message to my CB.” He tapped his wrist. “Otherwise, stay out of trouble.” He looked at Aelin, “Are there any questions?”

The usually bubbly blonde was still behind the wheel of her Chaser. I would have expected that she'd have a lot of questions, instead she was staring at the building where Trent had said he’d be doing his negotiating.

“How often are we going into the dungeon?” I decided to ask a question if no one else was.

“You should be able to make it down to the boss room on the first floor today.” Trent turned to me, “We’ll use five man teams and change up the composition each day we’re here. I don’t expect this to last but a week, maybe two.”

After a moment of silence, he nodded, then walked away.

No one spoke until he was inside the other building. Rix grabbed Mitchel, Jovena, Oz, and Ren and went to help Gesai put up the fence. The older woman was pulling boards out of her CB and standing them up to give us an eight foot barrier. It looked like she was going to wall off almost half of the lot that we were in.

“Alright!” Ether clapped her hands, “Let’s get these things set up! Aelin, Justia. Start over there.” She pointed at the corner that Gesai had finished walling off. “Fray, Jenne! Start setting them up in the middle.” The white-haired woman looked at me, “We can start setting up a tent in this corner.” She pointed at the southwest corner.

I nodded and followed her lead. It wasn’t going to take long for all of us to get camp set up.