Dungeon mantle, p.69
Dungeon Mantle, page 69
“True.” I shook my head. “Who knows, maybe she’ll get bumped into Bethil’s class.”
Mitchel shrugged. “Who knows.”
Ether yawned again. “I think I need a nap.” She pulled on my arm.
“Okay.” I waved at Mitchel. “See ya.”
I let her pull me to the tent, but before I could close it up, Oz slipped in.
“So…” The green-eyed woman glared at me. “You’ve given a ring to Ether and now Ren?” She eyed me. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“She was the best person for the loot?” I shrugged. “I mean, if you want a ring so bad…”
“Yes!” Oz covered her mouth as she interrupted me. “Yes.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” My mind was spinning as she hugged me. I was still trying to figure out how I was going to get into the boss room when her kiss pulled me back into the present.
I blinked after she pulled back. “What was that for?”
Oz shrugged. “Getting what I want.”
I turned around to look at Ether, who was suddenly not looking tired at all.
“Everyone is here!” I motioned at the tent door. “They can hear.”
“Nothing.” Oz knocked on the door. “Sealed and soundproof.” She cupped her hand over her ear to emphasize her point.
She was right, the only noises I heard were coming from inside the tent.
Oz pushed me over into Ether’s arms and kissed me again. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get much sleep as I wrapped my arms around her and started to kiss her back.
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN
They were both still asleep when I got up.
I needed to talk to Gesai before the others got up. I needed her to set the teams in a particular way so that I could farm the boss over and over again.
It seemed everyone else was still asleep at six in the morning. Everyone except for Rix and Trent, of course. Though I had my doubts that either of those two slept at all. They were always awake when I went to bed, and up before I woke up.
The flap to Rix’s tent was open, but she was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t doubt that she was somewhere around. Probably watching the locals nearby.
Trent, on the other hand, was leaning up against one of the Chasers. He saw me and waved me over.
“What’s up?” I walked out of the camp and leaned against the Chaser opposite from him.
“Waiting for Celia to get up.” He shook his head. “Gesai isn’t planning on getting people up for another hour. What are you doing up?”
“Old habits, I guess.” I got in the Chaser and sat in the seat sideways. “I was going to talk to Gesai about the teams for today.”
“That’s sooner than I expected…” Trent stroked his short beard.
“What is?”
“You going into the Dungeon without supervision.” He grinned. “I thought you’d at least last two days above ground before you got bored.”
“It’s not..!” I let my shoulders sag. “Are you going to stop me?”
The old man laughed. “In my experience, students eventually do what they want regardless of how many times a teacher stops them.” He raised an eyebrow. “So the better question is, are you willing to pay for the consequences of your actions?”
I swallowed. “Which is?”
“Depends on the infraction. But I’m sure I can find something creative.”
I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like whatever he came up with. “By the way, the Blacksmith in town asked me to put in a good word for him with you.”
“Tophua drew you in?”
“Do you know him?” It seemed like the Blacksmith had only known about my teacher by reputation.
“Never met him.” He pushed himself off of the vehicle. “Ah! Perfect timing. It looks like both of our meetings are about to start.” He nodded at Gesai’s tent. The red-haired woman was just getting up. He started walking towards the building beside ours, where Celia was heading. The brunette was marching angrily, her posture tight with frustration. I figured that was her default setting.
“You’re up early.” Gesai walked over to the Chaser I was sitting in and leaned on the front of it with her elbows.
“I wanted to talk about the group setups for today.” I turned in the seat so I could face her. “I was thinking about Oz, Ether, Aelin, myself, and Ren staying here this morning and doing some more exploring around town.” I nodded towards the south. “Maybe see what the Blacksmith can do with our gear.”
“Hmm…That works, I guess.” She eyed me. “You’re not planning on getting into trouble?”
“I’m trying to find a ring for Oz.” I motioned towards the south, “I’m going to try to get into the supply store and see what they have.” I nodded back towards camp. “And there’s something off with Aelin. I’m going to try to figure out what that is too.”
“Okay…” She shook her head. “Just don’t get into trouble, okay? I can’t protect you if you’re up here while I’m in there.”
“Don’t worry.” I gave her my best smile. “We’ll be fine. But there is one other thing. Could you take the other group out first? I want to give Ether and Oz some time to sleep in. We were up…kinda late last night, um, talking about what to do while we’re here.”
“Talking… Ri-i-ight.” Gesai shrugged. “Sure, I’ll take the others out first so your girlfriends can sleep in.” She turned to go back into camp.
I hopped out of the Chaser and caught up to her before she made it back inside the fence. I turned her around and pulled her close to me. She was a Tier Four, so if she wanted to resist, there was no way that I’d be able to budge her. I could feel her heart beating wildly against my chest as she started breathing faster. I put my forehead against hers.
“Wait.” She put her hand against my chest. “I’m not supposed to until the end of the year because I…”
Ouch. I knew she’d gotten in trouble for pushing Fray, but that seemed a little extreme. Though if someone told me that extreme was Trent’s middle name, I’d believe it.
“Then don’t.” I tilted her chin up. “But no one told me I can’t.”
Her eyes lit up as I kissed her. I could tell she wanted to lean into it, but she did a decent job of restraining herself. She was beaming when I stepped back.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” I looked around the camp. “I’ll be here at noon when you get back.”
She nodded wordlessly and went to go wake up the first team. I smiled as I went back into my tent. I’d let the others sleep a little while longer, then get them up. We’d be able to do a boss every twenty minutes, so we should have plenty of time to get enough kills in to find a ring or two before we needed to get back to camp.
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT
It took nine attempts.
We’d waited until eight thirty to go down to the second floor then backed through the gate to the first floor. Three hours later, a ring finally dropped. I picked it up and checked it out.
“A Speed Ring.” I held out the yellow ring to Oz. “All it does is give you one Speed.”
“I want it.” Oz held out her hand. She smiled broadly as I slipped it on her finger.
“Aw…” Ren grabbed Ether’s hand and held it up. “We kind of match.”
Ether had a Recovery ring with a passive effect, so her ring was light green. Magic rings were blue, which was what Ren had. Once Oz put her hand in, they had yellow, green, and blue. The grind had been worth it to see their smiles, even if the experience we gained wasn’t massive. And I’d picked up the Wave spell, which I thought would be useful later.
I looked over at Aelin. She’d been unusually quiet the whole morning.
“Aelin!” I motioned at the three women with their hands together. “You’re seriously not going to comment?”
“Oh.” The blonde looked at us.“Cool.”
“Gimme a sec.” I waved at the women. “Aelin!” I ran over to her as she headed for the exit. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird since the boat.”
“It’s…” She sighed and walked through the exit.
“Hey!” I rushed through the portal after her. Once we were in front of the second floor gate, I grabbed her shoulder. We waited for the others to catch up. “What’s going on with you?”
“We need to get back.” The usually bubbly blonde tapped her CB. “We can talk once we get back.”
“Can’t we talk while we go back?” I touched her shoulder. “I know we need to get back, but we can’t do anything until the others get here.”
“Fine...” She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “It’s Savyn. She’s…”
“The only woman on the Black Team,” I finished for her. “I take it you know her.”
“After my mom tried to get help from my father and he turned her away, Andes and Savyn found me at the diner and started…” She shook her head as she fought back tears.
“Hey! It’s okay!” I wrapped her in a hug. I noticed that the others had come through the gate, which meant that now we could get back to the surface.
“Oz, can you get us back?” I looked at Ren and mouthed, ‘HELP?’
The other blonde nodded and took over the embrace. I couldn’t hear what she said, but it made Aelin look not quite as lost.
“Gate’s open!” Oz motioned. “Let’s go.”
We went back up to the surface and no one said anything until we got back to camp and the five of us squeezed in mine and Ether’s tent.
“What did they do to you?” I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hear the answer.
“I really thought I’d gotten over it.” Aelin took a deep breath. “I’d been so happy that I hadn’t been put on a team with them at the selection, and to be honest, I thought that I’d gotten past it.” She closed her eyes. “After my mom died, they’d come into the diner where I worked and make sure I was their server. They’d make comments about my mother and talk about how she got what she deserved. They even started backing me into corners, and one time Savyn even…” She rubbed her left arm. “But they were Nobles, so the owners didn’t do anything about it. I thought about quitting, but those two would have followed me wherever I went.” She swallowed. “I thought I was mostly over it when I got my Mantle and got put on a team here with everyone, but…”
I heard Ether grinding her teeth. I glanced over at her. “What happened?”
Ether stared at Aelin. I could see anger on her face, as well as concern. “While you were kidnapped, Savyn approached Aelin about burying their grief and apologized to her for how she’d treated her.” Ether took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “About a week before you got out, Savyn invited Aelin to eat with them in their courtyard.” Ether was growling at this point. “But it was just so that they could get her alone. They tormented her and chased her back to our dorm. Fray and I got in trouble because we pulled out our weapons when Aelin came running back screaming. They’d even hit her with a few debuffs! And we were the ones who got in trouble!”
I swallowed as I tried to control my rage. I was so utterly tired of Nobility who treated other people like toys.
I’d had enough.
“Are you okay?” I tried to keep my voice level. They’d hurt one of my team members while I wasn’t there.
“A Priest came and healed me.” Aelin wiped her eyes.
“Who was it? Does Celia know?” I wanted names. And Rix. Okay, probably not Rix, but someone to help me do non-lethal Rix things.
“Missus Taray wasn’t there. It was just Gileon, Andes, and Savyn.” Her eyes got wide as I got up. “What are you doing?”
“Fixing this.”
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE
I got out of the tent before they could stop me.
I knew that starting a fight wasn’t the smartest move, especially when Trent was about to levy some form of punishment for going into the Dungeon alone. I honestly didn’t care if I got in more trouble. There had been the Yellow Team survival exercise, then Sipher, and Whisper, and the Cultists from two days ago that would have killed most of the city if Tres hadn’t intervened. They were all threats that were outside of my level range. Things I had to hide behind other people while they solved the problem.
This was a Level 3 problem. I just needed a way to goad them into starting it. It almost walked into me.
“Hey!” Jovena pushed me back. “You almost ran into me!”
I saw Justia and wondered if she knew. That was a conversation for another day.
“Are you ready to head out?” Gesai motioned towards the gate.
“Can I have a few minutes? There’s something I want to take care of.” I grabbed Jovena’s shoulder. “Walk with me?” Her blue eyes told me that she was about to refuse. “Please?”
“Fine.” Jovena sighed.
Once we were in front of the building that Trent was meeting in, I stopped.
“What’s this about Atlas?” Jovena tapped her foot.
“How would you like a little revenge?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“I heard that Savyn was very rude to you. How would you like to get a little revenge?” I looked the Shooter over. “Think you can take her?”
There was a fire in those blue eyes. “Of course I can take her.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “What do you get out of this?”
“You know the Nobility in Trent’s team was kidnapped?”
She nodded.
“While we were gone, Savyn, Gileon, and Andes decided to teach Aelin a lesson. They hurt her pretty good, but got away with it because they didn’t use any weapons.” I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. “I want to see how they like a target that will fight back.”
“It’s not like they can kick me off the team.” A wicked grin crossed her face. “I’m in!”
“Non-lethal force and no weapons.” I looked around. I would bet good money that Rix was close and invisible. “Did you hear? No weapons.”
“Who are you..?” She realized the answer to her own question. “Nice.” She glanced around us. “What are we doing here?”
“The Black Team goes to their base for lunch, which means that they should be coming along soon.” I looked over at the building where the Dungeon Gate was housed.
“What if..?” Jovena motioned at the building behind us.
“I’m counting on it.” My heart was racing with anticipation. “Ether doesn’t think that Celia knows about it. I know that they’ll be out here in a few moments, so make your punches count.” I looked at the building. “You weren’t at the selection, but Gileon got a little lippy and Celia put him in his place.” I turned to the Shooter. “Violently. I’m hoping that a little display of force will impress upon her just how serious this is.”
“Um.” Jovena started to back behind me when the Black Team walked out of the Dungeon building. “What about their other teacher?”
I nodded at the gateway of our camp where the rest of our team had gathered. “I think Gesai can take him.”
“He’s Tier Five.” Her voice said she wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Ges has killed one of those before.” I flicked my finger towards the building behind us. “Trent is Tier Six. Besides, as long as we don’t draw any weapons, then he won’t step in.”
I considered Jovena’s anxious expression. “You good? There’s still time to bail if you want to. I can handle this on my own.”
The fire came back into her eyes and she shook her head.
“Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY
I walked towards the other group.
“Savyn!” I waved. “I heard you don’t want Jovena to join your team because you think she’ll seduce all your Zombie men out from under your control!” I smiled as sweetly as I could.
“Atlas.” Their blonde guide put his hand on her shoulder and stepped in between us. “I think you should go back to your camp.” He put his hand up to silence the lone woman on his team before she could speak.
“You’re new, so you probably don’t know this about half of those people.” I focused my glare on the black-haired woman. “But not only was she very rude to my friend…”
“She called me a Defiler!” Jovena yelled from behind me.
I swallowed. Nobility who married the children of Mundane were whispered about behind their backs. A Noble who openly wed a Mundane was frequently mocked by being referred to as a Defiler. Sometimes the word was used as an insult to Nobility who were with the child of a Mundane, which made it a very severe insult, but not as bad as the one I was about to use.
“Not only did she do that, but that heathen you’re protecting, ganged up on one of my team members three-on-one, then turned them in for drawing a weapon to even the odds.” I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. “If you’d move aside, I’d like to see how well the bully fights against even odds.”
“You were nothing!” Andes waved his fist at us. “I remember you! You were nothing but trash that should have been swept out of Aurox!”
“He’s on my list too.” I pointed at Gileon. “And so are you.” Of the three of them, he looked the least willing to fight. Upset, yes, but he did not look like he wanted to fight.
“It’s three on two and you think your team is going to lose?” Jovena spit on the ground. “At least we know that the teachers are smart enough to know we’re stronger.”
Andes muttered something and Arlo snapped his fingers. The old guide turned around to look at the younger blonde.
“Seriously?”
Andes looked mortified. If I had to guess, one of us had just been the target of a debuff and Arlo had countered it.
“I believe that counts as an attack.” I smiled. “Which means that I can defend myself.” I crouched, but before I could move, I was slammed face-first into the ground.
The pressure vanished as Gesai started helping me up. I realized that I wasn’t the only one that got hit. All seven of the other students were still on the ground.
