Mantle of the Gods

I was starting to get used to uncomfortable silence.

That wasn’t saying that I was getting comfortable with it. I meant that I was accepting that I was going to be in a lot more of them.

“So…” I swallowed. "What’s it like?”

Tres looked confused. "What’s what like?”

“All of this.” I motioned at everything. "Being one of the Gods.”

“Honestly?” Tres scratched his head. "Boring. Owning a city does give you a power boost, but it comes at the cost of a ton of Administrative work.” He groaned. "And then there are the endless events, hands to shake, Nobles to flatter, assassins to thwart.” The strawberry-blonde sighed. "I’d much rather be in the dungeon hacking away at monsters, but that’s not really possible.”

“Why not?” I was confused. "Couldn’t you put together a team from your Grenium?”

“Oh, I powerleveled them up to Tier Five.” He shrugged. "But that’s mainly just me taking them down to sixty-four and then killing everything they can bring to me, but I don’t get any experience from that.” He looked at my teacher, who was standing at the window-wall. "Even Trent can’t fight at my level anymore.”

“Couldn’t you team up with some of the other gods?”

“HA!” He rubbed his face. "Do you know why the Gods kill each other?”

I shook my head,

“Because when you do, You don’t take ten percent like you would from an Adventurer. You get half.”

I swallowed. "Is that how..?”

“Nah." Tres motioned around. "I’m passively getting experience as we speak, just from Adventurers being in my town and fighting in the dungeons here.” He chuckled. "If I had enough dungeons and enough Adventurers, then I could level as high as you can go. That’s how most Gods get stronger, by bringing in more people.”

“Oh…”

We sat in silence for a little while longer until Trent finished with whoever he was talking to and came back. "She’s bringing her granddaughter here.”

“Good!” Tres clapped. "Have you already decided who you’re going to pick from here or do I need to bring the candidates to you?”

“It’s between Mitchel Zarboe and Jovena Bothua.” Trent looked at me. "The Zarboe are Tanks and the Bothua are Shooters, both of which are still needed on the team.”

“Is Yasmin Vilou’s granddaughter a Healer or a Caster?” It didn’t really matter, but I still was curious.

“The Vilou are Casters.” Tres supplied the information for Trent. "Kind of basic though, they focus on crystal extraction mainly. Though they are from a city of spies, so there’s always that.”

“Spies?” I felt my heart flutter. Aelin was going to have a field day with this.

“Yasmin can be trusted.” Trent checked on Rix, then turned back to the God. "Are we done now? Because it’s late and I’m sure that my students would like to get some sleep. They’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

“One more thing.” He snapped his fingers and Rix woke up.

The redhead blinked twice, then pushed herself up and circled around behind the couch. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s not polite to try to sneak up on people.” Tres motioned at the seat. "Besides, you need to be awake for this next part.”

Rix looked at Trent, who nodded. She cautiously moved over to the couch I was on and sat down on my left.

“Good." Tres looked over at Trent. "I think it's safe to assume you haven’t told them about the Primus.” He clicked his tongue when our teacher didn’t deny it. "You know he’s going to come for you now that you’ve gone back into the Dungeon.”

Trent closed his eyes and sighed. "It was inevitable. I’ve been hiding for fifty years, now seemed like a good time.”

Tres was staring our teacher down, but there was so much missing information.

“Who is coming for you?” I looked at Trent. "What’s the Primus and why does it concern us?”

“Kire, specifically.” Tres took a deep breath. "The God who Desolated my sister…”

Trent looked away as the God pointed at him.

“And his wife.”