Mantle of the Gods

We made it to the RV on time.

Ether and Ren were already back at the RV, which didn’t surprise me. They had gone inside and Ren was helping Ether into her armor.

“Hey!” Ether waved at us as we boarded the RV. "Did you find everything?”

“Mostly." Oz motioned at Fray. "She’s still not sure what her backup weapon should be, but she has time to figure that out.” The raven haired woman began navigating through the menus in her crystal band. “Give me a second to give them their stuff and I can finish helping you get ready.”

“Ok!” Ether banged on the chestplate. "I should be able to take a pretty good hit in this.”

“Right…” I saw a trade request from Oz and accepted it. All the items she’d picked up for me were in a list with one thousand, eight hundred fifty three All. She knew I only had the one coin, so she must have gotten the change from somewhere. Or she might have a decent amount from her parents, I didn’t know, but I was thankful for the foresight. I transferred my coin and received my items when we touched our crystal bands together.

Oz did the same to Fray, then turned to Ether. "Now what do you need help with?”

I couldn’t hear whatever answer the white-haried woman gave because the door was flung open and Aelin burst in.

“WE’RE BA-ACK!” The blonde announced in a sing-song voice she twirled around in the middle of the RV. She was wearing a different jacket than the one she’d had on when they’d left.

“How did you..?” My question was cut off as Oz interrupted.

“Ether, let’s take this to the other room.” The raven-haired woman directed the Tank towards the bathroom. It was the only real ‘room’ on the RV, and even it was a little cramped.

I watched them disappear, but there was no way that I could follow after them as Jenne ran into the RV followed by Gesai and Justia.

“WE HAVE SLAYED THE BOSS..!” Jenne began dancing with Aelin, then twirled her into Justia.

“AND WE HAVE THE LOOTS!” Aelin giggled as she twirled with our brunette Healer in the confined space.

Gesai pushed her way through the celebrating women to the driver’s seat and started it up.

“What happened?” I sat down in shotgun.

Gesai rolled her eyes at me. "Those two…” She shook her head as the laughing intensified. "Should not be allowed in a store together again.”

“That bad?”

“Aelin is wearing a new jacket, not armor, if that tells you anything. And don’t get me started on Jenne…” The redheaded teacher growled. "My Speed is two hundred sixty and I had trouble keeping up with both of them.

“Gotcha…” I looked back at the chaos behind us and felt a little sorry for Fray and Ren. They had gotten swept up in being part of the audience while Aelin and Jenne were showing off all of the stuff that they had gotten. Aelin pulled a pink dress out of her crystal band that would be impossible for me to be convinced was armor.

“What level is Jenne?” I turned my attention back to the road before someone saw me looking and demanded I join the audience as well.

“Two." Gesai growled. "So it’s not like it’s an impossible task. Honestly? Trent took the easy job of working with Rix and left me with this mess.” She shook her head. "I’m not sure how I’m supposed to get this group leveled up in time.”

“What about the others that we’re supposed to evaluate?” I tried to remember their names. "Zarboe and…”

“Mitchel Zarboe and Jovena Bothua. Tank and Shooter.” Gesai looked at me. "No, they are level two as well.” She shook her head. "I get that they should be taken to the second floor, but beating the second floor boss? I don’t know.”

I started to think out loud. "Healer and Shooter are the classes that we don’t have duplicated, so…”

“I’ve already got an idea for the team composition, but depending on how helpless they are, we might have to run bosses three times.” The older woman sighed. "But we’ll see.”

She navigated the RV into the Temple parking lot. We were here and ready or not it was about time to start.