Mantle of the Gods

That was my cue to find something else to do.

“I’m going to look at what monsters we’ll be facing.” I scooted further into the booth, pulling Ether with me. I wanted to make sure that whatever we were doing, we’d have the appropriate equipment for it. I suddenly had a thought.

“Trent, what are we supposed to do about the difference in levels? How are we supposed to get Fray, Oz, and Ren up to level three if only six of us can farm at a time?”

“Rix won’t be farming with the rest of you.” Trent pulled the RV over. "With her level being as high as it is, she has to stay where she’s at so she’s not disqualified from this year's Games.” The old man got up and motioned at the seat. "Who was going to take the first turn?”

“ME!” Aelin slid into the seat

No one bothered to challenge her.

“Where is the key?” Aelin looked up and saw it in Trent’s hand. "Hey!”

“All in good time." The white-haired teacher smiled. "Who else wants to drive on our way up there?”

Ren and Fray were the only two who raised their hands.

“Four-hour turns.” Trent handed the key over to Aelin. "Don’t be greedy.”

The blonde woman saluted him as she put the key in and took us back onto the road.

“Now, if there are no other questions..?”

“What about our seventh person?” I looked around the RV. Rix wasn’t one of our two duplicated classes. "It’s not like we could swap some of us out and still have a full team. Plus we need to keep Ren, Oz, and Fray in whatever team we use. Not to mention whichever new team member we pick up.”

Trent walked over to Gesai and put his hand on her shoulder. "You could always start raid bosses.”

The woman had just started to recover from her earlier shock. "Wha… Me?” She shook her head. "I only did that so that they would have an obstacle in front of the floor boss door, not because it’s a viable way to farm experience.”

“Powerleveling them ourselves is out of the question, and if you don’t want to try doing raid bosses…” He let the implication hang in the air.

Ether and Justia were going to have to stay in the group, which meant that myself and Aelin were the only two who could flex out, but if we picked up our ninth member, then we’d both have to bow out to let the lower levels have a full team.

“What if we split the teams in half?”

I looked over at Ether. "That would be three and four. I could take Oz and Ren and leave you with Justia, Aelin, and Fray.” I knew that with Justia healing them, the other four would be able to work together quite well.

“That could work!” Gesai looked up at Trent. "You could take one team and…”

The old man chuckled and squeezed her shoulder. "Sorry, but I’m going to have my hands full with Rix’s training. You get to watch both teams.”

I was starting to wonder how we were having him as a teacher, but remembering his orbs that he could keep an eye on us with, I did not doubt that he’d have notes for Gesai to pass along to us at the end of each day.

“What is the goal while we’re here?” I looked between the two teachers. "Are we supposed to be leveling them, clearing the Dungeon, or finding a new member for our team?”

I didn’t like the glint in his eye. "Yes.”

“What if we add the newest member before we go into the dungeon?” Aelin shouted from behind the wheel.

“Eyes on the road!” I grabbed the table as she swerved when she tried to look back at us.

Trent chuckled. "Up to you, though…” He pointed at the screen in front of me with information about the two Tres dungeons. "We’re staying here until all of you get to the third floor.” His smile promised that a lesson was hidden in there somewhere. “I have some administrative things to wrap up, so I will be in my office.” He touched the place in the ceiling where there was access to the turret on top of the RV in case we ran into any trouble. The ladder came down and he climbed into a small pod very unlike the open controls that our last turret had.

I saw Rix's eyes light up and I knew she’d just found her new favorite spot.

“Well…” I realized the others were looking at me. "What are we doing first?”