Morning came too quickly.
I hadn’t slept but a few hours, but that had been more than I thought I might get. The one problem with our sleeping arrangement was that I woke up first and Ether was blocking me in.
I watched her sleep for almost an hour. There was something hypnotic about the rhythm of her breathing, and peaceful, almost like it was more restful than the three hours of sleep I had gotten.
At about seven, Trent banged on the bunk screen. "You’re burning daylight, time to get up!”
Ether started stirring. "Morning.”
I kissed her. "Morning.” I touched the button to open the screen. "After you.”
It didn’t take us long to get ready and into the Clinic. Rix was already there, which didn’t surprise me. Honestly, with how listless she was, I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept on the roof next to the gun.
It was just the five of us for breakfast, and no one seemed like they wanted to talk so we ate in silence. Once we were done we headed back down to the RV.
There were five crystal bands on the table with a note beside them.
These are containers only, your name is already on yours and they’ll only hold items through level nine, so don’t try storing anything stronger than that in them. Good luck and remember where you come from.
I strapped my crystal band on and tapped it, there was a screen that listed a level two Skeletal Snakeblade, a box of rations, a water bottle, and forty-eight All.
Stolen story; please report.
“Everyone good?” I looked around, then turned to Justia. "I’m guessing you know where things are around here?”
She nodded and I handed her the keys. "You get to drive.”
“Hey!” Aelin frowned. "Why can’t she navigate and someone else drive?”
“Because we’re going to be making this trek for a week, the temple groups have probably already left, and we still have to go to a weapon shop to get Rix an actual weapon.”
“I can work with what I have.” Rix sat down in the booth as Justia turned on the RV.
“Did Trent leave us access to the RV computer?” I nodded at the booth.
Rix tapped on the table and a screen opened in front of her.
“Look up the monster on the first floor of the Temple dungeon.” I waited for her to access the information. Trent had restricted us to floor-by-floor access, so all she could see would be the first-floor monsters and boss.
“Slime.” She looked up at me. "Okay.”
“I don’t get it.” Aelin looked at us from the front seat. "Why does that matter?”
“Slimes are acidic.” I sat down across from Rix. "The rope part of her weapon will get eaten too fast and then she’ll have nothing.”
“I need something metallic.” Rix mused
“Pull up the Reace weapon site.” Justia called from the front.
“Don’t they make ranged weapons?” I looked at her as Ether slid into the booth beside me.
“They have some melee weapons too.” Justia was navigating through traffic. "If they have it in stock, then they’ll have it ready for us when we get there.”
“Can your Aunt get us a discount?” Aelin grinned. "Because I’ve got an idea for an outfit…”
“They make weapons, not clothing.” Ether corrected her,
“A girl can dream.” Aelin turned back to watch the vehicles go by.
“Do you see anything you like?” I looked at Rix, who was deeply into searching through the catalog.
“Yes.” The redhead touched a few more buttons. "It should be at the front in the next ten minutes.”
“It’s going to take us longer than that to get across town." Justia informed us.
“That works out.” I pulled up information on the floor one boss. "I want to check out the floor boss before we get there.”