Ether had stayed behind.
Aelin had pulled Justia and Fray with her into the shopping center. I hadn’t gone with them because I still wanted to do some research on the Dispatcher’s Dungeon. With the way Aelin was talking, I didn’t see how we weren’t going to be on the third floor of the Temple Dungeon in a few days and I wanted to spend at least a few days on the Dispatcher’s Dungeon.
It also gave me an excuse to stay behind. We’d been running almost nonstop since we got our Mantles. We’d taken yesterday off in a way, but we couldn’t keep this pace up. After the boss fight today, I wanted to get as much information as I could about what we were going to be going up against before we got there.
“It’s a Chimera?” Ether pointed at the screen. “What attacks does it have?”
The boss of the first floor looked like a deer body with a scorpion tail. It had mandibles on its face, making it look almost insectoid.
“Let’s see…” I opened the attacks menu. "It says that it will try to ram its target, then bites them once they’re down. It has a kick and the tail will poison.” I summarized the attacks’ text.
“Weaknesses?” Ether was writing things down on the screen in front of her.
“It says…” I began looking. "Here it is. Nothing elemental, just says that its hide is tough and tail is hard and it’s fast, so not to use heavy attacks.”
“Very helpful…” Sarcasm dripped from her voice. “Does it say where the crystal is?”
I looked at the diagram of the boss. "Nope, though most things die when they no longer have a head.”
She rolled her eyes. "We need a Cure Poison spell for Justia before we go there.” She looked at me. "And a fire spell for you before we try the second floor slime.”
“Now you’re on board with Aelin’s plan?”
She shook her head. "No, but…” She pointed at the screen in front of her where she was writing stuff down. “We have at least six more days here. If we take one whole day for downtime…” She struck through the third mark. "I think waiting until we level Fray would probably be best.” She circled the first two marks.
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“What do you think of her?” I shifted in my seat so I could look at the white-haired woman better instead of having to look sideways at her.
“Fray?” Ether shrugged. "She’s…” She closed her red eyes as she searched for the right words. "Scared? Eager to please?” She opened her eyes to look at me. "Maybe it’s just the day one jitters and those will go away once she gets closer to our level, but what she did today at the boss is only going to happen again until she starts to feel like she’s part of the team.”
“That’s kind of what I was thinking.” I agreed.
“And if Mister Vowler decides that she isn’t right for the team.” She shook her head. "Reckless desperation is the best way I can describe what she’s likely to do to try to prove she belongs.”
“Trent!” I forgot I was supposed to call him. “How much do you want to bet that he already knows about our new addition?”
Ether chuckled. "It wouldn’t surprise me if he set it up as another one of his tests.” She folded her hands and waited for me.
I raised an eyebrow. "Aren’t you going to continue? I cut you off while you were explaining why we’d get to the third floor boss before we left.”
“I was waiting for you to call Mister Vowler.”
“He can wait.” I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the conversation, but I definitely preferred him to the ArchBishop.
“We spent four hours farming today.” She wrote twenty-five down. "If we double that, then Fray will almost be level two.” She wrote fifty, then added forty-seven to get ninety seven. “I have a feeling that Aelin is going to want to stay until we level her.” She struck through the first mark. "We need at least one day in the dungeon after she levels for her to feel what fighting might be like with us.” She pointed at the second mark. "Even if we go slower, I still don’t see how she doesn’t level in two days.”
“Which is why you want to have a down day here.” I pointed at the third mark. “Have you thought about where we’ll be?”
“If we double what we did today?” She wrote another fifty under the second mark, then one hundred thirty under that.
It was enough to level us. "We can possibly hit level three in under two weeks?”
Ether nodded. "I know Fray will feel like her accomplishment gets overshadowed by ours, but that lets us fight the boss here.” She pointed at the fourth mark. "And leaves us with…” She underlined the last three marks. "These to explore the Dispatcher’s Dungeon.”
“Looks like a plan.” I swallowed. "Now to call Trent, then…” I sighed. "We need to go shopping. I want a fire spell so I don’t have to come back here.”
“You don’t want to go shopping with Aelin?” Ether laughed. "I can’t imagine why not!”