We got back to the Clinic before eight.

I was looking forward to a calm night. My arms hurt and I really wanted to lay down.

I didn’t even go to dinner. As soon as the rest of my team exited the RV, I locked the door, then went and took a shower. Most of which I spent letting the hot water run over my shoulders.

When I got out, Trent was waiting for me. He was sitting in the booth, where he could watch the bathroom door for when I came out.

It startled me, but then he motioned for me to take a seat.

“I thought you were trying to keep a low profile.” His face was unreadable.

“I am.”

“By getting NINETY-ONE experience in a single day?”

I had forgotten that he’d told me not to level everyone until after we beat the floor one boss of the Dispatcher’s Dungeon.” I swallowed. "Blame Aelin, she rode us like a taskmaster.”

“You realize that you’ve done in ten DAYS what most first years take ten WEEKS to accomplish?”

I knew we leveled up too fast, but hadn’t realized it was that fast.

“Sorry.” I looked down at the table.

“You have no idea how proud and mad I am right now.” He glared at me. "I was already pushing it trying to figure out how to downplay you hitting level three in twelve days. And of course Aelin has told everyone in the house already about your accomplishment.”

I swallowed. "What do you want me to do?”

Trent sighed and pushed one-hundred-nine All across the table. "That’s your part. At least Ether had the good sense not to go to the hub with this much the next day.” He looked at me. "People might think you’re PKs.”

I knew the PKs, or Player Killers, were a nasty bunch that every Adventurer that I’d heard talk about them had put plenty of disgust into their story.

“Why would people think that?”

He shook his head. "Where else is a level two going to get so many crystals so fast?” He started to draw on the table with his finger. "Look, there’s a simple formula for PK. However much experience the Adventurer has, the Adventurer that kills them gets ten percent of that.”

“But that’s only twenty two experience…”

“That wouldn’t be split with the party.” He interrupted and pointed at the crystal band on my wrist. "That’s why most bands are keyed to specific users. If the person wearing it gets killed, it’s almost impossible to get the items out.”

“But..?” I stopped myself. Ten same level Adventurers would level a person up. Less than two teams. It was kind of scary to think about.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“The one saving grace you have if people start poking around is that you’ve got a PK alert in your crystal band.” He pointed at my wrist. "If you killed someone with a Mantle, it would log it, so as of right now, you’re in the clear as far as the people that are here go. But you need to be careful.”

“Do we need to stop Farming?”

He shook his head. "No, but tone it down a bit. I know Aelin wants to go shopping…” He started thinking. "That could work.”

“What?” He’d had an idea and I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like it.

“Do the Dispatcher’s first floor boss tomorrow.” He got up. "I’ll have a surprise for Aelin once I get back.”

I watched him rush out of the RV. Rix must have been waiting outside because she walked in almost right away.

“You get the lecture?” She jerked her thumb in our teacher’s direction.

I nodded. "You too?”

“He got on to all of us. I left the others to try to convince Fray it isn’t her fault.” She spied the All that was still on the table. “We got a lot of All.”

I put it in my crystal band. "We did, but getting new gear is going to be expensive.”

“You could just upgrade the gear you’ve got.” She sat down across from me.

“They do that?”

“Didn’t you grow up in the Temple?” She eyed me. "How do you not know this?”

“The Temple was more worried about reading, writing, and math. We had some history thrown in there, but they thought it would be a waste to teach Mundanes about stuff they never use.” I narrowed my eyes. "How do you know about this stuff?”

“You think Bandits can go into town to buy new stuff every time their stuff gets broken?” She shook her head. "No. So I know a few things about upgrading and repairing gear. I’ve even seen stuff enchanted a few times.”

“That’s neat.”

The door to the RV opened and Ether walked in with Fray.

Rix was up and in her bunk with the screen closed before they got around the booth.

“You got in trouble too?” Ether sat across from me, and pulled Fray into the booth next to her.

“Yep.” I looked at Fray. She was looking down at the table and twirling her brown hair with her right hand. “What did you think of today?”

“It was different.” Her voice was shaky and she still wasn’t looking at me.

“Don’t worry about Trent, he’s just worried about us.” I leaned forward and touched the tip of her chin, lifting her head so I could look in her brown eyes. “It’ll be okay.”

She didn’t look very convinced, but she smiled. When I took my hand away, she didn’t look back down at the table.

I turned to Ether. "How bad was it?”

“You remember the interrogation?’

“It was three days ago.” I saw Fray’s eyes flash open.

“In-in-interrogation?” She struggled to get the word out.

“It was a training exercise.” I looked at the snow-white woman. "Was it that bad?”

Ether shook her head. "It wasn’t anywhere near half that bad.” She pulled Fray closer to her. "But I think he scared Fray.”

Fray looked scared.

“It’s over now.” I leaned forward and took each woman’s hands in one of mine. "We have one fight tomorrow and then, we get to take the rest of the time here off.”

“Just one?” Ether smirked,

“Okay, we have to do the first floor boss of the Dispatcher’s dungeon and then we’re supposed to take some time off to let the others catch up.” I squeezed Fray’s hand. "I have a really important question for you.”

Fray started breathing faster as she nodded.

“Did you have fun today? Minus the lecture at the end of it. Did you have fun?”

The brunette let out the breath that I didn’t realize she was holding. "I liked it.”

“Then don’t worry about the other stuff, we’ll figure it out.” I let go of her hands and clapped. "You’ve got over a hundred All, any idea what you’re going to spend it on?”

She shook her head. "I’ve never had that much before and I have no idea what I’ll even need.”

I opened up a page and turned it so she could read it. "We’ve got plenty of time to figure that out.”