We stayed up way too late.
Instead of a wakeup call at six, Aelin allowed us to sleep in until eight. Which really meant that Ether got to sleep in until eight. Rix was gone when we got up, which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was that Fray was up.
The two of us made it into the Clinic where the rest of our team was waiting for us. They were all sitting in the conference room with two plates of food for us. Trent was leaning against the other door, tapping on the frame. The four women looked on edge.
“Who died?” I sat down in front of my plate.
Trent cleared his throat and pushed off the door. "You’ve all been putting in a lot of work, and I thought I’d put together something for you.” He walked over to the center of the table. "I went down to the fiftieth floor last night, spent a couple hours down there.” He pulled six chips out of his crystal band and placed them on the table.
Ether choked on her breakfast.
“Are you okay?” I stood up, but she cleared her throat and held up her hand.
“I’m okay.” She pointed at the chips. "Are those real?”
Justia reached over and picked one up. She turned it over in her hand and nodded.
Judging by the way no one else reacted, I didn’t feel too bad about not knowing.
“What are they?” Aelin took the chip from Justia, and her eyes bulged. “Five Thousand All coins!?”
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I reached over the table and grabbed one. I’d never seen a hundred All coin until last night.
“Since you’re going to have some time on your hands, I thought I’d give you something to do with it.” Trent pushed one of each coin towards each of us. "Buy yourself some gear, upgrade your weapons, get some new abilities, or just spend the week indulging yourselves.” He pointed at Aelin. "Nothing that you can’t bring back to the Cathedral.”
“Why are you only looking at me?” Aelin tried to look hurt, but couldn’t pull it off.
“No shopping spree until you beat the first floor boss of the Dispatcher’s Dungeon.” Trent yawned. "I would have given you these after you got back, but thought you might want to celebrate once you’re done.”
“Thank you!” Aelin went over and hugged Trent.
The old man took another item out of his crystal band. "Fray, I talked to the Temple, you’re too advanced to send back. They don’t want this risky leveling technique to spread through the students they have.” He put a crystal band like ours on the table and slid it towards her. "Welcome to the Blue team.”
Fray had tears flowing down her face as she took the band.
“Thank you…” The brunette hiccuped as she put the band on. “This means I’m staying?”
Trent eyed us. "They can tell you what the first week was like. My classes are not easy. You’ll be tempted to quit before the six years are up many times.” His gaze settled on Fray. "But if you stick it out, then you will become one of the best Adventurers of your generation.”
He nodded at us. "I’ll let you finish up and head out.”
I got up and met Trent in the hallway. "What happened to us not standing out?”
“You stood out too much.” Trent looked into the conference room. "All of you did, so we’re going to lean into it. The Temple is going to play it off as you having an advantage that other students don’t have. There will be a price to pay from the Nobles, but I’ll figure that out later.”
“How long did that take you?” I was curious how fast someone like him could make All.
“Less than two hours.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll see you all when you get back.” There was mischief in his eyes. "I’m curious to see what you come back with.”