He had only gone to sleep for an hour.
Trent had run to the car as soon as his monitor had alerted him to trouble. Hye was in the front seat with Paul and Danice in the back. He recognized Sipher instantly and was shocked that the high end bounty hunter was doing petty kidnappings in Harror. He knew that the Tier Five washout had a hideout on the continent, but he hadn’t expected something like this.
He watched Rix be Rix and was so proud of her, but he was going to have to figure out how to deal with the PK mark that had messed with her Mantle. They tried to fight back and lost, not realizing just how impossible the fight was. Sipher’s Defense was higher than his, there was no way the students were going to leave a scratch on him.
He was relieved that Atlas had been divided into the dud pile and slammed his hand on the dash when Atlas announced himself to be his son. He didn’t care about the All. He could make half a million All in a day, the only reason he didn’t was because it drew the ire of the Gods. While he could hold his own against some of the minor Gods, more than not could wipe him away with hardly any resistance. As long as he stayed in his lane and taught at the Cathedral, they were content to leave him alone.
He debated using teleport to get directly to the Dungeon, but that would alert Harror and the God would follow him. He knew his seal could fool most Adventurers, but he wasn’t confident enough in his abilities to fool a God.
He parked on the curb and the four of them ran inside. In the Temple people would have gotten out of his way, but the Dispatchers were different. There was paperwork that his badge only lessened, not made go away. He was signing papers as Atlas went into the boss room.
Usually he’d have to wait his turn to enter the dungeon, but his badge allowed him to jump to the front of the line. The four of them stepped into the second floor of the dungeon and as soon as the gate closed he turned around and selected the fifteenth floor. He’d seen the gate change, but his orb hadn’t been taken with them when they ported.
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“Get the students, I’ll get your kids.” He left them at the gate. They’d have to go through the boss room, but for them, it would be like any other monster on these floors.
They were already gone by the time he reached the fifteenth floor. The brand on Atlas’ chest gave him a vague idea of where they were, but not precisely because of the interference of the dungeon. When he’d made it, he’d planned on upgrading it later, so he’d only put in what he’d needed and little more since he’d been under time constraints. Now he found himself wishing that he’d spent the last few nights upgrading the brand. Something he’d also have to put on Rix.
His mind was multitasking in how he was going to write it so that it would shield her from what she’d done. They could argue self defense, but the Dispatchers took Adventurer Cannibalism very seriously. Even with it being self defense, it’d be difficult for her to get into a Dispatcher’s Dungeon or even use their Hubs.
He set the next destination, and the next, and the next. He missed the last one by a floor, which had slowed him down. He went to the next destination and this one, they had stayed on. The brand wasn’t on the floor anymore. Not even in the dungeon. He used Teleport to get to the location. When he arrived, relief washed over him. There weren’t any bodies here, which meant that Altas and the others weren’t dead. But it also meant something very bad. Sipher had used an unregistered Dungeon Tunnel to go between two Dungeons.
Atlas’ trail led him right through the wall. He took a second to log the location in both dungeons, then teleported to the gate.
He’d made it a point to always go down the first fifty or more floors of every dungeon in the city when he had gone somewhere. You never knew when you might fall down a trapdoor and find a Dungeon Door connected to floors you’d already cleared, like this one.
He knew where he was and he knew where they were going. He hoped that he’d make it there in time.
He keyed the gate to take him to the surface. When he got there he looked for the entrance to the Desolation of Gar. He saw Sipher closing the door. The Mercenary saluted him and closed the door.
Trent launched his fastest spell, but that had been too late. Maybe if he hadn’t stopped to register the Dungeon Door. Maybe if he hadn’t missed the floor. Maybe if he hadn’t taken a nap.
There were too many maybes. But he did know one thing for certain.
He would get them back.