It was a twenty-one hour drive.

We stopped in the godless town of Frota, which was only a fourteen hour drive. We made it in twelve. We hadn’t started driving until the next morning. We were rushed for time, but we were also beat. That last fight had taken a lot out of us, especially Nyssa.

Gall drove the Chaser, while Lair, Garlin, and I each drove cycles. I hoped that it looked like we were only escorts for the Chaser and not like we were a bandit raid group.

We didn’t have any trouble from the Guards at the gate with getting in the town. Frota was at the foot of a mountain range and was known for its rock monsters. Iver had a better Dungeon to farm those type of monsters and was only eleven hours to the south west, so most Adventurers preferred to go there. Which was why there was almost no one in the town. It almost felt like we were at a rest stop rather than a town with a Dungeon.

There wasn’t a hotel there, so we were going to have to stay at the Temple. There was a Temple in every city and almost every godless town. The priests would monitor a Dungeon Gate they built their Temple around. They gave teaching for the newly mantled Mundane-born for free as well as providing lodging for them. In cases like this godless town, they would also provide room in exchange for a donation. The thing that I didn’t like about the Temple was there was no privacy for visitors and they didn’t bother to try to hide their listening devices or cameras. Gall might have been able to disrupt the technology, but that would get us thrown out and it was a bad idea to make the All-Temple an enemy.

Each Ward was named after the giant structure in the middle of the area that the All-Temple used as their base over all of the Ward. They each had a school program that would take the newly mantled each year and select twenty-four from the Ward to train in their six-year program. By the time the students graduated, they’d be between twenty and twenty five and be ready to become full-fledged Adventurers. Since these students usually became the strongest of their generation, that meant crossing the Temple would make enemies of almost the entire world. Even the worst criminals gave respect to the Temple.

We stopped in the parking lot and headed towards the front door. A bald brown man with yellow eyes wearing a black robe with white trim.

“Welcome travelers! I’m Priest Truve. If you are here to enter the Dungeon, we close off entry at five.”

Most people knew that the white trim signified that the person was an Enforcer, but they only paid attention to it if the clergy was wearing armor. I could tell that this Truve was an Adventurer, probably a Tier Five one at that. While the Temple usually left physical conflicts to the Authority, City Guards, or even the Dispatchers, they still had a security force that was respectable. For someone of his power level to be in such a dead-end place, he had to have messed something up catastrophically.

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“We’re an Adventuring team on the way to Kire and were hoping for a place to rest.” Gall didn’t sound nearly as gruff as usual.

“Of course!” The Enforcer smiled and motioned for us to go inside. “It’s always a blessing to have visitors.” His smile slowly morphed into a frown. “Though I hope our accommodations are okay, we rarely use our dorms, so it’s in a state of disrepair.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t ask for much, but if you could spare some All…”

Gall handed the man a coin. I wasn’t sure how large it was, but the priest's yellow eyes lit up. “Kire be praised! May he be eternally hospitable to you!” He began walking towards a door on the left side of the large entryway.

I was curious if that was a genuine misstep, or if the priest was testing us to see if we were devoted to Kire. The priests of a Temple within a city, could follow that city’s God. There was even a High Priest whose entire job was to serve as an intermediary between the Temple and the God within a city. But the ones in the godless towns were supposed to remain neutral, and not encourage anyone towards a specific city.

“Kire’s favor isn’t our desire, just a tour in the city’s Dungeons, before moving on to the next city.” I watched the priest’s face fall at my response. He was definitely a devotee. I started to wonder if Kire might not be trying to subtly absorb this town. It was very frowned upon. The Gods got nervous when another God took a second town or city. It was considered too much power and I personally didn’t want to see Kire finding a way to get more powerful.

“But we won’t turn it away.” Nyssa turned so that she could glare at me without the priest seeing her face.

It was possible that Truve could tell Kire’s High Priest about us, though at best, this priest only knew that we were Adventurers, not how strong we were. And honestly, most Gods were happy when Adventurers went into the Dungeons in their city. Each God received a small portion of the experience earned by the Adventurers, which made them stronger.

I dipped my head. “I meant no disrespect.” The word tasted bitter. “I only meant that we were just staying long enough to get enough crystal to move on to the next city.”

“Kire is such a great city.” The priest opened the door and motioned to three rows of bunk beds on each side of the wall. “Much better than what we have here.”

He was right about that. The beds looked like they’d been changed after the last time they were used, which judging by the layer of dust on them, was years ago.

“This is wonderful, thank you.” Gall gave the priest a little bow. “If you don’t mind, we have an early start tomorrow.”

“Of course.” The Enforcer smiled. “I’ll let you get some sleep.” He motioned to the desk on the right wall. “Someone will be at that desk all night in case you need something.”

I pulled a blanket back as slowly as I could so I didn’t disturb the dust. Once I had the blanket folded in half longways, I folded it in half the other way, then dropped it on the floor. I was about to congratulate myself in not making a mess when Lair flipped the blanket off the top bunk she’d walked over to and flicked it twice to get the dust off of it. The entire room looked like a cloud had been dropped on us.

“Oops.” The Rhastan grimaced. “Sorry.”