Ether was analyzing the fight on our way to the Dispatcher’s Dungeon.

  “I didn’t think that mini-raids could spawn outside of the fives.” The ivory tank was sifting through data. The table for the booth had been turned into a screen as she searched for any other instances of such an event.

  “Bosses with phases get more common the higher up you go.” Gesai shrugged. “While it’s not common, it can happen with the fourth-floor elite, but that’s a very rare case.”

  “Right, but that’s the elite spawn. I’m talking about a boss.” Ether moved tabs to the side to look at later while she dug for more information.

  “Mini-raids are almost always on the fives, but it is possible to get one on event floors.” Gesai shrugged. “And that wasn’t even a true mini-raid, because if it had been, then you all would have gotten loot.” She nodded at Ether. “And look at the crystal.”

  Ether took the crystal out of her CB and held it up. The red prism was easy to identify just by scanning it with our CBs.

  Giant Fire Slime - Level 5 - Floor Boss

  “If it had been a mini-raid, then it would say ‘Raid Boss’ instead.” Gesai settled into the passenger seat, then looked at Justia. “I’ll hold onto the pendant for you until you’re level five.”

  Fray looked at her hands as she sat down on the couch behind the driver’s seat. “Why didn’t it burn you?”

  Justia looked at our teacher. “I was wondering that as well.”

  Gesai rubbed her wrists, playing with the small holes in the lace with her fingers for a moment before answering. “Level burns are a lot worse with a weapon than they are with an accessory.” She looked over at Fray. “With only one level difference and the lack of a chain to hang it on, you could have walked out of the Dungeon with it in your hand, and it only made you warm.”

  “Oh…” Fray wrung her hands together. “What if it had been armor?”

  “Armor is in the middle.” Gesai tapped the dash. “If you’re just carrying it, even level burns from a weapon won’t be too bad.” She leaned back in her seat. “That’s why weapons of all levels are left out in shops. It’ll be warm, like a warning, but shouldn’t cause any real harm from just touching it.” The silver woman ran her gloved fingers through her red hair. "But if you tried to hold some armor and block an attack with it..." She clapped her hands together. “Your fingers are going to hurt a lot.”

  “Which is why students can fight a boss that is a higher level than them, but anything more than that is a no-no.” Gesai looked over at Ether. “Are you still on about that?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Ether looked up from all of the articles she had saved. “You don’t think it’s weird?”

  “I think you’re going to call attention to us that we don’t need.” Gesai shook her head. “Weird things happen in the Dungeon. Most of the time, those end with a party wipe, so nobody learns about it.” Her green eyes narrowed. “If you log it, the Dispatchers are going to want to talk to you and get everyone’s stats.”

  “Which would be bad?” Aelin glanced over from the driver’s seat.

  “Your seal should hold, but that will mean that all of their data will be off. If someone looks into it too deeply, they’ll realize that we gave them wrong information, and that would flag you as someone interesting.”

  I shook my head as I wrapped my arm across Ether’s shoulders and pulled her closer to me in the booth. “We don’t want that.” I turned to Gesai. “Do you think that the boss got an upgrade because Ether and I have special classes?”

  “Trent warned me that it might happen, but we hoped that since you were down a person, the Dungeon would believe that you were a balanced party for your level.” The silver woman looked at the data for the Dispatcher’s Dungeon on her CB. “In light of what happened, I think we should assume it’s going to happen again in here.”

  I looked out the window and realized that we’d arrived at the Dispatcher’s Hub. “Do you know what the event floor is going to be when it’s an elite?”

  “The Skuder…” Gesai projected an image into the middle of the RV as Aelin parked. “The elite event spawns two of them. When one dies, the other wraps itself in a cocoon while a wave of minis pours out of the dead one. Once you beat the little ones, the second one enrages for five minutes.”

  “Great, so I need to top off so I can nuke the boss like last time.” I looked at my CB. I knew there were plenty of mana potions in my inventory, but I wanted to double-check, just to be safe.

  “You don’t have a high-damage fire or ice spell, so I think we’re going to hold off on going into that one until we can get you another spell.” Gesai held up her hand to silence Aelin. “Yes, that means a shopping trip, but not until after.”

  “Wouldn’t the Dispatchers have an inventory we could browse?” I glanced out the window. “Don’t they buy items?”

  “They might have a sheet that you could learn, but it would be something that someone found today and hadn’t been sent over to the stores.” Gesai shook her head. “They’ll also charge you way above market price to pull it off the transport.”

  “Oh.” I shrugged. “Then I guess we’re going to be coming back here tomorrow?”

  Gesai took a deep breath, then shook her head. “No, we’ll just have to have you clear it whenever we come back with Rix and Pixie.”

  “But—!”

  Gesai silenced Aelin with a glare. “I’m not risking your lives and we have a schedule to keep.” She stood up and headed for the door. “Come on. As much as I’d like to waste time, we also have to stop by the hospital on the way back to the clinic.”

  I could tell that Ether was rattled as we slid out of the booth. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” I squeezed her hand.

  “Do you think it’s always going to be like this?” Her red eyes looked up at me. “Everyone else is going to be in danger because of what we are?”

  I leaned down and kissed her. “It just means that we’re going to have to plan extra whenever we go into the Dungeon.” I nodded at the building across the parking lot. “But we’ve got this.”

  Ether nodded silently. I could tell she wasn’t fully reassured, but I didn’t know what else to tell her. I made a mental note to buy more clips for my guns when we went shopping next. And to research spells more. I didn’t want to ever be caught in a situation where we weren’t prepared again.

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