I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding once he closed the door.

  “How long until he can’t hear us?” I looked from Trent to Miel.

  “He could have left a bug in here and I’d never be able to find it…” Trent rubbed his forehead.

  “You wouldn’t…” Ether’s voice trailed off. “How high-level is he?”

  “Somewhere in the nineties, according to Mom.” Miel nodded at Nakten. “What are we going to do with her?”

  Trent sighed as he turned to look at me. “I can put a seal on her, but if I do, she’s going to eventually awaken.” He shook his head. “I know this isn’t ideal, but if we don’t add her to the seal, it’ll make an enemy of Votic and while I didn’t know he ran the Primus…” He looked at the Anubis. “He’d be a very dangerous enemy.”

  Nakten grinned. “So you’re taking me?”

  “If we do this, your loyalty has to be with us, not your father.” I stood up and looked at the demihuman. “And if you show that we can’t trust you…” I looked over at Trent, hoping he’d finish the threat for me.

  “I’ll take you down into the Dungeon and throw you into the deepest boss room I can.” Miel smiled.

  Nakten flinched at the threat. I grimaced as I remembered that Wrye had used the exact threat on me when he’d challenged me to prove that I was worthy of having Trent as a teacher. It had been a very stressful couple of days and that was a feeling I didn’t want her to worry about.

  “Just prove you’re committed to this team and you’ve got nothing to worry about.” I ignored the kissy face that Aelin made at me as I turned to Trent. “How are we going to have her on our team?” I swallowed. “We’ve already got Rix and Jovena is supposed to be joining at the end of the year too.”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “I’ll figure something out.” Trent rubbed his brow. “And I’ve got some bad news. The ship we were going to take to Iver has been delayed.” He took a deep breath. “We’re going to be here tonight.” He turned to Nakten. “But that means I’ve got time to get you added to the seal.”

  “The ship got delayed?” Fray finally moved away from the wall on my left where she’d been leaning. “Monster attack?”

  “Nothing they can’t handle, but it is delaying the ship.” Trent patted the green woman on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bethy Numor is a competent young woman. She’s been doing this all her life and I know she’ll get the ship here in one piece tomorrow.” He looked at the rest of us. “Shipping delays, especially those at sea, happen all the time.”

  I ran the family name of Numor through my head. I knew I’d heard the name somewhere, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “That also means that you’ve got time to go back into the Dungeon and get Nakten here leveled up closer to where you are.” Trent ignored our groans. “She needs to be level four, but it’s going to take…” A grin crossed his face as he turned to look at Ether.

  “At least twenty-four hours of continuous farming…” The ivory woman behind me swallowed. “But if you let us divide and conquer…”

  “You think you can kill slimes on your own?” He looked over at Miel for confirmation. “They do remember what happened the last time they tried to multi-farm on an event floor?”

  “We had Rix there to help us.” I sighed as I looked at Nakten. There was no way that the Anubis was going to be as helpful as Rix had been. “If we split into three teams and feed all of our experience to Nakten…”

  “Already factored that in.” Ether tapped her finger on the table. “We’re looking at eight hours, minimum, and that’s if one of us can compensate for having Justia.” She winced as she looked at the Healer. “Sorry.”

  “I’m a non-combat class.” The green woman wrapped her arms around Aelin, who was still sitting in her lap. “I’m not offended.”

  “I can handle…” I paused. I was about to claim that I could handle an elite spawning on top of me all by myself while also protecting Justia. I nodded. “I can do it.”

  “Pair me up with the new girl?” Ether seemed a little too happy to be working with Nakten, but it was either pair her with the Anubis or Fray. And if she got paired with Fray, then Nakten would be paired up with Aelin, which wasn’t something I wanted to deal with at the moment.

  I took a deep breath. It made sense, but I felt like we were going to be regretting it later. “We can do that.”

  Rating, Review, Follow, Favorite, or Comment does wonders to boost my morale. If you want to help support my writing or check out advanced chapters, head over to my .

  RR Writer's Guild