The next few days flew by.

  By the time they cleared the seventeenth column, everyone in the alchemy building was able to make Tier One elixirs, which took a large part of the burden off of Penelope. Since she wasn’t needed to make the better elixirs anymore, that gave her the opportunity to move into other fields.

  Without the proper tools, sewing and leatherworking were going to be very difficult. They had or could make most of what they needed for blacksmithing, but the Tanks were doing fine and upgrading weapons for the Power classes wasn’t that big of a priority, especially considering the drops were keeping that group with decent gear.

  The most pressing matter was getting spells on gear for people. Without the ability to manufacture spell paper, there was only one way to get it. An enchanter had to put a spell, skill, or passive they knew on gear. The downside to that was unless the gear was upgraded, it wouldn’t be able to hold the enchantment.

  Which left Penelope with really only one option for gear to upgrade. Jewelry.

  Rings and necklaces were things that everyone could wear without compromising their defensive capabilities. The spellcasting classes needed cloth gear for better maneuverability since they didn’t have the Power to endure the weight of the heavier gear. The Speed classes used leather to give themselves some protection while still being light enough to move around in. The Power classes used mostly metal gear, like the Tanks, but would occasionally swap some metal out for leather to give themselves better maneuverability.

  A second building needed to be made in 11A, this time one that had larger stoves. Penelope worked with Patrick to make molds for the rings. She decided to go with simple rings instead of ones with stones, simply because setting the stones required tools that she didn’t have.

  Making a stone ladle to scoop out the metal wasn’t too difficult and she made a stone basin to store the metal in that she wanted to use. A single chestpiece or shield could be melted down to give her enough raw material for dozens of rings, which served her purposes just fine.

  Getting the fire hot enough to melt the metal required her to use

  to change into . The blasts of air helped stoke the fire even hotter, reducing the metal to a liquid. Once she had the liquid melted, she poured it into the mold tray, which she kept to nine rings. It would have made sense to only have a tray of eight, but a 3x3 square tray was easier to handle than a 2x4 rectangular one.

  It had taken Patrick a little while to figure out how to make the molds. He’d complained at first because she had to break the molds to get the rings out, but after he practiced with it a few times, he was able to make a viable mold tray in a few minutes.

  Once the molds were full of liquid metal, Penelope ran mana through the rings, focusing on strengthening the metal to be able to hold more enchantments. The big issue that she ran into was that she needed rings of different sizes for the different people. Having rings that were too large wasn’t too bad of an issue, since people either wore the rings over or under their gloves, which kept the rings on the person’s finger. Since these were custom rings, though, she wanted them to actually fit.

  The one upside was that a ring could replace the pendant on a chain. This gave her a little more wiggle room when it came to getting the sizes correct. There were people who wanted to learn the process and Penelope let some of them watch what she was doing, but considering it required using an air spell, there weren’t a lot of people who could forge the rings. In fact, there was only one.

  Derek.

  Penelope’s skin crawled as she looked over her shoulder at the blond man. He had brought a team of six into the second floor on day twenty. They hadn’t caused any problems, which was a relief. Having six more people to help out around camp while they were fighting in the mornings had also been helpful, but Penelope made sure to lock up all of the elixirs and shadow essences while she was fighting in the squares.

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  “Problem, Red?” Derek looked over her shoulder to see why she had paused.

  “Just getting this last batch of rings ready for the enchanters.” Penelope felt the custom ring on her left hand with her thumb. Fae Anna had enchanted the first batch of rings with . Thankfully, it was a T1 spell, so Derek and his team couldn’t use the spell even if they were able to get their hands on one of the rings.

  “I think I’m ready for one of the molds.” He walked back over to the furnace on the other side of the building where he was melting a metal shield from the first floor.

  As much as Penelope hadn’t wanted to teach him how to make jewelry, he was the only person with the air affinity on the second who could use their spells to create wind. They had two debuffers and a Power main, but none of those had any skills or spells that they could use to create air blasts.

  Despite her concerns, Derek hadn’t done anything this loop to warrant suspicion, so the good of the group had been prioritized over her preferences.

  “Grab one of the trays and pour it out.” Penelope sighed. “It doesn’t matter for you to get the sizes right because the rings you’re making are just so you can level your job up to work on Tier One stuff.” She shifted so she could put a few more inches between them. “You’re just going to melt them back down and do it all over again.”

  “It amazes me that you know how to do so many different things, Red.” Derek chuckled as he picked up the tray closest to Penelope, then walked back over to his side. “Where did you learn all of this?”

  “I had a lot of time on my hands growing up.” She shrugged. “Sometimes, it feels like I spent a lifetime working on these things.”

  “You don’t like me, do you?” There wasn’t any malice in his voice, but it triggered her danger sense nonetheless. “Any particular reason why?”

  Because you killed people who depended on me, kidnapped my friends, and helped Dawson slaughter all of us. Penelope closed her eyes to focus on the present. None of that had happened this run, but the echoes were still very much alive.

  “We can start with how you don’t use my name.” Penelope kept her back to him, trusting that Jeru would warn her if she needed to turn around.

  “Really, Red?” Derek teased. “That’s just some harmless flirting.”

  “It’s only harmless if I don’t find it creepy.” Penelope opened her eyes, making sure to keep the mana flowing into the rings as the metal hardened. Once the metal had absorbed enough mana, she could drop the tray into the basin of water in the middle of the room.

  “How is a precious nickname creepy?” Derek laughed. “I think Red is a lot better than calling you a writing utensil.”

  “But it’s not up to you, is it?” Penelope fired back. “You don’t get to decide what I find endearing. That’s something I decide.” She turned to look at him. “If you want to talk to me, you can call me Penelope.” She took a deep breath. “But if you keep calling me Red, we’re going to reevaluate where you can contribute around camp.”

  “Sorry, didn’t realize you were so sensitive about your name, Pen-el-lo-pe.” He smirked. “Almost sounds like a song. Maybe I do like it better than Red.”

  “I think we need to work in silence.” Penelope let a little growl mix with her voice. “You’re not going to get the mana infusion right if you’re talking to me instead of focusing on your work.”

  “I think I work better while I’m talking.” Derek laughed. “Plus, I want to know more about you. I think it’s fascinating that you and Patrick have been able to set up so many things on the second floor. It’s like the two of you are survivalists or something.”

  “It’s not hard to figure out how things work.” Penelope shook her head as she felt the rings reach their full capacity. She had on a pair of leather gloves to protect her hands, though she could still feel the heat of the tray through the thick leather as she grabbed the sides and brought the tray over to the water basin in the middle of the room and dropped it in.

  The water hissed and spat vapor up as the metal and the tray cooled.

  “I think you’re selling yourself short.” Derek tilted his head as he watched her. “Without the two of you, I bet everyone would be starving and sleeping out on the floor under rags.”

  “I’m sure they’d figure it out.” Penelope folded her arms across her chest. “I’m going to take this one down to Eldri, then you’re on your own for the rest of the day.”

  “Why?” Derek wrinkled his brow as he looked up from where he was pouring metal into a tray.

  “We’re fighting the boss in the morning.” Penelope took a deep breath. “And we’ve got preparations to make.

  “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Derek laughed. “Well, I guess I’ll see you on the third floor tomorrow!”

  Penelope sighed. While the second floor hadn’t been as problematic this loop, she had a feeling the third was going to be filled with some of the issues they’d managed to avoid so far.

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