“You shouldn’t be doing this.” Jeru clicked his tongue. “What happens if prettyboy runs in after you and gets himself killed?”
“I don’t think that Oakley would die that easily.”
“Funny how you knew which one I was talking about.”
Penelope pinched her brow. “Of the two of them, Judah isn’t the one who’d charge into danger.”
“He seemed desperate to impress you earlier.” The blue Elf teased.
“Quit fantasizing about my imaginary love-life.” Penelope shook her head after she thought about what he’d said. “And how does doing the exact opposite of what I said, him trying to impress me?”
“Some people crave negative attention.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“Or remembering them.”
Penelope shook her head. “I don’t want to know. Just do your thing and let me know when the moles surface.”
“Aye-aye captain.”
Penelope rolled her eyes, then stepped through the barrier.
“Uh-oh, prettyboy saw you.”
“Jeru.” Penelope growled as she ran straight at the Shadow Warrior.
“Light Bolt! Light Bolt!”
DING!
Experience +24
“Now!”
Penelope spun around. “Light Blast!”
DING!
Experience +6
Experience +6
Experience +6
Experience +6
“Skree!”
Penelope turned around.
“Light Bolt!”
DING!
Experience +6
She smiled as she looked down at her wand. “I miss how easy that was.”
“PENELOPE!!!” Oakley screamed as he ran towards her. Judah was lagging behind. Even Frederica has gotten up and started walking in her direction.
Penelope walked over to where the Demon had fallen, collected the slime, and grabbed the potion sling. By the time she stood up, the guys had reached her.
“What do you think—”
“Catch.” Penelope tossed the potion sling to Oakley, cutting off his rant.
“Where are you going?” The Tank handed the potions to Judah and followed after her.
“We’re going to need to eat.” She pointed at the moles, then looked at the two guys. “Unless either of you brought food with you?”
“No! Nope! Not going to happen. I am NOT putting something that nasty in my mouth!” Frederica slashed her arms in front of her.
Penelope shrugged. “Then you can starve, but we have to eat and drink something. You more than any of us.” She pointed at the potions in Judah’s hands. “Those things speed up the healing process, but they don’t provide any of the material other than a little bit of fluid. We’ve been in here for over three hours, and we’re going to start getting hungry, then we’ll start making mistakes.” She pulled the dagger out and started cutting on a mole shoulder like she had done so many times.
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“How are you even going to cook it? You can’t expect us to eat it raw?” The blonde looked at their leader. “Talk some sense into her, please!”
Penelope smiled as she looked over at the Tank. She pointed the bloody dagger at Judah. “Matchstick can cook them.” She looked at Frederica. “You don’t want him in the square fighting with us, and he needs to learn how to control his spells better.” She turned back to her project. “Sounds like a win-win.”
“That’s—” The blonde looked for an ally, but the only sympathetic face was the guy that she didn’t want to join forces with.
“Here.” Penelope stuck the dagger in the body and picked up the leg. She turned and held it out towards the other Caster. “Once you skin it, you can try to roast it.” She looked around and realized that Oakley was holding the shield that she usually cooked on and wearing the chestplate that she put the cooked meat on.
She shrugged. “You’ll have to come up with a system to cook it.” Penelope pointed at the four holes that the moles had come out of. “Throw the nasty stuff in there.”
“Just like that?” Frederica looked at Oakley. “I thought you were the boss.”
Penelope winced and turned to the Tank. “Sorry, I just got an idea going, and I assumed everyone else had the same idea, so I ran with it.”
“It’s okay.” Oakley smiled. “It’s a good idea. Why don’t we stay and help Judah for a bit?”
Penelope cleared her throat. “We still have to find water. One of the Shadows could have an item on them that lets us use a water spell.” She took a deep breath. “Because we don’t have enough of the
“The what?” Frederica popped the T.
“This.” Penelope walked over to Judah and took the vial off of the sling, then walked it over to the blonde.
Frederica took the top off and smelled it. “Eww!!! Sulfur water?”
“It won’t hurt you.” Penelope took the vial back and replaced the lid. “But unless you want to drink this, we need to keep clearing rooms.”
“What about the other group? Maybe they have water.” The older woman pointed southeast.
“They…”
“You don’t know that, remember?”
“They might.” Penelope looked that way. “But at the speed they’re clearing those squares, it’s going to be two hours before they get here.” She turned back to the other woman. “How many squares do you think we can clear in that amount of time?”
“Ugh! Fine!” Frederica motioned at the other rooms. “Where do you want to start, Miss Not-Captain?”
Penelope looked at Oakley. “Does that sound like a plan?”
The Tank turned to Judah. “Think you can handle cooking?”
The other man shook his head. “No.”
“Great!” Oakley clasped him on the shoulder. “Then you’ll get to learn!” He turned to Penelope. “Which one do you want to do first?”
Penelope looked at the options. Without
“You’re going to take them to 4?” Jeru scoffed.
“That’s almost ninety experience. They’ll level, then level again on the way down to 4G.” Penelope smiled as she pretended to look around.
“Just because you can handle it doesn’t mean they can. Do you remember how many times you died trying to figure some of these fights out?”
“It’s three Casters and a Warrior. We’ll be fine.” She turned north and looked at 4D.
“Your acting skills won’t.” Jeru grumbled. “Seriously, I’m not going to be your therapist when this blows up in your face and they attack you for being a changeling.”
“How about we do that one?” She pointed at the square.
“You want to do a level four one?” Frederica shook her head. “They’re trying to kill me. First Jughead, now Penny.”
“I can go by myself if you want to stay here with Judah.” Penelope’s smile was so sweet that it turned her own stomach.
Frederica marched up to the Tank. “Are you just going to–” The blonde glared at Penelope when she realized that he wasn’t listening. “Fine, I’ll go. But if I die, I’m going to come back and haunt you!”
“Sounds great.” Penelope looked at Oakley. “Does that sound good?”
The young man blinked, then looked at her. “Yeah. We can do that.”
“Great!” Penelope took out her wand and started walking that way.
The other two followed behind her. Once they reached the barrier, Oakley looked over at she. “What’s the plan?”
Penelope pointed at the monsters. “You grab their attention. I’ll shoot them as they attack you, then we can finish off the Caster…” She tapped her cheek. “How much experience do you have?”
“Two-forty.”
“Two-thirty-two-point-five.” Frederica cut in. “And I can help. I got a new class when we leveled. Genin.”
Penelope scrunched her brow. “What’s that?”
“Speed over Magic.” Jeru offered. “It’s why I kept telling you that you need to be careful of how you raise your stats.”
“The passive is Mask Presence. It lets me sneak up on things if I haven’t attacked anything.” The blonde smiled. “I could walk up behind the thing and stab it in the neck.”
“That could work.” The younger woman nodded. “I shoot four of the little ones, you kill the big one, then I finish off the last one?”
“Wait.” Oakley slashed his hands. “What happens if it sees her, or if she can’t kill it in one hit?”
“Jeru?”
“I’m not helping you with this one. You need to believably not know everything from time to time.” Jeru grumbled.
“If that happens…” Penelope grimaced. “It could happen. What are you going to do? Do you think you can get away?”
“I’m faster than you think.” Frederica glared at the other woman. “I can pull my own weight.”
“I’m not comfortable with this.” Oakley looked at the two women. “But I’m smart enough to know that I’m outvoted. Just… be careful.”
“We will.” Penelope motioned at the barrier. “After you.”
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