It was drier than jerky, but she still had her soda. She had taken her portion and gone over to where she’d left her drink and peanuts at the barrier between 1B and 1C. She leaned against the body of a dead ant in 1B while she ate alone.
She was starting to miss the solitude. Her thoughts were always storming inside her head and now that she had an Elf Parasite in her head, she was never alone enough to try to process everything.
“Hey!” The blue Elf appeared in front of her. “You think I’m an annoyance?”
Penelope sighed. “Yes.”
Jeru smiled. “You’re lucky I can read your mind and know what you mean by that.” He floated over to sit next to her. “I can go radio silent for a while if you want.”
Penelope didn’t have to think about the offer. “No. Somehow having you not giving me a commentary every few minutes is more unsettling than having you bouncing around in there.” She tapped the side of her head.
“You’re so precious when you try to be sweet.” He turned and motioned north east. “Incoming!”
Penelope half turned, her heart racing as she dreaded who was coming to talk to her. Her pulse calmed when she saw it was only Ula.
“Hi there, Sweetie.” The tanned grandmother held out her hand. “I never got to thank you earlier for the gear. I’m Ula Ramirez.”
Penelope brushed her hand off on her robe and took the offered hand. “Penelope Flynn.” She tried to smile. “We’re all stuck in here; we might as well try to look out for each other.”
“Still…” The older woman walked over so she could sit across from Penlope. “From the way Oakley and Judah talk, you know your way around this place pretty well.”
Penelope laughed. “A life many would say was misspent wasting too many hours on video games.” She motioned around her. “I’m glad I did.”
“You don’t know which button is the left bumper!” Jeru clicked his tongue.
It’s L1 or L2. And how do you even know what a bumper is?
“Lot’s of time in people’s heads. It gets boring while they sleep, so I watch their memories.” He cleared his throat. “Only the ones they’re thinking about, though!”
Ri-i-ight. Penelope shook her head. Just try to keep your peeping to a minimum, okay?
“... thinking of having Judah cook.” Ula smiled. “We were talking about combining parties, but not quite sure how to do it. The boys and I tried to help you out on the last one you cleared, but it wouldn’t let us in. Some warning about the party size being too big.”
Penelope pretended to count. “There’s six monsters in a square. Six main stats. So the max party size is probably six.”
The grandmother nodded. “That’s what we were thinking.” She motioned towards the others. “Judah volunteered to stay out, and since we don’t need two tanks, Patrick is going to help him butcher when his mana runs out.”
Penelope blinked. “You mean you want to start now?” She checked the time. 1:28pm. In all the other runs, they’d worked until five or six, and by that time, Ula’s group was done for the day.
“We’re ready if you are.” The older woman stood up. “Or you can take your time. Your group is a lot higher level than ours, so you may have to slow down until we catch up.”
“What’s your level?” Penelope stood up.
“We’re level four, but about to be five.”
Frederica and Oakley had hit level six in the last fight. Their experience gains were going to go down a lot, but there was plenty of experience for them all to get to level ten before they reached the boss.
“Sure.” Penelope downed the last of her soda. She tossed the bottle on her small pile of items that she’d collected. She’d been leaving most of the items where they fell, pushing as fast as she could into the next zone. While she’d snacked on the dry jerky, she’d walked around and collected the gear in 2B, 2A, 1A, and 1B and brought it to where she’d rested.
The gear wasn’t worth anything to anyone there, but once they got out, it would be useful for the people who hadn’t gone into the Dungeon, since all of those people were still level one. No one had anything valuable enough to trade, but she wouldn’t put it past someone like Dawson to try to gouge the other people.
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Ula had already gone back to talk to the others, leaving Penelope to walk over to where the others were waiting at the barrier between 3D and 3E.
“She’s coming?” Frederica sounded annoyed, surprised, and relieved.
Penelope shrugged as Ula turned to address them.
“Oakley and I have figured out how to merge the parties.” The older woman motioned towards the men carving up a mole. “Judah and Patrick have agreed to sit out and take care of gathering food and water for us.”
“Where are they going to get water?” Dawson conjured a glob of green acid in his hand. “Because you can’t drink this.”
Ula squared her shoulders. “We’re hoping that one of us gets a water skill or that we find a water skill like the earth one that we found.” She nodded at Marlow. “Or the necklace that we got that had an air spell. If those are here, then there are bound to be water ones somewhere.”
“There are things that will teach you a spell?” Penelope began thinking about the implications. “How does that work?”
“When the system took over, some of the Demons had items that allowed them to use specific spells. Those items were converted into spells that could be learned.”
“What happens if I learn the spell that way and reset?” Penelope thought about what she’d have to go through if she reset again.
“It’s not quite knowledge that you can’t unlearn, since the system is adding it to your selection.” Jeru clicked his tongue. “More often than not, you won’t keep the spell because you have to master a spell to be able to keep it.”
“You mean like how I can control the intensity of
“It’s a start, but you have to be able to cast the spell without relying on the system to do it for you.” Jeru sounded disappointed. “You’re not there yet.”
“Something to think about and come back to later.” She shook her head. “Like the building.”
“Penelope, you don’t think so?” Ula locked on to the younger woman.
Penelope realized that she hadn’t been paying attention. “Sorry.” She looked down at her hands. “I got lost in thought.”
“Try to pay attention, Sweetie.” The old woman’s stern voice demanded she listen. “You’re very important to all of us surviving, so I need to know that you’re up to what we need from you.”
“I stay back with Marlow and Dawson.” Penelope held up her thumb. “Got it.”
The tanned woman held her gaze on the younger one for a few seconds before turning back to the rest of the group.
“When we finish a room, start moving to the next one. We’re going to stop at six to eat, then we’ll see how much more we want to do.” Ula took a deep breath. “Everyone here has a different stat focus, so if we get gear that is for your stats, you get first pick. If you already have something for that slot, then you can swap out the new piece or we throw it in the community pile.”
“Red has already gotten a lot of gear, and all I’ve got is this ring.” Dawson held up his left hand to show the ring from 3C. “You’re telling me that she gets even more gear if something for a Caster drops? You know I have spells too!”
Ula gave the young man a mom glare that sent a shiver down Penelope’s spine.
“If you don’t like my rules, then you can go help Patrick.”
Dawson swallowed and held up his hands. “Your way sounds good.”
“Great!” She hefted the War Hammer. “Let’s start!”
Penelope followed the group into 3E. The lone mole was able to surprise Marlow, but she killed it before it could hurt their Healer too much. The grasshoppers went down one after another. Once it was only the Shadow Buffer left, the three melee people whittled it down.
The barrier that the Demon kept casting absorbed spells, which limited how much help Penelope and Dawson’s spells could provide.
The fight earned her a whole two experience and took over twenty minutes.
Dawson was overjoyed that he got a pair of pants.
The other five rooms in Column 3 went just as smoothly. Marlow and Dawson made sure to run once they got into the square, and the others handled the grasshoppers until the Casters were done. In 3J, the melee group was able to finish before the ranged group.
The gear was divided among everyone without a fuss until they finished 3J. Oakley got a pair of leg guards, Dawson got sandals and a ring, and Frederica got a crystal that taught her the
Penelope walked away while Dawson argued about why it should be his.
She stopped at the barrier between 3J and 4J.
“Rethinking going solo?” Jeru appeared in front of her.
“Yeah.” Penelope took a deep breath. “But I don’t think I could have soloed 3E even when I was level ten.” She shrugged. “It was inevitable.”
The blue Elf moved beside her. “You know there’s enough experience in there to level you.”
Penelope nodded. “There’s seven squares in that column. I’ll level eventually, and it’s not worth the headache the others will throw for a spell that isn’t going to speed things up any faster.”
Jeru started to reply, but stopped and vanished. “Incoming.”
Penelope turned around.
Dawson was beaming, flexing the fingers of his metallic gloves.
Ula cleared her throat. “We’ve got two more hours and six more rooms! Let's try to pick up the pace and get them all done!”
Penelope resisted the urge to snort. They’d spent over two and a half hours doing six rooms in Column 3. She doubted that they were going to do the others any faster.
The grandmother bounced her War Hammer off her armored shoulder and pointed it through the barrier. “Let’s do it!”
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