The monsters charged the moment they walked in.

  With her floating at maximum range before they walked in, Penelope grabbed Patrick and both of them as far as she could in the direction of the other corner group. It took less than a second to move the next set of towards the other wall, then another second to drop Patrick in between the monsters and where the group without a Tier Two Tank was headed.

  Patrick raised an in between the monsters and the other party and then stacked another on top of it. He reinforced the barrier on the sides, then added a roof for good measure.

  While he was busy shielding the weaker group, Penelope back to her group and moved Riva, Circe, Caleb, and Nina behind the building. Once they were safe, the other group was close enough that she was able to move her in their direction and them over. Experience notifications dinged, but Penelope ignored them as she acted as a ferry for the weaker people.

  “Someone lay down cover fire for the other groups!” Patrick reinforced the walls as he barked orders.

  Penelope on top of the building with Circe in tow so she could see her , then directed them to cast on either side of the building. Without , most of the vines weren’t grabbing onto a monster, but that wasn’t her goal. She simply needed to provide fuel for the groups that were running towards her.

  Forest and Stephan torched the kindling she’d made with their spells. Monsters caught on fire, while flaming logs flew through the air at the shelter.

  “ to your left!” Jeru kept an eye on the projectiles, allowing Penelope to focus on her spells.

  Circe melted into the shadows as Penelope teleported away. The log bounced off of the top of the bunker, then rolled off the back side, landing behind the group.

  “A little heads-up next time!” Caleb screamed from the ground.

  “Watch out!” Circe cackled as she drew her bow and fired at the monsters below.

  Penelope moved one of her as close to the Shadow Demons as she could. Any time she felt a tingle that the Shadow Healer was readying a spell, she directed a at it.

  Without being able to cast spells, the angry Demon roared orders at the rest of the monsters and Demons, directing the flow of battle. The Demons weren’t able to make headway against the fire and all of their forward momentum reversed as soon as the other two groups arrived.

  The Tanks moved out from around the safety of the bunker, but with five Tanks, they were able to provide cover for the melee units as they marched forward. The burning vegetation was blown in front of the Tanks, setting the Horned Bears, Reberus, and Minothorns on fire. Penelope around the monsters in the back line, dousing them with poisons from and then dealing damage to them with .

  It was a battle of attrition, but one that they were able to win. They moved through the square carefully, never letting the melee people be around too many monsters. Frederica focused on the Cafforns and Shadow Healers and once those were eliminated, the fighting went much faster.

  Penelope allowed herself to take a deep breath as soon as the barrier went down. She looked over at Jeru. Any casualties?

  “Nope.” Jeru looked away for a moment, then back at her. “None of the lower levels even got injured.” He motioned at 22C. “The Demons have noticed and are trying to prepare, but…” The blue Elf chuckled. “It’s not going to help.”

  The Minothorns continued to gather logs in a pile while the Reberus dug trenches on what would be the battlefield. None of the terrain within 100 feet of the barrier was touched, since the Humans would be able to modify anything that close.

  “You okay?” Circe jogged over.

  “Just tired.” Penelope forced a smile. “You look at the loot?”

  “There was a necklace with two stats, but…” Circe motioned at her friend. “You’ve got that necklace that lets you do more light damage and the secondary stat was Aura.”

  “And the guys are both Aura subs…” Penelope shrugged. “Good for them.”

  “You’re way too easygoing about that.” Circe sighed dramatically. “It even had this cool spell. Leaf Bomb or something.”

  “I already have a nature spell from my pants.” Penelope chuckled. “Nothing for you?”

  “NO!” Circe gestured at Nina. “She got a new helmet, but the rest of the stuff was single stat lines, not that it would matter; there wasn’t a speedster in this room.”

  “We’ll get you something eventually.” Penelope walked over to where Patrick was shedding his armor. “We done for the day?”

  “It’s already after two and I’ve got stuff that needs tending.” Patrick unbuckled his chestplate, then pointed at 22C. “Let them wear themselves out getting ready for us. We’ll rest up and be ready for them in the morning.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “What do you need me to do?” Penelope glanced around. “I can—”

  “Take the afternoon off.” Patrick huffed as he picked up his armor. “You moved around more than anyone else out there. Go back to one of the huts and put your feet up. We’ve got all the wood we need.”

  “What about training the backups?” Penelope froze for a moment as she realized that she’d just asked to work with people.

  “Now I know you need a break.” Patrick shook his head. “Forest has a decent head on his shoulders; I’ll have him run the newbies out of mana a few times, then call it a day.”

  “Okay…”

  “KING! What have I told you about cutting the meat that way!” Patrick shook his head. “Pen, go get some rest. I need you in top form tomorrow.” He shifted the armor in his arms so he could pat her on the shoulder, then turned back to the harvesting group. “Garrett! What do you think you’re going to do with that?!”

  Penelope watched the balding man stomp over to the group of men that was cutting apart the Horned Bear carcasses.

  Frederica grabbed Penelope’s arm and pulled her away from the others. “We’ve got a problem.”

  The older woman marched her over to Raelyn, who was waiting alone under one of the fruit trees.

  Penelope scrunched her brow as Frederica let go of her. “What’s going on?”

  “You brought her?” Raelyn sighed. “I don’t see how she’s—”

  “She knows more about this place than either one of us.” Frederica cut off the other woman. “If there’s a solution that you haven’t thought of, she can figure it out.”

  Penelope swallowed. Jeru, any idea what they’re talking about?

  “Yep.”

  And you didn’t tell me because…

  “You need to be surprised. Which is going to be hard to do if you end up resetting, I know, but if you go through this on your own the first time, you can use that to remember how to play it on later runs.” Jeru grinned. “You’re welcome.”

  I’m not saying ‘thank you’ for keeping stuff from me. Penelope looked away from the floating Elf. I don’t like surprises. She turned her attention to Raelyn. “So, what is the problem that you want my input on instead of Patrick’s?”

  “I never said I wanted your input.” Raelyn put her hands on her hips.

  Frederica snapped her fingers. “Rae, quit being a child and tell her how you messed up.”

  “I didn’t mess up.” Raelyn turned back to their leader. “We’ve got enough people to run 8 teams, which was all we thought we were going to need to have!”

  “Right, because we thought the size would double, so we’d need eight teams when we could double up instead of six.” Penelope looked between the two women. “So what’s the problem?”

  “The backups hit fourteen when we cleared this room.” Frederica waved her arms around her. “If we keep going, then they’re going to all be at least twenty by the time we finish 22E.”

  “Right…” Penelope bobbed her head as she verified the math. “Which means that starting with 23B, they’ll be able to hold their own.” She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t see the problem.”

  “The problem is that we haven’t cleared the bottom half of the Dungeon.” Frederica pointed at Raelyn. “Rae wants to take teams to clear it while we focus on the upper half.”

  Penelope opened her mouth to point out that what Frederica had called the ‘bottom half’ was actually the east side, not the south, but closed her mouth. The directions didn’t matter as long as everyone knew what they were talking about.

  “That could work.” Penelope couldn’t help but smile as she realized that they would be able to cut the time needed to clear the Dungeon in half. “There’s plenty of experience to support twelve teams…” Confusion covered her face. “But neither of you seem excited, so… what’s the problem?”

  Frederica motioned for the other woman to talk. Raelyn crossed her arms and looked away, drawing a sigh out of Frederica. “We don’t have enough Healers.” Frederica blurted out.

  “You don’t…” Penelope looked over at Jeru. THIS is what you couldn’t tell me!

  “Yep.” Jeru grinned. “But I can tell you how to fix it if you ask nicely.” He chuckled as he read her mind. “No need to be rude, but yes, that works.”

  “How many short are we?” Penelope looked at Raelyn.

  “We have nine.” Raelyn shrugged. “That was one extra than what we needed and once I started talking about backups in case someone died, people started heading back to the surface.” She shook her head. “The two of you have a reputation for being a meat grinder.”

  “I’d like to see—”

  “So we need three off-Healers.” Penelope cut off Frederica’s rant. “The system tries to accommodate skills based on what you want to do and it gives stats based on what you do between levels.” She pointed at herself. “ is an Aura spell, but it’s one I learned. So is , , . Which means someone with enough Recovery would be able to learn healing spells.” She turned towards the portal they entered the third floor from. “All we have to do is find three Buffers who had 8 in their starting Recovery, then have them administer healing potions to the injured and they should grow their Recovery enough to learn healing spells. Once they get their first healing spell, they just have to spam it to keep building their Recovery.”

  “That…” Raelyn rubbed her chin. “That could work. I’ll round up the Buffers and see—”

  “Her idea, her project.” Frederica pointed at Penelope. “Think you can find three people who can be Offering Healers?”

  “Off-Healers.” Penelope chuckled. “It means they can do it as a secondary role.”

  “Whatever.” Frederica waved her hand. “Can you do it?”

  Penelope thought about Patrick’s orders and factored in the irritated look on Raelyn’s face. “It’ll be easier if Raelyn goes with me. Having a veteran Healer around to demonstrate how to heal might speed the process up and ensure that they actually get a healing spell.” She looked at the brunette Healer. “And if you could bring along a Healer of the same element to demonstrate the healing spell they need to try to get?”

  “Great idea!” Jeru held up two fingers. “Two problems. There are only four people down here that are candidates and one of them is the poison element, and they don’t get healing spells, which means your three choices aren’t really choices.”

  And the other problem?

  “One of them is metal and you don’t have a metal Healer.”

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