They hadn’t used any of the potions when fighting, but they wanted to keep everyone with a healing potion in case of emergencies. They also wanted the Casters, Buffers, and Healers to all have a mana potion on hand in case things went sideways. Which gave her five healing potions and eleven mana potions to enchant with after Penelope left her.
Despite knowing how to change the
, Penelope didn’t make the change that evening. Drinking a single bottle of infernal water didn’t do much to quench anyone’s thirst, but they weren’t in danger of dehydration after just a single day with almost no fluids. Knowing that there was a
The morning of the second day, they worked their way through the third column before lunch. There wasn’t enough infernal water for everyone, so Penelope and Patrick went without. After giving himself an upset stomach the night before, Patrick tried to change his distillery by using pieces of metal armor as tubing instead. The joints let a lot of condensation out, which lost most of the water droplets before they could get to the tray.
They took a break the moment the other group cleared 4G.
Penelope spent almost all of her mana filling one of the mole holes with snowballs, then Judah threw fireballs into the hole to melt the snow. Patrick had to lie on his belly to scoop water out of the hole with a helmet, but it gave them plenty of water to drink.
“We’re falling behind.” Frederica pointed at the remaining six squares in the fourth column. “We need to finish the fifth column today and we’re going to have trouble clearing the fourth before we need a break.”
“We can go faster if the Casters use mana potions.” Circe glanced from Penelope to Judah.
“We need those to enchant gear.” Penelope shook her head. And I’d really rather never drink one of those again.
“One won’t hurt, but I get your point.” Jeru sighed. “You should have cut some limbs off of the mana trees and brought them down here. You’d have firewood and you could make some less habit-forming mana potions.”
I can’t be the one who does everything. Penelope shrugged. We’ll make it through this in time.
“Are you sure? Because Frederica has a point. The Demons are playing a stalling game and you don’t have enough clock to burn.” Jeru pointed at her menu.
We have eight more squares to clear today. It’s two and it takes about forty-five minutes to chase down the monsters and let our mana and stamina recharge. Penelope nodded. “We should be caught up by eight if we work straight through. Nine if we stop for dinner in the middle.”
“That doesn’t give us much time to do anything around camp.” Patrick grumbled. “But I guess killing the monsters is more important than figuring out how to use our new skills.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out how to turn
“Thanks.” Patrick huffed. “I just wish I had more time to make camp a better place.”
“I’m trying to do what you showed me.” Emory Dixon ran his hand through his brown hair. “I was never really good at the camping stuff.”
“You’re doing fine, Em.” Raelyn playfully punched her nephew in the shoulder. “Maybe soon we’ll have enough water that you can take a bath and wash off some of that blood and dirt.” She pinched her nose. “I’m not sure who smells worse, you or the monsters!”
They all laughed at her joke. Penelope smiled. I never got to see this side of her. She was always so focused on revenge and justice. It’s nice to see her being lighthearted.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“You changed the past, which changed her trajectory…” Jeru paused. “But just because you stop one car from getting into a wreck doesn’t mean the one behind it doesn’t still get hit.”
They killed someone on the surface, didn’t they? Penelope groaned. WHY?
“Baldwin Pinkerton and Carl Bailey.” Jeru held up his hand. “No, I’m not resetting it.”
What’s the point of this if I don’t try to save everyone? Penelope got up. “I’m going for a walk.”
“I’ll come with you.” Circe scrambled to her feet and trotted behind her friend. “What happened? You look mad.”
“I’m…” Penelope took a deep breath and tried to clear the frustration off her face. “Just trying to figure out how to save everyone.”
“From what?” Circe scrunched her brow. “The fights haven’t been very difficult so far. Just a lot of running around and herding.”
“I know. It’s just that we don’t have a lot of clock, and I’m worried about the people on the surface.” Penelope took a deep breath. “There were already some fights happening and I’m worried that things are going to get worse if they can’t find any food or water.”
“They had water in the dorms.” Circe shrugged. “I don’t know what they’re going to do for food, but once we clear this floor, there will be plenty of monster meat to go around.” She smirked. “Going hungry for a few days won’t kill anyone.”
“No, but it will make them hangry.” Penelope sighed. “And that’s what I’m worried about. Even if it’s just a single skill, they all have power of some sort and when tempers start flaring…”
“You think they’re fighting each other on the surface.” Circe shrugged. “So?”
“What do you mean, so?” Penelope turned to face her friend. “We’re down here fighting monsters so everyone up there can be safe and if they’re killing each other, how does any of what we’re doing down here protect anyone?”
“You can’t change how they’re going to act.” Circe shrugged. “What we’re doing means that they don’t have to fight these monsters, but if they want to bleed each other because they want to throw a tantrum like a baby, I say they get what they deserve.”
“Even if they hurt someone who wasn’t fighting?” Penelope sighed.
“Look, I get you feel like you have to carry everything, but you’ve done so much for all of us already.” Circe did a half-turn, waving her hand at the camp behind her. “If you weren’t down here, I doubt any of us would have made it through the first column alive; then all the monsters would have gotten loose and killed everyone on the surface.” She turned back to her friend. “If someone kills an innocent, then we can deal with that once we finish this floor and make the person pay. And if they killed each other because they were bored, then they were going to die eventually anyway.”
“Now do you believe me?” Jeru smirked.
Shut up. Penelope sighed. “Fine. And there’s no way to know what’s going on up there on the surface anyway.”
“Exactly! So why worry about something that probably hasn’t happened?” Circe pointed at 4C. “Now, what do you say we go grab the rest of our team and kill those things?”
“I’ll wait here.” Penelope sat down on the ground by the barrier.
Circe eyed her friend. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” Penelope gave her friend a smile that she didn’t feel. “Just tired and realizing we’ve got a long day ahead of us.”
“Yeah, but it’s going to be a busy day, so it’ll be over before you know it!” Circe grinned. “I’ll be right back with the others!”
Penelope nodded and watched her friend run away. There’s not that many years between us. Why does it feel like she is so much younger?
“Your body might be twenty-two, but your mind is in the mid-forties.” Jeru sat down next to Penelope. “You start looping whole years away and get into your first century and everyone is going to feel like a kid to you, even Ula.” He sighed. “By your second hundred…”
It really weighs on you, doesn’t it? Penelope looked at the blue man. You’ve been doing this for thousands of years…
“I have faith that you’ll figure out how to end the loop.” Jeru flashed her a smile. “That’s the goal and I need you to remember that. You can’t save everyone; just get as many out as you can.”
I’ll try. Penelope couldn’t ignore the pit in her stomach. It felt wrong to accept that it wasn’t possible to save everyone. She knew she could force a reset by walking into the square alone and letting the monsters kill her, but she didn’t have a plan for how to contain Carl. She’d just be basically repeating what she’d done already and that wasn’t going to work. Maybe some time down the road she’d think of something and could reset all the way back to try to save them, but for now, they were just two more faceless casualties, just like forty of the forty-one loopers before her.
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