They only did the first part of the twelfth column.

  12A-12E was enough to bring the main team to level fourteen and the two backup teams to level seven. They were behind as far as the number of squares they needed to have beaten, but once the lower-level people got to level ten, they’d be able to participate more, which would allow the two main groups to split up and they’d be doubling the amount of ground that they were able to cover.

  The big difference was that there were more people making materials, which kept everyone busy with making life better around camp. Caelyn was able to make posts and while a single morning wasn’t enough time for her to figure out how to make boards instead of posts, it gave Patrick plenty of wood to work with.

  Fae Anna was the other Caster they chose to level. Having access to more water spells gave them the ability to have enough excess water for things like bathing. Everyone had utilized the dorms to get cleaned after the boss fight on the last floor, but after just two days of being on the second floor, pretty much everyone stank. Patrick had set out to try to make soap, but that was going to take a couple days, so simply rinsing off with warm water was the best they had available.

  The big thing that Penelope decided to do was to go to the wall between 11E and 12E and mark off places for all of the portals she was planning on making. She started near 11D and went all the way down the wall, writing the numbers into the wall: 12B.2, 13D.3, 14B.2, 15D.3, 16B.2, 17D.3, 18B.2, 19D.3, 20B.2.

  “You seem pretty confident that’s going to work.” Circe put her hands on her hips as she watched her friend write out each number.

  “When I looked at the ring around the portal between the first floor and the surface, the runes around the ring were the same except for the first and last ones, which were inverted.” Penelope dusted off her hands. “My hypothesis is that the first line is the location of the portal and the second line is the portal that it connects to.” She took a deep breath. “In theory, I should be able to make it so that there is a list of options for each portal to connect to, but that would require setting up a way to lock in where you want the portal to go instead of it always being connected.”

  “So I guess you’re running up to 12B to draw another circle?” Circe tilted her head. “You want some company?”

  Penelope took a deep breath. She knew that Eldri wanted to see how the portal runes worked, but the older woman was busy in the enchanting building getting new gear fixed up for people. There would be plenty of time for her to show Eldri how she’d made the portal, though until Eldri got her enchanting up to thirty, it was going to be something that was out of the other woman’s ability.

  “Sure.” Penelope put the final touch on the ring, then stepped back to look at it. She’d decided to call each of the portals on this side simply 12.1, 13.1, 14.1, etc. When they opened up the other side of the dungeon, then she was going to label those 12.2, 13.2, 14.2, etc. While the rest of the runes were in a script that she doubted anyone else could read, the numbers were in English, so the rest of her party would know exactly where they were going.

  “So can you read what that says?” Circe pointed at the wall of runes as the two of them started up the tunnels towards the B row.

  Penelope pulled a piece of gray cloth out of her robe and tossed it to Circe. While she hadn’t needed the illustration to know what runes to put where, it was her explanation for why she did things the way she did.

  “I didn’t realize you copied that.” Circe folded the piece of cloth back up and handed it back to Penelope. “You really thought of everything.”

  “Not everything.” Penelope shook her head. “I didn’t have us bring down any wood from the trees in the parking lot and Patrick only grabbed five people that aren’t going to be actively leveled to come down here to try to keep up with all of the monsters we’re killing and make a camp where we can all thrive while we’re fighting the monsters.” She took a deep breath. “And if I’d really been thinking, I would have had someone fill some containers with soap and shampoo from the dorms.”

  The dispensers were attached to the walls, so they hadn’t been able to bring any original containers with them, but they could have filled the metal helmets that they used as pitchers or buckets with the stuff and brought it with them. The soap wasn’t as harsh as the lye-based stuff that Patrick was going to make, and the thought of using that on her skin again made Penelope shiver.

  “What is it, Pen?” Circe eyed her friend. “Are you cold?”

  Before she could answer, the wind howled, blasting them both with cold air. Penelope snorted once it was over. “I guess my body has gotten used to the intervals when we’re getting blasted and decided to shiver right before it hit.” She chuckled. “I never would have thought I’d be able to get used to living like this.”

  “You’re used to this?” Circe shook her head. “I still look at this bow sometimes and wonder what I’m doing with it.”

  “Sometimes I feel like this wand has grown into my hand.” Penelope pulled out the wooden wand. It was still the same one from the first floor. Instead of taking loot or having Eldri make her some, she'd instead let Judah, Caelyn, or Fae Anna take any Magic gear. The bonuses she got from her job helped her keep up and it also allowed the others to participate in the fights more, which kept her out of the direct spotlight.

  “That's because you use it more like a pencil than an actual wand.” Circe chuckled. “Seriously, how did you think to do that?”

  Penelope shrugged. “I don't know; it was easier to channel mana through the wand than my finger.” She paused as they walked by a room where monsters had been piled up. The smaller monsters that were around wolf-sized were able to be dragged by a single person over to 11A, where the butchering was taking place. The larger monsters required multiple people to drag through the halls, so they were brought into a more central room in the square and field dressed before being moved across the dungeon.

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  “I'm glad I don't have to do that.” Circe pinched her nose. “I never cared for butchering.”

  “We’ve got to eat somehow.” Penelope shook her head, then turned to her friend. “Aren't you supposed to be working with the other Archers or something?”

  “I gave them their assignments, but Pat has them all helping him with camp.” The brunette grinned. “I take a look at how they've improved from practicing in the morning while we're off fighting, and then I’ve got the rest of the afternoon off to help out where I can.” A smirk cracked her lips. “And it seemed like you could use the company.”

  Penelope sighed as she continued her walk towards 12B. “I think I’m going to try to get a passive that makes it so I can bring stuff with me when I use . That way I can help them get the larger corpses moved easier.”

  “If this gate thingy works, then you’ll already have made everyone's life easier.” Circe turned around and looked back the way they'd come. “It's what, a mile from the middle to here?”

  “In a straight line, it's about 3,000 feet from the middle of 11E to the middle of 12B.” Penelope didn't bother adding the extra 163 feet. It was actually longer than that because of the winding tunnels, but estimating all the curves was more math than Circe was interested in. “Which means it'll cut out about a fifteen-minute walk between the two portals.”

  “Have we been walking that long?” Circe turned back around to look at her friend. “It doesn't feel like it.”

  Penelope pointed at the marking on the wall. They'd taught the Casters and Aura-mains how to write using mana and the ones not fighting in the squares were in charge of marking off when a zone changed into another one. It wasn't perfect, but being able to see 12B.3 and 12C.1 on opposite walls let them know that they were moving from 12C into 12B.

  “Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.” Circe laughed. “So, where are you going to make the gate?”

  “Patrick and I picked out a room to use.” Penelope took a right at the first fork to take her into 12B.4, then took the next left she could to head towards 12B.2. She kept going until she found the door with ‘PORTAL’ written beside it.

  “That's your handwriting!” Circe pointed at the sign. “When did you do that?”

  “Patrick and I picked it out while the rest of you were getting in position to do 12C.” Penelope walked into the room. It was a smaller room, about 10 feet by 15 feet, but there weren't any other exits besides the one door. That would allow them to regulate traffic if they needed to.

  She walked up to the middle of the wall directly across from the door and drew a large circle, then a larger one around that one. She left enough space between the two circles for her hand to fit, then partitioned off 36 equal sections. She pulled out the sketch of the portal on the surface and would look at it before she'd write a new rune in one of the sections.

  Circe watched the entire thing without saying a single word. It wasn't until the end, when Penelope wrote 12B.2 in the very top section and then 12.1 in the section on the right, that the brunette finally spoke.

  “So now what?” Circe walked over and pushed the section with 12.1 on it. “Nothing is happening.”

  “I'm guessing it needs mana to jump-start it.” Penelope rolled up the sketch and put it back in her pocket. “Kind of like how Eldri does her enchanting, I think I need to charge it with mana to get it started.”

  “Are you going to need to do that every time?” Circe took a step back. “Because I've barely got any mana and I have no idea how to use it like you do.”

  “The one on the first floor didn't need anyone to put mana in it, so I'm guessing that once I get it started, it'll pull what it needs from the Dungeon.” Penelope put her right hand on the control section and her left hand in the main part of the portal. She closed her eyes and focused on sending her mana into the ring. She’d already activated the ring back in the safe zone, but this one requires her to do more since it was actually connecting the two.

  The outline of the ring turned blue, then each rune filled with blue light. The background of each section turned gold one at a time. Once all the sections had turned gold, the blue light drained into the middle of the inner circle, turning the stone wall into a weird puddle of liquid stone. It took a few minutes to fill the entire middle with mana and drained almost all of Penelope's mana pool. She had to slow down how fast she was spending mana so that she didn't run out, which would force her to start the whole process all over again.

  Note to self. Stack lots of Recovery gear before I do this next time. Penelope tucked her head to wipe the sweat off her face on her shoulder sleeve. She couldn't take her hands off the wall or it would break the spell, but she was sweating from all the exertion like she was running a marathon in summer heat.

  The last few minutes felt like an eternity, but the stone melted away, leaving a hole in the wall with the safe zone on the other side.

  Penelope dropped onto the floor, finally allowing herself to breathe hard to catch her breath. She blinked away the fog threatening to smother her vision.

  “Is that?” Circe walked up to the wall and stuck the tip of her bow through the hole. “Is it safe?”

  “Should be.” Penelope gestured at the hole. “Go ahead.”

  “I'm not doing it first.” Circe shook her head. “It's also different from the one on the first floor. You can see the other side in this one.”

  “Maybe because it's on the same floor, it's just folding space between the two.” Penelope grimaced. I changed the spell a little so we wouldn't have people running into each other going through the portals.

  “Which I should have set the others to do, but I wasn't thinking about that when I set it up.” Jeru smiled broadly. “I knew you could do it, but congratulations, you've made getting around the dungeon a lot easier!”

  Yeah. Penelope's leg wobbled as she got to her feet. She gripped the edge of the ring, then stepped through the portal to the safe zone.

  A group of people gathered in a semi-circle on the other side began clapping and hooting the moment she stepped through.

  Penelope waved at them, then motioned for Circe to follow her.

  The two women took a bow, then got out of the way as the group gathered around the portal and began running through it.

  “Alright!” Patrick folded his arms as he watched the people jump through the ring. “You’ve had your fun; get back to work!” He turned to Penelope and smiled at her. “I figured you could do it.” He looked at the other numbers on the wall, then turned back to her. “Since you're not making any more of them today, I could use some boards and metal plates.”

  Penelope chuckled as she shook her head. “There ain't no rest for the wicked…”

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