They got the upper half of the 13 done the next day.

  After Penelope made the gate for 13D, she went to the enchanting building.

  “You glad to get the next three days off?” Eldri looked up from the robe she was working on.

  “I just hope Patrick actually lets me work in here.” Penelope walked over to her stove and shoved some firewood into the furnace, then lit it on fire using

  .

  With the two lower-level teams reaching level eleven earlier that day, Ula and Patrick had decided to let those two teams take the lead in clearing the other half of the Dungeon through the thirteenth column. It would bring those two teams up to the same level as the original two and bring another two teams up to level twelve, which would leave them with only a single team on either side that wasn’t the appropriate level for the floor. Which would be fixed by the time they cleared column fifteen.

  What that meant was three days of focusing on nothing but camp improvements. Penelope was still going to have to make gates in the afternoon once 12I and 13G were cleared, but that wasn’t going to take away from her current project too much.

  It was finally time to work on elixirs.

  Eldri and the others had been using up the potions as fast as they got them and they needed more if they were going to put more enchantments than just stats on gear. While Penelope hadn’t had a chance to actually brew an elixir yet, she knew that once she had the proof of concept, Eldri was going to want to learn how to do it herself. The shorter middle-aged woman absorbed knowledge like a sponge and since working with the lower-tier materials wasn’t giving Penelope any experience, she didn’t mind letting someone else take the lead.

  She started by putting four infernal waters into the pot, then added four Wisp Deer hearts. She used

  to add enough water into the pot so the hearts were completely submerged. Patrick had given her an inquisitive look when she’d asked him to save the hearts from the monsters, but there were stone bins in 11A that were each labeled with the name of the monster that the hearts came from.

  Adding mana to the water wasn’t the only thing that she had to do. As the water took on a blue glow from the mana she was adding, she dropped in four Tier One Shadow Essence. The infernal water was going to help stretch how many elixirs she was able to get out of the batch. She pushed the guilt out of her mind that she was focusing on Magic first. She only needed seven points of Magic from elixirs to hit the cap of 40 for level twenty. Considering she could add ten stat points from elixirs to her base stats at Tier Zero and another twenty stat points from elixirs at every Tier after that, she had thirty stats she could add. Capping herself out in Magic, then bringing up her Recovery and Speed was the plan.

  She stirred the mixture with her wand, watching as the Shadow Essence broke apart in the bubbling water.

  “That smells like death.” Eldri pinched her nose. She walked over and peeked at the boiling concoction and cringed. “You’re planning on drinking that?”

  “I’ll scan it with my menu first.” Penelope frowned as she realized that it was going to taste awful. “I should have brought some leaves from those mint trees in the parking lot.”

  “That just makes me think that it’s going to taste like death after brushing your teeth.” Eldri shivered. “You sure it’s going to work out?”

  “Our mana is what is binding the potions to the gear and giving them the stat bonuses.” Penelope continued to stir the pot. “While we’re able to influence the stat that gets added as an enchantment, the ingredients for making elixirs in the game always required parts of a monster to control which stat the elixir boosted.”

  “And you’re sure that using Shadow Essences from Shadow Casters isn’t going to be enough?” Eldri pointed at one of the hearts. “Looks like they’re starting to dissolve.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t want to waste the Shadow Essence if it doesn’t work.” Penelope thought about what she’d been taught about elixirs. I could probably do it with the right essences alone, but I don’t think Eldri will be able to replicate it with just essences.

  “Always thinking about how the others are going to be replicating what you’re doing.” Jeru looked at the mixture. “Adding the hearts will get you three or four more elixirs out of it anyway, so it’s not like you’re not getting something out of it.”

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  I know. Penelope poked at one of the hearts and watched a piece flake off, then dissolve into the mixture. “It looks like it’s doing something.”

  “Stinking up the room is what it’s doing.” Eldri waved her hand in front of her face. “I don’t know if I can concentrate on enchanting with that in here.”

  “Sorry.” Penelope took a deep breath. “I didn’t realize it was going to smell so bad or I would have had them make me a stove in 11A.”

  “If it works, then we’ll need to do that.” Eldri pointed at the glowing liquid. “You have to be using up a ton of mana.”

  “I’ve capped out my Recovery.” Penelope sighed. She only had 33 Recovery, so it wasn’t truly capped out, but that was with her putting a +2 Recovery piece of gear in ten of her eleven gear slots. It also meant that her Recovery was currently higher than her Magic, which was throwing her class off, but that was only for her to use while she was working. She’d put her other gear on when she started fighting again. “I can spend a mana every six seconds and never go below full mana right now.”

  “That’s… crazy.” Eldri shook her head. “Do you think you’re going to have to keep up that pace until it all dissolves?”

  “Probably.” Penelope shrugged. “Right now I’m just trying to be safe, but if this works, we can start experimenting to figure out how much mana it actually takes and if there is anything we can do to speed things up or reduce the cost.”

  “Maybe make smaller batches.” The other woman gestured at the pot. “You’re doing four hearts and four essences. Why didn’t you start with one?”

  Penelope bit her lip. I guess I should have only experimented with one. She bobbed her head from side to side. “I should have, but four hearts fit in the bottom of the pot, so…” She took a deep breath. “Hopefully this works.”

  “You could make this in your sleep; you just need two hours where Patrick isn’t going to demand that you step away from what you’re doing.” Jeru chuckled. “Though he’s bothering Caelyn at the moment, and you did make him a pretty big pile of lumber yesterday.”

  Penelope shook her head as she remembered standing in the corner of the safe zone and creating board after board with

  . Patrick had been as giddy as a kid in a toy store with a gift card as he watched the pile of material grow faster than he could have people carry it to projects.

  The upside was that they now had a wooden door on the enchanting that they could lock with a wooden bar. It ensured that no one would come in to bother them while they were working, which was exactly what Penelope needed at the moment. It didn’t stop people from pounding on the door, but so far, no one had done that.

  “How long do you think that’s going to take?” Eldri glanced at the door, then back at the pot.

  “Based on how slowly the hearts are breaking apart?” Penelope pretended to do the math in her head. “About two hours.”

  “So that’s what, a thousand mana to make one of those?” Eldri shook her head. “None of us have that kind of mana regeneration.”

  “You would if you were wearing this gear.” Penelope looked at the other woman. “I only have thirteen base Recovery.” Actually, I have eleven base Recovery, but I get two extra points because of my jobs, but as far as her trying to match what I have, she’d need thirteen.

  “I guess…” Eldri looked at her menu. “I’ve got twelve Recovery.”

  “And the moment she gets her first level in alchemy, she’ll get that extra point to match you.” Jeru chuckled. “Which basically means just sitting here for the next two hours and gently stirring.”

  “This seems like a lot of work for just a single potion.” Eldri glanced at the enchanting table. “Two hours so we can enchant one thing?”

  “This should make more than just one.” Penelope pulled one of the empty potion vials out of her pocket. “I’m guessing once it’s all done, there should be enough in there to fill ten to twelve of these things.”

  “Oh!” Eldri smiled. “That makes it a lot more worth it. Though that’s only going to keep one person busy.”

  “If everything works out, we’ll have to get a system going where we have one group dedicated to making elixirs and the other group enchanting.” Penelope sighed. “And we’ll have to get the guys to make up a brewery in 11A.”

  “Whoever is working over there is going to have to have more patience than I do.” Eldri shook her head. “I don’t think I could sit in front of a pot all day and stir.”

  “We’d need to take breaks.” Penelope rolled her shoulders. “And probably see if we could get a chair or stool.”

  “Definitely.” Eldri gestured at the enchanting table. “I usually have to get up and walk around as soon as I finish a piece.” She took a deep breath. “But that only takes me about ten minutes… This is a lot bigger ordeal.”

  “Maybe if we only do one at a time, it’ll go faster.” Penelope shrugged. “We’ll have to experiment.”

  “You mean you’ll have to experiment.” Eldri pointed at the enchanting table. “I think I’m going to stick with what I’m good at and focus on that.”

  “Fair enough.” Penelope nodded. “Thanks for staying in here with me.”

  “What are friends for, if not to lock the door and yell at anyone who comes knocking?” Eldri laughed. “You’ll just have to find someone else to do that once you get this thing moved.”

  “Yeah…” Penelope sighed. And I’ve got an idea for who would be perfect for that.

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