Penelope refused to help exile anyone.

  Circe found her soon after and positioned herself as a guard in front of the new quarters. The old command center was too close to the starting zone, and while the west side of 11B was not in the corner, 11A was filled with large rooms, which was great for storing monster parts but not so great for privacy.

  It took the rest of the afternoon to get things moved deeper into the Dungeon. Those who spoke out against the changes were given the option of getting with the new program or being exiled. Most chose to silently follow orders, but there were a few who argued and were thrown out.

  “I…” Frederica pulled off her gloves and threw them behind the skin that served as a door for her room. “Never want to do that again.”

  Penelope pulled herself up and walked into the main circle. Oakley brushed aside the skin on the main door, holding it open for Marlow to walk in. Patrick’s voice echoed behind them as the balding man yelled at his helpers.

  “Are we done for the day?” Circe looked from Frederica to Penelope.

  “She’s the boss.” Penelope nodded at the older woman.

  “Look, I know you don’t approve, but—”

  “It’s fine.” Penelope swallowed as she interrupted Frederica. “We don’t know who is working with Dawson, and we can’t have them stealing our supplies.” She let out a sigh. “I get that we have to protect ourselves; I..." Her voice trailed off as she let the rest of the wish go unspoken.

  “Heavy is the crown.” Frederica pulled off her hood. Even with it only being a couple of days since her hair had been singed, the back had grown to finger-length dark-yellow strands.

  “People are upset.” Marlow motioned at the door as he walked over to the middle of the room and sat down. “Abel might not have been the easiest guy to work with, but he was one of ours.” He lowered his voice. “Robert wants justice.”

  “We’re not strong enough to start a war with Dawson and come out whole.” Penelope closed her eyes when everyone looked at her. “That was a Tier One spell that Dawson used, but he didn’t have any Tier One magic when we fought the bosses.” She motioned behind her. “And they didn’t clear any squares either, so we have no idea how strong those two groups are or if there are any others like them.”

  “That’s…” Frederica paused. “We need to check everyone.”

  “What do you mean, check?” Marlow shucked his robe and gloves as he crossed his legs to sit on the ground.

  “The five of us split up and party up with everyone here. If we do that, we can tell who isn’t the right level.” Frederica pointed at the menu in front of her, then looked at Circe, her eyes widening as she realized the younger woman was in the room. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m with Penny.” Circe moved closer to Penelope’s side.

  Frederica eyed Penelope. “You trust her?”

  Jeru? How trustworthy is she?

  “You want me to extrapolate how well you can trust someone based off of their potential interactions with dozens of other people who each made choices you’d never consider?” The parasite grumbled. “Why is it you only think about my as a parasite when—”

  Jeru. Penelope silenced the rant in her mind. Can I trust Circe?

  Jeru’s voice took a robotic tone. “Your button of easy information says yes.” The monotone cracked, and he let out a laugh. “I can’t remember her ever switching sides, but she has no problem with PvP.”

  Good to know. Penelope glanced at Circe before turning to Frederica. “Yes, I trust her.”

  “What about the others?” Marlow nodded at the hide covering the opening. “There’s over a hundred fifty people out there, and going five at a time is going to take us all night.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Do you think they were killing people on the surface?” Penelope let the thought out without realizing that she’d addressed the room instead of only Jeru.

  “Doesn’t work that way.” Circe shook her head. “When Jayden killed Anariel, he didn’t get any experience.”

  Penelope swallowed. At least I know the names of who died while we were on the first floor.

  “Jayden is a piece of work; you’re going to have to restrain him if you don’t plan on killing him.” Resomrse filled the Elf’s voice. “I needed killers, but he likes it way too much.”

  “If they didn’t get experience from killing people, how did they level up…” Penelope’s heart tightened. “You don’t think…” She couldn’t force herself to say the words.

  “I’m going to kill that little rat!” Frederica shot to her feet.

  “Check the Shadow Essences.” Jeru silenced the storm of guilt brewing in her mind. “That’s the only way that they leveled this much.”

  Penelope pushed off of the stone wall she’d been leaning on and headed for the door. “I want to check something.” She called over her shoulder.

  Circe fell in step behind her, while Frederica continued to rant about the various ways that she was going to make Dawson suffer.

  “What do you need to see?” Circe whispered as they walked towards the southwest corner of 11A.

  “Just a hunch.” Penelope hurried through the tunnels. Barricades made out of monster bones blocked many of the tunnels, especially the ones going between the squares. Guards stood at many of them, armed with unenchanted weapons and armor. None of them tried to stop the two women as they continued their march to the open rooms.

  The corner-most room in 11A was 150x200 feet of open space. Considering it was stuck in a corner, the constant air gusts kept the smells trapped in the corner and away from the rest of the Dungeon, making it the perfect place to pile the leftovers from the monsters. The central room was connected to the interior corner of the trash room. While larger than the corner room, it was still far enough away from the center that the air blast blew the smells from that room into the corner, making it the perfect place to process the monster corpses.

  Patrick stood in the middle of the room, directing traffic as the corpses were piled in corners to be processed. Shields and shells were used as sleds to drag the piles of meat or refuse to the appropriate rooms.

  “I’m a little busy securing our loot.” Patrick grumbled as he glanced at the two women. “What does Frederica want?” He snapped his fingers, then waved his hands at a pair of men dragging a Wisp Deer. “That doesn’t go there! That’s for Wulfs! Monsters with hides go in that corner!”

  The men hurried to drag the corpse to the other corner, then fled down the tunnel to the north.

  “I’m really busy.” Patrick wiped his hands as he watched a dark-haired woman begin skinning the monster. “Spit it out.”

  “The Shadow Essence.” Penelope looked around. “Where are you keeping it?”

  “I left the stuff we gathered on the first floor. Didn’t have time to experiment with it, and I figured there’d be plenty down here.” He eyed her. “Why?”

  “Where is the stuff you got down here?” Penelope felt her heart sink. They used that to level somehow, didn’t they?

  “It’s around here somewhere…” Patrick glanced around. “Amora! Edward! Where did you put those slime vials?”

  “You can eat it raw to increase your experience, but it’s only worth five points that way.” Jeru groaned. “Nate gathered them up, so I forgot that people experimented with them if you left them on the first floor.”

  Nate? It was the second time that Jeru had slipped up and used the previous Looper’s name.

  “If you make experience potions with them, then they’re worth a lot more. You can also mix them with monster parts to make elixirs to increase specific stats, but no one down here has the skill for that.” Jeru cleared his throat, which he didn’t possess since his voice was in her mind. “Don’t think about him. That was another life. The two of you are nothing but strangers now.”

  Penelope touched her neck as Patrick searched for the vials.

  “What’s going on?” Circe whispered under her breath as she moved closer to Penelope.

  Their arms were touching, but Penelope knew that if she moved away, the younger woman would just follow her. She steeled herself as the other woman’s head rested against her shoulder.

  “They’re all gone.” Patrick came back into the room with a cloth hood full of vials. He held out the makeshift bag for them to see. “You know something, don’t you?”

  Penelope motioned him closer and lowered her voice. “These Mantles we have, they get stronger the more Demons we kill because it absorbs their energy.”

  “That’s what the big smurf said.” Patrick didn’t bother to whisper.

  “Dawson had Tier One spells.” Penelope reached into the hood and pulled out one of the empty vials. “And what did these have in them?”

  “Shadow Essence.” Patrick shrugged. “Your point is?”

  “And what is essence?”

  Circe took the vial from Penelope and stood up straight, her eyes widening. “Demon energy.”

  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 .

  Immersive Ink

  RR Writer's Guild