Penelope glanced over at her stash to the west, then flinched away from Judah’s attempt to slap her on the back. The group had insisted on celebrating there only being the boss room left.
The young man had started a huge bonfire from the various monster parts that Patrick had decided weren’t worth salvaging. Since they had finished faster than expected, everyone had also taken turns in the bath, leaving them all clean for the first time since they had been taken to this new world. Despite wanting nothing more than to go back to her corner and rest, the excited Fire Caster had moved all of her stuff while she’d been bathing and now she was stuck in camp for the rest of the evening.
“He’s just trying to be helpful.” The tone of Jeru’s voice in her head let her know that the Elf was enjoying watching the young man fail at flirting.
“How do I convince him that I’m not interested?” Penelope stood up and walked over to the meat cloth on the other side of the fire. Now that they’d killed everything in the Dungeon, there were plenty of different types of meat to choose from.
“Without giving Freddie more reason to hate you?” Jeru chuckled. “Reset?”
Penelope sighed as she picked up some rabbit nuggets. The white meat was bland, but it was tender and less oily than the frog meat had been. Overall, the most like chicken of anything in the Dungeon and her favorite of all the choices.
“The problem solves itself tomorrow.” The blue Elf tried to be encouraging. “Casters will have to get split up, so you won’t be on a team with him again until guilds start forming once floor four opens up in two months. By that time, you’ll have all the locals milling around and he’ll have plenty of other things to distract him.” He appeared and gave her a reassuring smile. “You can deal with the puppy love for one more night.”
Penelope started to glare at her parasite but closed her eyes so no one else would mistake her gaze as meant for them. You were just telling me about how unlikely it is that I’m going to be able to get through this boss fight without having to reset, and now you’re saying that this will all be over tomorrow?
Jeru shrugged. “You’re making an optimist out of me.”
“Uh-huh.” Penelope sat down and opened up her menu.
“Looking at your stats before the fight?” Ula sat down next to the younger woman.
“Oh, hi, Ula.” Penelope closed her menu.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” The grandmother smiled. “Everyone deals with stress in different ways.” She nodded towards the black walls that surrounded the boss room. “Any idea on what is waiting for us in there?”
Penelope shook her head. “My scans don’t work when I can’t see what’s in there, and with it being a different type of barrier…” She shook her head. “Judah already tried looking inside and couldn’t see anything.”
“That boy…” Ula shook her head. “He means well; he’s just…” She looked over at where Patrick was showing Dawson and Judah how to make a tent out of bones and furs. Marlow had already gone to sleep, and Frederica and Oakley were already inside their own tent. “Lost and looking for something to hold on to.” She chuckled when Penelope blushed. “I’m not saying you should marry him, just…” She waffled her head. “Trying to help you understand him.” Her brown eyes tried to lock onto Penelope’s green ones.
“I’m sure there are plenty of girls up top that’ll be interested in a triumphant hero once we clear the floor.” Ula tilted her head. “I’ll talk with him about giving you some space, if that’s what you want.”
Penelope looked down at her feet and nodded.
“Then don’t worry about it!” Ula smiled. “I know you’d rather be off in your room by yourself…” She shook her head. “Hector, my grandson, is like that. Always with his head in the clouds behind a door somewhere. But…” She laughed. “It doesn’t hurt to spend a little time around your family, and I guess that surviving this makes us all about as close as family as you can get.” The older woman held up her hand. “I know people make you anxious, so you don’t have to give a speech or talk, but you’ve got power, sweetie. Real power. And that can help everyone feel better about the unknown that we’re walking into tomorrow. So…” She slapped her legs as she stood up. “Just stay close enough so that the younger ones can sleep better knowing that you’re close. Because we need everyone as rested as they can be in the morning. Can you do that for me?”
Penelope nodded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before the older woman could walk away.
“How long have you known?”
“About you?” Ula turned around and gave her a warm smile. “I suspected, but not until just now.” She nodded towards the couple’s tent. “Freddie said something about you never looking people in the eye, and that got me thinking. Hector uses the same eye trick, so I guess I got used to a lack of eye contact not registering as dishonesty. Seeing how you try to look at people without looking them in the eye confirmed it, though.” The Hispanic woman held up her hand. “Don’t worry about Frederica either. You’re the only one here at the moment that is as young as she wishes she was. Once that barrier comes down, don’t be surprised if she starts acting like you’re her closest friend.”
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Ula snapped her fingers. “Speaking of which. I wanted to ask you about staying in my group once we go down to the second floor. I know this has been rough on you, but we’ll need to split people up so that the others can start leveling. I thought two to get a group started would be a good ratio.”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t worry about it for now.” Ula waved her hand. “It’s not something that you have to decide until later, but I thought you might have an easier time on a team where you knew someone than going at it alone again.”
“Oh.” Penelope blinked. “Yeah, that would be helpful.”
“Great!” The older woman gave her a thumbs up. “I’m going to talk to the boys, but why don’t you turn in? We’ve got a big day ahead of us in the morning!”
Penelope watched the older woman walk away, then turned and started walking north.
“Penny!” Judah waved his arms and headed her direction only to get cut off by Ula.
Penelope nodded her thanks, but that didn’t stop the discomfort that ran through her as she watched the young man’s shoulders sag.
“He’ll be fine.” Jeru floated in front of the other Caster. “Are you going to use those new spells you got?”
Penelope pulled the two crystals out of her pocket and looked at them through her menu.
Penelope glanced back at the group. Judah had vanished into the tent that he’d constructed while Ula was busy working with the other three men around a turtle shell where Patrick was brewing something with Infernal water and parts of the monsters.
“I didn’t use them when they dropped because we already had a system and didn’t want to take a break for me to learn how to use the new spells.” Penelope rolled the two crystals in her palms like a pair of dice. “How helpful will having the different damage types be?”
“The monsters on this floor are really only weak to poison damage.” Jeru shrugged. “Since you don’t have an affinity for those elements, then you won’t get as much damage out of them as an Air or Ice Caster would.” He tilted his head a little. “But the control aspect of each spell could come in handy. Channel
Penelope checked the time. Eleven minutes after midnight meant that there was still almost an hour to go before she’d be able to get her five hours of sleep, and then she’d still have almost an hour to prepare before everyone else woke up.
“Okay.” She started walking farther away from the camp. “How do I use this?”
“Just crush the crystal in your hand. The system will do the rest of the work and unlock the spell for you.”
Penelope squeezed both crystals at the same time, but instead of breaking and turning into dust, the crystals began fusing with her gloved hand.
“What!” Penelope opened her hand, but the fusion didn’t stop. A sharp pain stabbed her behind her eyes like she’d eaten ice cream too fast, then it was gone and so were the crystals.
“That was…” Penelope wiped a tear out of her right eye. “Weird.”
“It gets easier, and you get used to it after a while.” The blue Elf laughed. “I’m just glad they stopped trying to do this at the University. Kids were going mad because they’d downloaded too many spells too fast.” He twirled his finger. “The Veneficus worked overtime for over a decade before that got banned.”
“The Ven…” Penelope stopped trying to repeat the word. “What’s that?”
“They police bad magic users.” Jeru chuckled. “They aren’t the only ones, since there’s not many of them, but they can counter spells with their water abilities, which makes them the best suited to take out an out-of-control Caster.”
“Is that what you were?”
“Me?” The blue Elf laughed. “Just because I have blue skin doesn’t…” He waffled his head. “Okay, so most Imber, that’s what the Sea Elves prefer to be called, do have water-based magic, and there are more of them that are Elementalists than Mages, but I’m a pure Mage.” He puffed out his chest. “Jhy used to call me the little storm caller because I had an affinity for both mom’s hydromancy and dad’s fulgurmancy…” His black eyes held a faraway look as he touched his cheek.
“You had…” Penelope thought for a moment. “Water and Lightning magic? Not time?”
“You got that right!” Jeru snapped back from the memories his mind had been following. “Out of all of us that were left, I had the least experience with time magic, but Dad was a High Elf, which gave me the best chance of holding onto my sanity while going back in time.” He shrugged. “Dumas would have been the best one of all of us, but by the time we were desperate enough to try it, both he and Dad had fallen.”
They stood in silence for a while while Jeru thought about how many people had died in his timeline.
After a moment, Penelope spoke. “Do you think this will change things?”
“If we can win? Yes.” He ran his fingers through his black hair, then looked at the woman next to him. “No pressure.”
“Ri-ight.” Penelope pulled out her wand. “Then I guess I should start working on these spells.”
Jeru vanished so he wouldn’t distract her anymore. It was going to be a long night.
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