Once they reached the safe zone and had their hearts to heart, she walked over to the barrier while the others waited for the rest of the people to show up.
“You’re not thinking about going in there alone.” Marlow walked up and stopped next to her.
“No.” Penelope looked over at the rest of their party, then motioned for him to follow her over to the other entrance. She motioned at the tunnel that she’d seen. The darkness made it impossible for her to see the door to the room where she’d died.
“Yeah, this isn’t regular darkness.” Jeru motioned toward the middle of the safe zone. “But, as you can see, the safezone is well lit, so once you beat the square, the lighting situation should improve.”
Not helpful right now. Penelope filed the information away. At least there was a way that she’d be able to tell when the square was cleared. On the first floor, it had been easy to see the barrier come down.
“Whatcha doin’?” A short young woman walked over. The nameplate over her head listed her as Circe Scofield. The brown-haired woman smiled as she bounced when she stopped.
“Thinking…” Penelope glanced over at the younger woman. Most of the displaced people were older than her, but this woman was 18, the youngest age that had been taken. “You’re part of the third group?”
“Pat sent me in with the second group since I couldn’t carry much.” Circe flexed her right arm. “I have to carry babies all day. I could lug around as much as the men.” She shrugged. “But it’s okay. It gives me a chance to talk to you.”
Penelope blinked. “Why?”
“You’re like a superhero!” Circe bubbled; her brown eyes sparkled as she failed to contain her excitement. “You were like ICE! WIND! FIRE!” She twirled. “Then you went blam, ka-pow!”
Penelope shook her head. “Freddy was the one who killed it; I only helped her.”
“You did a lot more than that!” Circe looked into the square in front of them. “Is this where you’re going in?”
Penelope looked at Marlow, then glanced at the rest of her team, who were busy setting up tents after the latest air blast had knocked them down. “I wanted to test something. Circe, since you’re not in my party, do you want to help?”
“You know my name?!?” The younger woman let out a squeal as she grabbed Marlow’s hands. “She knows my name!”
“There you go, using system information that no one else has.” Jeru chided her.
The others know about my
“Except you don’t actually have it. What happens when someone sees your list of skills?”
Can’t you give it to me? Penelope smiled when the younger woman looked at her.
“What do you need? I’m up for anything!”
“Yes, she’s coming on strong, but that’s the type of person she is. Always eager to help.” Jeru grumbled. “And no, I can’t just give you skills; otherwise, I would have handed out a butt ton of them to the first guy!”
“On the first floor, if a party was in a square, then another party couldn’t go in.” Penelope nodded at the tunnel closer to the portal. “I’m going to stick my arm in, then I want you to try to stick your arm in that opening. If you can, then it’ll mean that two teams can go into a square at the same time.”
“What makes you think that these are the same room?” Marlow scrunched his brow. “And why would you think that two teams can go in?”
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Penelope stuck her arm through the light. “Here, Circe, try to touch my hand, but don’t go all the way inside.”
“If she goes over halfway in, she can’t come back out.” Jeru offered as he floated through the barrier. “Smart way to let the others know that you can take two teams into a zone.”
No one else has done it this way? Penelope watched the younger woman’s hand bounce off of the barrier.
“I can’t.” A frown crossed Circe’s face. “Sorry.”
“No, that’s what happened on the first floor.” Penelope nodded at the man beside her. “Marlow, would you?”
The older man stuck his hand through the barrier. Penelope pulled her arm out when he reached for her.
“Sorry.” Marlow pulled his hand out and took a step back. “I thought…”
“It’s okay.” Penelope rubbed her hand, then stuck her right arm back through the barrier. “We know that people in the same party can go through the barrier, so now I need you to check the other opening.”
“On it!” The energetic woman ran over to the other opening a little over five hundred feet away. When she reached the opening, she paused and looked back at Penelope.
Penelope gave the other woman a thumbs up, which drew a large smile. Circe stuck her arm through the barrier, then jumped in place before running back.
“It worked! It worked!” The excited woman wrapped her arms around Penelope and bounced. “That was so cool!”
“Yeah…” Penelope untangled herself. “This means that we need to wait for Freddy to get down here, then both groups can tackle the square together.
“Why wait?” Circe shrunched her brow.
“Look at the Dungeon.” Penelope turned and pointed at the next column. “The squares are twice as long and twice as wide as they were on the first floor. That means there are either four times as many monsters in there, or whatever is in there could be four times as powerful.” She looked at Marlow. “That makes sense, right?”
Marlow nodded. “It makes sense to me. Honestly, I was worried that we’d start losing people. We were level ten and still had a few times where we almost lost someone.”
“But how do you know that these two tunnels will go to the same place?” Circe frowned.
“I—”
“DON’T.” Jeru interrupted what she’d been about to admit. “You don’t know that they meet up.”
“I don’t.” Penelope shrugged. “But if we have all our level tens go into the same square, then we’ll have a better chance of the lower-leveled people surviving.”
“Aren’t there five of you?’ Circe glanced back at the portal as the first group of four from Freddy’s party entered the Dungeon.
“Dawson isn’t one of us anymore.” Penelope clenched her jaw. “He ran during the boss fight. We might not have…” A tear rolled down her cheek as the image of Ula’s body in the alley flashed in her mind.
“Oh, some of the others were talking about how he joined up with the people at the Star Tower, and I thought they might be joining us.”
Penelope wiped the tear away. “No one from the Star Tower volunteered when Frederica tried to get people to come down here.” She motioned at the group. “So no, we’re not joining the star tower.”
“Cool! I never liked those guys anyway.” Circe tugged on the bow slung over her shoulder. “So I know you don’t really know me, and you’ve already picked the teams, but I was kind of hoping that you might let me come with you?” She tapped her index fingers together. “Or maybe you could teach me how to fight while we wait on Miss Riddle to get here?”
Miss Riddle? Penelope snorted. “Don’t call her that. Just Frederica is fine.”
“But she’s older than my mom!”
Penelope looked over at Marlow for help.
“Freddy likes to think she’s younger than she looks. Just humor her.” Marlow put his arm on the teen’s shoulder. “You’re an adult now, and that means that it’s okay to call some other adults by their first name.”
“Okay!” Circe grinned. “Should I call you Marlow?”
“I’m fine with that.” The older man took a step back and turned to Penelope. “It might not be a bad idea to get the level ones started on some form of training. We don’t want another Judah episode.”
“Judah episode?” Circe wrinkled her brow. “What’s that?”
“He missed and burned off Freddy’s hair.” Penelope sighed. “You’re right. I can probably use my spells to give the ranged attackers something to shoot at.” She looked around. “But I don’t know how to help the melle attackers or the healers.”
“I’m sure someone has some fighting experience.” Marlow turned towards the gorup. “I’ll go talk to them.”
“Thanks.” Penelope watched the older man walk away. He did that for me, didn’t he?
“He can be sweet sometimes.” Jeru agreed. He chuckled. “I wish I had popcorn. Watching you try to teach someone is going to be entertaining.”
I was hoping you’d have some tips. Penelope smiled as her parasite went silent. Fine, be that way. She turned to the younger woman. “Let’s see about getting you some targets to shoot.”
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