The mattresses didn’t come off the beds, but the blankets did and for whatever reason, the dorms were still furnished. Considering the campus could hold over a thousand people, there hadn’t been a fight over grabbing a pair of blankets for everyone.
Penelope looked at the small crowd and recognized a couple of the faces. Fae Anna was there as well as Derek. She even saw Stephen Frye and his wife, Iriel. The image of the mid-fifties man
Penelope shook her head. How do you keep track of the past, present, and future when it’s all the same thing?
“You focus on the moment.” Jeru shrugged. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve accompanied a looper going through this portal for the first time?”
Too many. Penelope sighed. Hopefully, this is the last time.
Jeru pursed his lips together like there was something on his mind that he wanted to say, but in a very un-Jeru manner, he remained silent.
You know that’s not fair.
“I know. But not everything that goes through my head is relevant to you.” He shrugged. “And I do try to stay out of your private thoughts as much as I can.”
Sure you do… Penelope turned her attention from the parasite in her head to the woman addressing the crowd.
“If everything goes the way we think it will, we won’t be able to come back out of the Dungeon until we beat the boss at the end of the floor.” Ula raised her voice so everyone there could hear. “In case we fail, you need to build a barricade around the portal to slow down anything that gets past us.”
“How are you going to get out if we pile stuff over the portal?” Derek folded his hands across his chest.
Ula turned to the blond man. “Don’t pile things directly over the portal.” She grabbed the corner of the gray blanket at her feet and threw it over the portal. The swirling magic sucked the blanket in like a hungry sponge. She brushed off her hands and turned back to the Caster. “Anything that touches the portal will get sucked into the portal, so you can’t build anything too close.” She pointed to where he was standing, which was about thirty feet from the portal. “I’m not sure what the chain reaction will be, but if you keep things over there, then you should be good.”
“And we’re just supposed to what, sit out here for four days and hope you all are able to kill everything on the first floor?” Ren Bigelow folded his thick, tattooed arms over his large belly.
“You’re welcome to join us.” Ula motioned towards the portal.
Ren looked over at Derek, who shook his head. “I’m good.” The big man took a step back.
“It’s already been almost five hours since we got here, so let’s not waste any more time.” Frederica pointed at Penelope, then gestured at the portal. “This is your crazy plan. I think you should go first.”
Penelope sighed. I’d forgotten how prickly she was at the beginning. She nodded. “Sure.”
Walking through the portal was like stepping through a waterfall that was mildly electrified. Not a strong enough current to shock anyone, but enough to leave a small tingle on their skin after they emerged on the other side.
The checkerboard pattern of the first floor brought back a wave of memories. Penelope pushed away the scenes of how many times her friends had died at the hands of the monsters in the square directly in front of her. She picked up the blanket at her feet and walked away from the portal so she wouldn’t be in the way of the others. It didn’t take long for everyone to filter into the safe zone.
“Should we dive right in?” Oakley pointed at 2E.
“NO!” Penelope moved to get in between the Tank and the square. She pointed at the walls. “The levels of the monsters increase as it goes deeper in. We need to start with level one monsters.”
“O-kay.” Oakley looked from left to right, then turned around to find Ula. “Hey! You want to go left or right?”
“We’ll go right.” Penelope pointed at 1D. She paused as she remembered the monsters. Demonic Ants and Ceiling Creepers. She pointed up at the green monsters on the ceiling. “Make sure you keep an eye out for those things.”
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“Ugh!” Circe shivered. “There are bugs on the ceiling?”
“Why don’t we try to do this square first and let the other group watch?” Penelope looked over at her friend. “Circe, since you don’t have a weapon yet, you’ll need to focus on calling out where the monsters are.”
“None of us have any weapons yet, unless you count that racket.” Patrick pointed at Frederica, then flexed, covering his skin in gray rock. “What do you expect us to do? Wrestle those things to death?”
Penelope looked at her stats. Considering the bonuses she got from her jobs being such a high level, she started at Greenhorn instead of Caster, which gave her the
“Whoever goes in first is going to get roughed up.” Circe pointed at the four Demonic Ants crowded next to the barrier.
“Let me try something…” Penelope walked away from the main group. A single Demonic Ant followed after her, staying just a few steps behind. She stuck her right arm through the barrier and pointed at it. “Light Pulse!”
The fist-sized ring of light shot off the tip of her finger and struck the monster in its big, bulbous eye.
DING!
Experience +5
Penelope smiled as the notification that she hadn’t seen in decades popped up. She walked towards the cluster of Demonic Ants and aimed at their eyes as they turned to charge at her. “Light Pulse! Light Pulse! Light Pulse!”
DING!
Experience +5
Experience +5
Experience +5
“Well, that’s not that difficult…” Patrick chuckled. “And here I thought we were going to have a knockdown, drag-out brawl to the death!”
“They went down that easily because I was able to hit them in a weak spot.” Penelope pulled her hand back into the safe zone as the Shadow Swordsman backed out of her range. She looked over at Judah. “It’s almost like shooting rubber bands with your fingers. Did you ever do that?”
“I’m horrible at shooting rubber bands…” Judah hung his head. “I always shoot myself in the face.”
“Then you’re going to need to practice until you can cast your spell without it hitting you or someone else.” Oakley grabbed the younger man around the neck and pulled him in for a big hug. “Because I don’t want to get hit by one of your fireballs!”
“How are we supposed to clear the zone with a dud mage and no weapons?” Frederica bounced her rackets off her shoulder. “Are you going to alternate the group you’re in?”
“We can get Nina that sword.” Penelope pointed at the Shadow Swordsman. “And if Oakley is wearing the armor, then he should be able to handle holding off the monsters until you can kill them all.”
“You want to give them my armor?” Patrick held up his hands. “How is that fair?”
“Do you want to take Judah and I’ll go with Frederica’s group?” Penelope gestured at the others.
“Harsh.” Circe coughed into her hand.
“You know what, I think that giving them the first weapon isn’t a bad idea.” Patrick took a step towards the barrier. “We going in now?”
“Do you have enough mana?” Ula looked over at Penelope.
Penelope nodded. “I’ve got enough for seven more spells and I doubt it takes more than five to finish those two things off.”
“Alright, then, are just the two of you going in or do you need all six of us?” Ula looked from Penelope to Patrick, then back.
“I think we should all go in.” Penelope answered before Patrick could. “You might not get experience if we’re on opposite sides of the barrier.”
“You guys got experience?” Frederica sighed. “Of course you did.”
“We also need to think about what type of skills we want in our level-ups.” Penelope took a deep breath. “In the game, you picked three different skills or passives and then were randomly given one of those when you leveled up.” She looked at the others. “We should level up after clearing three of these squares, so think about what you might want.”
“What do you want?” Judah spoke up first. He looked down at his hands when everyone looked at him. “I mean, I have no idea what I’d want.”
“You’re going to want the
A murmur went through the group as most people agreed that would be a smart idea.
“We do need to get started though.” Penelope tapped her wrist. “We each need to clear twelve of the squares each day to reach the end of this before the timer runs out and we’re starting way behind today.”
“Well, they can’t go until we get them some gear, so let’s get to it.” Patrick stepped into the square. Once inside, gray stone grew over his skin. He pounded his fists together. “Let’s see what this thing can do!”
“Let’s go.” Ula smiled as she looked at the other group. “Good luck.”
Penelope took a deep breath as she walked into the square. She’d done everything she could to give everyone the best chance of survival. Now she just had to hope that things worked out. Otherwise, she was going to have a lot of resets in her future.
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