The tension boiled as the silence drowned out the sounds.

ULA'S DAUGHTER GOT SUMMONED TOO? Penelope fumed. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SHE WAS HERE? WHO ELSE HAS FAMILY THAT GOT SUMMONED?

"I didn't tell you because I didn't know she'd be down here!" Jeru groaned. "She usually only shows up on the second floor when Ula lives!"

You didn't answer my question! Penelope eyed the other group, waiting to see who would make the first move. Who else has family down here?

"Ren's wife is here, Derek's brother, Dawson's mom, Rockwell's dad, Patrick's brother… oh! Kent's brother got caught up in the wave too. There were a lot of people who were with family when they died during the awakening, so there are a lot of other family members, couples, friends, and stuff that got summoned too, but that's just about everyone that you've met."

Just about? Penelope glanced at Frederica. Who else is down here?

"Down here? Nobody."

JERU!

"Fine, it's Circe's father." Jeru waited as Penelope processed that information.

Does Circe know?

"Not yet." Jeru motioned at the woman with the bow. "She falls apart when they find each other. He's a piece of work."

I can imagine. Penelope filed the information about her friend away for later. If he wasn't on this floor, then she could worry about that later.

"It's probably worth mentioning that Raelyn was Emory's aunt." Jeru cleared his throat. "That usually comes up later though."

Then remind me about it when we aren't about to kill an entire other group! Penelope held up her hands. "Let's all just take a moment. There's no reason for anyone to get killed."

"See! Red gets it." Derek grinned despite Frederica's blade drawing a thin red line where it pressed against his throat.

"Quiet!" Frederica hissed in his ear. "Let her go, and then we can talk."

Dawson snorted. "You lock down our entire team, and WE'RE the ones who have to let people go?" He pointed his free hand at the goons cowering between the tables. "You let our people go first, and THEN we can talk about a prisoner exchange!"

"Prisoner exchange?" Circe wrinkled her nose. "You guys want Kent?"

Derek's eyes widened. "He's your problem, not ours." He pointed a finger back towards himself. "He's talking about me."

"If they go free, then they leave!" Frederica leaned forward to look at Derek's face.

The blond man winced as she yelled in his ear. He made it through half of a nod, which scratched his neck worse against the blade. Derek held up his thumbs. "I'll tell them to leave!"

Frederica nodded at the women. The dark haze around the group vanished, then the shadowy chains fell away.

"Get out of here!" Ren Bigelow jerked his thumb at the doorway behind him.

Frederica and Derek shuffled out of the doorway, leaving the lower-leveled men plenty of room to flee.

Patrick and Oakley ran into the room from the entrance to the north.

"What's going on?" The two men hefted their shields as they hurried towards the main group.

"You've got company."

Penelope turned and watched two middle-aged, red-haired women walk through the door behind Dawson. The first was in full metal armor, with only her red hair peeking out from under her helmet. The other was in leather armor, but without the sleeves, and had the same dragon tattoo running up each of her arms. Both had their weapons out; the Tank was armed with a mace and a shield, and Ren's wife was carrying a greatsword.

Behind them entered a black-haired man in his early forties dressed in a red robe. Grayson Horton had a wand in his belt but didn't take it out as he walked around the women and headed towards the other group.

"That's close enough!" Frederica pointed at him with her free hand. "Casters stay over a hundred feet away!"

"Gray is our Healer." Derek pointed at his bleeding neck. "He just wants to heal me."

Frederica glanced at the scratch that her blade had made, which was getting larger every time the pair moved. She looked at Penelope. "Can you take him?"

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"He's telling the truth." Penelope affirmed after she looked at the nameplates. "His class is a Healer."

Derek's eyes widened. "So you can see everyone's name and class. Level too?"

What do I do here? Penelope turned to her inner voice.

"Just say yes. If they're attached to our side of the system, I can get you access to all their stats and skills."

Penelope opened her mouth, but Derek cut her off. "It's a yes." He smirked. "You took too long to answer, which meant either you were coming up with a lie or deciding if you should tell the truth." He chuckled. "This is why I need you, Red. You're too easy to read, and I could use the honesty."

"She's never joining you." Frederica hissed in his ear. "And if you don't leave her alone, I'll kill you!"

"We'll see." Derek glanced at his Healer. "Now, can Gray do his thing, or…?"

"Fine." Frederica turned them both so that Derek was in between her and the Healer.

"You know, this would work a lot better without the sword on my neck." Derek pinched the blade between his right index finger and thumb.

"Let her go first." Frederica hissed.

"I'm not giving up our leverage first!" Dawson screamed. Their group had gotten closer and was just over a hundred feet away from Penelope's group.

"We're not the ones who killed someone!" Circe kept her bow trained on Ren.

"To be fair, I didn't kill anyone." Derek smirked. "The Demons did."

"You threw him through the barrier by himself!" Frederica yelled, forcing Derek to wince. The cut on his neck glowed red, sealing itself back up.

"You mean like she did last night?" Derek pointed at Circe. His grin grew wider as he took in the shocked look on her face. "Yes, I know about that. So don't try to act all high and mighty when you've done the exact same thing that I did to protect MY people!"

"Protect your people…" Penelope shook her head and pointed at the exit. "You just offered to let me kill one of those people."

"Because I knew you wouldn't do it!" Derek's shoulders slumped. "Look, do you think I would have made the same offer to one of these crazies?" He straightened as Frederica pulled the blade against his neck. "No offense?"

"Very offended." Frederica hissed. "Now, let Nina go, and we'll talk about turning you loose."

"Fine, as a show of good faith…" He gestured at Dawson. "Let her go."

"But…"

"LET. HER. GO!" Derek yelled. "We're not here to fight, so let her go!"

"Whatever." Dawson released his grip on the young woman's throat.

Nina stumbled forward, then stared at the two groups, her face full of confusion.

"Nina, get behind the guys." Frederica pointed at the pair of Tanks, then continued when the woman didn't move. "Your mom was our friend; you'll be safe with us."

The tanned woman glanced at the group behind her, then fled to the two Tanks.

"Now that's settled." Derek lightly pulled the blade away from his neck. "I believe we can put this away."

Frederica took a step back and nodded at Circe, who lowered her weapon.

Derek rubbed his neck, then motioned for Ren to join the others. He smiled as he turned to face Frederica. "See? We can all be civil about this." He pointed at the sack in front of Penelope. "There's the twenty Demonic Essences that we borrowed, which makes us even."

"EVEN?" Patrick ran over to the bag and riffled through it. He looked up at the blond, who was backing up towards the other group. "You took twenty-FOUR of these things from us, not to mention the ones you took from the first floor!"

"Was it twenty-four?" Derek sighed and motioned to Ren.

The large man rifled through his pocket and pulled out four more vials and set them on the table in front of him.

"And the ones from the first floor only gave five experience to the Tier Zeros and no experience to the Tier Ones." Derek shook his head. "Those were worthless to you and would have fallen into the hands of one of the other groups before you made it back to the surface. And since they're all gone anyway, arguing about them is like crying over an empty bottle."

"The Tier Ones are worth half a level to the Tier Zeros." Penelope cleared her throat. "That's a ten-to-one ratio."

"And how many did you let rot because you didn't have anywhere to put them?" Derek countered. "You don't even know how many there were."

"Eighty-four." Patrick stood up, his voice taking on a gravelly tone. "I know exactly how many there were, and they were supposed to be brought down with one of the loads, so don't give me that bull about someone stealing them. You stole them, end of story. That's eight more vials, and then we can start talking about why we aren't killing you."

"We don't have that many, but how about this?" Derek held up his hands. "You take the larger half of the Dungeon." Derek motioned at the people behind him. "I'm sure Red can confirm that we're all almost capped out, like you."

Frederica turned to Penelope, who nodded. All of Derek's team were 18 or 19.

"We haven't been clearing the zones with four teams like you guys, and we've been having to take breaks to process our own food and stuff, but we've made it through our side of the 15s."

"So what are you saying?" Frederica growled.

"No fighting between our teams. Split the Dungeon. You take A through F, and we get G through J." Derek tilted his head. "You've got more people, so that gives you a larger share of the resources." He pointed at the wall across the room in front of him. "Then, when we get to the boss room, we each take two teams in there and split the loot fifty-fifty." He smirked. "And maybe let us use the showers once in a while?"

"Not a chance." Patrick growled.

"Had to ask." Derek shrugged. "Do we have a deal?"

"What's stopping one of us from going in the boss room without the other one?" Frederica glared at him.

"The boss room should be on your side." Derek sighed. "And I'm not going to have enough people leveled by then to field four teams."

"But we will." Frederica crossed her arms in front of her. Each hand still clutching a blade. "You trust us not to go in there without you?"

"I trust her." Derek pointed at Penelope. "She'll keep you honest if you agree to this." He turned back to Frederica. "Besides, you know our team is going to have better gear than your B-Team."

The blonde woman hesitated for a moment.

"You're serious?" Patrick threw up his hands. "Whatever."

Frederica let out the breath she'd been holding in. "We have a truce. You guys clear your side and then we'll talk about the boss room when we get there, but…" She glared at Derek. "I want all of your spies out of my area." She pointed to her left. "And if you want to talk to me again, you tell one of the guards to come get me. No more of these theatrics."

"I can live with that." Derek held out his hand. "Want to shake on it?"

"Just go." Frederica growled.

They stood in silence until Derek's group was gone, then Circe turned to Penelope.

"Did we just make a deal with the devil?"

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