The fires killed all the little stuff.

Penelope looked at the stats of the members of her team. Cassandra, Stephen, and Forest were all level twelve now, while she and Allis had gone to level twenty-four, while Fae-Anna hadn't earned anything.

All of her extra stats had gone into Recovery, which had increased her Mana Regeneration, but it was putting upgrading her class farther behind. She looked at her own menu.

Penelope Flynn

Level 24 - Spellslinger

Experience 2321/ 2400

Stamina 70/70

Mana 162/162

4 Power

3+3 Defense

18+7 Speed

33+13 Magic

16+6 Recovery

6+7 Aura

Fire Damage +15%

Light Damage +11%

Poison Damage +25%

Dark Resistance +32%

Earth Resistance +5%

Nature Resistance +6%

The skills she'd earned during her level-ups hadn't helped with the project, but were ones that Penelope had wanted. At twenty-two, she'd earned <Detect Monsters>, which combined with her orbital scanning, would allow her to pinpoint a hidden monster's location by using three of her floating <Light Balls> to triangulate where a Shadow Demon was hiding. Not that she needed the triangulation, since she could just follow the direction the skill pointed her with <Clairvoyance> active and she'd be able to locate the Shadow Demon even easier, but it would be helpful if one of the deeper floors had tunnels again instead of being out in the open like the current floor.

At twenty-three she earned <Far Casting>. As a Tier Two version, it only increased her range by 30%, but that was an extra thirty feet her <Light Balls> could move away from her and an extra ten feet that her <Light Bolt> would be able to hit something.

Level twenty-four was where she brought <Light Bolt> up to Tier Two. Considering she was already using it as her primary form of damage against the monsters, that made her even more lethal, not that she used it much at all.

Otherwise, the fight was rather boring. After a while, they'd burnt everything they could reach and had gotten drafted by Patrick to help with building shelters. The passive experience had continued to roll in and once the 45th ding alerted her that all the minions were dead, Penelope stopped what she was doing and went to find the leaders.

The three teams had gathered and now were waiting on her to dismiss her team so the three Casters could get added back into the main groups.

"You burned down all the fruit trees." Patrick lamented.

"But this fight is going to be so much easier." Allis beamed, pleased her idea had worked.

"But at what cost?" Patrick pointed at the ash-filled square. "Sure, we can make soap out of the ash, but we're going to be tracking soot all over the place and I don't know if there's going to be anything salvageable from the monsters!" He shook his head. "I can't wait until we can fight like we used to."

"Less danger is better." Raelyn motioned for her group to follow her. "Let's get into place, then meet up in the middle!"

Once the other two teams were far enough away, Patrick walked into the square.

Penelope followed, summoning her orbiting <Light Balls> and pushing them out to maximum range. <Light Bolts> snapped at any of the Shadow Demons who tried to get close. Since her range was longer than the Demons, they couldn't even get close enough to fire at her orbs, let alone the rest of the party.

"We've got a problem!" Caleb banged on the other side of the barrier.

Penelope stopped and turned around. Their Healer was stuck on the other side of the barrier. She glanced at the other two groups. Elliott Shurtleff, the Debuffer from Raelyn's team and Skylar Mansfield, the Healer who had been part of Penelope's group on the previous floor and was now part of the right-side team were also stuck on the other side of the barrier.

"Oh, as a way of keeping too many people from entering or attacking inside a square, the Dungeon only lets a set number of groups inside." Jeru pointed at the three Casters who were watching from behind Caleb. "They're technically considered to be in the square until they die."

That would have been nice to know!

"And how would you have explained having this information?" Jeru snorted.

I would have at least tried to layer things so we didn't walk in with only ONE Healer!

Jeru looked over at Raelyn, then back at Penelope. "Good point. Reset?"

No, I'm not going to reset! Penelope sighed and pointed at the three Casters. "Cass, Try to come through the barrier."

"But, I don't have any gear with stats on it." The older woman looked down at her plain robe. "And I'm only level twelve!"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"We'll keep you safe in the back, but you need to try to come in here so I can see something." Penelope motioned for her to walk towards the barrier.

"You can't be serious!" Riva grabbed Penelope's arm. "We've only got one Healer, if you add anyone else in here, how are we going to—"

"They were here first!" Penelope clamped her mouth shut when she realized that she'd just yelled at the older woman. "Sorry." She lowered her voice to speaking volume. "My guess is that because we threw spells into the square already, the Dungeon is counting them as already being in here. Which is why it kept three people out." Penelope turned to the woman on the other side of the barrier. "If it thinks you're already in here, then you might as well come in so you can get your share of the experience."

"Haven't they been getting experience while not being in the room?" Nina looked over at Caleb, then back at Patrick, who had stopped but wasn't walking back towards them.

"True." Penelope shrugged. "I guess we could just keep going, but it would be nice to know if they were allowed in for future reference."

The group waited as Cassandra stepped up to the barrier and touched it

"I can't get through." Cassandra dug her feet into the soil and pushed against the barrier, but it wouldn't let her pass.

"So did we mess up and short ourselves three people?" Riva looked over at Penelope.

"I don't…" Penelope snapped her fingers. "Patrick! Kick Caleb out of our group and add Cassandra!"

The older man shifted his shield and made the adjustment. Before he could announce that he was finished, Cassandra fell through the barrier.

"Well." Riva helped the other woman to her feet. "Now we know."

"Stay in the back near Riva and you'll be fine." Penelope looked between the two women. "This shouldn't be a difficult fight, but we've only got one Healer, so the priority is going to be for us to stay safe over doing damage."

It didn't take long for the others to meet up in the center, and then the three Tanks set their shields and moved forward. Frederica vanished, with her ability to travel in the shadows allowing her to move across the burned landscape without disturbing the ash.

"You're sure they're all dead?" Circe eyed the burned bodies of the monsters, many of which were still smoking as the group marched deeper into the square.

"I counted each notification myself." Penelope cast <Detect Monsters> just to be sure. The light from her spell continued to point away from the group.

"It's just weird…" Circe prodded the corpse of a Scaled Serpent with the toe of her boot. "This is almost too easy."

"Maybe it's easier, but we're also not getting as much experience." Raelyn glanced over at Allis.

"Everyone is at least level twenty-one!" The fire Caster defended her plan. "You only need to level once per column to get to thirty by the end of the floor!"

"Incoming!" Patrick yelled over his shoulder, then braced as the Demons charged at them.

Penelope let loose with her <Light Bolts>, zapping everything that ran under her floating spells. Allis and Fae-Anna added their own spells to slow down the charge while Circe and Whitney Wilcox fired arrows.

None of the Shadow Knights or Shadow Warriors made it to the Tanks. All four Demons evaporated, leaving behind piles of armor.

Ding!

Experience +2

Experience +2

Experience +2

Experience +2

Frederica appeared behind the Shadow Healer and plunged both of her blades into its neck, stopping any more healing.

Ding!

Experience +2

The Shadow Caster dropped to its knees and held up its hands.

I SURRENDER

Allis hesitated, looking over at Raelyn for instruction.

The lone Healer was busy cleansing the toxins from Peter that the Shadow Poisoner was afflicting the Tank with.

Nina used <Dash> to quickly clear the distance between herself and the toxic Demon. A dark green aura wrapped around her, but it didn't stop the young woman from taking the Demon's head off. Without a head, the Demon's body evaporated, leaving behind a pile of clothing.

Ding!

Experience +2

Circe pinned the Shadow Debuffer in place, allowing Frederica to finish it off, while Penelope zapped the Shadow Sniper.

Ding!

Experience +2

Experience +2

The battlefield calmed as the only Demon that was left stayed on its knees with its hands in the air.

Patrick pointed his sword at the Demon, creating a ring of stone around it, burying the light-blue robed Demon up to its neck.

MERCY

"Don't talk to it!" Penelope twisted her wands, directing the <Light Balls> to hover over it.

YOU WOULD KILL A HELPLESS PRISONER?

The Shadow Caster turned to look at her. The grin on its face sent a shiver down her spine.

"We can't leave this square until all the Demons are dead!" Penelope clenched her jaw. "We need to kill it."

WHAT IF THERE WAS A WAY?

"Who cares?" Penelope looked at the others to try to find an ally. "Come on, you can't honestly be considering this?"

"What if there's a way to end this without any more fighting?" Circe looked down at her hands.

"Yeah!" Peter took off his helmet. "What if we can get them all to surrender?" He looked around. "We'd be able to go home, right?"

Frederica moved towards the Demon, but stopped when it fixed its glowing blue eyes on her.

I CAN TEACH YOUR FRIEND HOW TO BRING YOUR LOVER BACK TO YOU.

The blade in Frederica's hand wavered as she stopped. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Pen is right, we can't leave if we don't kill you, so nothing you say is going to change that."

YOU HAVE MAGES? ALLOW ONE TO FORM A GUARDIAN PACT WITH ME. THAT WILL TRICK THIS CONSTRUCT INTO BELIEVING ME TO BE DEAD.

"Mages?" Circe looked over at Penelope. "Does he mean Casters?"

ANY WHO WIELD SPELLS WILL SUFFICE.

Jeru?

"Yes, it's possible but it will also let that thing in your head. Don't let anyone do it!"

"What would we—" Raelyn ducked as magic hit the Demon.

Penelope dumped as many <Light Bolts> as she had mana left into the Shadow Caster. She wiped beads of sweat off her brow with the back of her sleeve, then stuck her wands into her belt.

Ding!

Experience +2

"Whatever it was going to offer you, it wouldn't have been worth it." Penelope shook her head. "We can't negotiate with them."

"How do we even know that they're the bad guys?" Peter screamed. "For all we know, that smurf is the villain and we're storming these guys home and they're just defending themselves!"

"If they were defending their home, then they wouldn't have killed the level ones back on the surface." Patrick leveled his gaze at the rest of the group. "Pen was right; we should never have talked to the thing. And if anyone has a problem with that…" He cracked his neck. "They can talk to me."

"I…" Peter's shoulders slumped. "Whatever."

Tears streamed down Frederica's face as she sank to her knees in front of the hole filled with the loot the Demon left behind. The others slowly dispersed, going to collect the gear.

Riva walked over and put her hand on their leader's shoulder.

"Thanks." Penelope lowered her voice to just above a whisper as Patrick walked by her.

The older man simply grunted without slowing down.

Why does it feel like they think I'm the bad guy?

"For a moment, they had hope this was all going to be over…" Jeru sighed.

It's never going to be that easy, will it?

"Nope." The blue Elf shook his head. "It only gets harder."

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