The Demon tried uprooting the thorn traps.

The lack of a Shadow Caster in 21B let the fires rage unchecked. The Shadow Caster in 21A had nature affinity spells, which didn't help stop the fires. By the time they finished both of those squares, the initial level ones were all level twenty-three, putting them one level above the veterans.

Nina, Riva, and Frederica all sat out the final leg of each square. They were all level twenty-five, which put them as the highest-levelled people when they chose to make room for the burn squad.

Penelope looked at her menu. She, Allis, and Circe had all reached level twenty-six, giving them nine total people who were greatly over-levelled for the next leg of the journey. She cycled over to the timer and shook her head.

Day 16 - 7:51pm

Time Remaining 48:12:3:42

We spent all day on just three squares.

"Ninety-three more to go is thirty-one days at that speed." Jeru clapped his hands. "That's still plenty of wiggle room if you drop down to two a day, which you'll be able to do four a day once you get the backup teams leveled and they can clear their own sides."

I know… Penelope couldn't shake the unease that she was feeling despite the numbers looking favorable. She changed the screen over to her stats.

Penelope Flynn

Level 26 - Spellslinger

Experience 2508/2600

Stamina 70/70

Mana 187/170

4 Power

3+3 Defense

18+7 Speed

35+13 Magic

18+6 Recovery

6+7 Aura

Fire Damage +15%

Light Damage +11%

Poison Damage +25%

Dark Resistance +32%

Earth Resistance +5%

Nature Resistance +6%

Despite her efforts to increase her Speed, there had been too much standing still and waiting for her Mana to recover as well as extra Mana Potions to help push the fire towards the monsters faster. Which had resulted in her Recovery getting the points instead, pushing her farther from ranking up her current class.

"You at least got some decent passives." Jeru pointed at the two abilities she'd unlocked.

At twenty-five, she'd gained <Conserve Mana>. As a Tier Two ability, it decreased her spells' mana cost by 10%. It wasn't a lot, but each Tier, she'd be able to upgrade it by another 5%, which would eventually reduce the cost of her spells by half.

Twenty-six gave her <Overstock Mana>. The passive allowed her to collect 10% more mana than her maximum. All spells she cast while over her maximum mana did 10% more damage, which wasn't a huge bump either, but it allowed her to start off the fights against the Shadow Demons with a surge of damage.

"You're just used to things being difficult." Jeru gave her an encouraging smile. "You can use the terrain here to your advantage, which is why things are easier. Enjoy the win."

It can't be this easy.

"The Nature floor usually is." Jeru shrugged. "Water floor is usually a pain because most of it is underwater. Fire Floor is slow because of all the lava runs. Earth floor ranges from sandscapes to underground tunnels to a hilly, rocky terrain. Electric floor is usually wide open, but with lightning storms that strike randomly instead of on a timer like on the Air floor. You'd think the Ice floor would be easy because you can just melt everything, but the lower temperature just refreezes the water and sculpts it into even harder terrain to travel on. Metal floor can range from a house of mirrors to paths full of traps. And the Poison floor, everyone except the Poison elemental people are going to stay sick the whole time, which makes things even harder to fight."

You're missing the Light and Dark floors.

"Never seen a Light floor." Jeru admitted. "I'm not sure they can have one. And the Dark floor has only showed up once."

As floor ten. Penelope guessed based on only one Looper ever making it that far. What about when you ran it?

"I wasn't really paying attention back then." Jeru hung his head. "Turning the incursion into a Dungeon was an idea to limit their power. Things weren't split up or partitioned when I charged down it, which made it kind of a different experience. Resetting time for myself cost me a lot of the extra magic I had borrowed, which is why I got the idea to create a loop. I split stuff up the way you see it to try to give them the most time I could. Little things, like information packets and stuff I can still add, or change little things with how the menu screens work, but for the most part, I can't do much more than that."

We'll figure it out. Penelope looked over at the next column. They look like they've learned from this side's mistakes.

Most of the underbrush had been cleared away from the barrier, leaving wooden barricades still in place, but the grass was tilled up, leaving bare earth between the fortifications. There also wasn't a treeline with only three paths into the square, leaving the entire square open for the Humans to enter wherever they wanted.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Getting an early start on appraising the next set?"

Penelope jumped at Patrick's voice behind her.

What happened to warning me?

"From Pat?" Jeru scoffed. "I start warning you when people from your inner circle are walking up behind you and people are going to think you have <Clairvoyance> on all the time."

I probably should. Penelope took a moment to calm her nerves before smiling at the bald Tank. "Just taking in how they changed their square to compensate for how we cleared the last three."

"Ah." Patrick jabbed his thumb back at the group. "No gear for you this time either."

"It's fine." Penelope shrugged. "I've got two stat lines on most of my gear. It's going to take a while for us to find something that will be an upgrade for me."

"Glad you're being mature about it…" The older man growled. "Had to threaten to bend Allis over my knee."

Penelope snorted. "She thinks she deserved an upgrade?"

"One piece of Magic gear in the last two zones and she wants it…" He shook his head. "Highest level person out here and she thinks one stat point is going to help her." Patrick threw up his hands. "I get people want loot, but that's ridiculous."

"How are things otherwise?"

Patrick paused his rant and eyed her for a moment. "You and your 'burn squad' destroyed anything edible or that I could repurpose for shelter." He gestured at the others. "Once we get some people out here to get rid of the soot, we've got a decent place to build. Probably can salvage some of the monster parts, especially the bones and scales, but the meat is too burnt to even try to eat." He eyed the monsters on the other side of the barrier. "Looks like we've got some decent food options."

"The Oakorn is an elemental." Penelope pointed at the deer creature. "It's nothing but branches woven together, so you're not going to get any meat out of it."

"Fine, venison is off the menu, but we've still got beef and bear." Patrick folded his hands across his chest. "Unless you're going to tell me that they're just twigs and roots too?"

"The Horned Bear is the Tank for that square and while it has <Bark Hide>, it doesn't have the Elemental tag, so it should be fine…" Her voice drifted off as she pointed at the standing bull-creature. "Minothorn is a biped. Didn't we decide not to eat those?"

"You're killing me, girlie!" Patrick threw up his hands. "How am I supposed to feed everyone if you're burning up all the food and taking a moral stance against what is a HUGE walking slab of meat!"

Penelope looked at the seven-foot-tall monster. "The Minothorn is the Power monster for that column. Considering it looks like a Minotaur with wooden skin that's covered in thorns…" She shrugged. "It looks like a person to me."

"Whatever." He gestured at the three-headed reptilian. "Is the lizard okay to eat? Because I know there's no way I'm going to convince people to eat the slug, and that mushroom head thing is walking around on two legs." He squinted. "Doesn't have enough meat on it for a meal anyway."

"The Reberus is the Speed creature and it should fit with what is acceptable to eat." Penelope pointed at the human-sized slug. "The Slurn is the Magic monster. It doesn't look like they have much in the way of spells, but they do have <Clairvoyance>, which will make the whole column a problem for Frederica."

"We've had to run columns with her assassination skill before; won't be any different than that." He pointed at the last monster. "Fuzzy mushroomhead—"

"Cafforn." Penelope corrected.

"The Cafforn." Patrick waved his hand at the monster. "Is the Healer, then?"

The three-foot-tall creature turned to look at them. Its entire body was covered in brown moss, with a pair of antlers budding out of the front of the mushroom cap on the top of its head.

"Yes, that's the Healer."

Patrick stared down the creature for a moment until it screeched and ran deeper into the square. The balding man chuckled as he turned around and dusted off his hands. "Shouldn't be too hard." He walked towards the safe zone.

I hope you're right. Penelope looked back at the square before turning to follow him.

Monster Stats:

Oakorn (Elemental)

Stamina 60

Mana 108

Power 13

Defense 9

Speed 8

Magic 18

Recovery 7

Aura 29

Passives: Barkskin, Thorns

Skills: Invigorating Pollen, Nectar, Vine Snare

Cafforn

Stamina 58

Mana 110

Power 9

Defense 13

Speed 7

Magic 18

Recovery 29

Aura 8

Passives: Grass Roots, Wide Heal

Skills: Invasive Heal, Natural Heal, Poison Cure

Slurn

Stamina 78

Mana 90

Power 18

Defense 8

Speed 13

Magic 29

Recovery 9

Aura 7

Passives: Rancid Aura, Heat Sense

Skills: Clairvoyance, Root Suckers, Vine Snare

Minothorn

Stamina 102

Mana 66

Power 29

Defense 13

Speed 9

Magic 8

Recovery 18

Aura 7

Passives: Barkskin

Skills: Gore, Rush, Smash

Reberus

Stamina 90

Mana 78

Power 7

Defense 9

Speed 29

Magic 13

Recovery 8

Aura 18

Passives: Tri-Attack, Tough Scales

Skills: Bite, Charge, Nature's Breath.

Horned Bear

Stamina 112

Mana 56

Power 18

Defense 29

Speed 9

Magic 13

Recovery 7

Aura 8

Passives: Barkskin, Thorns

Skills: Look At Me, Slash, Bite

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