Penelope grabbed her wands before she <Blinked>.

It took six casts to get within range of the other fight.

Frederica was slowing down as her Stamina hovered in the single digits. Eldri was using her <Barriers> to provide a safe zone in the corner for herself, Riva, Rockwell, and Caleb. But it was only holding off the monsters. With only one damage dealer, the fight would have been difficult without a Healer on the other side. Against a Shadow Healer, it was a miracle that there were only seven Lesser Demons still alive.

Oakley was holding his own against the pair of Chillons, but the rolling Demons were keeping him away from the rest of the group. The three Lemugs couldn't keep up with Frederica, but the lashes of the pair of Killons were stopping her from getting close enough to damage the Healer, and she wasn't able to hurt the Killon's thick skin or the Lemug's hard shells more than the Shadow could heal.

Penelope unleashed a stream of <Light Bolts> on the closest reptilian Demon.

Ding!

Experience +1.5

The other's <Air Lash> wrapped around her ankle, pulling her off her feet. Before her head could hit the stone floor, Penelope <Blinked> away, landing on her feet on the other side of the hideous giant ladybugs.

"Take out the Healer! I've got this!" Penelope swallowed as the Lemug's shells cracked, revealing veined wings hidden underneath. The trio flew into the air, then dove at her.

Not as easy as I thought. Her spell connected with the lead one twice before she had to <Blink> away. While she was orienting herself, the Killon caught her with its lash, yanking her towards it, forcing her to <Blink> to the other side of Oakley.

"A little help?" The armored man strained as he braced against the spinning attack of the quill-covered monsters.

Penelope wiped her face with the back of her arm, then aimed at the nearer of the two. A pair of <Light Bolts> was all it took to stop it.

Ding!

Experience +1.5

The swarm of Lemugs dove at them again. Oakley used <Shield Bash> to knock the Chillon aside, then summoned <Shield Wall> to widen his shield, ending the bugs' dive bomb.

Ding!

Experience +4

Frederica flicked goo off her blades as she turned her attention to the remaining Lesser Demons.

"Take the Killon! I've got the Chillon!" Penelope pointed her wands at the spinning monster.

Ding!

Experience +4

She unleashed a dual blast, earning the reassuring Ding! but that didn't stop the forward momentum. Penelope had to <Blink> to her left to avoid the crash.

"Marlow's group has finished off all the monsters down there." Jeru pointed at the other monsters. "Only four more—."

Ding!

Experience +1.5

Frederica removed the Killon's head from its shoulders.

"Three more to go." The blue Elf pointed at Oakley. "You need to help him. He can't move until the timer on the skill runs out."

The Lemugs skittered around the wider barrier, with two going on the side near the support and one coming towards her.

Two casts of her spell were enough to put the closest Demon down. Without the healing from the Shadow, it took less damage to kill them. The other two Lemugs realized they weren't going to reach the Tank on foot and spread their wings.

Frederica landed on top of the farthest one from Penelope, sinking her blades into its back. Without the shell to protect it, green fluid poured out of the wound. With a sharp twist, the older woman ended the monster, triggering the Ding! that meant there was only one left alive.

Penelope finished it off as it rammed Oakley.

"Are you okay?" Frederica hurried over to the Tank and pulled the monster back.

"Just a bruise." Oakley lowered his shield and looked around. "That all of them?"

"The floor is lit." Penelope motioned at the walls. She hung her head. "Sorry I didn't get that one faster."

"It's fine!" Oakley chuckled as Frederica pulled off his helmet. "The guys can fix bruises!"

"That was…" Eldri braced her hands on her knees after she reached the group. "We've never fought that many before!"

"It would have been fine if there hadn't been a Healer." Circe poked at the item pile thirty feet on Penelope's left. "Looks like we got a nice pair of gloves out of it." She held up the pair of blue gloves so people could see.

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Fluid Gloves

Recovery +2 Aura +2

Water Damage +11%

Passive: Healing Mist - Heals you cast leave behind a mist that continues to heal targets inside.

"What about the others?" Oakley untangled himself from Frederica, then walked over to the pile of armor.

"Patrick is grabbing them." Circe handed the gloves to Frederica. "He said our Knight dropped a good ring." She turned to Penelope. "Are you okay?"

Penelope sat down and ran her fingers through her hair. While the potion had pushed the metal out of her body, it hadn't cleansed the blood that had dried in her hair. There were also metal fragments in some of the clumps.

"I lost my hood."

"I can see that." Circe walked over and picked at the matted hair. "You're going to need a bath tonight for sure."

"There's not much of a point without soap." Penelope leaned against the brunette as the younger woman continued to pick debris out of her hair.

"Patrick has that covered. He brought more tree clippings down here and did something weird with the ash to make something." Circe flicked a clump at the wall. "Anyway, you're going to have to take a proper bath tonight."

"I think we could all do with a chance to clean up." Frederica looked over at the approaching group. "What do you think, Patrick? How's that soap of yours coming?"

"Why? You decide you need me to stay back at camp so you can have a bubble bath?" The balding man tossed her a ring. "Two Defense, two Recovery, and let's you use <Earth Wall>." He motioned at Oakley. "Pretty sure that's an upgrade for your boytoy, even if he already has the skill."

"We're going back just long enough for me to see if Kent is awake and if he's cooled down." Frederica handed the ring over to Oakley. "But I think we'll stop after we do this column. This room almost got us, and I don't want to push us so hard that we lose people."

Frederica turned to Penelope. "Will that put us behind?"

"No." Penelope straightened. "We really only need to do 17A, B, and C for us to hit twenty."

"Great!" Frederica clapped her hands. "You all know where you're supposed to be. I'm going to go talk to Kent and see if he's ready to be a team player; then I'll make sure we're all in place before we go in."

As the others headed for the exit, Skylar and Riva came over to help Penelope stand up.

"You dropped this." Skylar held out the [Darkness Hood] Penelope had been wearing.

"Thanks." Penelope slipped the hood over her matted hair and secured it under her chin.

"I…" Skylar looked down at her hands. "Thanks for saving me from the monster."

"We're a team." Penelope shrugged. "That's what we do." She motioned to where the pile of gear the Shadow Healer had dropped had been. "You saw how fast we were able to put down the monsters once their Healer went down."

"Yes, but I couldn't heal you." Skylar touched her face.

"You'll be able to once you hit level eleven." Penelope thought for a moment. "But that won't happen today."

"I'm level eight now!" The bespectacled woman adjusted her glasses. "I got two whole levels in here!"

"Congrats!" Penelope found herself smiling. "You should hit eleven in the second square you do with us tomorrow."

"Oh…" The blonde frowned. "That's…"

"It means you'll be a Tier One in the morning!" Circe wrapped her arm over the younger woman's shoulder. "Don't be so down! You did great out here today!"

"But I didn't do anything!" Skylar tried to pull out from the side hug and failed.

"You didn't die." Penelope pinched Circe's arm with her index finger and thumb and pulled it off of the younger woman. "Neither did anyone else. That's really all that matters."

"Oh!" Circe snapped her fingers. "You didn't give her the other thing!"

"What other thing?" Penelope looked from Circe to Skylar.

"This." Skylar pulled a silver wand off of her belt and offered it to Penelope. "It's what the Caster you killed dropped."

Metal Wand

Magic +2 Metal Damage +6%

"That's an upgrade." Penelope took the [Nature Wand] off her belt. It felt strange to be removing the piece of gear that she'd been using since the first day, but it was hard to pass up the two points of Magic compared to the single point of Speed.

"You're about to have to start optimizing gear." Jeru cautioned. "But we can get into that later." He nodded at the rest of the group. "Focus on them for right now, and you can worry about optimizing gear when there is more of it to choose from."

You know that's going to be distracting me because you just gave me a problem and left me without the solution.

"Fine." Jeru cleared his throat even though he didn't really have one. "Basic premise is that starting with Tier One, there is a cap on how high your stats can get. For Tier One, it's 40. For Tier Two it's 60, and it keeps going up by twenty each Tier."

But doesn't the gear go up as well? Penelope fell in step behind Circe and tuned out the chatty woman's banter as her friend tried to engage in a conversation with Riva and Skylar about the lack of men around them at the moment.

"That's where the gear comes into play. Each piece of gear also goes up by one per Tier, so the most stats you'll see on a piece of gear for this floor is plus four. There are eleven slots, so when you take into account that you need eleven points of Magic at level 20 to cap out, that allows you to get six pieces of gear with Magic on them and five pieces with something else."

Does that mean that the Tier Two gear will have three or six stats per piece and I'll need seven pieces to hit the cap of 60?

"Exactly!" The blue Elf grinned. "Eight pieces for Tier Three, then nine pieces until you reach Tier Nine, when you'll need ten of your eleven pieces to hit the cap."

But I need to keep my stats at least at the previous Tier to keep my passives. Penelope shook her head. I can't keep my Speed and Recovery up like that!

"That's why I said to focus on the jobs and not to worry about it right now!" Jeru sighed. "You can't do anything about it, so just focus on clearing the third floor and getting to town! You won't have to worry about stats after that!"

The blue man vanished, signalling he was done with the conversation. Penelope thought about poking him, but he had a point. Everything was going to change once she went to the surface.

"PEN!" Circe slugged Penelope's arm. "Quit spacing out like that!"

"What?" Penelope blinked as she tried to remember what Circe had asked her.

"I asked you who you thought was hotter. Oakley or Marlow?"

Penelope shook her head and moved ahead. She needed this day to be over, and that was NOT a line of questioning she was interested in exploring.

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