Penelope hated ducks.

"I told you Healers would make things more difficult." Jeru grumbled as Penelope watched Patrick drag one of the Duckum out of the room by the neck. "Plus they're all dark meat and way too greasy."

Not helping. Penelope closed her eyes and activated <Clairvoyance>. She'd leveled during the first fight in 15D, and having a skill that allowed her to see through walls had made finding the other monsters simple. Clearing them out had been faster too, since she knew what the team compositions were before starting the fight.

The downside was that the vision was limited to 300 feet, but that was more than enough for her to look into the next column to see what monsters were waiting for them if there were any in the next room. Unfortunately, the eastern side of 16D was nothing but a solid rock wall.

Penelope canceled the spell.

"See anything?" Circe sat down next to her.

"What makes you think I was trying to see something?" Penelope looked down at her hands.

"You squint when you use it." Circe laughed. "It's like you're trying really hard to read the whiteboard."

"She's right! You look like you can't see anything when you use it." Jeru laughed along with the brunette.

"I was just trying to see what we were about to be up against." Penelope huffed. "This column took us almost six hours, and I'd like to know if we're going to be running into something like healer bunnies in the 16s."

"What you should be focused on is lunch." Circe opened a pouch and held it out. "Mystery jerky time!"

"Thanks." Penelope took out a piece.

"Before you taste it, guess what monster it came from!" Circe grinned.

"I'd rather not." Penelope popped the finger-length piece of dried meat in her mouth and did her best to ignore the gamey taste.

"You're no fun." Circe popped one in her mouth. "I had an uncle who would pick up roadkill and turn it into jerky, then at family gatherings, we'd have to try to guess what animal he'd found." She chuckled. "Thanksgiving was wild because he'd have a lot stored up from Easter."

"Sounds like you had fun." Penelope took another piece out of the pouch.

"We didn't get out a lot, so getting to hang out with the cousins was the highlight of the end of the year." Circe paused, her wistful gaze taking her somewhere else in her memories. Pain etched on her face, then she shook the memories away, her usual smile replacing the distaste of the bad memory.

"You okay?" Penelope examined her friend.

"Yeah." Circe grinned wider. "The past has things in it that I wish were different; that's all. Can't go back in time and change things."

Penelope opened her mouth but paused as the voice in her head interrupted what she'd been about to ask.

"That's a dangerous conversation to have."

It's just a hypothetical. Penelope turned her voice inward. And are you wanting me to reset this run anyway?

"There's a difference between telling you to reset the run and you asking another person how they would do the run differently."

What could go wrong?

"Are you okay?" Circe waved her hand in front of Penelope's face.

Penelope blinked as she turned her attention back to the woman sitting next to her. "Sorry, I was just thinking about what I would redo if I could go back in time to when we first got here."

"Oh, that's easy! I would have come down here with you from the get-go!" Circe grinned and mimicked shooting monsters. "Can you imagine how much stronger I'd be if I'd followed you?"

"I can imagine." Penelope made a note to find Circe when she did her full reset. "What would you do differently if you were in charge starting with this floor?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"I told you not to do that!" Jeru fumed as he appeared and got in her face. "You have no idea how dangerous that question is!"

Because you won't tell me. Penelope closed her eyes to ignore the raging blue Elf in front of her.

"If I knew what I know now?" Circe hummed. "I'd have killed Dawson and Derek."

"Really?" Penelope opened her eyes and repositioned so she could look around the blue obstacle floating in front of her. "Could you have done that? Killed someone?"

"We kill the Demons all the time. What's so different about killing a killer?" Circe clenched her fist. "Those two are going to kill us eventually." She paled. "Or worse." The anger and grief vanished from her face as she looked at her friend. "Why? What would you do?"

"You'll tell everyone that you're a Looper, and then the ArchDemon will figure out that I attached a piece of my soul to him, and that's how we're able to loop. He'll rip that piece off, which will fry me and leave you without a way to loop!" Jeru huffed.

WHAT! Penelope blinked.

"It's soul magic. And not the happy, fill-your-soul-with-joy kind, but the dark, one-way-trip-to-the-unending-darkness kind." Jeru pointed at his black eyes. "This is what happened to me after I connected my soul to him! A loop needs three things." Jeru held up three fingers. "A power source. An anchor. And a sacrifice to create the looper."

Penelope stared at the wall behind the Elf as she processed what he'd said.

"Those three things are supposed to be willing, because if at any point, the power source gets shut off or the anchor backs out, the whole thing falls apart." He groaned. "The only reason why he hasn't figured out that there's a piece of me on him is because he's got thousands, if not millions, of souls he's absorbed over the eons. Finding the right one would take time, but once he does, ending your looping ability will be as easy as pulling out a hair. So please! Stop this conversation!"

Circe isn't a Demon. Penelope blinked, then sighed. But if I can spy on the Demons, then they can spy on us. Fine.

"You're really spacing out a lot today." Circe stood up. "Do I need to get Marlow?"

"I'm fine." Penelope grabbed her friend's hand. "My mind just got lost in all the 'what ifs,' and I got lost." She forced a chuckle. "I'm fine, I promise."

"If you say so." Circe sat back down. "You really thought a lot about it, didn't you?"

"There's just too many variables." Penelope nodded at the doorway. "But we can't change the past, so we should probably get into position. Frederica is going to want to start 16 soon, and we should be ready at our tunnel for whenever the guys get back."

"That's another thing I'd change." Circe grumbled as she stood back up. "We need more girls on our team. Marlow has that whole 'hot dad' thing going for him, but the rest of them are just rude chest-beaters."

Penelope snorted. "I wouldn't call Patrick a chest-beater."

Circe rolled her eyes.

"Yes, he likes to brag about what he does, but how many other people could have made a shower like he did?" Penelope shrugged.

"Say that again while he's around, and his ego won't fit through the door." Circe chuckled. "Does that mean you have a thing for Patrick?"

"NO!" Penelope grimaced. "I'm not here for romance or flirting. I was just saying that he's smart even if he does have an ego."

"You know you don't have to hide it from me…" Circe bumped her hip into Penelope. "I promise if you call dibs, I'll let you have him."

Does everyone think about sex all the time? Penelope went to the person who'd been in the most minds.

"Pretty much." Jeru laughed. "Or food. Sometimes people have other things they daydream fondly about, but the void of romantic interest in you makes me wonder how Nate ever managed to convince you to be with him."

Weren't you there?

"Oh, I'm not saying you made it easy; I just thought you were playing coy and hard to get, but now that I'm on this side, I have no clue how that even worked."

"Thinking about someone else?" Circe smirked.

"Thinking of how to get you to end this conversation." Penelope pulled away. "We've got Demons all around us that want to kill us. We don't have time to be fantasizing."

"We only fight for twelve hours a day." Circe pouted. "That's plenty of time for a hookup." She looked Penelope up and down. "Might loosen you up a little if you—"

"STOP!" Penelope sliced her hands through the air. "It's not funny, and that's crossing a line." She shook her head. "You can fantasize all you want, but that's not what I'm thinking about, so please, don't try to force me to be something I'm not."

"Oh, sorry." Circe hung her head. "I just thought…" His shoulders sagged. "We could die every time we walk through that barrier. I just thought it might be fun to do something I never got to do before I die."

"If that's on your bucket list, go for it." Penelope shook her head. "My bucket list…" No. I'm not dying here, so there's no reason to be thinking about a bucket list. "Right now is to get strong enough so I can go explore the city." She grinned as she glanced at Jeru. "I want to see an Elf."

"We can go together!" Circe pumped her fist in the air. "Once we clear this floor, we'll go into the city and find you an Elf boyfriend!'

"Circe…" Penelope groaned as Patrick appeared on the other end of the tunnel with the other 3 men behind him.

"Girlfriend?" The brunette raised a suggestive eyebrow.

Penelope just shook her head. Why can't this day be over?

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