They had a shower.

  Penelope’s eyes bulged as she looked at the system that had been built. “What is this?”

  “I told you I was more useful back at camp than out in the field, but ‘no, we need you so bad. You’re our best Tank.’” Patrick cleared his throat as he caught a glare from Frederica. “I, um, was talking to Pea here. No offense, Oak.”

  “Just explain what you’ve done.” Frederica pointed at the stalls.

  “So, I don’t have nozzles yet, but I’ve figured out how to adjust the size of the wall that the skill creates, which allows me to create these troughs.” He pointed at the holes in the ceiling. “Robert poked holes in here and we used monster tendons as elastic bands to keep the pressure on the gate; then all you have to do is…” He pulled on the vine hanging beside the small holes in the ceiling, and water rained down.

  Patrick let go of the vine, and the water slowed to a trickle, then stopped.

  “It was tricky to get the drain, but we raised the floor just enough so that we could put a slight angle and have the water drain under the wall.” Robert beamed. “We had to gouge the floor, but that allowed us to create a system where we set some of the fire Casters to heat up the water we gather from the showers and distill it back into the tank.”

  “I’m impressed.” Frederica pulled on the vine, releasing a short sprinkle. “How many of these have you made?”

  “I’ve been working non-stop for the last two hours on this project and God knows how many hours in between those fights you drag me into, and you want to know how many of these I’ve made?” Patrick glared at her.

  Frederica nodded. “Yes.”

  “You…” Patrick threw up his hands. “We’ve got a plan in place to fit a dozen of these in here and another dozen across the hall for the guys.” He pointed his finger at her. “Your boytoy might have that skill, but he can’t use it like I can! And that ring we got today needs someone Tier One to use it, which none of the other Tanks are! So how fast I can make more of these depends on how long you leave me alone to work!”

  “We need you tomorrow to get us to twenty so we can get our mastery upgrades, then you can stay here all day while we track down Dawson.” Frederica glanced over at Oakley. “How did walling off our side go?”

  “The walls are easy to make but not so easy to take down.” He pointed in front of him. “I left a one-foot gap at the top of the walls so we could see if the barrier was still up, but right now, all tunnels that lead from our area to the Es are walled off, with 11F cutting off the tunnels to 11G, 12F, and 12E.”

  Penelope swallowed the lump in her throat. It had been one of the concessions that Frederica had made to get Kent back on board.

  “It wasn’t a bad idea. People will feel safer if they think Dawson can’t get to them.”

  Will that stop him? Penelope stepped out of the washroom. There weren’t many people in 12B. Most had moved to 13A, which had the second largest room, other than the one they’d found in 14A, and while it was about the same size as the one in 12D, not many people wanted to be that close to the border of what was considered Dawson’s territory.

  “No.” Jeru sighed. “He’ll eventually get the spell , which will melt a hole in stone as well as , which will dissolve metal.”

  Is this just a hypothesis, or do you know for sure?

  “The system gives you abilities to match what you want or need as long as your stats will allow it.” The blue Elf grumbled. “It’s just how his mind works. Eventually, he’ll figure out how the system is giving out abilities, and he’ll want spells that allow him to overcome his weaknesses.”

  What weaknesses do I need to overcome? Penelope leaned against the doorframe. What can light magic do that will help me out right now?

  “.” Jeru didn’t even pause to think. “ is good, but it only points you in the direction of your closest foe. With , you’ll be able to see through walls, and since you can see, you’ll also be able to through them too.”

  With the Tier One version of at nineteen and the next level of mastery at twenty, that rounds me out for this floor. Penelope pulled up her menu. She’d leveled in the last fight of 14D, which had brought her to level seventeen.

  Penelope's stats:

  Penelope's Gear:

  Penelope's Spells:

   was the last ability she’d learned, which allowed Penelope to throw around spells more freely. Not that she was having any trouble with her mana regeneration, but now it allowed her to help out more around camp. Since they’d finished 14D, she’d spent the last hour using rings to fill up water basins for people and almost that long creating vines.

  They’d found a ring with the spell, and it hadn’t taken Penelope long to figure out how to cast it without anchoring the vines to something. Being able to create a 6x6 pallet of vines as big around as her arm had uses, but the main thing that had excited Patrick was the second, smaller that was made by her passive.

  The finger-width vines had to be pulled out, so Penelope couldn’t create stacks, but because there were so many more and they were tender, it allowed the camp teams to weave them together into things like cots, while the thicker vines could be used for lumber.

  How much should we be developing this place? Penelope looked down the halls. We won’t be coming back once we clear the floor.

  “It’s good practice for the deeper floors.” Jeru thought for a moment. “You’re going to be on the next floor for over a month. The timer on the 10th floor is a whole year.” He motioned at rooms. “Each square there is the same size as the first floor, so you have to spend days clearing each zone, which means you’ll spend more time living inside an uncleared square than you will in the safe zone.”

  Won’t we be able to send enough teams in that we can just clear it?

  “Unfortunately, the number of teams you can send is capped by the perimeter, as well as the area.” Jeru made a box with his fingers. “Two and two is four, so you can attack from two sides, but in the next floor, three and three is only six, so you have to clear three sides to be able to match the number of Demons in a square.” The blue Elf sighed. “And that’s not going to happen very often. So the advanced team will be outnumbered three to one. And the odds just get worse the deeper you go.”

  That’s why so many Loopers gave up? They had to be on the advance team, and the odds kept stacking against them?

  “It’s the resets.” Jeru hung his head. “You would think that having the ability to do something over and over would empower you, but each failure stings that much more, and having to do full resets because of an issue that you didn’t fix on the first floor is enough to demoralize even those with the strongest wills.” He looked to her right, in the direction of the boss room. “You’re up against a storm that you can’t fight alone but can’t ever be completely honest with those beside you. It’s worn the others down until they’ve all felt like they were alone in a crowded room.” He chuckled. “Which I guess is how you started out. Maybe that’s why Nate thought you would survive this.”

  “OUT!”

  Patrick stumbled into the tunnel with Oakley right behind him.

  “Girls only!” Circe planted herself in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

  “And how do you expect me to finish the other stalls?” Patrick glared at her.

  “You can work on the men’s side over there!” Circe pointed across the tunnel. A smile crossed her face as she grabbed Penelope’s arm. “Come on, Pen! You smell like the backside of a slaughterhouse!”

  “Wait. Isn’t there only one shower?” Penelope was too tired to resist the burst of energy the younger woman had found.

  “Yep, so we can make sure there aren’t any perverts trying to sneak a peek at us while we get cleaned up!” Circe beamed as she pulled Penelope into the shower.

  Well, there’s at least one they can’t see… Penelope grumbled as Circe tugged at the belt of her robe. “I’ve got it.” Penelope slapped the younger woman’s hand away. “If you’re so eager to get in the shower. You jump in first.”

  “Can’t. Frederica said you get first dibs, then me.” Circe jabbed her thumb down the man-made hall. “There are baths over there if you want to try one of those out.”

  “I’m good.” Penelope pushed the younger woman out of the stall. “I’ve got this. Why don’t you stand guard or something?”

  “Okay…” The disappointed woman trudged over to the door.

  That takes care of one voyeur. Penelope turned her thoughts inward.

  “I don’t even have a body that could get excited.” Jeru grumbled. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll watch the door as best as I can.”

  Thanks. Penelope slipped into the shower.

  It was good to finally be able to get clean.

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