The rest of 23 went smoothly.

  Adding in three more teams for the other four squares meant there were more people to help cover them, which gave them an even faster clear time, but they still stayed with only doing two squares a day. The more relaxed pace meant that they were able to take their time while they were fighting. If the monsters pulled back, then they would take a moment to let their mana and stamina recover naturally.

  Penelope looked down from the bunker in 23E. They had been converting the bunkers into living quarters, storerooms, processing stations, or bathhouses.

  We don’t have as many people down here. She looked over at Jeru, who was floating next to her. She’d spent weeks with the blue Elf ghost and had begun to think of him as a part of herself, like an extra set of eyes or a sixth sense.

  “You’re sweet.” Jeru fanned himself with his hand. “You’re going to make me blush.”

  And this is why I don’t think nice thoughts about you. Penelope glared at the laughing man.

  “I have to get my fun where I can.” Jeru pounded on his chest with his fist as he composed himself. “You’re right, nobody new from the surface came down here and there were a bunch of people who didn’t like that they were trapped on the second floor with nothing to do but process monster carcasses.”

  What’s the headcount down here? Penelope bit her lip.

  “97.” Jeru waved his hand. “Twenty-five of whom aren’t part of the twelve fighting teams.”

  How many did we have on the second floor?

  “185.” Jeru shrugged. “So about half.”

  That’s not making me feel a lot better. Penelope leaned back, then turned away from the people walking around below her. They’d cleared a little more than a square mile and given the trees, she wasn’t able to see all of the current safe zone, but she could see a lot of it. Despite being on top of the tallest building in the square, no one below her noticed that she was up there.

  “Bet you’re glad that you took now.” Jeru grinned. “See? I give good advice.”

  You’re still not telling me everything.

  “Bah! If I told you everything that I’ve seen down here, it would take hundreds of years, and most of it wouldn’t be relevant to you.”

  You and I have very different definitions about what is relevant. Penelope sighed. But yes, being able to stay up here without being bothered is nice.

  “PEN!!!”

  Penelope’s shoulders sagged as she looked down to find where Circe was yelling for her.

  The brunette cupped her hands as she wandered around the safe zone.

  “PEN!!!”

  Do I have to go down there? Penelope laid down on her back. I’m supposed to be on a break.

  “Yes, but you know, just because Patrick says he doesn’t need you doesn’t mean that someone else isn’t going to.” Jeru peered over the edge, then looked back at Penelope. “You know she’s not going to go away.”

  Fine. Penelope activated to put her standing next to her friend. “Yes?”

  “There you are!” Circe grinned. “Have you heard? The backups are going to run the bottom half of the floor to catch up to us, then Rae is going to take her people and do the bottom half of the floor while we do the top half!”

  Penelope nodded slowly. “So are we going to keep pushing forward on our end at the slower pace so they can catch up?”

  “Nope!” Circe shook her head. “Since they’re going to be leveling up our backup teams, we get to take off until they catch up.” She pointed at 24E. “Then we’ll start with the E’s so that both teams will be able to do their sides at the same time.”

  Penelope looked at her menu to check the time.

  “Splitting the floor in half gives us thirty-four squares on our side and thirty-five squares on theirs.” Penelope closed her menu. “If we only do one square a day, we’ll be able to wait five days for them to catch up with us.” She glanced in the direction of 20A, where Patrick was constructing a dump. “I thought he wanted to get out of here as fast as he could.”

  “For Pat, this is like a vacation.” Circe groaned. “But at least there aren’t any bugs…”

  Penelope raised an eyebrow as she pointed at the Mosswalker on the other side of the barrier to 23F.

  “You know what I mean.” Circe pinched her fingers almost together. “Mosquitoes, ants, moths. The little stuff like back home. We’ve got none of those on this side of the barriers.”

  “This isn’t a real ecosystem.” Penelope motioned at the trees. “I’m not sure what it is, but I’m pretty sure those things wouldn’t grow if you tried to transplant them outside.”

  “Depends on how magically dense the environment is.” Jeru puffed out his chest. “Everything in her was fashioned magically, so as long as you don’t unmake it magically, it’ll survive as is outside of the Dungeon. Kinda like those plastic trees you had in your house.”

  They were flowers, not trees. Penelope sighed as her mind processed what he’d said. Wait…

  Penelope looked at the pine tree behind Circe, then cast on it.

  Nothing happened.

  “That spell is Tier One for starters. You’re going to notice it being less and less effective the deeper you go into the floor.” Jeru held up a second finger. “And secondly, it’s a construct, so you can’t just unmake the spell like you’re draining a battery. You’d have to rip it apart like you were tearing into a—”

  Penelope recast the spell but this time held the magic over the tree. She let the magic within it permeate the tree, filling every part of it. The longer she held the spell, the more mana it cost her, but she wasn’t going to have to fight for a couple days, so there was no reason to hold back.

  She pulled at the spell with her mind, prying at the tree like it was a stubborn bag of potato chips. Her heart thumped in her ears and her vision blurred as the mental focus began to cause physical feedback.

  “Pen, are you okay?” Circe touched Penelope’s arm.

  Penelope ignored her friend. If I stop focusing, I’m going to lose it.

  “And if you don’t stop focusing, you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.” Jeru clicked his tongue. “I think you’re done, unless you want to reset.”

  I’ve got this. Penelope strained a little more, and then, like a can of biscuits, the tree popped.

  BANG!

  Circe ducked, twisted around in front of Penelope, and pulled her bow off her back, notching an arrow as she searched for the attacker.

  Penelope dropped to her knees as the exhaustion hit her. Her vision swam, but she didn’t pass out. “Jeru?” She croaked as she fell forward onto all fours.

  “Inside voice, girl.” Jeru knelt down next to her. “I tried to warn you that you’d pushed too far. Both your stamina and mana are in the single digits.”

  But I did it.

  “I never doubted that you could. Just didn’t want you to have to completely exhaust yourself like this.” He glanced up where the tree had been, then looked back at her. “Probably should have told you to experiment on something smaller. The mana it takes to unmake something in here is exponentially related to the size.”

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” Patrick ran over to her, dressed in his street clothes with only a stick that he’d picked up off the ground somewhere as a weapon.

  “She was looking at that tree…” Circe turned around and pointed at where the tree had been. “Huh, I know there was a tree there.”

  “Get to the point, girl!” Patrick reached down and felt Penelope’s forehead. “She’s cold. And sweating like a stuck pig.”

  “Something went BOOM, then she fell down and asked me, ‘where’re you?’.” Circe lowered her voice. “I don’t think she can see.”

  “I can see.” Penelope wheezed.

  “What happened?” Frederica stepped out of the shadows, both her blades in hand.

  “I was…” Penelope lifted her hand and motioned at where the tree had been. “Seeing if I could…” She gulped down a breath of air.

  “Take it easy.” Patrick summoned a small wall of stone behind her, then helped her lean back on it. “I got you.” He pulled off his shirt and rolled it up to put behind her head. “That better?”

  Penelope closed her eyes and nodded.

  “Are we under attack or not?” Frederica scanned the area.

  “Not.” Penelope opened her eyes and looked at her blonde friend. “I…” She felt herself blush. “Tried to use on a tree.”

  Patrick looked over at where Circe had pointed, then back at Penelope. “You telling me that tree was just a spell?”

  “Not just the tree.” Penelope lifted her arm, but it was too heavy to gesture at the surroundings and dropped back in her lap. “Everything around here is magic.”

  Circe covered her mouth, then ducked into the bushes to vomit.

  “And now I’ve got two lasses out of commission.” Patrick sighed as he stood up and turned to Frederica. “You watch the girls. I’ll go make sure everyone knows it was just a training exercise and the Demons didn’t get out.” He shook his head as he walked away.

  Frederica sheathed her weapons as she sat down next to Penelope. She raised her voice as she looked over at the underbrush. “Circe, you good?”

  A thumbs-up stuck out over the top of the bushes, only to be withdrawn and accompanied by the sound of more retching.

  “She eats a little magic and now her stomach is upset.” Frederica chuckled and shook her head. “Not a sentence I thought I’d ever say.” She ran her fingers through Penelope’s red hair, then pulled the younger woman’s head over to lean on her lap. Frederica picked up Patrick’s shirt and flipped it behind her as she settled against the wall. “You okay?”

  Penelope nodded as the older woman rubbed her back. As much as she wanted to fight it, it wasn’t long until sleep claimed her.

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