The other groups stayed ahead of them.

  Falling behind in the alchemy put them days behind the other groups when they started scrivening. Professor Lungali Falone would start off the day setting up the other students’ projects, then once the others were able to begin with their tasks, he came around to the Mebope table and began their lesson. If one of the other groups had a question, Penelope’s lesson would get cut short, and she’d be stuck waiting for the tan Elf to finish his explanation.

  After a few days of falling even farther behind, Rendhe couldn’t hold back her frustration anymore.

  “Can’t you talk to Master Cirdor?” The Black woman’s voice seethed as she turned away from the window of their ride. “You’re buddies with him, aren’t you? Because at this rate, we’re not going to get to level ten in scrivening before the other group finishes enchanting!”

  Penelope took a deep breath and tried not to let the laser-focused gaze of the other Mebope in the vehicle unnerve her anymore than it already was. “I think we need to just move on with the others when they hit level ten.”

  “We’ve barely got a level in scrivening and you want us to quit and move on?” Rendhe grumbled. “I was hoping to get ahead of the others, not farther behind!”

  The SUV pulled to a stop outside the fishing warehouse. Signaling the end of their ride and the beginning of the end of their day.

  “I understand your frustration, but if we keep trying to play catch-up with the others, then we’re going to keep falling farther behind because the teachers are going to prioritize the students who have already established themselves instead of the ones who are just starting on material that has already been covered.” Penelope opened her door and got out. “I’ve already talked to Cirdor and got him to give us extra hours at the end of class, but that’s not enough for us to catch up when we spend most of the class waiting for the teacher to get the rest of them started on the lesson we can’t do.”

  “You could always talk him into skipping you into your own class.” Jeru offered as he floated in front of her. “The Elf teachers aren’t going to like it, but Xaiq is the only other Elf you’re going to be learning from during these runs.”

  And what does he teach? Penelope ran through the list of jobs she was focused on during these first few runs.

  “Demonology, but he’s one of the good ones as far as I’ve been able to tell.” The blue Elf shrugged. “Honestly, he’s going to be a big fan of you because he loves learning about the Demons and how they work. At this point, you’ve killed more Demons than he has, so even though he has a greater understanding of them, you’ve got your hands dirty, which is something he always gets excited about.”

  Great… Penelope sighed. Sounds like he’s going to be more focused on learning what I’ve done rather than teaching me about how the Demons work… Her thoughts trailed off for a moment. Why haven’t I gotten much experience in my demonology job if I’ve got my hands dirtier than the residential expert?

  “Because you’ve been more focused on surviving and brute forcing your way through things.” Jeru chuckled. “To gain experience, you need to focus on things like how all the Demonic Ants on the first floor were able to learn from your fights, even when they couldn’t see what you were doing. This is because they have a hive mind. Or how the worms can be forced to surface by flooding the square with water before you go in.” He nodded his head. “Those are things that will increase your demonology job.”

  So you’re telling me that you could have been raising some of my jobs this whole time? Penelope glared at the Elf, then averted her eyes when she realized that Rendhe was on the receiving end of that glare.

  “What?’ Rendhe glanced over her shoulder, then returned the glare. “Why are you mad at me?”

  “I was just thinking about how I should have more experience in my Demonology job than I do.” Penelope sighed as she watched the SUV drive off. “I’ve not even got a level and that wouldn’t help the two of you catch up either.”

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  “Starting at the same place as the others isn’t going to matter as long as we’re having to split things three ways.” Lanlo walked towards the pier. “We’re always going to fall behind as long as we’re a group of three and they’re a group of two.”

  “I know…” Penelope looked back towards the city in the direction of the school. “I asked Cirdor to split us up and give us more resources, but he’s been getting pushback from the Council and there’s only so much he can provide for us out of his own budget.”

  “Sounds like a cop-out.” Rendhe grumbled.

  “Are you saying that Lady Husley would be willing to fund the extra supplies for us?” Penelope’s voice contained a sharper edge than she wanted as she turned back to her companions.

  “She could!” The other woman insisted. “The only reason she doesn’t is because the Council would want her to fund the whole thing and why should she have to do that!”

  “Then maybe we should try to get the teachers to do private lessons with us while the majority of the class is studying on schedule.” Penelope mused out loud. “If we could each have our own station instead of splitting things three ways, we could outpace the others in half the time.”

  “The elves will never go for that and the horses won’t do anything to upset their overlords.” Lanlo scoffed. “Goblins and birds will do anything for the right price though…” He rubbed his chin. “So we’ve got to suffer through enchanting, demonology, herbalism, and sewing before we can get ahead of the others?”

  “It’s taking them seven or eight days to get through a single course. With the extra time, we could get done in three.” Penelope looked at the other two. “We skip demonology and herbalism so we can bring our enchanting and sewing up to ten…” She counted on her fingers for show. “That’s twenty-four days to their thirty. They need four more days to hit ten in scrivening, which gives them nineteen days to max out salvaging, cooking and jewelry making…” She shook her head. “They don’t have enough time for that, so they have to cut one short.”

  “Cooking.” Rendhe smirked. “I heard them talking; that’s the one they think will be the easiest to bring up in the Dungeon.”

  “They’re not wrong…” Penelope sighed. “It’s one of my higher jobs and I didn’t do much cooking while I was down there.”

  “Wait.” Lanlo held up his hand. “We’re going to be level four, at best, by the time they’re done with scrivening.” He looked at Penelope. “And if it takes only three days for individual training in the other three, that takes us to thirty-seven of the fifty-two days we’ve got left with level four scrivening and no levels in herbalism or demonology.” He shook his head. “The Elves won’t work with us once we do that.”

  “I think Xaiq will.” Penelope saw the disbelief in their eyes and knew that she was going to have to justify what she’d just said. “When I was talking to Cirdor about the teachers, it was mentioned that Xaiq was very interested in talking to someone who had actually slain Demons instead of just learning about them in a book.”

  “Technically not a lie, but definitely misleading.” Jeru nodded. “I’m rubbing off on you.”

  Not something I’m enjoying. Penelope swallowed. “So even if the others feel slighted because we’re jumping ahead, we can still end the clock learning from him.”

  “That’s still only three or four days.” Rendhe put her hands on her hips. “What are we going to do with the other eleven?”

  “We’ve got enough time for herbalism as well, and then we can try to raise the rest of our scrivening levels on our own for those last three days.” Penelope nodded. “It’s all dependent on us getting the supplies we need to be able to learn at the same levels as the others, but it’s possible.”

  “All this depends on Lady Husley agreeing to fund our efforts.” Lanlo shook his head. “This is a big ask.”

  “Not really.” Penelope paused. It’s not common knowledge that the hybrid team died a few days ago.

  “No, but you’re going to have to pull that thread when you talk to Lady Husley anyway.”

  “What?” Rendhe eyed the other woman. “You know something… blackmail?”

  “Nothing like that.” Penelope waved her hands. “I know that there have been fatalities on the fourth floor. Which is putting strain on the teams that are down there already. It’s setting the precedent that the team in the lead gets to pick up the slack of the teams that fall behind. Which is going to keep the teams that fall behind even farther behind because they’re not going to get the gear and experience that they need to move forward.”

  “If Lady Husley doesn’t back us, then once we go down to fortify our team for the fifth floor, we’re going to be a weaker addition than the other teams are getting, which makes it more likely that instead of our team getting stronger, we fade into the background…” Lanlo let the realization sink in.

  “Cirdor also has a reason to help me, because I’m working for him, so I’m a direct reflection on him. If I go down to the fifth floor weaker than the others, then it’ll look bad on him, and he’s going to have to go down there to set up the gates to get around because of the size of the floors.” Penelope nodded. “It’ll work.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing…” Rendhe laughed. “Because you’re about to make a lot more enemies than friends.”

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