Raelyn was perfect for alchemy.

  While Penelope had been hesitant to work with her, the more she was around her, the more apparent it was that the bitter, vengeful woman from the last loop wasn’t part of the current woman’s personality. It was strange to hear the older woman laugh or even hum while she worked.

  “I told you that there were going to be drastic changes in some people between the loops.” Jeru pointed at the brunette.

  I know, it’s just difficult for me to adjust to her being someone who wants to work with me. Penelope shook her head, then looked around the room. They had six stove stations going at once, with a large stone box in the middle of the room filled with ice. When the ice was mostly melted, Penelope would freeze the water again. It didn’t do a great job of cooling the room, but it did provide the alchemists a place where they could go stand to cool off after working in front of a stove for hours.

  “When they get done today, all of thirteen will be cleared.” Jeru nodded his approval. “With all the elixirs you’re making, everyone is going to have awesome gear.”

  Not really. Penelope looked down at the batch of yellow liquid in front of her. I’m the only one who can make Tier One elixirs and Eldri is the only one who can make Tier One enchantments. So it’s not like everyone is going to be walking into column fourteen wearing fully enchanted gear.

  “No, but you’re on your way to getting everyone up to the right levels.” Jeru gestured at the other five people in the room. “Everyone in here will be able to do Tier One elixirs in the next five days and you might even have one or two of them who are able to cap out their alchemy at level twenty by the time you fight the bosses!”

  Yeah, the bosses. Penelope took a deep breath. So far there hadn’t been any casualties. There had been some big injuries, but nothing that couldn’t be healed. Caleb McCormick was part of the healing team and they’d brought on Amy Gilman as well. Both were light affinity, which gave them the ability to heal anything, just not as quickly as someone who specialized in a certain type of healing.

  Marlow had recognized the differences in which types of affinities healed certain injuries better. Instead of beating himself up for not being able to be the sole healer of the group, he’d prioritized which Healers were brought in to help deal with any serious injuries after the square was cleared. Not having to worry about Derek’s faction as well as there not being a passive-aggressive rebellion of the healers led by Raelyn had made the Healers a lot more cohesive as a group.

  That didn’t mean Penelope wasn’t worried about column seventeen.

  “That’s five days away.” Jeru pointed at all the boiling pots. “Everyone here will be making Tier One elixirs by then and Eldri will have all of her people making Tier One enchantments.” He tilted his head. “What you should probably be focused on is creating magic paper so you can churn out scrolls so they can put proper enchantments on the gear.”

  You can’t just break down the wood that we create to make paper with. Penelope paused. But you could use the wood that grew on the second floor. Why?

  “Because this entire environment isn’t 100% magical.” Jeru smirked. “Part of the beauty, and the complexity, is that while magic has been used to help shape or expand things, everything in here was brought in by something that grew naturally. Like a seed or a stone.”

  Wait, so you’re saying that there’s a stone somewhere on this floor and all the rest of this stone is just a magical expansion of that stone? Penelope eyed the blue man as she continued stirring.

  “Short answer is yes. The question you’re really asking is if you can access that storage to make what you want and reshape the Dungeon how you want it. And the answer to that is no.” Jeru shook his head. “Each floor of the Dungeon has a core that holds all of the base materials that can be used to create things on the floor. In order for you to modify any of that, you’d need access to the core, which isn’t kept on the floor specifically so someone like you won’t be able to mess with the floor.”

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  But that means that if I were able to get my hands on some of the wood from the surface and use it as a base, I could essentially clone it to give myself something that could be broken down and used as magical paper. Penelope chewed on her lip as she thought about who might have brought a branch or some leaves onto the floor.

  “It’s possible in theory, but you’re not talking about regular spellcasting. You’re talking about putting the wood in an enchanting circle and making it grow rapidly to give yourself a tree to chop the limbs off of.” Jeru tilted his head. “You really want to be nature affinity to do that, and it’s going to take a whole different level of focus than what you’ve done before.”

  But it can be done.

  “Not in the next nine days.” Jeru gestured at the people in the alchemy building. “You’ll need a couple resets to figure it out, at least. Which means having to set all of this up a couple more times all so you can do something that you could do by either resetting and bringing down a bunch of limbs or waiting nine more days and getting it from the third floor.”

  Fine. Penelope huffed. But that means we can’t have any enchantments on our gear that we don’t find in scrolls down here or that the enchanters have.

  “Once you get the scroll-making going, skills on gear are going to become a lot less important.” Jeru shrugged. “You’ll be able to just learn a lot of the passives, skills, and spells you want. The main thing you won’t be able to learn is the stuff that directly affects your gear. So a lot of what you’ll be putting on gear will be things that amplify what your gear does.”

  Joy. Penelope sighed. I still need to sit down and reinforce the gear so we can stack two stats instead of just one.

  The unenchanted gear that they harvested from the Shadows on the second floor could hold a total of two stat points, but nothing else. Penelope had learned how to use mana to infuse the fabric and where to add durability to the different pieces of gear so that more enchantments could be placed on it. While she hadn’t begun tinkering with that, she knew that she could create entire outfits out of cloth, leather, or metal that would rival a legendary drop on this floor. Though she didn’t have enough time left on the countdown to make an entire set of gear for herself, let alone everyone else. It was a project for the next floor and one that likely wouldn’t begin to see actual usefulness until they reached the fourth floor.

  “You’re doing great.” Jeru gave her a smile. “Things are running smoothly and you’re on track to clear this floor without any serious injuries.”

  You say that… Penelope sighed as she thought about the discussion last night between the group leaders. Patrick and Ula were already planning how they could have all eight groups fight in the boss room instead of only bringing four groups. While she knew there was strength in numbers, it felt so dangerous to let the timer expire and potentially expose everyone on the surface to danger if one of the bosses was able to get around them. Though with eight teams, they’d be able to focus one team on each boss and have two teams that could float around to help whoever needed it.

  “That’s nine days away.” Jeru twirled his finger in the liquid in front of her, not that he made any ripples. “Focus on what’s in front of you and the next big potential problem first.”

  Seventeen. Penelope nodded. The whispers had been the first major group of deaths and had led to a breakdown on the eighteenth column. That had been when Patrick had begun to step up more in the last loop. Having him actively participate in the fights on the first floor had gotten him invested in being part of the group instead of just wanting to experiment around the camp. Having access to material so he could actively build instead of having to find ways to make material had also allowed him to step into a leadership role more easily.

  “You’ve got this. Besides, that’s five days away.” Jeru gave her a smile. “You know what to expect, so keep a calm head and it’ll all work out.” He smirked. And if it doesn’t, you’ll reset and figure it out the next time.”

  Yeah. Penelope sighed as she lifted the pot off the stove and set it on the floor. Her elixir was done. Now she needed to fill the empty potion vials, go stand by the ice block for a bit, and then start on her next batch. Alchemy was where her mind needed to be right now. She could worry about fighting in the morning.

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