There were eight people waiting for them.

Whitney was the only person that Penelope recognized, which didn't help calm her nerves. Their names, elements, levels, and ages were displayed over their heads, which gave her a little information about them, but these were strangers who all acted like they knew her.

"Penelope Flynn!" The 47-year-old man ran his dark hand through his short, brown hair before walking over and offering his hand to her. Myles Scott grinned, flashing his white teeth at her in a smile that was too precise to be real but would have made other women melt. "It's a pleasure to be working with you!"

Circe stepped around her when Penelope didn't immediately take the hand.

"Circe Scofield!" She shook his hand as she blushed. "And you are?"

"Myles Scott." He pointed his thumb at his chest, then motioned at the crowd. "And that's Tristan Giles."

The only blond man in the group raised his hand. The 43-year-old looked her up and down, then sighed as he leaned back against the wall.

"She can see all of your names." Circe cut Myles off before he could continue. "She's got an investigation passive that lets her see the names, levels, and elements of everyone, so you don't have to introduce yourself." She looked at her menu, then pointed at the four Archers. "And now that I've added you to my group, I can see all that information too."

Circe turned to Penelope. "I'm going to get my half started on the shooting range; you can give your guys some pointers, and then we can switch after lunch?"

Penelope nodded. "Sounds good."

"Alright! Other side of the range!" Circe twirled her finger in the air. "Come on, Whit! You've done this before; let's show them all how to do this!"

Penelope sighed as she watched them leave. She knew someone had been training the backups when they weren't doing jobs for Patrick, so the four people in front of her probably knew more about the range than she did.

She looked at the other two; Lois Burns and Macy Upham were both in their late 40s. All of them were level 1, which meant that either they hadn't been contributing enough to the camp or Patrick had decided that the Casters weren't as big of a priority.

"Or maybe they're just that bad." Jeru quipped.

Something I should know?

"None of them have ever joined the main team, but once you're on the third floor, the Looper always has their team handpicked." He clicked his tongue. "You're the first Looper that has made it this far while being this passive about picking her own team."

Maybe there are some people with potential that were never given a way to shine.

"Hope in one hand…" The blue Elf chuckled.

"Well!" Penelope turned her attention to the group waiting on her before he could finish his saying. "Have any of you done target practicing before?"

"We've had a couple of these the last few days." Myles flexed. "I make sure to get in as much practice as I can once I'm off for the day." He smiled at her. "I'm a light mage too, so maybe you could show me how you got so strong—"

"Lots of practice." Penelope summoned two sets of her spell, then sent two <Light Balls> with their echoes down each of the four lanes. "I'm going to set these at thirty feet to give you something easy to aim at. What I want you to do is—"

"Dark Pulse! Dark Pulse!"

Lois dusted off her hands as she turned away from the lane in front of her. "Too easy." She smirked as she eyed Penelope. "You going to send them out to a hundred feet next?"

"I was going to finish giving you instructions." Penelope summoned her third set, sending two of them to replace the ones that Lois had destroyed.

"All of you have had target practice, it seems, so what we're going to work on is your control." Penelope moved the other two projectiles into her hands, then elongated them into shafts of light. She wrapped her fingers around the hardened light and slashed the spears through the air.

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"Once you cast your spell, your mana is going to start regenerating." Penelope wrapped the spears around her knuckles, creating a pair of knuckles. "But you don't always need to cast a spell as soon as you walk into a square. Being able to hold onto a spell until you need to throw it at something will give you an extra spell to cast." She glanced at each of the older people. "You all know what mana exhaustion is?"

They all nodded.

"Look at my little Sweet Pea getting her teacher on!"

Don't call me that.

Tristan raised his hand. "But can't we just take a Mana Potion when we get low?"

"You want to rely on being able to drink a potion with a splitting headache while a monster is coming at you?" Penelope shook her head. "I've—"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Jeru interrupted her. "You can't use that story, especially since you died and had to reset."

Right, sorry. Penelope took a deep breath. "What happens if all you need is one more spell to finish off a monster and then you're going to be done for the day? On the first floor, I was in situations like that a lot." She thought for a moment. "Or what if it's your last Mana Potion?"

"We won't run out of potions." Lois laughed. "You guys almost never use any, so there's a whole crate full of them in Pat's workshop."

"Tier Zero potions do almost nothing for those of us who are Tier One." Penelope shook her head. "And the whole reason why you're being trained is because we think we're going to need eight teams on the third floor for a single square." Penelope motioned behind her. "When we're out there, we can afford to take a break for a half hour between squares to let us get topped off and if we get attacked by all the monsters in a square, then we can use a potion or two in the middle of battle, but…" She looked at each of them. "If the squares double in size again, then the lead team will be going in four against…?"

The silence stretched as the group waited for her to answer.

"Sixteen." Hesitation filled Tristan's voice as he offered her the answer.

"Exactly." Penelope nodded. "And if we're having to use a potion every other group, and we only go in with three Mana Potions for each Caster?"

"We'll run out of mana before we clear the square." Myles snapped his fingers.

"Which is why you need to learn control." Penelope held up her left hand, and the magic covering it flattened out into a round shield. "This is the best I can do right now, simple geometric objects, but with some practice, I know I can make more complicated shapes." She looked at the others. "The first step is to try to hold your spell in your hand and not let it fire until I tell you to release it."

Penelope pointed at the projectiles hovering in the lanes. "I want you to target the <Light Balls> in your lane, but don't release your spell until I tell you. We're going to practice control and not just target practice."

"But isn't fighting monsters all about hitting things fast and hard?" Myles looked at the others before turning back to Penelope. "That's what Aly told us you do."

"I—" Penelope took a deep breath. "That's only what I do when we're near the end of a fight and people are hurt. She shook her head. They don't get it.

"Then show them." Jeru moved in front of one of the lanes. "Light resists itself, and you have light resist on your boots."

This is not what I had in mind when I agreed to this.

"But it's a good way to teach them." He winked at her. "And what's the worst that happens? You reset?"

Not helping. Penelope smiled and moved into Myles' lane. She stood in front of the projectiles. "Most fights aren't going to be just you shooting at something far away that's sitting still." She snapped her fingers, and the pair of <Light Balls> spun in a slow circle behind her. "It's almost always going to be you throwing a spell at a monster that's trying to kill one of your teammates and if you miss…" She shook her head. "That's why Frederica doesn't have a ponytail anymore."

The four muttered between themselves.

"So!" Penelope clapped to get their attention. "Myles, we're going to have a little demonstration about why it's important to be able to control your spells." She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. "Hit one of these lights when they're not behind me."

"But what if I hit you?" The older man looked down at his hand before looking back at the woman in front of him. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm level nineteen. You're level one." Penelope tried to keep the apprehension she was feeling off of her face. "Even if you hit me, once isn't going to kill me." She took a deep breath. "Hurry up, we've got a lot of targets to shoot at."

"Okay…" Myles lifted his wand and pointed it at her. "Light Pulse!"

The finger length of magic shot out of the wand and went wide, vanishing down the lane.

"That was good." Penelope walked out of the lane.

"But he missed." Lois' face contorted in confusion. "How was that good?"

"Because you got to see why timing is important." Penelope motioned at the lanes. "Everyone get into position. We're going to work on holding onto your spells until you are able to release them on command!" She motioned at the <Light Balls> hovering in the lanes. "Those spells are just like the ones you're using. Once you can hold onto a spell, you'll learn how to guide it, and then you can throw around magic without hitting an ally."

Penelope sat down as the four of them shouted out their spells. This is going to be a long day.

"You've got to do this tomorrow too." Jeru sat down next to her.

Hopefully they'll be more ready for the next floor than the others were. Penelope shook her head and summoned more targets. They've got a long way to go.

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