At first when their combat instructor had said that they'd be looking for one creature in this massive underground cavern, Penelope had been concerned that the most difficult part of the task might just be locating the cannon shrimp, but that quickly turned out not to be a problem for the support team. Millie claimed to be, in her words, "a super awesome master arcanist" and apparently that meant that she could cast a simple divination spell based on the information Vellum had provided. It wouldn't tell them much, only the general direction of something matching the description, but it was a relief to know they wouldn't have to search the whole forest.

When they'd split the teams into supports, rangers, and front-liners, Penelope had joined the ranger team. She knew that her cleaver could technically be used to physically slash at a monster, but even if that was the case she was in no hurry to test that out right away. However, she absolutely was in a hurry to test out the magical slashing blast that this weapon was capable of.

The supports consisted of Millie, Renslow, and a girl named Tyria who Penelope didn't know that well yet. Lilcia, the short, bouncy furry girl who was apparently a member of the 'brightfur' race, was also sorted into that team since she was only a child and couldn't be expected to participate in the fights.

The front-liners were the largest group, consistenting of Renslow's brother Oslin, Hu the armored guy, Reyna the prim 'princess', Mirquet the surly 'peasant', and Cadfael. Mirquet, Hu, and Cadfael were all equipped with various types of swords, though Cadfael's was an interesting curved blade that reminded Penelope of something a pirate would carry. Oslin had a spear similar to the one that Whelma had summoned, and Reyna had no visible weapons whatsoever. Based on the ridiculous gaudiness of her outfit and her general attitude Penelope had serious doubts about the girl's fighting ability. But then again, considering up until last week the most physical activity Penelope ever did was running laps in gym, she couldn't really judge anyone else's capabilities.

The rangers were just Penelope, her roommate Nerris, and the friar-boy Vellum. To her surprise, Nerris had said she was a Nadir as well, though she didn't say her exact level or seem as proud of the fact as Reyna had been. Penelope wouldn't have guessed since Nerris seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about the world, but that would explain why the girl had been so excited about the first conjuration lesson if she hadn't been allowed to learn about magic in the past.

Of the three, Vellum was actually the most combat-ready. He had said that he had been raised at the Library of Mox and as such was well versed in fire magic. Penelope had been tempted to ask how any of that made sense, but given the boy's blunt and somewhat abrasive attitude, she chose to just let it go.

As the group of heroes entered the underground forest, following Millie's directions, Penelope admired the strange stony blue trees around her. The alien landscape made her feel like she was walking in a fairytale. Surrounding her, the harshly jagged tree trunks were all made of an amazingly smooth, light blue-gray bark, and the dark blue leaves overhead scattered the bright blue cavern lights like they were made of crystal. She might have thought that the trees themselves were actually a formation of the rock, though when she ran her hand along the trunk it still had the give of regular wood.

Nerris sidled up next to Penelope as they walked. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Penelope looked over to the other girl. Unlike the usual summer dress she wore, today she was wearing a heavy-duty dark leather jacket and dark blue pants. It wasn't exactly what Penelope would normally think of when she thought of combat attire; it was much closer to something someone might wear on a hike.

Nerris wasn't looking at Penelope when she spoke, but was instead staring up at the trees in wonder. Her rainbow eyes seemed to sparkle every time the cavern's blue light caught in them. Penelope smiled and looked up as well.

"Yeah. It is." The two walked in silence like that for a while. It comforted Penelope to know that even someone for whom this world was normal could still be amazed by something like this.

Her thoughts were interrupted as peals of laughter rang out from in front of her. She looked towards the group of front-liners to see Cadfael at the center of them. He was leaning on Hu's shoulder and making some wild gestures with his arms. Mirquet and Oslin were both laughing with him at some joke he was making, and even the normally stuffy Reyna was looking over towards him with obvious interest. Penelope frowned, staring hard at the strange boy's back. Other than Renslow and Hu he'd been one of the first people to talk to her in this world. And sometimes, like now, he seemed like such a jokester. But other times he would be brooding or would suddenly say something odd. She'd been annoyed when he tried to interrupt and take charge of their group before Renslow stepped in to defend Penelope's plan, and she was still trying to pin down what his deal was exactly.

Nerris followed Penelope's gaze and smirked. "Don't mind Cadfael. He's always been an ass," she said with a casual shrug.

"Did you know him before you were all gathered here?" Penelope asked. She'd been pleasantly surprised to realize that most of her fellow heroes were just as much strangers to each other as she was to them when she'd arrived. It felt a bit strange to discover that maybe that wasn't the case.

"Yup. I wouldn't say we were ever friends, but he and I attended many of the same social functions for noble children when we were growing up," Nerris replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "He's pretty lighthearted, but I think he has somewhat of a problem with authority. Don't take anything he says too personally."

"Is that it?" Penelope said thoughtfully.

That didn't feel quite right. She remembered the way he'd almost looked hurt when she'd sided with Renslow on continuing with her plan over his. It was such a minor disagreement, and she was probably overthinking, but something about it dug at her.

"Oh, look at that!" Nerris suddenly stopped and tapped at Penelope's shoulder, pointing up into the trees overhead excitedly.

"What is it?" She squinted, trying to see what the girl was pointing at. For a moment, the glittering canopy was completely still. Then, something flashed by, too fast for Penelope to see any more than a streak of light. She tried to focus on where the light stopped, but there didn't seem to be anything there. Another glimmer of light flashed elsewhere in the trees.

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"It's a flitter!" Nerris proclaimed loudly. "I've heard about these! My uncle's talked about the flitters in the mines of Hlim! He says that they appear in places of especially high mana density and that they use flitter sightings to discover new veins of strong mana crystals. Aren't they pretty?"

"What are they?" Penelope repeated. "All I can see is a flash of light."

"That's exactly what they are!" the girl replied excitedly. "They're like living sparks of light that only appear for a moment at a time! I once heard a story about-"

"Be on your guard, fellow hero aspirants." Vellum's harsh voice cut in abruptly. Penelope turned with a grimace to see him walking up to them. He gestured widely towards the treetops, apparently completely oblivious to her disdain. "Flitters are creatures of great mystery, and with great mystery comes great danger. There are a myriad of flitter types, and although such creatures found within one dungeon may be perfectly harmless, another variety may be capable of destroying an entire party of adventurers. Some even say they are creatures of the Vare, their presence refracted upon our reality in manifestations of phantom light."

"Well…" Nerris looked up at the dancing lights which flashed from one tree to another, "I don't really get the sense that these ones are very dangerous."

"True," Vellum nodded sagely.

"How do they even know they're alive? And not just, like, random lights?" Penelope asked, reluctantly. She didn't really want to engage with the boy who'd insulted her outfit the first time she'd met him, but her curiosity ended up winning out over her distaste for him.

"Ah, it's as simple as using a life-sensing divination! Most zoologists of proper worth are capable of casting such a spell," Vellum explained, "higher leveled identification skills are also able to tell us that they have a level and are, therefore, alive! Although, sadly, I have not reached such an expertise with the skill as of yet."

The trio talked a bit more about flitters as they continued to walk through the forest between the other two teams. Nerris recounted a story her uncle had told her as a child about a flitter which had supposedly once saved a person's life after they got lost in the crystal mines. The friar-boy, surprisingly, waited until she had finished telling the tale to break down why it didn't make any sense. After that, Nerris had clearly tuned out of the conversation as Vellum began to discuss the various classifications of flitters that had been discovered.

Penelope, meanwhile, found both of the threads of the topic endlessly fascinating and was eagerly absorbing Vellum's latest tangent on the "various incorporeal entities of the wastes" when Nerris tilted her head and interrupted them.

"Do you two hear that?" She asked.

Listening carefully, Penelope couldn't only hear the crunch-crunch-crunch of her fellow Zodiacs' feet on the oddly stiff grass. Vellum, however, nodded straightaway. "I believe we approach a brook," he said helpfully. Penelope nodded, pretending as if she could hear something as well.

They continued walking until even Penelope could hear the rushing babble of water from deeper within the trees. It was much louder than she'd thought it would be when Vellum had described it as a "brook" and sounded much closer to raging rapids.

A thought occurred to her then, though it probably should've occurred to her much sooner. Quickly, she turned to the two other rangers.

"Hey, just wondering, is a cannon shrimp, like… a shrimp…?" she asked, trailing off at the end of her question.

"...Yes." Vellum responded.

"Ok." Penelope nodded and fled to the front of the group, trotting past the front-liners to walk by Millie. She expected the girl to maybe turn towards her when she noticed her arrival, but she simply continued walking merrily through the trees towards the rushing rapids, one hand outstretched to point in the direction of where the cannon shrimp supposedly was. "Um. Millie?" Penelope called to the girl.

"Yes?" She responded without slowing down her pace one bit.

"Does your spell tell you how close we are to the cannon shrimp?"

"Nope!"

"Ok. Well can we maybe pause here for a minute then?"

"Okie dokie." Millie relaxed her arm, shook out the tension, then gave Penelope a salute.

"Great. Hey, everyone!" Penelope shouted to the group of heroes and waited for them to gather around her. "Millie says that her spell doesn't tell her the distance to the beast, but if it's some sort of shrimp I think there's a good chance it'll be by the water."

"Yeah it'll be by the water, it's a shrimp," Cadfael said in a joking tone. "Where do you think we're headed?" Next to him Mirquet snickered.

Penelope felt herself blush. "I'm just saying I think it'd be a good idea to approach the river ready to fight it. We probably don't want to get too close with Millie right near the front," she gestured at the shorter girl who gave a little wave back. With that, Penelope began to relay instructions on how they would move forward. Cadfael seemed a bit annoyed again when Penelope took charge, but he didn't argue this time.

The two armored front-liners, Hu and Oslin, would approach first, followed by Cadfael and Reyna. Meanwhile Vellum and Nerris would hang back within clear line of sight and prepare to attack with conjurations if necessary. Penelope would stay with them and move closer if she had to. From her intuition she kind of guessed that a cleaver's slash probably had less range then a fireball.

Of the supports, only Renslow stayed with the group as they approached the water so that he could heal them and provide magical assistance if necessary. He would be standing just behind the rangers. Tyria, the quiet girl non-combatant, offered to help take care of Lilcia and keep her out of the way, and alongside them Millie was providing "moral support". Those three would hang back within the trees as the others moved forward.

Penelope was half expecting someone - specifically Cadfael - to interrupt her planning while she was coming up with it, but everybody readily accepted the roles she'd given them. She almost wished someone had come up with a better plan; she would have felt a lot more confident leaving the battle planning up to someone else, and she didn't really have much of an idea of how else to organize the group of teens beyond this rudimentary formation.

As they walked the final stretch towards the river, Penelope took another look at her current stats and was pleasantly surprised to see that her HP value had finally changed.

HP: 22/40

SP: 43/50

MP: 70/70

Status: Normal

Even as she watched the screen, her HP ticked up to 23. She wasn't exactly certain what had changed, but she was relieved to see that her health was going up like it was apparently supposed to normally. Happy with the development, she waved the screen away and marched forward, her hand clenched tightly to the hilt of her cleaver.