Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 42

"Didn't any of that even impress you?" Carina asked Khumdar as they entered their room.

Thinking back on the walk from the dungeon, Tibs realized that she'd been fighting the urge to ask questions, and the cleric had been his usual stoic self.

Khumdar sat on his bed and leaned against the wall before answering. "I have realized early on knowing Tibs, that if I allowed myself to be impressed each time he did something new, I would never stop. It seems more productive to simply accept that such things will happen for as long as I am friends with him."

Jackal chuckled, dropping on his bed.

"Can you teach the rest of us how to do that?" Mez asked, placing his bow down before sitting. "What happened?" he looked at the others. "Who is this Sto, and who's that other person you mentioned Tibs."

"Ganny," Carina said, then stopped looking at the cleric as if his calm was a direct affront to her excitement.

"Ganymede," Tibs said, sitting on the edge of his bed. So much for keeping that secret, but he'd been angry and he couldn't expect his friends to just ignore what he'd said. "That's her full name. Sto's the dungeon. It's short for Stone Mountain Crevice."

"That's a mouth full," Jackal said with another chuckle.

"You are joking, right?" Mez asked. "That isn't a name, it's more of a...description."

Tibs shrugged. "It's the name he picked." He leaned back against the wall. "I got the sense he isn't much older than we are. At least the way dungeon measures it. He thought the name was interesting." He thought back on that long-ago conversation. "More him."

"So," Carina trailed off. "There are two dungeons there?"

"No, just one," Tibs replied. "She's there to help. Like I said, I think he's young, and she was sent to him so he'd learn how to do dungeon things. But he's the dungeon. If he doesn't want to do what she advises him, there isn't anything she can do about it."

When no one commented on that, Tibs looked at his friends. Jackal seemed to be asleep, but the three others stared at him. Even Khumdar looked like he was holding back questions.

"Sent by whom?" Carina finally asked.

Tibs realized he'd let something slip that might have been best kept to himself. "I don't know. Ganny often refers to some sort of 'them' when she feels Sto is abusing or breaking the rules." He tapped his bracers. "Mez's bow. I think your staff's also part of that, but Sto denied it even when she wasn't around." He paused. "What he's been doing since reopening."

"The robes?" The cleric asked.

"Those he said were random, and I believe him. They're the same as every other sorcerer's robes we've found, and the colors have varied. They just happened to be black this time."

"Alright," Jackal said. "This is all fun and interesting stuff, but does it mean anything for our runs?"

"Don't you think this is more important than loot?"

Tibs couldn't see the look the fighter gave the archer, but he expected it was shock and disbelief. Especially with the way Mez rolled his eyes.

"I wish I could speak to this Ganymede," Carina mused. "She must know so a lot about dungeons."

"Maybe not as much as you're hoping."

"Still, she—"

"Focus everyone," Jackal said. "Does knowing all this, that the dungeon had a name, has someone who helps it, change anything? Seems to me that it's going to go back to normal, now that Tibs gave him a talk to."