Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 60

Tibs rested his head against the stone. He stopped fighting the exhaustion and closed his eyes. The climb, and falling, of the stalagmites, had only been the first of the challenges the dungeon put in his path.

After a long walk in the dark, there had been blocks blocking the way, and he had to punch through them. Tibs wanted to take them apart through essence use, but the dungeon knew which he could control, and had made sure they were in the minority this time.

He'd coated his fist with ice, earth, and corruption, and hit them. The corruption helped degrade the essence that made up the block, while not interacting with his. Craren was unhappy about that realization.

After that was a challenge clearly aimed at rogues. A large pit with too many spikes glinting in the light at the bottom. Columns were spread throughout the pit, ending in small platforms at floor height, and if Tibs had his bracers, he would have been able to make the jumps between them. Without it, the only way he could cross was to use the beams from the stack by the side of the entrance.

It was a puzzle, where he needed to find the right beam among the varying length provided to create a path from one platform to another until he made it to the other side. He suspected that if he got one wrong, he would either lose it as it fell in the pit or be in a position where he had to bring them back and start anew. There were more beams than he thought he'd need, but he had no way to know if he'd reach a point where he'd lost too many to make it.

An added complication was the weight of the beams. From the shortest to longest they were all the same, and as he had to carry more and more of them over the precariously narrow beams he put down, the strain increased. The beams weren't flat, which would make walking along them a problem, if not for Tibs's experience walking roofs, and being able to pull earth essence from the floor to secure the ends.

He lost two of the beams and watched them shatter as they hit the spikes. He shuddered at the idea that was what waited for him if he wasn't careful. Their loss didn't keep him from reaching the exit, but forced him to take a longer way around the platforms.

Then there was the talking. Val and Craren were much more talkative than Sto and Ganny.

Unfortunately, other than Craren's complaints about Tibs making it through this clever trap of theirs or that impossible challenge, they didn't talk about him, or the ways they planned on stopping him. They didn't even seem to talk about the other Runners trying for their audience.

They were reminiscing about previous Runners while he worked. That supplicant they had sent back running and crying after he'd broken a hand trying to make it through the blocks, that girl, who had bragged about how strong she was on the way to the entrance, and how she'd thought climbing the wall they had set before her would be easy. Hadn't it been sad when that cleric died because he relied on his faith instead of fighting the monsters that populated the lower floors?

On and on they jabbered. Nearly causing Tibs to fall once as Val exclaimed at a fighter's battle they had lost, as if it was happening right now, next to Tibs.

* * * * *

He woke with a start and looked around.

How long had he slept? How long had it taken him to cross the room? Unlike Sto, there was no sense the dungeon had a schedule to keep. All the Runners had entered together, and Peolo said weeks could go by before more supplicants were ready to enter. They weren't interested in feeding the dungeon, so they took the time to get them ready to reach their audience.

He stood and started walking again.

More blocks he needed to break, a wall he had to walk along, and nearly fell because he forgot to sense for traps in the handholds and cut his hand. Craren had laughed, then been annoyed when he'd regained a hold and kept going. Other than adding more cuts to his hands, the previous ones seemed to heal quickly. Having clerics heal him when he left the dungeon made it hard to know if his wraps did more than keep any injuries from getting worse. Those he got while training went away quickly, but he'd always thought of those minor injuries.