Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 32

"Why isn't there a time shield in this room?" Jackal asked, as he gathered the loot the dissolving bodies had left behind. "It'd be nice to know how long we have left until we need to leave."

Tibs exited the corridor into the hallway and tested the walls there.

"I don't think the dungeon can do that here," Don said. "With how the walls move against each other, they'd either be destroyed, or tell us which walls won't move no matter what we do."

They were silent as Tibs went over every section of the walls he hadn't tested before, leaving him with only one in the main hall. The one that led to the switch to exit.

"You have to stop taking risks with the others," Don said.

"This isn't a risk," Tibs replied.

"What if one of them had moved and closed the corridor we were in?"

"The first push of any walls doesn't trigger anything," Tibs said. "The dungeon doesn't want me to see what'll happen, so he's forcing me to step in for the second push."

"You can't know it's always doing to be like that. It makes changes, remember?"

Tibs shrugged as he pushed the wall, and there were no distant groans of stone against stone. He looked at Don. "It hasn't happened."

"Yet," the sorcerer stated. "We haven't gone far enough in this puzzle to be sure of anything we've seen. You need to be more careful with the team."

Tibs shrugged.

"Of your friends," Don added, and Tibs stared at him. How was that different?

"The armor looks to be ordinary," Jackal said, joining them. "The sword's edge shimmered, so it's probably enchanted. We have coins, and these." He handed Don and Tibs two bottles of the yellow liquid that replenished essence.

"I'm okay," Tibs said as Don stored his in the hard pouch where he kept all the bottles and vials they came across.

"This is for later," Jackal said. "You know, when we have to use everything we have, and more, to defeat the boss creature?"

"I'm not going to run out." Why was Jackal bothering him with that? He knew his reserve was so vast he never needed to drink those.

"Keep the rest for Don," Mez said. "He can make use of them when he's training. Draining himself is what's limiting how much time he puts into that."

"Mez, I don't share my problems so you can tell everyone."

Tibs pushed the wall again.

"I'm not everyone," Jackal stated. "I'm the team leader."

"And the stronger you get," Mez added, "the better it is for the team."

Tibs reached the switch, and tested the other two walls.

"Keep one," Don said. "I don't want to learn to depend on them when I'm running out. Part of what I'm training is figuring out how to be more efficient with what I have. I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of what we are taught can be accomplished by throwing a lot of essence at it, instead of being precise."

The one opposite the switch moved, and didn't have an accompanying groaning.

"Tibs has mentioned that fact at one point," Khumdar replied.

"It's why some of the adventurers forget how difficult what we learn is," Tibs said. "They get used to throwing ever more essence at what they do." He stepped to the wall, and the others hurried to join him. It moved, and another one did so elsewhere in the room.