Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 61

"The second change." She raised her voice over the still not dead muttering. "Is that you now have to decide which floor you will run before your name can be added to the board. You are only allowed to run that floor, unless you clear it. Then, you are allowed to continue on to the next one. You also can only request a floor you are able to access directly through the doorway."

This time the rising conversations that forced her to pause was more questions than outrage.

"Is there anyone left who's Omega?" Quigly asked Tibs, who shook his head.

There were three Upsilon Teams, seven who had enough members at Lambda they might qualify as such, but the bulk of the Runners were Rho. Tibs didn't know if the final classifications would be based on the lowest floor any team could access. If so, there were no Lambda teams yet.

"Who's going to run the first floor, then?" Manas asked.

"It may be possible the guild counts on some of the Upsilon teams to lack the confidence needed to brave the second floor," Don replied.

"Any team that doesn't inform us of which floor they intend to run by the end of the day before the board goes up will automatically be assigned to the lowest floor they have reached. How much time each floor gets will be adjusted based on the previous runs."

The protests were loud this time.

"If they give us less than half the day to clear the third floor," Jackal told Don, "you need to have a talk with the guild leader."

"Why me? She likes Tibs better."

"You're less likely to kick her in the shin," the fighter replied.

"I'm not going to kick her," Tibs said. "I need her to think I like her."

"That's why Don needs to be the one talking to her," Mez said. "So she won't anger you so much you'll lose control."

"Now," she said once the protests were down to mutterings again. "I expect you're wondering why there are so few of you here for this announcement."

"I was wondering that before you even opened you mouth, bitch," Markel said. He was Quigly's latests sorcerer. The precious one had been kicked off the team after arguing leadership roles. Tibs had asked the warrior how he'd managed it, since the rule was that only dead team members could be replaced, and Quigly had smiled and said that not making himself the enemy of the person who enforced the rules had been his first step.

"Going forward," she continued, "the guild will accept anyone interested in running the dungeon."

"Anyone who can pay, you mean," Don muttered.

"At this moment, representatives are in the cities, explaining the procedures for those who seek to improve themselves and their lives."

"A silver not one of them's going to talk about how easily the dungeon's going to eat anyone new to it," Quigly said.

"That's sucker's bet," Jackal replied. "Why do you think they kept going to the cells for Runners? No one in their right mind wants to run a dungeon."

"We expect you to be considerate of those new Runners. They will be your compatriots; until you reach Epsilon."

"You are going to be so busy helping them, Tibs," Manas said, grinning.

"Then it's good you'll be helping," he replied.

"These civilian Runner teams will come below you in priority," she said, as Manas was quietly ribbed by his team. "You can change which floor you intend to run at anytime before you do your run, but that will put you at the end of the list of guild Runners for that floor."