Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 75

The door proved to be a challenge.

The lock was like those on the houses, but with more tumblers with a weave through them, forcing him to manipulate that, along with physically moving them. Because he used his ice, and the weave reacted to that element, it was easier than it would be for another rogue. Unless they too had worked out how to use their essence to manipulate the tumblers, they would have to pick them normally, while also getting the weave to move. He expected it would be delicate, frustrating work.

Unless they went in the opposite direction. Delicate could often be beaten through brute force. Nothing he sensed of the weave led him to think Ganny had considered that when she made the lock, so at least one rogue would be able to simply blast their way through.

The elemental tumbler moved into place, and the door unlocked.

The corridor was larger than those in the Guild. There, three people could comfortably walk side by side. Here, his whole team would manage it. It went left and right, with doors facing each other. On the right side, it ended after a set of two doors, while on the left, after five set, the hall turned left.

"Which room is it?" Jackal asked.

Tibs sensed, but the walls of the rooms were woven in such a way he could only get a vague impression of what was inside. A few golem people in each.

"It is my experience," Khumdar said, "that people in authority reside higher within their organization."

"We should still check all the rooms," the fighter said. "Just in case."

"Just in case there's loot, you mean?" Mez replied.

"In case the dungeon is tricking us," Jackal countered, sounding too innocent.

"He's the leader," Tibs said to the look the others gave him.

"But this is about loot," Mez said. "We can't trust his judgment."

Tibs sighed and went to the window at the end of the hall. He'd been right, he could see through, but he couldn't tell where the orb was, and he wasn't getting close enough he'd risk touching the 'glass'. How much of 'all day' did they have left?

"I think we should go for the boss," he said, facing his team. "Getting Don out of the trap is more important. On the next run we can—"

A door opened between them and a woman carrying papers stepped out. She paused, looking left and right, as if she was taking them in. Then, with a sudden silent scream, she ran at his team, papers fading into essence as they flew out of her hand.

Jackal's skin turned stone gray as he stepped forward and punched her. She flew back to Tibs's side and stopped against the wall, where she crumbled away, leaving a silver coin and a piece of paper behind.

"This is going to be easy," the fighter said, sounding disappointed.

"This is a dungeon," Khumdar said, as Tibs bent to pick up the loot. "I would be wary of making assumptions."

The coin was a coin; the sun on a side, Claria and Torus on the other. He'd seen coins stamped like this in loot and people's pockets before. The paper was... he turned it over, blank.

"A prop in the play that is the theme of this building?" Khumdar asked.

"Those she was holding disappeared," Mez said. "This dropped after she was dead."

"It," Tibs corrected. "But you're right. Ga—the dungeon doesn't have things dropping that don't matter."

Jackal took the paper. "It leaves loot." He looked at it this way and that. "Maybe this is a note of promise."