Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 87

"Am I the only one," Mez said, looking around at the nearly empty merchant stalls on their way to the steps, "who feels like these are the last days of an empire?"

With the Weakness rampant, the whole of Kragle Rock felt empty. Even the Runners, who seemed more resistant to it, only left their rooms for the bare minimum. The quiet of the streets had made Tibs uncomfortable.

The quiet of a lack of life.

"Empires do not fall this quietly," Khumdar whispered.

"Empires don't fall," Jackal said, tone forcefully jovial. "It's what makes them empires."

"You're wrong," Don said, nodding to a merchant standing by her booth. "But there's something too...unnatural here for it to feel like one of them ending.

"We are going to fix this," Tibs stated.

They knew how, they just had to hope Sto was going to be listening.

The cleric nodded with only glancing at them. Then they were in and through the doorway to the fourth floor.

"The library," Don said, heading for the stairs.

"The houses first," Jackal replied.

"The library is more important," Don stated, turning to face the fighter. "We can go over the houses after."

Jackal looked at Tibs, who shrugged. This was how they'd agreed to start, but Sto still had said nothing. He just hope his friend remember the advice he'd given him.

"Okay, listen up everyone," the fighter said in a so serious tone even Don closed his mouth. Tibs did his best not to roll his eyes. He'd hopes for something more subtle, but this was Jackal, and the situation wasn't all that dire.

"I know you're all affected by what's happening. I nearly lost Kroseph, so I'm right there with you and wanting to go back to look after your loved ones."

Mez exchanged a look with Don, while Khumdar's lips quivered in restraining the smile.

"But we are Runners first and foremost. It's our duty to explore this floor and bring back loot. They understand that, and all they want from us is to come back to them." He smiled and straightened in pride.

"And," Khumdar said. "With a potential cure provided by the dungeon to the weakness spreading over Kragle Rock, such as the ring, which was vital in saving Kroseph."

Jackal stared at the cleric in surprise. "Right." He shook himself. "We have to hope there'll be more rings like the one that saved my man."

"Nice...speech?" Mez said, sounding unsure.

"Then, the library makes the most sense," the sorcerer said.

"Don," Jackal replied in exasperation. "I just explained how finding the most loot is what we need to do."

"No, you told us how curing what afflicts our friends is important. That might be in the library. It holds knowledge, Jackal," Don said, cutting off the protest. "It might hold records of this sickness. Just because I haven't found anything about it in everything I read doesn't mean it never happened. A library in a dungeon could hold tomes no one has ever seen before."

"And may never see at all," Khumdar said. "One needs remember that not everything in the dungeon is real. As with many things here, the books may be no more than props."

"But we won't know that unless we go and look at them."

"You just want to read," Jackal said with disdain.

"Tibs, help me out here."

"We didn't check all the houses between here and the library," Tibs said. "It won't take so long to look those over on the way."