Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Stepping Up, Chapter 87
A slash up, then across, and the Gnoll fell. Arm up, his shield took the overhead blow. A turn, a slash, another creature fell. Tibs carefully pivoted, shield and jagged sword at the ready. Only rubble remained. His friends only had minor injuries.
They had raised their guards the moment the hall had widened to give them maneuvering space. Even Sto's surprise declaration as to the distribution of the rewards hadn't caused them to allow Ganny to get the literal drop on them, again.
"Anything drop?" Jackal shifted rubble with his foot.
"Silver," Mez replied.
The fighter cursed. "Is Sto getting greedy?"
"That's your job," Carina said.
"There is...something here." Khumdar's eyes were closed as he turned in place slowly. "A secret, but one we are meant to discover. This...." He sighed. "I have never felt such a secret before. Secrets are usually not intended to be found out."
"So, a cache?" Jackal rubbed his hands eagerly. "Tibs?"
"Looking."
"I would have... I have never felt the ones in the trap room or the pool. The one holding the key in the boulder room is also not one I sensed."
"You're getting stronger," Carina said, "like the rest of us. Maybe that means you can discern subtle details like intent, now."
"It's going to be something with essence again," Tibs said, sensing the wall before him.
"A puzzle?" Mez asked.
He shrugged. There was mostly Stone and Corruption making up the walls. Unlike the doorway Sto had in place for them to bypass the floors, the ones Ganny used to drop the Gnolls on them vanished once they were used.
"Tibs," Jackal called. "There's something here." The fighter was on the other side, looking at the wall.
Tibs sensed what had caught his attention as soon as he focused on it. The same essences were there, but their structure was different. Something in it led Tibs to think they were meant to interact with it. As he stepped next to the fighter he was already shifting the Earth essence around so they would divide and—
He stopped.
"Hey, Khumdar," Jackal called, "is this what you felt?"
Tibs knew how to do this.
"I do not know," the cleric replied as Tibs studied what he sensed. "There is no direction to what I am sensing, other than one of it being here."
The way it worked didn't require someone to sense the corruption to undo the lock.
"Tibs?" Jackal asked.
"You can open it." It was time to have someone else learn something.
"I'm not a rogue."
"This doesn't need a rogue, just someone with Earth as their element."
"The wall is three paces thick," Carina said, then added, at Tibs's raised eyebrow. "I can sense the air beyond that. It's a room, but I can't make out any details in it."
"So you can open this?" Jackal asked.
"It's yours," Tibs said before Carina replied.
"I'm the team's dumb fighter, Tibs. If it can't be done by hitting it, it's not for me."
"So, try that."
With a roll of the eyes, Jackal tapped the stone, then punched it lightly and harder. He made his arm stone and struck it hard enough that the impact sounded like it should have cracked the wall, but left no marks. He put the knuckle wrap on and hit it again, to the same lack of result. "Not for me," Jackal said.