Dungeon Runner

Bottom Rung, Chapter 27

"I heard you and your team defeated the floor boss," Alistair said as they walked through the guild building, "and that you were the first to do so."

"Yeah," Tibs replied, the distraction of surreptitiously watching everything and committing it to memory, lessening the impact of having the team referred to as his. It wasn't his, or anyone person's, it was theirs.

He may have pulled back on his plan to make the guild pay for Walter's death. Maybe Alistair was right and things were more complicated than he understood because of his age and being Street, but if something happened, he wanted to be ready.

The people who filled the halls didn't look like adventurers, they didn't wear armor, just nice clothing, and none of them had weapons. But he'd learned from Bardik, and his own armor, that weapons could be easily hidden. What they all had; were eyes of people who had an element. He tried to catalog the colors, but there were too many of them and he couldn't take the time to stop and study them carefully, not without attracting attention.

"Tibs?" Alistair called, and Tibs cursed himself for not paying attention to his teacher. He turned and the older man held a door open.

"Sorry," Tibs mumbled as he entered the room.

"How did you do it?" Alistair asked. Had he asked before? Way to not make someone suspicious. "The way I remember it, that first floor is a challenge because of how few resources you have access to."

"I iced the floor, so the golem fell on its back." Was this the same room as before? He should have paid attention to where they were going. "Then our two fighters hit it until it broke."

"Didn't it have arms?"

"It did, but the archer destroyed its eyes and I was silent."

Alistair closed the door and studied Tibs. "How far were you from it?"

Tibs shrugged, realizing he'd made another mistake. He was letting being inside the guild again turn into too much of a distraction.

His teacher stepped to the center of the room; it was nowhere near as large as the one where the boss had stood, but it was large enough for what Alistair was going to ask.

"Show me where you were."

Tibs bit his lower lip. He could lie; move as close as he had to so it would work, but he liked Alistair. He was a good teacher and a good man, even if he was in the guild. He stepped to where he'd been, took an extra step toward his teacher, then with a sigh, he stepped back.

"Has your reserve increase?"

Tibs shook his head, eyes on the floor.

"Have you grasped how to draw from the surrounding essence while manipulating your reserve?"

Could he use that? Except, if Alistair thought he'd mastered it, he'd move on to the next step in his training; would using the amulet work with whatever was next? How much of a drain would it be on it? Recharging was slow even when he focused on it.

And it would be a lie. One of those was enough between them.

He shook his head.

"Then you see the problem, don't you, Tibs?"

He nodded.

"Now, I don't think you lied about what you did. You've never come across as someone who takes credit for other's work, and I'd find out quickly you couldn't do it, if you did claim it. So the question is, how did you do it?"

Tibs looked up from the floor, tried to keep the defiance from his eyes. Alistair wasn't an enemy, just not an ally. "Can others hear us talk in this room?"