Dungeon Runner

Stepping Up, Chapter 02

Tibs paid attention again to how the essence stretched from the city he came from to his town, then snapped out of existence. He opened his eyes to the late afternoon sky over Kragle Rock.

Nothing had changed, since the town had shut down along with the dungeon. Unlike when Sto graduated, there was no work being done to expand. No one but him knew Sto was alive and healing. The guild suspected he was. Alistair had mentioned that dungeons were resilient, but without his ability to speak with him it was more akin to hope than anything else. And that was more than the townsfolk even had.

The bored guard leaning against the pillar at the bottom of the steps watched Tibs. He didn't stop him or demand to see the bracelet on his left wrist. Tibs didn't bother offering it as he passed by. He'd decided after the first few times back that it wasn't his job to confirm he belonged here. The lack of reaction did tell him there was no indication Sto was about to open his door.

A dog fell into step as he turned onto Dungeon Road, which would take him out of the town, to the plain separating it from the mountain that was where Sto existed. The dog was large, with short sandy fur, and looked at him plaintively, licking its muzzle.

"You know Serba hates it when I give these to you, right?" Tibs pulled a piece of jerky from a pocket and handed it to the dog. "Where is she anyway?" Thump was too busy chewing to acknowledge the question. He looked around, she should have been berating the dog for interacting with Tibs. When he looked at Thump again, it was looking back, a miserable expression on its face.

With an amused shake of the head, Tibs gave it another piece.

The road was deserted.

Without access to the dungeon, the nobles had left. A town like Kragle Rock held no other appeal to them; Tibs was grateful for it. But without their coins, all but the most basic of merchants had also left, which meant that anyone who could afford the cost was elsewhere. Hope in Sto reopening his door wasn't enough to keep people who could leave here.

The town wasn't empty. There were the Attendants, the guild still had a presence, in the form of the guards, and enough people simply couldn't afford to leave. There were taverns still open, but there wasn't much of the sense of life that had filled the town before. Those left, lived with the fear of the town outright dying without a dungeon to bring people to it, and what would happen to them.

They had been brought by the guild and a promise of a better life if they helped build the town. And, while as far as Tibs could tell, they weren't indentured to the guild the way he was, they hadn't been promised a way to leave should things not work out.

More a lack of belief the town would fail on the part of the guild than maliciousness. Dungeons always meant success. And the stories of a dungeon dying were so rare Tibs couldn't find anyone, not even Carina, who had heard one.

Sto wasn't one of those, but only he knew that for certain.

A whistle sounded, and Thump ran off to answer it. Not long after that, the road left the town, turning into a well-trod path winding down to what had become known as the gathering field, where Omega grade Runners assembled while waiting to be assigned to a team for their runs. There were no more guards running into town looking for a free fighter or archer or sorcerer. If they weren't on the field, they weren't doing runs. And since the Omega Runners who had come after Sto graduated had paid for the privilege, they had all spent their times there.

A handful of merchants had even set up booths there, selling food and drinks as well as cheap equipment. Unlike the group Tibs had arrived with, these could be expected to have coins even before their first run.