Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 53

The guards on each side of the dungeon's door eyed Tibs, ignoring Jackal. The cleric was a woman of Carina's age with pale skin.

"Do any of you need healing?" she asked.

"You're not doing anything for them," the smaller of the two guards said in a flat tone.

"It is my duty to—"

"Unless you want to be healing yourself," he said, tone turning hard, "you're going to do what you're told."

"We're fine," Jackal said as she started to protest. "We take it easy between runs." He grinned as the guards looked at him hatefully.

For the last week, they, as well as the other teams who had agreed to help, had been busy discretely guarding the shops. Serba had slipped Tibs information via her dogs on which were due to be targeted for sabotage, as well as which of Sebastian's people were posing as guards.

It has led to days of the fighters dragging the posers into alleys for beatings or interfering with the guards who were in Sebastian's employ, and nights of chasing down saboteurs and thieves looking to cause trouble.

Tibs's nights had been more troublesome than the others, since many times, he was the one being hunted by Sebastian's people, instead of the reverse. But, the result was the same, they ended up hurt, instead of him.

"Hey Dungeon," Jackal called as soon as he stepped inside. "I hope you're ready for a fight because we've been getting a lot the practice in recently."

The taller guard looked at Jackal as if he was crazy. From the conversations Tibs had overheard, it seemed to be the consensus, among those working for Sebastian who knew of Jackal, that he was insane for not working for his father. His actions now only served to add to the belief.

"Oh, I am ready," Sto replied smugly. "This time you aren't breaking my avatar."

Tibs could imagine Sto's impatience as he walked in silence.

"Come on, Tibs, tell him," Sto let out in a huff. "How am I supposed to gloat if you aren't going to tell him."

Tibs looked over his shoulder to confirm he was far enough. "Sto's going to kick your ass."

"Good enough," The dungeon said as Jackal snorted.

Tibs paused by the doorway and looked at the glowing stone on the wall, sensing the essences that made it. It was mainly stone and light, as he expected, with a little of something else he couldn't identify. He figured metal since the stone was decorated with metallic filaments.

"These are the best vegetables Kro could get me." Jackal had dumped the content of his pack on the floor. "They really like what you've been providing, especially those nut things, Russ loves those. But I figure that the more kind you have, the better it is for everyone."

"I'd complain about him expecting me to be some sort of food booth," Sto replied, "but I'm liking the arrangement. I've been keeping more of my reserves since we started this. I hadn't realized how much coins took overall to make. Especially silver."

"He's okay with the arrangement," Tibs said, back to studying the stone, trying to work out how the light essence got to it. "Sto, how do you get the essence to all the light stones?"

"The... oh, those. I just move it there, why?"

"Could you make one that has a reserve?"

"Probably," Sto said, hesitatingly. "Tibs, I thought you didn't want me doing you favors anymore."

"No, not for me. Well, not as something to give me. It's just something I think would be useful for people and the town. The roads are lit with torches and lanterns and that's a lot of wood and oil, so there are a lot of dark places where thieves can hide. With these, we could just put them up and it would fix the problem."