Dungeon Runner

Stepping Up, Chapter 98

"These." Tibs pointed to the uneven set of tiles on the floor. "Are the ones you have to avoid between here and the intersection. Most just rearrange the layout of the halls, but a few will explode under you."

"How about we wait until you're done, then?" Jackal asked.

Tibs shook his head. "Stepping on any of them will change the floor, but we've worked out the sequence that resets it. If you accidentally—" he glared at the fighter "—step on one, I can make sure everything's the right way for us." He paused. "Unless you step on an exploding one. So don't think about trying something stupid."

"Why do you think I'd—" Jackal closed his mouth as Carina, Mez and Khumdar stared at him. "Fine." The fighter grinned. "No thinking at all for me. Only way I can't come up with something stupid, right?"

"If absence of thoughts leads to a better performance out of you, Jackal," Khumdar said, "then, Carina must, once she has become an Alpha Sorceress, confine you to a university tower to be studied, for that will be an accomplishment worth replicating."

"It can't be stone," Mez said. "It'll be too easy for him to get out of that and go right back to thinking."

"I'll have it made of metal," she said, "and I'll make sure he's restrained so he can't punch his way out."

"Kro is so going to be pissed," the fighter said with a sigh.

"No, I'm pretty sure he'd like to know you won't be able to get yourself hurt anymore."

Jackal smirked. "He likes taking care of me too much for that."

"Should I stop healing you then?" Tibs said, distracted by the floor.

He and the other rogues had spent so much time going over what each had learned from their runs and drawing the map of the floor with the proper sequences that Tibs was dreaming them now. The problem was that in his dreams, the sequence kept changing anytime he thought he had it memorized. That left him uncertain it wouldn't change halfway through him setting the right triggers.

The others argued good-naturedly about Jackal's need to be restrained and Kroseph's willingness to help as they traversed the hall, watching where they stepped. The intersection had the same floor of broken tiles, even those that were triggers in the hall were present there, but every rogue had confirmed that they were not triggers.

Yet, Tibs reminded himself. Ganny could change that anytime she wanted between the runs.

The idea things could change always made the runners nervous. It was so easy to grow complacent, and that could be the run where things weren't as you had grown used to. Tibs hadn't asked Ganny about why she hadn't done that here yet, because he hoped it was something that hadn't occurred to her.

She tended to get lost in the setting up of the puzzle and the traps, and didn't see the weakness until confronted with them.

"We're all here," Jackal called.

Tibs looked over the map for this hall Tandy had insisted he bring. She'd made sure each rogue had a copy of both so they could update it as needed and so they couldn't forget a crucial detail.

Where she got all the papers needed... Tibs had his suspicions. Mez had mentioned a few times how his girl's household seemed to always be low on them.

He activated the triggers as he walked. Ganny had been smart enough to make the sequence use a variety of shaped tiles, but they were in a straight order. He wasn't required to go back the way he'd come to follow it. Another weakness he hoped no one mentioned while inside the dungeon.

He really wanted to tell them to never talk about the traps while in the dungeon, but the explanation of why would be problematic.

The biggest complication Ganny had put in his path was how some tiles were clustered together so that one miscalculation or misstep would lead to the wrong one being pressed. It was also where most of the explosive triggers were.