Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 77

Tibs glared at the door.

"What's wrong?" Jackal asked.

"There's no lock."

"The other doors didn't have locks," Mez pointed out.

"Those weren't boss rooms," Tibs grumbled. "Boss rooms have locks."

"You may be ignoring the fact this is not the dungeon," Khumdar said, "but simply one room within it. Its rules may not be identical."

"The crest rooms had locks," Tibs snapped, then forced himself to breathe. Khumdar was right. Rules within rooms were specific to the room.

That didn't make him feel better. There were too many hidden triggers in this room. This could be the same, and his team would pay for his inability to sense it.

Jackal grabbed the handle. "Why don't I open it? The rest of you move to the side. I can take whatever happens."

"I can too." Tibs suffused himself with earth, turning his skin the same gray as the fighter.

"That's cute." Jackal patted Tibs on the shoulder. "But I've been working with earth since the start. I know things to keep me in one piece you don't. As I've showed before."

Tibs fixed the fighter with a glare. "You're teaching me after the run." He moved back.

Jackal looked to ensure they were all out of the way, then pulled. He stood there, watching in shock.

Tibs stepped next to him and looked into a room filled with papers.

The piles on the left and right nearly reached the ceiling. A few pace beyond them, stacks of papers, looking about to fall over, formed a wall blocking their way. There might be a right turn, but Tibs wouldn't be sure until he stood there.

"Do you think there's only paper in there?" Mez asked, and Tibs could only shrug. His sense wasn't giving him anything of use.

"The plaque said Paper Pusher," Jackal said. "I guess it's been pushing a lot of them."

"Make space," The archer said.

"That won't—"

But the arrow was already formed and released. The etching had a filigree of Jir, Ank, and Dhu. Jir and Ank added to the spiral in the etching, causing the arrow to explode into a larger ball of fire than the essence that made it should allow. Dhu did something to it Tibs didn't quite get. Its core attribute was to sharpen, but fire wasn't something that took to sharpening, but it was interacting with the other Arcanus, and did...something.

The fire died out faster than it should, unable to consume anything.

"Does the dungeon ever make things easy?" Jackal asked.

"Paper should burn," Mez grumbled.

It only looked like paper. The weave that made the pages was the same as what made the rest of the building.

"And I should have all the loot in the dungeon. Got to learn to deal with disappointment. I do it by hitting things." Jackal looked at Tibs. "Is it safe to go in?"

Tibs rolled his eyes. "No."

The fighter grinned. "Should we go in anyway?"

"We aren't going to defeat the boss from out here." Tibs stepped in and waited. Jackal joined him, then Mez and Khumdar.

When nothing happened, Tibs focused on the papers, sensing for anything he might have missed. He pushed against the pile, and as expected, it didn't move.

"It's a prop?" Mez asked.

"Isn't everything in the dungeon that?" Jackal replied.

"That's not what I mean," the archer snapped. "Everywhere else, stuff acts like what it looks." He pushed against the unmoving pile. "This feels like the dungeon just wants us to think the room is about paper."