Chapter 45: Chapter 44

The entrance was no longer a simple crack in the cliff wall. It was a square opening flanked by two intricately carved columns depicting rats and bunnies in various attack positions. The teeth on the rats made Tibs shudder. The slab of stone that had blocked the entrance was not there at the moment.

He’d heard from the early and late teams that it melted into the floor in the morning, and reformed after the last team came out. Claims were made that the stone couldn’t be chipped or forced out of the way. Tibs wanted to know why the dungeon needed a door and closed it at night, but Alistair was away, and he didn’t want to bother Bardik after their last conversation. It left Harry and Tirania as guild members he had contact with. The guild leader was deep into the building and the few times Tibs tried to approach the guard leader, Harry glared him down.

“How many rooms?” Jackal asked the two guards in green and black standing by the door.

“Is there a reason we should care about that?” the one on the left said. Tibs couldn’t tell what he was, he could be a fighter or a Rogue. But he didn’t have the heavy armor fighters prefer or the lighter one for Rogues.

“The guards used to—” Carina started, but stopped at Jackal’s raised hand.

“We aren’t the first ones to ask, they could have just told us it wasn’t part of how things were done anymore, but you were told to make my life difficult, were you?”

“We were told you weren’t that smart. I’m surprised you even picked up on it.”

“This isn’t being smart,” Jackal replied, “it’s knowing who I’m dealing with.” He looked at the woman dressed in a white robe with the hood around her shoulders. “I don’t know how to ask this politely, but are you in on this ‘make Jackal’s life difficult’ thing?”

The robe reminded Tibs of the one Paul wore, and when she looked at the fighter, she had the same so pure eyes as to not be a color. “No,” she said, her voice low. “But a little hardship has never hurt anyone.”

“Only a cleric would say that,” Jackal grumbled and stepped into the dungeon.

Instead of the tunnel with the uneven floor and walls, they were in a hall twice as wide and high as the opening in the cliff, with a flat floor covered in a mosaic of colored tiles that made no image Tibs could discern.

“This is a lot nicer,” Carina said, as they walked through it.

“And we can see where we’re stepping.” Mez indicated the glowing stones in the wall, which replaced the torches that had provided hardly enough light to maneuver before.

Tibs studied one of the stones.

“Tibs,” Jackal called.

“Let me try to pry it out,” he replied, trying to slip the point of his knife between it and the rock. “That would be better in our room than the lamp.” And if he could remove one, he could remove two and keep one to use when he explored dark rooms in the town.

He paused as he heard a hissing. He hadn’t heard it in weeks. Had almost forgotten about it. He wasn’t stressed, so Alistair had to be wrong. He pushed the point of the knife harder and it intensified with some cadence to it that nagged at him.

“I suspect the light is created by the dungeon,” Khumdar said, running a finger over another of the light stones. “It might continue working here, once out of the wall, but if you take it outside, it will probably revert into an ordinary stone.”

Tibs wasn’t sure of that. His shoes still worked, but his shoes had essence woven through them, so he could check this stone. No matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t sense any from it, which supported Khumdar’s opinion. He still wanted to take it, just in case, but decided he’d do it on the way out. He had an entirely new floor to explore. He shouldn’t waste time here.

“So pleased you decided to join us,” Jackal said.

“You can go without me,” Tibs replied.

“And deprive you of the pleasure of controlling my fate, I would never do that.”

Tibs rolled his eyes and crouched at the edge of the room. The changes were obvious; the walls were smoother. Not perfectly flat, but this now looked more like a room than a cavern; which made the holes the spear would come out of more visible. The ‘stones’ that made the walls were tighter together, making the gap he’d used to identify the cache fainter. The tiles on the floor were cleaner, neater, but still the same pressure plate his water could sense when he had it flow around and under it.

“The traps are basically the same as before.”

“Is there still a cache?” Jackal asked.

“Yeah.” Tibs pointed.

“Okay. Khumdar, you’re going to follow Tibs this time, so he can keep an eye on where you step. Follow his path and you won’t have any trouble.”

Tibs took a charcoal stick from his pouch. “I’m going to mark the path to the other side and go for the cache while the rest of you cross.” He took his time, marking all the safe tiles and watching the cleric. Khumdar moved steadily, but no faster than Tibs told him to. He wondered if having darkness as an essence gave someone an aptitude toward Rogue things, even if they weren’t.

Once on the other side, he made his way to the cache where he found armored pants like those they’d found before. They went into Jackal’s backpack. They’d kept the ones they’d bought in MountainSea and were using them since they had to hand over every item now and hope Harry had said the truth when he’d told everyone they would get a fair price for the items they found.

Jackal said Harry didn’t lie, and with having light as an essence, maybe the man couldn’t lie, but ever since finding out about the word ‘technically’ Tibs was wary of anyone who claimed to tell the truth since technically, they could still be lying.

Khumdar and Carina had the other two backpacks. Mez had tried one on, but it interfered with pulling on his bow. Tibs held the coins since those were still theirs to keep. Minus the guild’s cut.

The boulder room was the same, down to the stone rats climbing on top to jump at them. They still made Tibs shudder, but now he grabbed them and smashed them against the boulders. They retrieved the key and moved on to the warren room, where they paused only long enough to check if Khumdar wanted to try it since it would be his first fighting situation.

He agreed, and Jackal assigned Carina and Mez to cover the cleric while he and Tibs handled their own attackers.

When Tibs stood before the door, key in hand, eight silver and four-eight copper richer, he was left with the sense it had been too easy.

“I feel like I should insist we leave the coins behind,” Mez said. “That we didn’t earn them.”

“If I wasn’t as greedy as I am,” Jackal replied, “I’d agree.”

“Was it not always this simple?” Khumdar asked.

“It probably was,” Carina said, “but we weren’t this experienced. Harry did say Omega levels would be doing this floor. It might be how dungeons work. Jackal, didn’t your friend’s father tell you anything about it?”

“I didn’t ask about what happened behind us,” the fighter replied. “Mez, are you sure you can blind the golem in one shot? I’m not sure we want to test what’s going to happen if you need a second.”

“Imbuing essence in the arrow’s tip so it will explode is one thing I excel at.”

Tibs watched the archer work to determine if the use of the word imbue meant the same thing to him, but he was too fast for Tibs to get a sense of the essence since he didn’t have it. He’d asked him later.

“Khumdar, silence is the key here. Tibs will get the boss on its back, and then we run to bash it. It’s more brute force at that point.” Once he gave the instruction, Jackal nodded to Tibs.

The key slipped in easily and Jackal pulled the door open. The golem turned to face them as the light came on. Before it was done turning half its head exploded sending stones flying. As each piece of rubble fell to the floor, it was followed by the strike of a whip as the golem turned and took its usual step as it stuck them.

Was it faster?

Jackal tapped Tibs on the shoulder and he stepped into the room, freezing as the hiss returned, the cadence carrying what he was certain was excitement. As he looked around, both to try to find where it came from and if something had changed, it softened until he couldn’t hear it anymore.

He took step after careful step, on alert for the hiss’s return or some other surprise.

It was a surprise that froze him halfway to the golem. The sound of stone sliding against stone.

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“Tibs!” Jackal yelled as the stone rabbit ran out of the opening in the wall.

Tibs had his knife out, underhanded and slashing the rabbit into two, the pieces hitting the floor silently, then he heard boots on stone, a curse, and the whip cracking. Jackal landed on his side and rolled to his feet, jumping again before the whip hit where he’d been. The fighter was too loud. There was no way the golem would stop trying to hit him.

An arrow exploded in the golem’s back, and it staggered forward. A jet of air hit the explosion point and more stone fell. Khumdar stepped in the room, staff at the ready, but Tibs had another rabbit on him. He sliced it, but another impacted his shoulder, sending him to the ground. Were they targeting him?

He stabbed it and realized he was in range of the golem. Grabbing the amulet out of the pouch, he placed that hand on the floor, alert for more rabbits as he pushed his essence toward the golem, then iced it.

It stepped on it with no prompting and was on its back. Before it could attempt to regain its footing, Jackal and Khumdar were hitting it, stepping away only to let Mez and Carina get their shot in.

The hiss rose in pitch, lasting a few seconds after there was only rubble left of the golem. Then it was over, and Tibs drew the water back in.

“So,” Jackal said, lying on his back, “rabbits and a golem. As if that thing wasn’t tough enough by itself.”

“And it only gets tougher after this,” Carina said.

“I think we could have taken it down with only my arrows and Carina’s air,” Mez said.

“Possibly,” Jackal replied, getting to his feet, “but that leaves you two with much less ammo for whatever comes next. Good work with the knife Tibs.”

“I’m getting throwing knives after this,” he declared, “and making them dungeon proof.”

“You can do that?” Carina asked.

“We all can,” he said, “well, will be able to. Once I manage it, I’ll try to show you, but the way I was shown you have to be able to sense the essence around you and I don’t know if I can teach you what it takes to get to that. It’s hard and you’re not supposed to know it until you graduate.”

“If we’re not supposed to know until we graduate,” Mez asked. “How do you know about it?”

“My teacher is more interested in my survival than following the guild rules.” Tibs smiled. “Being a Rogue has its advantages.”

“Are you saying that because I have honor and would rather follow the rules?” Mez asked.

“No,” Tibs replied, surprised at the accusation. “I’m just saying that if I hadn’t been a Rogue, my teacher would probably have let me die.”

“Has anyone seen the chest?” Jackal asked. “We have not gone through this just to be let down like that.”

As Tibs looked around for it, the ground shook and a section of the wall, opposite the door, slid down to reveal the chest and a staircase behind it doing down.

“Does the timing seem suspicious to any of you?” Carina asked

“Dungeons are crafty,” Mez replied. “It could have learned to recognize tone of voice and wait until someone grows impatient to reveal the exit.”

Or know to have the rabbit attack the one person in the group who could make the golem slip, Tibs thought. Or had that happened because he’d been the first to step in? Did the dungeon remember them? Recognize them?

“I hope it knows that trick’s only going to work the first time,” Jackal said, “Otherwise we’re going to wait a long time for that wall to come down.

“What’s in the chest?” Mez asked, handing Tibs four copper coins. “I’m sorry for accusing you of insulting me.”

Tibs shrugged. “I take breaking the rules for granted. I’m going to try not to be so blatant about it.”

“We have two armored shirts, average quality,” Jackal called. “A knife of sharpness, an amulet, and a pair of armored boots.”

“That’s five instead of one,” Carina said.

“There are five of us,” Khumdar pointed out. “It would make sense the dungeon provides accordingly.”

“Did it hand out more than one item before graduating?” Jackal asked Carina.

“Not that I saw when I was hanging around, but I think there were only three other teams to beat the boss before the dungeon closed to graduate.” She took the amulet. “This is clearly for a sorcerer, and the knife is for a Rogue. If the dungeon was providing for each of us. Wouldn’t it have something clearly for an archer? The boots and shirts could go to anyone.”

“The boots are too heavy for a Rogue,” Jackal said, holding them in his hands. “Do any of you know anything about how it makes items? Saphina’s father never learned about that aspect of dungeons.”

“I heard stories,” Khumdar said, and they looked at him. “In my… travels.”

“Running for your life,” Jackal said. “You don’t have to smooth it for us. We all started as criminals.”

The cleric nodded. “When I was running for my life, I heard stories in towns near dungeons but not affiliated with them and the guild. They always happen, trying to rub some of the shine onto themselves so they’ll seem better. One of those is that when someone dies in a dungeon, they and everything they had on them becomes part of the dungeon and it can learn to remake them.”

“It can make people?” Mez asked.

Khumdar shrugged. “They are only stories I heard. I have no idea if they are true or not.”

“You can look into that when you get access to books, Carina,” Jackal said. “And as nice as it would be that the dungeon thinks of us individually, we can’t keep any of these, so it’s in the pack they go.” He turned and motioned to load him up.

“If the knife isn’t too expensive,” Tibs said, “I’d like to have it.”

Jackal nodded. “Once we know what everything’s worth, we’ll figure things out.” One shirt had to go in Khumdar’s backpack.

“We need to figure out something better for carrying the loot,” Mez said. “We’ll be overburdened if there’s too much stuff on the second floor.”

“We can figure that out when we know what to expect,” Jackal said. “Tibs, care to do the honors?”

He did and checked each step for traps and was surprised when he didn’t find any. At the bottom of the stairs, a short hallway lead to a large room, with a path wide enough for two of them to walk side by side going from their entrance to the exit opposite them. Each side of the path dropped into a pool of liquid that covered the room a few feet down, except for the small ledge they stood on and that went all the way around to the other side.

“Is it just me,” Jackal grumbled, “or does that central lane look way too inviting to be the way we want to go?”

“In this dungeon,” Tibs replied, crouching to get a sense of the walking surface, “I wouldn’t trust any of the paths offered.”

He didn’t find it reassuring that the hissing chose that time to return and that it sounded too much like someone chuckling.

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