Stepping Wild (Dungeon Runner 04)

Tibs stepped into Karliak's influence, holding the animal to his chest, and amused at the mishmash of parts of trees, bushes, grass, rocks and earth that turned it into something of an obstacle course.

It might make for an efficient first floor room.

It looked like the dungeon had taken his comment about making them look inconspicuous and done their best.

"What are you holding?" Simtor asked.

"Part of today's demonstration and exercise. Karliak, can you absorb everything and make the drop tile floor?"

The vegetations melted away, and he stepped out of the influence until it was gone and the ground was replaced by—

As he'd instructed, they had worked on that, too.

He was impressed. It looked much more like the floor of a room now. Karliak had reduced the size of the tiles to roughly the length of his foot. He'd changed the ropes to look like they were part of the ground, even with the tiles. They were still mostly square, the way Tibs had made one, and the rope adapted to that, instead of running straight from one side to the other.

Oddly enough, it gave the floor a natural sense to it, rather than something people would make. He sensed the tiles and had to place his feet on the ropes, as they were the only thing strong enough to support his weight.

They'd touch on that later.

"I like what you did. Although there is a flaw at the moment."

"What is it?" the dungeon asked.

"I wouldn't be able to make it across. None of the tiles can support my weight."

"You aren't using the tiles," they pointed out.

"Because I can sense them and know the ropes are the only solid part of the floor. Runners wouldn't be able to tell that."

"Doesn't that make it part of the test, then?" Simtor asked. "Force them to think about where they need to step to make it across?"

Tibs considered it. "Okay, that would work. But then, with how they currently are, it would be too easy for a Runner to work it out. As soon as they've tested every tile they can reach, and they've dropped, they'll have to test the ropes and they'll find out those can support their weight."

"So, I need to vary the tiles, get them to think there's a path that way, and then block it."

Tibs placed the rabbit down, then released it, both from his hands and the fever essence he'd used to immobilize it.

It darted across the room.

"Oh, a hopper!" Karliak said, excitedly.

"Right now, that's your first Runner and…." He waited until the rabbit disappeared in the underbrush on the other side. "It beat your test."

"Hoppers are people?" Simtor asked. "They don't feel anything like you or the other one."

"No, they aren't people, they're animals."

"You said Runners are a kind of people."

He chuckled. "Okay. In this case, I used the rabbit, the hopper, as a representation of a Runner since I can't bring an actual Runner."

"Why not?" Karliak asked.

"There aren't any around here at the moment."

"Can you go get some?"

"It would take too long."

"I'm patient."

Tibs forced the chuckle and hoped the dungeon wouldn't get too insistent. "I might not have the time. People get older much faster than dungeons. Even without tests, we eventually die. If I die before I find some, I wouldn't be able to help you anymore, so we're going to use animals in their place for you to practice adapting."

"Alright. So I have to make the tiles weaker."

"And you need to have walls with an entrance and exit, and a bit of a corridor in them. Make the corridor four tiles deep. I'll get you another runner while you make the changes."

*

The essence in the tiles was of varying density, but he couldn't tell which one would support the rabbit or not.

"Alright. The hopper making it to the exit is considered them passing your test."

"What happens then?"

"In this case, they get to run away in the forest. Once you have a complete first floor, they'd move on to the next room until they reach the boss room. Once they defeat the boss, they'd get the floor reward, and if your second floor is complete, you'd give them access to that so they can continue testing themselves. If your second floor isn't ready, they turn around with their loot and leave. To come back later."

"Can you explain floors?" Simtor asked.

"A floor is the area in which Karliak will test those of a same rank."

"Rank?"

Right. "A Runner's rank is a determination of how strong they are. The guild gives them names, but you don't need that. The thing to keep in mind for this is that your first floor is intended to test Runners without an element. Like this hopper." He placed it down and let it go. "You shouldn't increase the difficulty to account for those who have gained one."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Doesn't that mean it'll become too easy for them?"

The rabbit nearly fell when a tile broke under its feet, but jumped off in time.

"If everything goes well, you will grow in time with them so that by the time a team finds the floor too easy, you're ready to open your second one and continue challenging them."

Four rows from the exit, the rabbit disappeared down a broken tile.

"What is it doing?" Simtor asked.

Tibs walked on the ropes to where the rabbit had fallen, then taped the tiles until he could see it. It was twitching, and focusing on it, he could sense its life essence slowly leaking out.

"It's dying."

"Oh, okay."

No. This wasn't okay. The hole wasn't deep enough for the fall to kill, leaving the rabbit to suffer as it died. He pulled the life essence out.

"Wait, wasn't that supposed to be mine?"

Tibs let it go.

"Okay, why did you do that?"

"So it wouldn't suffer."

"What's suffering?" Simtor asked.

"It's feeling something you don't like."

"So, like me being sent to Karliak without any idea what I was supposed to do?"

He chuckled. "What the rabbit felt was more intense than that. It had broken bones and broken insides. It felt pain with each breath."

"You can tell that?" Karliak asked, impressed.

"No, I've felt it." He straightened. "I think I need you need to feel it, too."

"If I'm not going to like it, I don't see why I should."

"So you understand why you need to make your traps in a way that causes as little suffering as possible. Make a block of stone."

"I'd rather not."

"Karliak, you have to. I need you to know what this is like. I won't do anything permanent, but you have to experience it so you can relate to the Runners putting themselves through your tests."

"Nothing permanent?"

"I promise."

"And that means you won't change your mind?"

"Yes, but be careful. Not everyone who says it means it."

"Then what's the point?" A block the size of five tiles grew to roughly the equivalent height.

"It's part of being people. We setup rules, and some of us go about breaking them." He sensed the block. It was mostly like the wall of the core room, if not quite as dense. "I need you to resist what I'll do. Your job is to keep control of your essence in the block while I try to take it away from you."

He began before Karliak responded, using barely any and undoing a point in the center of the face.

"You said you weren't going to do anything permanent!"

"Focus, Karliak, or I'm going to take away more."

The resistance built until Tibs has no effect. The hole was barely the width of his thumb, and half that in depth.

"There," the dungeon stated.

Tibs pushed.

"What?" The dungeon pushed back.

He pushed a little harder, and the dungeon reacted.

Again and again it went. Then Tibs pushed, and the dungeon didn't match it.

"You need to stop me, Karliak." He unraveled the essence slowly, giving the dungeon time.

"I don't like this."

"I know. But if you don't stop me, I'm going to take all of it."

"You promised."

Tibs swallowed. He had to get him to take this seriously. "I lied." He undid a larger chunk.

"That's mine!" The dungeon pushed back and Tibs let them retake control. Let them hope. Then he pushed harder.

He closed his eyes at the despair in Karliak's voice as they tried to protect the block and Tibs continued to unravel it.

Half the block was left when he stopped. Karliak wasn't sobbing, but Tibs figured it was because dungeons couldn't.

"This is what the hopper felt as it died."

"I hate it! I hate you!"

Tibs released the essence he'd unraveled and left.

*

Karliak had filled his influence with stone, so Tibs left.

*

"You look like your best friend died." Korl said, sitting on the other side of the table Tibs had started thinking of as is. The tavern was never so full, all of them were occupied, and this one never seemed to be. Maybe the others wanted to be close to each other, and considered this one too far.

"They're just a…I don't even know if we're friends, but they aren't talking to me."

"Something you did?"

Tibs nodded.

"Have you apologized?"

"They won't let me."

"I find it doesn't usually matter. When Lian does something, he just won't stop apologizing until I have no choice but to listen."

"And he hurts you often?"

Korl smiled as he shook his head. "He's a sweetheart. But even he screws up sometimes."

"Because he won't be your special guy?"

Korl laughed. "No one can be special to Lian. He loves us all too much." He looked in his tankard. "It hurt when I realized it the first time. Back then I dreamed of taking him away from this place, making ourselves rich in the city, giving him everything he'd ever want. Then I realized he doesn't want anything that isn't already here. You've had someone like that?"

Tibs shook his head. "I don't…." He shrugged and Korl didn't press.

"Give them time. Be there when they're ready to listen to you."

"I don't know if they ever will. I was…." It had been needed. He couldn't think of another way to ensure Karliak didn't take what Runners did for granted. That he respected what they put themselves through. "I wasn't kind."

"We can be assholes sometimes. But they'll get tired of cutting you off at some point. No one has the strength to hate someone else for the rest of their lives."

Tibs hid his smirk by drinking from his tankard. Some people could hang onto their hate for as long as needed.

He would.

"But yeah. Just be there when they get tired of it. Then they'll probably ask to talk with you."

*

It was nearly a month of Tibs going to Karliak nearly every day, before the stone was gone.

He stood at the edge of the dungeon's influence, unsure what to do.

"Karliak's not ready to talk to you," Simtor said, and Tibs looked around. He'd been certain he was outside of it.

"Then why did they remove the stone?"

"I asked for it. I'm ready to speak with you."

"Can they hear us?"

"Karliak is turned inward."

He took that to mean they couldn't.

"What you did, that was…." Simtor couldn't seem to find the word, so Tibs provided it.

"Cruel. What I did was cruel. I wish I could have thought of a different way to teach that lesson."

"How was it taught to you?"

His laugh was bitter. "Mama was taken from me when I was a child by men who were supposed to protect us. The people around me sought to use and hurt me, instead of comforting me. I was alone, having to do anything I could to stay alive. The world taught me cruelty. And I hated it for it."

"Then why did you do that to Karliak?"

"Because I need them to understand what Runners do isn't easy. We suffer for what we get. We accept that it's part of how running a dungeon goes, but it shouldn't be needlessly so. We'll make mistakes, and if we survive them, we will suffer. If we don't…death shouldn't be prolonged. It's not hard just on the one dying, but on everyone around them. It's…. It's a kindness to make it quick."

"Alright. I'll explain it."

"Simtor, there's something you need to know."

They chuckled. "I figure there's more than one."

"This one's important. There are things out there that exist to destroy dungeons that break the rules."

"We won't break them."

"You don't know them, Simtor. I don't know them. I know some and I'll teach Karliak those, but I just know them because I've seen what happens when they're broken. I've seen the Them's work."

"The Them?"

"It's what Ganny called them. Anytime Sto would break a rule, she'd threaten him with them. I don't know if she even believed they were real. But Sto didn't. He was like me a lot. We don't like rules we can't find ways to bend or break. Then the Them showed up. You need to make sure Karliak is careful, Simtor. Part of your job as helper is to get them to follow the rules."

"Which I don't know."

"Yeah. It's going to suck."

"Thank you for telling me, Tibs," they eventually said.

"Thank you for giving me a chance to explain."

"It's going to be longer before Karliak is ready to continue."

"Keep the stone up until then. That way, I'll know I can step in once it's gone."