Stepping Wild (Dungeon Runner 04)

The stone was gone, so, after hesitating, Tibs stepped within the dungeon's influence. The silence stretched long enough he sensed to make sure he was over the core room, to be certain he hadn't misjudged where the influence started.

"Why?" Karliak asked, and Tibs thought the neutral tone covered up anger. How long could a dungeon remain angry? They didn't understand time the way people did. Did it mean it could last longer? Couldn't last as long?

He had hoped Simtor would have given his reasons. And maybe they had. Tibs wouldn't accept someone else telling him why the person who'd hurt him had done it.

"I needed you to take what I was doing seriously. I needed you to understand what suffering can be like for us. It's not a game, it's not a test. Sometimes, suffering can take everything we are away."

"Why do you want me to know what that's like?"

"Because that's what you do to us."

"You said that's not a test."

He swallowed his annoyance. "But it can happen from the tests, Karliak." Was the dungeon really not understanding? Were they being difficult on purpose? "If we fail, we die and it ends. Has to end right then and there. To let a runner suffer while they die is just being cruel."

"You were."

Tibs nodded. "When we survive, we'll often be hurt. We'll suffer then, and you can't do anything about it, shouldn't do anything about that, but we have to be the ones to decide if we want to endure it, or turn around and try again another day. Dying isn't under our control. It's under yours. You can't be gentle with the runners, but you should try to be kind, to not be cruel."

"How can I trust you, Tibs? You said you wouldn't take my essence, that it was a demonstration."

"You weren't taking it seriously. You weren't understanding how much it can hurt. It was still a game to you."

"And that makes it okay?"

Tibs's laugh was bitter. "No. But it made it the only way I could think to make you understand. It isn't worth much, but I'm sorry for what I did."

"You're right. I don't think you being sorry means anything now."

He nodded. "How do you want to proceed?"

Karliak snorted. "I want you to leave and never come back. But I need what you know." The silence stretched. "Is this how people are? Always lying to each other?"

"No, a lot of them never have to lie, or at least not in ways that will hurt others. But some do, and like how I did it to you. We won't know it's about to happen."

"How do you live like that?"

"We do the best we can. Some of us never trust anyone. Some never talk with someone they are certain they can trust. Most try to tell if the other is lying, and do what they can to guard themselves in case they get it wrong."

"I…. I don't think could live like that. I don't want to live like that."

"I wish I didn't have to."

"I can't make the pit any deeper, and I can't do anything to the runner that's fallen. I don't want it to suffer, but what can I do?"

"Once you have more essence, you'll be able to use that to create systems that respond to a runner's actions. But for now, you'll just have to make the fall more deadly." He formed a spike of stone, keeping it as narrow as he could for it to survive an animal's fall on it, and making the point so sharp it should be enough by itself.

"Put spikes like this at the bottom of the pit. Put them close enough the hopper will have to fall on one no matter how they fall through." He stepped away, and the spike melted into the ground.

Almost immediately, the ground changed, as if a wave crested over it and turned it into a tiled floor, except for seven paces around Tibs.

"That's fast." The floor was also more refined. The lines straighter, the tiles more uniform

"I needed something to do, so I didn't have to think about how you made me feel," Karliak replied darkly.

Then, walls rose. Tree trunks so straight they looked like the side of a log cabin, and ending where the influence ended, leaving them cut is if by a saw. No one walking by would think this was natural, but he'd explain that later. The entrance and exit faced each other, with a corridor a few paces deep, as best as Tibs could tell at a distance.

He pulled in his sense and studied the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Running the room."

"But I didn't make it for you."

"Good. Then this can be another lesson. You can't know who will come in ahead of time. So you want to set your traps to test as many different Runners as you can."

"But I only have a set number of tiles, and fixed number of ways I can create a path through them."

"Working out how to make what you need with limited resources is another way you grow, just like us. When we become a Runner, we don't have essence. So we have to work out how to use our senses to tell what tile will be trapped, and which won't." He tested the tiles, and they all broke with only a slight pressure, revealing a bed of spikes that looked appropriately deadly.

"Like I said, they aren't meant for you."

"That's okay. I know how to get to the exit."

He stepped on the line between tiles—it no longer looked like rope, and what he'd sensed of it before pulling in his sense made it mostly stone. It gave as soon as he put weight on it and he pulled his foot up in surprise.

"Okay, that's clever."

"You think so?"

He crouched again and pushed on the line. It resisted until he had most of his weight on it. "Yes. That can take enough weight a Runner will think it's safe, then try it, and at least one of them will fall through."

"That…isn't why I made it like that."

Tibs wasn't surprised. Karliak hadn't made this room for him, after all. "Then what is the reason?"

"It lets me use as little essence as possible to support the tiles."

Tibs nodded. "Then, another lesson. Good ideas don't always come from the plan you had in mind. Sometimes, you're aiming to do one thing, and it'll end up serving a different purpose. Even a mistake in one place can end up being something useful elsewhere. If you're able to, never just throw away something."

"I don't throw anything outside my influence. That would be a waste."

"I mean ideas. Do you remember everything you do?"

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"Simtor, do I remember everything?"

"You haven't forgotten anything yet," they replied. "But I can see a point where finding a specific thing among everything will be harder."

"It sounds a bit like how I remember things, but there are things that, no matter how hard I try, I can't remember."

"That's…I can't even imagine what that's like."

Tibs chuckled. "We get used to it, but it does get annoying at times. I would love to be able to remember everything." How easy it would be to find the men who had killed Mama then. He stood. "Since I can't cross it as a Runner, I'll jump over it and get a hopper to run it." An etching under his feet sent him to the corridor.

"How did you do that?" Simtor asked.

"It's going to be one of the lessons once Karliak had more essence." He considered something. "Enough to make two rooms."

*

He placed the rabbit down and let it go. It hopped around, managed to avoid falling three times, then wasn't fast enough and fell. It impaled on a spike and its life essence poured out.

Good.

"I'll be back with another."

*

He place another rabbit down, and this one refused to move until Tibs touched it. It bolted forward, landing on a tile that broke and fell to its death.

"They don't seem to be learning anything," Simtor said.

"They're animals. And they'd need to survive to have a chance of learning."

"Should some of them survive?"

How to answer that question?

"Is there a way for one of them to cross to the exit?"

"Of course," Karliak said.

"Then the rules are respected. If you want to have some of them survive, it's a decision you need to make."

"But they're going to escape out of the other exit and I'm not going to get their essence."

"Is that more important than learning to out-think the runners?"

"There doesn't seem to be a lot of thinking happening with them."

Tibs chuckled. "That's true with animals. But if you have people as Runners, it's something you'll have to decide." He turned. "I'll get another rabbit."

*

Tibs returned with something else this time and needed more fever essence to hold it still. The wild cat was the size of an infant, and when he put it down and released it, instead of running over the tiles, it turned and hissed at him.

"Oh, I've sensed those running through me when I had the clearing. What is it?"

"A lynx." It swiped at him, then darted left. He lunged for it, knowing he was wasting his time, and it was already going right, running out of the dungeon by the time Tibs landed.

"It went in the wrong direction."

"It's not going to be the most cooperative Runner. I'll be right back."

*

Tibs placed the lynx down, holding it with Fever. "When I let you go, you run in that direction." He readied himself to catch it this time and let it go.

It didn't bother hissing, pushing itself away from the tiles and between Tibs's legs before he reacted.

"I can close it behind you, if you want," Karliak offered.

"No, I will get it to run the room."

He exited the dungeon.

*

With a frustrated scream, Tibs rolled as the cat ran over his back and out of the dungeon. The abyssed cursed animal had tricked him into jumping forward.

"Why don't you immobilize it the way you hold it when you put it down?" Simtor asked.

"It's just a stupid animal," Tibs replied, getting to his feet. "It's going to do what I want it to do." He exited the dungeon after it.

*

"You look like you've had a bad day," Darna said, putting the plate and tankard before him.

"Stupid and stubborn," Tibs grumbled.

"Kids can be that way," she said with a chuckle, walking away.

*

"Can I try something?" Karliak offered as Tibs placed the lynx down.

"Short of spearing it while I'm holding it, you can try anything you want to lure a Runner in."

Halfway between him and the center of the room, a rabbit formed out of the floor. He had no Life essence, and the Fever didn't feel right for an animal.

When he released the lynx, it didn't move. Stood so still, Tibs might think it was a carving, if he couldn't sense it. He touched to prod it forward and it turn around his hand and was out between his legs.

Tibs let out a frustrated scream.

"I thought that was going to work," Karliak said. "I sensed something like that chasing a hopper once."

"Okay, I need a break." He ran a hand over his face. "Turn your influence into a clearing. We're going to get back to traps later." He stepped out of the influence and the change was just as fast as when he'd changed the floor. So what Karliak had practiced went beyond one thing.

He stepped back in. "The first thing we're going to work on is something you'll have to keep working with over time, because it's going to have to change as your influence grows. And that's about keeping you and your first floor from being too easily found."

"Don't I want Runners to come?"

"Yes, but if you make it too easy, you can get too many of them."

"And we might get things we don't want?"

"Yes. There are people out there, the guild, that takes control of who does into dungeons."

"They'll try to keep me from growing?"

Tibs swallowed his response. It would be so easy to lie. To make the guild so bad, it would be out of a bard's song. But it wasn't toward dungeons it was bad.

"It's more complicated than that. What they'd do would help you. They'd give you so many Runners you'd be able to grow quickly."

"Then why don't I want them to know about me?"

"I don't want them to know about you, Karliak. What the guild does helps you, but it hurts a lot of people. I was thrown into Sto without any idea what I was supposed to do. The guild build a town to get more people, so more people would go into him, and when the town was threatened, they let it happen. All they did was protect the dungeon. They'd see you as more important than the people in the town they'd build."

"And I'm not more important?" the question had no judgement in it.

"I don't think you are. I don't think you should be. It's supposed to be a balance. We test ourselves against you and those who survive get stronger with you. The guild, it let the people in the town suffer when it had to power to end it."

"It's cruel?" Simtor asked.

That one was easy. "Yes. It is. We're nothing more than food for them to feed you with. I don't want them to come here and ruin more lives."

"Okay. So how do I make it so it's not easy to find me?"

The laugh was nearly a sob. "I expected you to fight me on this."

"I don't want Runners to suffer, Tibs. Not if I can help it. Runners are people, so I don't want them to suffer either."

"He could be lying," Simtor said in a factual tone.

"Maybe. But I don't think Tibs would lie about something that ends up not causing suffering if I listen. Is that how people do it? Try to figure out when someone would lie?"

"Yeah, it's something we need to do."

"Are you lying to me, Tibs?"

"I think we all know you can't believe what I tell you unless you're able to see light on my words."

"Is that something I can do?"

"Probably. I knew a guard with Light as his element who could tell when someone lied. I don't know how he did it. For me, it just happens. Words pretty much always glow because we're always changing what we meant a bit. But I've learned to work out the big lies from when someone just wants to impress me, or protect me, or protect themselves. What I did to you is one of the worse way we lie, but there are a lot of small ones. Some even help us a little."

Karliak sighed. "People are complicated."

"Yes, we are." Tibs looked around. "Alright. So, to hide yourself, you need to make your outside blend in with the surrounding. Right now, you're the size of your influence, but—"

"I'm always going to be the size of my influence. That's who I am."

"True. Your rooms. Those are what you need to camouflage. And since your first floor will only have three or four of them, they won't be as large as you will."

"Why only four?" Simtor asked.

"Because those will be enough to test Runners without an element. There are no rules about how the first-floor rooms are made, but I think it should be one for each of the kinds of test you'll give the Runners plus the boss room."

"What the boss—"

"Karliak," Simtor said, "maybe you should focus on one task. I'm sure Tibs will explain about the rooms when we get to that."

"He might forget."

"That's not something I'm going to forget about. So, the way hide yourself is to make the outside of your rooms look at the rest of the trees. You remember how they felt when you moved?"

A trunk with branches grew out of the ground until it reach the top of Karliak's influence. It was too straight, a representation of what a tree was, more than the actual tree. Did it mean Karliak's memory was no more accurate than Tibs's? Or was this an indication of how a dungeon perceived essence?

"Let me try something." He stepped out of the dungeon and returned with a sapling in a handful of dirt. He made a hole with his heel and place it in, then carefully pushed wood essence into it. He let it take what it needed, then push only a little more, causing it to grow faster. He had to add life essence, since it grew faster than that could keep up. Soon enough, he had a small tree close to his height. It was thin, bent in odd places and might not survive the next storm, but it looked more like a tree than the one Karliak made.

He stepped away. "Can you sense it? How the essence is? How it compares to the one you made?"

"Yes, and that's more accurate?"

"More, yes, but it's not exact. I tried to let it grow by itself, but it was too fast, so I had to help and I can't sense all the elements yet, so there are a lot of them missing. But its 'shape' is a lot like those outside your influence. Feel for them as it grows. You'll get a better sense of what you should make the trees around your rooms like."

"There all different," Simtor said. "I noticed that, but I wasn't paying much attention."

"Yes, just like people are all different, anything that has life in it grows with their own differences. We'll all alike enough that you can tell a tree from a flower, from a cat, from a person. But two of them side by side will also be different."

"I'll have to practice that," Karliak mused, as the tree they made shifted in shape.

"That's why you'll be working on this over time. Also, as the your influence reaches higher, you'll sense the top of the trees so you'll be able to add that. Since you do want Runners to find you. You'll also want to draw attention to the entrance. It can't stand out too much, but it need to be noticed. Firmen molded the trees around it to form an arch. It looks almost natural, but it's enough to pull in someone curious."

"So make the trees around it look different enough," Karliak said, sounding distracted, while the tree continued to change slightly.

"Yes, and if I can get your full attention, we're going to move on to tests of combat."