Stepping Up, Draft 1, CH 06 (Patreon)

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Going forward (I will go back and change that in book 1 too) I will not be using the “name of magical items is visible” thing.

“You’re the first ones!” Sto exclaimed as Tibs and his team walked up the steps. “I am so glad for that, I can’t wait for you to see what I’ve done.”

The cleric by the door with the two guards was a woman, older than those who had had that duty before Sto was attacked, and older than most who Tibs had seen in town. He’d expected that only the young ones had healing duties, while the olders were watching over them. Sort of like the adventurers had done when he’d first arrived, if he’d thought the young clerics would consider trying to run. They all believed in purity in a way that made Tibs avoid talking with them.

She looked them over, then settled her gaze on Khumdar, her so pale eyes narrowing. With a resigned sigh, she placed a hand on him and immediately the darkness cleric straightened, no longer needing his staff to support his weight.

“I thank you, My Lady of the Light,” Khumdar told her and she narrowed her eyes further, which only seemed to amuse him.

“If you give me a nickname,” Tibs warned, once they were inside the dungeon, “I am stabbing you.” He was done letting someone give him one that would somehow spread through the entire town.

“That is the name of her family,” Khumdar replied. “The of the Light family is one of the families who are duty-bound to come to dungeons and heal.”

“How do you know that?” Tibs asked, looking around. The hall leading to the first room was different, somehow, but he couldn’t place how. The lights were in the same place, the walls the same smooth earth-red stone shifting to gray.

“Oh, Tibs, I know a great many things.”

“Secrets you accumulate.” Maybe it was simply how long it had been. Or his expectations Sto would make obvious changes each time he reopened.

“That too,” the cleric said, smiling.

“That’s been improved,” Jackal said as they arrived at the trap room. “Looking nice, Dungeon.”

It was now a room and not a smoothed-out cave. The walls were interlocking flat stones, like the floor tiles, going up a dozen feet. Tibs wondered where the holes the shaft came out of when a trigger was activated were until he noticed many of the places where stones abutted one another had gaps the diameter of the shafts. Once he realized that, he also realized the number of holes had increased.

“There’s more triggers now,” he said.

“Is that going to be a problem?” Carina asked.

Tibs shook his head and took the amulet out of his pouch. He extended his senses. He could now reach to the other side of the room, nearly double what he’d been able to sense before. He didn’t know if it was because of the density of his essence, or because of the practice he’d gotten as he traveled. He hadn’t paid attention until now.

He sighed. He needed to start thinking of everything as training again.

The air felt dry, but he found the water essence in it. More than he’d expected. Alistair had said essence and the world didn’t always match. He closed his eyes and spread his reserve through the room, actively controlling how it thinned while sensing the room and calling that essence to it.

He extended his hand and snapped his fingers as he brought everything down to the floor, causing a splash he kept contained in the room.

Jackal groaned. “Tibs’s becoming a showman.”

He opened his eyes. The coating of water was thinner than he’d expected.

“Don’t listen to him,” Sto said, “I like the showmanship.”

“Is that all that was in the amulet?” Carina asked, sounding concerned.

“I didn’t use the amulet,” Tibs answered, crouching.

“You figured it out!” Carina exclaimed, then she pulled him up, breaking his concentration, and hugged him tightly.

“I did.” He patted her back. “But not enough I can keep hold of the essence through this.”

“Sorry,” she said, grinning.

“I’m missing something,” Jackal said, then raised his hand. “I know, not surprising. How about we skip the digs and just explain things?”

Tibs untangled himself from Carina’s arms. “I couldn’t sense and manipulate at the same time. Even though Carina, Mez, and you figured it out. It was annoying. But I worked it out now. I can’t believe it was so simple I didn’t do it sooner.” He took hold of the water again and brought it over to the floor.

“I am amused that you did not mention me,” Khumdar said.

“How could he?” Mez replied, “you’re always all mysterious and stuff about what you know.”

“I believe you are mistaking not bragging about what I can do with being mysterious.”

“No,” Tibs replied, “you’re mysterious and stuff. You can’t help it.” Not enough water, so he pulled from the amulet, then iced that, keeping the rippling as small as he could while giving them traction.

Khumdar laughed. “You have seen through my deepest secret.”

“I doubt that,” Mez grumbled.

Tibs walked along the wall, looking for the cache. With the stone flat and walls even it no longer jumped out at him from the entrance, but… he crouched, and ran a hand over it. The space between it and the stones around it was a little wider, so it could be removed. He pressed, and it clicked. It pushed against his hand as he moved back, and he felt along the edge for other traps. He would not be killed in the first room because he was overconfident. He removed the cover stone and smiled at what was inside.

A pair of shoes.

He studied the walls before taking them and sensing for essence in them. He recognized the way it was woven through them. His Silent Shoes. He held them against his chest. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed them. His first magical item; found the first time he’d discovered the cache. Lost when he’d walked in a room filled with fire. Found again.

“I’m keeping them,” he told the others as he joined them, and then nodded.

The boulder room gave them no problems, even if the number of rats in it had increased. As had the rats and bunnies in the warren room.

“This is going to give the Omega teams more trouble,” Jackals said, grunting as he pulled the door to the boss room open.

“Only if they don’t work together,” Mez replied. “That’s the secret to those two rooms, really.”

The fighter looked at the archer. “Right, and how many teams were you on, back then, where working together was such a simple thing?”

“Not many, I know. Maybe this group will be different.”

“A bunch criminals thrown together against their wills,” Carina said, thoughtfully, “no, I don’t see that leading to cooperation very quickly.”

“I expect you are speaking from experience?” Khumdar said, as the light in the room slowly came on and the golem, Whipper, turned to face them. “After all, you were criminals thrown together against your will at one time also.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I am.”

“I tried to work with the teams I was on,” Mez said, “but egos kept getting in the way.”

“Says the noble,” Tibs grumbled and hated himself for the thought. Mez was a friend. His status didn’t matter. Shouldn’t matter. He felt the archer’s eyes on his back.

“How about we use that building aggression and anger against that thing,” Jackal said, then added, “it’s better than using it against each other, and that was not appropriate Tibs.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Tibs said, taking out his knives. He looked at them, then at the golem. He recalled how close the rats and bunnies had to get to him before he could kill them, and couldn’t stop the shudder. A sword. He was learning how to use a sword after this run. Better yet, he was learning how to use the fire and air essence as attacks.

He let out his breath and Jackal gave the signal. Moments later the golem was rubble.

“No comments?” Tibs asked, looking up as the back wall lowered to reveal the stairwell to the next level and chest with the boss loot.

“You mean other than how long it took you all to get here?” Sto replied with a chuckle. “This is the first floor. I don’t expect it to give you trouble. The next floor, on the other hand…”

“Tibs,” Jackal called, lobbing something at him. He caught the amulet, an identical version of his other one. “If there’s two more, you might get a full set out of this run.”

Tibs nodded. “If there’s enough loot no one else wants to cover their cost.”

“I think it’s more important you get the amulets,” Mez said, “the more of your essences you can use fully, the better our odds of beating the dungeon.”

Tibs sighed. “I am sorry for what I said. You’re not like them, I know that.”

The archer nodded. “And I understand why it’s difficult for you to accept it. You’ve only experienced the bad side of what nobility is.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m starting to think there’s so few of us you might well be justified in hating every noble, but give me and the others like me time, we’ll show you that nobility doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“Hug already,” Jackal said in irritation. “We have a second floor to clear, and loot to claim.”

Tibs and Mez looked at one another, then at Jackal. “No.” They said in unison, then grinned. Jackal rolled his eyes and started down the stairs.

At the bottom, Tibs frowned and turned away from the room to look at the wall beside the stairs. There was something about it.

“That’s interesting,” Ganymede said, and Tibs smiled on hearing her.

“Tibs?” Carina called.

“Give me a minute, there’s something here.” He ran a hand over the wall. The composition of the essence was different. He tried to figure out how. There were no essence triggers, no actual shape to it that would indicate a weave, but—

“Minute’s up, Tibs,” Jackal called. “Unless you’ve found loot, there’s some on the other side of this room that we need you to get us across.”

“I’m going to figure this out,” Tibs told Sto.

“I know.”

“I’m surprised you could tell there was even something there,” Ganny said. “Sto was really careful.”

“The way the essence is in the stone is different from the rest.” He joined his friends.

“You need me to lower you to the water?” Jackal asked, acting too innocent for Tibs’s liking.

“You dropped me the last time.”

“After you iced the water.” The fighter couldn’t stop the smile.

Tibs narrowed his eyes and sent the water essence out into the water. He shaped stairs going down to the surface out of it, then raised his hand. Jackal took a worried step back. “No, I don’t need your help.” He snapped his fingers, and the ice formed so fast throughout the pool that it cracked and snapped as it expanded.

“I wouldn’t have dropped you,” Jackal said defensively.

Mez patted the fighter’s shoulder. “Give it up, your face is betraying you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a maniacal grin before.” He walked down the ice steps.

“I’m not—” Jackal touched his face and cursed, trying to stop grinning. “How can I betray myself? I’m supposed to be on my side.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Carina said, stepping by him. “It’s endearing how you get so excited about your evil plans you can contain yourself.”

“I would simply make sure you do not do so before someone who would truly be angered at your plans,” Khumdar said, joining the others on the pool of ice.

“It is kind of amusing watching you try,” Tibs said, then walked down the stair.

“But I’m Jackal,” the fighter said, joining him, “I’m supposed to be able to be evil without anyone knowing.”

“No, you can’t,” Tibs said. “You’re too nice.”

“I am not nice,” Jackal replied, pouting, then grinned.

Tibs rolled his eyes just before the ice shook.

“Did you do that?” Jackal asked, standing still in the following quiet.

“No.” Tibs sensed through the ice. He couldn’t feel the entire pool, but he could sense to the floor, and— “Run!” he motioned to the other end of the pool as he started running.

The ice shook again and Tibs felt a section of the floor rise, pushing the ice, cracking it. He felt the earth essence in that section, felt it compress as it built strength. “Hurry!” he yelled as he felt the section next to it do the same, if slower.

Behind them, the ice erupted as a pillar of stone burst through. Tibs cursed as he sensed the section ahead of him and Jackal about to shatter the ice. “Earth up! This isn’t going to be fun!” he wished he had put earth in his amulet instead of water. He couldn’t think of how he was going to get out of this one without breaking anything.

The ice cracked under them, and he thought he’d make it. Then the corruption in his essence reminded him it was there by cramping his leg and sending him sprawling on the ice. The pain kept him from getting up as the explosion of ice sent him flying to yells of horror from his friend and Sto.

He fought through the pain, cursed Bardik for being the cause, and looked around. He was in the air, falling. He caught sight of his friends as Carina leaped up out of the pool and onto the stone ledge. Mez and Khumdar were behind her.

Tibs was falling toward jagged ice.

He reached his hand forward and melted the ice. He fell in cold water and didn’t wait. He propelled himself out of it. He could feel the stone ahead tensing, almost at the point where it would erupt.

Jackal jumped out of the pool and crashed into the wall. Tibs snorted and almost lost his footing.

“Come on Tibs,” Sto encouraged him. “You can make it.”

No, he couldn’t. The next section would burst instant after this one. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t clear both.

So he slowed, then stopped.

“Tibs?” Sto yelled. “You can’t give up!”

Tibs called essence to him. He really hoped this worked. He crouched and readied himself, shifting the composition to the ice under him.

The stone broke through, sending him up, but the ice angled because of the staggered durability he’d given it, instead of erupting in everywhere. He sent part of his essence in it as he felt himself start to fall, and it erupted under his control, sending him flying toward the shelf.

The next section broke and frying ice slammed into him, sending him tumbling. He thought he was still heading toward the shelf, but couldn’t be sure. Regardless, he pulled as much of the essence from the flying ice as he could and wrapped himself in water. He was still considering if he should ice it up for extra hardness or use the softness of it to absorb the impact when that impact occurred.

“Yes!” Sto yelled as Tibs slide down a wall, the water sloshing off him as his head rang. “You made it!”

“Tibs!” Carina was next to him. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” he replied, sighing, “he made changes to the room.”

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