Tibs willed the fire to ignite as he returned to his camp with two dead rabbits. He skinned them and set them aside to dry while he cut the meat into strips to cook. He’d draw the water out when he was ready to properly scrape them.

  “Are you rested?” Firmen asked.

  “I am.” He’d remembered the favor once he’d woken, and realized Firmen could get the best out of him. There was also something about the boss room that bothered him, but he kept his curiosity in check. He wanted Firmen to lead the conversation.

  “You said you wanted a favor.”

  “I’d like to reach a room without having to do a run. No puzzles, traps, or fights. It can be right at the entrance and it doesn’t have to contain anything. I just need space to practice.”

  “Isn’t that what the runs are for?” Firmen’s tone became cautious. “How does an empty room help with that?”

  “What I need to practice is not letting Wood influence me when I channel its essence.”

  “Is that something Runners have to train?”

  “No.” With the meat on the rack close to the fire, he took a hide, pulled the water essence out of it as he made a stone scrapper and set about cleaning it. “Schors say anyone with an element is influenced by them, but I’ve never noticed anything to the level of what I have to deal with.”

  “If it doesn’t involve me pushing you, just do it out here.”

  “That’s….” He thought back to what he’d done the previous time. “I need to be contained. I lost a day when I tried it and I want to avoid that. There’s also no telling the damage I can to the animals. I killed a lot of small ones because they were hurting pnts. I’m lucky I didn’t come across a deer eating leaves. It took having to heal from a cougar’s attack to return to myself. Inside you, there won’t be any distractions pulling my attention away from how the element affects me.”

  The silence stretched through him cleaning one hide, and partway through the other.

  “I don’t see what I have to gain from it.”

  Tibs nodded, having expected they’d notice that. With Sto, he’d think Ganny was the one to point it out. Here? Firmen was the clever one.

  “For one thing, you won’t have to use essence for the boss room reward. I’ll take the room in its pce.”

  “You walked out without taking it. I don’t have to make you anything anymore.”

  So they had thought about that. He’d tried to think of things the dungeon wouldn’t be able to refuse, that he needed. But all he needed were Runners. That would mean telling the vilge, training them, making them ready. Trying to convince them of the importance no one else found out.

  Beyond the odds that most of the vilgers were going to die, it would be impossible for them to keep the secret for always. Or even very long. A few years and there would be no hiding the effects. Then he was back to being responsible for even more people dying when the guild took the dungeon over.

  “I have nothing to outright offer you.”

  “Then I don’t see why I should agree to something that only helps you.”

  “The only thing I have to offer are stories about Sto.” The only thing he’d come up with was to tempt Firmen, and possibly Merka’s curiosity enough, they’d agree. “I can tell you how he nearly killed me. The times my team outsmarted him to the point he targeted one of us specifically. Or when—”

  “I can do that?”

  Tibs focused on scraping the hide to keep from showing his delight. “Much to Ganny’s annoyance, Sto did what he wanted most of the time. But I don’t think traps made to challenge a specific team member, even if they aren’t Rogues, break any rules. So long as there’s a way to overcome them so the entire team can cross.”

  The hide scrapped, he took a piece of meat out of the fire and ate, while Firmen thought it over. He’d be straightforward with his response. He’d considered stretching this as a way to gain more. In these kinds of games, once the mark realized they wanted something. It could be used, get them to offer rger and rger rewards to get the prize. The confidence artists Tibs had met always talked of arranging things, so the mark thought they were the ones in charge of the game.

  “Tell me what he did.”

  “Do we have an arrangement?”

  But Firmen wasn’t a mark. Tibs wanted them to be friends. And he might tease and annoy friends, but he wouldn’t py them.

  “An arrangement about what?”

  “You said you couldn’t agree to my favor without getting something out of it. Do you feel that telling you about Sto fills that part of the bargain?”

  “You, telling me about how a dungeon went about trying to kill you and your team,” they said, the tone so cautious Tibs imagined Merka screaming this was all a trick. While they might have warned Firmen, they weren’t here now. Tibs would hear them screaming if they were in range to listen in. “In exchange for a room with nothing in it, and no challenges reaching it?”

  “Testing us,” Tibs corrected. “Sto never set out to outright kill us. He just made the tests challenging enough we nearly failed multiple times.”

  “And you just want an empty room?” Now, the tone was entirely disbelieving.

  “I need to be able to use Wood essence without worrying about losing myself to the element. I have to practice channeling it to get to that point, and I need a safe pce to do that.” He ate another piece of meat.

  “I…want to agree.”

  He chuckled. “But Merka won’t let you, will they?”

  “You don’t think Merka is helping me?”

  “I think….” He cautiously arranged his thoughts. “I think they believe they’re helping you. But I scare them. I’ve been there before. Scared of things so much more powerful than I was. I didn’t always make the best decisions. That fear made me hurt my friends. Almost got a few of them killed.” The disgust at this action had faded over time. “I tried to kill one of them.” But he wouldn’t allow himself to forget how callous he’d been when contempting killing Jackal, in how he tried to make it happen. Each time, he reminded himself that being iced didn’t absolve him.

  “How could you think of doing that? I’d never hurt Merka.”

  “I was in a bad pce. And I don’t think they want to hurt you, but you have to decide what’s best for you.”

  He ate in the silence.

  “We need to talk this over,” they finally said. “But I preferred it when Merka was the only one I talked with. Things were simpler then.”

  Tibs’s chuckle was bitter. “People do tend to complicate things.”

  *

  The room had nothing in it.

  The floor was uneven dirt covered in grass. The walls were the usual mix of trees and thickets, but flowers had been added at their base, and some were more bushes, then brambles. The sun shining down on him through the open canopy was soothing him as much as the pns that took in its essence, along with others; Light, Air, Water, Earth, as well as Darkness, Purity and…. He frowned at the bush with small bubbles of corruption among its leaves.

  Were those abyss-cursed things at it again?

  Except….

  There was no corruption through the trunk and branches. It was just…there?

  He moved the leaves out of the way to study the berries. He narrowed his focus and was filled with wonder at what he sensed. There was corruption there, throughout, held in…harmony was the closest word to what this felt like. Belonging was another. All the essences mingled. Moved about, exchanged Arcanus and…changed? He couldn’t be sure. It seemed to happen at the edge of what he sensed, but how much of the essences were there changed in ways he couldn’t expin. Air escaped from the leaves. More than the pnt took in. And the corruption? Tibs couldn’t sense any being absorbed. It simply seemed to appear there, move about and concentrate in the berries.

  He plucked one.

  He’d known some berries were poisonous. He’d stayed well away from those containing corruption while he traveled in the forests. But he’d never wondered where it came from. One of those rare things he hadn’t been curious about. That he’d just accepted as the way it was. It contained more than that element. Water and Wood were in rger quantities. Some Earth and Air. Others he couldn’t identify. And the corruption didn’t destroy anything.

  He ate the berry and made a face at the bitterness. The Corruption spread over his tongue, numbing it. The sensation was so captivating he didn’t immediately realize it was caused by the Corruption itself.

  Shouldn’t he be immune to it?

  He plucked another berry and studied it more attentively.

  Was the cause the way the Arcanus attached to the strands of the essence were made of different elements? Could they change the essence enough his immunity no longer mattered?

  He absorbed the Corruption, but the numbness remained. It did stop spreading. The Arcanus broke without the essence and dissipated.

  He considered the pnt. Should he kill it for hurting him?

  No. He’d been the one to eat the berry. Those Corruption berries were what the pnt was supposed to make.

  “What are you doing?” Merka demanded.

  Tibs smiled and straightened. “Hello Merka. I’m gd you came to talk.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because I want to help you.” He stepped to a trunk and adjusted the essences. Firmen hadn’t gotten it quite right. “And unlike these trees, I can’t sense you, so talking is the only way I can help you.” The essence resisted, but he willed it to be his.

  “Stop what you’re doing,” they demanded. “You can’t change what Firmen made.”

  “Are there rules against it?” Now this tree could absorb the light essence better.

  “Of course not,” they snapped. “There’s never been something like you before. But things like you can’t change dungeons. It’s not done.”

  “And you’re afraid of me because I can do it?”

  “I am not afraid of you.”

  “It’s alright to be scared, Merka.”

  They snorted.

  “Fear is simply telling you that you need to change to deal with a problem. And change can be scary. But overcoming that is part of how you can grow. I’d like to help you do that.”

  “Why?” they stretched the word, and Tibs was pleased at the quizzicalness it indicated. That was more helpful than animosity.

  “Because everything deserves to grow. It isn’t because you don’t like me that I won’t help as much as I can.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Tibs smiled. “No. You should become better. The best you can. And I want to py a part in that.”

  “And I’m going to use what you help me with to kill you.”

  “Then you kill me.” It amused him how hard it seemed for Merka to understand such a simple concept.

  “Firmen. What is it doing? I thought this was some sort of training. All it’s doing is studying the pnts. Changing you, and talking about helping me kill it.”

  “I don’t think that’s what he means.”

  “Did you listen to what it said when I said I was going to kill it?”

  “Do you want Merka to kill you, Tibs?”

  “Of course not.” He took control of the essence in another tree and altered it so it would draw in more water and earth from the ground. “I have things to do. I need to get stronger so I can take down the guild and free the people under their control so they can thrive. You have no idea how many people they hold back by controlling so many dungeons. Even kings can’t expand the way they need because of them. Once the guild’s done. They’ll be able to help so many people.”

  “What is it talking about?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then what’s wrong with it? If it’s okay with me killing it, why did it fight so hard when I tried? I’d have done it too, if you hadn’t cheated and kept the ice spikes from ripping you apart.”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not something I control. When I gain an element, it can’t hurt me anymore. Unless I gained it in a dungeon. That breaks a rule for some reason, and the punishment is that they can hurt me.” He considered something. “Maybe overcoming that is how I’m meant to thrive.” He stepped to a thicket. “Make it grow spikes through me. I’ll try not to let that hurt me.”

  “No.”

  “Yes,” Merka said. “Do it. It’s asking for it.”

  “Even if I wanted to, there are no triggers there to activate, and you prevent me from making changes to it.” They sighed. “Tibs, is this what you meant when you said the element you channel affects you?”

  “I’m not being affected by Wood.”

  “You asked me to hurt you.”

  “No. I asked for your help in making me grow stronger.”

  “Standing there while I pierce you isn’t how it works.”

  “Have you tried it before?” he asked, perplexed.

  Merka chuckled. “It’s got a point. It might be the best way to help it.”

  “No. I am a dungeon. I get those who come in looking to test themselves against me and fail.”

  Tibs beamed. “This is perfect. If this doesn’t work, it will help you.”

  “And it will be a lot of help,” Merka said. “Its reserve is rger than anything you’ve managed yet. Even if it’s all wood, you will—”

  “Merka, if you aren’t going to help resolve this, please be quiet. I am not killing Tibs like this. I am also not letting him do a run in this state, so don’t even suggest that. I want him to fight against the challenges I send against him.”

  “I will,” Tibs decred.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  He sagged. He’d been hopeful. Merka was right. Firmen could do so much with the essence he had. There was no telling how many floors he’d be able to add.

  He smiled. “I’m going to try really hard to beat you.”

  “Okay,” Merka said. “Even I don’t believe you.”

  “Tibs, you don’t want to die.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why are you offering for me to eat you?”

  “Because it’s going to help you grow.”

  “But you are going to die in the process!” Firmen yelled in exasperation.

  “I don’t see there the issue is.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t understand what dying is?”

  “I’m pretty sure he does.”

  “I do. It means I won’t get to do all the things I need to do.”

  “Or help those who need to grow,” Firmen added.

  “True.”

  “So you shouldn’t die here.”

  “But it’s going to help you.”

  “But it’s not helping you,” they snapped. “This is enough. Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working. Let go of the element and you can do a run.”

  “I can do a run now.” He filled his smile with confidence.

  Firmen snorted. “Not until you let the element go.”

  He closed his eyes. “There, I’m not channeling it anymore.”

  “It got stupid all of a sudden.”

  Firmen sighed. “I don’t have to see your eyes. I can sense that your reserve is still wood.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “Then, let it go.”

  “I don’t understand why you are so against this. I want to help you.”

  “I’m a dungeon. You aren’t here to help me. You are here to be challenged. To grow. I’m the one helping you.”

  He snorted. “That’s not how it works. You gain something from the runs too. When I beat a trap, you have to think of something new. Different way to set them, or for them to be more efficient. We both gain from a run.”

  “Then let the element go and do the run.”

  “But I can help you faster if you just eat me,” Tibs protested in exasperation.

  Firmen let out a cry. “You deal with him. Get him to see reason or something.”

  “You want me to get it to not want to be killed by you?”

  “Do you really just want him to die, Merka? I know you better than that. You want to best him. Especially since he beat you twice. You get him to let go of the element before I do something drastic.”

  “Like what?” Tibs asked hopefully.

  Another cry, this one sounding like Firmen was moving away.

  “I don’t understand you,” Merka said, sounding like they were next to him.

  He chuckled. “I got that a lot when I was younger.”

  “And you don’t anymore? Is that what happens when people get older?”

  “No. I used to have friends then, so when I did something infuriating to one of them, especially those who thought I should act smarter, or think about me more than other people, they’d go on about how they just didn’t understand me. Then, when I iced myself and thought only of me, they told me the same thing for acting the way they said I should.” He chuckled. “People are strange.”

  “You…don’t have friends anymore?”

  “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just hard to make friends when I’m always running.” He ran a hand over his left bracer. “So it’s just teammates now. It hurts less when I lose one that way.” His smile faltered at the image of a girl ughing as she expined letters to him. At the memory of her voice as she pronounced the different way assembling them together sounded.

  “Why are you crying?”

  He touched his cheek and was surprised at the wetness. “An old memory. A reminder why it’s better not to have friends anymore.”

  Her face again, no longer smiling. Her mouth open, but no sound coming out. Her with no essence left; in his arms, unmoving. So many dead around him as he screamed. So much lost because one evil man took the closest thing to a sister Tibs had known from him.

  “Just remove the memory, if that’s what causes you to cry.”

  “Don’t you ever say that.” Heat rushed through him. “I will never forget her.” He pulled fire out of his reserve. “I will burn you and this pce to ash before I ever allow anyone to take that pain from me.”

  “Firmen!”

  He ignited the air before him and stared into the fire.

  “What did you do?”

  It wanted to consume everything.

  “You wanted it to stop using Wood. Well, it’s not using that anymore.”

  The temptation to let it was there, as always.

  “Tibs?” Firmen asked cautiously.

  But fire didn’t fix anything. It ended them.

  “I’m okay.” He absorbed the essence. “Fire’s an element I mastered a long time ago.” He smiled. “Although I’m still always reaching for it when I get angry.”

  “So Merka helped you channel a different element?”

  “Yes, but that’s not a method I can rely on. That means I’m going to have to practice channeling it again. Which means I need to do another run so I can have the room.”

  “You don’t have to. The agreement is that you get the room in exchange for you telling me about the other dungeon.”

  “I’m going to tell you about Sto, anyway, But I think making this room my reward for beating the boss is fair, don’t you?”

  “Beating?” Merka said. “You think you get to beat me, now that I’m wise to your tricks? Agree to it, Firmen. Let it try to earn this room again. Whenever you’re ready, I will be waiting.”

  AnnouncementBottom Rung is avaible on KU: https://amzn.to/3ShmXzW

  You can read the previous arc in Tibs story here

  Do you have opinions and suggestions? feel free to leave them in the comments.

  Thank you for reading this chapter.

  If you want to watch me writing this story, I do so on Twitch: https://v/thetigerwrites Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 8 AM to 11:30 EST

  If you want to read ahead, you can do so by finding Stepping Wild, on Ream Stories where the story is multiple chapters ahead even at the lowest tier, and the support helps ensure I can work with a minimum of real-life interruption.