Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 31

"There are twenty-four elements. Twenty-nine is the number of letters for writing."

"So what are they?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Tibs shrugged as he sat. "It came up in conversation a while ago, and I've been busy, so I kept forgetting to ask the few times I've had a chance. Since we're talking about weave and other elements doing the same things, the question occurred to me."

Alistair considered him. "Telling you about all of them isn't going to be productive at this stage, since you aren't likely to encounter them all."

"The dungeon uses more than just those I know about."

"And knowing the names of those elements isn't going to add anything to your runs."

Tibs raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent. Knowing that metal protected against lightning would have been useful to know beforehand. But only if he'd had the time to ask questions about that element. Which he rarely had these days. So Alistair could be right. Knowing all of them might not be useful right now.

"I will say," his teacher added, "that teachers will come with their preference over which element we believe are best for those we instruct."

"But you were assigned to me after I picked water."

"Out of those elements Tirania suggested. I believe you said she told you those other than the core elements weren't as useful, when you recounted how you came to choose it. She is biased toward the core elements for reasons of her own. Other instructors will recommend those they prefer, so you always end up with a limited representation in young dungeon since most of the Runners there are trained by the guild. The more outside Runners come to a growing dungeon, the wider the visibility of the other elements become."

"Which ones do you suggest?"

Alistair smiled. "I do not take part in telling graduating Omegas about the elements that are open to them, therefore I don't have to consider which ones are best. Now," he added as Tibs started to push for his opinion. "I've indulged your curiosity. So you can show me what you've practiced using Fel. Make something small."

Tibs formed an ice dagger; something simple and unornamented. He etched a line of water, adding Fel as he stretched the line and water formed around it. When he stopped etching, the result fell to the floor, and instead of splashing, it oozed flat.

"Good. Now, how would you use this?"

Tibs studied the unmoving puddle. He willed it into a ball and it resisted it. It wasn't that it refused to obey him, but the combination of Arcanus made even the essence thick and slow to react. He pressed his finger in, and when he pulled it, the water stuck to it like thick sugar syrup.

"On the floor, it would slow anyone stepping in it."

"Yes, how else?"

Tibs willed it into his hand, spread it, gathered it again. He turned his hand upside down and watched it stretch until a blob of it dangled from a thinning strand. "I don't know."

Thick water splashed over his chest, spreading over his arm and clinging there. It wouldn't move as he tried to pull his arm away, trapped under the ooze.

"It's good for subduing an opponent."

Tibs watched the water spread down his arm. "Isn't this just slowing them down?"

Alistair chuckled. "I suppose it is."

"This isn't going to be useful in the dungeon. Sharp and spiky end fights faster there." And everywhere. If he was a guard and he had to take prisoners, he could see the use of this etching, but when he was in a fight, his goal was to end it in such a way his opponent didn't come back later to bother him. Sebastian had taught him what happened if he let one get away.