Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

"It's done!" a man proclaimed from the inn's door. The room fell silent as everyone looked in the warrior's direction. "The third floor's cleared!" Quigly raised a fist. "Soon, it's on to the fourth!"

Cheers erupted, most of his friends joining in, except for Jackal, who looked at Tibs and lowered his voice. "Any idea when that'll be?"

He shook his head. Not being able to speak with Sto during the runs had meant that when he wondered about it, he couldn't ask. It hadn't come up often since until they'd reached the boss room. Tibs had been more focused on working the puzzles on that floor than wondering what came next.

And in the few times he'd forced himself away from everything he needed to do in Kragle Rock to sit by the cliff side and talk with Sto, it hadn't occurred to talk about the future runs.

Don glanced at them, but Quigly was at their table, his team behind him.

"Take that, best team." The warrior smirked. "We cleared it first."

"You know it's not a competition, right?" Mez said.

"Of course it is," Jackal replied, as Quigly's team rolled their eyes nearly as one. "And congratulation. Was the loot worth the fight?"

"Not that we got to keep any of it," the warrior said, looking around furtively, "as you know. But it was a full set of plate armor with some enchantment on it. Too fancy for my taste, anyway. But I'm sure a fighter like you, you know, so interested in looking good for his man, could make use of it; if he beat the room, or is willing to buy it back from the guild."

Jackal snorted.

"Only if it's the same item for the next team," Don said, then looked at their sorcerer. "I'm curious. How did you know it was enchanted?"

"I could feel the weave when I picked up the helmet," Quigly said, which earned him a surprise look from Don.

"And I could sense it without having to touch it," the warrior's sorcerer said smugly. "I am, after all, nearly Kappa."

Tibs looked at Don.

"For us to graduate to Kappa, we need to be able to tell apart the essences that make out a weave. Congratulation," he told the sorcerer, which earned him a surprised look.

"You shouldn't tell him that," the man replied, his admonition marred by his confusion at Don's behavior.

"You're free enough with what you can do," Don replied. "It's not like they'll do anything with the information. Only sorcerers can think if the ways needed to tell essences apart."

"And tell me, Arabis," the man said with hint of defiance in his tone. "How are you coming along in your studies toward ranking up?"

"I'm getting there," Don replied casually, again surprising the sorcerer.

"Then," he said, his tone confident. "I will look forward to observing you taking the test. As I'll get ready to take the one for Epsilon." The earth sorcerer turned and walked away.

"Kind of full of himself, that one," Jackal commented.

"I think it's a sorcerer thing," Quigly replied. "Them an knowing so much."

"I can tell you that knowing more than the rest of you has nothing to do with someone's ego," Don said. "I know idiots with larger egos than that one. Although he barely knows more than they do."

"Yep," Jackal said with a smirk. "Sorcerers and their ego. Do have to love them. How hard was the room? We stepped in on our last run. The first fight was tough, so we didn't risk the second."