The footsteps coming through the corridor were too steady to belong to scavengers.
Riven slipped the clear stone into his inner pocket and straightened, forcing his breathing to slow. The fight with the Wraith had drained more from him than he liked. His shoulder still throbbed from being thrown into the wall, and Burst Step had left a familiar burn in his legs.
The old man beside him noticed the motion but said nothing. He only adjusted his grip on the hooked tool and listened as the sound of approaching boots grew louder.
Three hunters rounded the bend a moment later.
They moved with the practiced caution of people used to entering danger in formation. Their armor was still clean, their weapons maintained, and none of them looked particularly concerned by the sight in front of them.
Shattered crystal remains littered the corridor. Fresh cracks marked the walls. A few drops of blood stained the polished floor.
The man in front let his eyes travel over the scene before settling on Riven and the old scavenger.
"Someone got here first," he said mildly.
The woman beside him crouched near the fragments, brushing a gloved hand across the remains. "Recently."
The youngest of the three looked annoyed more than surprised. "Then where's the stone?"
Riven leaned a shoulder against the wall as if he had all the energy in the world.
"If you find it," he said, "let me know."
The younger hunter took a step forward immediately. "You think that's funny?"
The leader lifted a hand without looking back, stopping him.
His gaze returned to Riven. "Wraith cores in active routes usually belong to the team controlling the path. We've been clearing this section since entry."
"That sounds unfortunate," Riven replied.
The old scavenger let out a dry cough that might have been laughter.
The leader's expression cooled by a degree. "You're a scavenger. Which means you understand how this works. We did the clearing. You picked through what remained. Hand over the stone and no one wastes time."
Riven looked at the broken remains of the Wraith scattered across the floor.
"Interesting version of events," he said. "I seem to remember it trying to kill me instead."
The younger hunter moved again, impatience plain on his face. "Why are we talking to him?"
"Because," the woman said quietly, still examining the floor, "he's stalling."
Her eyes flicked to Riven's boots, then the corridor behind him. She was sharper than the others.
Riven smiled faintly. "And now you know."
He looked past them suddenly, narrowing his eyes.
"You lost one."
All three turned on instinct.
Riven was already moving.
Shadow Veil blurred his outline as he slipped between the younger hunter and the wall. A hand snatched at his jacket and missed by inches. He hit the corridor at a sprint before the first curse was fully shouted behind him.
"Stop him!"
Boots thundered after him.
The path forked twice within seconds, crystal reflections multiplying every angle until the corridors seemed to split into ten. Riven chose the left branch, then cut right at the next turn. His breathing grew harsher, but he refused to trigger Burst Step yet. He needed whatever stamina remained.
Behind him, someone struck the wall in frustration as a false reflection sent them into the wrong turn.
Good.
He vaulted a low ridge of jagged glass, landed hard, and pushed onward. The corridor widened without warning, opening into a circular chamber large enough to swallow the passage whole.
Riven slowed at once.
The room was silent except for a low humming vibration beneath the floor. Layered walls of translucent crystal rotated slowly within each other, like enormous rings turning on hidden gears. Bands of refracted lasers swept across the chamber in measured intervals, carving shallow lines into anything they touched.
At the center stood a raised platform.
Two stones rested there and an empty slot.
Riven stared for half a second, then exhaled through his nose. He felt the stone he had collected earlier in his pocket.
"So that's what this is."
The hunters reached the entrance behind him and stopped just as abruptly.
One of them cursed as a laser sliced across the threshold and gouged the wall where his hand had been.
"Trap room," the woman said.
Riven watched the moving patterns. They weren't random. Difficult, but not random.
He stepped forward between two passing bands and advanced toward the platform. The first beam swept behind his heels. The second passed inches before his chest. He adjusted pace, then crossed the remaining distance in one smooth burst and climbed onto the center platform.
The two stones lit at once.
[Skill: Glass Edge]
[Tier: D]
[Skill: Refraction Sense]
[Tier: D]
Riven's hand moved instinctively to the clear stone hidden inside his coat.
The Wraith's drop had not been random. It had come from here.
A linked reward chamber.
The hunters saw the system display from across the room and their expressions changed immediately.
The younger one took a step forward before the leader caught his arm.
"Don't be stupid," the older man said. "Watch the pattern first."
Then he raised his voice toward the platform.
"You can't leave this place no matter how much you stall. Your only choice is to leave the loot here, it doesn't belong to you."
Riven looked back at them. "I'm not gonna take this loot out, but I'm not gonna leave it here either."
The woman's eyes narrowed. She understood before the others did.
"Stop him!"
Riven drew out the clear stone and stared at the shifting light trapped inside it.
A C-rank skill.
One of the five slots in his body would be filled if he absorbed it now. Removing it later would require equipment, money, records, or dangerous favors. Keeping it would force every next move to change.
But chances like this did not visit men who hesitated.
He placed his palm over the stone.
The system flared to life.
[Skill: Prism Shift]
[Transfer Available]
The hunters began moving into the chamber.
He stopped hesitating.