Chapter 127 - Results Of The Fight

"Repeat it so that everyone in the building will be a witness," Tom said in a cold voice. 

This was exactly what he wanted. Exactly what he hoped to happen ever since he learned that there indeed was a world on the other end of the dungeon. But that was also the precise reason why he didn't act in a hurry or allow the excitement to go in his head. 

'Historically, people are most prone to lose what they wanted to achieve just as they reach the last step of obtaining it,' he thought, bringing yet another motto of his father. 

"We submit to you!" The girl screamed out, only to go back to retching her guts out in the very next moment. 

"Okay then," Tom said with a smile, crushing the core of the fireball spell of his with a single wave of a hand. Then, he reached out to his pouch, only to bring forth one of the silvery coins that the guild master gave him just a few hours ago. "Whoever will be able to heal them all up to the top-notch state will be rewarded with this coin," he said, throwing the bait to the crowd of baffled spectators.

Just like before, all the murmurs and other sources of the noise disappeared as shook took over everyone. But this time, this eerie silence didn't last for long. 

Like a flock of Karens in the black Friday, people rushed forward. 

"I will do it, pick me!" some screamed out the same meaning in various words, hoping to secure the deal for themselves. Those, Tom disregarded right off the get-go. 

Others rushed wordlessly to the injured, instantly focusing on the task rather than its official site. And those Tom paid his attention to. 

"He lost way too much blood..." a middle-aged woman said, kneeling by the side of the scrawny archer's body. She then raised her head and scanned the crowd around. "You, you and you! Come help me!" she ordered the people, using her hand to point them out in case they would prefer to just watch from the sidelines. 

'I didn't expect anyone to know something as basic as this,' Tom thought, recalling all the seminars of first air he had to go through during his school years. And like some kind of religious mantra, this rule was always repeated as if an attempt to kill everyone with boredom. When in a situation like that, always make sure to point people out that you want to help you! 'Well, this serves as a good lesson,' Tom thought, resting his back against the wall as he watched the proceedings. 'I guess I can't take this world too lightly,' he thought, biting on his lips. 

Out of the three combatants that dared to challenge Tom and Claudia, only the girl's opponent was in a critical situation. In the end, she didn't bother holding back her punch, turning the problem of saving the man's life into a huge challenge. 

"Heal," the middle-aged woman chanted, raising her hands above the man's wound. The people that she singled out of the crowd placed their hands on her back, and all unanimously closed their eyes. 

'Are they channeling mana or something?' Tom thought, watching the unfolding events with curiosity. In the end, while he learned a lot from the fight, there was still an ocean of stuff he had yet to figure out. 

"What are you going to do, now?" The guild master asked, not bothered by the bloody situation at all. 

"Just like I said before, I'm going to look for some inn to stay," Tom replied without any hesitation. This was a truth he could easily share as it involved neither any secrets about his identity nor the details of what he wanted to do in this world. "Tomorrow, I will get them to become my official slaves before going on a shopping spree, getting the rest of the money for the stone, and setting off for a journey," Tom said, building up on his story as he went. 

"Journey?" the woman looked at Tom as if he was a madman. "Wait," her face tensed up, "you do realize that there is a massive war going on right now? Once you leave the city, you won't be able to travel as easily as people used to," she said, casting a curious glance at the man. 

"I think I already proved that we can take care of ourselves," Tom said, pointing with his chin at the ongoing rescue operation. 

"They weren't weak," the guild master nodded her head only to end up staring at Tom's face just like before. "But they weren't the strongest either," she said with a clear agenda behind her words. "I'm not trying to put you down here, but you shouldn't overestimate your ability. Out there, there are no weak people, and some are monsters that even I wouldn't stand a chance again," she said, biting her lips to the point where several drops of blood trickled down her mouth. 

"I'm aware of that," Tom said, not bothered by the fact in the slightest. "Right, there is one thing I actually need to ask, though," he suddenly said as a new idea popped up in his head. "Do you mind telling me where is the closest, deep dungeon?" he asked, using the words he believed to be universal enough to work in this different world as well. 

"Deep dungeon?" The guild master looked at him with a puzzled expression. 

"You mean, one with a lot of floors," Tom explained what he meant. "This one here has what? Seventy-five? Eighty floors?" he pretended to guess, only to shake his head. "We explored a lot of dungeons, but the one near this city is relatively shallow," he added, turning his eyes towards the ceiling of the building. 

"If you want big dungeons, then Patrasian one should be your aim," the woman said after taking a moment to think about the answer. "I heard of people going as deep as a hundred and twenty floors in there..." she added only for a look of curiosity to appear on her face. "But from what you said, you have yet to explore the local dungeon all the way to its bottom, right?" she suddenly asked. 

"Yeah," Tom nodded his head. 'As if I would ever admit to actually not only reaching the very bottom of it but also doing it twice in one go,' he thought, pursing his lips and steeling his face. 

"Why won't you just focus on the local one for the time being, then?" the woman asked with a triumphant look on her face. "I know we didn't start in the best way, but I can assure you, the guild would buy every last stone you would bring to us!" she added, slamming her fists against her chest. 

"You seriously don't realize what's the problem?" Tom asked, opening his eyes wide only to look at the woman as if she suddenly started blabbering some nonsense. 

For a moment, the two of them just stood like that, neither of them willing to say a word.

"So that's the case," Tom finally spoke out, only to release a deep sigh a moment later. "Listen, the closer you get to the bottom of the dungeon, the faster its difficulty...? No, the stronger the monsters become,"  he said after fixing his initial way of explanation. 

"Isn't this always the case?" The woman asked, her puzzled face proving how poorly Tom explained what he had on mind. 

"Yes, that's indeed the case, but that's not what I meant," he said, lowering his head and biting on his thumb as he pretended to think hard for a moment. "Listen, the difference of the monsters' strenght between the fiftieth and fifty-first floor is not that great," he said, moving his eyes back on the guild master. "If you are comfortable with conquering the fiftieth floor, you won't have a hard time doing the same with the fifty-first one. But that's no longer the case once you approach the deepest floor of the dungeon," Tom said.

"Huh?" The guild master's face changed. If she was curious before, then her face now looked as if she had just stumbled upon a gold mine. "How does it look for the last floors of the dungeons then?" she asked, clearly interested by the topic even more than Tom expected her to be. 

'Are we the only ones to ever reach the bottom floors?' he asked himself, trying to make sense of what was happening. But right now, he could no longer hold back the information he hinted at. "Don't take my word on it, but once you reach the last few floors, the strenght of monsters in them raises dramatically. The difference between seventy-first and seventy-second floor felt like if we skipped five floors along the way," Tom said, lowering his eyes and taking up a pained expression as if saying this made him revoke some unpleasant memories. 

"Is that how far you ventured in our dungeon?" the guild master asked, her eyes flashing with excitement. 

"No, we reached seventy-third floor here," Tom lied while shaking his head. "That's also the reason why my brother is no longer with us," he said, creating a personal reason why speaking about this topic would be hard for him. "Because the difference between the seventy-first and seventy-second floor didn't feel like five floors, but ten floors instead," he said before turning completely silent. 

"I'm done," the middle-aged lady said, leaning to the back and taking a heavy breath.. She then moved her eyes from the scrawny archer on Tom's face. "Are you satisfied with the results, sir?"