Chapter 154 - Tom's Doubts

"This doesn't make any sense," Tom muttered as he approached the dead bodies of the goblins. 

Even though it was only a short moment since Cleo ran over them, they were already slowly starting to dissipate and sink into the floor, proving that they were truly dead. 

'There is no way a level ten ability would be capable of one-shotting a huge group of enemies like that!' Tom thought, unable to make sense of what he was seeing with his very own eyes. 

Then, a sudden idea struck his mind. 

"CLEO!" he shouted, turning his face to the girl. "Are you injured?!" he screamed out, rushing towards the girl. 

"Huh?" Cleo twitched in surprise, turning her face towards her friend. "I'm fine; why ask?" she asked, opening her eyes wide. 

"Thank God," Tom replied, resting his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily. It was the rush to the girl that tired him out, but the jump of adrenaline when a certain possibility appeared in his mind. 

"What happened?!" Cleo asked, her face turning serious. Even if she didn't understand what was going through Tom's head, she could clearly see how distressed he was. 

That alone was enough for her vigilance to shoot through the roof. 

"This doesn't make any sense," Tom repeated himself, raising his hand and chewing on his thumb. 

"What doesn't make any sense?!" Cleo replied, reaching forward and grabbing Tom's shoulders. "Speak up, soldier!" she screamed out in his face. 

"Can't you see it?!" Tom shoved Cleo's hands away only to point at the pools of liquid that used to be goblins just a few moments ago. "Try to think about the times when you played with your avatar," he said, "were you ever capable of one shooting a single enemy with the very first ability you obtain?" 

Only now, Cleo's face showed some signs of understanding. Her eyes widened as she took a step back, glancing over to the scene of the carnage she caused a moment earlier. 

"No, even the strongest skills would take at least two hits to down a simple mob," she replied, only to look down at her hands. 

For a moment, the two of them were stuck in the limbo of not understanding. Yet, after several moments, Cleo raised her eyes from her hands and looked over at Tom. 

"But... Doesn't this mean... I'm pretty powerful?" she asked, her face proving how hard it was for her to digest such a possibility. 

For someone else, a situation like this could be a reason to rejoice. After all, who wouldn't like becoming strong with little to no effort? 

But Cleo wasn't a simple, average person one could find on the streets. She was perfectly aware that with strength came responsibilities. And with ease to grow her power, she would become the prime target for anyone wishing to chip away at their family's power!

"Does it mean I should be the one to raise my strength now?" Cleo asked in a trembling voice. 

"I don't know," Tom shook his head, taking a step to the back only to rest his back against the wall of the corridor. "I don't know," he repeated, covering his face with his hand.

"Is there some kind of problem?" the kid that they were babysitting suddenly appeared on the scene. Behind him, Kira was running with a look of terror on her face. 

In just a second, she reached the boy and slid down on the floor only to grab him between her arms. 

"I-I'm sorry, he slipped out..." she muttered, barely capable of forming full words, not to speak about sentences. 

"Take him away," Tom said in a guttural tone as he threw an angry look at the kid. 

Right now, he had no mind to spare to bother with that kid's worries. Just the fact that he entered the dungeon and reached the frontline proved that he was nowhere as disciplined as they were back in the days. And that alone was enough to spoil Tom's opinion about the new generation of his family.

'Was it really wise?' he suddenly thought, realizing that his decision to migrate didn't affect only those who had strong ties with the family's history and traditions. It also affected those who just wanted to live normal lives. 

Even if it meant conforming to the reality of the postwar period. 

'Did I really have the right to force them all out to another, foreign world?' he asked himself, closing his eyes. 

"You can leave those thoughts for later," Marvin suddenly said, appearing on the scene. 

Opening his eyes, Tom still caught a glance at the look he threw at the kid who Kira was currently dragging to the back of the corridor. 

"Don't mind them that much," Marvin said before releasing a deep sigh. "Sooner or later, they will get used to their new reality," he added before reaching out and patting Tom on his shoulder. 

"Was I really right to bring them all away?" Tom voiced his doubts, seeking affirmation from one of the few people he could truly trust. "Was it really right for me to bring them away from that rotten world only to push my ideas on them?" he asked.

Slap.

Tom's face didn't hurt at all when Marvin's hand suddenly smacked his cheek. The difference between their levels was just too great for Marvin to be able to cause him any pain. 

But this faceslap wasn't aimed to hurt on the physical level. It hurt on the emotional side instead. 

"You have no right to doubts like that, not right now," Marvin said with a grim tone. "Sure, I could be the nice person and claim that they were going to be the pawns in our battle with the Online Hub. Sure, I could tell you that they would be forced into our reality sooner or later. But I'm not going to do that," he said, speaking openly about the stuff he just claimed he would not. 

"What do you mean?" Tom asked, confused by his friend's words. 

"You made your decision," Marvin replied, staring right into Tom's squinted eyes. "You had every right to do so as the leader of the family," he added. 

"You took the information you had, the problems you knew our family was facing, the struggles that laid ahead of us," Cleo joined in the discussion, sensing what was going on. "Whether your decision was right or not, only time would tell," she added before shaking her shoulders. "But it was plainly visible to anyone with any brains and foresight how we would end up in ten, twenty years without doing anything," she said, taking a quick glance at her brother. 

"That's right." Marvin nodded his head. "I initially and partially blamed you for starting the war with the Online Hub, I admit that," he said before shaking his head. "But the brutal truth is, we would go against them either way. It was only a matter of time before they would feel confident enough to eradicate our autonomy."

"And this is something that none of the oldest generations would agree to," Tom said, perfectly aware of the things they were saying right now. 

After all, those were the things that he considered when conquering the dungeon to return home!

The initial push that made Tom enter the dungeon was the situation with Claudia. Without her support, he simply felt incapable of achieving his objectives in that world. Not on his own. Not without anyone to rely on. Not with just the power of his brain alone. 

But as he delved deeper into the dungeon, as he continued to conquer one floor after another, he managed to calm down. 

And realize everything that was said just now. 

Their family was living on borrowed time. With how the world was changing before their very own eyes, it was obvious that there would be a time when their lifestyle, sourced from the times before the third world war, would be destroyed.

That's what happened to every group that dared to stick to the past when the new came. That's what happened to all the countries that refused to acknowledge and embrace the change that would ultimately bring forth their downfall. 

This was the main reason Tom decided to involve not a selected few people capable of helping him find his father, but his entire family instead!

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter now," Tom finally said, raising his hand and wiping his mouth clean. 

It wasn't that his lips were dirty; it was just an act he used to collect himself. 

"What do you mean?" Marvin asked, shocked by the sudden development.

"It doesn't matter if my decision was right or not," Tom said, pushing his back against the wall and springing against it to take a step forward. He then called forth his weapon and took another step forward. 

'Everblaze,' he thought, covering himself in flames as another pack of goblins already appeared in the distant end of the corridor. 

"Because it's in the past," Tom said, stepping towards the goblins. "And since I cannot take it back now, I can only move forward.. To see whether it was right or not, I can only decide that once I know what the future holds for us."