Chapter 158 - Forty-first Floor

"Now then," Tom muttered, passing through the barrier, "how should I deal with you?" he threw the question in the orc's face. 

Just like usual, the moment he crossed the barrier, the boss noticed his appearance. It shook both of its weapons once as if cooking them for the fight only to stand its ground.

'It's not charging?' Tom thought, observing the monsters with his keen eyes. 'Well, whatever,' he dismissed his worry, calling forth a magical spear to each of his hands. 

Tom didn't change his strategy at all. He simply threw both of his spears, one to the right of the monsters and one to the left. 

There was no point trying to nail it down with the first shot as the weaker monsters from before already proved to be capable of shoving it aside. 

'Now, which way will you look?' Tom thought, calling forth the third spear to his hand. 

But the monster stood its ground. Yet, just as Tom was about to swap, it charged forward. 

'Fuck,' Tom cursed under his breath. With the monster changing its position, there was no longer any point in swapping places with the spears he threw previously. 

'Still, that's strange,' he thought, jumping away to gain some distance. 

So far, the entire fight continued without Tom using his haste. As this was his greatest trump card, he didn't like the fact that he always relied on it. 

Sure, it was great to use in a clutch and had a negligible mana cost. Yet, for all the great advantages that it offered in terms of physical capabilities, it had a massive physical disadvantage. 

It made Tom rely on it. 

And just like the skirmish back in the guild office proved, there would be times when Tom would be unable to use it anymore. 

'I guess I should try playing with the domain a bit,' he thought, opting to use this relatively low-level monster to his advantage. So far, their progress was pretty quick, allowing Tom a short moment of training. 

'Domain,' Tom invoked his actual trump card. While the spears that he threw were outside of its sphere of influence, the spear in his hand was well within the range of the spell. 

The monster continued its charge, likely not noticing any of the changes. 

'Let's see if I can do something like this...' Tom thought, reaching with his arm to the back and throwing his third spear. 

The distance from his previous spears was roughly thrice the range of his domain. That meant he couldn't just swap around while constantly controlling the spear. 

But that wasn't what he wanted to do either. 

The spear flew right towards the monster. 

As expected, the orc didn't find it hard to reflect the attack, striking the side of the spear with its club. It even raised it again in hopes of bashing Tom's head in...

'Swap,' Tom didn't wait for the attack to connect. Instead, he swapped places with the spear that laid in the direction where the orc showed his spear aside. 

However, it was important that while the third spear changed its course, it continued to fly. 

Right into the location of Tom's new sphere of domain!

'Don't let it stop!' he thought, focusing more on the path of the spear than the actual fight with the monster. 

By gently changing the direction of the spear and using his domain to accelerate it, Tom made the spear orbit behind him, only to let it go as soon as its pointy end aimed towards the orc again!

"ROAR!" 

The spear sank deeply into the orc's side, right before it could even turn its head towards the attack. 

'It managed half of the turn,' Tom thought, noticing the angle at which the spear hit the enemy. 

The young man walked towards the monster, reaching the point where it was right at the edge of his domain. 

"Rah, rah, rah," it made a strange sound as it breathed, only to grab the spear's handle in an attempt to pull it out. 

'A bad decision,' Tom thought, recalling all the first-aid lessons he went through in his early years. 

While moving with a blade embedded into one's insides was definitely not a good idea, pulling it out would only cause the wound to bleed. As such, if one was ever attacked with a blade that would end up stuck in their body, one should leave it as it is or, better, bandage around it, stabilizing it in place. 

For all the bad stuff it could do, at least the blade would prevent excessive bleeding, which would be the greatest drawback of the wound if pulled out!

"RAH!" the monster screamed out as it finally managed to pull the weapon out of its side. The blood and intestines hanging from the ragged blade only prove Tom's lessons correct. 

But it didn't matter, as the young man took a step forward, enveloping the monster and the spear in its hand within his domain. 

'Dance,' Tom ordered, instantly wrestling the control of the spear from the monster. 

He didn't order it back, nor did he swap places with it. Tom simply turned his spear into a swirling blade, akin to what one could find in a kitchen's mixer.

The spear spun around the monster, prompted by the invisible hand of Tom's domain. Circling around the monster, it soon turned the use of its skin around, leaving not a single spot of its body unwounded. 

'Now, die,' Tom thought, sending the spear with all the force he could add to it straight towards the monster's skull. 

Upon the strike, the spear broke apart into pieces only to diffuse into a mist of condensed magic and disappear. Yet, the head trauma was enough to cut the orc's suffering on the spot. 

"It's done," Tom muttered, raising his hand and wiping the sweat from his forehead. 

Surprisingly enough, fighting even such a low-leveled monster without the use of his haste spell was far more challenging than he expected. 

'Am I actually weak?' he thought, trying to figure out all the details of what just happened. 

'No, it's not true,' he thought, shaking his head. 'I still defeated it with ease. I guess I'm just too used to dealing with everything in a split of a second,' he concluded before approaching the opening that separated the boss room from the corridor. 

"That took a while," Cleo commented, stepping through the barrier into the room. 

"Yeah," Tom nodded his head. "I wanted to see how far I could go without relying on my skills too much,' he added before casting a quick glance at the yet-to-deteriorate. 'Still, it was pretty strange,' he thought, recalling the way the boss monsters moved around. 

It was as if... the monster knew about his ability to swap places with spears! After all, what other reason could there be for its sudden freezing and charge later on that happened just as Tom threw his spears out?

"I guess it's time to get the stones, then," Cleo muttered in a weak voice, averting her face away from Tom's eyes. 

"Right, I totally forgot about that part," he replied, feeling how his cheeks turned hotter than before. 

'Huh?' Tom twitched in surprise when realizing what was going on. 'Why am I bashful?' he asked himself, unsure what to make out of the situation. 

Yet, despite all his doubts, he still approached the wall and infused his energy into it, extracting the stones embedded inside.

'Wait, how could I miss it?' Tom thought as he watched the stones roll on the floor. 

Because he just conquered the boss of the forty-first floor, amidst several grade-three stones that Cleo was already used to absorbing, there were even some grade four ones!

'Oh boy,' Tom thought, a strange feeling welling up in his abdomen. Yet, rather than enjoying this moment of his lust waking up, he couldn't help but bite his lips. 'I'm not a virgin anymore... So why am I reacting like that?' he thought while allowing Cleo to collect the stones. 

"Those are the fourth-grade ones, right?" the girl said, picking up one of the stones with her gloved hand. 

"Yeah," Tom nodded his head, pulling out his main spear. Even though the two of them were pretty bashful about it, they both knew what was going to happen for a long time already. And with a small pile of stones carried from all the previous floors, this uncomfortable situation would last for quite a while. 

"I guess there is no point in waiting, then," Cleo said, taking a deep sigh and pressing the stone against the tip of Tom's spear. 

Using his skills, Tom broke apart the structure of the stone, turning it back into pure energy. Yet, as soon as he brought the spear's end towards the girl, Cleo moved forward, locked her left arm around his neck, and leaned in for the kiss. 

Only when their lips touched, she allowed her right hand to slide down the handle of Tom's spear, all the way to the blade where Tom amassed the mana for her to consume.