Chapter 165 - Healing Cleo

'I have no idea if it's possible, but it would be a waste not to try it,' Tom decided, pulling himself back. He then threw one last look at the slime before shrugging his arms and turning around. 

Since he could heal himself off this monster, and this monster was perfectly capable of absorbing vast quantities of magical energy...

Could it be possible to use this slime to heal Cleo as well? And by a stretch, if he were to somehow isolate its core and bring it to the world outside, maybe even Claudia could see the light of the day as well?

"I'm turning more crafty by the day," Tom muttered, lowering his weapon and approaching the barrier between the boss-room and the rest of the level. 

'Wait a second...' Tom suddenly stumped and froze in place. 'This gate doesn't allow any monsters to cross it...' he realized, placing his hand right against the slightly shimmering area. 'I guess I won't be able to move it anywhere outside the dungeon,' he thought, a small wrinkle appearing on his forehead. 

Tom did his absolute best to think about ways to circumvent this problem for a moment. From taming the monster, through coating it in his own energy all the way to killing the slime and attempting to revive it outside...

The truth was pretty disappointing. Even if there was some option to put Tom's sudden plan into motion, they required way more testing time than they could spare. 

Tom's group was already running low on time with Cleo's incident and their previous fun-time. Unless some quick attempts at pushing the slime's core through the barrier would work, Tom would have no other choice but to give up on the plan. 

'Well, it's not like we can't return to it later,' he thought, taking a deep breath and passing through the barrier. 'Worst case scenario, we will have to farm the dungeon for as long as necessary to encounter this boss again,' he thought before starting to run. 

This time, Tom didn't use haste nor any other of his spells to increase the pace of his travel. 

With the idea of bringing unconscious Cleo to the boss-room, he couldn't allow for any monster to stand in their paths. It would be hard enough to keep two non-combatants out of harm's way. 

There wasn't even a shred of possibility for Tom to risk it with three of them. 

Even without exploiting the advantages of any of his skills, Tom traversed through the dungeon at a pretty fast rate. The difference in levels between him and the monsters was simply too great, reducing even whole packs of them that previously avoided his attention to nothing more but a momentary hassle. 

And soon enough, he managed to take the last corner before the rest of his group came into his view. 

"Do you have the stones?" Marvin asked as soon as he noticed the appearance of his friend. 

"I might have something way better," Tom replied, shaking his head and raising his hand to show his empty palms.

"Tsk," Marvin clicked his tongue only to bite his lips and add, "I'm all ears."

"Do you know about my blood-spear skill?" Tom asked, approaching the group and kneeling before the still-unconscious Cleo. 

"The one allowing you to mitigate damage by stealing it from injuring others with your spear?" Marvin nodded his head. "Yeah, I know," he said, squinting his eyes. 

"I have several more skills. And since I already proved that I can combine them, there is a huge chance I will be able to heal Cleo with my bloody spear," Tom explained his idea. 

"Do you have any idea how bad that sounds?" Marvin smiled, unable to stop himself from the little joke. 

Even in moments like that, the two of them were still old friends. 

"Piss off," Tom replied, sneaking his arms underneath Cleo's back and knees before lifting her up. "I cleared most of the monsters on the way. Still," he said, approaching Marvin and passing the girl's body to his arms, "let's not risk it."

"As you wish, leader." Marvin took over his sister and rolled his eyes. "Hopefully, we can get this over quickly. 

With no time to waste on idle chatter, the group moved on. Just like Tom announced, not a single monster appeared on their path, allowing them to reach the boss-room pretty quickly. 

"Okay, I will take over now," Tom said, approaching his friend. 

"I still have no idea how do you plan to do this," Marvin countered, staring at the empty boss-room on the other side of the barrier. During their travels, Tom didn't forget to explain what kind of monster awaited on the other side.

"Not by princess-carrying her, that's for sure," Tom said, grabbing the girl before settling her on his arm. 

He still had to have some room to move around unless he wished for the slime to get the upper hand on him!

"Good luck, brother," Marvin shouted, pushing Kira and Rufus towards the barrier and standing guard a few meters deeper into the corridor. 

Even though Tom cleaned all the monsters that he could find, it was better to be safe than sorry if any of them somehow managed to sneak underneath his radar. 

"Thanks."

Tom entered the boss room again. Just like before, the slime was nowhere to be seen, with only the fluctuations of the energy allowing the young man to detect the monster's presence. 

'Well, let's start it in a peaceful way,' Tom thought, recalling one of the magical spears to his right hand as soon as he dropped his real weapon to the floor. 

He then approached the wall and slowly pierced the spear into the wall-imitating slime. 

'Here, eat well,' he thought, watching how the spear dissolved and caused the entire room to pulse with lights. 

'Another one,' he thought, carefully feeding the slime another spear. 

Tom recalled his real weapon only when the slime's veins' flickering light turned permanent. 

'Here goes nothing,' he thought, placing his left hand on Cleo's back before striking his spear into the soft, fake wall. 

In an instant, a burst of energy coursed through his flesh, rushing to heal all the minor damage to his muscles caused by even the slightest strain. 

'Right, even exhaustion is just the muscle damage,' Tom realized before shaking his head and aiming his focus. 

'Origin mage,' Tom thought, invoking the one ability that he still had no clue how it worked. 

Tom closed his eyes. The fluctuations of magic were more than enough to alert him if the slime were to turn aggressive, and he really had to focus right now. 

Feeling the energy stolen from the slime coursing through his body, Tom attempted to redirect it. Without changing its nature, he pushed it towards his left hand and then outwards.

But it didn't work. 

'It's heavy,' he thought, his knees starting to shake. Just by trying to push the energy in a new, undiscovered path felt like if he was trying to lift a damned boulder, all the while breaking all his bones on the go. 

'Don't give up,' Tom encouraged himself, refusing to simply drop the idea. 'Even if it's magic, it still has to follow some rules!' he exclaimed internally, pushing at the mana etched with healing intent even harder. 

And then it clicked. 

As if a new pathway was created within his body, the magic swirling in his body suddenly found an outlet, rushing towards the newly added valve. It surged through his hand, right into Cleo's back, filling the girl with healing mana. 

Tom pulled his spear out of the wall as soon as the flow of mana ended. With his eyes closed, he couldn't see it, but it was already pretty clear that the part of the slime he was stealing energy from was already withered. 

Right now, he supplied the girl with the pure mana of his own, squeezing his very flesh for every last drop of energy that he could come up with.

"Huh?" Cleo suddenly muttered, her voice all sleepy. "What's going on?" she asked, finally allowing Tom to cease his relentless efforts. "Huh? Why are you holding me like that?!" the girl finally freaked out, jumping off Tom's shoulder at the same moment as his knees finally gave up. 

"Tom?" Cleo muttered, trying her best to understand what was going on. 

On the other hand, already on his knees, Tom could only breathe heavily, doing his absolute best to maintain his consciousness. 

'Why is that?' he asked himself, unable to understand the current situation. 'Why, despite all the mana that I have, I could only pass so little?' 

Filling Cleo with energy to the brim should be an easy job for Tom for the level he was in. Yet, for some reason, he felt as if every last drop of juice was squeezed out of his soul and flesh alike.

'Why is transfering mana so damn hard?' he asked himself, his body leaning forward only for Tom to fall on all fours.. 'What's the difference between mana I can feed to others with the mana that I have myself?' he thought, before a convulsion shook his body, forcing him to eject the content of his stomach on the dungeon's floor.