Chapter 174 - The True Scale Of The Gap

'Heritage? Ability?' Tom bit his lips, watching how Faunaris disintegrated right before his eyes.

This monster was likely even more powerful than the last boss at the top of the dungeon. And yet, it simply vanished, as if its entire body was nothing more but an illusion. 

And all of this happened because Tom fell right into the trap of doing what that monster wanted. 

"Can I get some answers instead of getting more questions? For fucking one?" Tom muttered, clenching his fists. 

But there was nothing he could do about this situation right now. With nothing more but dust remaining from the monster that made him give up on his life, Tom no longer had any hopes regarding receiving the answers. 

'Well, I guess I will have more than enough time to think about it later,' Tom ultimately decided, turning his face towards the stones in the wall. 

But there was something wrong. 

Instead of grade three and four ones like he expected...

The stones of the wall appeared to be something that Tom had never seen before in his life. 

Instead of being almost transparent with a blueish hue being the only source of their visibility... The stones were all golden as if they were made from a mix of solid gold and platinum. 

The young man could tell that they were nothing compared to any of the stones that he saw before, even without approaching them. 

'Could it be...' a sudden idea appeared in Tom's mind as his entire body froze in shock. He took one step and then another before finally approaching the wall. 

But he didn't mine them out right away. Just looking at their precious-like structure, Tom couldn't help but swallow a gulp of saliva. 

Looking at those golden stones was enough to make him feel unworthy of even gazing at them. 

'If the stones are just a byproduct of the mana supporting the monsters of the entire floor...' he thought, gently rubbing the tips of his fingers against the wall, too hesitant to actually infuse his magic into it. 

It felt that if a single of those stones were to fall to the floor, just the shred of mana it could give out during its fall could cause the entire dungeon to collapse. 

That was the feeling that those stones gave Tom, proving just how immensely powerful they were. 

'To think that they are likely just a residual mana of Faunaris,' Tom thought, swallowing another gulp of saliva. 

This was the only explanation that made any sort of sense. The only reason why the stones were different from the ones in any of the floors below or above was Faunaris. That was the only possible solution to the equation before Tom's eyes. 

And even if he could swallow the idea of those stones holding more energy than all the stones that Tom encountered so far in his life together,  he really had trouble accepting the idea that this dungeon... It was actually nothing else but a device to steal mana from all the monsters held inside!

'But nothing else makes sense,' Tom thought, staring down at the golden glow of the stones in the wall. 'It's the only thing that seems viable,' he thought, nailing down this point in his head.

"Tom, are you okay?" Marvin asked, entering the room with a puzzled expression on his face. 

"Can't you see that I am?" Tom muttered, too overwhelmed with all the questions in his head to pay his friend any mind. 

"That's the point, brother," Marvin sighed, "ever since you entered back into the room, the barrier turned black, no longer allowing us to see what was happening inside," Marvin explained before turning around and pushing his hand beyond the boss room's gate.

"Tom!" Cleo shouted, rushing right through the gate a second later. She ran towards her lover without paying any mind to anything else, only to slam right into his back and wrap her hands around his chest. "Are you alright?!" she whined, unable to stop the floor of worry present in her voice. 

"I'm not," Tom replied, too focused on his internal questions to pay his friends any mind. 

"What happened?! WHO DID SOMETHING TO YOU?!" Cleo shouted, her rage exploding in an instant. 

"Noone did anything to me," Tom muttered in response, shaking his head. 

He was too stunned by the realization of what the dungeon was to actually pay heed to Cleo's worries. 

'If this entire dungeon is just a trap used to suck the mana out of all those monsters... Then who could dare... No, who was powerful enough to force Faunaris inside?' Tom asked himself, moving back to the memory of that being. 

Even if it never really attacked him, Tom could still remember the feeling that this monster gave him. A single move from it was all it would take for Tom's life to conclude. 

And yet, he came out alive out of the clash. 

'I'm only alive because it wanted me to be alive,' Tom realized, finally calming down enough to start analyzing the recent events. 'It manipulated me into using that ability and then took the burnt of the cost of using it,' Tom thought, clenching his fists. 

'But just what that monster was to my father? An enemy? A companion? A servant?' Tom continued to ask himself more and more questions

"TOM!" Cleo shouted, finally managing to get through to Tom's head. 

"What?" he asked rudely, turning his face around only to notice the teary expression on Cleo's face. In an instant, a feeling of guilt exploded in his head. "I'm sorry, there is a lot on my head right now," he said, shaking his head as he turned his face back to the stones. 

'But I guess there is no point in wasting any time,' he thought, putting his hand against the wall for the second time before finally infusing a silver of his energy into it. 

The golden stones behaved exactly just like any kind of ordinary stones Tom encountered before. But as they trickled down to the floor, his companions finally noticed their peculiarity. 

"Tom, what are those?" Marvin asked, approaching one of the stones before gently pushing them forward with the tip of his shoe. 

"Stones of a grade that even I can't fathom," Tom replied, laying down a sheet of cloth on the floor before moving the eleven stones in total on it. 

Seeing the usual events, the slime on Cleo's shoulder started to wiggle, clearly excited with the idea of growing even stronger than before. 

But this time, Tom wasn't willing to share those stones. 

"I'm sorry little one, but not this time," Tom said, kneeling down and grabbing the first stone with his bare hand. 

Tom's consciousness exploded. It was a feeling far more powerful than anything that he experienced so far, even when he desperately assimilated all the raw mana that slime could provide. 

The golden stones were just that potent.

In a second, Tom could feel that he had achieved several breakthroughs on the spot. And the stone didn't even get to fully enter his body, not to speak about actually assimilating with his flesh!

"BE CAREFUL!" Cleo shouted, too late with her words to stop Tom. The look of worry on her face only made Tom's heartache a bit...

But he had no attention left to spare for the girl right now. With the overwhelming energy of the stone coursing through his veins, he could only focus on desperately assimilating it. 

For the first time in his life, the meaning of doing something as if his life depended on it dawned upon Tom. 

'If I fail to rein this energy, I will die,' he realized, falling down to his knees and smacking his other hand at the place where the golden stone continued to sink into his palm.

For a moment, Tom lost his ability to see, hear or feel anything that was around him. It was as if the rushing current of mana that constantly burned his body down only to rebuild it a fraction of a second later isolated him from the rest of the world. 

'I need to hold on,' Tom tightened his teeth, refusing to let go of his consciousness. From how he felt, he realized that even if a fraction of the energy currently coursing through his body were to be released outside, his friends would be no more.

In the face of the energy of just a single stone, all Tom's power so far turned out to be absolutely nothing. This finally made him realize the scale of the gap between him and that faun monster. 

'If that's the power of the stones created from the tiny bits of his power, just how powerful he had to be at his full strength?!' Tom thought in desperation.

Against such strength, all the tricks he came up with were completely meaningless. Only now did Tom finally realize that with this scale of mana in its body, his attempts at using the bloody spear skill against Faunaris.... were nothing more but laughable.