Chapter 57 - Out Of The Loop

"Well," Tom said while rising from his knees. "There is no point dawdling on this point. Let's move out," he ordered in a soft voice as he picked up his knife and shoved it back into its holster. 

"Is that all?" Claudia asked, pretty surprised by the sudden change in Tom's plans. "Didn't you want to test them extensively?" she added more details to make her question actually about something rather than as vague as it was initially. 

"How long do you think we will deal with slimes?" Tom asked while kicking away the last of the first three slimes that they encountered away. "Up to the fifth floor? Maybe tenth if we are unlucky?" he guessed the answer himself, basing it on his own experiences in the dungeon so far. 

"How can you be so certain about it?" Claudia asked while obediently following the man deeper into the dimly lit corridor. "Did you enter the dungeon for real before, or are you speaking solely from your experiences from the game?" she asked while drilling holes in Tom's back with her eyes. 

"What's the difference?" Tom bounced the ball back, taking a quick glance behind before moving his attention back to what laid ahead. "Be it a game or real life, we were still exploring the same dungeon nevertheless," he explained before turning silent. 

Soon, another pack of slimes came their way. But rather than wasting as much time as they did on the first one, a few kicks settled the matter. Given the speed of those weak monsters, by the time they would hike all the way to the fiftieth floor and back, they would barely move from one end of the corridor to the other. 

"What's the rush?" Claudia asked after roughly ten minutes of hastened pace. "Don't we have all the time in the world to explore this place? How about we just take it easy?" she asked while trying hard to stabilize her breath. 

"Wait, do you really think we have a lot of time?" Tom asked, so surprised by the notion that he even stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the girl. An action that would be too reckless for him to do in the dungeon was they any higher than the very first floor. 

"Don't we?" Claudia replied with a slight sulk. "Like, come on! Who can chase after us here? Or do you want to go back to that Cleo girl as soon as you can, maybe?" she continued to push needles into Tom's soul, clearly angered by something. 

"And what does Cleo have to do with all of that?" Tom asked, more dumbfounded than shocked by Claudia's problems. He then released a deep sigh before patting himself on the backpack. "Listen, while I'm not saying anything about you losing your own back, it's an undeniable fact that we only have half the food and water than what I initially planned for us to have." Tom guided the thoughts of the girl to the real reason behind their hurry. 

"We only have so much food. We only have so much water. Don't even get me started with the ammunition and other weapons," Tom counted out the three most important pieces that he was worried about running out. "We are here not to play around but to see what this place is really all about. To learn why the fact that those dungeons are real was hidden from public knowledge. As such, every moment that we can spend on looking for hints is more valuable than gold." Tom lectured the girl before realizing how heated he became during this short monologue of his. 

'I shouldn't let my thoughts out so much,' he thought to himself, pulling his tongue back behind his teeth. 'In the end, she's here only because of an unlucky meeting, not because she cares about all of that,' Tom thought grimly, easily finding fault in himself rather than trying to push the blame on the girl.

"I'm sorry," Claudia said after a few moments of silence between the two. "I didn't know that you were so serious about the... Or nevermind, that sounds just plainly wrong," she fixed her own words, clearly aware that what she was about to say had no sense at all. 

After all, it was hard to claim that she didn't realize how important and heavy this mission was for Tom, given that she saw how many preparations he made to make it come true and how many risks he was willing to take in order to bring it to its fruition!

"Don't mind it," Tom said while waving his hand away. "It's normal that you are still quite out of the loop with everything," he replied in a calm voice. In the last few moments that Claudia took to gather the courage to say her piece, he managed to calm himself down. 

"What are we going to do next, then?" Claudia asked, clearly trying to just move forward and change the topic to something else. 

'Nice try,' Tom thought, perfectly aware of what she was trying to do.... 'But I guess there is nothing wrong with burying the hatchet.' He thought after a moment, finally letting go of the last strand of annoyance that her earlier questions asked. "Right now, we are going to go as deep as we can and see what kind of effects conquering the dungeons in our real bodies will have on us," Tom explained the rough idea behind this entire trip. "That, and I want to bring back at least some of those 'data' stones for my people to analyze them," he revealed the other major part of the plan. 

"So, in the immediate future, we are going to..." Claudia reworded her question, leading it all the way to the point where she stopped and moved her eyes on Tom's back.

"Yes," Tom nodded his head before fixing the position of his rifle on his chest. "We are going to kill the boss of the floor now,"