Chapter 69 - Testing Out A Theory

"So this is it," Claudia said as the two of them took a shortstop. A single step ahead, the boss room of the ninth floor would begin. 

For people armed and still well supplied with firearms, grenades, and even manual weapons, this wasn't something to be scared of. Even when exploring the dungeons with their avatars, the tenth floor wasn't any major obstacle to overcome at all. 

But this time, the situation was different. 

While there was a spike in the strenght of the monsters every five floors, it was only all within a certain league. It was the ten floors threshold that brought real change to the difficulty.

That's why whenever the levels of the avatars were discussed, every ten levels would mean another league. A player who reached level seventy-first would be just a little weaker than someone who reached seventy-fifth. The difference between a player on the seventy-first floor and one even at sixty-ninth was massive. 

"Well, no good will come from just waiting around," Tom muttered. He then fixed his hold over his rifle and checked whether all sorts of equipment was all ready to use. Then, he took a step forward. 

In an instant, the boss of the room proved to be worthy of the spot in the next league. As the boss room would usually keep a monster belonging to the floor above, this was the first fight for Tom with something of the tenth floor. And in an instant, he came in, the entire room filled with dense smoke.

"What happened?!" Claudia asked with a slight dose of panic in her voice. 'Figures,' Tom thought, looking towards the source of the voice. 'For an amateur like her, any deviation from the plan will be taken seriously,' he thought while gritting his teeth. 

'I shouldn't take her with me,' Tom thought, bearing the guilt of this decision. While it would be pretty annoying for the girl to be held in some kind of luxurious basement, it would be a safer option for her. 

Because no amount of dungeon crawling experience would matter if it all came from playing the game. No matter how insane player one was, that didn't make him a soldier capable of thinking in situations where life and death would be put at stake. 

"It's okay. This smoke only obscures our vision!" Tom shouted after casting a glance at a small diode pinned to his shoulder. It was connected with a single wire to an even smaller detector, capable of recognizing any substance harmful to a human. 

It was a simple toy, one that anyone could buy with just a few coins. Ever since the old type of wars turned obsolete, there was a huge amount of formerly military equipment circulating through the market. As such, the prices of even the most convenient tools were low, while the products themselves were accessible. 

'Well, I wonder what kind of monster the boss will be,' Tom thought to himself, finally walking out from behind the corner. 

His fingers gripped the handle of the spear a bit harder. 

And there it was. Lying right in the middle of the room. 

The boss of the ninth floor turned out to be a giant lizard. Even bigger than the Komando dragon (check the author's notes), it took nearly a tenth of the room even when it was asleep. 

'No, I shouldn't get conceited like that,' Tom forced himself to stay still. The momentary idea of taking advantage of the monster's sleep evaporated as soon as the young man considered the possibility that it was a trap. 

"So that's it, huh?" Claudia whispered when she took the corner and saw the monster. "What do you say? A welcoming series to the head?" she asked, griping at the handle of her rifle. 

"You know what...?" Tom asked, but his voice broke before he could finish his question. "No. I want you to prepare for now. Listen, I will attack it alone. What I need you to..." Tom attempted to explain his idea when the girl's hand suddenly slapped his cheek.

"Don't you dare play the fucking hero!" Claudia whispered, proving that she was coolheaded enough not to let her fury make her alert the boss monster. After all, if it caught the two of them off-guard, then the situation could become genuinely dire. 

"I will allow that," Tom squinted his eyes, feeling how the anger was trying to take over his actions as well. "But only this time. The next time you dare to slap me, I will return the favor," Tom hissed at the girl. Then, he shook his head. "Listen, your part here is the most important. I'm not trying to be a hero, just to test something out," Tom added before moving back to the corner and stepping out of the boss room. 

"Listen, I need you to wait here. With your finger on the trigger, but still. Under no circumstances are you to enter the boss-room before I give the order. Understood?" Tom asked, even using the officer's tone that he heard many of his uncles use whenever their kids would turn rebellious. As Tom learned many times over, this small trick of modulating one's voice worked just as well on the recruits as it did on normal people. 

"What for?" Claudia protested although it seemed that she was now just unhappy with the situation rather than unwilling to go through with it. 

"I will only shout one of the two orders. It will be either shoot or come. If I ask you to shoot, you will need to save my life. That means you will likely only have one stopping shot before it is too late," Tom explained as he caught the barrel of the girl's rifle and pulled it towards himself. After a few moments of fiddling with the switches at its side, he returned the girl's weapon. 

"Here, I turned to blast shots on. Right now, every shot of yours will use fifteen shots instead of one. It also overheats the weapon for a short while, so keep the one-shot rule in mind," Tom explained as he stood up from his knees and looked towards the boss room. 

"And what if you shout to come?" Claudia asked resolutely, proving that she was properly listening to his orders. 

"Then, all you need to do is enter the room," Tom said with a small smile. As he did, he started to drop every last piece of his equipment to Claudia's growing panic. Seeing how her partner only allowed himself to carry the fickle spear of his, she quickly reached the levels of panic and worry that she would never expect herself to have. "Don't shoot, don't panic, just push your body and all those weapons inside the room as soon as possible. You won't have more than a second or two," Tom explained his wish before charging inside. 

'If I allowed her any time to think it over, she would likely attempt to stop me again,' Tom thought, feeling the pain of forcing this lovely girl into this kind of unpleasant situation. 

Even if she had no feeling for him whatsoever, it would still be pretty unpleasant to worry about someone she spent quite a while with. 

'But for the sake of this tests, this small amount of risk is acceptable,' Tom thought as he approached the motionless body of the lizard. 

'All in all, there is something weird going on with me,' Tom thought as he continued his march towards the monster. 'Normally, I wouldn't put myself at such a great risk just to test a theory out, no matter how important this theory would be,' he thought as he stopped his steps right beside's the lizard's body. 

"Wake up," Tom said while kicking the monster. And unexpectedly, it didn't turn out to be an illusion of any sort, as Tom clearly felt the warmth of its flesh and the sturdiness of its scales. 'Well, the plan and theory are both great,' he thought as he jumped away only to land down and stand fast on his position, 'executing it might be a hassle,' Tom added in his thoughts, watching how the local boss finally started to wake up. 

At first, the lizard stood up on its legs. Then, its long head turned towards Tom. The monster's eyes were red, surrounded by a slight, crimson aura. 

Staring into those eyes, Tom couldn't help but tremble. 

While there was a strange call deep within his soul that pushed him into this rash decision, his rationality has yet to go away. Standing head to head with this monster, he would have to be an idiot not to realize the danger he was in. 

'Should I call Claudia?' In this moment of clarity of his thoughts, Tom asked himself. Should he call for the girl? No matter how personally weak, she would be of great help with all the guns and tools she had on herself. 

"No," Tom muttered, raising his head and looking into the monster's eyes once again. "If I lose my courage here, I will never be able to move forward," Tom told himself, attempting to restore his own morale. 

And so, with nothing but a spear in his hand, he jumped at the monster.