Chapter 97 - Almost There

**Ten minutes earlier**

"Come on, we are so close!" Claudia desperately smashed her fists into the hordes of monsters of endless variety... As far as the monsters were varied within the dungeon itself, that is. 

Between war goblins, demonic hellhounds, and ogre lieutenants, Tom preferred the latter. Both hoblins and hellhounds always came in great numbers. On the other hand, ogres always acted more individually, limiting their numbers for the sake of greater strenght. 

Yet, that was the case on the former floors. 

Right now, Tom faced an endless horde of monsters of all types. The spiders, gnolls, some kind of meaty abominations... Tom had no time to think between striking the strong opponents down and making sure neither of the girls had too much fight to handle.

"Just one more floor!" Tom encouraged the group. No matter how endless the horde was, they could fight it off. The difference in strenght was just too unreal. 

"Ah," Tom sighed, pulling the spear out of a massive ogre's chest. Next, he leisurely summoned a magic spear in his left hand. With more weapons than he needed at hand, Tom threw his spares towards the near spider, kobold, and golem. 

"Get off," he shouted, kicking away two goblins that attempted to strike his leg. 'Those rascals,' he thought kindly, turning their faces into a bloody mess. 

A strange relationship formed between Tom and his enemies. Even though they were just monsters created by the dungeon, in the moment of life and death, Tom could connect with them. For a moment, a random cyclops would appear like a brother in arms, allowing Tom to truly embrace it. Embrace it as he sank his spear in its heart. 

Suffice to say, Tom managed to remain on the life side, while his opponents quickly succumbed to the other possible end of the moment. 

"I can see the end of them!" Cleo shouted from a position way ahead. 

'Even with relatively low level and as a mere avatar, she still can hold her own at the forefront,' Tom thought, catching sight of the girl. 

Her unique skill set allowed her to blend into the background. Thanks to years of constant training in real life, she could easily sit behind the enemy lines, cullings its numbers in the process. 

"Finally!" Claudia shouted in joy before rushing forward. Thanks to Tom's direct way of feeding her mana, she long surpassed her previous limits. 

'If I recall it correctly, she learned how to add attributes to her smashes,' Tom thought, bringing back one of the recent memories. 

With the abundance of the grade four stones, the two of them managed to raise their levels at an insane rate. As if that wasn't enough, Tom's spear turned out to be a far better piece of junk than anyone dared to expect. 

Tom's spear was the main conductor behind most of his skills. He could hold his own barehanded, but that still severly limited his potential. 

Thanks to his ability to produce the magic spears, Tom never had to fear fighting weaponless. Yet, that didn't cover the gap between the quality of a magic-created weapon and a proper, physical one. 

'Unless I was drastically wrong, this spear nearly doubles the amount of the energy we get from the stones,' Tom kicked away yet another swarm of goblins before covering himself with the flames of the Everblaze skill. 

'Now that I think about it, I can now use most of my skills in a small area around me,' Tom realized as he cast his glance at the spear. For a moment, it felt as if just holding this mysterious weapon didn't greatly boost his ability to feel the crux of the magic. 

'It doesn't feel like learning at all,' Tom thought, gazing at his marvelous weapon. 'It's more like...' For a moment, the young man sought the proper word yet ended unable to describe it. This wisdom about the essence of magic casually flowed into his brain. 

Thankfully, it was a slow, gradual process. 'If not for that, I could get pretty confused on the go,' Tom thought before shaking his head. 

'No, I don't have time for that,' he realized, closing his eyes for a second. As if taking a breath to gather the air in his lungs, Tom gathered his strenght. 

Then, just by relaxing his muscles, he managed to invoke his fireball spell. 

For now, he could only replicate the feeling of the basic one. Casting the proper fireball still required him to hold his spear. 

Tom took off his everblaze. The vibration of the magic that it caused made it harder for him to hold his focus. 

"Release," Tom muttered, allowing the aura that he was bloated on to flow through the intent in this word. 

All at once, Tom's surroundings exploded. A fireball on its own and without attribute at that wouldn't amount to much. Yet, when replicated in thousands and aimed in every direction? 

A shockwave of fire exploded outwards. Incinerating swaths of enemies on its way, the spell instantly sucked away most of Tom's mana. It was a simple and cheap skill to invoke. Yet once again, done in thousands, it could empty Tom's entire reserve in a split of a second. 

'Break,' Tom thought. By the time he managed to react and break the spell, he was already drained beyond his limits. By processing all the information necessary to aim every single fireball as to not hit the girls, Tom could barely see right now. 

His vision went blank as if losing all the contrast. 

This weird nausea lasted only for a short moment. Before Tom could as much as twitch, Cleo already rushed to him. The moment his body was about to fall to the ground, Cleo caught him and pressed a grade four stone against Tom's spear. 

"Than..." Tom attempted to thank the girl when it happened. 

It didn't feel like the normal breakthroughs he had so far. Rather than noticing a surge in his powers, Tom discovered a whole new realm of magic altogether. 

A whole new realm of magic, currently overflowing with familiar-looking, greenish aura. 

'It's the spider's...' Tom thought before his new sense exploded under the flood of all the energy that Tom previously absorbed. 

"Tom, what..." Cleo asked in a panic. She could recognize the symptoms of something going terribly wrong. And she already went through one moment of extreme worry. 

But Cleo never got to finish her sentence. Tom's sense broke under the overwhelming might of the overflowing energy.. Without anywhere else to go, this enormous pool of mana exploded outwards, killing Cleo's avatar on the spot.