Chapter 104 - The Last Floor

"Hey," Claudia started up the conversation after she made sure that yet another boss of the floor was dead. Her testing methods were anti-elaborate, limited to a strong kick to its body. "Isn't this all too easy?" she asked, looking at Tom as if hoping that he would have an answer to that question.

"It's not that those fights are easy," Tom shook his head as he approached the wall. "We are just growing too strong for this place," he explained the situation, sending a flash of energy through the stone wall. 

The stones embedded in it popped out like ripe coconuts. As they fell to the floor, a slightly annoying yet mentally pleasant sound invaded the ears of the duo. 

"I guess that's it," Claudia muttered, resting her weight on one of Tom's spears littered all over the boss room. "Still, isn't it getting too boring?" she asked, raising up and allowing Tom to recall one of his magic spears back. 

"I'm much happier with boring stuff than with a dangerous one, though," Tom replied, smirking under his nose. 

Right now, the duo was quick on its way to reaching the end of the dungeon. Defeating four more bosses in a single, rushing wake, they now stood a the gate to the next floor. 

After the past five consecutive boss fights, Tom and Claudia earned ninety-two grade six stones. A single one of them held more energy than all the stones of grade four and below that they both have consumed to this point. Excluding the grade five stones, a single grade six was better than everything they looted so far. 

"Still, I would like for the fights to be a bit more challenging," Claudia said as she moved closer to her partner. "Still, we are not going to stop, do we?" she asked with a small grin forming on her lips. 

"And why would we do that?" Tom copied the girl's expression. "It's not our problem that we grow stronger faster than the bosses," he said, catching the first of the stones with the tip of his spear. 

Right now, Tom grew so powerful and confident in his powers that he didn't really need to use his real weapon. Obviously, it had its bonuses making it more efficient to suck the stones dry with it.

But Tom only would do that to the first stone of every batch. Once he would be done, he would half-conjure a set of magic, each of which grew out of his body and extended towards another stone. 

In this way, Tom could consume the stones at a way greater rate. Given how he shared half of the mana with the girl, the raging inflow of mana barely tickled his skin anymore. 

"Huh?" Just as the stones were about to crumble, Tom suddenly shrugged. Despite how little hope he had for his current growth, a familiar sensation of his inner self expanding shook his body. 'Did I just reach the hundredth level?' Tom asked himself, counting his skills once again just to make sure. 

"Judging from your expression, I owe you ten bucks," Claudia grinned. "Congratulations," she added with a wide smile. 

"Thanks," Tom replied, shaking his head. For a moment, he was confused by all the instincts suddenly opening up in his mind, indicating the birth of a new skill. 

But for some reason, even once he regained the clarity of his thoughts, Tom still failed to figure out what this new skill was. 

'Some kind of passive?' Tom asked himself, biting on his lips to help himself focus. 

"Well, that's it for me," Claudia said, breaking Tom's line of thought. As he moved his eyes to the floor, he saw all of the crystals already in pieces, completely drained out of the energy. 

"That seems to be the case," Tom muttered before shaking his head yet another time. "Well, you will be able to catch up on the further floors," he said, raising his eyes towards the gate at the end of the boss room. "So there is no need for you to be anxious about it," he smiled gently, recalling all of his remaining spears back. 

"Shall we go, then?" Claudia asked with a small smile. 

"Sure," Tom said, sending the girl a wink as he moved towards the gate. 

The moment of transporting between the floors was just as weird now as it was when they first experienced it. For a moment, one would be approaching the gate as usual. Then, the world around them would slow down as if the air turned into some kind of dense liquid. Next, before they could process it actually happening, they would regain their freedom of movement as the surrounding would change instantly to the next floor. 

This was the case on the first floor and on the eighty-sixth one as well. 

"Huh?" Tom sighed in surprise as he appeared on the next floor. Not because it was different from the others. In fact, just like the last five floors, it consisted of a simple arena-like boss room. 

The only thing missing... was the boss. 

"Where is it?" Claudia asked, sharply looking around. Despite not even a hint of the monster's aura being present in the room, the two of them turned even more alert than usual. 

Yet, no matter how hard they looked, no boss monster of the floor appeared. 

"Wait, where are the stones?" Claudia pointed her hand out at the back wall of the room. 

"There are none," Tom muttered the response, as a sudden thought flashed in his mind. 'The gate...' he thought, turning his face around...

And it was in the exact same place as before. 

In fact, the gate to the higher and lower floors was the only thing present in the room!

"Shall we go deeper?" Tom thought, biting his lips. 'I don't like it,' he thought but killed this inner sense of his a moment later. 'Well, it's not like we ultimately have any choice,' he thought, reluctantly making his first step forward. 

"Do we even have any choice?" Claudia asked, grabbing Tom's hand and pulling him ahead. 

In moments like those, she would be the one more likely to show more initiative. Whether it was courage or recklessness, though, Tom couldn't decide. 

But as the two of them got deeper and deeper, the situation turned weird. Because the empty floor wasn't a singularity. All the way to the ninetieth floor, all they saw were empty walls and the gates separating the floors. 

"Do you think some kind of mad monster awaits us at the bottom?" Claudia asked, grabbing Tom's hand. For a moment, her natural delicacy came out. 

'Thinking back, I'm still not confident in defeating that girl from before,' Tom thought, recalling the meeting at the bottom of the other dungeon. 'Still, I don't think I could judge her strenght with how weak I was back then,' he added in his thoughts before tightening his hold over Claudia's hand. "Let's go deeper," Tom said, pushing ahead. 

Once again, the two of them went through the experience of passing between floors. Once again, the scenery changed around them.

But this time, there wasn't just a single boss in the room. 

As Tom entered the last floor of the dungeon, he didn't see the final boss waiting for him. 

Instead, the same girl that he met all the way back in the other dungeon was currently battling four others of her kind, not paying attention to the new guests to her floor at all!