Dungeons Online

"Go on!" Marvin shouted over. And just like before, Tom's vision tunneled. It at first expanded as if the distance increased before making Tom feel as if he fell down the hole of said distance, closing it in a single second.

And then, everything returned to the usual look, with a red path calmly hanging in the air. 

'I think I get it now,' Tom thought, allowing the path to take over his movements. 

His spear flew forward. By the time he closed half of the distance, he somehow changed the hold over his spear, holding it like some kind of long-handled ax. 

And then he swung it down, cleaning the last remaining orc from its shoulder all the way to its belt. 

'Fuck,' Tom thought, his muscles exploding in pain. The swing of his spear, combined with all the power he had to infuse in the strike, brought his muscles well beyond what they would normally be capable of doing. 

He defeated the orc in just a single hit, sure, but he now had to pay the price of it. 

"I think I know what that skill is," Tom muttered, lowering his weapon and massaging the muscles of his right shoulder. 

"So do I," Marvin smiled, looking at the cleaved body of the orc. "It's something like a buff to a critical hit, right?" he suggested. 

"You can see it too?" Tom asked. "Those red paths, I mean," he specified his question. 

"Yeah," Marvin nodded his head. "But looking at how you reacted, this will be only useful in the direst of situations," he said, his face slightly quivering. 

"Man, seriously," Tom shook his head. "Can you imagine how insanely powerful this would be if it could allow me to finally deal with that damned boss?" he asked, sending Marvin a slightly annoyed stare. "Right now, it might not look powerful because I'm against monsters I could deal with anyway," he pointed out before turning towards the further part of the corridor. 

"Brother, I understand it," Marvin whined. "I'm aware just how powerful support like me can be in terms of enhancing the strength of the party. What I don't like, though, is how you guys will be risking your lives while I will stay comfortably in the back!" he explained his mind. 

"So that's what you meant all this time," Tom finally understood his brother. He then turned around and approached the annoyed Marvin. "Listen," he said, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We are not going to risk our lives. I managed to get through this dungeon all on my own. With your help, it's only going to get easier."

"And what next?" Marvin raised his head, looking directly into Tom's eyes. "Once we are done with the dungeon, in the new world that you wanted our family to settle in, what then?" he asked, pushing Tom's hand away. 

"We are already more than powerful enough to steamroll through anyone daring to oppose us there," Tom replied, surprised by the continued outburst of his friend. 

"Did you already forget what title I can see you have?" Marvin asked, squinting his eyes. "Conqueror of the easy dungeon. And that means there are dungeons that are far harder out in the world somewhere. If level one hundred is what can one realistically achieve in this dungeon, then what if someone will come with level two hundred?" he asked. 

"That's something I already thought about," Tom said with a smile. "Once we prepare the grounds for the family to settle in the new world, we are going to go and look for my father, that's obvious, but we are also going to enter any dungeon we can to get even stronger," Tom explained his idea. 

"And what would that change for me?!" Marvin shouted before his eyes suddenly roamed over Tom's shoulder. "Fuck, we were too loud. Would you mind?" he asked. 

"Yeah, give me a moment," Tom replied before releasing a deep sigh. 

Right now, they were still stuck relatively close to the opening of the dungeon. Contrary to their talks within the boss rooms of the floor, being in the corridor means that the monsters would just keep coming. 

Still, it wasn't a problem for Layn. With his overwhelming strength, dealing with the rush of a group of monsters was just a breeze. A breeze that allowed him to calm down and think things through a little. 

"Anyway," he said as he returned from the group of monsters, "you are worried that you are not putting yourself to the same degree of risk that the rest of us do," Tom reiterated Marvin's earlier words. "But tell me one thing, back when you were managing the family during my absence, did you take the same risks as the common soldiers?" he asked. 

"Wait, what do you mean? Or rather, what do you imply?" Marvin asked, squinting his eyes. 

"Back when you ordered someone to send the catalyst off, did you do it personally?" he asked. 

"No, obviously not," Marvin shrugged, clearly surprised by the question. 

"Then how is it any different from what you are doing right now?" Tom asked, a small smile growing upon his lips. 

"You are my friend and a sworn brother while Cleo is my sister, duh!" Marvin yelled out, proving that the family wasn't anywhere as united as Tom always imagined it to be.

It wasn't a surprise. Tom was perfectly aware that while he could force the entire group to move along his wishes thanks to this status as the boss, it wasn't a singular entity with discipline and professionalism rivaling the militaries of the old. 

It wasn't the case the moment his father disappeared into the dungeon, only for the world to drastically start to change a mere month later. 

"Marvin, listen," Tom lowered his head only to shake it. "I entered into this dungeon, fully ready to die in it. I just couldn't let go of the idea of finding my father," he said, resting his back against the corridor's wall. "When I did so, I couldn't care less about the rest of the family with some glorious examples," he admitted, lowering his gaze and sticking it to the ground. 

"And what?" Marvin asked, clearly unhappy with the direction Tom was leading their debacle to. "Do you believe hearing about your misgivings would excuse my own?" 

"No," Tom shook his head. "What I meant to say by that is that we can only care about a limited number of people. We can care about the family as a whole, but it will never be a feeling as powerful as ones that the few closest to us can invoke," he explained his mind. 

"And what does that have to do with anything that we were talking about before?" Marvin asked, raising one of his eyebrows as he sneered. 

"You have a problem with not putting yourself through the same degree of risk as Cleo and I do, right?" Tom asked, deciding to use one of his preferred forms of debating with others. 

"That's right," Marvin nodded his head, his smile turning slightly vicious. "For how much I did to protect the family in your absence, this makes me quite the villain, doesn't it?" he suggested, raising his head and mirroring Tom's pose. The only difference was, instead of putting his head down, he looked up, sticking his eyes to the ceiling. 

"You made the best use of the resources and position available to you in order to achieve the things you cared for the most," Tom reiterated his own understanding of Marvin's stance. "Then look at the current situation. You only have a very limited degree of control over what skills you receive. Just think about it. Did you ever see me train with a spear before?" Tom asked, unable to hold back his giggle. 

In a sense, the only time when he considered learning any form of martial arts, it was fully limited to either barehanded techniques or swordplay. There wasn't any deeper meaning behind it, outside of the childish dreams of being a hero and conquering foreign lands to bask himself in the glory of people and adoration of jade beauties. 

"Well, nay?" Marvin replied, leaning his head over the shoulder. It was clear that Tom's jumps in topis were too huge for Marvin to connect them on his own. 

"When I started getting my spear skills, I decided to go with the flow. In a sense, I don't know how to use a spear for real, even though it's my main weapon right now," Tom giggled. "And I believe this is the kind of mindset that you should have right now, just like you had it back when you lead the family. The only difference between those two situations is that you were prepared for one, while the other took you by surprise."

"So I should just stop whining and focus on getting even better support skills?" Marvin summed up all of Tom's words in just a single sentence.

"That's right," Tom nodded his head, rolling his eyes over the way in which his friend simplified the situation. "We can't change what skills we receive upon leveling up. While I believe there is some sort of logic behind it, I have yet to understand it," he said. "But there is one thing that we can change," Tom said, but instead of explaining his mind, he simply looked at his friend. 

"We can change the way in which we look at those skills," Marvin muttered before shaking his head. 

"Well, I don't blame you for losing your chill in this place," Tom smiled, pushing his back against the wall and fixing his position. 

Even though they lost quite a while bickering like that, he much preferred to help his brother regain peace of mind than being punctual. 

Just like he said before, there was a limited number of people that were infinitely higher in the priority hierarchy for him. And for those people, he didn't really mind turning into a monster for others. 

Even if it meant turning his back on the rest of his family. 

"This place just has this kind of effect on people," Tom muttered, bringing his eyes up towards the corner of the corridor. 

The monsters have already managed to find out about their whereabouts. While they were still hidden by the dungeon's structure, Tom could already hear the noises of them rushing ahead. 

"But now, we need to focus on catching up with the schedule," he said, fixing his grasp over the spear. 

"Oh, right," Marvin suddenly shouted, making Tom look over his shoulder. "There is one thing that we believe we should focus on now," he said, approaching Tom and patting him on his shoulder. "Rather than letting us keep increasing our levels, how about you try to reach the hundredth level yourself first?"