บท 21: Origin mage
"Let's see what you've got," Tom muttered. His lips widened in an excited smile.
The lizard in front looked completely ordinary. Sure, it was big, but nowhere at the level where its size would turn it into a threat.
'But it's wrong to underestimate it,' Tom thought, gripping his spear.
The dungeon operated on the rule of the ten. So for every ten floors, a steep rise in difficulty would happen. And the boss of the last room of the ten was precisely the same as the monsters from the room one level lower.
'And that means this ugly piece of hellspawn is a notch harder.' Tom smiled at his thoughts. The monsters so far didn't pose any real challenge to him. Yet, the only specimen left on the entire floor could finally break his boredom.
Tom lunged forward. Stepping with his right leg, he extended the tip of his spear all the way forward. There was still a considerable distance between Tom's avatar and the monster.
His stance was nothing more but a bait and a challenge.
A challenge the monster happily took.
The lizard rushed forward. Its massive body made each of its steps make the entire floor shake. Its long, fleshy tail tagged along, swinging to left and right.
The speed of its attack was far beyond anything Tom met in all the floors so far. But he was more than used to monsters of this level.
Tom raised his right leg as if he wanted to step to the back. His spear followed the movements of his body, pulling its blade down.
And then, right in the middle of his retreat, Tom reverted his motions.
From the most unstable point where his right leg was raised, Tom pushed himself forward. Then, stepping right back where he was a moment ago, he thrust his spear right at the charging monster.
"RAAA!" The scream of the monster pierced Tom's ears, but he didn't falter. Against the overwhelming pressure of the beast, he stood fast. The tip of his spear wiggled in the air.
CLASH!
Lizard's massive body slammed forward. The monster attempted to diver the blade to its non-lethal areas, cleverly not daring to properly dodge the attack.
But Tom wasn't a motionless pillar.
'Now!' Screaming in his mind, Tom added another step to his stance. The blade of his spear already penetrated the monster's flesh. In theory, all that was needed right now was to activate Tom's skills.
But Tom didn't do that. Grasping the handle of his long weapon as tight as he could, he then started to rapidly move it around.
There was no grace or technique to his movements. Just the pure desire to destroy everything about his opponent. For a moment, the struggle continued. The giant lizard attempted to twist its neck and bite at Tom's avatar. Tom dug his spear deeper into the monster's body, pushing it away.
Then, everything came to an end.
A tingle shook Tom's muscles. A red spark flashed over his hands tightened into a fist over the long wood of the spear. Then his spear exploded in a brilliant light, almost depriving Tom of his eyesight.
'It's over,' Tom thought when his temporary blindness finally started to go away. His regained vision allowed him to see the lizard's corpse slowly turning into a puddle of mana-rich liquid.
This time, Tom didn't rush forward, taking his time to replenish the energy of his avatar with his spear. But just as he was about to move forward, his eyes moved to the side.
The walls of the room were decorated with a plethora of stones. After a quick count, Tom found out nine stones embedded into the walls, a surprisingly plentiful bounty for the floor.
But all of the stones were of grade two. So each of them could go for five grand at the counter, ramping the price tag of the floor to forty-five grand in total.
But Layn didn't bother to pick them up. 'With my savings, it won't really matter at all,' he thought to himself. For a newbie, forty-five grand was a substantial sum, one that could allow a new player to buy every last thing he could wish as an average person.
Yet, for the standard of what one could earn in the dungeon, those nine stones were a spare change.
Between this measly amount of money or experience for his avatar, Tom was far more interested in finding out just what kind of skill he would obtain.
Tom moved forward as soon as his energy gauge reached its limit. There was no point dawdling in this place anymore, especially with the higher floors already spawning the grade three stones.
Tom pushed through the doors, once again marveling at how they opened up all by themselves. But then, he already stood in an empty corridor, indicating that the travel to a lower floor was successful.
"Let's see what I've got," Tom muttered to himself while excitement filled his soul.
He squinted his eyes in an attempt of luring out the status window of his new ability up. And as annoying as it could be from time to time, on this specific occasion, Tom uncovered his new ability rather quickly.
"Origin mage, huh?" Tom read out the name of the spell aloud, only to lean his head in curiosity to the side in the very next moment.
"Just what the hell does an Origin mage do?"
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