Dungeons Online

The first merge of the groups happened right on the seventieth floor. What could easily become a disaster of people appearing through the gates at the same time, falling into each other and turning a relatively organized crowd into a panicked mess...

Thankfully, it didn't happen. Thanks to the organization and strict scheduling, people appeared at the seventieth-floor gate one by one, with relatively long gaps of time in between. 

'Thank God,' Tom thought, watching over the developing situation as more and more people amassed at the entry of the seventieth floor. 

The floor itself was already thoroughly cleaned from the monsters, with some of the small group leaders still standing guard throughout the corridors, watching out for any potential leftover monster. 

'While it would be quite a sight and a learning experience to know what would happen, I wouldn't like to see my people turned into an experiment like that,' Tom thought, the moment of dark humor only reflecting the current state of his soul. 

The dungeon was changing, and Tom had no idea what was the reason behind it. From how monsters apparently knowing his father and possessing an overwhelming strength started to appear more frequently, through the appearances of the monsters whose strength didn't suit the floor they were in...

Those were just the examples of the things that bothered Tom. Just like it was proved and noticed hundreds of years before his time, humans feared the unknown. 

And right now, the dungeon that Tom thought to be familiar with was turning into a single, massive unknown. 

"Long time no see," Cleo said as she appeared from the gate. Ever since they split at the sixtieth floor, she continued to watch over the first of the merged groups, making sure that no past conflicts would affect its cohesion. 

Even though she was unhappy about being excluded from the forward position, she still followed Tom's order without a single whine of dissatisfaction. 

"Spare me the pleasantries," Tom muttered, shaking his head. Yet, contrary to his words, he stepped forward and embraced the girl, finding solace in the peacefulness of her warmth. 

"Is everything all right?" Cleo asked, slightly weirded out by unexpected Tom's clinginess. 

"More or less," Tom shook his head, hiding his face in the corner between Cleo's neck and shoulder. 

"I guess that was a wrong question," Cleo chuckled uneasily, reaching out with her arms and surrounding Tom's waist with them. "How are you holding out?" 

"Barely," Tom muttered in response before finally pushing himself away from the girl. Even though he wanted to stay in Cleo's arms for a little longer, he could already feel the pressure of all his people staring at him. 

For their sake, he couldn't show just how poor his mental state was right now. For them, he had to pretend that his morale was still as high as ever.

Thankfully, with how organized his people were, it didn't take that long to merge the two groups together. 

"Everyone, let's get a move on!" Tom shouted, pointing at the deeper part of the floor with his spear. Staying in the corridor only made the problem of crowding seem bigger than it was in reality. 

For now, if they really wanted to reorganize, they had to enter the relatively huge and open space of the boss-room first. 

"What are you so worried about?" Cleo asked once the entire group finally started to inch closer towards the end of the seventieth floor. "I don't want to imply that you are worried..." she added in a whisper, clearly trying to stop the others from eavesdropping on their conversation, "but that's just the feeling that you gave me," she mumbled.

Tom looked to the side at Cleo's face. From the troubled look in her eyes, it was pretty obvious that she was struggling to put her feelings into words.

"This and that..." Even though Tom felt that sharing his burdens would lighten his mood a little... doing so would come at the cost of burdening others. And right now, he believed he was the only one that should carry it. 

After all, if his power was already affected by those negative and uncertain thoughts of his, what would happen if he spread the news to the leaders of other small groups? What would become of his family if all the strong fighters that protected those who didn't level up were overwhelmed by doubts and hesitations? "It's too much to explain it shortly," Tom added, feeling that he owed the girl some kind of explanation, even if he decided to hold back on sharing the truth of his worries. 

"Tell me then," Cleo muttered, changing her approach, "do those worries actually matter?" she asked, managing to catch Tom by surprise. 

"And what do you mean by that?" Tom asked, genuinely puzzled about Cleo's sudden question. 

"I mean," Cleo smiled gently. "Once we get to the eightieth floor, just ten floors from now, we will only have the last boss to take care of, right?" she asked about the obvious. 

"Assuming that the last ten floors didn't change... yeah," Tom muttered, unable to stop his negative thoughts from affecting his answer. 

Even though he decided not to share his hesitations, they found their own way to surface. 

"Once we take care of the boss, everything will start turning easier," Cleo said with a bright look taking over her face. "I mean, outside of distributing the stones from the last ten floors," she added a second later, her bright expression instantly souring down. 

"Right," Tom chuckled, his thoughts momentary freed from the burden of leadership. Yet, there was nothing to laugh about. The matter of dividing the stones between various leaders was bound to spark some conflict and trouble. Yet, when compared to the magnitude of the troubles that Tom was actually bothered by, this little affair appeared so damn meaningless that Tom couldn't help but laugh. 

"Yeah, this will be a pain in the butt," Tom admitted, nodding his head as soon as he managed to take the reins of his own body and stop his giggle. 

"But that's not even the good part!" Cleo exclaimed, finally allowing her voice to turn back into a normal volume. "Once we get past that boss, rather than problems piling up, they will start to melt away!" she shouted, spreading her arms wide and accidentally slapping the face of a random guy that was walking by their side. 

A few moments of apologizing and reorganizing the group back into an orderly formation later, Cleo's face was already soaking in sweat. 

Just this moment of social interaction was enough to put her through the greatest trouble and effort than climbing seventy floors of this blood-lusting dungeon could. 

"I guess you are right," Tom said, just as their group finally started to enter the emptied-out boss room. "We only need to hold for a few more hours," he muttered, more to encourage himself than to admit Cleo's words to be right. 

"What are you waiting for, then?" Cleo asked, putting her hands on her hips and standing her ground. 

Right now, the two of them were like a mountain, breaking the waves of the ocean's current. The difference was, rather than waves, they were breaking the line of the people, and rather than protecting the coast from the ocean's wrath, they were incurring the anger of all of those who had to struggle to get past them. 

"What am I waiting for?" Tom echoed Cleo's words, unable to understand what she was talking about. 

'Right now, I'm waiting for the rest of the people...' he thought, only to shake his head a moment later. 

This wasn't the answer that Cleo was looking for. It was clear from how serious her expression was. 

"Right now, you are waiting for everyone to follow the schedule," Cleo gave the answer to her question herself. "But tell me, what's the point of doing so?" she asked another question. 

"It is to make sure we won't fall into each other while crossing through the levels and to keep the cohesion..." Tom attempted to answer with the reasons that were actually behind the idea of his tactic. 

"Don't give me that bullshit," Cleo lashed out at him, attracting the attention of the few who have yet to enter the boss room. Ultimately though, when she threw them an angry glance, they hurried forward instead of staying back to listen. 

"What do you want to say, then?" Tom asked, slightly rilled up by Cleo's unreasonably weird way of approaching the topic. "No, what do you want me to do?" he clarified his question.

This one thing was pretty obvious. Cleo's words weren't there to cheer him up. She said what she did for the sake of making him act. 

"Ignore all the tactics. Leave me with the timer, take Marvin, and just hurry up ahead!" Cleo shouted after waiting for the last person to pass through the barrier of the boss-room. "Whether we merge correctly or not, whether we will manage to keep everyone peaceful and calm... Why do you bother with this?" she asked, slamming her hand into the wall of the dungeon. 

"Because I'm the lea..."

"It's because you are stupid," Cleo summed up, her face finally relaxing. "That's why I'm telling you. Take Marvin, take all the stones, take whoever you deem necessary to deal with the boss. And then just go for it," Cleo advised, spreading her arms out as if to show that she had nothing to hide. 

'Now that I think about it... Isn't Cleo actually right?' Tom thought, biting his lips. 'Outside of the pressure to stick to the plan... is there any reason for me not to rush the boss?'