Dungeons Online

Tom's entire self shrank to just two things. Two aspects, as there was hardly any remaining piece of flesh of the young man. 

One was the pain. 

An overwhelming storm of constantly having his body rebuilt by an insane amount of mana and having it burned back by the guts of the explosion.

Determination was second. 

Tom's spear broke apart in this raging sea of mana. It was made of off Tom's magic for the most part, with nothing but low-quality wood and metal underneath. 

It served him well, but now it was the definite end to Tom's weapon. 

But he still preserved. 

Through the sheer force of will, Tom kept the connection of his skill, constantly sucking in the insane amount of magic that raged around him. 

And in this overwhelming amount of mana, his body constantly regenerated. No matter how much of his flesh sizzled away, it would grow back under the nourishing care of the same mana that was damaging it. 

But in this fiery inferno, one thing changed. 

Tom's flesh was that of a human. Untampered, unused to the presence of magic. Even though his time in the dungeon taught him how to use certain skills that he naturally developed, it was still just an external force. A strange feeling that would drive his body whenever he would invoke a skill. 

But now, with the mass of his flesh itself constantly regenerating thanks to nothing but the sheer force of magic? 

With each cycle of burning away and regeneration, Tom's flesh continued to grow more and more used to the presence of mana. It was the most painful of the evolutions possible, but an evolution nevertheless. 

Pain and determination. Those two aspects made up a forge where Tom's body was reformed. It was the fuel behind his evolution and the nature of what his new form leaned towards. 

And it was all over in a mere instant. 

"TOM!" Cleo shouted. With the flames of mana scorching every last bit of his flesh and soul, he could no longer withhold the haste spell. 

'Now that I think about it,' Tom's mind wandered as he fell to his knees, 'haste saved me once again.'

Tired to no end after what he just went through, Tom's body crashed into the ground. His face kissed the stone tiles of the floor in an unpleasant fashion. Yet, the pain of his nose breaking was nothing in comparison to the hell Tom just escaped. 

"TOM!" Claudia followed with a shout on her own, rushing with all her might towards the barely conscious man. 

"You alive?!" Cleo didn't mince her words, as if she was worried that sparring another syllable would make her be late. Her voice trembled just like her hands did when she reached for Tom's shoulders.

"How is he?" Claudia slid the past few meters, asking before she could even stop. 

"He is breathing," Cleo replied in a shaken voice. Her movements were frantic, forcing her true self out instead of the calm mask she learned to wear most of her life. 

'I'm okay,' Tom thought, still locked within his thoughts. He survived, but he couldn't move a muscle. The young man was just too tired to even think about opening his mouth.

"Wait," Claudia said. The look in her eyes sharpened. "Isn't he in a really..." she hesitated, "in a perfect shape?" she added, clearly unsure. She brought her hand to Tom's back before changing her target to his wrist. "His pulse is normal," Claudia said, raising her eyes at Cleo. 

Strenght started to slowly return to Tom's flesh. It felt as if his mind had to work its way out throughout his muscles to reignite the connection between the two. 

Bit by bit, he could feel his guts, bones, and finally, the skin. 'I think I can move around a little?' Tom thought, feeling perfectly fine. 

"What should we do?" Claudia ended up raising her eyes at Cleo. Ultimately, she found herself out of options besides relying on Tom's childhood friend.

'Should I wake up now?' Tom thought. For a moment, a desire to keep the sleepy act wanted to take over him. He was quite interested in how the situation would develop. 

'The fuck am I thinking?!' Tom lashed at his own stupid and childish desires. 'They think I'm on the verge of death, I can't let them wa...' Tom almost jumped up to announce his wellbeing when his body suddenly tingled. 

Then, his perception of the world around him exploded. In a single instant, his sight expanded, allowing him to see something... in a greater depth. 

In a sense, it felt similar to how he moved around by bending the space. This time, though, it was as if everything within half a meter distance away from him belonged to his personal domain. 

'Just what the heck...' Tom cut his inner curse as soon as he realized what could be the possible reason for his strange state. 'If I kept dying and reviving on mana alone, then I might be able to better feel it,' he thought, shaken by the realization. 

It wasn't like Tom could do anything special in his domain. It wasn't a space that he ruled over or could even freely move around. It was just a sort of aura of mana hanging over his body. 

An aura that made Tom perfectly aware of every tiniest detail of that space. 

In other words, Cleo and Claudia alike were well within Tom's aura!

"I'm actually okay," Tom said in a drunk voice. His body was freshly formed anew many times over. Right now, it was so different than Tom's mind had to get used to it first. 'I think I'm going to retch,' Tom thought when the intense wave of information flooded his brain. 

Sadly, his brain had to get used to this new situation as well!

"You are not," Cleo said in a decisive voice. Her look sharpened up. Now that she saw a ray of hope, a way out of the tragedy, her usual focus returned. 

In the end, she trained for these kinds of situations her entire life. 

"Hey," Claudia suddenly thought of something. Her face flared up as she looked toward the wall, "do you need stones to recover?" she asked, clearly picturing it as a great idea. 

'Huh?' Tom shrugged, surprised by the question. 'For what the hell would I want even more mana now?!' he shouted in his thoughts, bending in half as torsions shook his body. He really wasn't used to this new kind of perception. 'Or do I?' 

Tom's face froze as he came to a certain realization. 

The amount of energy that flushed through his body during the fight with the boss was on another level. Nothing that Tom absorbed before could even begin to compare. 

'Yet, I did not level up,' the young man thought. 'Even if most of the mana went for healing me up, as I got more and more used to it, some of it should remain,' Tom thought, analyzing the situation. 'Some of it would remain,' Tom repeated his thought, straightening back on his feet. 

Somehow, he was able to adapt to the new psychique in a manner of a few moments. 

'Unless...' Tom thought, looking at the corpse of the spider nearby.. The few bits that remained were already dissolving at the floor.