Dungeons Online

Chapter 147: Deciding the future of the family

"Huh?" Marvin gasped for air, clearly having trouble accepting Tom's random announcement. "What do you mean, another world?" he asked, proving that he didn't really digest what Tom told about a moment earlier. 

"Like I said," Tom rolled his eyes, "the dungeon doesn't end at its lowest floor. Once you deal with the last boss, instead of facing a wall or secret treasure, you are going to start climbing it... down," Tom said, taking a moment to seat himself in one of the few surviving chairs. 

"And once you reach the highest floor again?" Marvin asked, unwilling to accept any default gaps in the story. 

"You enter another world," Tom confirmed the truth with a nod of his head. 

"And you want our entire family to migrate there, right?" Marvin asked, slowly realizing that Tom wasn't describing a new idea for a fantasy novel but what he actually saw with his very own eyes. 

"I see where this discussion is going to," Tom said before shaking his head. "Listen, I'm not going to force anyone to come with me. But before you decide whether or not you would like to migrate, tell me one thing," he said before setting his right leg on the left and cupping his hands together. "What is the purpose of our family?" 

"Huh?" Cleo shrugged uncomfortably. "To survive in this broken world?" she replied with a question on her own. 

'And this is the reason why we struggle,' Tom thought, closing his eyes. 'We don't really have any purpose. And there is a limit to what we can achieve by just sitting on our assess,' he concluded. 

"To retain our family position in the local society, preserve our strength and means, and lastly to cultivate our traditions even if the world will once again turn unreasonable," Marvin replied with the actual motto of the family instead. 

"And as we can both see," Tom said, spreading his arms as if to point at the messy room, "it's going great, isn't it?" he asked with a small smirk. 

The devastated state of the room was more than enough for an answer. 

"Don't you try to use this card," Marvin replied, his expression darkening. "It all happened because you picked a fight with the online hub!" he said, pointing his hand at his childhood friend. 

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"Tell me," Tom leaned his head to the side, "does it matter why it started?" he asked before shaking his head. "Because in my book, we can either look to the past to find people to blame, or look to the future and analyze our options. So let's do just that," he added before turning his face to Cleo. "Tell me, what are the prospects of the family assuming we remain in this world and cease all the involvement with the dungeon?" 

"In no more than ten years, our autonomy will be just a memory. In the next twenty-five, we will be wiped out as dangerous elements," she said, not hesitating or even taking any time to think about the answer. 

"And there you have it," Tom said, turning his face back to Marvin. "On the other hand, let me tell you what will likely happen if we all migrate with all the people and resources to that other world I saw," he announced as he stood up from the chair and approached Marvin's desk. 

Tom then snatched one of the papers before picking up a random pen that found its way towards the floor. 

"In one month, we will turn all the soldiers in our ranks into people capable of toppling cities of this world, all on their own," he said, drawing a simple, short line on the paper he picked. "In one year, we will create a country all on our own in which we will rule however we fit using the advantage of technology," he said, drawing another line. "In ten years, we should be able to understand the physics of the magic and combine it with our technology, turning us into the greatest power of both the worlds at once," he added, drawing the third line on the paper. 

Those lines had no meaning whatsoever. Tom only bothered to draw them to focus Marvin's attention on his words. A small trick he never had the chance to use before. 

"Wait a moment," Marvin stopped Tom's lecture by raising his hand. "Beings capable of toppling entire cities on their own?" he repeated Tom's words with a look of doubt on his face. "What did you mean by that?" he then asked. 

"Let me show you," Tom replied with a small smile. 'Recall,' he thought, only for his main spear to suddenly materialize in his hand. "This is one of the abilities I use in the fighting system I developed. Look," he said, throwing the spear through the broken window. 

'Swap,' Tom thought, disappearing from the room. 

"What the fuck?!" Marvin exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. "Where did he go?" he asked, staring blankly at the spear that replaced his friend's body. 

"Do you need me to showcase the full extent of my powers here, or can you take my word on it?" Tom shouted his question from a fair distance away. Yet, as soon as Marvin turned his head around to look at him, Tom swapped again, promptly returning to the room. 

"That was... weird?" Cleo muttered, taken aback by the show. "Wait, don't tell me..." she whispered as a spark of enlightenment lit up her face. 

"Yup," Tom nodded his head. "The abilities that you have as your avatar actually can be obtained by a real person. And they do not stop working once you exit the dungeon," he explained before taking his seatback. 

"So, what would you want us to do?" Marvin asked as he bit on his lip. Even though the entire area was now devastated, he couldn't help but throw one more look at the landscape outside, the place where he grew up and came to love with all his heart. 

"We gather everyone and every last piece of equipment or knowledge that we can carry," Tom shrugged his arms. "Worst case scenario, just download as much of science stuff on the mobile data carriers and get several readers. Just enough to make sure they won't all break at the same time and in a short period of time," he said, stretching back in his chair. 

"Just the science stuff? What about weapons?" Marvin asked, surprised by Tom's approach. 

"We need to limit what we carry to the bare minimum. Outside of food and clothes, every last gram of matter that we will carry matters," he said, once again standing up from his chair and approaching the side of the room where two screens somehow managed to survive the blast. 

Then, without any hesitation, he smashed his fists into them, turning them into nothing more but a mix of metal and electrical scrap. 

"The fuck are you doing?!" Marvin lashed out, jumping out of the seat that he just managed to sit back in. 

"We need to eradicate everything that we cannot bring with us. If we overload the catalyst, we should be able to eradicate this entire area from the maps and draw everyone's eyes away from the dungeon's entrance," he said, turning his face back to his friend. 

This time, however, Tom didn't have a smile on his lips. His eyes were not lit by the excitement of returning to that strange, magical world on the other side of the dungeon. 

Right now, Tom acted his role of the leader of the family, even if he only got it by inheritance. 

"I understand," Marvin tightened his jaws for a moment only to hang his head low in defeat. "I will get people to copy all the data that we can still have. But I still need to know one more thing," he said before looking sternly into Tom's eyes. "How hard is it going to be?" 

"What?" Tom asked. "Crossing the dungeon? Entering it? Establishing ourselves in the other world?" he asked, clearly not sure what Marvin had on mind. 

"All of them," Tom's childhood friend replied without even a moment of hesitation. 

"Crossing the dungeon is going to be the hardest part," Tom replied without a second thought. "All my injuries... Well, they are from fighting the last boss alone. She is a real pain in the ass," he said, only to shake his head a moment later. "Anyway, once we force our way to the dome by force, the online hub won't have the time to react. That's why I believe entering the dungeon itself will be the easiest part," he said before a small smile appeared on his face. 

"You didn't answer the last question," Marvin pointed out. "How hard it will be to establish ourselves in that other world?" he asked, unwilling to drop this question. 

Even if Tom was the leader of the family, it didn't mean he could just throw all of them under the bus.

"That's the best part," Tom turned towards his friend and openly chuckled. "It's not going to be hard, and it's not going to be easy. Because," he took a break to increase the tension of the moment, "I already took care of it."