'Well, it's easier said than done,' Tom thought when he failed at yet another attempt at controlling the flow of energy. Even though they managed to climb through half of the remaining floors before their meeting with Cleo, he was still at the same spot as when he revealed his plan to Claudia.

"I see," Claudia said with a small smile. "Don't beat yourself because of it. It was all but a guess in the first place. Who knows if it is actually possible?" she asked, trying to cheer Tom up.

"If I failed now, I can only try harder next time," Tom countered. He then sent the girl a slightly condescending look. "And the same applies to you. Since we are both aware of how small the chances are of me obtaining that derivative, you should focus on getting that kind of skill yourself," he added, looking down on the girl.

"So that's what it is," Claudia squinted her eyes as she replied, smashing her gloved fist into another monster. "I understand that you don't know how to tackle failing at something. But please, don't assume I'm the same," she added with a cold look in her eyes.

"You are free to think whatever you want," Tom sighed, aware that he was the one that summoned this kind of discussion. "Just please, don't burden me with it. This dungeon is not some kind of playground where we should throw sand at each other," he added, refusing to as much as look at the girl.

"Yeah, I think it will be better if we both just focus on killing the monsters," Claudia replied before pouting and looking away.

'Why is dealing with women that damned hard?' Tom asked himself as he shook his head. 'No, there is no time for my thoughts to wander like that. I need to focus,' he thought, moving his attention back on his spear.

As they were now getting closer and closer to the fiftieth floor where their mission would enter its second phase, Tom couldn't waste even a single moment. As deep in the dungeon as they already were, the monsters were no longer just small fries that one could kill with a few shoots or manual attacks.

'Let's do everything from the beginning,' Tom thought, focusing his entire attention at the tip of his spear.

'First, goes the Spear Mage,' Tom thought, guiding his actions with a calm, inner voice. Even though this skill was a passive one, he still invoked it in his thoughts.

'Then, the energymancer,' Tom thought, picturing himself infusing some sort of energy into the spear.

"GUARD!" A system-like voice sounded in his mind when his body moved on its own. Reacting to something that his natural senses didn't pick up, Layn leaned forward and struck with his spear to the back.

SWOOSH!

The claws of the monster scratched the skin of Tom's back, only for Tom to feed it his spear.

'Fuck,' Tom cursed when one of the three instances of his guard skill got wasted. But while the waste of a single-use would be something that Tom could accept, the fact that it broke his flow was the truly infuriating factor.

'Heck, I need to calm down,' he thought, taking a quick glance at how the girl was faring.

Ever since their small argument, Claudia seemed to intentionally push forward faster than usual. While some could think that she was just relishing in the act of massacring the monster, Tom could tell that wasn't the case.

'I guess I was a bit too hard on her,' he thought, biting his lips. Then, Tom shook his head. 'No, this isn't the time to think about it. Once again, spear mage!' he shouted in his thoughts, forcing his mind to focus on his attempt rather than the argument he had with Claudia a few moments ago.

'Then goes the energymancer,' Tom invoked the spell once again, slowly swinging his spear.

This dance of his wasn't necessary. It wasn't any sort of skill nor an elaborate technique of confusing the opponents as to where the next attack would aim.

To be perfectly honest, Tom's dance was just a sham. It didn't give him any advantages outside of keeping him moving. Only by the great stretch of the imagination one could consider it an attack in any way or form.

But that was enough. Tom's energymancer skill allowed him to infuse additional energy into his purely physical attacks. With this weird dance of his, he aimed at a continuous flow of attacks. Each of which would be enhanced with energy through that skill.

'Flow, as if you were a river,' Tom thought, slowly stepping forward as he swung his spear around. 'Make it seems as if you were painting a picture in all three dimensions,' he continued to guide himself, as if in an attempt to hypnotize himself.

Then, it clicked.

Tom couldn't see it given how he danced with his eyes closed, but the tip of his spear started to give off a faint, blue shine. But while he couldn't see it, he was more than capable of feeling it.

"CLAUDIA!" Tom shouted, instantly shutting everything down in his mind to recover the same state of tranquil thoughts that allowed him to infuse energy into his spear without actually attacking.

"On it!" She shouted back.

While the two of them argued just a few moments before, they spilled enough monsters' blood in the dungeon to put that kind of stuff aside when needed.

'Keep steady,' Tom told himself, continuing his dance while waiting for the signal. With each swing of his weapon, he could feel more and more energy infusing itself into his spear. At some point, the metallic handle of the weapon started to heat up, as if electric current flew through it.

And this rise in warmth didn't stop. From warm, the handle of Tom's spear turned hot. From hot, it turned into a temperature capable of scalding the skin out of Tom's hands.

But he continued to passively swing his spear nonetheless.

"To your right!" Claudia finally shouted. As if some kind of trigger snapped in both of Tom's soul and body, he finally pushed his spear forward in a proper attack.

'I can feel it,' Tom thought as soon as the speed of his spear slowed down a little. This kind of resistance could only mean that there was a monster in the path that he took with his spear.

Tom's lips curved in a wide smile.

"It's on you now," he muttered at the same time as he sharply pulled the weapon back.

'Incinerate,' he whispered in his thoughts. All the heat that made holding his spear feel like he was holding a white-hot piece of steel suddenly disappeared, replaced by a comfortable coldness.

'Origin mage!' Tom invoked another spell of his.

The entire idea behind Tom's attempts was simple, although complex.

He would start by infusing energy into his spear. This part aimed at letting him learn to do it at will instead of only at the moment of the impact of his attacks.

Then, he would convert the energy in his spear into the fuel for his only real offensive spell, the fireball. On its own, it was something that Tom was already capable of doing. Yet, he stood to learn nothing from doing it.

Because on its own, it was only the transition phase for his attempt.

Then, came the orign mage. According to the words of that giant sage he once encountered in the dungeon, Tom could decompose all kinds of magic and spells into their basic form of pure energy.

But no one ever said this skill only applied to enemy attacks. As such, with all his energy now concentrating on his offensive spell, Tom used the origin mage to decompose it back into energy.

'Haste,' Tom invoked the last spell of his self-created combo, slowing down the passage of time as to have a better shot at controlling the magic he just released.

'I better not open my eyes,' Tom thought. Given how he never saw the energy in its pure form, the chances were human eyes were unable to perceive it.

And he could sense a huge blob of energy stuck to the tip of his spear. With that, opening his eyes could cause discord in his perception, making him potentially lose the ability to sense that magic.

"Claudia, I think I did it," Tom muttered, not daring to use his normal voice in fear of losing control over the magic. "It's at the tip of my spear," he added, hoping that the girl would hurry herself up.

"Damn you," Claudia replied in a strange voice. But as Tom waited for her to consume the energy from the tip of his weapon, he felt her hands pulling down his pants, only to feel the familiar sensation of her lips all over his manhood.

"NOT THIS SPEAR!" Tom shouted, almost losing his concentration in the process.

"Ah," Claudia moaned in surprise. Feeling how her lips tensed up all over his thing, Tom reached the limit of his focus. Thankfully, she pulled herself back from his crotch at the very last moment. "My bad," she added with a chuckle.

Tom's vision suddenly exploded. While he still kept his eyes closed, he could somehow see himself standing motionless in a weird position. But just as quickly as this vision appeared, it vanished, leaving Tom exhausted and wobbling on his feet.

"Are you all right?" Claudia rushed forward, holding Tom up before he would fall to the ground.

"Did it work?" Tom asked, fighting off a powerful wave of drowsiness.

"It did," Claudia added, gently caressing Tom's back. "I can feel your energy inside me," she added right as Tom's consciousness faded away.