Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 4 - Mortal

“I assume you have some sort of plan?” Siobhan asked.

Xavier would have run, would have flown, back to the portal to Earth if he wasn’t mindful of the others having to keep up. As it was, he was walking so swiftly they each had to jog just to match his pace.

Walking back through the city of Mareketh was a completely different experience to what it had been when they’d arrived here. He still felt vulnerable. That hadn’t changed. How could he not, given what he’d done to himself?

But he no longer felt afraid. No longer felt unsure.

He had a goal, and the grin on his face showed that.

“What’s the plan?” Justin asked. “What are you going to do? And where are we going?”

“We’re going back to Earth,” was all he said in reply.

The others went quiet as they followed him. When they returned to Collinsville, Xavier was tempted to dismiss his old party, but he pushed that impulse away.

I don’t have to do this alone, he reminded himself. I don’t have to do any of this alone.

He had plans for them. If they were willing to learn.

Not only that, but the more he thought through what he wanted to do—and what he knew he was currently capable of—the more he realised that he would need them if this was to work.

Right now, this wasn’t something he could do on his own.

After stepping through the portal to Collinsville’s main square, he led the three of them out of the town, off toward a clearing in the forest a few miles out. Somewhere he hoped they wouldn’t be disturbed. On their way out, John Hammond tried to flag him down. He’d been on the wall above the main gate and had an excited look on his face when he saw Xavier. Howard looked up and simply shook his head, stopping the man in his tracks. John gave them a confused nod as they left.

When they arrived in the clearing, Xavier touched a finger to the Storage Ring on his hand. His main Storage Ring: The one that held his Portal Stones and Communication Stones—not to mention all of his spirit coins. Without access to it, he felt rather… Poor.

Those weren’t all the Storage Ring held that he missed, either. They also held the Spirit Golem.

Rhaalir had the ability to sense when Xavier needed him close. Once they made the bond between them stronger, it gave the elf spirit the ability to wander wherever he wished. Xavier had decided to bring the Spirit Golem with him to the Tower of Champions, but he’d been very focused on clearing the floors as swiftly as he could, especially since the System had allowed him to clear the floors it had previously made him skip. Because of that, he had rarely actually taken the golem out—which meant he’d barely spoken to the elf spirit since returning to the tower.

What he wanted to do next would be considerably easier if he were able to access his Storage Ring and summon the Spirit Golem, allowing the elf spirit to pilot it, but right now that wasn’t an option.

Rhaalir? Xavier called out with his mind.

Howard, Justin, and Siobhan stood around him in the clearing. A hot breeze rolled through the trees, rustling the leaves and swaying the knee-high grass. Each of his old party members had expectant looks on their faces—except Howard, whose face was carefully blank.

But they’d stopped asking him questions and were not simply waiting.

A minute passed, and there was still no sign of the elf spirit.

Rhaalir? Xavier called out louder.

The contract they shared, and the extra power he’d given the spirit from his own soul, made him hope the connection hadn’t been broken by whatever he’d done to himself when his cores had shattered.

But this was the first time he’d tested it.

Another minute went by, and Xavier was beginning to worry that the spirit simply couldn’t hear him. He even worried that he’d somehow broken the contract with what had happened to him. That shouldn’t have been possible, but as far as he knew, his strand of fate simply vanishing from Empress Larona’s sight shouldn’t have been possible either.

Something told Xavier he’d only brushed the surface of what he’d done.

If that were the case, and the contract was broken, then Rhaalir may have been returned to the Otherworld.

Xavier’s plan didn’t need Rhaalir. He was confident he could do what he needed without the elf spirit’s help. But he feared it would take much, much longer.

He shut his eyes, looking inward. Once more, he tried to examine his soul. Tried to see the contracts that were bound within it. He could bring up the contract with the help of the System, but the System had been showing him spells on his stat sheet that he couldn’t currently use—seeing the contract that way wouldn’t reassure him.

More time passed until he opened his eyes, having failed to even sense a hint of his soul. Xavier would have kept pushing. He could push for days, months, years, if needed. But it was one thing to push toward something you could see progress at, and another to push at something that never budges.

When it came to the latter, you need to start pushing from a different angle.

Unable to examine his soul, Xavier took a mental breath, then exerted his full will as he shouted within his mind, RHAALIR!

A second later, the elf spirit appeared within the clearing in front of him. The others couldn’t see him, but Xavier could. He smiled at the sight of Rhaalir.

Rhaalir blinked. His forehead creased as he looked at Xavier. Did you call me? He looked around. Earth? Didn’t expect you to be back here so soon. Has something happened?

Yes, Xavier replied. Something has happened.

Once Xavier had filled the elf spirit in, Rhaalir had sunk to the ground, sitting in the grass with his head in his hands.

Contracted to someone with shattered cores. Gods, this is what happens when you put faith in humans, the spirit muttered. Burned so bright you burnt out.

Good to see you still have confidence in me.

Rhaalir looked up at him with despair. I did have confidence in you. More than I’ve ever had in anyone.

Xavier sighed. Don’t worry, Rhaalir. I have a plan.

Because your last plan worked out so well.

He shut his eyes. He supposed he deserved that.

“So… We’ve been standing here for a while, and I’m trying to be patient.” Justin wrung his hands. “But, uh, are you doing to do anything?”

“He’s talking to the elf,” Howard said.

“Rhaalir?” Siobhan asked, glancing about the clearing. “He’s here?”

Xavier eyed Howard. “How did you know? You can’t see spirits.”

“I can’t?” The former cop smirked. “No. You’re right. But there’s a particular way your sigh sounds when you’re talking to him. I think of it as resigned exasperation. It’s the same sound I made when trying to teach rookies.”

Rhaalir glared at the plate-armoured tank. I don’t think I like him.

“Huh,” Justin said. “That is how that sigh sounded. Does the spirit know how to help?”

No, the spirit does not, human child.

“He’s going to help me find help,” Xavier said.

“He is?” Justin asked.

I am?

“Yes.” Xavier looked at Rhaalir, sitting in the grass. “He’s going to help me draw the spell pattern for Otherworldly Communion.”

Howard, Justin, Siobhan, and Rhaalir just stared at him like he was a fool. It was Siobhan who spoke first. “But… How are you going to power the pattern without Celestial Energy? And what if using it damages you again? Using spell patterns was what got you into this mess in the first place.”

It was a fair question, and he’d been asking himself that ever since he’d come up with this idea. And she was right—spell patterns were what got him into this. But that was because he’d pushed too far, not because they weren’t incredibly useful.

The way he’d been able to draw runes in the air was by using Celestial Energy and funnelling it through his stylus. Inscribing, too, was a spell. A spell that he could toggle on or off, much like Body Cultivation. It increased his proficiency in the drawing of the runes themselves, and he was sure it did other things.

Xavier couldn’t cultivate Celestial Energy. Nor could he use his Inscribing spell.

Xavier hadn’t worked everything out yet. There were so many kinks in this particular plan that it had felt impossible when he’d come up with it. But he needed help. Needed guidance. He may not have used his Otherworldly Communion spell as much as he perhaps should have since he’d gained it, but when he had, it had been invaluable.

Perhaps there was someone out there in his universe who could help him. Someone who knew exactly what he would need to do to put the shattered fragments of his cores back together and heal the damage done to his soul.

But the chance of Xavier finding that person was likely one in a billion. Then, if he took into account that he needed to find them before the World Destroyer reached the Silver River sector…

The chance of that happening was even slimmer.

He needed to seek guidance from a spirit from the Otherworld. He didn’t always get what he needed from them, but he was sure that someone there would know what to do. The spirits that resided in the Otherworld weren’t only from this universe, but from every universe.

The Otherworld stood apart, and as far as he knew, it had always been around—since the very first universe. There were spirits there that had been alive before the System had been created, though Rhaalir had told him there were few who still remained coherent.

Things had worked differently before the System had been created. That fact gave him hope. He didn’t know if he would need a spirit from that time to help him, but he had an inkling that it might be necessary.

He looked at Siobhan. “You’re right. I can’t cultivate Celestial Energy right now. As to whether using a spell pattern will damage me, I don’t think that will happen. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Xavier opened his hands, gesturing toward his old party. “It’s not just Rhaalir’s help I will need to do this, either. I’m going to need yours.”

Justin stepped forward. “What can we do?”

“I can’t access any of my cores, and as hard as I’ve tried, I can’t cultivate any energy. But though my cores are damaged”—he swallowed—“shattered, my energy channels remain intact. Now, I don’t know if this will work, but I need one of you to transfer Celestial Energy into me.”

Transferring energy from one person to another was something that was possible, though very rarely used as it simply wasn’t worth it. Unlike when imbuing energy into an item, like with Spirit Infusion, or imbuing it into another being, like with Willpower Infusion, one could transfer energy to another Denizen simply with a little practice. It didn’t require any special spell or skills because once the energy left the Denizen and entered another, it was no longer their energy, and it wasn’t there to fulfill any particular task. The energy was filtered as it was sent to the other Denizen.

There were skills pertaining to the ability, but they weren’t required to do it at a rudimentary level. Transferring energy from one person to another simply wasn’t economical. The filtering that allowed another to use one’s energy created a loss in the transfer. Usually, another Denizen would only gain a tenth of the energy the one providing it had to expend. Even Denizens with a high ranked skill only managed to successfully transfer half their energy to another as far as he’d read.

And there was a different skill required for each of the different energies.

He supposed there might be Denizens out there who hired out such skills to rich, lower-levelled Denizens as a way to help them powerlevel, but for the most part the ability simply never came up, making some who were less knowledgeable believe it wasn’t possible at all.

Taking all of that into account, it was always better to simply cultivate the energy yourself rather than receive it from another. It was certainly never something Xavier had needed to give any consideration to.

Until now.

 “Is that even possible?” Justin asked, sounding dubious.

Siobhan raised an eyebrow, looking just as unsure.

“It’s possible,” Howard said. “I’ve done it before. With my wife.”

Siobhan’s raised eyebrow was turned to the tank, but he didn’t offer any more information.

Justin clapped his hands together. “Okay, then. How do we do it?”

Xavier raised his chin, opened his mouth, then closed it with a frown. He’d read about this, but never actually done it himself before, nor had he had it done to him. He remembered, early in his time at the Tower of Champions, when he’d first discovered his Spirit Core. Sam had tried to teach him something, and Xavier had almost burned through his core. The barkeep had offered him chocolate to help him recover.

I wonder what stopped him from offering Spirit Energy.

Xavier nodded to Howard, leaving the explanation to him. The man stepped forward.

“I’ve never transferred Celestial Energy specifically, only Toughness Energy, but I imagine it’s similar.” Howard cracked his neck. “Though I don’t have a core for Celestial Energy, so the process might be a little more difficult.”

The man took a deep breath, and it was clear he was now actively cultivating the ambient Celestial Energy in the air. For normal Denizens—ones who didn’t have a use for Celestial Energy as Xavier did using Body Cultivation and with the drawing of spell patterns—Celestial Energy was quickly turned into other types of energy when it was brought into them. Howard wouldn’t have a skill that allowed him to specifically cultivate Celestial Energy without altering it, but the process should be achievable.

Howard closed his eyes, his forehead creasing. He voiced what he was doing to the others. Justin and Siobhan exchanged a look. They each stepped forward, closing their eyes to attempt the same thing.

As Xavier watched the three members of his first party, he tried to feel the energy in the air they were cultivating. Normally, this was something that took no effort for him at all. The body, mind, and spirit were always cultivating the energy they needed—even the soul was. It was a natural process for being integrated into the System.

Hell, it was a natural process for beings who hadn’t been integrated into the System, assuming the planet they resided on had enough ambient energy on it naturally, without having to be infused with it by the System altering it.

Before Xavier had discovered his core, his Spirit Energy regenerated without any help from him. This was the same for all his cores, even the ones he hadn’t discovered that only obtained a small trickle of energy that even before his cores were shattered he couldn’t access.

Actively cultivating energy into his discovered cores increased the rate at which the energy was regained. Cycling that energy through his core increased the strength of that core and the potency of that energy—which was why energy needed to be filtered to become pure enough for another to consume when it was transferred.

But Xavier didn’t even know if his body, mind, and spirit were still performing those processes naturally. Despite the way his attributes improved his body and mind, Xavier felt… Mortal.

There was a chance no energy was entering his cores at all—though something told him that wasn’t the case. Even beings on pre-integrated worlds with energy as thin as Earth’s brought in some of it, it was just so little it made it almost impossible for them to do anything with it.

Xavier hadn’t found much information on this phenomenon as it simply wasn’t something integrated Denizens could research.

But even if he was naturally cultivating energy without even being aware of it, he still felt like he’d been reduced to the state he’d been in before the System came. He was blind to the Celestial Energy around him, something that he should have been able to sense with the same ease that he breathed.

He shut his eyes and inhaled the forest’s fresh air, exhaling it slowly, and tried to centre himself, falling into a meditative state. But even that he was knocked out of too easily when a particularly strong wind blew through the trees and mussed up his air.

Xavier ended up sitting on a small boulder at the edge of the clearing, watching as his friends tried to cultivate Celestial Energy. For him.

Rhaalir walked over to him. The elf spirit could have simply appeared before him or even hovered through the air, but Xavier preferred it when he acted as though he was actually there—it made their interactions feel more grounded.

This must be hard for you, Rhaalir said, sitting on the boulder beside him.

Xavier nodded. He didn’t reply. He wasn’t sure what to say right now.

He wasn’t used to there being nothing for him to do.

As the time passed, he felt himself get more and more antsy. It was taking much longer for Howard, Siobhan, and Justin to do this than he’d expected. It was—no, had been—so easy for him. Shouldn’t it be easy for them? Yet several hours had already passed as he sat on that boulder. He wished he’d brought something to occupy his time. Wished he could take a book out from his Storage Ring.

A part of him wanted to return to Collinsville and access the System Store to see how his story was performing. Without access to his Storage Ring, he would need a source of spirit coins… But he knew the urge was more procrastination than anything else.

That could wait.

His stomach rumbled. His mouth felt parched. He wasn’t used to feeling this way anymore.

Xavier had cultivated a tremendous amount of patience to get him to where he was. He’d spent months—years—inside of time dilation fields doggedly pursuing progress, training at a brutal pace, pushing himself to his limits.

Simply sitting and waiting without any control was not something he was used to. And the time passing right now was his universe’s time. He wasn’t inside a time dilation field anymore, with the freedom to take as long as he needed without having to worry.

He’d grown used to that privilege.

Every second, minute, hour that passed brought the World Destroyer closer, and every moment that he wasn’t able to act ate at him.

As the sun disappeared from the sky and darkness fell upon the forest, Xavier found something to work on. He shut his eyes and looked inward—not toward his cores or his soul, but toward his mind.

Since what had happened to him, he hadn’t been able to walk the rooms of his mind. Though that ability was important, it wasn’t as vital as accessing his cores and casting spells, so he had given it very little focus.

But his subconscious had been hard at work on the problem, and every now and then there would be an itch, a thought, that told him that losing that ability didn’t make any sense—as much as any of this made sense…

Still, he finally took a moment to listen.

As the world crawled into the hours of early morning and his old party still remained standing where they were, Xavier focused on the one thing he could focus on right now.

His own mind.