Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 63 - Walk the Path

When Xavier returned to the Staging Room, he didn’t instantly head toward the next tower floor. Instead, he took a moment to think.

Well, maybe a little more than a moment.

He cast Time Alteration and sat on his comfortable armchair within the time dilation field, thinking through the different things he wanted to achieve. The new impossible goal he’d set for himself to take down the System wasn’t what was foremost on his mind, even if it did linger at the edges of his thoughts.

At present, he was most concerned with the threat to his sector, and to Earth.

With that in mind, the path was quite clear. He needed to keep getting stronger and collect more spells—especially those spells Rowalla, Adranial’s mother, had recommended he learn.

A gravity spell was only one of those she’d recommended.

He already imagined what it would be like, using Untethered on the World Destroyer and its Soul Amalgamation. How that might alter the fight. It would be a powerful asset in his arsenal. But it wouldn’t be enough.

The thought of collecting more spells was exhilarating. Xavier had thought about the possibilities given that his Wayfarer of the Infinite Path class had no restrictions to spells, skills, weapons, or really anything a normal class might restrict.

One might say he was unbound from a Denizen’s usual confines.

He’d already reaped the rewards of some of that possibility when he’d attained his Portal spell with a Spell Credit after just having chosen the class. That had made a great deal of difference in the way he fought and had saved his ass—being the deciding factor in multiple fights—more than once.

Xavier held Bones in the form of a stylus, tapping the soul bound weapon on his knee.

I need to get Recursive Analysis to Rank 150. It works perfectly fine at the moment, but the higher its rank, the better.

When he’d permanently learnt the gravity spell Untethered, he’d expected the spell to be Rank 1. Instead, it had been Rank 127—which was the highest rank of the spell he’d attained in its temporary form.

Xavier could see the advantages and disadvantages of gaining a spell that was already at a high rank. The advantages were clear. It would instantly be more powerful and versatile, and for most spell it would also have a shorter cooldown.

But he couldn’t help but admit to there being an advantage of working with a spell from Rank 1 all the way to Rank 150. He’d learnt a lot about his spells that way.

Would gaining a spell at a high rank make him lose out on practiced proficiency in that spell? Perhaps. But he could always practice with the spell at a higher rank, with a shorter cooldown. And, as that was the only disadvantage that came to his mind, he ended up not thinking on it further.

I don’t think I’ll truly lose out on anything.

Xavier thought on all of the spells he’d seen performed since he’d been integrated into the System, wondering which ones he wanted to learn. There was a part of him that wanted to learn all of them. To hoard every spell he could find. The more versatile he became, the more spells at his disposal, the powerful he would be.

Right?

Maybe. But I’m not ready for that. Not at this grade.

Xavier wanted to have every single one of his spells and skills at Rank 150 when he advanced to C Grade. That would become much more difficult if he suddenly added a hundred new spells to his collection.

It wasn’t necessary to hit the limit for each spell, but he knew the more powerful he was when he advanced, the more that power would carry him forward. Not only that, it would offer him a better advancement. The titles he’d gained when he’d last advanced had been incredibly good, and that had been when he’d attained his Dragonkin race.

And his Wayfarer of the Infinite Path class—a Mythic class—wouldn’t have been an option if he hadn’t been as powerful as he was when advancing to D Grade.

Xavier didn’t know what might lie in his future. Didn’t know what might be offered to him when he next advanced. But the last thing he wanted to do was limit that by stretching himself too thin.

I need to be discerning in what I learn.

First, he thought about his old party members, Howard, Justin, and Siobhan, wondering if any of their spells would help him. Howard’s tanking abilities could certainly come in handy. The Soul Amalgamation and the World Destroyer had the ability to inflict vast amounts of damage. But Xavier didn’t think any of those spells were the right path for him right now.

Defending himself was important, but defeating the World Destroyer would require him to gain the ability to inflict immense amounts of damage—more damage than a damned star going nova.

That would take me in the wrong direction.

Justin was an incredibly agile fighter, and very focused on the sword. Xavier sighed. Those abilities wouldn’t help him in zero G, and the sword wasn’t his only focus.

When he thought of Siobhan’s spells, Xavier hesitated. He tilted his head to the side. That Summoning spell of hers wasn’t something he was interested in. He already had his Portal spell, and while not the same, it was far more versatile. He could bring people to him, or send them away, if he wished. And far, far more.

Besides, as he tended to predominantly fight alone, so summoning allies to his side wasn’t especially useful.

But what of her healing spells? She didn’t only have the ability to heal others, she had the ability to heal herself.

Xavier’s ability to regenerate his health was incredibly strong. It was also something he was able to do inside of his time dilation field if he was ever in a pinch. But there were still times when his health had dipped far too low for his liking and when retreating into his time dilation field simply wasn’t an option. He recalled the different fights he’d witnessed—and experienced, even though he couldn’t influence them—the other versions of him had with the Soul Amalgamation and the World Destroyer when he’d summoned the Spirit of Time.

There weren’t just times when he’d been close to death. There were times when he had died. Having the ability to heal himself would have saved those versions of him. It wouldn’t have been enough to turn the fight around, but it would have been enough to make an escape—to come back and fight another day, or even abandon a challenge that was too much for him.

Something he still struggled to do, but knew was—on occasion—the only logical choice to make.

Tap, tap, tap. His stylus slammed into his knee over and over as he thought. To someone with less Toughness it might have left a bruise, maybe even shattered bone. But it helped him think.

A healing spell was always something he wondered about having. There had been plenty of times when it would have made things a hell of a lot easier and not put his life in so much danger. Momentarily, he wondered if gaining it would take him down the wrong path. Just like he didn’t wish to learn Howard’s tanking spells, this was something that would increase his defence but not his offense.

And all that danger he’d experienced… Hadn’t it spurred him to fight harder? Hadn’t it spurred him toward new breakthroughs?

Xavier frowned at that. He shook his head at those ludicrous thoughts.

Yes, the danger, the near-death experiences had pushed him forward—but did that mean he should intentionally limit himself and choose a path that was more likely to bring him close to death? Or did it mean that gaining the ability to heal himself would simply give him the opportunity to face harder challenges, to experience that danger against better foes—just like every time he got stronger?

He nodded to himself. The stylus stopped tapping.

The next time my old party are in the tavern at the same time as me, I’ll have her use a healing spell on me and catch it with Recursive Analysis.

It wasn’t one of the spells that Adranial’s mother had recommended he learn, but while Xavier didn’t want to collect too many, he also wasn’t about to limit himself.

He recalled his old party were currently soloing different floors, so they might not all turn up in the tavern at the same time. Xavier cut off the time dilation field he was inside and checked if Siobhan was around. If she were on a floor, he wouldn’t be able to use their linked Communication Stones to contact her.

There was no response.

I’ll check again later.

Xavier returned the armchair to his Storage Ring as he stood. His mind was still whirling with all the different spells he could learn. That part of him that wanted to collect everything remained, chattering away, prompting him to push for more, telling him it wouldn’t be hard to rank up all those new spells. Think of what he could learn? Think of what he could do?

He ignored it. He would gain as many as he felt like he needed, and if he had an opportunity to gain more? He would do so.

Right now, he needed to continue pushing forward through the Tower of Champion floors. In real time, he hadn’t taken very long to complete the different floors—perhaps a couple of days, with how frequently he used his Time Alteration spell. And to have cleared a hundred floors in that time… Well, he knew he was making tremendous progress.

At least, he would have been making tremendous progress if not for the two months he’d spent on the eightieth floor when he’d moved time forward so he could summon the Spirit of Time.

He also knew the System was keeping him longer than it should have. He couldn’t access information about future floors in any way thanks to the System’s restrictions upon him, but he was pretty sure he would have hit a break from the floors by now.

It made him wonder why the System wanted to keep him in the tower. That icy rage still ran through his veins, becoming more evident whenever he thought about the System. But it was also becoming easier to ignore.

Which was good, as he felt like it would be with him for a while.

The System had a heavy hand in his life. He’d benefited from it—vastly—because he’d been able to seize the “opportunities” it had thrown at him. But it still frustrated him.

I can’t let these thoughts dominate my mind. I need to walk the path I’m on right now.

Xavier turned and faced the door to the next floor. He would be approaching the different tower floors a little differently now that he knew he could permanently gain enemy spells. He would still have the goal of attaining the top title for the floors, and he didn’t want to linger on them much longer than was necessary as the enemies on those floors simply weren’t strong enough to help him push forward in levels, but he also wanted to scour the floors for potential spells to learn.

Which meant he would need to closely observe what spells were cast by the enemies on those floors—or even his allies he had any, as he could gain a spell from them if he wished.

That would mean taking a different approach to his first time on a new floor.

Briefly, Xavier thought about his backup option of gaining spells. It was one he hadn’t yet pursued. He possessed a Spirit Golem—which was currently in his inventory. Rhaalir, the elf-spirit he’d made a contract with, was the one who inhabited that golem, piloting it whenever Xavier summoned it.

But theoretically, Xavier could summon other spirits from the Otherworld to inhabit that golem. He could use his Otherworldly Communion to seek out spirits with the requisite spells—the exact spells Rowalla thought he needed to defeat the World Destroyer—and contract those spirits into piloting the golem just long enough for him to learn them.

The issue with that plan was that he could only cast Otherworldly Communion so often, especially when he wasn’t able to gain any levels. It took about a month for the spell to reach the end of its cooldown without a level up. For someone like him, a month was a hell of a long time. And though he could push time forward with Time Alteration like he had to summon the Spirit of Time, that would make absolutely no sense to do in this case.

He’d rather keep that spell in reserve in case he needed it for something important on the floors. Once he was out of here and able to gain levels more frequently again on his way to Level 300, he could choose that option if he wished.

Xavier walked to the door to the next tower floor and touched the handle.

It was time to enter the hundred-and-twenty-second floor of the Tower of Champions.