Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 47 - Child’s Play

Xavier cleared floor after floor of the tower, once more becoming an efficient powerhouse. He froze time and killed thousands-strong armies in a fraction of a second. He battled dragons over ancient forests, protecting a race of elves from utter annihilation. He soared over a city larger than anything he’d ever seen before, tasked with the assassination of a single individual—a tyrant king.

He was summoned as a Champion over and over again and gained the record title for every floor he stepped on. He sincerely doubted anyone even half as powerful as him had ever stepped onto these floors before.

It was all child’s play.

He pushed past the hundred-and-eleventh floor without looking back. The floor was no more difficult than any of the others he’d experienced. He was a long way from being the same person who’d stepped onto the hundredth floor and almost been killed by a small pack of wolven.

There were several floors that were arena fights—similar to the tenth floor—where he was pitted against other Champions.

Some of those floors, the System forced the fight to be to the death.

Xavier despised those floors, cursing the System for putting him in the position of killing others who may or may not actually deserve to die.

But when such actions were necessary, he did not hesitate.

The Tower of Champions had a thousand floors, and for the first time in a while, Xavier was starting to contemplate what the final floors might be like.

There were several opportunities for him to leave the tower. This was something that surprised him, although he had experienced it before.

Leaving the tower, in this instance, didn’t refer to a having break from the tower. This would be permanent. A Champion surrendered their right to continue on. Many of the arena floors had this option—the Champions could surrender once they’d had a chance to see the other Denizens they would be facing.

Surrendering had consequences, but as these consequences weren’t death, many seemed to take them eagerly.

Other floors, when he completed them, gave him the option of leaving the tower without any consequences.

This was something he’d been curious about. Since what the System had done to him, he couldn’t ask others for information about the latter tower floors, no matter how curious he’d become, but he knew for a fact that there were countless people in the Silver River sector and other developing sectors that simply would never be able to progress far enough in the floors as they just… weren’t strong enough.

The hundredth floor, for instance, had beasts more powerful than any D Grade he’d come upon in his own sector. Surely there were stronger Denizens out there in his sector, ones that had been able to complete it, but he figured there weren’t that many.

And yet there were plenty of Champions who entered the tower around the sector.

He wondered how many left early, and how many simply died before they could make it all that far.

There were a few things he’d learnt from Sam, down at the bar. Every ten or twenty floors or so, Xavier popped down to the tavern. Sometimes his old party would be there, sometimes they wouldn’t be.

Sam, of course, was always there.

The two of them got to chatting more and more. The first time Xavier stepped into the tavern after having completed the eightieth floor he’d told the man what he’d experienced—told him what that floor really was.

The shock on the man’s face had been palpable.

“All this time… All this time… We could have learnt from it.” Sam had put his head in his hands. He looked dismayed.

The barkeep had never gone that far in the tower himself. Nowhere near. He was only E Grade. When Xavier had first heard he was E Grade, the man had seemed incredibly powerful.

Over Level 100! What a revelation.

Nowadays… Xavier’s perspective had changed dramatically.

“Makes you wonder how many other floors there are with things like this—things from our future. Things that could help us,” Xavier had replied.

The barkeep had simply nodded. He’d needed a long time to digest the information.

But after that, they’d talked like things were normal. The threat had always loomed, after all. Sam had known about it for a hundred years at least. He’d become good at compartmentalisation.

One of the things Xavier had learnt from the barkeep was that the breaks from the tower floors became longer and longer. This was already something he’d experienced, but apparently later floors the breaks could be for years.

The information, being nonspecific, was something Xavier was allowed, as it wasn’t about the floors themselves. Though as Sam had spoken about it, he’d kept glancing up at the ceiling, as though the System would strike him with lightning for the words he spoke. As he never mentioned which floors had the breaks, there didn’t seem to be an issue.

“No one in our sector has gone this high, but I’ve heard the high floors have decades, even centuries between them.”

That had hit Xavier like a truck. Or maybe an asteroid. A truck hitting him would be nothing nowadays. He struggled to imagine taking that long between floors—especially when the System wouldn’t even give him six months.

But it made a lot of sense, when you got down to it. In the grand scheme, centuries was probably being a little modest. Now he’d had time to think about it, he wouldn’t be surprised if thousands of years could go by.

Still something hard for him to imagine. Probably would be until he ended up experiencing it himself.

After completing the hundred-and-twentieth floor, Xavier stepped into the again tavern and stopped.

For the first time since he’d returned, Adranial and her party were actually there.

Adranial stood when she saw him. “Xavier.” She had a slight look of surprise on her face. “You’re actually here.” She tucked a strand of her white her behind her ear in an almost shy gesture. Her robes were the same white as her hair. She smoothed them down as she stepped forward. “I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

At the table behind her sat the dark-haired Elsie, their party’s healer, in her silver robes. Domical clutched a mug of ale in his large hands. He nodded at Xavier. The curved horns jutting from his head looked longer than before. Sharper. Larson, the pointy-eared elf, gave a big friendly wave which Elsie raised an eyebrow at.

Xavier returned his attention to Adranial. “I’ve been busy.”

The woman cocked her head. “Busy.” She smirked. “I heard about you getting taken to the hundredth floor. And… I heard you were on Thazamar.”

Xavier’s eyes widened slightly. “How did you… You spoke to my old party?”

“I did, but they didn’t share that. I have other sources. It’s not as though you let me know what you’ve been up to.”

The only other source he imagined Adranial having for something like this was her ancestor. He still felt the man’s observation of him, in the background of his mind, lightly brushing at his consciousness on occasion. It had become almost normal since the fourth floor of the tower. He didn’t pay much attention to it these days.

“Your ancestor.”

Xavier thought about the other version of him, on the eightieth floor, and how he’d failed to save the Silver River sector in that alternate universe. Thinking about that made him wonder about the deal Adranial had offered him through her ancestor.

The deal would have secured Earth’s safety, and even its freedom to make its own choices. It was a deal Xavier had refused. One he felt right to refuse. It would have shackled him in a way that he could only imagine would have stunted his growth.

Yet… How many Xaviers had failed to save Earth after refusing that exact same deal?

He shoved that line of thought away. He wouldn’t cling to the doubt that had taken hold of him since what happened on the eightieth floor. He refused to wallow.

Still, even though he didn’t wish to make that deal with her ancestor, he wondered if there might be other things he could gain from the woman. There were other things he was pursuing. Other information he craved.

Like who built Thazamar, and the other Hell Moons of Demonica.

And, despite how different he felt the two of them were, he had to say he was fond of the woman’s company. That thought made him yet again wonder who the other version of him had ended up with.

He had a child… In another universe, I have a child.

He was glad he’d saved that version of himself. Glad he’d convinced him the fight was over—even if he hadn’t managed that in every unfolding.

“Indeed,” Adranial said. “He’s very curious about your time there.”

“I’m sure he is.” A thought occurred to Xavier, about the threat he was to face… “How about I buy the four of you a round of drinks.”

Adranial looked at him curiously, and he wondered if it was something he’d ever offered before.

“Can’t say no to that!” Larson called out from the table. He raised a mug that looked almost full, then downed it with alacrity. Elsie shook her head at the elf. Dominical gave a deep chuckle.

Adranial settled back in her seat. With his Farscope, Xavier watched as the woman studied him while he made his way to the bar.

Sam looked over Xavier’s shoulder at the table with Adranial’s party. “I was dubious, when those four showed up here. A party of Champions from another world, fighting for this one. I hadn’t even known such a thing was possible.” The barkeep shook his head. “But they’ve been a great help with all the information on the floors they’ve provided. You still haven’t told me how you managed to swing that deal.”

Xavier smiled. “There are things you don’t know about me yet, Sam.” He placed a handful of spirit coins on the bar and made his order.

“A multitude, I’m sure.” Sam gathered up the coins. “I’ll bring the drinks over.”

Xavier strode across the tavern, the floorboards creaking under his weight. Candles burned on the tables. A fire crackled in the hearth. A few other parties of Champions were eating, drinking, chatting. Some avoided his gaze, others stared at him openly.

He didn’t bother hiding the wings.

“I still can’t believe you’re dragonkin,” Larson said. “You changed your race when you advanced.” The elf shook his head. “Feels like a betrayal.”

“Larson,” Dominical grunted. “Know when to speak.”

The elf gave the horned man a glare, mumbling something incoherent under his breath.

Xavier settled into a seat with Adranial on his right and Elsie on his left. His coffee came not long after he sat down. He wrapped his fingers around the warm mug and brought it to his lips, taking a long sip. This simple act had a calming effect on him.

“You look like you have something specific to talk about,” Adranial said, her voice suddenly sounding stiff and cold.

She seemed glad to see me, but… Is she angry with me?

Sam placed more drinks on the table in front of each of them, then bussed the empty mugs and headed back to the bar.

Xavier cast Time Alteration. The time dilation field covered everyone sitting at the table. Their eyes darted about as each of them noticed that the other patrons and the barkeep were now frozen.

Adranial stared at a candleflame on the next table, which didn’t flicker, before turning her gaze back on him with a raised eyebrow. “And now you can freeze time. You really have been keeping a lot to yourself.”

Xavier wasn’t sure how to respond to that, now realising just how long it had been since he’d really spoken to the woman. For him, it was even longer than it had been for her. Several years, in fact, which made their contrast in age feel more distinct. He rested his cup on the table, his hands still wrapped around the ceramic. “I want to talk about the eightieth floor.”