Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 34 - Rat Tails

Stepping onto the twentieth floor was an eerie, strange experience.

He’d never imagined that he would go backward through the tower floors. There was a part of him that wondered if this was an acute waste of time, but he wouldn’t have been sent here by the System if it was, would he?

Maybe I’ve been giving the System far too much credit.

One thing was for certain, if there were things he needed to learn on these floors—as he suspected—going through them with time completely stopped might not be the best way to go.

That also wouldn’t be the best way for him to test out his new spell—Recursive Analysis.

Xavier arrived inside a tavern. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Candles burned atop the thick wooden tables. Sawdust was strewn over the floor. A fire crackled in the hearth on one side of the room, while on the other side was long, oak bar that was pitted, stained, and scratched from long years of use.

This tavern wasn’t much like the tavern down in the bottom of the Tower of Champions, nor was it much like Hunter’s Home. It was far rougher. Some broken chairs were piled in a corner. The bar looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a week. The floor was sticky, making his shoes cling on each step he took toward the bar.

It was clear this place was a Safe Room, and though it was nothing like Hunter’s Home, it did make him think of that place—it was the only other floor he’d been in where he’d started in a tavern.

No one seemed surprised by his sudden appearance. No one even took note of it. Xavier walked over to the bar. The barkeep behind it wasn’t human, though they were humanoid. Xavier hadn’t come across this race of Denizen before. They had a cat-like head, somewhat like a lion’s, with a mane that flowed down their back. They had opposable thumbs but the claws on their hands looked like they could do a bit of damage.

Xavier used Identify on the barkeep and found their race was called a Greeda. Xavier had read about cat-people before in fantasy novels, but they weren’t as prominent as elves and dwarves and orcs, and he’d never really imagined encountering one.

The Greeda looked him up and down, giving him a once over. His eyes glazed over—scanning—then he instantly straightened, clearly having seen that Xavier was D Grade. Even with the Class Graft, Xavier appeared stronger than anyone else on this floor was liable to be.

“What can I get you?” the barkeep said. The Greeda’s voice was rough but had a hint of a purr in it. Like a chain-smoking blues singer.

“Don’t suppose you have any coffee in this place?”

The Greeda raised his eyebrows. “What’s a coffee?”

Xavier sighed. He sat at one of the stools. The object of this particular floor wasn’t as obvious as other floors. No notification appeared to tell him what to do, either, which was a little frustrating.

Again, he wondered if this little detour was nothing more than a waste of time. Maybe he should simply activate his Time Alteration spell and got out of this tavern to kill any beast he came upon…

It might have been worth taking the time if this damned place at least had some coffee.

Xavier stopped himself from heading down the tracks of that train of thought. He always rushed through just about everything—just because that had been his approach from the beginning, didn’t mean it was always the right one.

He figured he would go right out and ask the barkeep. “Did anyone here summon a Champion?”

The barkeep’s eyes widened. “You’re the Champion?”

Xavier inclined his head. “That I am.”

“I didn’t think you’d come. And when I saw your level, I thought… No, this can’t be who I summoned. He’s too powerful.” The Greeda shook his head, his long mane swaying behind him. He had a dismayed look on his face, his entire demeanour shifting. “I need your help. Feel like a fool askin’, but that’s why I summoned ya.”

“You summoned me.”

“Aye. That I did.” The Greeda’s gaze drifted about the bar, and he leant in before locking eyes with Xavier once more. “I have a rat problem.”

Xavier failed to hold in a massive sigh. The Greeda didn’t seem to notice. He rattled on about giant rat beasts that had been terrorising people on the road outside the tavern for months. He also wanted something else—he wanted Xavier to collect the rat tails, so that the Greeda could perform a ritual that would lock out the beast from the area.

It was blasted fetch quest.

Xavier almost slammed his head on the bar listening to the Greeda speak. He couldn’t for the life of him see how there could be something for him to gain from this—other than the titles at the end of the floor.

“You’ll have to excuse me,” Xavier said when the Greeda had finished speaking. The Greeda looked a little surprised.

Xavier stood from the stool at the bar and walked straight to the door that would take him back to the Staging Room. Now that he knew what was needed on the floor, he was determined to complete it faster than anyone else ever had with the use of Time Alteration.

He was still pissed, however. He’d thought the System had some grand plan sending him back through the floors. On the last floor he’d completed before the hundredth, he’d encountered an older version of himself. On the hundredth floor, he’d grown more than he could have ever imagined doing on a single floor.

And now, he was doing a fetch quest for a cat to gather rat tails. It felt like a massive joke was being played on him.

When he stood in the Staging Room, he looked up at the ceiling and just sighed. “Why?”

Maybe the System was just allowing him to gain the titles he’d missed out on. And maybe there was a reason for that. He didn’t see a point in testing Recursive Analysis out on damned rat beasts.

He shut his eyes.

All right. One by one, I’m going to clear these damned floors. And I’m going to do it faster than anyone else ever has. I’m not going to hesitate. I’m not going to waste any time.

One chance for reconnaissance, then clear the floor.

He nodded to himself. In the grand scheme, thinking about the titles he would gain, they didn’t seem all that much better than the titles he’d been gaining back at the Hell Moon. But he knew it was a mistake to think that way.

All the titles that he would gain over the years would eventually add up. That was the whole reason a True Progenitor tended to be so much stronger than their peers—because of the titles they gathered that no one else could.

And while those titles weren’t restricted to the Tower of Champions, gaining them from the floors was the biggest head-start a Progenitor could get.

In that moment, Xavier really didn’t see the worth in clearing these floors. Not anymore. Not when the hundred-and-first floor was waiting for him—another surprise, being able to go to the hundred-and-first floor. Xavier had honestly expected the System to send him to a higher floor again.

But he knew thinking that they weren’t worth it was a mistake.

He rested his hand on the pommel of The Lost Bone of a Dead God.

Why do you think the System did it? he asked. Why did it allow me to go back through the floors?

The Lost Bone of a Dead God was silent for a long moment before it finally spoke in Xavier’s mind.

I’m not sure why it did it, but I also don’t know why it altered your trajectory through the floors in the first place, though it’s clear it worked out in your favour. I would say it would be wise to trust in the System.

Xavier scoffed.

Trust in the System.

That was all well and good to say, but he knew that, too, was a mistake. The System had a possibly infinite number of alternate universes running this same problem, trying to solve the question of how the universe could be saved.

Xavier knew there were other versions of him out there that hadn’t survived being sent to the hundredth floor. Versions that had been defeated fighting the Wolven at the start, or the Fetid Forest Troll, or The Nightmare, or the Elemental Dragon…

And not once in an unfathomable number of years or universes has the System ever succeeded in its ultimate goal—every universe was simply a test until one finally panned out.

It seemed foolish to trust in that.

Xavier turned back around. He walked up to the door to the tower floors and grabbed the handle, selecting the twentieth floor the moment he could.

~

Xavier cleared one floor after another. On every single floor, he effortlessly managed to gain himself the first place on the leaderboard.

It all felt too easy. Xavier wasn’t learning anything from these floors. He could complete them with his eyes closed—and not just because he had the Farscope ability.

It was all feeling rather pointless until he reached the eightieth floor of the Tower of Champions and found something rather… Interesting.

He stood on a familiar planet. Familiar, because it was his planet.

Earth.

He’d never really thought about whether or not Earth would be a floor in the Tower of Champions, though he supposed there was no reason why it couldn’t be. The System pulled these floors from alternate universes, after all. Which meant they could easily be pulled from “the future.”

This was certainly not Earth as he knew it, not that he’d ever been where he was standing. He knew it was Earth, however, because of the familiar monument that towered over the middle of the city he’d been dropped into.

The Eiffel Tower.

France? What the hell am I doing in France?

Xavier knew that all the cities in the world had been changed. That the System had pulled them apart then stuck them together like puzzle pieces glued in the wrong spots. He’d never understood why the System changed the world so much—why it thought it was necessary.

Which meant that though the monument that should be in Paris towered over him, he wasn’t sure if that was where he actually was. It wasn’t as though he would recognise many of the less famous landmarks—other than perhaps the Arc de Triomphe or the Louvre.

He stood in the middle of a seemingly deserted street. It was dark, though the stars in the sky looked strangely muted. There was no light pollution—the city lights were all off, which made things look even stranger in this familiar, yet not familiar, place.

And everything was silent.

But, he realised, that was only because time wasn’t yet moving. Xavier had long become familiar with the sensation of being in a location where time was stopped. The lack of breeze. The eerie silence. The leaves in the trees remaining completely still.

And the insects, stuck flying in the air, their wings frozen in place. If there weren’t any Denizens or beasts in view, those tended to be the biggest giveaway.

Xavier frowned. Where he stood wasn’t a Safe Zone—many Tower of Champion floors lacked those. There was, however, a door back to the Staging Room in the old stone wall to his left. He knew it was the Staging Room door as it looked completely out of place amid the surrounding architecture.

Time being frozen wasn’t because of him—he hadn’t activated his Time Alteration spell. Something else was going on here.

The System.

He tried to take a step forward but was stopped. He stood within an invisible barrier. The moment he’d taken that step, a notification popped up in his vision.

Welcome, Champion, to the Eightieth Floor!

The world you stand upon is in danger. A powerful entity is making its way here. An entity strong enough to snuff out every living thing and leave the planet itself destroyed in its wake.

The goal of this floor is not to fight this entity.

The goal is to save as many Denizens as you can.

The entity coming toward this planet holds incredible power and does not hide its aura. It has never had reason to hide. When the being approaches a planet, its aura is so potent and dangerous that it makes any beasts on that entire world fall into a fit of rage. The presence effects Denizens as well, turning weaker minds mad, and instilling fear in even the strongest minds most worlds possess.

When time flows forward once more on this planet, those in the surrounding area will be revealed to you. Soon, portals will be opening as Denizens try to escape their world before the entity comes.

You must save them from the beasts that have gone berserk.

To complete this floor 10,000 Denizens must pass through the portals.

The more Denizens who pass through the portals, the higher your score will be, and the better reward you will receive.

This floor can only be completed once.

There is no time record for this floor.

Prepare yourself. The floor will begin in 10 seconds.