Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 3 - I Better Get To Work

The notification that popped into Xavier’s vision was a title.

When Xavier’s companions had cleared the First Descent, even though Xavier had cast Time Alteration, he hadn’t actually dealt any damage to any of the Bladed Crawler demons, meaning he hadn’t gotten the title then. Time Alteration wasn’t a support spell in the same way healing or a buff might be, so he hadn’t gained even a portion of the credit for any of his companions’ kills.

Which was actually Xavier’s preference, as he wanted them to gain as many Mastery Points for their kills as they possibly could.

He was also glad it would give him the excuse to return to a descent and clear it by himself. He much preferred being able to return to a descent on the Hell Moon, unlike in the Tower of Champions where it simply wasn’t an option.

And if I’d been a part of a party in a tower floor, even if I didn’t do any damage, I still would have gotten the title clear.

Just one of many ways the Hell Moons of Demonica were different to the Tower of Champions or the System dungeons he’d cleared in the past.

Xavier read through the notification.

Title Unlocked!

The First Descent of Thazamar: You have cleared the First Descent of Thazamar. The Hell Moons of Demonica are one of the natural wonders of the universe. Their existence pre-dates the System’s integration of them. The demons have been thriving here since long before the Earth was born.

Though you may have cleared the First Descent, remember to tread carefully here.

You have received +0.5% to all stats.

You have received a modifier: +0.5% damage to all demons.

Xavier tilted his head to the side. Curious. The System mentioned Earth in the notification. He didn’t have to ask the others to know that their notifications wouldn’t have a mention of his home world in them, though he asked them to share their notifications with him anyway, testing out a theory.

The description they each received for the title notification was more bland compared with the one that he’d gotten, and all three of them were identical. Almost as though the System had customised the notification specifically for him.

Tread carefully here…

Was that a warning from the very System itself, when it was the System who’d been thrusting him into harder and harder challenges? When it had been the System who’d sent him to the hundredth floor in the first place? And, he was quite sure, that it was the System’s doing in bringing up the timeline for when the threat to his sector was coming…

Xavier couldn’t help but feel a hint of frustration at the fact that the System could be warning him against facing more challenges. However, if this truly was a warning from the System, then he supposed he should take it seriously. He had already intended to be cautious in this place, but he could add an extra layer to that caution.

Even if it did go against his nature.

He also found what the title gave him to be curious. He had received two different things. A 0.5 percent boost to all of his stats, and a modifier that made him deal 0.5 percent more damage to demons.

In the grand scheme, 0.5 percent really wasn’t all that much. But percentage modifiers were incredibly valuable. He could see how powerful they were first hand just by looking at his own attributes.

And this was the First Descent of one hundred.

If this was anything like the Tower of Champions, there was a good chance these percentage modifiers would be cumulative. On the next descent, the modifier might reach 1 percent. Then 1.5 percent on the third, and so on. Completing all one hundred descents would give someone a boost of 50 percent to all stats, and 50 percent extra damage to demons…

A this was only one of the three Hell Moons.

Not that Xavier would be in a position to clear the entire Hell Moon any time soon.

The others were waiting for him on the stairs. Romalda had taken advantage of the time. Twenty undead minions now surrounded her, all from the army of D Grades Xavier had faced back in the Silver River sector. Xavier wasn’t sure why there weren’t more—perhaps she could only raise so many at a time. Maybe it had taken all of her Spirit Energy to do what she’d just done, or maybe there was a cooldown on the spell she used.

Xavier had expected to find Volkarin chewing on some meat, but instead the dragon was sitting to one side, his head underneath one of his wings, snoring so loudly the noise could easily be mistaken for thunder.

Rhaalir was simply standing with his arms crossed, staring at the undead minions.

Xavier could talk to each of them telepathically, and, most importantly, privately. He had given Romalda a Communication Stone, and he had mental links with both Rhaalir and Volkarin.

Are you all right, Rhaalir? Xavier asked through their personal link.

The elf spirit tilted the golem’s head slightly. I know that you didn’t contract the necromancer. Are you quite sure that you can trust this woman?

Why, are you worried about me?

I’m not worried about you, Rhaalir replied, the tone of his voice sounding like the very idea was an affront. Though it also sounded a little fake to Xavier’s ears.

After hearing the elf speak through the Spirit Golem, Xavier found it refreshing to hear Rhaalir’s actual tone of voice.

I’m worried about myself. This opportunity you’ve given me links my fate, my potential, heavily to yours. If something were to happen to you…

You’d be returned to the Otherworld, Xavier replied.

In the Otherworld, the elf spirit wouldn’t be able to gather more Soul Energy—not easily, anyway. It would be very difficult for the elf spirit to ever be able to manipulate, or walk in, the Mortal Realm without that.

Xavier didn’t know enough about how all the spirits in the Otherworld worked, but he did know that the ones he could summon to fight for him in this world were far more powerful than Rhaalir—they had accumulated enough strength over the years that they’d been stuck in the Otherworld to be able to be summoned, or come through a bridge, like the one his Soul Sacrifice spell created.

I didn’t contract her because of something you said, Rhaalir. Something about true loyalty.

The elf sighed, loudly, in Xavier’s mind.

Of course you were listening to that… The elf sounded regretful.

Xavier suppressed a chuckle. The others didn’t know they were having this conversation, after all. Don’t worry, elf, I’ll be careful.

You better be, human.

The Spirit Golem gave him a slight nod as Xavier descended the steps. On his way, the young dragonkin nudged Volkarin with his boot, waking the beast from his slumber. The thunder of his snores stopped, and he gave Xavier the most rageful glare he was sure he had ever seen.

“Didn’t anyone tell you not to wake a sleeping dragon?” Volkarin growled.

Xavier shrugged. “No. But I have heard the one about not waking a sleeping baby…”

“Why wouldn’t you wake a baby? Sometimes they must be woken to feed,” Romalda said.

Rhaalir uncrossed the Spirit Golem’s arms. “You almost sound as though you speak from experience.” Xavier swore he could almost hear the frown in the elf’s voice, even through the golem.

Romalda got a faraway look. She was quiet for a moment. “No,” she finally replied. “Such a thing isn’t in the cards for me.”

“I had a child once,” Volkarin said. His head hang in what looked like shame, with a hint of anger in his gaze. “She betrayed me,” he growled.

“Six girls, five boys, over countless years… All dead. Long ago. I searched for them in the Otherworld, wondering if they had made the journey too. But they were long gone.”

Xavier blinked. Children. Once or twice he had thought about the prospect of having kids. Before the System had come down, and afterward, too. He knew he would be living for a very, very long time. But right now, that wasn’t something he could really even contemplate. He already felt as though he was responsible for the safety of an entire sector, but somehow, looking after a baby, a child, a kid, sounded much harder.

Yeah, I’m not ready to take that on.

Xavier cleared his throat and changed the subject. “The next descent awaits.”

~

The Second Descent of the Hell Moon Thazamar wasn’t quite as filled with demons as the first one was. There weren’t swarms of Bladed Crawlers, but that didn’t make the battles all that much easier.

This descent was filled with what appeared to be parties of demons. Xavier couldn’t say what made one beast a demon and another not. He could see that they all had something in common, but in the same way none of them truly resembled The Nightmare that he’d faced on the hundredth floor.

Xavier was glad nothing in here resembled that wretched beast.

The demons on the Second Descent were imp-like. They were humanoid, almost like smaller versions of goblins. From what the System had said in the description he’d read, the demons had been here for a very, very long time. He wondered if these imps were considered Denizens.

He knew that goblins were considered Denizens, and some dragons were, too. But he still had trouble imagining them going into the Tower of Champions and doing the same things that he did. Perhaps his human perspective was simply too limiting.

Human perspective… I’m not even human anymore.

Even so, he supposed all of his formative memories were of being human, even if he no longer was himself.

The imps were, individually, significantly more powerful than the Bladed Crawlers they’d faced on the First Descent. But as they only came in groups of four to eight, it didn’t feel quite so overwhelming as the First Descent might.

At least, to another party.

Xavier was able to sequester each of the different imps with his Time Alteration spell, allowing his companions to take them on one at a time. Even then, it was clear they were giving their all to each of these encounters—the imps were Level 180, well above each of the three Denizens that faced them.

But, like Xavier, they each had advantages the average Denizen lacked.

Xavier only watched them for a short while, his mind returning to the book he’d been reading on the previous descent. He’d already read through the entire thing twice. Now, he was going over it with a fine-tooth comb, trying to extract as much information as he could from it, while forming theories of his own along the way.

After his companions had faced their fifth party of imp demons, Rhaalir had cleared his golem throat and spoken. “I… Remember this.” His gaze seemed to drift around the chamber. “Memories, ones I thought would never return, are bobbing up to the surface of my mind, dredged free by the fighting.” The Spirit Golem touched a hand to its head. “I had a few such memories on the First Descent, but they were mere snippets compared to this.”

Xavier snapped the book he’d been reading shut. The sound didn’t echo—it reached the barrier of the time dilation field and just… stopped. He gave the elf his full attention. “You’ve been here before?”

The elf spirit shook his head. “A long, long time ago. I… Hadn’t even realised.” Rhaalir shut the golem’s eyes. His movements were becoming more natural. And Xavier noticed something odd—the tone of the golem’s voice. Was there variation in it? Could it be that what he’d heard in the golem’s voice earlier hadn’t been imagined?

He pushed that thought aside. “Do you remember what comes next?”

“No,” Rhaalir said. “I don’t. But… I do remember that I hadn’t been doing this alone. I was with a Raid Group. A thousand elves. An army of us. We trampled through the descents, earning titles for everyone as we went, backtracking when we needed to.”

Xavier frowned at this. He knew the rules here were different than in the Tower of Champions or in a regular System dungeon, but the idea of bringing an army to this place… While he could see that it would be possible, it didn’t sit right with him.

“Wouldn’t that take all of the challenge out of…” Xavier waved a hand, trying to encompass the entire moon. “All this?”

“Maybe,” Rhaalir said. “But it begs the question—are you going to come upon an army in the depths of these moons? An army that isn’t of demons? And what are you going to do if that happens?”

“There is a reason I warned against coming here,” Volkarin grumbled. “That is one among many.”

Romalda sighed. “Cautious lot, you are, to be travelling around with him.” She nodded at Xavier while eyeing the Spirit Golem and the dragon. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

They didn’t deign to respond.

Xavier pushed the barrier onward, keeping time still. He’d already been wondering what would happen if he encountered a threat that wasn’t a part of the Hell Moon, though he hadn’t considered it might be an entire army.

The consequences of Denizens being able to do that—to essentially game the system, for lack of a better term, made him wonder. The more powerful Denizens out there, in the original sectors and beyond… They would have all done something like this, or a variation on it. They would have walked on world after world, clearing dungeons and gaining titles. They would have travelled to the three Hell Moons, the Heavenly Rings, the Moors of Mazdakar, the Tower of Doom, the Thrice Cursed Dungeons—all those places he intended to clear in the future.

They would have already done it.

Billions of years…

The amount of time people had been alive in his universe was absolutely staggering. It was something he could barely even imagine, let alone the power they must wield.

And yet none of them would be powerful enough to stop whatever it was at the end of the universe.

The System was watching him. It had turned to him. Yet he was nothing but an ant, staring up from the bottom of a large hole, looking at giants the size of whole planets and thinking, One day I’ll be stronger than all of them.

He sighed inwardly, then excitement bubbled within him.

I better get to work.

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