Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 29 - A Deal Is Struck

“Where to next?” Volkarin had asked.

Xavier stood, looking out at Volkarin, Rhaalir, and Romalda on the Twentieth Descent of the Hell Moon Thazamar, wondering just that.

One of the other Hell Moons was the most logical choice. He still had two months before he would be returned to the Tower of Champions, and he wouldn’t need to be back on Earth for that to happen. He’d be teleported straight there from wherever in the universe he happened to be.

He still felt a little disappointed he hadn’t made it deeper down into Thazamar’s descents, but he was determined to come back stronger. Gaining further titles from another Hell Moon would inevitably make him more powerful—especially against demons.

It was the logical choice, even if it wasn’t the most exciting one.

Xavier paused for a moment, remembering what it was Yarien had been saying—they were on the Seventieth Descent, but it sounded as though they were going to call it quits.

They were going to go to one of the other Hell Moons. Perhaps he wouldn’t need to use his Sector Travel Key after all, if he could hitch a ride with them to the next Hell Moon…

He contacted the elven woman, which he was glad for, as apparently her party was already preparing to leave.

Yarien: [Oh, Xavier, we’d be more than happy to take you along.]

~

The second of the three Hell Moons of Demonica didn’t look anything like what Xavier had been expecting.

For one, he’d been expecting more of the same. A desolate landscape besieged by fire and lava and, well, brimstone.

This was altogether different. In fact, it didn’t look like the type of place one would find demons at all.

It was a giant forest.

Xavier, after stepping out of the portal with his companions and Yarien’s party, turned his gaze left and right and examined the area with his Farscope.

“This… doesn’t look like a Hell Moon,” Xavier muttered.

“Because you’ve seen one Hell Moon, that means you know how they all look, hmm?” Maricus said with a raised eyebrow. “The demons here aren’t fire-based like the majority were back on Thazamar. Areildon has an entirely different set up.”

Xavier looked at the two large trees ahead of him, standing either side of a dirt path like great big sentinels. He heard fighting in the distance. Shouts and roars. An ear-splitting scream. “Other Denizens?”

“Areildon tends to be more populated than Thazamar,” Yarien said. “Doubtless we’ll come across a few people here.” She looked him up and down. “Without a sponsor, it’s not only going to be dangerous for you.” She glanced at his companions. “It’ll be dangerous for them, too.”

Romalda was still feeding her minions through the portal, while Rhaalir was standing somewhat passively to the side, the Spirit Golem’s arms crossed.

Volkarin remained inside Xavier’s Companion Cube. The dragon was simply too large to fit through the portal Yarien’s party had waiting for them at the entrance of Thazamar. Xavier imagined the dragon would relish being in this place. There was far more room to move here than there had been down in the chambers of the last Hell Moon, and he knew Volkarin was wanting to spread his wings.

Still, he had to take the woman’s threat seriously. They’d been lucky on the last Hell Moon. The only other Denizens they’d encountered were Yarien and her party.

Yarien mentioned that there had been Denizens deeper in the descents back in Thazamar, ones that Xavier would have come upon if he’d gotten through a few more.

Am I risking their lives, bringing them here?

The obvious answer to that was yes. Of course he was. Taking them to Thazamar had been the same risk—he couldn’t guarantee their safety there, either.

Though he was confident he could get them out of trouble damned fast if it ever came to it. Pushing his time dilation field through a portal that took him straight to them would do the trick. He could spirit them away without any hassle.

That was, of course, assuming he was in a position to do that when the danger came.

I can’t guarantee their safety, just as I can’t guarantee my own.

“I understand,” Xavier said in reply. He would speak to each of them soon, when the other party had moved on. He didn’t want to make the decision for them. He looked over at the two sentinel trees that stood guard on either side of the path. “So, who’s going first?”

With two months in this place before he was taken back to the Tower of Champions, Xavier wanted to clear each of the descents on Areildon as swiftly as possible—inside of a time dilation field if he could.

He wanted those 1,000 clears, but he was also going to push as hard as he could do get as far as he could in this place first. He wanted to experience each of the different descents before he started clearing them one by one a thousand times.

He wasn’t sure what his companions planned to do—though he imagined they would clear the different areas of Areildon until they came upon one worthy of grinding, just as they had on the last Hell Moon.

Xavier kept going back and forth about whether he would take Volkarin back to the Tower of Champions. The dragon was now strong enough that he’d definitely be able to take out many of the D Grades on the hundredth floor, but Xavier didn’t know anything about the hundred-and-first floor.

And, honestly, he didn’t even know if that was where he would be going next. The System had taken him by complete surprise when it had thrown him to the hundredth floor, making him skip dozens and dozens of floors of the tower.

Xavier had come a long way, power-wise, since then. What if the System wanted to repeat what it had done, and send him further in the floors again?

He still had 900 tower floors to go, after all.

Would Volkarin be better off training with Romalda and Rhaalir? Or should he bring both the dragon and the Spirit Golem with him when he returned to the tower?

“We plan to do a 1,000 clear of each of these descents,” Yarien said, bringing Xavier out of his reverie. “You’re welcome to join us, as you did last time around.” She looked at his companions. “All of you are. I’m sure it would do wonders for your attributes.”

Romalda’s eyebrows rose slightly. She looked somewhat pleadingly over at Xavier, then contacted him via their Communication Stone.

Romalda: [They’re offering to take us through for those titles? You never offered to take us through for those titles… Please say you’ll do it!]

Xavier: [I thought the three of you would want to stand on your own?]

Romalda: [These are titles, Xavier. Gaining them can only ever be a good thing. It will make all of us stronger! Why delay that?]

Xavier blinked. The necromancer had a point, one that he was having trouble refuting. He’d already trained with this group before. Why wouldn’t he want to take their help again, at least with the titles on the lower descents of this place?

It wasn’t as though those descents would offer him any real challenge.

He took a moment to reevaluate his plan for this place. His mind worked swiftly as he tried to come up with a response. He liked training by himself, but…

Xavier sighed inwardly.

Maybe his first decision wasn’t always the right decision.

What do you think? he asked the Lost Bone of a Dead God.

He really needed to give the soul bound weapon a better name than that.

I think you should do it. There is nothing wrong with asking for help, Xavier. This won’t stop you from facing any new challenges—if anything, it will bring you to new challenges faster than you could have gotten there alone.

Xavier considered the weapon’s words, and realised that… Perhaps he was being stubborn again, thinking he needed to do all the 1,000 clears of this Hell Moon by himself.

It made him wonder if he should simply gather as many 1,000 clears from the different descents that didn’t pose a challenge to him as he could, from not only this Hell Moon, but the third of the three Hell Moons of Dominica as well.

With his power to freeze time, along with Yarien and Avadina’s ability to restore cooldowns… He could get the 1,000 clear for not only himself, but his companions as well. And it would take them barely any time at all.

He tapped his foot on the ground.

Yarien raised an eyebrow.

Romalda sighed. “He always does that when he’s thinking hard.”

“I didn’t realise my offer made for such a difficult decision,” the elf said in a teasing tone.

Xavier agreed to Yarien’s offer. A smile kicked up the sides of the beautiful elven woman’s lips. She stepped over to him, her blood red robes shifting along her skin as she walked, the sleeves billowing in the wind that blew through the trees.

She shook his hand. “A deal is struck, though I don’t think we need a contract for this one, hmm?”

Xavier smiled. “No, I suppose we don’t.”

Romalda narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked between the two of them, then shook her head and turned to her minions.

The only downside to their plan was the fact that Rhaalir, as a Spirit Golem, couldn’t actually get titles. Volkarin, even though he was technically a bonded beast, could get titles—as the dragon was a Denizen as well.

That was still a little confusing for Xavier, but he was glad Romalda and Volkarin would benefit from this just as much as he would.

Xavier summoned Volkarin from his Companion Cube. The dragon had grown so much since he’d been a mere hatchling back on the hundredth floor when Xavier had first brought his soul back to the mortal realm and placed it into a vessel.

Now, the dragon towered over all the Denizens there, making a shadow fall upon them. He huffed smoke from his nostrils. Before he had a chance to ask for food, Xavier summoned some meat from his Storage Ring and tossed it in front of the dragon.

The dragon’s eyes widened, then he tore into the bloody flesh.

Yarien: [I must say, you keep… Interesting company.]

The elven woman’s gaze moved from the dragon to the Spirit Golem, then finally rested on the necromancer with her hundreds of reanimated minions. Many of the minions were from the army back in the Silver River sector that he’d dealt with, but even more were demons.

Xavier looked over at the two demonkin in the elf’s party, feeling like she kept interesting company herself. Though he refrained from saying so. He wasn’t really sure how to respond to the elf.

Piggybacking on Yarien’s party’s clearing of the Areildon’s descents offered other advantages than just saved time. It meant that if they did encounter any hostile Denizens, the fact that they were sponsored should prevent them from being in any danger.

He also wanted his companions to get as strong as possible. Perhaps he should have been taking them through, obtaining the 1,000 clears for them back in Thazamar as well.

By the time we return to the Tower of Champions, maybe they’ll be strong enough to do a good portion of that themselves.

The descents on Areildon were similar, and yet entirely different, to the ones back in Thazamar.

For one, they weren’t actually called descents, as they weren’t descending down when they moved through Areildon. Instead, they were called zones.

The First Zone of the Hell Moon Areildon was incredibly weak, even for Xavier’s companions. As Xavier examined the beasts that inhabited it, he was glad that he’d decided to go through this place with Yarien’s party.

Clearing this place a 1,000 times alone, while something that would be very easy for him, definitely felt as though it would be quite tedious. He had cultivated plenty of patience, but that didn’t mean he needed to go out of his way to find new ways to use that patience.

Xavier slipped into a meditative state as they stepped forward into the First Zone. In this state, he could feel the different runes under the dirt on the forest floor or etched into the very trees. The two sentinels that stood watch over the path had an abundance of runes on them.

They didn’t look near as sturdy as the stone walls of the last Hell Moon, but something told Xavier there wouldn’t be any chance of destroying those trees. The woman who’d created this place—the same Universe Hopper who’d created Thazamar—appeared to be one who built things to last.

As much of the responsibility of clearing the enemies was given up to the others, that left Xavier with a little bit of idle time. Since he’d gained his Time Alteration skill, idle time was still something he was getting used to actually using for himself.

Xavier spent his time doing several things: writing, reading, and studying and experimenting with runes.

He was still trying to refine his runed bone arrows. In particular, it was a single rune that he was still working on—the rune for Time.

His ability to control time had been a game changer ever since he’d received it. It simply wouldn’t have become possible for him to be this powerful without it. He didn’t understand how the most powerful Denizens in the Greater Universe weren’t time mages, with what he was capable of.

The clears seemed to go by quickly. He only had to kill a single enemy—or even just injure them, technically—on each of the different zones to gain credit toward the 1,000 clear titles. It was a nice little break, a contrast to the hard grinding and training he’d been going through the last few months.

Yarien’s party didn’t waste any time. They may have been within a time dilation field, but they still worked as efficiently as possible.

Xavier wondered how the advantage of his time dilation field would affect them when they returned to… Wherever it was they were from.

It was when they reached the Twentieth Zone of Areildon that something unexpected happened.

A System notification appeared.

Your return to the Tower of Champions has been rescheduled.

You have one hour until you will be teleported.

Prepare yourself.