Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 4 - Into the Depths

It had taken until the Thirtieth Descent for Xavier to find enemies worthy of grinding for his own levels.

He had gained a title for the first twenty-nine descents of the Hell Moon Thazamar, and his theory about how the percentages would accumulate had been correct. He now had a +14.5 percent boost to all of his stats, along with a modifier of +14.5 percent damage against demons.

Xaiver had only gained a few levels along the way—not that he’d expected to gain many.

His companions, on the other hand, were improving in leaps and bounds. With the relatively short cooldown of his Time Alteration spell, they’d only spent a day or so in this place, yet several months had passed for the four Denizens.

Xavier, while he knew he was pressed for time, wanted to give his companions every advantage.

There was a part of him that felt a little guilty for not bringing his old party members here. They had all proven their loyalty to him, and he trusted each one of them with his life, and with the protection of Earth.

But his old party were still in the Tower of Champions, and he couldn’t wait around on Earth for the time that they came out—he had no idea when that would be.

I can take them here in the future.

There would be a lot of time for that—to bring the people around him up in power, as he rose in power himself. More and more opportunities would start to present themselves.

That made him wonder about what he would do when he returned to the Tower of Champions for a third time. With his Companion Cube, he could bring the dragon Volkarin along, as he had bonded the dragon while on a tower floor—it was a loophole he was fully willing to take advantage of. The Spirit Golem, he wasn’t as sure about.

He’d asked Rhaalir if it could be taken onto the tower floors, but the elf hadn’t known—neither had the others. Xavier could use Otherworldly Communion to answer that question for him, but he was saving that in case something happened down here deep in the Hell Moon’s descents. If he encountered a threat he wasn’t quite ready to face—whether it be a demon or another Denizen clearing the descents—and needed a spirit’s guidance… The last thing he wished was for that spell to be on cooldown.

No, he would only use that spell if he truly needed to, or if he was incredibly close to reaching his next level—which would instantly make the spell cooldown.

If not for that spell, I wouldn’t have gotten Body Cultivation. I doubt I would have been able to defeat The Nightmare without that spell—without that path to power.

The others had gained levels at a swift rate, and they had each become more adept at fighting without the need for their spells.

Xavier, on each of the descents before the thirtieth, had been experimenting with different weapons. On the First Descent, he’d wielded The Lost Bone of a Dead God as a sword. That had gotten him curious as to how best to utilise the versatility of the soul bound weapon he wielded.

So on the Second Descent, after the others had already cleared it and Xavier needed to gain the title, he stepped back up the steps to face the parties of imp demons wielding a large warhammer.

Sword. Warhammer. Spear. Halberd. Dagger. Bow. Axe.

Those were the different weapons that Xavier had used on the different descents leading up to this one, practicing diligently with each one, gaining ranks in each of their respective weapon mastery skills.

It felt strange, switching from one weapon to another on each descent. But soon enough he got into a sort of rhythm with them all. He could feel the differences between them, but he could also feel the similarities. He managed to get each of them up to at least Rank 100 before finally making it to a challenge that felt worthy of grinding for levels.

Xavier wasn’t sure mastering the different weapons was the best course of action for him or not—his claws were still what felt like the most natural way for him to fight. But it was something he wanted to discover for himself.

But Xavier wished to link the different weapons—to be able to seamlessly switch to whichever one was the best one to use in that fraction of a second. To shift his soul bound weapon from a sword to an axe to then use the head to lever away an enemy’s blade or shield, then turn the soul bound weapon into a spear and thrust forward through the defence he’d just broken through.

The possibilities felt endless, and he would be remiss if he didn’t at least attempt this kind of fighting style—he could always shift the weapon into claws when he was up close enough.

He was also incorporating his wings into combat with the different weapons. Blocking attacks, knocking over enemies, launching himself into the air—he was upping his physical combat ability with each descent he cleared. The fact that the enemies weren’t too powerful meant he could perfect the different techniques without risking his death in the process.

Becoming incredibly adept at physical combat was a huge goal of his. It wasn’t just his companions that he wanted to be able to take full advantage of the time dilation field being in effect. If Xavier could clear even the more difficult floors, the ones that would actually offer him levels, without having to resort to using his spells, and managing to do it all in a blink of an eye while time was frozen…

He had to imagine he would be able to advance far faster than ever before.

On the twenty-fifth Descent, as things were beginning to get rather difficult, Xavier found himself finally having to use his spells in order to fight the enemies before him.

And so he hadn’t moved forward to the next floor until that was no longer the case.

This was where he began to shift from one weapon to the next. It was clumsy, at first, and he found himself resorting to using Soul Block far more often than he wished. He also used Body Cultivation—that spell was an exception. It didn’t have a cooldown. He could use it even while inside of a time dilation field.

While on the first several descents he had held back on using Body Cultivation with the new weapons he was practicing with, as he was trying not to use it as a crutch to make them more powerful before learning their techniques, now he was taking full advantage of the spell.

He cycled Celestial Essence to every inch of his body, reinforcing his muscles, his bones, his skin. Reinforcing his speed and his strength and his alacrity of thought. It helped him in every arena, and he was only becoming more and more adept at it as he restricted what he was allowing himself to do on these descents.

Along Xavier’s path, he’d learnt that the accumulation of levels wasn’t the best way for him to become stronger—it was important. Desperately important. But it was his spells and skills—and how he used them—that made the most difference.

And so he was more than willing to take the time on each of these descents.

Experience was still something that Xavier lacked. He might have power, but he hadn’t been training for centuries, millennia, longer. His time dilation field didn’t mean he would ever truly catch up to these people, but he was determined to do everything he could to master every aspect of his different fighting styles along the way.

Advancing through the different grades too quickly, Xavier had learned, wasn’t the best way to accumulate power. It could make someone strong, but that strength was fragile compared to someone who’d slowed down and mastered themselves during each grade.

This was something that Xavier struggled to consolidate into his own training and advancement. He needed to advance in power perhaps faster than anyone in the Greater Universe ever had, but if he did it in the wrong way, it would only stunt his potential.

What Rhaalir had told him still stuck with him—that the C Grade Hunt Squad he’d faced hadn’t been true C Grades. That The Collector—the B Grade Denizen from another sector who was after Xavier—wasn’t as powerful as true B Grades could become.

Those Denizens had rushed their advancement. They’d become powerful, but the depths of power that one could reach on each grade—as Xavier was finding out, being only D Grade himself—hadn’t even been begun to be tapped by those people.

Xavier wouldn’t make the same mistake.

By the time Xavier reached the Thirtieth Descent, he was linking his different mastered weapons one after the other, from one strike to the next. He wasn’t as fluid doing this as he was simply fighting with his claws, but he was obtaining a level of mastery in this new fighting style that was incredibly enviable.

He’d also been funnelling half of all the Mastery Points he’d received on each of the different descents toward the soul bound weapon. This made the weapon itself more powerful, and the swiftness with which he could shift it from one form to another supremely enhanced.

Xavier was becoming so adept at this that he was beginning to feel as though the weapon could anticipate exactly what he wanted to do with it before he’d even made the decision. He wasn’t sure if this was wishful thinking, or if the weapon was actually beginning to develop a mind of its own.

Eventually, moving down the different descents, Xavier had noticed that he was beginning to gain an audience.

Volkarin, Rhaalir, and Romalda, for the first few floors, had remained on the stairs to the next descent as Xavier had stepped back to clear the previous descent solo.

But it didn’t take them long to get curious as to what he was doing.

After a time, they each watched him with a keen eye. Xavier could feel the awe within them. Romalda never failed to feel fear, even just a hint of it, that Xavier could sense as he moved through his different attacks, taking down the demons that came at him.

Though he moved too swiftly for them to even see his attacks clearly—except for Rhaalir, whom as a spirit was able to perceive his strikes with the same level of speed he had back in life—and the three Denizens were clearly impressed by what he was able to do.

They were also, he could sense, becoming more loyal to him, and more loyal to one another—or, at least, the bond they had gained from participating in combat together had strengthened. They still bickered profusely.

Xavier had been doing his best to bring up the power of his companions so that whenever they reached the next descent, they were powerful enough to actually face it—even if that meant with the help of his Time Alteration spell.

But that was only sustainable for so long.

Just as he didn’t wish to advance himself too swiftly and stunt his own power, the same could be said for his companions—all but the Spirit Golem, as that didn’t apply to Rhaalir.

And that was why Volkarin and Romalda hadn’t advanced to D Grade when they’d reached Level 200.

But even at their newfound levels, the Thirtieth Descent was far, far too much for the three of them to handle—it was filled with C Grade enemies, all of them over Level 350.

His companions were still back down on the Fifteenth Descent.

Xavier had faced many C Grades while he was on the hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions.

Most notably, the Skeletal Dragon and the Elemental Dragon. Those dragons still represented the most powerful C Grades he’d faced.

That was still the case.

The C Grades on this floor, however, required not only his full attention and concentration, but they were actually garnering him enough Mastery Points that he felt like he would make true progress here—on the previous descents, despite grinding several of them to up his proficiency in physical combat, he had only gained a few levels.

On this descent, Xavier told himself he wouldn’t leave until two things had been achieved—reaching Level 225 and being able to defeat every single one of the C Grades with physical combat and Body Cultivation alone.

Xavier, having cleared the descent twice already, stepped back onto it for the third time.