Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 72 - Dungeon

Xavier cocked his head, listening to the far-off roar. The sound echoed through the ancient-looking stone hallways.

Howard stepped forward, a hand on the haft of his double-bearded axe. “No notification appeared.”

“They don’t always,” Justin said. “Only on certain floors. The first few floors never had any, remember?”

Xavier nodded. He walked over to the exit hallway. There wasn’t a door, only an arch. The roar was still echoing, though it sounded even farther away now. “So, are we in some sort of maze?”

Siobhan shook her head. “No. This isn’t a maze. Not exactly, anyway.”

“What is it?”

The woman smiled. “It’s a dungeon.” She shrugged. “Or something like it.”

“It reminds me of when we faced the Rat King, back on the second floor,” Howard said. “Though not made of earth.”

Xavier frowned. “Hopefully the walls don’t move, this time around.” The second floor of the tower was the only floor that Xavier hadn’t gained any sort of record for.

Siobhan nodded. “That… would not be good.”

“Well, I suppose we should get moving.” Xavier strode through the archway. He summoned Charon’s Scythe to his hand. He liked his new weapon, but he was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten a chance to use it in a real fight.

I wonder what we’ll face at the end of this dungeon.

The second he stepped into the hallway, another roar sounded, louder than the last. Then beasts began bounding toward them. The hallway was so narrow only one beast could fit in it at a time.

Except that these beasts could climb the wall and even cling to the ceiling.

“Spiders,” Xavier muttered. “Why did it have to be spiders?”

He felt a cold shiver of animal fear run up his spine at the sight of the beasts. He wasn’t actually afraid of them—he could kill them quite easily—but there was something, deeply rooted in his human DNA, that didn’t like the sight of these creatures.

Xavier shoved those primal fears away. He’d sensed these beasts’ auras well before he’d seen them, which meant they were incredibly weak.

Part of him wish the Tower of Champions scaled its difficulty toward him.

Be a bit harder to reap the rewards, then.

He used Core Burn on the nearest of the spiders and gained a rank as soon as the thing died. He didn’t want to spend a great deal of time in this place, but he also didn’t want to waste too many souls using Soul Strike. He’d tapped his soulkeeping reserve completely on that last floor, and would need to replenish it before he smashed through this floor—which meant using Soul Shatter was still out of the question. He couldn’t destroy the souls of the enemies he killed.

Besides, he still hadn’t decided which way to go with Soul Shatter.

And Soul Strike’s still in cooldown. I can’t use it anyway.

But he had plenty of other spells to use. Heavy Telekinesis took care of the giant spiders well enough, crushing them into the stone walls of the dungeon. If he let the enemies get close, Charon’s Scythe dealt with them with ease.

This is like a walk in the park. A dank, dark, creepy park filled with spiders trying to kill me even though they can’t.

They pushed forward through the halls, quickly coming to a crossroads. Three directions in which to choose from.

“Should we mark the ways we go through?” Justin asked.

Xavier slashed a mark into the stone to the left, then turned down that way. He’d read something about mazes, and always turning the same way in one until you came upon a dead end. He figured it was the best approach.

He didn’t need to mark the way to remember it, but it seemed wise all the same. They were about twenty steps down the hall, no hint of enemies in sight, when the ground shifted, as though an earthquake were rocking the entire structure.

“The ceiling isn’t going to collapse on us, is it?” Howard asked. “I’m not sure if my Bulwark would do anything against that… I’ve never tested it.”

Xavier frowned. I’d survive that, wouldn’t I? But it wasn’t the ceiling that collapsed—it was the ground beneath him. The solid stone turned into something akin to quicksand. He couldn’t take a step—his feet were already stuck. He sunk fast.

It reminded him of when he’d been trapped by the Rat King. Or when he’d been buried alive during a wave of the Endless Horde. He heard the others struggling.

Then the spiders came. The thuds of their large legs slapping the walls.

The perfect trap.

Being buried had always been a weakness for Xavier. Something that had gotten him into trouble in the past. Almost gotten him killed, or almost stopped him from saving his friends.

Except this wasn’t a weakness anymore. And his friends? They weren’t in any danger.

Heavy Telekinesis!

He pushed the spell in a circle around himself and the other members of the party, targeting only the spiders rushing toward them. He crushed them to the wall, killing over a dozen. Then he smoothly soul stepped to one of the corpses. The spider had died, crushed against the wall high near the ceiling, so he fell to the ground and landed in an easy crouch.

Xavier was about to help the others, but Siobhan had already summoned them out of their holes. Howard was slamming his double-bearded axe into the stone around Siobhan, freeing her from the trap, as she couldn’t teleport herself out.

Within seconds, they were walking down the hall again.

Xavier couldn’t help but chuckle and shake his head. “We’ve certainly come a long way.”

Howard grunted. “This floor is definitely going to be a problem for those without the right skillset.”

Siobhan sighed. “I still wish I could write up a manual for the floors. It’s so lame that the System only lets that information out through word of mouth.”

“Gatekeeping at its finest,” Justin muttered. “But at least we don’t have anything to worry about with this powerhouse at our side.” He elbowed Xavier in the shoulder. “Seriously, I’m glad we decided to go with you on that first day when you told us you wanted to solo everything… I almost refused the idea.”

Xavier glanced at him. “You did?”

Justin shrugged. “Well… yeah. After what I’d just been through back on Earth, when the System came, I figured I needed every advantage I could get. I didn’t know how I’d manage that by standing on the sidelines not getting any combat experience. But… I wanted to see what you could do before I made any decision.”

Siobhan pursed her lips. “I felt the same. I remember, when we were waiting in the cabin, the Safe Zone back on the first floor…”

“We thought you’d died out there,” Howard cut in. “I may have said… something about you being a damned fool.”

Xavier snorted. “Well, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called a fool since this all begin.” He smirked. “Sam seems rather fond of calling me a system-damned fool.”

“System-damned?” Howard asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’d hardly call you damned by the System. If anything, you’ve been blessed. The titles you’ve gained, the feats you’ve achieved. And the fact that the System is apparently watching you?”

“It’s enough to make anyone jealous,” Justin said with a chuckle. “You’re the most powerful Denizen from Earth!”

“Jealous?” Howard frowned at the teenager. “You’re actually jealous of what he has?”

Justin gave the man a sideways glance. “Of course. Aren’t you?”

“No.” Howard grunted. “Definitely not.” He put a hand on Xavier’s shoulder. “Xavier has the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. We will be there, to help defend Earth. To protect those who are weaker than us, but if we fail…” He was looking from Justin to Siobhan as he said this. “Then, in the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter. But if he fails—”

“Earth is doomed,” Siobhan whispered. Her gaze turned downward, as though the ground beneath them had suddenly become interesting. “And not only the Earth… maybe the entire sector.”

“Exactly,” Howard said. “I, for one, am not jealous of thatkind of pressure. I want to protect Earth. Most of all, I want to protect my family. And I’ll die in service of that if I have to. But…”

“You’re glad it’s not all hanging on you,” Xavier said. He’d been quiet through what the man had been saying. But now, he had to speak. “It’s a lot of pressure. But…” He smiled. “I think the pressure suits me.” He lowered his head in thought. “Before all of this happened, I dreamt of living a different life. Of experiencing something more. Like…” He chuckled. Shook his head. “It sounds foolish, and more than a little naive, but I felt as though I was meant for something more than what my life had been.”

“Considering where we are, all we’ve been through, what you’ve achieved…” Siobhan smiled. “That doesn’t sound all that foolish at all.” She tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. “Besides, you’re not exactly alone in feeling that way. I liked my life, but this”—she waved a hand, as though trying to encompass the entire Greater Universe—“this is what’s been going on, out beyond our solar system, since before life even evolved on Earth. I’ve got a feeling that somehow, in our collective unconscious, humans have always known they were bound for more than our world had to offer.”

They turned a corner. Xavier idly slashed the wall, marking their direction, then crushed a half-dozen spiders that rushed toward them into the stone, making an unsettling squishing sound.

Siobhan blinked up at the dead beasts, then went on as though nothing had happened. “For millennia, we’ve had myths and legends of magical creatures, of gods, of higher causes. Of trials and journeys. We’ve had myths about elves, and many other creatures and races that we’ve since encountered. Races that have been around since before Earth ever was. How could it be possible that we knew of them, when Earth had never been integrated before?”

The woman shrugged. “I don’t have an answer as to the how, but it’s clear we knew. And maybe that’s why humans so rarely felt fulfilled. Maybe that’s why we had so many wars… The Greater Universe is filled with conflict. Maybe we felt that, in our bones, in our souls, and have been preparing ourselves for it.”

Xavier stared at Siobhan as they walked down another long, stone hallway. “You’ve been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you?”

The Divine Beacon laughed. “Since the moment I saw a goblin. Maybe before that. And these status screens, resembling video games—it’s all too familiar to be a coincidence.”

The party went silent after her words, each seeming to be considering them on their own.

Xavier couldn’t help but feel as though there was some truth in them.

Maybe that’s why I gravitated toward fantasy novels, why I always wanted… more, because all of this was out there, waiting for me, my destiny, in some ways, already written.

Even this dungeon, these giant spiders—it all seemed so familiar to him.

Didn’t Frodo fight a bunch of giant spiders? Heading through a mountain?

Maybe Tolkien had some sort low-level, natural seer ability. The very thought made him laugh to himself, but after everything he’d seen… it might not be all that far-fetched.

We’ve come across plenty of elves, after all…

He shook away the thoughts. As interesting as they were to him, it didn’t change what he needed to do.

They pushed forward through the dungeon’s hallways, killing hundreds of spiders along the way. He wondered if he needed to kill every spider on this floor to clear it. That would be a pain. There was something strange about the dungeon’s walls, something that had taken him far too long to realise—they were blocking his ability to read auras through them.

Usually, he’d be able to see an enemy’s aura—if that enemy couldn’t control their aura—through solid structures.

That wasn’t so down here.

The party were met with several dead-ends. Xavier wasn’t only marking the way with his blade, he was memorising their path in his mind. Memorisation, when he cared to put energy toward it, was a fairly easy thing for him to achieve. He would be able to navigate this dungeon with ease when it became time to fully clear the floor.

Finally, after navigating the dungeon at an unhurried pace for an hour or so, killing everything they passed, they’d mapped the entire area, covering every inch of it except for a final chamber Xavier refused to enter.

The chamber was open, no doors barring entry toward it. It was domelike, the stone blocks that made its walls curved up until they met at the ceiling, where a giant, intricate spiderweb loomed.

Inside that web, the massive form of the floor boss awaited them.