Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 62 - Contracts

Once Xavier concluded his conversation with Sam, he’d turned and faced the ten parties sitting down at the tables around the tavern. Some sat close together, drinking and talking loudly, others farther apart, huddled and whispering. One party sat at the far corner of the tavern, drinking with a quiet determination. There were only three members of that party. He could guess what had happened to the fourth.

With all the Denizens—adventurers—in the tavern, weapons at their sides, drinks in hands, candles burning on thick wooden tables, the atmosphere screamed fantasy tavern. Xavier loved it.

He addressed them all, in a loud booming voice. “Hello, fellow Champions!”

Some looked at him with open curiosity, some with open suspicion. Others looked angry or just blank. He remembered what had happened the last time he’d tried to talk to people in this place. The man who’d started a fight with him—one Xavier had finished, quite decisively.

He needed to get them all to listen to him, and he didn’t feel like standing there and convincing them with some long spiel.

Perhaps, even though he kept having to council himself against arrogance, utilising a certain amount in this endeavour would be… prudent.

“Who the hell are you?” a heckler shouted, from one of the more boisterous—drunk—tables.

Xavier stepped forward. His hands were together, hidden in his large sleeves. He raised his chin. “I am the most powerful, richest Denizen from Earth.”

Silence followed his proclamation. The whole tavern holdings its breath. Then one woman began laughing. A loud, shrill laugh. The rest of the tavern followed a moment later.

A man stood. The man didn’t wear basic armour like the others. He wore full-plate. Xavier doubted he spent much on it. Instead of a sword at his belt, he wore a war hammer. The man was tall, maybe six-six, and built like a mountain. “Right. And I’m the King of England.”

Xavier released a long sigh. “None of us have time for this. Earth is threatened by foreign invaders. It will need all of you at your best, which is why I’m offering you all 100,000 Lesser Spirit Coins each.”

The big man had been walking toward him. He stopped. “That… that’s a lot of money. You’re serious?”

Well, that got them listening, he thought, before saying, “Yes, I’m serious. I’m sure you’ve all figured out the massive disadvantage Earth has here at the tower. I plan to change that, at least as much as I can. The first part of that is outfitting our entire cohort with superior weapons and armour. The second, is imparting as much knowledge as I can to all of you. And not just us. Other cohorts.

“This money won’t come for nothing. You’ll each have to make a System Contract, outlining that you’ll pass on the knowledge I give you, and any knowledge you have of the tower floors, onto two other Champions or full parties. You’ll pass it on to one Champion or party from our cohort, and one Champion or party from another.”

Xavier held up a hand as he saw some people about to ask questions. “Before they can receive this information, they must make a contract as well.”

“Sounds like some sort of chain email,” someone muttered.

Xavier nodded. “It is something like that. We won’t be able to offer money to members of other cohorts, so convincing them to make a contract will be the hard part for all of you.” He flicked the Minor Spirit Coin he still had in his hand up into the air. “But I assure you, it will be worth your while.”

~

Xavier detailed just about everything he knew about the different floors of the Tower of Champions to those ten parties in the room, then he handed over 5,000,000 Minor Spirit Coins to Sam once man made a contract with the correct wording stipulated within it. The 5,000,000 Minor Spirit Coins would convert into 50,000,000 Lesser Spirit Coins. Split between five hundred people, it should go far.

There would even be plenty left over, considering how many Champions in the cohort had likely already died…

God, it felt wrong handing over that much money. It was more than he’d spent on his own equipment. He still have more than what he’d handed over left, but that didn’t make it any easier.

It’s an investment in the wellbeing of Earth, its stability, and the strength of its Denizens.

Xavier wasn’t handing the money over to just anyone, after all. He was handing it over to Denizens who’d chosen to be Champions. People who’d chosen to fight for their world. People might choose Champion for selfish reasons in more established worlds than Earth, but no one on Earth had really known what any of it meant when they’d picked it.

Besides, the people in his own cohort, as far as he’d found out, had all come from the same geographical area. Everyone else in his party was from his city.

He’d offered the barkeep some compensation for dolling out the money and contracts, but Sam had turned him down, saying he was happy to do it as part of his role as their caretaker, and to garner goodwill with him.

Xavier saw no point in arguing. He’d spent enough coin as it was.

By the time he returned to the Staging Room, the other members his party were awake. The time limit they’d given themselves to level up before finishing off the last few floors wasn’t seeming like it would be enough. Not at the rate his party was clearing the sixth floor, at least, so Xavier decided it was time to move on from that floor and onto the next.

First, however, he wished to experiment with his new spells. He had quite a few of them, and it would be a travesty if he didn’t practice. Mentally, he went through each new spell, and the different abilities that he’d acquired with his equipment.

Core Burn, Summon Otherworldly Spirit, Otherworldly Communion, Soul Shatter, Soul Puppet, Soul Step, Otherworld Phase, and Buffer.

Five new spells and three new imbued abilities to test out.

He was intrigued by all of them. Core Burn and Soul Step were near the top of his list to try out. Core Burn appeared to be exactly what he’d done to the Lord of the Endless Horde. He wondered how overpowered the spell was, but a part of him knew it couldn’t be as strong as what he’d compelled the D Grade Denizen to do.

I won’t simply be able to kill anyone I like with this spell. The System wouldn’t hand me something like that, would it?

No. He doubted Core Burn would have even worked on the Lord of the Endless Horde. The only reason he’d been able to take that bastard out was because of that confluence of events. The man’s emotional vulnerability. His arrogance. The cracking of his mental block…

It would be very, very difficult to make such a thing happen again.

But on enemies of a lower level? Well, if he could drain them of their Spirit Energy, at the least he’d stop them from being able to cast spells. And if he did manage to burn their health as well…

It’s like a Spirit Energy drain spell, and a damage over time spell in one.

Summon Otherworldly Spirit and Otherworldly Communion were the two spells he was both most interested in learning about and most confused about. He didn’t know what summoning a spirit from the Otherworld would do, nor did he know what insight he could gain with Otherworldly Communion. He could have tested these spells out earlier, but he’d been too busy overseeing the others’ clearing of the sixth floor—not that they’d really needed his help.

He was glad he’d found a solution to the king being sacrificed at the top of that goblin keep. Farming floors of the Tower of Champions had far too many moral implications for his liking. If he could do it and reduce harm to those they were tasked with helping, if they happened to be tasked with helping anyone on a floor they came to, then he would do so.

“This will be our second last time on the sixth floor,” he told the others, who’d all gathered around him the moment he’d stepped into the Staging Room. “I already know how I’m going to clear the floor. A single usage of Soul Strike, area-of-effect, should be enough to destroy every goblin in that keep. If any floor boss remains alive at the top, I can Soul Step to the nearest dead enemy and kill them there.”

Howard raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’ll work.”

“You’ll clear the floor in a matter of seconds,” Justin said. “I suppose you did the same for the fourth floor…”

Siobhan tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “We really are holding you back, aren’t we?”

Xavier shook his head. “No. You’ll all be needed, once were back on Earth. You know that.” Part of him couldn’t help but agree with her words, however. If he wasn’t bothering to wait and level them up, he’d already have cleared the tenth floor and be back on Earth.

I need to think of the bigger picture, don’t I?

Besides, he’d be there by the end of the day. That was their plan, after all.

Not much longer now.