Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 3) - Chapter 58 - Unfinished (Patreon)

The next few weeks after that went by faster than he thought they could. Xavier quickly found that it wasn’t leftover invaders that he needed to deal with. More often than not, it was people from Earth making trouble for other people from Earth.

Just like it had been for thousands of years, he supposed. A naïve part of him had hoped that people would come together after what had happened. That the System coming down to Earth would give everyone common ground. A common goal—gain power, defend their world, maybe even live forever.

With an entire universe worth of planets opening up, there would be enough fights out there that they didn’t need to start any at home.

When he had the opportunity, he tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. But he only gave someone one chance. If they ever showed their true colours, he dealt with them swiftly.

He didn’t want to make the same mistake as he had with Alistair. Didn’t want more psychopathic, mass murdering maniacs on the loose on account of his naivety.

Xavier spent most days the same.

He hunted down new dungeons. Cleared them with his party, always getting the first clear. He scouted more and more of the landscape, slowly filling out his mini-map, turning the darkness into trees, buildings, grasslands, and mountains.

The levels were the slowest thing to come. But he didn’t mind. He knew from his time in the Tower of Champions, that levels weren’t the only thing that he was after.

Titles were.

And there were plenty of titles to find in this place.

There was a part of him that wondered if it was selfish to take so many of the titles away from others, without ever giving them a chance, but he knew that was a foolish way to think. The whole point of being a Progenitor, let alone a True Progenitor, was to be in the lead. Was to take things first.

Besides, fair wouldn’t matter much if he stopped going after titles. If he let others clear dungeons before him, he might not end up strong enough to take on all the enemies that would no doubt come after him after the restriction was lifted. There wasn’t just people from his own sector to deal with either.

There was a C Grade in a whole other sector that wanted his blood to quench their first for revenge.

I guess that’s what killing someone’s son will get you.

So if Xavier didn’t take those titles, Earth was liable to get its ass kicked because he wouldn’t be around to save it.

As Xavier cleared more and more dungeons, completed more and more quests, his attributes soared. He broke through more and more thresholds with those first-clear titles. It felt like being in the tower again.

Whenever he returned to the base, he found it thriving. He would scan the people inside of it, and it was rare to see anyone under Level 20 unless they were new arrivals, or else had only recently reached age sixteen and gained access to the System.

To gain access to the System store, his base would need one hundred people to reach Level 30.

Gathering people into the base wasn’t difficult. In fact, the base was beginning to get a little too crowded for his liking. Xavier, always having been an introvert, liked his space, liked the quiet. Fortunately, his room was soundproofed, giving him that quiet he desired.

He didn’t find that he spent a great deal of time in his room. Sleep wasn’t something he needed as much as others, so it was low down on his priority list. But when he needed to spend time alone, his room was where he went.

Slowly, he’d been collecting books. All his old favourites. He hadn’t been able to find his old apartment, and there was nothing in there of much significance, not in the grand scheme of things, anyway.

What he had left behind that he cared about, however, were his books. Books he felt it was necessary to replace. Stepping into his room at the Sanctuary Seed base three weeks after returning to Earth, Xavier pulled a copy of Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss out of his Storage Ring and placed it on the bookshelf. He released a sigh.

The world had gone to all hell. The chances of that series—of any unfinished series—being completed was basically zero, now.

An odd thing to worry about, given everything else going on…

But how could he not think about it? Before the integration, his life had been filled with writing and reading. They were the two things he enjoyed doing most. Now his old life was gone, and he couldn’t say he didn’t like his new life—or, at least, his place in the Greater Universe. He felt powerful—he was powerful—and he had the potential to become something the Greater Universe had never seen before.

Not to mention his lifespan had already increased dramatically.

But there would be billions of people out there, people just like him, who’d had their lives cut off. Who’d had dreams, plans, things they were in the middle of striving for or looking forward to, who hadn’t fared anywhere near as well as he had. He wondered how many women out there were pregnant, awaiting the birth of a child who’d known a completely different world to what they were conceived in. How they must be feeling. The shock, the dismay, the anxiety.

He wanted to bring stability back to Earth, not because he was trying to return it to what it had once been—that simply wasn’t possible, and it wasn’t on his list of goals, either—but because he wanted to give people the chance to make plans again. To see a future in this new reality that had been chosen for them, just as they’d had to figure out what to do in the old world.

Most of the names on the spines of the books on his shelf were of people that had still been alive pre-integration. It made him wonder what had happened to them all.

It made him wonder how many of them were already dead.

He took a moment, looking at his books. He didn’t plan to read any of them. Not in the near future, at least.

He could read significantly faster than anyone on Earth pre-integration ever could, but reading the books now would bring into light just how far removed he was from his old life. Though he was glad for his new life and knew that in the long run it would serve him better—and the longer run would be far longer than he’d ever imagined—a part of him mourned what came before, and the shelves, the books, they were somewhat of a memorial. A shrine he could return to whenever he needed to remember what parts of Earth he was trying to preserve.

The good parts. Not the bad. The way people could create, not the way people could destroy.

Apparently he was becoming more sentimental the more time he spent on Earth. One might have thought reuniting with his mother would have been what brought that out in him, but since he’d rescued her, killing the man who’d been controlling her, he’d barely even spoken to the woman.

The life he’d had with her felt like a different lifetime, so far removed from what he was doing now. Perhaps it was callous, to ignore her as much as he had, but he’d ensured she was safe. He’d done enough for now.

A knock on his chamber door snapped him out of his reverie. Xavier closed his eyes for a moment before walking over and opening the door.

Adranial stood on the other side.

He hadn’t seen as much of her lately as he’d expected to. She’d been off training in the dungeons he’d given her free rein over. The few dungeons on the Earth that he didn’t get a first-clear title from.

“Adranial.” He opened the door wider. “Your party isn’t with you?”

Adranial stepped into his chambers, walking past him. “They’re in the new blacksmith that’s sprouted up since the last time I was here, though there’s nothing your smiths can make that they need yet.”

Xavier smiled. He was proud of how far the base had come. When they gained access to the System Shop, things would change even more. Something told him it would make quite a dramatic difference. It would also make his base—something he should really come up with a name for—considerably more desirable for outsiders.

Of course, his base was already an incredibly desirable place to live, considering it was currently the safest place in the entire world, at least now that the barriers on the Safe Zone cities had fallen. Most of the people in those Safe Zones had stayed within the cities. Xavier had spent a good amount of time ensuring cities like that were being protected, which was far easier when the only threats to those within were from beasts or others from Earth, and not from invaders.

It was a lot of work, but it was work he felt good about.

“What have you come to see me about, Adranial? Is there something you want?”

Adranial sat down at the table in his chambers, one he’d never had much opportunity to use. She looked over at him with a slightly pained expression. “You think I came to see you because there’s something I want? That hurts, Xavier Collins.”

Xavier didn’t move from where he stood, he simply stared back at her. “Well, why did you come here?”

Adranial looked away, let out a breath. “As it so happens, there is something I need from you.”

“Of course there is.” Xavier walked over and sat across from her at the table. “I’m not giving you more first-clear dungeons titles.”

“Not even if I say please?”

“Not even if you begged.”

Adranial gave him a sharp look. “Those from my family do not beg.”

What he’d thought had been playful banter had shifted fast, and he was reminded of the fact that though this woman wasn’t near as powerful as him, she was the second most powerful person currently on Earth. She couldn’t do anything with that power unless she wanted to break the contract they’d made, but she’d been sent here by someone far more powerful than herself—someone from a sector far, far away.

Though the woman hadn’t confirmed his theory, that she’d been sent by the presence he’d felt watching him after he’d completed the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions—the presence that had made him feel like the most insignificant thing in the universe—he was sure it was likely to be true. And if not sent by that person, then certainly by someone far stronger than anyone in this sector.

Xavier put up his hands. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Adranial took a moment, then she nodded. The harsh expression on her face softened. “I’m not here about titles.”

“Then what are you hear about?”

Adranial bit her lip. He still wasn’t really sure what this woman was after. She’d said she wanted friendship. Clearly, she wanted to make him her ally. At least, that was the best-case scenario. Either that or she was simply trying to gain intelligence on him.

Coming here seems like a lot of effort to do something like that.

“You don’t have as much time as you think you do.”

Xavier frowned. “What do you mean?”

The woman slumped in her chair, something he never thought he would see. For as long as he’d known the woman, which admittedly had only been a few weeks, she’d always had perfect posture. Now, she looked like a bored teenager in class.

Or someone hiding from their parents’ questions, ashamed of the answers they were about to give.

“You’re… becoming too strong,” Adranial said in a small voice.