Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion -Chapter 76 - Did I Just Waste A Soul? (Patreon)

Xavier kept the frown off his face as he looked at the others. He couldn’t help but feel as though they were looking at him differently.

Then again, he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised even if they were. He thought about what he’d just done. What he’d just been able to do. Not only had he struck down close to a thousand beasts, he’d done it with ease.

And he’d harvested every single one of their souls.

Yet the pit inside of him still didn’t feel full. The pit inside of him felt deeper with every soul he dragged into of it. Even now, his soulkeeping threshold at 30, and 30 souls kept, looking at the others…

He felt hungry.

Could Siobhan see that in his grin? Was that why her smile looked wrong?

He shook that worry away. In the grand scheme, what did it matter, what these three thought of him, even if they were becoming his friends?

If they step out of line, I can harvest their souls—

Xavier shook his head.

He didn’t need those thoughts. His party had been nothing but good to him. Xavier took a deep, calming breath. His heart was slamming against his chest, invigorated by the power he’d just been able to unleash.

He felt absolutely unstoppable, like that gave him a right… a right to do anything. But he knew that wasn’t true. Knew that he should feel wary of that impulse.

I’m feeling drunk on the power.

It made him wonder what the Greater Universe was like. What kind of people were out there. If this sort of power was going to his head—or trying to go to his head—what did it do to those who didn’t share his morals? Who didn’t want to use the power for good?

Might makes right was all he could think these people would believe, and in a universe like this, where an individual could one day muster up enough power to destroy entire worlds with a single thought, he was having trouble coming up with an argument against that.

They headed back to the Staging Room, climbing down the platform one by one. Watching Justin shake as he climbed down, Xavier wished he’d had a rope for the kid. Sometimes he forgot just how young sixteen was, and he was only a few years older than that.

They didn’t spend much time in the Staging Room. The others had a lot of questions for him, mostly about what had been out there in the dark, considering how long he’d been away.

Xavier told them about the Dark Wyverns. About how he couldn’t see the beasts, but he could see their auras.

Then he told them about how easy it had been for him to take them down, to harvest their souls, and the path he’d chosen to take Soul Strike.

“You’re aiming to hit the number 1 spot on the ladder?” Siobhan asked. Her smile looked genuine, this time. Nothing like the smile she’d given him a few minutes ago back in the fourth floor Safe Zone. That one, he now realised, had been tinged with fear. “That’s amazing!”

“It sounds as though you’d already be fast enough, being able to kill every beast within a few minutes,” Howard said.

Xavier lowered his head in a nod. He’d wondered about the same thing. He struggled to imagine how someone else would be able to manage what he could. Then again, he’d completed the last floor in about a minute and a half, and he still hadn’t been fast enough to get higher than number 2 on the top 100.

That’s still pretty damned high, he told himself, but he still felt disappointed. Felt like he could do more.

Besides, he knew that there was always a little something more instore for someone who was first.

(Though he knew that wasn’t always the case. He hadn’t gained a title for being the first from Earth to choose their non-basic class, nor had he gained a title for discovering his Spirit Core, even though he was sure he was the first. So it clearly didn’t work on everything.)

If he could beat the top record for a floor—maybe for every next floor he encountered—he knew in his gut that he’d get a better title.

“It might be fast enough, but I don’t want to take that risk. I want to gain a few more levels and test out all my other spells. Increase my soul keeping threshold and keep ranking up Soul Strike.”

Xavier figured that once Soul Strike reached Rank 10, he should be able to keep 100 harvested souls.

And by then, the gained ranks and the gained points in Spirit from whatever levels he got should be enough for him to take out a clutch in a one-infused Soul Strike.

Then he knew, he could still be even faster than that. He remembered the spell’s description once he’d ranked it up.

As Soul Strike (Ranged) progresses through the ranks, its range and area-of-effect damage will only increase.

The area-of-effect damage part intrigued him. His plan made him smile. If it worked, and he was almost sure it would, he could clear this floor perfectly. He could clear it so damned fast that no one in the entire Greater Universe would ever have done it better.

Maybe this power isgoing to my head.

“But before I do that,” Xavier said, “there are other things I need to test. And, when we return to the floor, I want to bring the three of you with me.” His forehead creased in thought. He looked at Siobhan. “I think I have a way for you to gain a lot of levels. Fast.” He looked at Justin and Howard. “As for the two of you… you’re going to help me rank up some skills.”

Justin and Howard frowned at each other, clearly not understanding what he had in mind.

Xavier broke off from the three of them. He’d given them a few minutes to focus on sparring or whatever else they might want to do. Right now, he had something else to attend to. Something he hadn’t wanted to test while he was in that vast, black expanse.

He headed to the far end of the room. He sat cross-legged, his back against the smooth wall, and fell into a deep meditation within a blink of an eye.

There were many spells he’d yet to test out. Soul Harden was one of them. When he’d first looked at the spells name, he should have instantly realised why his soul needed protecting—to strengthen his soul against soul damage, like the damage he’d caused those Dark Wyverns—yet at the same, it had seemed like it could be referring to something else. That there was more than soul damage that one had to worry about when it came to protecting their soul.

Because he got a sense that it would be useful for other things, as well. Though he wasn’t exactly sure what those things were, now that he’d discovered the soulkeeping threshold, he wondered if it might help him to improve that as well.

Either way, he had 30 souls that he could use to test the spell with. Though he should probably save a soul for when they returned to the fourth floor.

Soul Harvest didn’t have any cooldown. I wonder if Soul Harden does. The spells were very similar in how their descriptions were structured.

Xavier, eyes closed, cast Soul Harden. He focused on that dark pit inside of him, the one where the souls he harvested resided, and felt one of the souls get wrenched out of that pit.

It was like a bright light in his mind. And the sensation the soul gave off… he had no way of explaining it. It was like the power an aura gave off, at least in a small way. But it was also completely different.

Xavier wasn’t sure why. He tilted his head to the side, waiting for… something more to happen. The spell had been cast. The soul had been consumed. Yet… nothing appeared to have changed within Xavier.

He opened his eyes and looked down at himself, deep lines cutting into his forehead. He didn’t feel any different, nor did he look any different. He checked his harvested souls.

Harvested Souls: 29/30

Xavier frowned even more deeply. He had definitely used one of his 30 souls—he hadn’t needed to check to know, but it had almost felt necessary, just to confirm that he already knew—yet… nothing had happened?

Part of him had wondered if he would have received more to his Spirit attribute or something. Or gotten some notification mentioning how much stronger his soul had become.

The spell hadn’t gone into cooldown, either.

Xavier let out a sigh. Did I just waste a soul? Is there more to this spell that I simply don’t know?

Sometimes—actually, a lotof times—he wished that there could be someone around here that he could turn to. Someone that he could ask these questions of. Someone that would have all the answers.

But… he also enjoyed figuring things out for himself.

Xavier lowered his head, shut his eyes again, and focused once more on the souls within him.

There were 29 left.

How many would he need to consume with Soul Harden for something to happen?