Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 84 - Is There Nothing Left Out There For Me, O Great System? (Patreon)

In the centre of the Greater Universe, upon the largest, most densely populated planet in the Traval sector, stood a tower that reached so high into the sky it was above the clouds.

The tower had a thousand floors. The owner of the tower had it made as an homage to the one where he had first gained his strength, and it has stood since before most of the planets in the universe had even been formed.

A monster of a man, with a neatly cropped grey beard and silver hair that draped down over his shoulders, walked to the edge of the tower’s rooftop garden. Not many plants were able to grow this high in the sky, where the air was as thin as the celestial energy was scarce. Only those flora hardy enough to survive even the harshest of conditions could thrive up here, just like the man who walked through that garden now.

He did not wear his armour, nor did he wear a weapon. The man was beyond such things. To even draw blood from his skin would take the effort of a thousand of the strongest worlds greatest armies and elites in the Greater Universe working in unison.

He had not fought a battle in a long time. In a way, he felt as though he’d grown beyond that too. That he had reached the peak, and there was nothing… left.

There were more worlds to conquer—there were always more—but he was satisfied with his dominion. Those thousand strongest worlds, the ones who could perhaps draw blood from his skin if they worked together? They had long been under his control.

But sometimes, it was lonely at the top. Sometimes, a challenge was what he craved more than anything else.

He gripped the intricately carved stonework at the side of the rooftop garden. At the four corners of the tower, and every ten yards from corner to corner, statues of beasts stood guard. Great dragons, ferocious griffons, and a dozen other beasts he couldn’t care to remember the names of, but knew he’d killed his fair share of in his time.

If the tower were ever attacked—an eventuality that he doubted would ever come to pass—those beasts would come alive and protect it, each equal to the power of a B Grade Denizen. They were an invention he was quite fond of, but one he no longer wasted his time with.

He turned his gaze to the heavens, and closed his eyes as though in prayer.

Is there nothing left out there for me, O Great System?

He wasn’t expecting a response. The System had nevergiven him a direct response. Not once in his vast memory.

The man let out a great sigh. He opened his eyes and turned from the wall.

He felt weary. More weary than he ever had.

Then, unbidden, without his summoning, a notification popped up in his vision. Words floating in front of him. They made his brow furrow in slight confusion, for in the billions of years that he had lived he had never before seen their like.

Your temporary title, Fourth Floor Ranked 1 – RECORD HOLDER (Completion Time – 26 sec), has been edged down one on the Tower of Champion’s top 100 ladder.

The man blinked.

Impossible.

There was further information, about his title turning into a normal top 100 title for the Tower of Champions, but he dismissed it—a loss of a few measly stat points was no bother to him—bringing up the ladder. A ladder he had not looked at since he’d conquered the thousandth floor oh so many years ago, defeating every single one of the tower’s challenges as the top ranked Denizen.

A ranking he had never once lost for any of the tower’s floors.

Until today.

The ladder showed him the names of every single title holder on the top one hundred list for each floor. Seeing the names of the Champions who ranked was only something accessible by someone who both ranked themselves, and had completed the tower’s final floor.

The man opened the ladder for the fourth floor.

A team must have somehow finally defeated my time. Perhaps a team from my own realm of influence.

In fact, it might even be one of his descendants leading a party into the tower. Someone with the most possible advantages. Though he had no idea just how many direct descendants he would now have out there, he did know about a few promising newcomers in his sect.

Adranial must be sixteen by now, perhaps she’s currently in the tower…

The ladder opened. He looked at the top name.

Tower of Champions - Fourth Floor Record Holders

1. Completion Time: 4 seconds.

One Denizen listed:

…

Where a name should have been, there were only three dots. The man stared at those dots. He knew what they meant.

This was a denizen from a newly integrated world. A world that was still under the System’s protection. Perhaps that should not have been surprising. Newly integrated worlds were where progenitors were born.

But this… the man had been expecting a team to have completed the floor, yet he had been mistaken.

It had been a single Denizen.

This… this is something different. Something new.

There were progenitors, those who gained the first titles for their worlds. Then there were true progenitors—those who capitalised upon their position to the best of their abilities, utilising every advantage they had to gain more and more.

Though, technically, every Denizen had the potential to do anything, it was generally agreed that: a progenitor had the potential to change a world, and a true progenitor had the potential to change a sector—an entire galaxy’s worth of planets.

But reaching the number one spot?

The man smirked, ran a hand through his beard.

Well, before now, that had only ever happened once. And that man?

He’d changed the entire Greater Universe.

Though the System barred him from seeing the Denizen’s name, the man had long discovered ways aroundthe System. Small secrets that let him circumvent its control.

He tried not to take too much advantage of these holes, as they tended to be plugged if he used them on too many occasions.

But this was quite the occasion, and he would be remiss if he didn’t take a peek.

And so that was how the most powerful Denizen in the entire universe turned his attention upon a mere child who had just completed the fourth floor of the Tower of Champions.

A few moments passed, then the man smiled.

Earth.

The planet was far away. In fact, as far as he could tell, it was the farthest planet in the entire Greater Universe to be integrated into the System, in a small sector that didn’t appear to have a Denizen stronger than C Grade.

The man chuckled to himself.

When Adranial breaks from the tower, assuming she survives its trials, I suppose I’ll have a job for her.

~

Xavier couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

As far as he could tell, there was no longer any sort of presence with its attention upon him. No longer any presence looking at him.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

What would be strong enough to look at me inside a floor of the Tower of Champions?

Though he didn’t know a great deal about the Greater Universe, and what the System allowed its most powerful Denizens to do, he would have thought something like that to be…

Impossible.

Perhaps it was the System itself, turning its attention on him. Something that could consume billions of galaxies and impose its will upon all of them, well, it would certainly make him feel like a speck of dust.

But that didn’t seem right. That didn’t seem like what had actuallyhad happened.

But, whoever, or whatever, it had been, Xavier supposed there was no point dwelling on it.

If I am being observed by the System, or a super-powerful Denizens somewhere out there in the Greater Universe, it doesn’t change what my next step needs to be.

Standing upon the floating rock, Xavier patiently waited for the countdown timer to reach zero.

It was time to gain his rewards for completing another floor.

~

The others had been stunned when they’d been returned to the Staging Room so quickly.

“Four seconds?” Justin said, shaking his head, repeating the words for perhaps the fifth time since he’d heard them. “You completed the floor in four seconds?”

“And you got the top rank!” Siobhan looked more excited than ever.

In fact, the entire team looked invigorated. They’d each reached level 10 on that floor, not to mention ranked up their spells and skills considerably, and all three of them were ready to choose their classes.

But first, Xavier had a loot box to open.

If he were honest, he perhaps wasn’t as excited as he should be to look in the loot box. He doubted the Mastery Points he would gain from it would be more than he could get from farming a level—especially a level like the fourth floor. And though he hadn’t been able to loot the corpses of the beasts he’d slain there as they’d fallen down into that great pit of nothing surrounding the floating rock, he could always make his own Lesser Spirit Coins if he needed them.

Still, perhaps there would be something of note inside the loot box.

You have gained +1 Skill Point.

You have gained 100,000 Mastery Points.

You have gained 60,000 Lesser Spirit Coins.

You have received a Sector Travel Key.

Xavier blinked at the text, reading the last thing he’d gotten from the loot box over a second time.

A Sector Travel Key? Is that… is that what I think it is?

The item appeared in his hand. The key looked to be made from well-polished brass. It was large and chunky and looked… old fashioned. He frowned down at it, scanning the key.

{Sector Travel Key}

Well… that was helpful.

Xavier could imagine what it was, though he had no idea how to use it. Clearly, it looked like it was supposed to unlock something. But sector travel sounded like something that should let him teleport to another world, or create a portal to one.

This was just… a key.

Perhaps it was time to have another conversation with the bartender downstairs.