Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 32 - Just Following Orders (Patreon)

For a moment, Xavier thought he might be hallucinating.

The first enemy he saw as he climbed out of that hole in the ground was a soldier with a scraggly beard smoking… a pipe? The man was backing away, eyes wide, the pipe sagging from his mouth.

The man had a spear resting on his shoulder. He shrugged it up, spinning it until the blade faced Xavier.

Xavier sighed. He tried not to think about the individual soldiers in the mess of the Endless Horde. Tried not to think about what kind of people they might be when they weren’t on the battlefield. In a way, these people were just doing their jobs.

Half a sector of people, just doing their jobs.

But he also knew that just doing their jobs and just following orders were excuses many people had used in Earth’s history to commit horrible atrocities and not hold themselves accountable. Each of the soldiers in the Endless Horde had a choice, even if they didn’t believethey had a choice, they did.

They came here to kill innocent people. Whatever Queen Alastea’s ancestors had done to piss them off, they weren’t even alive anymore. Their descendants shouldn’t be punished for something that wasn’t even their fault.

And these soldiers Xavier faced? They were on the wrong side of the conflict.

I shouldn’t need to justify why I’m fighting these people—why I’m protecting the queen. I’ll need to do far worse than this in the future.

Xavier gripped Soul Reaper tight as the soldier thrust his spear toward him. He sidestepped the strike with ease, then with one clean swipe he cut the man’s head off. On its way to the ground, the pipe separated from the head, trailing smoke through the air.

Though it might not be necessary, a part of Xavier was glad he felt the need to justify his actions. And that same part worried about what might happen if he ever stopped feeling the need to do so—especially with how many years he was likely to live.

Because however he justified destroying the Endless Horde, he knew for a fact that he wasn’t doing it out of simple altruism. He wasn’t doing it to save Queen Alastea—at least, that wasn’t the only reason he was doing it.

He wanted power. Needed it.

The more he gained—the more powerful he became—the more he desired it. In a way, it felt as though it were an addiction. Which was something that should probably worry him. But it didn’t.

It emboldened him.

If I’m going to be addicted to anything in the Greater Universe, getting stronger sounds like the smartest thing to choose.

Now he’d defeated the E Grade wave boss, that warrior with the earth magic who’d trapped him deep underground, bringing him the closest to death he’d perhaps ever been since the first floor, it didn’t take long for Xavier to deal with the rest of the wave.

He returned to the wall with a plan. His mind was still split. The half that had been unconscious had been fully awake and thinking at a mile a minute after he’d climbed free of the ground.

He knew exactly how he was going to tackle the next few waves, and what he was going to do during them.

Strength, Speed, and Toughness. Those were the three attributes that were keeping him from taking the next step. For each one, he would need to develop skills and assimilate into himself different materials if he were going to break the 1000-point attribute threshold, then push to E Grade, and finally destroy the Endless Horde.

Not to mention get himself off this rock and through the next floors.

Earth’s waiting for me.

Earth wouldn’t be defenceless without its Champions—but it would be close enough.

When Xavier returned to the wall, Siobhan embraced him. The hug came out of nowhere. It took him a moment to hug her back with his free arm, the other holding Soultaker.

She stepped back and gave a sniff.

Xavier raised an eyebrow at her. The other members of his party, along with Adviser Kalren and Queen Alastea, were arrayed around him in a semi-circle. “Concerned about me, were you?”

“I almost summoned you back a hundred times.” Siobhan bit her lip. Her eyes were watery, but no tears fell. “If I waited too long… and you’d died…” She creased her forehead, dropping her gaze to the stone floor. “It would have been my fault.”

Xavier put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “No. It wouldn’t have been your fault.” He dropped his hand and looked at the others. “It would have been mine.”

Queen Alastea looked as though she wanted to say something. Her lips parted, but no words escaped them.

“Glad you survived that.” Howard shook his head. “Don’t know how you keep managing it.”

Xavier grinned. “I split my mind in half and put part of it into an enemy soldier.” He went on to explain the rest of what had happened.

His mind—though aching something fierce—was still split in two. He knew how to make it whole again. He could feel the mental mechanism. His mind wanted to be as one. So really, it would take less effort to bring the two halves back together than it was to keep sustaining them a part.

His mind could use the rest. But rest was something he didn’t have the luxury of partaking in.

So, while he spoke to the others, he did what he’d been unable to do on the battlefield. He consumed another Wolven Fang and underwent the process of assimilating the material for a second time.

Though he worried going through this process would do nothing for him, at least there was no harm in trying.

Nothing but a little bit of wasted time and energy.

He tossed the fang into his mouth like it was a piece of popcorn and he was at the movies. He swallowed the fang. Felt it scrape his throat and journey down to his stomach. Like the last times he’d swallowed Wolven Fangs, it didn’t go down easy. But he was getting used to the unpleasant sensation.

This was what he’d been trying to do when he first split his mind. Before the E Grade warrior had attacked him and buried him alive.

At least that bastard got what was coming to him.

Xavier frowned at the thought that had just slipped through his mind. It was more… spiteful than he usually felt when fighting against enemies. No. Spiteful wasn’t the right word. It was more… personal.

He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

Xavier let the thought and his feelings around it drift away and focused on the task at hand. At least, he focused on the task with one part of his mind. The other was still engaged in conversation.

“If it is time for you and your party to abandon my queendom, I will understand.” Queen Alastea lowered her head, her expression hidden in shadow but easy enough for Xavier to read.

She’s afraid.

The thought felt like an obvious one. Of course the woman was afraid. Xavier had only just been contemplating his own death, as he’d been buried alive. His lungs in intense agony. And when that thrall he’d been inhabiting had died—that was when it had hit him the most.

Xavier was willing to risk his life for what he was trying to achieve. Both here and when he finally returned to Earth. But death? Death was still as terrifying a prospect as ever.

“I’m not leaving,” Xavier said, his voice steel. The determination he’d felt before—to destroy the Endless Horde—it hadn’t simply disappeared because he’d almost died. If anything, it burned even brighter than it had before.

The woman nodded. She brightened slightly, though there was a tightness around her eyes that showed the fear was still there.

Xavier didn’t continue to reassure the woman. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that his determination to take down the Endless Horde wasn’t because he wished to save her. Well, he did wish to save her. But, perhaps more than that, he wanted to achieve the impossible. He wanted to grow more powerful. And Earth was his true concern.

Attempting to assimilate Wolven Fang into muscular structure…

The material you are assimilating has various properties. However, as you have already assimilated a single property of the Wolven Fang into your muscular structure, you may only draw on that property.

Assimilation is complete.

Biological impurities of Wolven Fang have been further assimilated into muscular structure.

You have gained +2 Strength!

As the notifications popped up, Xavier blinked. Two Strength didn’t seem like a great deal, but it was a whole lot more than nothing, which was exactly what he was “gaining” by not being able to level.

He also noticed that his second assimilation of the Wolven Fang hadn’t brought him another rank.

But consuming more of the same material can increase the attribute…

Even if it was only by a little bit, Xavier thought about the possible limitations of the skill. How many different materials would he ultimately be able to assimilate into his body? Would assimilating those things into him change him somehow? Other than only his attributes.

He had a vision of himself consuming thousands of different components that had been dismantled from thousands of different beasts, and finally transforming into some sort of beast himself. As he thought about this, he ran his tongue across his teeth.

Had they become sharper than before? Were they… longer? He was sure that a slight silvery shade had come over his body when he’d assimilated crucible steel, but it was difficult to remember exactly how long and sharp his teeth had been.

The more he thought about it and tested them, the more they felt wrong. But that could have easily been because he was focusing on them to a high degree.

Back when he’d been a teenager, he’d once thought a bump had randomly appeared at the base of his skill. He’d been so focused on it he’d had the fear that it might be some kind of tumour. Turns out it had always been there, and he just hadn’t paid any attention to it.

My teeth are probably exactly as they’ve always been… But should I measure them? Before assimilating more of these Wolven Fangs?

It felt a little ridiculous to do something like that. He smirked to himself. He’d keep an eye on it, but he doubted his idea had any weight. And he certainly wasn’t about to start measuring his teeth.

I suppose I’ll find out in time if doing this changes me in unexpected ways…