Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 45 - Advancement Completion Imminent (Patreon)

Xavier floated in darkness. Or stood in it. Honestly, he wasn’t really sure. This feeling was a familiar one, however. It reminded him of the room he’d been taken to when the System had begun integrating Earth. Black. Formless. Unending.

Initiating advancement of Denizen XAVIER COLLINS from F Grade to E Grade.

Checking attributes…

Denizen’s attributes deemed as: Exceptional

Xavier blinked, staring at the notification. This was familiar. Very familiar. Reminiscent of when the System had judged his physical, intellectual, and spirit skills.

Except “exceptional” hadn’t been an option at that time—not as far as he’d known.

He blinked, wondering about his attributes. Time seemed frozen in this place, and he got the feeling that nothing he did would speed this process, which meant he could finally stop and breathe.

Xavier had been in a mad dash to reach E Grade since finding out it would be possible on this floor. He’d no doubt pushed himself farther than any Champion on this floor ever had. But it also meant that there were a lot of floor titles other Progenitors—especially True Progenitors—would likely have gotten before reaching E Grade that he hadn’t.

Though my attributes are incredibly high for someone at my level, I probably haven’t broken any records. I doubt I would be the strongest Denizen in the Greater Universe to be advancing to E Grade, for instance. Though having an epic class, and a lot of the titles I do possess, mean I must be in the top tier.

He felt a small note of disappointment at that—at not being the best. He could have taken a different path. But it was too late now.

On the other hand—assuming he survived what came next—he would still have the opportunity to gain all of the titles from the next floors. And, being E Grade, there was every chance he would rank as number one for each floor, breaking the previous records easily.

I can’t imagine there are other Denizens out there that have reached E Grade by this point in the Tower of Champions. Maybe that will garner me a title as well.

Becoming as strong as he could as fast as he could was his goal—it was what would make him the best asset to his planet. The best defender of it.

He looked at the other notifications that had appeared.

Checking spells…

Denizen’s spells deemed as: High

Checking skills…

Denizen’s skills deemed as: High

Xavier tilted his head to the side. He’d been hoping for a better outcome than that, now that he knew that exceptional was an option. All of his spells were Rank 50, and all but two of his skills were Rank 50 as well. Perhaps there wasn’t something higher than “High” for these two properties.

Checking Spirit Core…

Denizen’s Spirit Core deemed as: Exceptional

Checking Willpower Core…

Denizen’s Willpower Core deemed as: Exceptional

Xavier smiled. When the notification had told him that not being prepared could damage his spells and skill, or even get him killed, he’d been momentarily worried. Logically, he’d known he was prepared enough, but seeingthat was the case took a weight off his shoulders.

Advancement to E Grade initiated.

Advancement cannot be interrupted.

Prepare yourself.

Prepare myself? I thought I was pre—

Pain slammed into him. It felt like his very being was split in half on a molecular level. How he knew that’s what it felt like was beyond him—but it was. The pain split him in a trillion places, all over his body, inside and out, made him convulse and shudder and writhe.

The pain was so intense he wasn’t even able to scream.

~

Crellstello, Lord of the Endless Horde, floated down to the surface of his home world, humming a low tune. A funeral dirge, for the Champion he was to kill. The Lord had been exploring the hidden nooks and crannies of his home world’s third moon. Exploration was something he greatly enjoyed—his discoveries were the reason he’d managed to become so powerful in the first place—and he’d been meaning to map out the moon for years.

As far as he knew, there wasn’t anything of significance on the moon, hence why it had been neglected for so long. Better to go for treasure and resources he knew existed. But he already knew what the entire sector had to offer, and he had to do something with his spare time.

He’d of course been aware of what was happening with the siege upon the Queendom of Arala’s final stronghold. Though he had not been the one to order the siege—such minutiae as the scheduling of when to attack other planets was not something that need occupy his time, he had plenty of lieutenants to keep an eye on things.

Or so he’d thought.

But the handling of this siege had been an absolute disaster. Much of that was attributed to what the System allowed his Horde to do. In this sector, the System had certain restrictions in place when it came to invading weaker domains. Crellstello knew there were other places in the Greater Universe where such rules were different, but he also knew that if he were to step away from his sector he would no longer be considered the most powerful.

There would be others to contend with. Denizens of equal and far higher ranks. Right now, he was a big fish in a small pond. He didn’t want to change that.

Perhaps in a few hundred years, or even a thousand, things would change. But the advancement to C Grade had eluded him, and he’d long ago told himself he wouldn’t step away from his sector until two things were achieved: Total domination of every planet in the galaxy, and his advancement to C Grade.

Now some Champion of the Void was burning through the lower ranks of his Horde. The System should have compensated for that. Clearly, the waves it had allowed weren’t enough.

This damned Champion should have been crushed long ago.

Somehow, the Champion was gaining more and more strength from each wave that came. Now, however, the Champion had pushed too far—come to hishome world. It was not that the Lord cared for those the Champion had killed. His soldiers and beasts were disposable. They always had been. He saw them closer to slaves than citizens, and one does not mourn the death of slaves.

What he cared about was the setback this Champion had caused to his plans, and the fact that his actions made the Horde look weak.

That was not something he could tolerate, and finally, the System was allowing him to remedy the situation.

You’ve attacked my world now, Champion. All restrictions have been lifted.

Truly, it had been the most foolish of choices.

The Lord of the Endless Horde easily pinpointed the man’s location in his city and landed at the mouth of an alleyway. He chuckled at the sight before him. The Champion wore dark robes and clutched a weak weapon that was beneath his power. And he was shuddering.

“This is where I find the great Champion of the Void that has been giving my Horde so much trouble? Cowering in fear at the back of an alleyway?” The System must have made the Champion aware of the Lord’s imminent arrival. He released a deep chuckle, then made a tsk, tsk, sound with his mouth. “You made a dire mistake, coming to my home world. You should have retreated through the void, back to whatever backwater universe you came from.”

As the Lord of the Horde neared the shuddering man, he paused and tilted his head to the side. There was a power enveloping the man. Energy hovering around him. It wasn’t the man’s aura. It was something else.

System Energy.

This got the Lord’s full attention. “You aren’t cowering,” he muttered. “You’re advancing.” The transformation looked as though it still had a few minutes until it would be complete. The Lord rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. “One cut, and you would be done for.”

He didn’t feel any resistance to the course of action. The System would allow him to do this.

The Lord sat down on the cold stone of the alleyway, crossing his legs beneath him. He rested his hands on his knees and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

It was true, he had done what people might consider terrible things in his life, and he did not much care for the lives of others—unless they could advance his own cause. But he lived by a code of honour, one his mother had taught him many years ago.

“You do not fight someone who is unarmed, little Crell,” his mother had said, placing a hand on his chin and pulling his eyes up to meet hers. “Do not dishonour your family.”

I won’t dishonour you, mother.

He’d made sure to always adhere to her code of honour. That was why, when he’d burst into her throne room during his coop, he had not attacked her unawares—he’d waited until she’d summoned her weapon.

Crushing this Champion of the Void would be child’s play, and far more enjoyable when the man was conscious. Though it did surprise him that the man was advancing to E Grade. The System would not have thrown such low-level waves at this Champion if he’d been this strong when he’d first arrived.

He has tempered himself on my Horde, in a way that no one else ever has, but he shall regret it.

~

Xavier’s pain felt as though it would never cease. It was as unending as the Horde he faced—as unending as the Greater Universe itself. His body split a trillion ways, and with it his mind. Perhaps even his soul.

His consciousness was not a tangible thing. He could not take hold of what was happening. His awareness was more than fractured—it was glass shattered by a meteorite the size of Earth’s moon. Whenever it tried to reform, to get a handle on what was happening, that meteorite would strike once more, shattering everything he was.

The System was breaking him down. Down into nothing.

Not nothing. Almost nothing.

Time was irrelevant. This was all he knew.

Until things changed.

Bit by bit, the core components that comprised the being that was Xavier Collins stitched themselves back together. The System was rebuilding him. He could feel its presence around him, and he realised that he recognised it. He had felt this before. When he’d first been fully integrated and given his class—that was when he’d felt it the most.

He’d just never noticed it before. Now, with the presence of the System around him so strong, it was clear.

There’s an energy around me… It’s around me every time I earn a title. I just never knew.

A word for the energy came to him unbidden. An insight provided to him from the Greater Universe itself, even though he wasn’t meditating right now—even though there was no way that he could meditate right now.

System Energy.

The pain had not gone away. If anything, the pain was worse now that his mind was slowly becoming whole once more. He could fully perceive it. But Xavier had the strength of will to look past that pain. Had the strength of will to see through it and to the other side.

He was changing.

Error.

Multiple impurities detected in XAVIER COLLINS.

Assimilated impurities unable to be purged.

Impurities may affect the efficacy of your advancement.

Advancement completion imminent.

The pain doubled.