Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 19 - Deadline

 “Ten years?” Xavier asked.

“At minimum,” Howard replied. “We think it would be enough time for us all to gain a strong foundation and push through to high D Grade like you are now, at least for us three.” He nodded at Siobhan and Justin. “Especially when you move this base to other worlds and expand the time dilation field to cover training grounds filled with beasts and high-level dungeons, as we know you intend.”

Xavier intended to do a lot more than that. He still wanted to push through the Hell Moons of Thazamar—and all of the others unique levelling grounds he’d heard of where titles were available. Still, he was still a little surprised it was them who’d come to him with this—and not just his old party.

“The three of you want to dedicate another ten years essentially frozen in time?” Xavier looked to the people on the other side of the table, Rose, Miranda, Kelly, Rebecca, and Michael. “And you all want to do the same?”

“If you’ll train us,” Rose, Siobhan’s younger sister, said. There was a strong determination with the slightest hint of pleading hope in the Level 1 teenager’s voice.

“We’ve all seen what you can do,” Kelly, Howard’s wife, said. “I’d heard stories, from Howard, before… But seeing you in the flesh. Being in this place where we keep moving while the world, the universe, stands still… That is the kind of power that can truly make a difference. I’ve always believed kindness can make a difference, make a change in the world. It’s how I walk my path. But I’ve never been blind or naïve about life’s bitter realities, especially now. I know that the more power behind that kindness, the more impact it can ultimately have.” She nodded. “I want that.”

“We all do,” Miranda, Justin’s mother, added. “I’ve always been happy to sit on the sidelines and watch my son succeed. It’s something I take great pleasure in. But the universe has become a very different place in these last few years, and the span of my life… Well, there’s far more time available than I ever dreamed. I’m not about to squander it.”

Xavier nodded, then looked at Howard’s kids, Rebecca and Michael. At fourteen and ten years old, they didn’t have the System yet—they couldn’t level up or learn skills. Even if they could, he couldn’t imagine sending a ten-year-old to fight beasts, or even a fourteen-year-old, if he were honest.

But if they were here for ten more years, they’d each become of age soon enough.

“I want to become strong!” Michael said, grinning. “Like dad.” He looked at Howard. Then his face became serious, stoic. He looked like a small version of his father in that moment. “I want to protect people.”

His sister spoke up next. “I’ve watched my father and his friends drawing runes for months now, and the patterns they make…” Rebecca trailed off, looking wistful. “Well, from what I’ve learnt, it’s like a programming language, for the universe. It’s fascinating. I can’t wait to do things like that, and I have so many ideas.” She paused. “I don’t just have idea about runes, either.” Rebecca glanced at her father, looking a little unsure. Howard gave her a nod, and she continued. “I’m curious about other time manipulation and other universes. While inside this time dilation field, we can’t cooldown our spells because the field is tied to our universe… But there are tower floors where people are taken to another universe where time works differently.” She twirled her fork between her fingers as she spoke. “Time Alteration is a powerful spell, but, um, I think you’ve been thinking too small.”

Xavier had quickly learnt that Rebecca was, well, a genius. Howard had never said as much, but it was clear she had a massive IQ and had been in a gifted program at some expensive school back before the world changed. That genius had made itself clear whenever he heard the girl talk. She may not have a perfect memory, or the other enhancements Denizens had when they reached System age and advanced through the tiers, but her mind worked in curious ways, making connections Xavier—or anyone else he’d spoken to—hadn’t thought to make.

He’d seen the way she watched when a spell pattern was drawn, a pen twirling through her fingers in her hand like the fork was now, her tongue slightly sticking out and her forehead creased in deep thought. Then she’d hastily scribble something on her large sketchpad.

Xavier, curious, had glimpsed the pad a few times, and been fascinated by what he’d found. She was drawing runes, and not just individual ones—patterns of them. At first, it took him a little while to realise what she was doing. Then, he saw how she would put the runes in different places, changing the way the pattern flowed from one to the next. Every now and then she would flip through a massive tome she carried around—a thick hardback book with several thousand pages, every single one covered with runes and details about each of them. Something her mother had bought her from the System Shop. As Rebecca didn’t have the System, the book had been translated into English as an add-on through the System Shop.

It didn’t take long for Xavier to start talking to the kid about what she was doing. She knew what every one of the runes she drew signified, and she had ideas about how to reorder them to make other things happen than what the spell pattern intended. No one had taught her any of this—she’d learnt the runes from the book and from watching them being drawn.

While Xavier fully intended to experiment with rune patterns in the future, it wasn’t something he’d started doing yet. It also wasn’t something he really knew where to start with.

Rebecca, apparently, did know. Of course, she hadn’t had a chance to test any of her theories out yet.

Xavier smiled at the eight people sitting around the table. Ten years sounded like a long time, but he’d already been integrated into the System for twelve years at this point—even if many of those years had only passed for him and not the rest of his world and universe. Almost two of those years had passed without him even really noticing time move as he trained in a time dilation field.

Something told him the time would go by more quickly than they all thought.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Xavier said. “I’d be happy to keep training you.” He nodded at his old party members on one side of the table. “And I’d be more than happy to instruct the five of you, too.” He tapped his chin with his finger. “Though there will come a time when I’ll have to leave the Roving Seed Base—when we’ll all have to leave. At least for a while.”

He intended for the Roving Seed Base to remain his home, whatever world it happened to be on at the time. If the people around the table wanted it to be their home too—and it was safe enough to make that happen—then that was exactly what he would do.

“The World Destroyer,” Michael said. “You need to kick its ass out of this galaxy.”

Xavier chuckled at the kid’s turn of phrase. Howard smiled. Kelly frowned.

 “Yes. I do,” Xavier replied. “And other things before that happens.” He clapped his hands together. “But that is for the future.” He looked at Rose, Miranda, Kelly, Rebecca, Michael. His new students. Xavier had never thought he would be a good teacher, considering how much of a recluse he tended to be, but he’d taken to it surprisingly well. He couldn’t help but feel a certain pride whenever someone did something he’d taught them, especially when they hadn’t thought they could. “Today, if you’re all serious about starting your training, I need to understand where each of you is at.”

Michael practically jumped out of his seat at these words. “I’m serious! I’m ready!” His childish excitement was refreshing. Actually, it reminded him a little of Justin, even if the man had mellowed out a bit lately, he still held onto that giddy energy.

Xavier didn’t stop smiling for the entire morning. For the entire first part of the day. Honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled this much.

He started by assessing each of them individually.

When speaking to Miranda, he discovered some interesting things. She was the oldest person inside the Roving Seed Base—not to say she was old. She was only fifty-something, which was barely anything for someone in the Greater Universe, but she was also the most likely of all of them to fall into the traps of thinking of herself as being as limited as when she was mortal.

Her age wasn’t what he found interesting, but her class. Miranda’s chosen support class was that of a Tutor. Xavier hadn’t even known this was an option until recently. Despite founding Collinsville—not that he’d been the one to give it that name—he’d intentionally not been in on every decision that had been made. Apparently, there were plenty of Tutors around the place. Many of the support classes from the Safe Zones where children under System-age were placed when the integration first happened had been not only healers, but teaching classes.

Well, while Xavier hadn’t known specifically about a support class named “Tutor,” he had known knowledge-based, teaching classes existed. Adviser Kalren, back on the fifth floor, who’d helped him find his secondary core, had gained levels based on the levels of the students he taught.

Xavier simply hadn’t had reason to think about it for a long time.

Talking to Miranda, who was still F Grade and only Level 21, was enlightening. Xavier had never understood how someone could gain Mastery Points by teaching. He’d wondered how that worked when talking to Adviser Kalren but hadn’t given it much thought afterward.

It wasn’t just that it was based on the level of those the Teaching line of classes taught, it was actually based on how many Mastery Points those people gained. If the relationship between teacher and student was strong enough, and the skills the student gained helped them progress, a portion of the Mastery Points that student gained would be funnelled back to the teacher.

This didn’t happen forever, but it did happen until they advanced past the teacher’s level—which meant a teacher always had to find students of an equal or lower level than themselves. The portion of Mastery Points the teacher gained, and the student lost from the deal, was hazier. Miranda didn’t have a straight answer on that, but according to those she’d taught their loss was negligible—which made her progress in her current circumstances very slow.

Xavier was absolutely fascinated by the process. He’d been very curious about other ways to gain Mastery Points than direct combat. Healers gained Mastery Points based on their involvement in a fight, especially when partied. Tanks could also gain Mastery Points even without inflicting damage if they kept enough of an enemy’s aggression, though the mechanisms behind that were less clear to Xavier than how a healer’s contribution worked. He’d tanked before without gaining a thing, for instance. Perhaps it was locked to a specific line of classes.

Still, a healer and a tank were very much a part of combat, even if they didn’t inflict damage. A teacher, however, was only tangentially connected to a student’s combat—at least, in Xavier’s eyes.

Though the Teacher line of classes, and how they gained Mastery Points, fascinated him, it also made him wonder how these people could teach valuable skills that were helpful in combat if they weren’t out in combat themselves. Though according to Miranda, the knowledge imparted was far more academic in nature than anything else.

Their skills and spells didn’t only revolve around learning and imparting knowledge, either. There was a strong research and experimental component. Even without direct expertise, they were able to help their students learn the constraints of their own spells and skills and guide them into other ways of thinking to use them. And they could get very good at it, gaining insights into a student that that student wouldn’t be able to see themselves, helping them stretch their abilities further than they otherwise might go, and refine their control over those abilities.

This was what was most intriguing to Xavier, as pushing and stretching skills and spells was part of how he’d gotten to where he was.

Then, there was the fact that they could, of course, gain Mastery Points through combat. Like all Denizens under the System, they were still encouraged toward conflict, even if they were more of a support role. They could gain rudimentary combat skills and even pursue a subclass as a mage or warrior, but those were always secondary to their main role, and they weren’t required.

Miranda had not embraced any combat abilities.

There was a part of Xavier that was a little disappointed with the manner of how she gained Mastery Points. Not because she didn’t fight to gain them, but simply because he was looking for something totally outside of combat—not even tangentially related to it—that helped someone gain levels.

For instance, he wished that healers could gain Mastery Points outside of battle simply by healing the sick or injured. Or that crafters could gain more than just ranks when they made weapons and armour. Or that when cultivating, it could impart Mastery Points to the Denizen too.

If a part of his ultimate goal wasn’t just saving the universe, but turning it into a place where people didn’t have to fight—even against beasts—he wanted to find a way for people to extend their lifespans, even move through the grades, without having to kill.

That train of thought almost distracted him from what he was trying to do. He split his mind, sectioning off the thoughts involved with Mastery Points, and focused on the person in front of him.

“You’ve never embraced your combat abilities,” Xavier said to Miranda, “haven’t fought any beasts at all. Do you want to change that and focus more on combat?”

Miranda nodded. “I do.” She tilted her head to the side and smiled. “And I don’t. I’m not sure if I’m suited to that sort of role. But from everything I’ve seen you and the others do, runes are far more important than people around here”—she waved a hand, as though encompassing the whole Greater Universe—“ever knew. If I could learn the fundamentals of Inscription and drawing spell patterns, I could impart that knowledge to my students just as you are now, when the time is right and you’re willing to continue sharing that knowledge—which I know you intend to. I could move my research and experiments into that area as well. I’ve actually already talked to Rebecca about this. She’s very, very keen to experiment with runes, and that’s something I should be able to help her do very soon.”

Xavier nodded along as the woman spoke. She was right. He did want to share spell patterns with more than just the people inside the Roving Seed Base. He wanted to share everything he’d learnt. Assuming he wasn’t handing that information straight to an enemy, of course.

Originally, that wasn’t the case. He didn’t want actual or even potential enemies getting even a hint of what he could do. And while that was still something he worried about—there were many Denizens out there far more powerful than him who would gladly rip that knowledge out of their minds by force—he still wanted to spread that expertise to those he trusted.

And, eventually, to everyone inside his domain—and the places that would end up becoming his domain.

At the exact same time as Xavier was speaking to Miranda, assessing her interests and current abilities, he was doing the same with his other four new students. They each sat cross-legged on the smooth circle of wood at the centre of the Roving Seed Base, about twenty feet apart so their conversations wouldn’t distract one another. In front of each of them sat Xavier, talking to them.

Five different Xaviers.

Technically, none of the five Denizens sitting in front of the new students were actually Xavier, but they each resembled him almost perfectly. The differences were clear, however, when you looked for them. For instance, each of these “Xaviers” didn’t look near as strong as the original. They didn’t have the same muscle mass, nor did they wear the same armour or have the same weapon.

A scan, too, would show that they weren’t the original Xavier, as when someone scanned them this was what appeared:

{Dragonkin – Level 150}

Xavier had not been idle, this past year. There was much that his training had allowed him to do. Much that he had accomplished.

He had succeeded not only at creating an artificial Spirit Core, but an artificial Willpower Core, Speed Core, and Intelligence Core.

Once he had created his artificial Spirit Core, laying the new energy channels down with the power of his Reality Energy, he’d tried to cast spells again—but they had still been locked out for him.

It was only a matter of discovering why they were locked out, however, for him to finally find a solution to the problem. And that reason had to do with the shattering of not just his cores, but the shattering of his mind. In all the time that he’d spent rebuilding the strength of his mind and the rooms within it, he’d struggled to unlock the doors that held the spells he’d before his core was shattered.

He could recall the look of those rooms with the power of his perfect memory. He could recall what else those rooms held, and every detail of the runes within them.

But he couldn’t access them.

The rooms had been destroyed. The spells themselves, too, had been destroyed. This was something he hadn’t seen coming. His skills, after all, had worked—even if not instantly. But his skills were different. Skills didn’t work the same way to the System as spells. There was a distinction between them, one Xavier hadn’t yet fully grasped but knew existed. He’d yet to find the blueprints for his skills, even though he was sure they were in his mind somewhere—they must have been imprinted more deeply than the spells for some reason.

Either way, the moment he’d discovered his spells had been destroyed, it made him realise why he hadn’t been able to cast Body Cultivation despite it only needing Celestial Energy—something he became very good at cultivating long before he recreated his ability to create other energies.

With the blueprint destroyed, its mark no longer on his mind, using the spell became impossible.

When Xavier had first discovered this, that all his spells had been destroyed, for a fraction of a second it had made him panic. He may have become more powerful with his advancement, but without permanent, ingrained spells, without the ability to cast them instantly rather than have to draw a spell pattern first, he was nothing but a shell of his former capabilities…

Then he’d taken a breath and remembered the best thing about learning to draw spell patterns and having a perfect memory.

He could relearn every spell he’d lost.

The spell that allowed him to create the clones of himself wasn’t one he’d known before but was rather one he’d stolen from the Arakashinai Queen. Back in that chamber, before sending a million soul apparitions as the queen, he’d used Recursive Analysis to gain the B Grade insectoid Denizen’s spell temporarily, which allowed him to see the spell pattern. That alone was enough for him to etch the runes into one of the rooms in his mind and learn the spell permanently.

Though he’d relearnt every single one of his spells, and they’d retained their rank, the only problem was their cooldowns.

That, too, was a problem he intended to solve.

With the expansion of his old party’s training decided, along with the training of their families, for the next ten years inside of a time dilation field, Xavier knew he would need to solve the cooldown problem quickly if he was going to help all of them progress properly.

Deciding to spend another ten years of instructing alongside his own training with time essentially frozen in his universe gave Xavier a new deadline as well.

Once those ten years were over, he would return to the real world.

He would take down the Collector, defeat the B Grade mimic on the fiftieth floor of the Hell Moon Thazamar, and expand his domain within the Silver River sector so he could use Territory Defence wherever the World Destroyer attacked.

And he would push his advancement not only to C Grade, but to Tier 3.