Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 48 - Bumbling Around the Multi-Verse Without a Guidebook

The tavern was silent.

The fire didn’t crackle in the hearth. The other Champions didn’t chatter, laugh, or clink mugs. The barkeep stood, frozen, midway through cleaning a mug. Five Denizens sat around a table, inside a time dilation field, the only ones moving.

Dominical frowned. “The evacuation? Not an interesting floor.”

Xavier eyed the fully armoured tank. “Oh, you would be surprised.”

“You are full of surprises,” Adranial muttered. “I thought you skipped straight to the hundredth floor? Then again, you never did tell us.”

Xavier looked at the woman again. Still not sure how to approach her newfound animosity toward him, he sighed. “You’re angry with me.”

She blinked. “I’m not angry.”

“Should we, uh, leave you two alone?” Larson grinned.

“You disappeared,” Adranial spluttered. “I gave up memories to be a Champion here—we all did. To help support you through the floors, provide you with information.”

Xavier remembered that day, when Adranial had told him she would need to give up every good memory she had of her world, and the memories of those she cared about most. It was the only way to break her ties to her home and pledge her loyalty to Earth—the only way to get into this instance of the Tower of Champions. She had been devasted. She’d seemed a fragile thing, then. As though anything could break her.

She’d given the memories to him. He didn’t have access to those memories, and he rarely thought about it, but they sat in the back of his mind. A knot he couldn’t untangle. An itch he couldn’t scratch. A constant presence.

The woman had given up so much to be here and as far as she was concerned, he’d been completely avoiding her.

After she’d given up those memories, that fragility he’d seen in her had disappeared. He could almost imagine it hadn’t been there at all. Perhaps that was why he never thought about it.

But today, looking at her, he could see the cracks reforming—or maybe they’d been there the whole time. He just hadn’t been around to see them.

“You were ordered to by your ancestor.” Xavier sipped his coffee. “I had nothing to do with that. Besides, the System was the one that forced me to skip those floors. It’s also restricted me from gaining information about them from anyone. It wants me to fly blind.”

“Is that a pun about your new wings?” Larson asked.

“Larson,” Elsie whispered.

“My ancestor wants me to get close to you,” Adranial said, “and you go off and disappear. Then I have to find things out about you from him?” The woman shook her head. Strands of white hair fell onto her pale face. She tucked them behind her ears with both hands. “I gave up those memories for nothing.”

The others at the table were as silent as the other patrons. Larson hid his face in his mug. Elsie hung her head. Dominical stared off into space with a steady frown—though that man always looked to be frowning.

Xavier wasn’t sure what to do with Adranial’s emotions. He understood why she might be frustrated, but she seemed to be taking this harder than he’d expected. She also seemed to be blaming him. Almost as though she’d assumed he would be telling her these things—like she thought they were closer than they actually were.

Was that why she’d entrusted those memories to him? To build a rapport, all because she’d been ordered to? Or had that moment they’d shared been a genuine one?

He decided to take a different tact. This woman was a useful source of information to him. He didn’t intend to alienate her. Besides, he enjoyed her company.

“I’m sorry you were forced to give up your memories to be here. I promise I’m keeping them safe. They aren’t gone. You will have them back when you leave my world,” Xavier said. “Perhaps I seem ungrateful. I’m not. You have done my world a service.” He motioned to the other Champions in the room. “The Champions of Earth have done far better than they would have on the tower floors because of the information you and your party have provided.” He paused before saying these next words. “I am indebted to you, Adranial, for that. You and your party. I know how much you’ve helped them, and I know how much you’ve helped my old party, too. I didn’t choose to get sent ahead through the tower. But you’re right. I could have told you. You deserved that much.”

Adranial peered at him through narrowed eyes. “You’re right.” Slowly, her expression softened. “I did deserve that.”

“Events moved more swiftly than I imagined they would. The System sent me back to Earth, then I made the decision to travel to Thazamar. I’ve been moving fast every second that has passed. It never did seem a good moment to contact you through the Communication Stone.”

Xavier decided not to remind the woman about what she’d done to Howard, and how that had coloured their meeting, and every subsequent interaction they’d had since.

She’d forced the man to put them in touch. She’d tortured his mind and made him sign a contract. It had been cold, calculating, and… Effective.

Howard had been prepared to sacrifice himself so he wouldn’t go back to Earth and be a threat. Xavier had gotten the woman to break the contract—that had been the whole reason for it in the first place.

To get to him.

Xavier had seen worse things happen in the Greater Universe. Hell, he was sure he’d done worse things. And while what she’d done would never sit right with him, he had to be aware that she was from a startlingly different culture to that of pre-integration Earth.

The decisions she made, the way she got things done, they were coloured by the experience of having always lived with the System and it effects on her society. Billions of years, the powerful had been using their strength and things like contracts to get what they want.

It was why he kept Volkarin and Romalda around. A bloodthirsty dragon. A ruthless necromancer. They had both no doubt done unimaginably terrible things—but he found he was attracted to monsters.

They made the terrible things he’d done since the System had come down… Lesser.

Xavier pushed those thoughts away as he told the four of them about Empress Larona’s prediction. That the World Destroyer, a sector-ending threat, would soon be making its way to Silver River.

And by soon, he meant sooner than anyone had ever expected.

“I’m the only hope our sector has.”

Larson let out a long whistle. “A sector-ending threat. That’s a lot to deal with.”

Domical looked at Adranial, his frown deeper than usual. “Does he know about this?”

Adranial didn’t so much as glance at Domical. “He knows.”

Xavier leant back in his chair.

“He’s not going to do anything about it, is he?” Elsie asked.

Adranial shook her head.

The party’s demeanour shifted. They looked more serious than they ever had before. Even Larson, the elf, had a contemplative expression.

Adranial released a sigh. “This doesn’t change anything.”

Larson stared at her. “It doesn’t change anything for you because you knew about it. Is there an extraction plan?”

Xavier raised an eyebrow at the elf. He wasn’t surprised escaping was their first concern. It wasn’t as though they were from this sector, and the four of them… Well, they wouldn’t be any true help. Not in a fight like this.

“Not that I think you’ll fail.” Larson gave him a weak smile.

“Of course not,” Xavier said flatly. He tilted his head to the side, looking at the three of them. “You weren’t given a way to return to your sector?”

Adranial shook his head. “Not until our mission is complete.”

“Can’t you just… buy something from the System Shop that will help get you there?”

“We could,” Domical said. “If we had that kind of money on us.”

When Xavier had started this conversation, he hadn’t expected this. He’d thought the party would easily be able to make it out of the sector. He also expected them to have access to some sort of trust fund, considering the families they each came from must be exceedingly rich. He was surprised there was anything in the System Shop they couldn’t afford.

“At least you’ll have a few years to prepare,” he muttered. He was a little frustrated that escaping was the first thing to came to their minds, but he supposed he couldn’t blame them for it. They were looking out of their own. And just because they were technically Champions of Earth, didn’t mean they truly had any ties to his world.

Xavier faced Adranial. “What is your mission, exactly?” He knew the woman had been tasked with getting close to him. Was it just one of observation, or was there more to it?

“One I’m failing,” Adranial muttered. “I’m supposed to build a rapport with you. More than that, I’m supposed to get you to trust me.”

He remembered the contract he’d refused to sign. That had been a test. Her ancestor would have honoured it, but at the same time, he didn’t want to actively intervene in Xavier’s training.

He’d simply been testing Xavier’s will. Not signing had been the outcome he’d hoped for.

He stared at the woman. There had to be more to what she’d been tasked with than that. There had to be another reason she’d been sent to him.

What exactly did her ancestor want her to do with that trust?

Xavier put himself in that man’s shoes. Someone who had been around since almost the very beginning of the universe. They were big shoes to fill, but he turned his mind there all the same. He contracted his time dilation field as he did this, making it so it only surrounded himself, and simply sat there sipping his coffee with his eyes closed for a long while, thinking.

The Patriarch of Adranial’s family—a man whom Xavier still didn’t have a name for—clearly had insights into the System Xavier lacked. Someone who had been around for that long would likely know about the threat to the universe, the threat at the end.

Maybe he even thought he was the one who would thwart it…

It wasn’t until Xavier had usurped his first number one title in the leaderboard that he’d felt that presence.

Xavier expanded the time dilation field once more. He could contemplate this all he liked, but he’d rather get answers to his questions. Assuming they could be found at this table.

He only put the field around Adranial, sitting beside him. The pale woman blinked as she realised what was going on. He didn’t know what her party members did or didn’t know, and he felt more comfortable talking to her one-on-one.

“Just the two of us?” she said.

“You want to gain my trust.”

“I do.”

“Then there are questions I want answers for. Your ancestor. Does he know I might become the Weapon of the System?”

Adranial drew in a quick breath. Her eyes widened.

Her reaction said it all.

Xavier relaxed in his chair. He hadn’t realised he’d grown tense. “Well, that answers that question.”

Adranial hung her head. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you about that.”

She looked despondent. Xavier couldn’t help but feel for the girl. He imagined what it must be like growing up around the most powerful person in the universe. Then he imagined what it would be like to feel like you failed them.

“You didn’t tell me about it,” Xavier said. “I asked.”

Adranial nodded. Her expression changed as she raised her head to look at him. “I knew it would be you. When I saw what you could do… Then you disappeared. I thought you were just climbing the floors solo. Sounds like something you would do, after all. But skipping so many floors?” She looked in awe of him. “I have been around the most powerful beings in the universe since the moment of my birth, and never before have I seen or heard of a rise like yours, Xavier Collins.”

Xavier found himself lost for words. It wasn’t the first time he’d been praised. Wasn’t the first time someone had looked at his accomplishments and uttered something similar.

He shifted in his seat. Usually, he took such things in stride.

Today, he couldn’t help but feel like an imposter after the eightieth floor. No matter how much he was trying to put it behind him.

After all he’d done, he still didn’t feel like he knew what he was doing. Not really. He still felt like he was bumbling around the galaxy, the universe… Hell, the multi-verse without a guidebook, figuring it out along the way.

That was working to his advantage, sure. A guidebook would tell him what he wanted to do was impossible. It would stop him in his tracks before he even got started.

But there were some things he knew he needed to figure out ahead of time—or else time would run out.

“I need to know how to defeat the threat,” Xavier said. “The World Destroyer is coming. I have to be ready. I’ve seen what happens when I’m not.”

Adranial locked gazes with him. “Bring the others into the conversation. And…” She produced something from her Storage Ring. “This will help.” She placed the item in the centre of the table. It was a stone. It looked similar to Communication Stone, only about five times bigger.

Xavier extended the time dilation field once more. He looked at the stone curiously.

Larson pointed toward the middle of the table. “That… That wasn’t here before.” He cocked his head to one side. “Wait, were the two of you chatting without us?” He raised an eyebrow, smirking. “What were you talking about?”

Adranial shot him a quick glare that made him quiet down. “It’s time for a brainstorming session.” She placed her palm atop the large stone. Energy seeped from her hand into the rock. The stone glowed with a purple light as she moved her hand away.

A hologram appeared above the stone.