Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 56 - Soul Puppet

[Author's note: I'm not intentionally trying to frustrate you guys with cliffs, or "filler" chapters or anything like that. I'm going to post the rest of the chapters for this week early, which means you won't get another chapter until Tuesday after this one. I hope this helps.

I just want to entertain you all and excite you for what happens next.]

Xavier found he was equally curious about each of his new spells. He looked at the first of those he’d just received after choosing his new Legendary Otherworldly Reaper Class.

Summon Otherworldly Spirit – Rank 1

Summon Otherworldly Spirit is a legendary spell specific to the Otherworldly line of classes.

Summon Otherworldly Spirit is a spell that gives the Denizen the ability to call forth a spirit from the Otherworld.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier blinked. That’s it? The description barely told him anything. It didn’t at all hint as to what the spell was capable of. Whether it was offensive or defensive in nature. Whether there were different paths to take it in, specialising or generalising…

It doesn’t tell me any more than the name of the spell does.

He shifted where he sat, feeling a little disappointed. Then again, it could be a lot of fun experimenting with the spell when he got the chance. That sparked a bit of excitement within him. The spell was still unknown to him. Right now, he could imagine it capable of almost anything. Mysteries, and the solving of them, had always been appealing to Xavier.

He looked at the second spell.

Otherworldly Communion – Rank 1

Otherworldly Communion is a legendary spell specific to the Otherworldly line of classes.

Otherworldly Communion is a spell that gives the Denizen the ability to commune with the Otherworld and gain insight.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier shook his head and sighed. From the spell name alone, he would have guessed that was what it did. And though he’d just admitted that he liked mysteries, it would have been nice to have a bit more to go on.

I guess I’ll get to find out.

It set his mind to wondering. When he meditated, he gained insights—bits of knowledge that he assumed were given to him by the System, or the Greater Universe itself. This Otherworld, a place between universes… could it be somewhere that was beyond the Greater Universe?

How could anything be beyond the Greater Universe?Xavier thought. Then again, until not long ago, Earth had been beyond the Greater Universe. Beyond the System, even with its unimaginable power.

The System hadn’t taken over everything yet.

This is all speculation, he chided himself. There would be time to experiment with the spell soon. He tried not to feel underwhelmed by the descriptions. This had been the strongest class choice for him, and there was no room, nor need, for regret.

Besides, the final two spells sounded particularly promising.

Soul Shatter – Rank 1

Soul Shatter is a legendary spell specific to the Reaper line of classes. This spell has several paths.

Soul Shatter is an offensive spell that harnesses an enemy’s soul while it’s still in their living body. Soul Shatter causes a burst of soul damage by detonating a portion of, or all of, an enemy’s soul.

This spell has three paths: single-target damage, area-of-effect damage, or generalising between the two.

The power of the spell depends on both the strength of the soul it is used upon, and the strength of the user casting it. Shattered souls cannot be harvested.

Generalising with Soul Shatter weakens the strength of each attack by a third.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier grinned. That’s more like it. Though he didn’t like the fact that he wouldn’t be able to harvest a shattered soul, it was nice to acquire a purely offensive spell. The spell reminded him of a spell necromancers in video games often received, Corpse Explosion, which made him realise that in the new reality he found himself in, spells like that no doubt existed.

He looked down at himself, put a hand to his stomach, where the empty, hungry pit had resided ever since he’d chosen the Soul Reaper class. That part of him that had urged him to harvest the souls of the other Champions down in the tavern. Though he’d been able to control it much better after that.

He would have assumed that this new spell, Soul Shatter, would have upset that empty pit within him. That it would have been seen as a waste. But the pit was quiet. More in control than it had ever been.

Xavier barely felt it at all.

That stands to reason. My Willpower attribute is over four-thousand points.

He was glad to know that wouldn’t be giving him any issues, at least in the near future.

Soul Puppet – Rank 1

Soul Puppet is a legendary spell specific to the Reaper line of classes.

Soul Puppet is a control spell and requires at least one harvested soul to cast. Soul Puppet places a harvested soul inside of a recently deceased Denizen or beast, allowing the user to give the corpse limited instructions.

Though this spell has the ability to reanimate the dead, it is not a necromantic spell as it relies on a soul controlling the corpse. Each moment the soul resides within the corpse it degrades. When the soul dies, control is lost.

Soul Puppet only has one path.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier’s eyebrows rose. Despite the spell saying it wasn’t a necromantic spell, it certainly sounded like a necromantic spell to him. He remembered feeling an aversion to necromantic magic when he’d first discovered it was real within the Greater Universe. He didn’t like the idea of having corpses walking with him.

Since his ordeal with the Endless Horde, Xavier had become… far too familiar being in close proximity to the dead. He already had a spell that gave him the ability to control others, but this seemed like it could work differently, allowing him to control even more enemies.

He imagined a scenario where it could come in handy, and it wasn’t difficult to think of one. If he were, perhaps, facing a wave of low-level enemies with a single boss in their midst… he could control the low-level enemies with Willpower Infusion, harvest their souls when they died attacking the boss, then place a soul inside of them, making them get right back up and keep attacking.

It certainly suited Xavier thinking of himself as death…

Xavier stood and stretched. He hadn’t known what spells to expect when he chose the Otherworldly Reaper class, but he found he was quite intrigued with the selection. He now had fourteen spells to choose from within battle—which also meant he had a lot of spells to rank up, especially since these new spells were only Rank 1.

As he stretched, he thought of even more uses for Soul Puppet. Soon, he would be returning to Earth. His priorities would shift. For the longest time, he’d barely needed to worry about protecting others. Yes, he had been protecting the castle on the fifth floor, the queen, her adviser, and his party, but the Horde refused to attack the castle until they killed him, so he hadn’t needed to do much beyond stay alive and slaughter the enemy.

Something told him the invaders on Earth would not do the same thing.

There’ll be many, many lives at stake. Perhaps I’ll be able to use Soul Puppet to control corpses and make them into corpse-shields to protect those in danger. That’s the reason I’ve been accumulating so much power, isn’t it? So I can protect others?

Thinking about returning to Earth made him wonder how his mother would react when she saw him. When she found out what he’d become. The woman had never really approved of his life in the past, and that was when he wanted to become a writer.

Now, he harvested souls, controlled other people’s minds, could summon spirits from the Otherworld. Shatter souls, make corpses walk and listen to his demands…

She’s going to be in for a shock. That’s for damned sure.

Xavier chuckled to himself, imagining her shocked reaction. He stopped chuckling when the thought occurred to him that she might have died in the first few days post-integration. He didn’t know what was happening back on Earth.

I’m getting back there. Soon.

He headed over to the others and told them about the spell and book the System had given him, as well as his class choice and the spells he’d gotten from it—not to mention the number of attribute points he would receive per level.

“A Legendary class? That’s insane!” Justin said. “I wonder if we’ll get to choose a Legendary class…” He drifted off, his eyes getting all starry.

“I’m still curious about this System Boon, Usurper.” Siobhan crossed her arms. “I wonder why the System gave it to you.” She cocked her head to the side. “It’s as though it wants you to challenge those in charge.”

Howard scratched his beard. “I think it’s just responding to his actions. The way he took out the Lord of the Endless Horde. The choices of his class. The System is responsive. It always has been.”

Siobhan nodded several times. She paced, tapped a finger to her lip. “You’re right. And this new development, that the System is watching you… I wonder if we can somehow use that to our advantage.”

Xavier tilted his head to the side, intrigued by her words. “Use it to our advantage? How would we go about that?”

The woman shrugged, tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear. “Honestly? I’m not sure.”

“Still, we should keep it in mind.” Xavier clapped his hands together. “But there are other matters to attend to.” He looked at his loot box. Honestly, he wasn’t excited for whatever was inside. Though maybe he should be. The last time he’d opened up a loot box he’d found a Sector Travel Key inside.

Would there be a chance of finding another one? Or some other interesting, valuable item?

I felt their presence. The two powerful Denizens who are watching me. It’s not only the System that has its eyes on me.

Didn’t he deserve to get a higher reward, considering what he’d done? Or was he simply asking for too much?

I already have so much wealth at hand.

He hadn’t even begun to think about that. Before he stepped onto the next floor, he would need to outfit himself again. It wasn’t simply that he’d outgrown his gear—though he most certainly had, considering he’d gotten Soultaker all the way back when he was Level 10—the poor staff had broken in half during his last fight.

And it wasn’t only him that needed to be outfitted. The others would need better gear. They would be heading back to Earth soon, and as powerful as Xavier was, he knew he couldn’t defend the entire planet on his own. If only because he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

I need a more effective way to travel. He looked at Siobhan. I need someone who can protect others. He looked at Howard. And I need someone who can fight well enough when I’m not around. He looked to Justin.

Each of them had a role that would serve him well in his party, and back on Earth. But those roles had been sorely neglected ever since he’d entered the fifth floor. All they’d each gotten to do was read and research in that tower library and practice the skills they already had available to them.

Technically, Xavier was sure he could get back to Earth quickly. He doubted the next five floors would take him very long to complete, even if he was going for the best record on each of them. He was far beyond what the Tower of Champions would expect of a Denizen at this point in the floors. But he couldn’t simply sprint through them if he wanted the others to be valuable to him when they returned.

He needed to powerlevel them up first.

Xavier stepped over to the loot box, ready to open it.