Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 33 - Here Goes Nothing

Running has reached Rank 13!

Running has reached Rank 14!

Running has reached Rank 15!

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

You have gained +2 Strength!

…

You have gained +2 Strength!

…

You have gained +2 Strength!

Attempting to assimilate Wolven Claw into muscular structure…

Assimilation is complete.

Biological impurities of Wolven Claw have been assimilated into muscular structure.

You have gained +10 Speed!

Assimilate Properties has reached Rank 3!

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

You have gained +2 Speed!

…

You have gained +2 Speed!

Attempting to assimilate Sandstone into muscular structure…

The next few waves were surprisingly uneventful. Xavier kept pushing his skills, further and further. As he did, he tried to think of new skills that he could develop—but mostly he was focused on the materials he could use, as that seemed easier to juggle while in combat. Taking a quick moment to swallow something, then guiding the process with half of his mind was easier than developing an entirely new skill, after all.

Justin had dismantled the Bear King, the epic wave boss, after Xavier had lent him his scythe-staff. Once completed, he’d handed Xavier the different materials salvaged from the wave boss’s body. But Xavier didn’t feel as though he was ready to try assimilating the materials yet. He worried that it would be a waste. If he tried to assimilate them before his skill was a high enough rank to facilitate it, his body might simply reject the impurities, pushing them out through the pores of his skin.

Or the impurities might be too potent for me to reject.

He didn’t know what would happen if that ended up being the case, and he’d rather not find out.

So Xavier gritted his teeth and pushed on, finding other ways and other things to build up the skill.

First, he discovered that the most valuable usage of the skill was assimilating a new material. Whenever he assimilated a new material, it would add ten points to whatever attribute that property benefited—and it would gain him a new rank.

Whenever he gained a new rank in Assimilate Properties, he would gain a further two points toward each property he’d assimilated—these two attribute points, he found, weren’t mentioned when he assimilated a new property. For instance, when he’d assimilated the Wolven Claw the notification said it added ten points to his speed. But when he’d checked the skill’s information, which had been at Rank 3, it showed fourteen points in Speed.

That, he thought, was very interesting.

If I can somehow push this skill to the max F Grade rank of fifty, then the ranks alone will add ninety-eight attribute points.

Though he still wished the skill gave him percentage modifiers, he was starting to realise how powerful it could become. On top of that, he was wondering if there might be any downsides to assimilating all these different things into his body.

It didn’t take him long to start swallowing chunks of stone that he’d broken off the battlement for this very reason. Not the first time he’d swallowed stone. This time, however, he managed to succeed with assimilating the chunks, bringing up his Toughness attribute.

That was a definite boon. He’d worried he’d only be able to boost an attribute with a single material, but here he was boosting Toughness with both Crucible steel and Sandstone. It was a very, very good breakthrough.

Though something strange had happened. After assimilating the sandstone, he could have sworn his skin had become a little greyer. Perhaps he was getting paranoid. Seeing things he expected to see rather than things that were actually there. But the more he assimilated different things into his body, the less sure of that he became.

While fighting through these waves and gaining as much downtime as he could in between them, he hit a slight dead end with the materials he’d been using so far. Well, admittedly, it was more than slight. It was a complete dead end. After assimilating a property into his body a total of ten times—the initial time, plus nine more times—he hadn’t yet managed to keep assimilating it.

Which meant he’d hit a limit—each property that he’d assimilated offered him only thirty-four stat points. At least until he brought the skill above Rank 4.

He brought up his stats, singling out his Strength, Speed, and Toughness to see how much progress he was making.

Strength: 569 (768)

Speed: 558 (837)

Toughness: 603 (814)

It still wasn’t close enough to what he needed it to be, but at least he’d made some progress.

When his next level up finally came, after taking out a few more waves and E Grade enemies, he couldn’t help himself—he jumped into the air and pumped his fist.

He’d expected to be excited when he gained a new level. But this was more. He was elated. Adrenaline ran through his entire body. Suddenly, everything he’d been through during all these damned endless waves felt even more worth it.

It felt like a very long time since he’d gained his last level. When the Mastery Points he received had stalled, a small part of him had wondered if he’d ever level up again. Though he’d known it was a foolish thought, it had been a thought he couldn’t help having.

That’s why he unleashed an excited “whoop!” as his fist thrust high into the air on the apex of his jump.

He’d just defeated some hydra-type beast with heads that kept regenerating. The damned thing had been a wave boss, and the toughest beast he’d come up against so far. Each of the three heads had been capable of casting a different element. Fire, water, air. Whenever they opened their giant maws, one of these three elements would shoot out. It had even been able to turn the water to ice, once freezing him where he stood.

He’d had to decapitate each head fifteen times before the bastard thing died. Controlling the beast with Willpower Infusion hadn’t been incredibly effective, either. It wasn’t that the beast had been resistant to the spell—something he was eternally grateful for—it was that he could only control a single head at a time. Which begged a lot of questions.

Do each of those three heads act individually from one another?

Either way, it was enough to give him the upper hand during the fight.

His eyes skimmed the notification.

Congratulations, you have reached level 61!

Your health has been regenerated by 70%!

Your Spirit Energy limit has increased by 200!

You have received +2 Strength, +2 Toughness, +2 speed, +3 Intelligence, +3 Willpower and +8 Spirit!

You have received +20 free stat points!

All your spells have refreshed and are no longer on cooldown!

Although his level up didn’t bring a great deal of points to the three attributes he needed to advance the most right now, they did bring something. Not to mention the twenty free points he could now assign.

He distributed them, throwing all twenty straight into Strength. Two points away from 800.

Xavier drew in a deep breath. Not enough, no. But definite progress.

He looked down at the beast he’d just slain and tilted his head to the side. E Grades were getting easier and easier for him to kill. The sides of his lips tweaked upward in a small smirk. This mission of his. The one he was so determined to complete. The one that should be impossible. Defeating the Endless Horde, and the D Grade that headed it…

It was becoming more and more within reach.

He touched a hand to the Elemental Hydra—what the kill notification had said it was called—and deposited the massive beast into his Storage Ring. Then he went around, gathering all its decapitated heads. Whatever material this thing was made of… he could make use of it.

This was the first E Grade beast he’d encountered since the Bear King. It didn’t have the Epic tag on it, though it had still been formidable. He wondered if the materials salvaged from this beast would be easier for him to assimilate than the ones from the Bear King.

Will higher grade materials give me more attributes?

It was a thought that kept coming to him. One he couldn’t shake. He also had equipment from other E Grade wave bosses he’d defeated. None of the equipment was something he or the others could wield, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t come in handy… the only problem there was, none of them were able to actually dismantle the equipment. He couldn’t chip shards of metal off the swords or spears or armour. He could dent them. He could even puncture them. But he couldn’t slice—which meant he couldn’t ingest any of the materials. And the System had prevented him from using the E Grade weapons he’d salvaged for that purpose.

Something to put on the backburner.

The wave complete, Xavier returned to the battlements. Night had fallen once more. Justin was the only one waiting for him—the others were getting some rest. He couldn’t help but feel a little envious of that.

“What the hell was that beast you fought?” Justin asked. He’d been leaning over the parapet so far he was practically hanging off it.

I suppose if he falls, he could just fly back.

“An Elemental Hydra.” Xavier withdrew it from his Storage Ring, placing it straight in the middle of the battlements. The beast was so large it was now sandwiched between the walls on either side. “Oh, and it had a lot of… extra heads.” He smirked, unloading thirty-five heads, each mouth filled with lines and lines of teeth. Plenty of material for him to work with and not have to worry about wasting.

Justin stepped back. Ran a hand through his hair. “That’s… a lot of heads. Shame my Dismantle skill isn’t ranking up anymore.”

“Time?”

“Twenty until next wave. You went through that wave quite fast, but the Hydra slowed you down.”

Xavier grunted in agreement. He’d been hoping for more time. He tossed Soultaker over to Justin, who snatched it out of the air. He was still a little confused as to how Justin could use the weapon to dismantle beasts when he shouldn’t be able to wield it, yet the same wasn’t true for the E Grade weapons.

Which made him all the more worried about whether he could assimilate E Grade materials.

I’m just going to have to try.

He sat with his back against the stone parapet. Opening his mouth, he felt his teeth. He looked down at his fingernails. Then, finally, he looked at the colouring of his hand.

“What are you doing?” Justin asked, an eyebrow raised. He was kneeling down by one of the Elemental Hydra heads. The head was as large as his torso.

Xavier released a sigh. “I think Assimilate Properties is changing me.” He ran his tongue over his teeth, wondering how much he should say. “It’s… making my teeth longer. My fingernails… tougher and sharper. My skin—”

“Greyer.” Justin nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

Xavier frowned. “You’ve… you’ve noticed?”

“Of course I’ve noticed. I’m not blind.”

“You’re not… worried I’m turning into a beast?”

Justin chuckled. He looked up from the hydra head. “Does it matter if you are? You can reap souls. I can grow wings. We’re all changing. I don’t really think we have a choice in the matter.” He pursed his lips. His gaze flicked down.

“What? What did you just think?”

“You haven’t felt any different, have you? Like, you’re still able to keep your emotions in check?”

Xavier leant his head back until it touched the stone, thinking about the question. “I think so.”

“Good. Good.” Justin got back to his work. “Then I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” It looked awkward, the way he was holding Soultaker. The massive scythe-staff didn’t exactly lend itself to precision work. But it didn’t take him long to dislodge one of the hydra’s teeth. He tossed it over.

Xavier snatched it from the air, then examined it. He tried to use Identify, but—as he’d already known—the skill wasn’t strong enough.

The fang was curved. He touched the tip of his index finger to the point. Sharp. Sharper than Soultaker. It was also larger than any of the Wolven Fangs he’d gathered.

Too large for him to simply swallow.

“I know you haven’t been able to chip armour, but can you chip this?” Xavier tossed the fang back to Justin.

“You want to assimilate it?” Justin asked, looking at the fang. He shrugged. “I can try.”

It turned out Justin couldn’t chip it. It was too tough for him. Xavier had to take over. Using his overwhelming strength and having to flow Spirit Energy into Soultaker several times to repair its edge, he finally managed to carve a small sliver off the damned thing.

A sliver small enough for him to swallow.

“Fifteen minutes now,” Justin said before turning back to his work.

“Plenty of time.” Xavier sat again, staring at the fang. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered, tossing the E Grade material into his mouth and swallowing it with a loud gulp.