Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 19 - Finally Come To Meet Your Death, Have You?

Skill upgrades? Xavier thought, quickly reading the two notifications that popped up. Though he was getting used to reading notifications while in the middle of battle, he wondered if a time would ever come when it felt normal.

When will any of this feel normal?

Aura-Control skill has been upgraded! Aura-Control now incorporates two cores.

Core Strength skill has been upgraded! Core Strength now incorporates two cores.

Cultivate Energy skill has been upgraded! Cultivate Energy now incorporates two cores.

Xavier grinned. He’d been wondering if he would get any skills pertaining to his secondary core, as he had for his Spirit Core. The three skills he’d gained when he’d discovered his Spirit Core had helped his Spirit Attribute a great deal, increasing it by an incredible amount. He’d hoped he would get something similar for his Willpower Core, especially since his new spell relied on the attribute.

This is going to help me a lot.

The Aura-Control skill was something he was curious about. He hadn’t even known his new core might produce an aura, but he supposed it made perfect sense that it would. Gaining the skill upgrade made him examine the core and realise something interesting.

Huh, Xavier thought. He’d been subconsciously balancing his secondary core so it wouldn’t release any aura.

If all E Grades have two cores, then when Sam showed me his aura, was it energy from two cores?

He read over the descriptions of the three different spells as he activated the upgrades. Though really, he only needed to read one of the descriptions—just as before, each of the descriptions were identical but for the skill name, despite the fact that the skills did different things. It was quite an oddity.

Aura-Control – Rank 50

You are a student of the Greater Universe. The seed of your knowledge has gained roots in the earth, and soon it will break through the surface of the ground.

May your knowledge of the Greater Universe blossom.

+30% Aura Strength.

+40% Spirit Energyrecovery.

+25% Spirit.

+20% Willpower Energy Recovery.

+10% Willpower.

A frown lined his face. He’d hoped to have gained a little more Willpower than that, though he knew it wasn’t anything to scoff at. These skills, though they helped him a great deal, increased their percentages rather slowly.

Having three of them compounding, though? That made a huge difference. With each skill gaining him 10% Willpower, he’d increased his Willpower by 30%.

The only issue he had with the skills was that though they’d upgraded, they were still Rank 50, meaning he wouldn’t be able to bring them up a rank until he got to E Grade.

And he still didn’t know how he was going to do that.

Focus on one issue at a time, he thought.

He took his mind off the different skills he’d just gained, turning his full focus to the enemies in his way. Thousands and thousands of enemies. He had no idea how much time had passed since this wave had begun—no idea how long it would be until the next wave started.

The three E Grade wave bosses in play hadn’t attacked him directly, not since his fight with the first of them on wave one thousand. He was glad for that—he doubted he’d be able to take them, considering he hadn’t been able to take one. But now that he had Willpower Infusion, and it had just gained another boost?

The spell might be strong enough for me to control those E Grades, at least to a small degree.

As more minutes passed and Xavier defeated hundreds more enemies, he gained several ranks of Willpower Infusion.

Willpower Infusion has taken a step forward on the path!

Willpower Infusion is now a Rank 6 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

He grinned, glancing at the notification. With each rank, the spell grew in strength and so did his ability to control the enemy soldiers. What he’d once been able to do to ten enemies, he could now do to twenty, then thirty.

The spell had grown in power faster than he’d even hoped it would be able to. His Willpower Energy recovery had also been boosted a great deal. Now that his Cultivate Energy, Core Strength skills had upgraded, he found cultivating Celestial Energy into his secondary core to be easier than ever, and cycling the energy increased its potency.

That was something he’d only learnt recently. He’d finally asked Adviser Kalren what the skill actually did. The man had chuckled, not having realised he didn’t know.

“It increases the strength of your core—or cores, when a Denizen has more than one. Some Denizens have access to attacks that can directly target an enemies core of their energies, either stealing that energy of depleting it. For instance, the spell Energy Diffusion can completely empty an enemy’s core, and Energy Drain can takes someone’s else’s energy and make it your own.

“It also had a secondary benefit. It can increase the efficiencyof your energy. This allows you to use less Spirit Energy per spell, but only when using energy already cycled.”

The first part had worried him. He would hate to encounter an enemy that could drain his cores completely of their energy, and that more than anything had kept him diligently ranking up the skill. Though the secondary benefit of the skill could be helpful—increasing the potency of the energy he used so he used less of it could only be a goodthing—it hadn’t seemed all that useful to him, considering he never actually ran out of Spirit Energy.

But now, for his Willpower Energy, increasing the potency meant he could cast the spell far more frequently.

Xavier began to notice the behaviour of those he faced shift and change. The soldiers and beasts were standing farther apart than they had before. As much as they could, packed close on the battlefield. There were more furtive glances left and right. They weren’t forming in shield walls or fighting as close as they once had, despite the fact that there was barely any room for them.

They’re afraid.

The realisation struck him. He didn’t know why he found it strange that they would be afraid, considering he was sure these enemies knew they were likely to die at his hand, but despite how many he’d killed, he’d never seen this level of nervousness in them before.

He had always known these enemies feared him. And it wasn’t as though he thought the enemy lines would suddenly break and flee from his scythe-staff. No, as nervous as they looked, they weren’t cowards. Nor were they able to turn back. Xavier hadn’t seen an enemy flee since he’d faced the level 2 Lesser Goblins back on his university’s campus.

That feels like so long ago.

But even though they wouldn’t break, their nervousness and distrust of their allies showed that his Willpower Infusion was messing with their morale and battering their mental fortitude, which meant it might be even easier for his Willpower Infusion spell to take root.

Xavier wondered how many enemies were left. He was definitely dealing with them faster than he had in a long while.

Then the war drums sounded, and the horns blared once more, announcing the next wave’s imminence.

No. I’m not ready!Xavier swore, then gritted his teeth.

Four E Grade bosses would be in the field now, plus maybe another ten thousand soldiers or beasts. This is getting far too out of hand! But what else could he do but fight?

He wasn’t going to turn from this.

A moment after the new wave begun, a notification popped up in his vision.

Willpower Infusion has taken a step forward on the path!

Willpower Infusion is now a Rank 12 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

This made Xavier grin. He’d never ranked up a spell this fast before.

He had an idea. He didn’t know if it was a good one, but he was going to follow through with it anyway. He didn’t see another way out of this.

Xavier cleared a path through his enemies, heading toward the other side of them. Soultaker carved through one enemy after the next. Willpower Infusion turned soldier against soldier and beast against beast. Soul Block stopped the enemies on his flank and at his back from getting in too close. And Soul Strike made a few hundred foes fall over dead the moment he cast it.

He downed another health potion whenever he could, finally bringing his health back over 90%.

It was time to locate one of the wave bosses.

The enemies did not part for him. He made them part. Xavier climbed and clambered over the bodies of the dead. The battlefield was a clamour of metal, of rage and spells. Of roars, of claws and teeth. He barrelled through it all until he finally made it to the other side, where the massive ranks of the Endless Horde stood their watch, awaiting their turn to run forward and die by his hand.

And that’s where he found the wave bosses. All four of them. They were easy to spot, standing a little ways forward from the stationary ranks. Their auras didn’t show. He couldn’t feel their power, but some part of him could sense it.

And the fact that he couldn’t scan any of them was a massive indication of who they were.

They didn’t all stand together. They were half a mile apart from each other. They’re staying out of the fight, waiting for the waves to accumulate, waiting until they can stomp me as easily as possible.

He was glad they waited, for Xavier didn’t know what he would do if they all came at him at once.

His gaze came to rest upon the nearest of them. The werewolf-beast, the first of the E Grade wave bosses that he’d encountered.

The werewolf-beast stepped forward, tucked its chin close to its furry chest and snarled. “Finally come to meet your death, have you?”

Xavier tilted his head back and smiled, all but ignoring the enemies still crowding around him, each trying to tear a pound of his flesh. He still sent out Heavy Telekinesis. Still had Soul Block at his back, and Soul Strikes streaking through them, but in this moment he stilled his blade.

A click in his mind signified Willpower Infusion reaching the end of its cooldown. Xavier said one simple word in response to the beastman: “No.”

Willpower Energy flowed from his core, through his body and into Soultaker as he cast Willpower Infusion. The mist flowed through the air. It could not be blocked—could not be dodged. It was too swift. The werewolf-beast had time enough to frown as it flew toward him, but nothing more.

The misted energy seeped through the beast’s eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears. The werewolf-beast threw its head back, fangs bared, and convulsed. The beastman’s walls sprang up as the connection tried to form. Xavier had never encountered such mental strength.

He stepped forward, pushing his mind to its limits. He was sure that when he’d gained this spell, less than an hour ago, the E Grade boss would have been able to shake it off with ease. But as he’d gained those skills and ranked the spell up, it had strengthened considerably.

Xavier pushed. He’d grown accustomed to this feeling. He’d found the spell was more effective the more focused he was on it, and so all his focus was bent toward this single task.

Click.

The strand of energy solidified. The connection snapped into place.

Xavier had control of an E Grade wave boss—for how long, he didn’t know.