Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 15 - To Be Challenged

As Xavier tore through one foe after another, fighting wave one-thousand-and-one of the Endless Horde on the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions, he fell into a deep meditative state. Meditation was possible while fighting—it helped him to gain new insights into battle strategy—but at the same time it tended to slow his effectiveness.

It was difficult for him to split his mind too many ways, and no matter how much combat he’d experienced these weeks since Earth’s integration, it wasn’t as though he could simply go into auto-pilot.

But he needed to use his Meditation skill if he was going to do what he wished to do.

Xavier decapitated an elf with his scythe-staff, sending the thing’s head and body falling to the ground. At the same time, he used Soul Block on his left flank, preventing the enemy from hitting him in the side. He flung a good twenty enemies straight into their comrades and they were impaled on their fellow soldiers’ spears. Every soul was harvested at the moment of their death.

While doing this, he examined the lines in his body. Examined the Celestial Energy that was entering into him. Unlike the last time he’d done this, he could now feel his Willpower Core. In his mind’s eye, it sat at the centre of his heart. The lines the Celestial Energy flowed through toward the core were still fuzzy. It had taken him some time to identify the equivalent lines for his Spirit Core.

He couldn’t take that long this time around. He had to gain this spell now. He doubted Willpower Infusion would help him a great deal in combat—he imagined it would mostly add to his mental defence and magical defence—but if he was going to become more powerful, getting to E Grade was still the only way.

Whether the advancement would give him an instant boost to his attributes or an upgraded class choice, he honestly didn’t know. Though the tower library had a massive number of books, the weakness of this world showed in what it lacked. There simply wasn’t enough information about those at E Grade.

That had taken him by surprise. Another thing that had taken him by surprise was the fact that they didn’t have access to the System Shop here. Once he and his party had found out that this place was real, they’d eventually asked about how they might be able to access to System Shop—a loophole they were hoping to take advantage of. If they could access the shop withina floor of the tower, especially a time-locked floor like this one…

But Adviser Kalren and Queen Alastea had shaken their heads. The System Shop apparently wasn’t something they could afford to give their queendom access to, which made Xavier realise just much of a backwater planet this floor they’d been put upon was. Though at least he’d learnt something—System Shop’s cost money to gain access to when outside the Tower of Champions.

Perhaps we’ll be able to do some sort of quest to attain one back on Earth. Maybe someone already has.

Xavier might not know what gaining the rank of E Grade would give him, but at least he would be able to continue ranking up his skills when he reached it.

All I need to do is stay alive long enough during these waves, unlock this spell, and figure out the next step. He sighed. Yeah, that doesn’t sound all that hard.

As Xavier fought, he looked at the Spell Quest for Willpower Infusion.

Spell Quest Unlocked: Willpower Infusion

To unlock Willpower Infusion, you must:

1. Cultivate 1,000 points of Celestial Energy into your Willpower Core, turning it into Willpower Energy.

2. Successfully cycle 1,000 points of Willpower Energy through your Willpower Core.

Progress:

1. 0/1,000

2. 0/1,000

All right, he thought. It looked as though he would have to cultivate Celestial Energy first. When he’d discovered the Willpower Core, it had barely had any energy within it at all. He’d found the core by sensing energy that had flowed into it, but that energy had only been a fraction of a single point of Celestial Energy.

Now, he would need to drag 1,000 points of Celestial Energy into that core, then cycle it out through the lines within his body, then back in. All while in the middle of fighting the most difficult wave of the Endless Horde he’d yet to face.

Not to mention two E Grade wave bosses.

He’d been keeping his eyes open, trying to spot the next wave boss—and the last wave boss—but they’d yet to make their presence known. They’re hanging back. Waiting for me to deal with the weaker enemies. Hoping to get me caught by another wave. Usually, he would have time to recover between waves—even if it was only a few minutes. If the enemies weren’t the things to kill him, then after enough waves of this, exhaustion just might be…

He tossed out all the thoughts he didn’t need, getting stuck in a cycle of negativity simply wouldn’t help him. If worst came to worst, he could get out of this place. Even if Kiralla can’t.

Xavier slashed his scythe-staff in a wide arc, sweeping five heads off their bodies. He summoned a Soul Strike, killing hundreds of enemies. And he breathed in and out, as slowly and deeply as he could manage.

His focus sharpened to a knife’s edge. He drew Celestial Energy into his body, but every time he did it went straight for his Spirit Core. When he actively cultivated Celestial Energy, it was a faster, more effective way of recovering his Spirit Energy. His body and mind had developed habits to reinforce these pathways over and over again as he’d ranked up the skill. But now, he needed to use his Cultivate Energy skill to transfer energy into his new core. He had to fight the instincts he’d developed. Break the pathways. Stop them before they started.

It was a difficult thing, stopping yourself from doing something that had become incredibly natural.

Especially when you were in the middle of fighting thousands of enemy soldiers.

This is what I was hoping for, wasn’t it? he thought to himself. I wanted this. I wanted to be challenged. He hadn’t felt challenged in the Tower of Champions. Not truly.

And now, he felt like he was facing something he might not be strong enough to endure.

But he would endure. He would face this. He gritted his teeth and pushed on. Soultaker brought death wherever he swept it, the souls of his enemies streaming toward him, filling the pit deep inside him, satiating his hunger like nothing else could. Apparitions sprang into life. Human, elven and demon warriors of light, their glowing bodies transparent, tearing through the soldiers all around him with incredible ease.

He was death incarnate. A Soul Reaper. He could do this.

He would do this.

Xavier gritted his teeth and broke the pathway of his solidified habit, stopping it before it started. He drew in more Celestial Energy, cultivating it into his body. He focused, as hard as he possibly could in the middle of a battle, on his Willpower Core and sending that energy toward it. When he’d learnt how to do this for his Spirit Core, he’d been able to feel the Spirit Energy moving through his body whenever he cast a spell. He didn’t have such a benefit this time around.

Howard would probably have a much easier time of it when he discovered his Toughness Core, considering he already had access to Toughness Energy.

Once more, Xavier followed the fraction of Celestial Energy that he could feel heading toward his Willpower Core—what he’d followed to discover the core in the first place. Though the amount of Celestial Energy was incredibly miniscule, it was heading there in a constant flow. And so, he followed it, again and again, until the line was obvious in his mind. It wasn’t definedto his mind’s eyes. Not yet, at least. Where his Spirit Lines were deep drenches in the ground, this was drawn in the faintest of pencils with the softest of hands.

Still, it was progress.

Now that he could identify one of the Willpower Lines, he drew the Celestial Energy he’d cultivated from the air into it.

Or, at least, he tried to.

It took him six attempts until finally he managed to trace a small amount of energy down the line. When it reached his Willpower Core, he felt the energy inside it glow with a slight warmth—nothing like the raging fire of his Spirit core, but it was definitely a start.

He looked at the Spell Quest again, bringing up only the progress for the first step.

1/1,000

Seeing it made a laugh loose from his lips. It wasn’t much—only a single point—but it was a start.

The rest of the wave continued in this way. Xavier had, unfortunately, lost track of how long the wave had lasted for. Usually, he could keep a far better eye on the time a wave lasted from his Soul Strike cooldown, but as he was casting the spell every minute and forty seconds and putting the majority of his focus toward his Willpower Core, it simply wasn’t possible for him.

The enemy soldiers didn’t appear to be thinning a great deal yet, however, so he mustn’t have been all that far into the wave.

As he fought, he dragged more Celestial Energy through the Willpower Line. Again and again he did this, always watching the points tick up and up. It felt like it was going far too slowly, but the fact he was making any progress at all given the circumstances made this a win.

When the Willpower Core hit 500 points of Celestial Energy, Xavier felt like pumping his fist in the air in triumph. It might have only been halfway, but progress was progress.

After the halfway mark, his speed at drawing it into his core seemed to improve faster and faster. It was beginning to feel… well, not natural, but definitely achievable.

As the technique become more and more practised, he turned his mind toward the E Grade wave boss he’d faced. He hadn’t seen it again—nor had he seen the wave boss for this wave, which he was sure would also be E Grade and likely a little bit stronger than the last.

If I have to face them both at once…

He checked his progress again:

978/1,000

So close!

He placed the number up in the corner of his vision to keep an eye on it as he fought, watching for when it ticked over the thousand mark. When it did, he let out a whoop which confused and terrified the enemies directly around him.

He hadn’t gained the spell yet, but he was getting so much closer—

A horn blared. War drums thundered.

The next wave was already on its way.