Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 8 - Celestial Energy

(Updated Author Note: I changed a few things at the very end of this chapter, following "And then… then there was Earth." Nothing major, just a few details about invasion restrictions back on Earth. Oh, and I'll be posting a new chapter today!)

(Author Note: There were a few errors in the stats in this chapter, but they've all been fixed now. I had a glitch in my spreadsheet in one of the formulas. Sorry about that!)

On the first day, the sun shone bright over a battlefield stained with blood. Thousands of corpses littered the ground. All of them died by scythe or soul. All of them by Xavier’s hand.

Every hour, he fought. Every hour, he won. The levels came consistently at first. Every three or four waves, the notification would pop up into his vision, bringing a stab of dopamine that fuelled his energy more than the strength from the added stats. His skill and spell rank ups came steadily as well, until eventually they became harder and harder to acquire.

The pit inside him never filled. He had thought he’d gained a semblance of control over it. Had thought his strong Willpower attribute helped him deal with it. But the more souls he took, the deeper the pit became, until the hole in him felt as endless as the horde outside the castle’s walls.

On the second day, dull clouds covered the sky. The Denizens and beasts both became more fierce. Their spells more varied and deadly. It started to take longer for Xavier to take down a wave. No longer could he simply throw out a single Soul Strike and take them down.

They had not become truly difficult—not yet. He was beyond these enemies in so many ways. But he could see them becoming tougher. Could feeltheir strength growing even as his own did. Knew what it foretold in the days to come.

On the third day, he stood on the parapet, the hood of his Shrouded Robes draped over his head. The Endless Horde did not bury their dead—they burned them. Powerful fire mages, of a demonic race Kalren called the Amondi, walked up from far back in the ranks, stepping out in front of the army. Before the exodus, there had been several of these Amondi in the queen’s guard.

But these were different. More powerful than any other Denizen Xavier had laid eyes on. He couldn’t feel their aura, but there was something about the way they held themselves. Xavier could not scan them from this distance. Even the queen and Kalren were unable to tell him their levels.

At the end of each wave, these Amondi fire mages obliterated the dead, turning them to ash. They did not bother scavenging their corpses or weapons—they just discarded them completely.

On the fourth day, the clouds became darker. The rain started, spitting down on them in constant sheets, washing away the ash from the battlefield and mixing in with the blood.

Each day the levels came less frequently. He needed to take down more and more waves to make any difference. His ranks had stalled, too. He’d been trying to keep them as balanced as possible, though there were some he still hadn’t figured out—like Assimilate Properties, a skill they hadn’t been able to find any information about in the library.

He added points into his other attributes, but for the most part he kept pumping up his Spirit attribute, more and more. Eventually, it pushed over 1,000, putting him over the edge of another threshold.

The level of power he could summon felt absolutely insane. The apparitions he brought to life obliterated the stronger wave bosses with ease, even as the enemies’ levels raised over 50, he could still take out an entire wave within half an hour. Every now and then, he noticed that Howard, Siobhan or Justin found themselves at the battlements, watching him destroy the Endless Horde from the sidelines. Observing the sheer devastation he was able to dish out.

He brought his Intelligence and Willpower attributes over 500, smashing through two more thresholds of power. When his Willpower hit 500 he could breathe a little easier. The hunger inside of him dimmed. Not as much as he wished it to—but enough that he could deal with it again.

I guess it does help.

Lightning cracked in the sky, thunder rolling. The rain pelted ever harder. The battlefield had been a muddied, ash-ridden mess for the last few days without the rain—enough blood soaked the ground to make every inch of it soft—but now, it was even worse. There wasn’t in inch of solid ground out there.

After he had destroyed the hundredth wave, Xavier returned to the wall. All he wanted to do was rest. He hadn’t slept for over four days straight. He wasn’t exactly sure if he neededsleep anymore, but he sure would appreciate some. The closest he got to sleeping was the deep meditation he experienced, which always helped rejuvenate his body and mind.

But it didn’t quite feel like enough.

The tiredness didn’t make his reactions slower. It didn’t dim his power. It just… settled somewhere in his mind, bringing a small pain behind his eyes that never seemed to dull no matter how many levels he gained. It was a pain that appeared to be increasing the longer he remained awake. It made him wonder just how long he could do this for.

And the levels, too, were beginning to stall. It wasn’t just that he needed more and more Mastery Points every level that he gained. Something else was happening—he wasn’t gaining as many Mastery Points per kill as he used to. At first, he hadn’t even noticed. He never looked at the kill notifications anymore. If he did, they’d be the only things he would ever see. He’d be reading them until the end of time.

“The System adjusts,” Adviser Kalren had told him when Xavier had asked the man about this. “I’ve heard of this happening with Denizens of legend. Progenitors who gain immense power through titles. The System knows they are stronger, so they scale the number of points they receive.”

To Xavier, it seemed exceedingly unfair. But he supposed he shouldn’t speak of what was fair and what wasn’t, considering how many things he’d benefited from.

The man had been a patient teacher, and had actually become easy to talk to. He had guided Xavier through each of the skills he needed to gain from his Spirit Core, teaching him how to sense Celestial Energy in the air.

It turned out Celestial Energy was everywhere.

Xavier was honestly unsure how he hadn’t noticed it before. Sensing Celestial Energy was a little bit like seeing auras, except it was about a thousand times fainter. But once he knew what to look for… it was like when a shard of sunlight shines on particles drifting in the air.

According to Kalren—and the man had yet to steer him wrong—Celestial Energy was the main power behind all Denizen’s abilities. There were countless energy systems. Xavier had known of Spirit Energy, of course. And Toughness Energy, as Howard had gained that when he’d chosen his class at level 10.

But there was energy for every attribute. Strength. Speed. Toughness. Intelligence. Willpower. Each of them had their own core within the body of a Denizen. Simply being able to access the energy that came from those cores—as Howard was able to do for Toughness—didn’t actually give one the ability to “unlock” the core that held that energy.

Otherwise every Denizen would instantly be able to unlock their Spirit Core, as they had access to the energy it held from the very beginning.

“Unlocking your Spirit Core and your secondary core—whatever it ends up being—is a prerequisite to achieving E Grade. And, we assume, unlocking more is required to reaching D Grade, though we do not have access to that knowledge in our humble queendom,” Kalren had explained. “It is theorised that the higher grades are able to infuse all six energies into their weapons and armour.”

And Celestial Energy was behind it all—it could be cultivated into every core, turned into any type of energy. A pure energy source that worked for each of them. Technically, Kalren explained, Xavier already had the ability to cultivate Celestial Energy into his Spirit Core—it happened naturally. It was what Spirit Recovery did.

But doing it on purpose was a whole different beast.

Though it hadn’t taken him long to reveal the energy that had always been there—to actually see it in the air—two days had passed before he’d finally been able to cultivate enough of the energy into himself manually and unlock the skill.

When he’d finally done it, he couldn’t help himself. He’d jumped onto his feet and thrust his fist into the air, an action that had made the always-poised queen burst out into a small fit of giggles, something that took her quite a long time to rein in. He couldn’t help but laugh along with her at the ridiculousness of what he’d just done. But he couldn’t help himself—every step forward he made in this place would be a win for the people of Earth.

After that hundredth wave on the fourth day, Xavier examined his attributes and stats, marvelling at how far he’d come. Even if he wasbeginning to stall.

XAVIER COLLINS

Age: 20

Race: Human

Grade: F

Moral Faction: World Defender (Planet Earth)

Class: Soul Reaper (Epic)

Level 35

Strength: 280 (342)

Speed: 276 (337)

Toughness: 370 (451)

Intelligence: 417 (626)

Willpower: 412 (503)

Spirit: 626 (1,045)

Mastery Points until next level: 1,035,530/432,000,000

Available Spirit Energy: 105,500/105,500

Available Skill Points: 0

Free stat points remaining: 0

Titles:

Bloodied Hands, Born on a Battlefield, Settlement Defender, Quester, First Defender of Planet Earth, Survivor, All 100, First All 100, 1,000 Stats, First to 1,000 Stats, Greater Butcher, Fourth Floor Climber, Solo Tower Climber 4, 1st Fourth Floor Climber, Fourth Floor Ranked 1 – RECORD HOLDER (Completion Time – 4 sec)

Spells List:

Spiritual Trifecta – Rank 15

Heavy Telekinesis – Rank 14

Spirit Break (All) – Rank 14

Spirit Infusion – Rank 16

Soul Harvest – Rank 18

Soul Strike (Ranged) – Rank 20

Soul Block – Rank 15

Soul Harden – Rank 16

Skills List:

Physical Resistance – Rank 20

Magical Potency – Rank 20

Magical Resistance – Rank 20

Physical Damage – Rank 20

Assimilate Properties – Rank 1

Scythe-Staff Mastery – Rank 20

Meditation – Rank 20

Aura-Control – Rank 10

Core Strength – Rank 10

Cultivate Energy –Rank 10

Lesser Spirit Coins: 329,289

Level 35. He’d gained over 20levels since he’d entered this floor four days ago. And back in his universe, only an hour would have passed once he returned. This is unbelievable. But it also made him worry. For several reasons. He couldn’t have been the only Denizen to take advantage of this—couldn’t be the only Denizen to gain all the levels possible on this floor.

Would a hundred waves really be enough to gain the top spot?

And then… then there was Earth.

Their research in the library had been quite fruitful over the last few days. Something Xavier had instantly been worried about when he’d decided to stay on this floor for as long as possible was just how high level he would become. Yes, he wished to become as strong as possible, but, paradoxically, the higher level he became, the more danger Earth would be in.

The invaders that came to Earth were restricted in their level. They could only send people to Earth that were a single level higher than the highest-level Denizen on the planet. As Xavier wasn’t currently on the planet, and neither were any of the other Champions from Earth, their levels did not yet affect this restriction.

However, the moment they returned, it would.

And though he worried deeply about this, Siobhan had found an ancient tome in the library that spoke of the rules around newly integrated worlds. There had been a very interesting detail hidden within the pages: Invaders didn’t know what the highest-level Denizen on a world they were invading would be. The only way they could find that out was by scanning people while on the world, or by sending different Denizens through portals and hoping they would survive.

It has to be worth the risk. If I don’t become strong, Earth won’t stand a chance.

When he did return, he would simply have to ensure that none of the enemies ever discovered what level he was.

He looked over at the queen. She stood, hands neatly folded behind her back, staring out at the Endless Horde just as she always did, her golden crown still resting on her head, even though all but one of her subjects were already days gone into a different world. In these moments of quiet he couldn’t help but see the look of loss on her face. His party might have dreamt up the possibility that he could defeat the Endless Horde, something that would no doubt give him a damned amazing title, and in turn free the queen from her fate. But she knew just as well as he did that such a task had to be beyond difficult, if not completely impossible.

Still, the more time he spent here, the longer he got to know the queen… the more he wished it could be true.

The more he hoped he would be able to save her.