Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 48 - Thank You For Your Sacrifice

Xavier stood over the mangled, destroyed body of the Cerotri Infernum.

The hell beast with three heads must have had a massive amount of health. It had managed to survive five uses of Spirit Break to its body, mind and soul each.

Fifteen uses of the spell. Seven and a half minutes of agony.

It still breathed, but it did not moan any longer. It couldnot moan anymore. No cheers came from the soldiers behind him. A silence had fallen upon the battlefield as he’d cast Spirit Break, waited for the cooldown to end, then cast it again. And again.

And again.

Unrelentingly. With no mercy.

He didn’t need to worry about his Spirit Energy. Being a Rank 1 spell, Spirit Break currently only used 100 Spirit Energy, so Xavier had plentyto spare.

A part of Xavier hated what he was doing, but he’d shut that part of him down. This had been necessary. This was part of his training. It was the best way he could think to push the spell forward.

He read the notification.

Spirit Break has taken a step forward on the path, upgrading to the spell: Spirit Break (All).

Spirit Break (All) is a Rank 2 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Though Xavier felt a sense of achievement at having gained the second rank for the spell, he also felt a bit of disgust at how he’d done it. Now he’d gotten all the use he could from the hell beast, he walked over to one of its heads.

Its eyes turned up, widened, staring at him. Its breath struggled in and out, a rasping whine in its throat.

“Thank you for your sacrifice,” Xavier whispered.

Then he cast Heavy Telekinesis straight down into its head. The hell beast’s skull was crushed into the ground. And though only one of its brains was destroyed, that seemed to be enough to tip its health all the way down to nothing.

You have defeated a Level 40 Cerotri Infernum!

You have gained 8000 Mastery Points.

You have gained 8000 Spirit Energy.

Magical Potency has reached rank 8!

Xavier held his breath, waiting to see if another notification came. A small spart of him still worried that killing the floor boss would mean the end of the floor, but he’d been sure enough that hadn’t been the case.

Now, after a moment passed, his suspicion was confirmed—they definitely had to kill every enemy, and with some of the elves captured, that meant the floor wasn’t fully cleared.

He let out the breath and placed a hand on the Cerotri Infernum’s mangled corpse, placing it into his Storage Ring. It barely fit, taking up the entirety of the space, but he wouldn’t have it in there for long.

Xavier turned. His party, and every soldier that remained of the human army—which appeared to be almost all of them, as barely any had fallen once Xavier got into the battle—stood, staring at him in awe.

The first face he saw was Siobhan’s. Her forehead was creased. Her gaze flicked away from his, toward where the corpse of the hell beast had been. At the massive pool of blood it had left behind.

He didn’t know why he worried for how she might feel about what he’d just done.

I needed to do that. To gain power. Siobhan and the others will understand. Though… that doesn’t mean they will like it.

“That was…” Howard let out a breath. “Vicious.” He stared Xavier in the eye. “Please tell me you did that to gain the next rank in a spell, and not because you enjoyed it or something?”

Straight to the point, I see. Xavier nodded. “I achieved the second rank in Spirit Break.”

“Looks like…” Justin swallowed. “Looks like the spell is effective.”

Siobhan loosened her grip around her staff. Her knuckles had gone white, though that wasn’t hard with her pale skin. “You really are something, Xavier.” She shook her head. “You’re even stronger than I imagined.” The words felt somewhat devoid of emotion compared with how she usually spoke, and her smile was gone from her lips.

Xavier supposed she couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t exactly enjoyed what he’d done, but… he didn’t regret it. He was glad for what it had given him. It seemed like the easiest way for him to test out and rank up his new spell.

“This floor doesn’t pose much of a challenge for you.” Howard gestured about the battlefield. “Clearly. How close are you to level 10?”

“If we farm this floor one more time, I’ll reach it easily. Then, on our third time in here, I’ll clear the whole thing solo.” Or, at least, with only the help of the army. He had to assume the soldiers wouldn’t take away from him solo-clearing this level and gaining the title for it.

Although… he could be wrong.

Maybe I’ll have to think about that…

Howard nodded. The man looked a little tired. “Good. Then, I think it’s about time we got some sleep. It’s been… a very long day.”

Sleep? Xavier hadn’t even thought about sleep, but he supposed the man was right. Though he didn’t feel tired, they would need a break at some point.

And they were on the third floor on the first day of entering the floors of the Tower of Champions.

If I’ve gained this much in one day… how much will I gain in a week? A month?

A year?

The party headed back to the trapdoor that led to the Staging Room. It was still being guarded by a few soldiers, and they’d opened it up. None of the soldiers—not even Sergeant Bradley—spoke with them. It seemed as though they were too stunned by what had just happened to speak.

The soldiers hadn’t even cheered when the Cerotri Infernum had died.

They might have been expecting Champions to come to their aid, but clearly they hadn’t expected them to be as strong as him.

When his party returned to the Staging Room, the sombre mood seemed to clear away, though the others did seem a little quieter around him.

Maybe I’m just imagining that. Surely they don’t think of me as a monster, right?

They sold off the loot they’d gotten. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough space in all their Storage Rings for everything, so some things had been left on the field. Still, they gained 8,450 Lesser Spirit Coins from what they’d just done—a battle that hadn’t even taken an hour.

If we really wanted to, we could farm that floor over and over rather quickly…

The thought was an appealing one, but the last thing he wanted to do was slow his ascent through the tower floors.

We’ll clear it one more time. I’ll gain level 10, and let the others do more fighting if I can.

Though farming the floor sounded like a good idea, and Xavier still needed to train to be better in combat, stopping to gain as much from a single floor seemed like a trap more than anything.

We might gain levels and Spirit Coins that way, skill rank ups and even spell rank ups, but we won’t get any titles. Titles are how I’ll get as strong as I possibly can get. I’m not going to let us slow down.

Xavier checked how close he was to reaching level 10.

Mastery Points until next level: 224700/400000

More than halfway. Just as I’d thought. His mind moved through the math easily. I’ll need to kill 98 more of those level 12 soldiers. That’s like, three uses of Heavy Telekinesis.

Maybe even less, as the spell had already gotten stronger.

After the others briefly discussed their gains—they had each reached level 7 during the fighting—and the fact that Siobhan healing someone who defeated an enemy did gain her Mastery Points, they quickly entered the third floor of the Tower of Champions. The party wasn’t very talkative. They knew they shouldn’t stop and chat for long. At least not until they’d gotten Xavier to level 10.

Though Xavier couldn’t help but feel like they were quiet for another reason.

He remembered that he’d been planning on getting the others to level 10 on this floor, to get them closer to gaining their classes, but he didn’t want to wait that long. They would take far longer than him to get where they needed.

They’ll get to level 10 soon enough, they’re already level 7, after all.

Xavier was finding it difficult to make plans, floor-to-floor, as they never really knew what they would find on the next one. Perhaps he would need to play things a little more loosely. He would still turn his party into a formidable support team, but the third floor, with its two opposing armies, simply didn’t feel like the right place to practice that.

They appeared in the field again. It looked identical to the last time they’d been here. The same long, purple grass. The same twin suns, sitting in the same spot in the sky as they had last time.

Xavier shielded his eyes, gazing up at that alien sky. He couldn’t help but smile, taking it all in at once more, feeling the cool breeze play with the sleeves of his Robes of Intelligence.

He could hear the thud, thud,thud, of war drums, coming from his left, coming from his right. He took a deep breath of that clean, crisp air, then looked over at the elves, willing the prompt to come once more.

Welcome to the Third Floor of the Tower of Champions.

The Third Floor of the Tower of Champions is a test of your leadership capabilities and your might in battle. An army of Elves and an army of Humans are to clash upon this world. You must choose which army to fight with, and which to fight against.

Each army is 500 soldiers strong, and they have each summoned a Champion to lead them.

Whose call will you answer?

This time, Xavier chose the elves.

How fast can I reach level 10?