Accidental Champion - Chapter 35 - A Bloody Maze

Xavier felt like a whirlwind of death.

A whirlwind of death. That sounds awesome.

He didn’t know that slaughtering monsters could be so… fun. A small pang of guilt still lived within him because he was enjoyingkilling. But if he were going to become strong enough to defend Earth, then he had to feed this feeling.

Had to embrace it.

Xavier used Spiritual Trifecta to increase the speed at which he ran at through the tunnels. He barely ever slowed down if he could help it. With Heavy Telekinesis having such a short cooldown, he rarely needed to use his staff for physical combat.

The sound of screeching rats filled the cave tunnels until they were choked off by the death he brought them. The Heavy Telekinesis spell’s casting net had widened dramatically now his Intelligence was over 70, and he knew that Spirit must be doing something to make it stronger.

Magical Potency had ranked up three times since he’d entered this floor. It was now at Rank 4. Every time it went up a rank, he felt his magic get stronger. The rats flew harder into the walls, making large holes in the rock and dirt.

At one point he realised he had to temper the spell. If he kept on going like this, he might bring the entire damned cave system down. That’s the last thing I need.

After killing ten more of the giant rat beasties, Xavier had reached level 7. He’d been tempted to throw all 5 of his free stats straight into Intelligence, but he’d known that would be a mistake. He didn’t need his magic to be stronger. Not down in these tunnels. Not when he could already one hit every single one of these things. Apparently none of them possessed the same sort of magical resistance as the Puma Prime he’d faced at the end of the first floor.

Besides, his Intelligence would have gone up when he’d gained level 7, and with his Magical Potency skill being Rank 4, his magic was getting stronger without him having to put any extra stats into it.

No, the one attribute that was lagging the most out of everythingthat he had was Speed. And right now, trying to clear this floor as fast as possible, Speed seemed like the most important of all of his stats. The faster he could run from one cavern to the next through the tunnels of this place, the faster he’d be able to take down the Giant Mole Rats.

And Speed didn’t only help the pace of his movement, it also helped how fast he could react. His reflexes had grown immensely as his Speed attribute increased.

I’ve gotten it fairly high with titles alone, but now it’s time to kick it into overdrive.

He threw those 5 free stat points straight into Speed, bringing it up to an effective 61. It was still the weakest of his stats, but considering how high his stats were, it was still quite strong.

After that, he got even faster. Taking down the rats in groups of twos and fours as he sprinted from one cavern to the next. He’d been wrong about the cave system. It wasn’t a maze. So far, he hadn’t arrived at a single fork in the road. That was something he was glad for. A maze would be much more difficult to get through, especially at speed.

And if this were a maze, it would benefit those who had cleared much of the floor before heading back to the Staging Room and respawning everything to try again far more than it would benefit my raw speed of killing through it. I wouldn’t have a chance at making the top 100.

He had a feeling there would be far more than fifty beasts on this floor, as opposed to the last floor, but he wasn’t about to do the math and the guesswork. Despite how quickly his mind now processed information and did calculations, he wanted to focus purely on the task at hand.

After he’d killed perhaps sixty of the beasts, his suspicions had been more than confirmed, and he was already halfway to level 8.

This is feeling too easy. He supposed that was a good thing, but he’d thought that clearing floors as fast as he could would be a challenge. Right now he was just running and flinging Giant Mole Rats into one wall after another. It didn’t really take much skill or finesse. Only raw power.

Then he came upon something strange. Every cavern he’d entered had two exits. The tunnels he’d entered it through, and the tunnel he would leave it through. Those exits weren’t always straight ahead. Sometimes they were off to the left, sometimes to the right. They narrowed and widened. They climbed and fell. One such exit was a sheer drop straight down a hole. When he’d dropped down, he’d wondered how anyone was supposed to get back up.

What if we wanted to get out of here, and head back to the Safe Zone? It wasn’t as though he’d brought any rope. He’d looked up. The walls were solid rock, but he reckoned a blade or spike of some sort could be lodged into them. I’m sure it could be climbed back through.

So even though the cave system was nothing like the dark forest he’d been in on the first floor, he’d figured it was a direct path, just like that had been.

Then he walked straight into a room with dead Giant Mole Rats lying upon the ground, right by the wall, their bones crushed.

What the hell? Xavier stopped sprinting, which was a strange sensation after having been running for so long. His brow furrowed as he examined the dead Giant Mole Rats. He tilted his head to the side.

I was definitely the one who killed these two. He looked at the exit to the chamber and frowned. How is this possible? How can I be back somewhere I’ve been? As far as he was concerned, it wasn’tpossible. Shouldn’t have been. There hadn’t been a single fork in any of the caverns. He’d gone in a “straight” line.

There was no way that line could come back on itself like this.

Unless…

Xavier swore under his breath as he realised what might be happening.

Unless the walls are moving.

He heard a deep rumbling sound. The cavern he stood in shifted, ever so slightly. Vibrations ran up his legs. He felt them in his chest. Dust and dirt fell from the rocky ceiling.

This had happened before, but only when he’d thrown a Giant Mole Rat—or four—into the rock wall of the cave. It was why he’d had to temper how much power he used in his Heavy Telekinesis spell, something that wasn’t easy to control.

The rumbling came again. More dust and dirt fell, bits falling into his hair and eyes. He brushed it off his face. That definitely wasn’t me.

Footsteps crunched over the dirt. Xavier peered through the tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. Was that the way I came through earlier? It was all beginning to look the same to him.

He gripped his staff tightly, but those footsteps didn’t sound anything like Giant Mole Rats.

Howard was the first to step through the tunnel, the glowing moss on the ceiling illuminating him in a green glow, making his frowning features look somewhat sinister. “Xavier?” He glanced around. “What are you doing here?”

Xavier ran a hand through his hair as Siobhan and Justin stepped into the chamber. “I’ve been wondering the same thing.” He explained to the three of them what had happened. How he’d headed through the tunnels and ended up back here. The rumbling in the walls.

Siobhan seemed to catch on right away. “The walls are moving! The exits and entrances are shifting…” She stepped over to the wall, leaning against it with an ear. Her forehead creased, eyebrows pulling together. After a moment, she nodded. “Something’s tunnelling through the earth.”

Justin stepped over to the two dead Giant Mole Rats. He placed a hand on each of them, and they disappeared into his pack. “That doesn’t sound good. How are you supposed to find the final boss if things change?”

“It’s like a bloody maze.” Howard peered at the ceiling, worry in his eyes. His sword was drawn, despite the fact that he shouldn’t have to face anything in this place. “I hoped it wouldn’t be a bloody maze.”

The former cop had an odd look about him, shoulders tense. He looked more afraid than the others. That’s not what I would have expected.

The deep rumbling came again. Louder this time. Xavier looked at the ceiling, narrowing his gaze. “I think that is the final boss. Which means…”

“It might show up anywhere,” Siobhan whispered. “So… we aren’t safe out here in the tunnels.”

Xavier thought on that for a moment. She’s right. “Should the three of you head back to the Safe Zone?”

“That’s probably best.” Howard nodded curtly, then turned around. He stopped abruptly as the rumbling became even louder and the tunnel they’d just walked through… closed.

A wall formed where there hadn’t been one before, rock growing from the tunnel walls until it met in the middle, melded, and looked as though it had always been there.

Then another tunnel opened up to Xavier’s left.

Howard’s shoulders drooped. “I don’t think heading back to the Safe Zone is a viable option anymore.”

Xavier shook his head. This wasn’t part of the plan. I need to keep moving. But… where would he move to? And how would he be able to move fast if he had to keep an eye on these three?

“This… isn’t good, is it?” Justin said.

“No.” Xavier let out a sigh. “It really isn’t.”