Accidental Champion of Earth - Chapter 28 - A Planet Of The Apes Scenario

This looks promising.

Xavier raised his staff, gripped in both hands, over his head as he stretched out his sore back. He’d been running for the past ten minutes, through the forest’s underbrush, and was yet to encounter another monster.

The number of monsters had been spread out so equally across the forest path that he’d been able to predict when he would encounter another one up to the second, so he was beginning to wonder if something had changed. He certainly hadn’t cleared the first floor of the Tower of Champions yet. He would have received a notification if that were the case. And he hadn’t fought anything he would consider a boss, just the same Black Pumas again and again.

But now, Xavier had come to the end of the path. The path terminated at a large stone temple. It looked as ancient as the Egyptian pyramids, but was more like something the Mayans might have built.

The step-pyramid had a central staircase at its front that led up to a small structure at the top with a single, doorless entryway.

If I know anything about final bosses, I’m guessing this is where the one for this floor will be. He checked his health, and was pleasantly surprised to find it at 85%. His running seemed to slow down its regeneration, which was something he would keep in mind, but it hadn’t halted it completely. Though he didn’t know whether that was because of his high Toughness attribute, or because that was simply the case for everyone. Another reason why other parties will go even slower than me. If they’re injured after every encounter and don’t have something like a healer or health potions—if those even exist—then they’ll need to rest a lot more, and apparently they won’t be able to walk during that resting time.

Not even three hours had passed since he’d entered this floor.I have to be the fastest. There’s no way I’m not. He steeled himself before heading up the stairs, checking his stats.

XAVIER COLLINS

Level 6

Strength: 27

Speed: 23

Toughness: 45

Intelligence: 34

Willpower: 37

Spirit: 41

Mastery Points until next level: 100/48000

Available Spirit Energy: 4700/4700

Available Skill Points: 0

Free stat points remaining: 0

Okay, he thought. I’m definitely strong enough to face whatever’s up there. And since I’ve been rushing this whole time, the longer I spend down here the more I ruin my chances of being the first to clear this floor.

Xavier gripped his staff and sprinted up the steps. Over the last few days, he’d gotten plenty used to running upstairs. There must have been at least three hundred steps, but it didn’t take him all that long to reach the top.

He paused when he reached the entrance. It was pitch black inside the temple. He put a hand to the stone doorway and leant in, straining his ears. The stone was cold, as though it had never been touched by the sun. Looking back at the dark forest, Xavier wondered if that might be the case.

Though Xavier couldn’t hear anything, he was sure he was in the right place. He swallowed, feeling a hint of fear. Just because he’d become powerful, didn’t mean he didn’t feel fear every now and then. He’d be a fool not to, considering the situations he’d found himself in.

He stepped over the temple’s threshold. The instant he did, torches all along the walls began to alight one by one. That’s cool. And more than a little ominous. He shook his head with a smile at the sight.

With all that had been going on. Everything that was on the line—like the entirety of Planet Earth and every person on it—sometimes Xavier forgot to stop and think about what was actually happening around him.

In a way, his wildest dreams had come true. Though instead of being flung into a fantasy world, it was more like a fantasy world had been flung at his world. And here he was, not only experiencing it, but thriving in it.

Xavier was becoming more powerful than he ever imagined was even possible in reality. He’d wanted to be a writer because magic wasn’t real, and neither were fantasy worlds.

But he’d been proven wrong.

As torches on each side of the wall lit one-by-one every few feet, the large temple hall became illuminated by the flickering flames. Xavier shivered. The space was just as cold as the stone he’d touched at the entryway, the torches’ flames didn’t seem to impact that at all. He crinkled his nose at the musty smell. It even smells old.

When the final torches all the way at the end of the large hall were lit, they illuminated a throne upon a raised dais. For a moment, Xavier thought he saw a man sitting upon that throne. But what he saw was no man.

It was a beast.

The thing was humanoid. Two legs. Two arms. It even wore some semblance of armour, though it didn’t wear any shoes. The dagger-like claws that extended out from its paws were eerily familiar, and made a twitch run up Xavier’s back. And with good reason. The beast’s head resembled that of the Black Pumas.

An anthropomorphic sentient being, Xavier thought, tilting his head to the side. The armour it wore was crude, rusted ringmail that looked like it had been taken from several people smaller than it and poorly stitched together around its huge frame.

Balanced across its legs was a spear. No, more like a halberd. The axe blade at the end of the halberd was huge. Xavier imagined it would weigh a lot. The halberd itself must have been twenty feet long—which was about as tall as this beast probably stood.

Is this what the Black Pumas might become, if they gained more levels? Might they… evolve?

If that were the case, he couldn’t help but wonder if that might happen to other animals back on Earth. Xavier could imagine pushing back the threat of otherworldly invaders only to end up fending off a Planet of the Apes scenario. The thought almost made him chuckle at its absurdity, if not for the possibility of it actually being real.

Xavier’s gaze trailed from the anthropomorphic beast to the two beasts flanking it, which he hadn’t noticed at first, as his attention had been solely on the one sitting on the throne.

I was right. Three more enemies. That’s fifty enemies on this floor. He felt a small swell of pride for that. He supposed everyone liked being right about things.

He scanned each of the enemies before him. None of them had yet to make a move.

{Black Puma – Level 11}

{Black Puma – Level 11}

{Puma Prime – Level 15}

Puma Prime, huh? Xavier thought. And only level 15? The other two Black Pumas were the highest he’d ever faced so far, but that didn’t worry him. He put this scenario in the context of a normal party.

Assuming the normal party had not farmed the first-floor instance—something a small part of Xavier wished he was able to do—then they would have likely each gained a single level from all the fighting, or be close to doing so. Which meant they would be no stronger at this point than they’d been at the beginning, which he thought was rather unfair.

And if facing one Black Puma at a time had been a challenge… facing two at once would be far harder.

And then there was the Puma Prime.

The anthropomorphic beast smiled, revealing two massive, jutting sharp fangs. The beast peered down at Xavier as though he were an insect in front of a king. He is sitting on a throne. Perhaps that’s the way he sees himself…

The Puma Prime made a show of looking behind Xavier and to the left and right of him. The beast opened its mouth, revealing even more sharp teeth. “All. Alone?” The voice came out like a guttural growl, loud enough to echo off the walls and make it all the way to him. “Your party. Died?” The beast seemed to have trouble forming words, its forehead creasing as it did so.

Xavier’s eyes widened. He wasn’t sure if he was more surprised that the beast could speak, or that he could understand it. Was the System translating for him? If it’s translating for me, why couldn’t I understand the goblins? He pushed that question aside. The fact that the beast could talk didn’t change Xavier’s plan. He knew he needed to fight it. Besides, every single one of the Black Pumas that he’d fought had pursued him first.

Do I really have to justify this? he thought. Just because its sentient, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t kill it. The goblins were sentient. The System has thrown us into the Greater Universe. A universe where countless worlds and races fight for dominance. If I worry about killing other sentient beings… I won’t be able to protect the ones on my own planet.

He knew what happened when “good guys” refused to kill. Like when Batman kept putting the Joker into Arkham Asylum. That bastard would always escape. And that’s how Robin dies. Xavier didn’t want to be a killer, but he didn’t want to be weak, either. This new reality demanded more of him than he ever knew he would have to give, and he wasn’t about to back down because of morals he had held before that no longer applied.

Besides, he needed to kill the Puma Prime if he was going to clear this floor.

Xavier raised his chin. He didn’t want to stop and talk. He strode forward, gripping his staff tightly in both hands, and headed straight for the throne at the end of the long hall.

~

The Puma Prime smiled as he watched his prey enter his domain. It was rare that prey came to him. He knew that it was his fate to fight anyone who came through those doors, but he’d been expecting more opponents than this.

The human looked weak. Cheap, thin tattered robes hung off the man’s body. Robes that were drenched in the blood of his kin. Robes that were nothing compared to the great armour that adorned the Puma Prime’s own shoulders. Perhaps a rage should have boiled up within him at all that blood, but he was glad his kin had been slaughtered. It meant less competition for him. Less mouths to feed, and more opportunities.

This foul creature dare believes he can defeat me? His thoughts flowed so much easier than his words when he said them aloud, though he knew that would change as he became more powerful. He had been granted with an intelligence above his previous station, and he was not going to squander it.

A low rumbling laugh built up inside the Puma Prime’s chest as he watched the small human stride across the stone floor of his temple toward his throne.

The Puma Prime looked to his two guards, then flung a hand in the human’s direction with a sigh that sounded more like a growl. “Kill. It.”

His two guards did not hesitate to respond to his command. They were at a level where they could understand him, but they could not respond with any semblance of real language.

The Black Pumas had already been taking offensive postures, their hind legs bent, poised and ready to pounce, fangs bared, roars ready to be unleashed. At his command, they bounded across the stone floor directly for the human that had been foolish enough to enter his hall alone and weak.

The human stopped walking and waited for the two Black Pumas to come to him. The Puma Prime frowned, leant forward in his chair, staring at the man. When the man had entered the hall, The Puma Prime had smelled a hint of fear. That hint of fear should have grown when the Puma Prime and his guards had been revealed, yet now…

The Puma Prime could not smell any fear at all. The man stood tall—as tall as a human could stand, at least—and looked… confident. He did not shiver and quail as two beasts bounded toward him, even though his level was identifiable as almost half the level of the beasts ready to kill him. He stood firm. He held. He showed no fear.

Why? Why is he not afraid?

The human raised his staff. A flimsy looking weapon that did not even have a blade attached. It was nothing like the weapon the Puma Prime possessed.

A weapon fit for the king of the forest!

The man slid one foot backward, taking on an attack stance, and waited for the pumas to reach him. Then a great energy emanated outward from him, and the two Black Pumas were flung straight into the air. They crashed into the stone ceiling with a startling crack that echoed all around the temple.

Then they fell to the floor, dead, and once more, the Puma Prime could smell fear.

But now that fear was coming from him.