Accidental Champion of Earth - Chapter 21 - Greetings, Champions of Earth!

“Hologram,” Siobhan muttered. “Gotta be a hologram.”

Howard grunted. “The world’s gone to hell, it has…”

“I think we should be quiet,” Justin whispered.

Xavier straightened in his chair, looking at the bearded hologram.

For a few seconds, it just stood there, then it began to speak. “Greetings, Champions of Earth! and welcome to the Greater Universe!” The hologram had a deep and commanding voice. Xavier could easily imagine him as the general of some intergalactic space army of knights.

What, like the Jedi? I suppose I can move things with my mind, though I don’t have a laser sword… Maybe he has a laser sword.

“Are you the one who’s finally gonna tell us what the hell’s going on here?” Howard asked.

“You are each World Defenders of the Planet Earth. The few who selflessly not only chose to walk the path that would let you fight for your world, but the path to becoming a Champion!” the hologram replied.

“I don’t think it can hear as.” Siobhan stood up. She stepped over to the stage, went on her tiptoes, and waved a hand in front of the tall hologram’s face. Well, a fair bit bellow it as she couldn’t reach.

Justin’s eyes widened. He looked like he wanted to pull her back down.

The hologram continued. “Look to the people beside you! They are your party. You have each suffered through gruelling tests of character and might to get where you are now. Of those on Earth, approximately 8 million of you chose to become Champions.” The hologram continued on, without so much as glancing down at Siobhan.

Howard grunted. “Well, that’s bloody useful.”

Xavier frowned, taking in the hologram’s words. With his Intelligence at 29, the math was easy enough. With a population of 8 billion in the world, only .1% of people had chosen Champion. One in one thousand.He supposed that wasn’t an indicator of how many had chosen to fight for their world, instead of the other two moral factions he’d remembered seeing, as Champion hadn’t been the only option.

Billions of people might have chosen support or soldier roles. Though he’d honestly expected more people to have gone down this route than they had. He bit his lip. Then again… Maybe they actually read the entire description, unlike me.

Still, eight million people… that was a lot. He knew that there must be other hallways like the one with his room in it. There were thousands of rooms in that hallway, but not millions. There must have been other instances of it, just like there were no doubt countless instances of this room.

The hologram kept talking. “Of those eight million, half made it to the second test. Their proving quest.”

Xavier’s heart sank, and it felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He saw the others all drop their heads, as though coming to the same realisation as he did at the same time. Four million dead…

“Of the four million people who began their proving quest, roughly one million of you made it here.” The hologram smiled. “To the Tower of Champions!” He raised his hands, voice booming around the space.”

Xavier shut his eyes. Taking it all in. Things he had known already. Things Sam had told him. But now he had a number to put to the dead.

Seven million… The chances of me making it here, out of everyone on earth… One in ten thousand.

Xavier leant back in his chair. He frowned. The exact same odds Sam gave the people of Earth for surviving, are the same odds of me getting into this chair. Of all the Champions of Earth being here, right now. When he thought about it in those terms, it was actually oddly comforting. If I can make it here, then maybe the people of Earth can make it through this. At least… those of us who are left. And those of us who survive.

The orientation went on like that for a little while. Much of what the hologram told them were things that Xavier had either learnt by trial and error—how spells worked, how to select from a skills list, how to gain upgrade quests for spells and unlock skills, without any further information than the basics—and about the wider universe, which Sam down at the tavern had told him about.

The hologram didn’t mention titles, however, which Xavier found interesting.

Then the hologram had mentioned that those under the age of sixteen who were yet to gain access to the System were in “Safe Zones,” taken care of by those who had selected support roles. Howard and Siobhan had both visibly relaxed when this detail had mentioned. Howard no doubt thinking of his two children, and Siobhan her little sister. Xavier hadn’t even noticed how tense Siobhan’s shoulders had been until after they’d loosened. Maybe she isn’t taking this all as well and easy as it seems. She still stood by the stage, examining the hologram with interest.

The hologram didn’t mention anything about their world not being locked down, which Xavier found oddly strange. He wanted to ask questions about that, but they’d already confirmed that the hologram couldn’t hear them. That it was just a recording. Likely every other orientation from Earth—and there would be roughly 250 thousand of them—would be experiencing the exact same words.

Finally, the hologram pointed at each of them—at least, it pointed at each of their chairs. Siobhan, still standing, smirked with a quick shake of her head when the hologram pointed straight past her and at the chair she no longer occupied.

“In a moment, the four of you will take your first step inside the Tower of Champions!”

“I thought we were already in the Tower of Champions,” Howard muttered.

Xavier was thinking the same thing.

The hologram stepped aside. Behind it, a door appeared. “In future, the room you sit in right now will be your staging area. Here, you will gain rudimentary access to the System Shop and be able to select from a variety of items appropriate for your levels. The room will also expand, turning into one where you may perform physical and mental training to naturally increase your attributes to gain an advantage against your peers, as well as spar with your fellow party members.”

The hologram waved a hand beneath him. Four small books appeared. “This book is your Tower of Champions manual, and it is specifically tailored to an audience of people from a newly integrated world. It will explain much of what I already have, as well as how F Grade Denizens can create Lesser Spirit Coins.”

F Grade Denizens. I suppose that wasn’t how the System was grading me, then… and we can create Lesser Spirit Coins?

Siobhan snatched up one of the books, flipping through the pages. Xavier stood and grabbed his. It was a thin, leatherbound book with English script on the cover, and read: “Tower of Champions Manual: New Denizens Edition.” He frowned at it, depositing it into his Storage Ring with a thought.

The hologram motioned to the door. “Your first mission in the Tower of Champions is to reach and clear floors one to ten. Each floor is filled with monsters and enemies of increasing levels, and each floor has a Champion of its own that you must defeat before gaining access to the next floor. When you have cleared the tenth floor, you will be allowed to return to Earth for a short period of time between missions.

“In your manuals, you will find more information about the typical completion time for each floor, and the mission as a whole, depending upon the experience of the Denizens partaking in said mission. Clearing each floor will garner your party rewards such as items, skill points, and bonus Mastery Points. There are also rewards for being the first to clear a floor, and the first to clear the entire mission.

“However, you are being ranked not only against your peers on Planet Earth, but against other Denizens from four other planets, all of which have spent at least ten generations within the Greater Universe. Therefore, it will be very unlikely for anyone from your world to gain a reward for being the first to clear a floor, and even less likely for you to finish the mission in a good time.” The hologram clapped its hands together. “Speaking of time, the clock is ticking! The mission begins now.”

The hologram disappeared.

“I was expecting…” Howard waved a hand in a circle. “More.” The man stood, stepped over to his manual and bent over to grab it. “Should we read through this first?”

Xavier’s gaze turned toward the door, locking onto it.There are rewards for being the fastest to clear each floor…

“What was that about being pitted against other planets?” Justin asked. “Planets that have been around this System for generations? That… that doesn’t seem fair, does it?”

“Life isn’t fair, kid,” Howard said. “Never has been. There’s always going to be those who start off better than others just because where they were born, and who they were born to. On Earth, the rich got richer and the poor stayed poor. Looks like the same is true of this Greater Universe. The powerful get more powerful, hand that power to their offspring, and the weak… get crushed under their boot.”

“That’s…” Justin swallowed. “An inspiring speech.”

“That’s assuming their lifespans haven’t been improved,” Siobhan said musingly. “With enough levels, people might live longer. Hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Think of the power they would gain… they wouldn’t just hand that out.”

Xavier was still staring at the door. Why hadn’t they stepped toward it yet? “That just means we’ll need to scrape and claw for every inch we can.” He stepped toward the door. Took the handle.

Tower of Champions.

The Tower of Champions is where World Defenders prove themselves, fighting for rewards, upgrades and powerups.

Open Levels:

1 of 1000.

Which level would you like to enter?

One thousand levels. The first mission was only for ten. Would they eventually have to clear every single one of them? That’s a lot.Xavier tilted his head to the side. It doesn’t say I have to enter with my party… that’s good to know. Not that I’m going to leave them behind.

“Shouldn’t we talk about our classes?” Siobhan said. “You know, come up with some sort of battle strategy?” She was still staring at her manual, which she’d opened. She pointed at something on the page. “It says it will take about a week for a party from a newly integrated team to clear the first floor.” Her eyes widened. “It might take up to three months for us to get through all ten! That’s… that’s assuming we survive.”

“Does it say anything about what we’ll face?” Howard asked.

Siobhan shook her head. “It says that the monsters and enemies that spawn on each level will vary depending on the party that steps through and that… if we exit the instance before clearing the level, the monsters will respawn.”

“Respawn?” Howard asked. “That mean they’ll be back, even if we killed ‘em?”

Siobhan nodded. “Guess we shouldn’t step back out, then,” she said. “Unless we want to take advantage of farming them.”

“Farming?” Howard asked.

Xavier cut them off. “If it doesn’t say what they are, then we need to move. We haven’t got time to stand here and talk. The parties from the other four worlds will already be in their instances killing monsters!”

“Calm down, kid. You can’t expect us to be able to clear it faster than them, can you?” Howard frowned.

Xavier tilted his chin up. He summoned his staff from inside his Storage Ring. “Not if we stay standing around here. And please, don’t call me kid,” he said, thinking, even though I am less than half your age...

He bit his lip. Should he tell them about his titles? That he had higher stats than a normal level 4? That made him realise that he hadn’t even scanned the others. That should have been the first thing he’d done when they entered the room. He supposed he’d been feeling a bit awkward about chatting to strangers, and he knew what level they would be anyway.

He did so now.

{Human – Level 4}

{Human – Level 4}

{Human – Level 4}

I should have expected that. So far, everyone he’d scanned had been level 4. Unless they have titles like mine… which they literally can’t… I’m effectively at least 13 levels stronger than them.

Xavier took his hand off the door and sighed. The notification asking if he wanted to enter the first floor of the Tower of Champions disappeared. He looked Howard, Siobhan and Justin in the eye. “I think I need to tell the three of you something.”