Accidental Champion of Earth - Chapter 10: A Really Great Excuse To Eat A Lot Of Food

Xavier’s stomach grumbled as he took a plate and piled food on it. He tried not to look at the corpse of the goblin he’d killed, dead by the soft-serve ice cream machine.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this hungry, and he didn’t think it was just because he’d skipped lunch. Another thing he’d noticed when he’d put points into his Speed attribute was that he’d… well, lost weight. The little bit of pudge that he’d been carrying about his waist for the last few years had disappeared.

He’d pulled up his tattered, bloody robes and been surprised to find that his abs were visible. They weren’t chiselled. He wasn’t super-ripped. But it was a definite improvement.

Though the fact he hadn’t added any points into Strength was beginning to show, as he looked fairly skinny.

When he’d piled enough food onto his plate, he took a seat in the corner of the cafeteria. The plate had mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and strips of bacon all atop one another in a mess. Where he sat, he could see every exit to the place.

Perhaps he should have gone somewhere safer to eat his food, but this way he wouldn’t have to go far to get seconds. And he woulddefinitely be getting seconds.

He grabbed his fork and shovelled the mash potatoes into his mouth first. He was probably eating too quickly, but he didn’t care. He was hungry. He kept his eyes darting from one exit to another, his ears perked for any noises. Though other things had improved, one thing that hadn’t improved was his senses. Shouldn’t there be some kind of Perception attribute? he mused.

When the plate was clean, he went back for more. God, it felt good to eat. After three plates of food—far more than he would usually be able to eat in one sitting—he finally felt full. He placed the fork on his plate and leant back in the chair, letting out a sigh of relief.

Had his metabolism improved dramatically with only 2 more points into Speed? Had his other stat points affected it? The brain burns a lot of calories, and my Intelligence is now 3 points higher than it was…

He frowned. He felt fuller not just in his stomach, but… in a different way. A way he couldn’t quite define.

A hunch made him check his Spirit Energy.

Available Spirit Energy: 1300/1800

Xavier’s eyes widened. He shook his head. Let out a chuckle. His Spirit Energy had only been at 1000 before he’d eaten all of that food. Now, it had gone up by 300!

Eating increases Spirit Energy!

He facepalmed, feeling a little foolish. Now that he knew, it seemed like it should have been obvious. Food was energy. Though he’d imagined he would need to do something else to gain Spirit Energy other than simply eat.

I guess I was wrong.

That made him wonder if eating would increase his health as well. Right now, it was completely full, so he wasn’t able to check. He looked down at the short sword on his hip, then rolled up the sleeve on his left arm.

Worth a try…

Despite being full, Xavier grabbed another plate of food then returned to his seat. He drew the short sword from his robe’s belt and cut a small line across the top of his forearm—he wasn’t foolish enough to cut a line in his palm. If he wasn’t able to heal that easily, it would only give him trouble holding his staff. And what if he sliced an important tendon? That always bothered him when characters did that in books and on TV.

He stared at the small wound for a moment, then brought up his health.

Your health is at 99%.

He knew that his health would regenerate naturally if he let it. Knew that the wound would heal faster than it would have before the System, and not only because he’d added 3 points to his Toughness.

But he also knew it would take maybe ten minutes for him to gain 1% of health. Though it might be faster, now I have more Toughness. Do I also have more health? As it wasn’t shown in points, he didn’t know.

He ate the plate of food quickly, shoving the food in his mouth and chewing as fast as he could. Then he checked his Spirit Energy and health again.

Available Spirit Energy: 1350/1800

Your health is at 100%.

Xavier grinned. He was learning. Learning fast. He couldn’t help but notice that his Spirit Energy had only gone up by 50 points that time. He wondered if that was because the food went to his health as well as his Spirit Energy, or if that eating more brought diminishing returns.

Part of him wanted to keep gorging himself until his Spirit Energy reached its current limit of 1800, but now he felt uncomfortably full to the point where he had to loosen his belt, so that didn’t seem very wise when he was about to go and fight more goblins.

Still, he had gained almost enough Spirit Energy for his most powerful spell. And I found a really great excuse to eat a lot of food. He chuckled and stood, reminding himself that he still had a job to do. Eighteen more goblins to kill, then I can get out of this place.

He was eager—very eager—to see what this pocket world would be like.

Xavier strode out of the cafeteria, past the dead goblin, and out into the courtyard. When he thought about how many goblins he still had left to kill, he couldn’t help but notice it was just the right number for him to reach level 4.

Is that somehow by System design? he wondered. He supposed he might never know.

The second he made it outside into the late afternoon light, he ducked behind an archway near the cafeteria’s exit. He poked his head out. He thought it would take him a while to find the last eighteen goblins…

But they were all out here. Clustered together near the open portal. When he’d looked through the window of his classroom after being returned here by the System, the portal had still been active but there hadn’t been any goblins in the courtyard.

He counted them, just to be sure. Yep. That’s all of them. He bit his lip. How in the world was he going to kill them all while they were together? He he’d never had to fight this many at once before.

Maybe I can lure a few of them away, somehow…

A notification appeared.

Quest Log Update

Kill the remaining enemies within 10 minutes to gain a bonus reward.

Xavier’s forehead creased. It almost seemed like the System had just heard what he’d been thinking, and this was its response.

He sighed. He didn’t even know how to lure the goblins away. He supposed taking them all on at once was his only option. He scanned each of them, glad to find that none of them were above level 2. Xavier had assumed he would start to find stronger goblins, but he wasn’t about to question his good luck.

All right. I have the element of surprise. All I need to do it use it. The enemies are all clustered together. He could use that to his advantage. His Heavy Telekinesis might even be able to hit them all at once. He had killed those three goblins all at the same time, after all… though he doubted the spell would be strong enough for that.

I can run faster than them, he reassured himself. He didn’t much care if running away looked cowardly. It was practical. Gaining an enemy’s aggression—or “aggroing”—and then kiting them was a staple of video games that he was happy to steal and use, and he had a lot of space in the courtyard for such a strategy to work. Though he supposed it would be harder to cluster his enemies together than it would be when running through hallways.

He poked his head out again. So far, none of the goblins had noticed him. He looked at their weapons, then smiled. Still no bows. Still no staffs. Not a single one of the goblins was an archer, and none of them appeared to be Mages. In fact, he hadn’t seen any of the goblins use a spell yet.

So far, it felt as though the System had given him an easy challenge. Then he remembered that Navy Seal. Julian Myers. That hadn’t been easy. That had been luck.

Eighteen enemies. If he wasn’t careful, if he didn’t play this right, his luck would run out. And there’s no margin for error. Not with this many enemies. If he got a leg wound that slowed him down, it would mean the end of the fight—and the end of his life.

Xavier leant back against the archway. He gripped his staff tightly. I only have ten minutes. No time to second guess myself. None of the goblins were facing his direction. They were all looking toward the portal.

Almost as if they were waiting for someone to arrive. Or something. Though there was nothing in his quest log about more enemies appearing, who knew if he could trust that? It’s not like the System wasn’t happy to throw him into life-threatening situations. Or kill someone with a lightning bolt for refusing to fight.

He didn’t think that would happen now, though he couldn’t help but wonder what might happen if he tried to leave the university campus instead of protecting it.

He took a breath, let it out, and steeled himself. Then he stepped out of the archway and ran straight at the goblins.

I hope these little beasts are still cowards.