Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 9) - Chapter 50 - It Wasn’t Even a Threat

It took him a long, long time to reach another plateau where he simply couldn’t use any more Refined Celestial Energy to strengthen himself. When he hit that plateau it made him wonder exactly how the System managed to use Refined Celestial Energy to cause an advancement. That line of thought brought him back to the rune-song the System had been singing when he’d advanced.

He wanted to learn so much more about that song. Perhaps one day he could harness the song himself, use it to force another advancement… if such a thing were even possible.

It also made him realise something else. Something that made him more than a little sad.

The titles the System gave him didn’t mean anything to him anymore. The title that he’d gained when he’d advanced to B Grade, that gave him 50,000 points in each of his different attributes… it was something he could have done for himself.

Something that using Refined Celestial Energy would have provided for him.

That was what he’d been trying to do all along, after all, when he’d discovered what Refined Celestial Energy was in the first place. He’d studied every single one of his memories, trying to determine how the System strengthened a Denizen. That was how he and Xavier Prime had come up with Refined Celestial Energy in the first place.

They hadn’t been able to unlock the mechanism which allowed the System to push them to another level or another advancement. But it turned out the Refined Celestial Energy he’d been using filled the exact same role as titles—he was basically handing himself hundreds, if not thousands, of titles every time he gained a level, maxing out how many attribute points his body could hold until he gained the next level.

The way he’d found that out was because he did gain another title before he’d reached the next level, and before he’d plateaued using Refined Celestial Energy. The title was called Master of Bones, and it had to do with the bone weapons he’d been creating.

Except, there had been an error. When the title had tried to assign him attribute points, it had said it wasn’t able to assign the full points, citing the fact that Xavier had reached his “quota” for his level.

Then it had said he couldn’t receive any more titles until he reached the next level.

After that notification, he’d tried to use more Refined Celestial Energy but couldn’t. The title had made him plateau. The notification had made him realise the reason why he’d received so few titles as of late.

There were so many new and amazing things he was accomplishing, and up until now he’d been doing them as a C Grade. And yet, even with everything he’d been accomplishing… the titles had been few and far between. He’d examined his memories and found his theory to be correct.

He couldn’t receive titles when he’d plateaued on the use of Refined Celestial Energy.

Which meant, for Xavier, titles were useless.

It was disappointing but also liberating. He wasn’t losing out on all the titles he could be gaining because he’d found a way around needing to gain them in the first place. Just like his ability to cast any spell in an instant and not worry about using cooldowns because he could manifest spell patterns inside his body was an absolute cheat, so was this.

But Xavier didn’t care about “cheating.” He cared about winning. So his disappointment about this was short lived.

In fact, more than anything, discovering this emboldened him. There were still things he hadn’t figured out. Like how the System made him level up in the first place, or how it allowed him to advance to the next grade. Mastery Points were completely separate to the Refined Celestial Energy he gained, even if Refined Celestial Energy was what the System used on him to alter his body whenever he gained a level.

The rune song the System sings, its fluency in the language of the universe. That’s where the secret lies. That, and harnessing the raw power required to use that song.

That was something he’d been working on learning. He hoped that if he were able to manipulate reality in the same way the System was able to manipulate reality, it would give him the edge he needed to take on the Interdimensional Dragon.

Except, ultimately, he knew that couldn’t be the case.

Whoever had created the System knew how to use this “rune song.” And if the System’s abilities were powerful enough to take on the Interdimensional Dragon… well, then a Weapon of the System like Xavier would never have been needed in the first place.

Still, he didn’t let that dishearten him. Any edge he gained would help him in his fight. All the powers he accumulated, all the strange abilities, would add up.

They had to.

~

Several years passed for Xavier in the time dilation field as he became accustomed to his new grade. As powerful as he’d become from the advancement, it made him wonder just how powerful he would be when he one day reached A Grade.

Or S Grade.

But even reaching S Grade, he knew, wouldn’t make him powerful enough to take on the Interdimensional Dragon.

As he’d trained nonstop, thoughts of the Interdimensional Dragon had weighed on him heavily. When the threat was more unknown, it was easier to imagine defeating it. The more defined the threat became, the more the gulf between his powers and the dragon’s powers became clear, the harder it was to imagine him actually one day defeating it.

And now he’d found out it was him he needed to fight.

Or, at least, a twisted, corrupted version of him.

The Interdimensional Dragon was likely so consumed by absolute hunger that it had no memory of who it was anymore, meaning it wasn’t Xavier at all.

For some reason, thinking in that way brought him comfort.

By the time he neared the end of his training, he knew he’d drifted into the realm of procrastination. The improvements he was making were so miniscule that furthering his training in this way was less productive than getting out there and taking down the rest of the Empire of Servitude’s armada.

The armada… it wasn’t even a threat anymore. Looking up at the massive fleet of spaceships from the barren moon didn’t fill him with a sense of dread like it had when he’d first arrived. It didn’t even give him a hint of fear. Even before he’d advanced, he’d known he would be able to defeat them all.

Now, he was sure that he would be able to survive one of the ship’s beam weapons.

Though as sure as he was about that, he didn’t feel the need to test it.

Xavier hadn’t been procrastinating the end of his training because he was worried about facing the armada. He was procrastinating the end of his training because he knew that the instant he did defeat the armada, it would mean he would either need to go down to the planet and face the S Grade True Dragon or finally flee this floor once and for all and return to the Tower of Champions.

Now that he knew the Interdimensional Dragon had come from a True Dragon, it had intensified his worries when it came to facing the S Grade. At the same time, his advancement to B Grade had made him feel stronger than he ever had.

Standing on that barren moon as his training concluded, he looked down on the planet. He didn’t use The All-Seeing Eye. He didn’t wash his spiritual sense over the planet. He simply used his natural vision to gaze down at it.

From here, he couldn’t see where the S Grade True Dragon was. Couldn’t see how much it had moved. While he gazed at the planet and contemplated that terrifying beast, not for the first time since he’d reached this floor did he wish that he could harness the energy from the Silver River sector.

That would be enough, wouldn’t it, to take down the S Grade True Dragon just as I took down the World Destroyer?

He was sure it would be enough, especially now he was B Grade and he could harness so much more power than ever before—but that kind of power simply wasn’t at his disposal right now.

Though, as he stood there, he did wonder if there might be a way to harness a similar amount of power…

Uniting the universe, even multiple universes, that’s what I need to do to defeat the Interdimensional Dragon. I might be facing myself, a far more powerful version of myself, but I can’t lose sight of the fact that I won’t be facing it alone. And uniting people… it’s not something I can only do in my universe.

It’s something I can do anywhere.

He didn’t need to face the S Grade True Dragon on his own.

If he dealt with the rest of the armada, it would only leave one wave remaining until the end of this floor. The wave on the planet with the S Grade. But that didn’t mean he had to face the S Grade True Dragon right away.

Xavier smiled as a plan formed in his mind. For the first time since those four dragonkin had transformed, he believed he actually had a strong chance of completing this floor.

Now, I just need to take out this armada. Then I can focus on executing the next step.

A step that would require the cooperation of an entire planet.