Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 10) - Chapter 18 - Like an Identify Spell on Steroids

Even holding his wings up felt hard, and his large black wings drooped downward.

The intensity of the gravity pressing down on Xavier was stronger than he’d initially realised. Pushing his spiritual sense harder and farther outward, he found he couldn’t get it past the solid stone walls—even though he didn’t sense any type of runes inside them.

Nothing should have been able to prevent him from piercing through those walls…

Xavier cleared his throat, prompting Derrida to answer his question.

The woman folded her hands in front of her and stepped forward. Her footsteps made no sound on the stone, even though his own did. She looked around at the walls, the flickering flames of the torches, the low ceiling.

At first Xavier had thought this was a room, but it was actually a tunnel, one that spread for quite some distance. He was about to manifest the spell pattern for The All-Seeing Eye to peer down the tunnel, as though his natural eyesight stretched far it couldn’t seem to penetrate the gloom that lay ahead as only the area around them was lit.

Derrida raised a hand. “Do not manifest a spell pattern here—do not cast any of your own spells, either. And be careful where you push that spiritual sense of yours.”

“What is this place?” he asked a second time.

“You tell me.”

Xavier peered around. Again, he wished he could ask a question of Roln, making him realise just how much he relied on the mental construct. “The gravity is high. Very high. It has to be several hundred times stronger than Earth’s. I can’t imagine any naturally evolving planet would have that kind of intense gravity. It must be artificial.”

He stepped over and touched the walls, running his fingers along the grey stone. He extended a single claw and scratched the stone. It made a sharp, high-pitched, scraping sound, but it didn’t leave a mark. “This isn’t natural, else I’d be able to cut straight through it even with a claw.” He looked around. “I also can’t pierce the walls with my spiritual sense or my Immortal Soul lens. There’s something blocking it—just like you’re blocking it. This whole place is some kind of artificial building. It feels heavily protected.” He shook his head. “But I couldn’t tell you what it was for. Is it some kind of fortress of solitude?” Xavier narrowed his eyes. “Is it your fortress?”

Derrida chuckled. “This is no fortress.” She walked to the wall and touched a hand to it. “The strength of this particular wall is actually rather low, as far as the standards of the wider multiverse.” She gently wrapped a knuckle against the stone. Dust and debris shot from where she tapped, and a small crater about the size of a hand formed. The ancient Wanderer glanced down the tunnel. “Though it does get stronger the farther you go.”

Xavier stared at that hole. He thought about the gravity, and how she didn’t look strained by it at all. It didn’t even affect the way her hair fell. Then again, she could have had an Untethered equivalent spell applied to herself so she wasn’t affected by it—but something told him that wasn’t the case.

He sighed. “I think you’ve been cryptic enough, don’t you? Are you going to tell me what this place is, or not?”

She smiled at him. “Oh, well, fine. Though I thought it would be obvious enough. This is a dungeon. And you were wrong about this place being artificial. At least, in a sense.” She opened her hands. “This dungeon naturally formed.”

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. “A dungeon? You took me to a dungeon?”

“Not a dungeon like you’re used to, Xavier. This wasn’t created by a System, nor was it created by any other independent being. It was created by a Dungeon Core. A strange, naturally occurring being. And this is no ordinary Dungeon Core either—this one managed to survive inside the void.”

“We’re still inside the void?” Xavier asked, a little incredulous. He thought for sure this would be inside some universe somewhere. “So, this is a Void Dungeon?”

“Precisely. That is exactly what we call them. It’s a little like your Tower of Champions, actually. Though… well, there are no Safe Zones here. No Staging Rooms. No cosy tavern to spend your time in between floors. And the beasts the Void Dungeon creates are quite formidable.” She peered past him, down the tunnel again. “Especially the deeper you delve.”

“When you said you wanted to introduce me to the wider multiverse, I didn’t think this was what you had in mind. It feels more like you’re about to dump me here and see how I fare by myself.”

Her smile widened. “That is exactly what I’m going to do.”

Xavier stepped forward. He was on the brink of manifesting a thousand spells inside his body. On the brink of creating a portal to get out of this place. On the brink of doing… something.

But what in the hell could he do to a being like this?

“I trusted you,” was all he said.

“And that was a wise decision, Xavier Collins. Don’t think for a moment I’m doing any of this to harm you. You wanted a challenge. You know deep down that is exactly what you need to thrive. This place will give you that challenge.”

“Assuming I survive.”

“It’s not a true challenge if there isn’t a bit of danger, is it? The only reason you were able to manage what you did against The Collector was because Roln stopped you from being saved by the Old Man in your universe. You wouldn’t have had that breakthrough—wouldn’t have been able to do what you did with all that foreign Soul Energy—if you’d been saved. You don’t really want me to put on the kid gloves.” She tilted her head to one side. “Do you?”

“Are you at least going to tell me how long I’m going to be here for?”

“How long you’re here for depends entirely upon how well you do.”

He sighed. “And do I have to complete the dungeon?”

Derrida threw her head back and laughed. “Completing the dungeon at your level of power isn’t something possible, dear. No. You only need to pass through a few floors. I’ll pick you up when I think you’re ready.”

“Then what happens?”

“Then, assuming you live long enough, that is when your true training in the ways of the wider multiverse will begin.” She held up a hand, palm facing upward. “Now, don’t think I’ll be leaving you empty handed.” An object appeared in her hand. A sphere that looked to be made of glass. Inside the sphere, electricity crackled. It looked like a plasma ball toy he’d had as a kid, though he knew if this woman was handing it to him, it was certainly no toy.

“What is that?” Xavier asked.

He couldn’t help but take another step forward. Though being dumped inside a dungeon was the last thing he’d expected to happen when he’d stepped through that portal, he was already warming to the idea. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been nostalgic for the earlies floor of the Tower of Champions more than once.

Besides, he trusted this woman—at least, to a point—and he still didn’t see why she would be leading him into some sort of trap.

The ancient Wanderer wanted the exact same thing he wanted, after all.

“This?” Derrida tossed it in the air and caught it lightly. “This is a mental construct.”

Xavier frowned. “Like Roln?”

She shook her head. “No. Nothing like Roln.” Derrida titled her head, seeming to think for a moment. “Calling it a mental construct is nowhere near specific enough. It’s more like a rudimentary System.”

“A System?” He pointed at the sphere. “That’s a System? I didn’t think Systems worked in the void.”

“They don’t. This isn’t a true System. It can’t control anything. It can’t create alternate universes, dungeons, or things like the Tower of Champions. It merely helps describe reality.”

“Like an Identify spell?”

“Like an Identify spell on steroids.”

“Is this like the Combat Assistance Overlay Roln created for me? Did he have something like this when he was still alive?”

Derrida shook her head. “No one has something like this, Xavier. I created it specifically for you. Since you were integrated, you have been used to using a System to help guide you, at least in some way, but there are things you are able to do that the System you have back in your universe… well, it simply doesn’t know what to do with you. You’ve outgrown it. Would you say that’s true?”

Xavier nodded. “I find myself using it less and less. And there are places it doesn’t even work.”

“And you wish to overthrow, even destroy, the System.” It wasn’t a question.

Xavier blinked. He hadn’t told a soul about that. Well, Roln knew. But technically Roln wasn’t a soul. This woman’s ability to read his mind was rather unnerving, but he wasn’t exactly sure what he could do about it.

Derrida tossed the sphere with pulsing electricity up into the air again and caught it. Toss, catch. Toss, catch. “Oh, this will actually help with that.” She wrapped a knuckle against her skull. Considering what she’d done to the wall, he had the awful thought about what would happen to his own skull if she’d done that to him. “This will protect you. Even from me reading your mind.”

Xavier’s eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead. “Isn’t that a risk? For you, I mean.” he said, thinking, And how could I believe you?

“A risk? Perhaps. Being able to read your mind has… it’s benefits. I can’t say I haven’t had my doubts about you, and what you might do once the Interdimensional Dragon has been destroyed. And you can believe me because I have no need to lie to you. You know exactly how easy it would be for me to install this into your mind without your permission. I’ve done similar, after all. But, as I have revealed myself to you, I wish this to be your choice, and yours alone.”

Xavier stared at the sphere. A rudimentary System. One made specifically for him by one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse.

How could he pass something like that up?

Though he still wondered how exactly it might be of help to him, if all it really did was describe reality. The System he had back in his own universe could do far more than that. But why would this ancient Wanderer think it was worth creating if it wouldn’t be useful to him?

And this would be my own personal System…

“So, will you take it?” Derrida asked.

“Yes.” Xavier swallowed. “I’ll take it.”