Congratulations XAVIER COLLINS. You and your party have completed the first ten floors of the Tower of Champions! You have taken the first step on becoming stalwart protecters of your world. As you are the first from your planet to complete this milestone, you’ve unlocked a special reward—access to what is known as the mini-map.
Access to the mini-map is usually only given to those who have unlocked the Pathfinding skill, but in some circumstances it can be rewarded by the System.
On this mini-map, three of the nearest dungeons to the location you have been returned to have been revealed. As you gain quests, other locations may be revealed on your mini-map, such as those locations that hold enemy invaders.
Xavier’s eyes glazed over as he read through the notification. He had to say, he was glad to have a mini-map at his disposal. To be honest, he was more than glad, he was thrilled. He doubted he would have stumbled upon the Pathfinding skill, especially since he didn’t even know that mini-maps existed.
I’ll definitely keep that in mind. We can give others that advice. Shame we didn’t learn anything about it from the library on the fifth floor.
He was about to look around where he and the other members of his party had been dropped when another notification appeared in his vision. This one made him smile. He’d been wondering if he would see its like.
Title Unlocked!
Homeward Bound: You and the members of your party are the first four Champions of Earth to return to their planet from the Tower of Champions. To achieve this remarkable feat sets you apart from every other Champion from your world. Whether this is because your world’s people are weak, or you are strong, this feat must be rewarded.
You have received +100 to all stats!
Xavier felt the rush of attribute points slam into him and couldn’t help but chuckle. For a moment, his Spirit Core almost got out of control. He drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on his core and the burning of his Spirit Energy, returning it to a perfect equilibrium, remembering Sam’s adage about candleflames not producing smoke.
Gaining power… it never lost its excitement for him. He looked over at the others. For them, gaining one hundred points to each of their attributes would be an even bigger boon.
Recently, when he’d completed the tenth floor, he’d been disappointed there hadn’t been a record for him to gain—that the titles he’d gotten weren’t unique enough, and wouldn’t give him a further leg-up on others.
Not that I need it at this point.
Now, he was glad there was a little something else that they’d gotten for being the first to return to Earth, and he was happy the other members of his party had gained it as well.
“That’s quite the rush,” Siobhan said. She let out a breath, then clapped her hands together. “All right, now… where the hell are we exactly?”
Xavier blinked, dismissing the text that had appeared in front of his vision. “I’ve no idea.”
He’d expected them to be returned to wherever they’d been taken from. He thought he might end up back in his university’s courtyard, where he’d faced the goblins who’d almost killed him. God, that already felt like a lifetime ago.
Instead, he was standing in the middle of what looked to be an incredibly large forest. The trees in the forest were nothing like the ones he was used to. They were larger. Far larger. And… were some of them glowing?
“But we’re definitely not in Fronton anymore,” Xavier said.
Justin facepalmed, then stared at Xavier through a gap in his fingers. “Please tell me that wasn’t a Wizard of Oz reference?”
Xavier shrugged. “Fine, I won’t tell you.”
“Why aren’t we in Fronton?” Howard asked, his lips pursed. It was clear he wanted to mention his family, but he was holding back. They were still just gaining their bearings.
“Dungeons…” Siobhan muttered. Her eyes were still glazed over, a little wide. “Whoa. This mini-map is cool.”
Xavier smirked. He was about to look at his own mini-map when another notification interrupted him.
Following the clearing of the Tower of Champion’s tenth floor, Champions have a minimum of one month to spend back on their home world. This one-month timer will not begin until every Champion from Earth either clears the tenth floor or dies.
“One month?” Xavier brightened. That was more time than he could have hoped for! If he’d been able to clear out the entire Endless Horde in six weeks, surely he’d be able to help Earth in the time they had here—especially since he was even stronger now than he had been then. Not to mention the timer hadn’t even started.
The other parties are probably weeks away from being able to clear the tenth floor… this is a huge boon.
It made him wonder how long other Champions from other worlds might have. There were probably some Champions who spent months training on the floors just to get as much out of them as they possibly could.
Could a stay back on Earth potentially stretch on for years?
Xavier curled his thumb inward and touched the Storage Ring on his left hand, contemplating the Sector Travel Key inside of it, wondering when he’d get a chance to go planet hopping.
There will be time for that eventually, though maybe not this time through.
Howard grunted. “That’s good,” he said. “That’s a good amount of time.” He tilted his head to the side, blinking. “The mini-map doesn’t show Fronton. And it’s just… full of shadows, the dungeons only small pricks of light.”
“I think the map will only show us what the System has revealed to us, or what we’ve discovered on our own. Once we’ve explored the area, it won’t be in shadow any longer,” Siobhan said, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, man. We’ll find Fronton. We’ll find your family.”
“Siobhan’s right, Howard. We’ll find them.” He looked at the others. “We’ll find all of them.” He paused. “I’m going to look at my status. Then we’ll move out.”
XAVIER COLLINS
Age: 21
Race: Human (?)
Grade: E
Moral Faction: World Defender (Planet Earth)
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Class: Otherworldly Reaper (Legendary)
Level 100
Strength: 2,127 (4,254)
Speed: 1,975 (4,730)
Toughness: 1,949 (3,859)
Intelligence: 2,199 (5,519)
Willpower: 2,607 (5,892)
Spirit: 3,198 (8,155)
Mastery Points (E Grade) until next level: 21/100
Available Spirit Energy (E Grade): 81,650/81,650
Available Willpower Energy (E Grade): 18,500/18,500
Available Skill Points: 2
Free stat points remaining: 0
Titles:
Bloodied Hands, Born on a Battlefield, Settlement Defender, Quester, First Defender of Planet Earth, Survivor, All 100, First All 100, 1,000 Stats, First to 1,000 Stats, Greater Butcher, All 1,000, First All 1,000, Level 100, First to level 100, E Grade, E Grade Progenitor, E Grade Speedrun (Unmatched), Destroyer of Hordes (Unmatched), Ahead of the Pack 2, Goliath Killer 2, Ninth Floor Ranked 1 – RECORD HOLDER, Tenth Floor Climber, Solo Tower Climber 10, 1st Tenth Floor Climber, Tenth Floor (Tower Milestone), Homeward Bound
Spells List:
Spiritual Trifecta – Rank 50
Heavy Telekinesis – Rank 50
Spirit Break (All) – Rank 50
Spirit Infusion – Rank 50
Soul Harvest – Rank 50
Soul Strike (Ranged) – Rank 50
Soul Block – Rank 50
Soul Harden – Rank 50
Willpower Infusion – Rank 65
Core Burn – Rank 4
Summon Otherworldly Spirit – Rank 1
Soul Shatter – Rank 1
Soul Puppet – Rank 1
Skills List:
Physical Resistance – Rank 66
Magical Potency – Rank 50
Magical Resistance – Rank 50
Physical Damage – Rank 70
Assimilate Properties – Rank 25
Scythe-Staff Mastery – Rank 51
Meditation – Rank 50
Aura-Control – Rank 50
Core Strength – Rank 50
Cultivate Energy – Rank 50
Identify – Rank 27
Split Mind – Rank 13
Evasion – Rank 10
Minor Spirit Coins: 125,480
Lesser Spirit Coins: 8
Xavier grinned.
My Spirit Attribute pushed past another threshold, over eight thousand. That… that’s insane.
In fact, all of his attributes were insane. He’d pushed them so much further than he’d realised. With all of the enhancements he’d done to his body with Assimilate Properties—a skill that was somehow only Rank 25.
Maybe I should assimilate more things into me…
He’d been a little afraid of doing that, since that question mark had appeared beside his race in his status. He still wanted to gain some more information on it first.
Still, his mind was a little blown by how much more powerful he already was since getting to E Grade. He hadn’t even gained any levels, yet his Spirit attribute had almost been doubled.
The titles I received after killing the Lord of the Endless Horde clearly made a massive difference… no wonder I have people from strange worlds peering down at me.
He stared at his Mastery Points, wondering if the System would reward him for killing any beasts or invaders here. It had stopped providing him with Mastery Points altogether when fighting enemies in the tower—they were all simply too low level for him.
That’s not entirely true, he reminded himself. He’d noticed that the Mastery Points he did receive were simply an incredibly small percentage of a single E Grade Mastery Points. They’re not entirely useless, they’re just almost completely useless. I’d have to kill millions of enemies to even make a dent.
Gaining ranks in his skills and spells had become incredibly difficult too. He’d only really gained a few ranks in Core Burn and Identify lately, though part of that was he hadn’t been using his new spells much.
I’ll have to change that soon.
He still had two skill points to spend. He wasn’t really sure what he was going to spend those points on, and he wasn’t in any rush to make that decision.
Xavier grinned when he saw that the System had restored his Spirit Energy reserve all the way back to full after teleporting them here. He was wondering if it would do that, he was pleased that it had.
He skimmed over his spells, skills, and titles, wondering what new titles he might have to gain in this world, then he closed down the status screen and looked over at the others, each of their eyes momentarily glazed over as they must have been seeing what the added attribute points from their most recent title had done for them as well.
Howard looked stronger than ever. It appeared as though the man had already become more defined since arriving on Earth. His broad shoulders held a tension in them as hard as steel, and his jaw was locked tight, the muscles in his cheeks twitching.
Siobhan looked lithe and powerful for a mage, just as she had before, though the extra stats seemed to further enhance her features. She was playing with a strand of her red hair, twisting it around a finger. She must be thinking about her sister. How old was she? Fourteen?
Still two years until she enters the System.
Justin was the one of the three that looked the most at ease. His hands were dangling at his sides, one of them brushing against the hilt of his long, slender sword every now and then, though Xavier couldn’t help but see a hint of worry in the teenager’s eyes.
His mother’s out there somewhere, and so is mine.
“All right.” Xavier slammed the butt of Charon’s Scythe, his scythe-staff, against the hardpacked earth they were standing on. God, it felt good to be back on earth, even if he had no idea where they actually were.
This forest doesn’t even look like it belongs on Earth.
The last time he’d checked, trees on Earth didn’t tend to glow.
I guess the world has changed since I’ve been gone. Maybe as much as I have.
“What’s the plan?” Howard asked.
Xavier shrugged. He didn’t really have a plan. If he were honest, he’d expected the System to provide him with a quest the moment they’d set foot here, but that hadn’t happened yet. A part of him wanted nothing more than to check out the three dungeons the mini-map showed in the area—but dungeons weren’t important when there would be people in danger out there, somewhere.
Unless there are titles I could get for completing them…
“We scout. Find civilisation.” Xavier nodded to himself. “I’m the fastest. Maybe I should be scouting on my own.”
He withdrew one of his Portal Stones and tossed it up into the air and caught it. “This’ll come in handy.”
[You back on your world yet, Xavier Collins?] The voice was milky and smooth, and it sounded directly inside of his head. For some reason he smiled when he heard it.
[Adranial. I’d say it’s a pleasure to hear from you, but that remains to be seen.]
Siobhan waved a hand in front of his face. “Earth to Xavier? Hello?”
Xavier blinked. “What is it?”
“You spaced out for a minute there,” Siobhan said.
He tapped a finger to his left temple. “I’m talking to Adranial.”
Siobhan raised an eyebrow. “And you were… smirking as you did so?”
Xavier cleared his throat. He hadn’t met this Adranial yet, and according to Howard she’d killed everyone in the arena without so much as a hint of remorse. But it was nice to speak with someone who had… power, like he did. Even if he knew she couldn’t be quite on his level.
“The contract I created with her stipulates that I must give her the coordinates of Earth within twenty-four hours of returning here,” Xavier said. “So we still have a little time to get established.”
Siobhan’s expression soured. “I don’t like the idea of bringing her and her party to Earth.”
Xavier nodded. “Noted. But, we don’t have a choice.”
Howard wrapped the fingers of his right hand around his axe’s haft. “You’ve me to blame for that.” He inclined his head. “Thank you. For what you did for me. I hope it doesn’t backfire on us.”
Xavier’s face turned to steel. “I’ll ensure that it doesn’t.”
[Give me time to gain my bearings, Adranial. Then I’ll give you the coordinates.]
[All right, Xavier Collins. I can give you that much. I suppose it’s only fair.] She paused. [Do you even know how to find your world’s coordinates?]
Xavier frowned. He didn’t know, but he hardly wished to admit that to her. [I’m sure I can figure it out.]
[Hmm. Of course you can. I wouldn’t doubt you for a second. Adranial out.]
Siobhan crossed her arms. “You’re smirking again.”
He tossed her the Portal Stone. She was still the one he shared a Communication Stone with, after all, so it would be best to leave it with her. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. Why don’t the three of you check out that nearby dungeon, and report back? I’d also like to see if our mini-maps can be shared in some way because we’re a party, or if we each have to discover a place on our own first.”
“Have you looked at your mini-map yet?” Justin asked.
Xavier blinked. He hadn’t yet, and he felt a little foolish for that. But he supposed it was alright to be a little disorientated the first time he’d arrived back on Earth. It was a moment he’d been waiting for for a long time, after all.
He brought up the mini-map.
The first thing he noticed was that there were three green dots on the mini-map, along with a white dot. “Huh.” The green dots were clearly the other members of his party, while the white dot was him. Only a small portion of the map was revealed—a patch of green depicting the trees they stood beneath, while the rest was wreathed in shadow.
“This is definitely going to come in handy…” Then an idea occurred to him, and he lit up. “Do you think this will work on tower floors?”
Siobhan nodded. “I don’t see why not.”
Xavier smiled, looking forward to testing that theory. But there was a lot to be done here before he could.
He’d returned to Earth so much stronger than he’d left it. The world was likely in chaos, but he and his party were here now, and he felt more ready than ever to do what he needed to save his world.
“Let’s get moving.”