Time passed.

John looked down at his body.

Everything about it had changed. He was leaner, stronger. When he clenched his fists, he felt more power. The Fire Wolf inside his dimensional space had strengthened too, levelling up alongside him.

Beast and man had bounded forward in levels—but not just levels. Titles. Stats. Skills. Everything about John was more powerful. More fierce.

Everything about Melissa and Allegra was too.

An entire week had gone by since Xavier had decided to powerlevel the three of them.

John was Level 80 now.

Level 80.

It was something he was still struggling to believe. Xavier wanted to bring each of them to E Grade. Then he wanted to do it again with another three people. That way, he could have six E Grades defending the planet while he was gone. And not just any E Grades—E Grades with first-clear titles. E Grades that should be stronger level-by-level to anyone who might come through the portals from other worlds.

Not that there had been any invaders—not that John had heard about, anyway. The worlds in the sector were too frightened of what Xavier was going to become by the time the five-year restriction ended.

But Xavier had told the three of them his fears. Told them each what he expected might happen on this world while he was gone. That there could be anyone hiding upon it right now, waiting for him to leave until they struck. He would be stuck in the Tower of Champions at the end of the month, and no one knew how long he would be there.

It would be up to John, Melissa, Allegra, and whoever else the True Progenitor ended up carrying forward in levels to protect the planet.

The responsibility weighed heavily on John’s heart, bringing a tightness to his chest that he’d never felt before. A constant ache and feeling that his heart was beating faster than it should.

Is this how Xavier always feels?

The fear he’d felt that he would hurt others was no longer there—he’d embraced that fear. He needed to hurt others—whether they were beasts or enemy Denizens.

The fear, however, had shifted into something else. When he’d been integrated into the System he had chosen the moral faction that meant he would fight for his world, and he intended to do just that. He wasn’t going to back down from a fight.

But seeing how powerful Xavier was. Seeing the gap between them… he didn’t know how he could ever be strong enough to protect Earth in the man’s stead, even with five other E Grades at his side.

That’s even if we can reach the next grade by then.

Xavier, too, had grown in power. It was harder for John to tell. The stronger John became, the better he was able to understand just how powerful Xavier was—the better he was able to take in the subtle differences as the man gained more dungeon titles and levels from the quests they completed by clearing the dungeons and killing the bosses.

The True Progenitor had set a relentless pace. John hadn’t slept since this had all began. He felt like a completely different person. He now had two more beasts resting in his dimensional space.

Knowing the consequences summoning a beast had on his fighting style, John had been careful with his choices. The second beast had been something they’d encountered in the tenth dungeon they’d cleared. Levels had slowly started to become more difficult to gain by then, though they were still rising steadily, it was nothing like that first dungeon had been.

This dungeon had been a large mountain, three suns burning in the sky at all times. Giant Eagles ruled those skies, nesting at the top of the mountain where the dungeon boss called home.

John had claimed one of the Giant Eagles for himself after asking Xavier if he could tame it. It turned out that he couldn’t tame a beast that was being mind-controlled, so he’d had to fight it himself, something that had become possible after he’d gained so many levels and titles—though it was a fight he would have lost had he not had access to help and lots of health potions.

The third beast was in the thirtieth dungeon they’d been within. This beast was different to the others. Weirder. He’d wondered if it would be a mistake, taming that beast. Wondered how bonding with it would change him.

The eagle had given him the ability to fly whenever it was summoned. He could launch himself into the air and toss fireballs down from above at his enemies, then swoop in and take out their eyes.

Being transformed by the eagle summon made him feel an immense sense of freedom, too. More freedom than he’d ever experienced. As though the very skies were his to command, and when he was within them, he was lord of everything he looked down upon.

It made him wonder if Justin felt the same way. He was the only other man John knew who was capable of winged flight.

But this? It made him shudder in fear just staring at the beast. The others had looked at him strangely when he’d said what he wanted to do. That he wished to tame it.

It had been a Grand Arachnid. A guard to the dungeon boss they’d fought—though fought was perhaps the wrong word, as the beast was under Xavier’s control the moment they’d stepped into its domain in the forest dungeon.

Spiders terrified John, but he leaned into his fear. Used it, as he’d used it before.

Summoning the beast gave him eyes on the back of his head. Made him grow extra limbs. Gave him the ability to climb walls. As Manbat was to Batman he was to Spiderman.

Taming the Grand Arachnid and summoning it for the first time had given him a new spell—Induce Fear. It was the first time summoning a beast had done something like that.

Another week passed. Melissa was the first of them to reach Level 100. Allegra was the second. They didn’t advance to the next grade. Not yet—they planned to do it all in the same day.

It was a few hours after Allegra levelled up that John finally did.

They completed the dungeon, able to take out the enemies on their own now, single-hitting them, though they still used Xavier’s help to make the process go faster.

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The man was impatient. Didn’t like anything slowing them down unless it was completely necessary. It made John wonder how many hours the man had slept since the integration had happened. He’d heard the story of the man being on the tenth floor of the Tower of Champions for six months. How he faced wave after wave of enemies without ever stopping.

The story seemed difficult to believe until you met the man. Until you saw him in battle. Saw him over a long period of time.

He was relentless.

Advancing to E Grade wasn’t something they did out in the field. They came back to the base to do it.

Xavier wanted everyone to know how much power they had cultivated over the last few weeks. He wanted his people to see the strength they had.

Their leader hadn’t been the only one who’d been working on powerlevelling others. While they were gone, the other members of Xavier’s party—when they weren’t out searching for Champions returned to Earth, or making contact with other groups—had been pushing other citizens hard. For almost a week now, there were over a hundred citizens within the base over Level 30.

And they finally got their System Shop.

~

Adranial stood at the balcony of the quarters she’d been given. As the base had expanded, more towers had grown. Xavier had been kind enough to offer her what he called a penthouse apartment. The apartment had four bedrooms—enough to house her entire party in relative comfort.

The entire penthouse was smaller than her rooms back home, but she didn’t make a fuss about it. She appreciated what he’d done for her. She couldn’t ask for more considering she was at the end of the universe.

Leaning on the rail, she looked down at the spectacle beneath in the base’s square—though base didn’t do the place justice. Not anymore.

This place was turning into a town. Soon it would be a city. It was already the most powerful place on the entire planet.

She couldn’t help but shake her head at the spectacle she was seeing below her. Xavier Collins had powerlevelled three of his citizens—one who wasn’t even originally from his world—and given them countless first-clear dungeon titles along the way.

She gripped the rail she leant against harder. Felt it strain beneath her fingers and eased off.

[They don’t know how good they have it here,] Adranial said. [So many titles up for grabs. Is this what it was like when you were first gaining levels?]

Her ancestor had contacted her. He’d been speaking with her at least once a week, asking for updates. As she was barely ever in Xavier’s presence these days, there wasn’t a lot she could give him. But she was a good little descendant and always did her best.

[Yes and no. Xavier is taking things… to a different level. It surprises me how quickly he is able to level these people. There was far more for me to discover than is available to him, but there were still the same restrictions, even back then. I could only take the dungeons on our world as first-clears. By the time other worlds opened up, their dungeons had all already been claimed.]

Adranial tapped her foot against the wood of the balcony. Stopped herself. Tapped again. She wasn’t jealous of the fact that those below had gained so many levels. For someone like her, who had protection from the most powerful Denizen in the Greater Universe, and all the time in its many worlds to train, it didn’t matter how swiftly she moved from one level to the next.

What was more important was what she gained along the way. Slowing down one’s levelling was often a path to success. If you could become stronger level-for-level than all of your peers…

Well, let’s just say it was the reason the melee on the tenth floor had been so easy for her.

But those titles should have been hers.

Adranial caught Xavier’s eyes down in the town square. The man looked up at her. Gave a small nod.

She bit her lip. Worried about the next thing she was going to say to her ancestor. It was something she’d been trying to say for the last few weeks. Ever since she’d given Xavier that offer and he’d denied it.

[I think Xavier made the right choice staying here,] Adranial said through the Communication Stone, then found herself holding her breath as she waited for his response.

It took a full two minutes.

[It was the choice I was hoping he would make.]

Adranial blinked. [The threats to this planet you spoke of, the ones you told me to warn him about… were they lies?] She didn’t see how they could be.

[Oh, no. They were very real. Xavier’s life is in danger. More danger than he will ever understand until he faces what’s coming for him. But he was right. I was tempered in a universe where I was always the strongest. To give him protection, to make it impossible for him to fail… that is how he will fail. I had to see if he had the drive. Had to see if he could make the right choice. That he wouldn’t run from what had been handed to him—what he has taken.]

The man paused again. [It’s more than Earth that’s at stake. More than the Silver River sector. We can’t tell him everything. I fear that he’s not ready to hear it. But if I’m right, and he is who the System has been searching for… I fear there will not be enough time for him to become strong enough. Help him. However you can. Do you understand?]

Adranial swallowed. She knew this mission would be a difficult one. Knew that, if her ancestor was right—if his theory turned out to be correct—it would be a long time until she saw her home again.

[You want me to defect? Pledge my loyalty to another world?]

She didn’t want to do it. She gripped the rail hard again. This time, she didn’t care if it broke from the strain.

[Your loyalty will always be to me, Daughter.]

Adranial sighed. That wasn’t a no. Not really. Sometimes, she wished he would be more clear.

[Do whatever you have to do. If your party does not wish to remain with you, you may send them home.]

Send my party home?

She thought about the members of her party. Elsie, Domical, and Larson. She had been training with them for as long as she could remember. In a way, they were more her family than her own family—they were who she’d always been close with.

Adranial gritted her teeth. Her knuckles turned white. The wood gripped within her fingers splintered. She lurched forward, holding the rail.

She’d bore down on it so hard that she’d managed to snap it off. She breathed deeply, let it out slow, and tried to calm herself down.

When she had come here, she’d known that something like this could happen. Known that she might have to make a choice she didn’t like—more, a choice she hated. She felt like she was turning her back on her own world by doing this, for if she were to do this, a part of her had to truly believe in what it was that she was about to do.

The System wouldn’t accept anything less.

Her family were the most powerful family in the Greater Universe. The most powerful family to have ever existed. And, because of this, it meant that they knew things that others didn’t. They had access to knowledge that for anyone else, would most certainly get them killed.

For every member of her family, even the distant relatives, from the moment they were integrated at System age, they received a notification.

The System is watching.

She remembered the shiver of fear she’d felt when she’d first seen it. It wasn’t something her family spoke to someone about before they reached System age, so she didn’t know to expect it. She didn’t know how much scrutiny they were under.

But even while being watched by the System, there were certain measures she was able to take. Certain things her and her family were able to do to get around the System. Things her ancestor had learned over the years. Her ancestor had already done that once for her. He was the reason she’d been able to get into the melee with Howard in the first place.

The chances of that happening naturally had been one in many, many billions.

Now, there was another thing that he could do. Something for anyone else would be utterly impossible.

He was going to help her get into Xavier’s instance of the Tower of Champions. Except to do that, she first had to denounce her world and pledge loyalty to this one. The System would know if she was lying. She had to change her fundamental beliefs. Change a part of her. It would require a major sacrifice. She shut her eyes.

She would have to give up what connected her to her world.

Parts of her memories.

How could he ask me to do this? How could he ask me to give up so much?

She hardly thought she was needed. Xavier Collins, the True Progenitor of Earth. was powerful beyond anything she imagined he would be. He would have no trouble doing what he needed in the tower. As a rival in a different Tower of Champions, sharing information with him about the tower was difficult. Nigh impossible. But if she were in the same tower as him…

I can’t ask my party to do this. To give up everything just to follow me.

But she didn’t want to do this alone.

Adranial had a decision to make.