Xavier blinked, gripped his new Midnight Scythe tightly, and looked around the place that the System had taken him.
The one hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions.
A frown lined his forehead as his gaze trailed over the room.
Xavier was standing inside a tavern. It wasn’t as large, nor as clean, as the tavern at the bottom of the Tower of Champions where Sam was the barkeep. This one looked like it came straight out of the Middle Ages. Or, well, some world’s version of the Middle Ages. The place was packed, which was not at all what he’d been expecting.
More often than not the floors would start in a Safe Zone. This didn’t look like it was a Safe Zone at all.
Xavier felt the press of power on him from those around him—as though they weren’t doing anything to shroud their cores. There were perhaps twenty sets of tables and chairs. The tables were made of wood thicker than his forearm was long, and the chairs were actually just stools that had been bolted to the ground—whoever ran this place clearly didn’t fancy their patrons throwing chairs. From a quick use of his Identify skill, he could even see that the stools had been enchanted.
Did I really just use Identify on stools?
He shook his head and focused on the people. They looked like… well, to him, they looked like adventurers straight out of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Different parties?
He stepped forward. The barkeep caught his eye and waved him over. Xavier figured speaking to the woman was his best bet. He strode across the sawdust strewn hardwood floor and leant his elbows on the bar.
“Another Champion?” the barkeep asked. The woman looked to be in her thirties. She had dark hair that flowed down past her shoulders and purple eyes. She also had pointed ears, though she didn’t quite look like the other elves he’d encountered in the Greater Universe so far.
Is she half-elf, half-human?
Whatever she was, she was beautiful, which was probably why he found himself staring a moment too long. The woman smirked at him.
“Another Champion?” Xavier asked.
“Yes. From the tower.” The woman nodded behind him, at the other people in the room. “Champions are gathering here for the Hunt.”
The Hunt? What is she talking about?
Xavier looked at the adventurers around the place, clinking mugs of ale, talking over the noise of the minstrels playing on the small stage in the corner, or bending over the tables and conversing in harsh whispers.
“These are all Champions?”
He was feeling a little disoriented. God, he wished he had some foreknowledge of this floor. He was also feeling… well, alone. Even though he did the fighting on tower floors, it had still been nice having his party with him.
He didn’t think he’d get the chance to fight with them ever again. Not in the Tower of Champions—not the way things were looking.
That brought a sadness within him that he hadn’t expected. But it also gave him an opportunity.
There were adventures that he could go on without them—ones that they would never survive. He didn’t have to worry about their safety alongside him. At least, not until they were all back on Earth.
He could push forward on his own. In fact, he had to push forward on his own—this was the position the System had put him in.
The woman pointed at one of the walls. There were notices stuck to it with nails. At first, Xavier had thought it was some sort of community noticeboard, but now that he looked at it properly, he saw that it was something quite different.
Each of the notices had a drawing on them. A drawing of a different beast. He narrowed his eyes, able to read to text from the other side of the tavern with his improved eyesight.
They were wanted posters, or quests. Xavier chuckled. This felt exactly like a video game, and like he was about to go monster hunting.
When he’d been thrust forward through the floors, because the System wanted things to be more of a challenge for him, he hadn’t expected something quite like this.
They’re all Champions, from all over the Greater Universe. All from different sectors, and all here for something called the Hunt.
He felt a sudden fear. If this wasn’t a Safe Zone, did that mean any of them could try to kill him at any moment?
Would he be strong enough to defend himself?
A notification popped up into his vision.
Welcome to the one hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions!
The System welcomes you to the Hunt.
The one hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions is a continuous floor. This means that the floor is always active—leaving this floor and returning to it will not restart the floor.
Time moves differently on the one hundredth floor than it does on other floors of the tower. It moves considerably slower while on the floor. One hour on the one hundredth floor translates into a single minute passing back in your own universe. This means that Champions can spend a great deal of time on this floor honing their skills and spells, as well as racking up kills for the Hunt before they decide to cash in their rewards and move onto the next floor.
There are no record titles for this floor, and there is no time limit to how long a Champions can stay on this floor. They do, however, have to hunt and kill at least one beast from the wall per week of time spent on the floor, or else they will be booted from the Tower of Champions and banned from their home world for fifty years.
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There are countless different instances of the hundredth floor, all of which are ongoing. You will only ever be able to enter this instance of the hundredth floor.
Once you have slain ten beasts from the board, you may choose to complete the floor, or remain for as long as you wish.
Warning: Do not attempt to attack your fellow Champions. If you do, there will be consequences.
Xavier read through the text multiple times. He tilted his head to the side and thought about the consequences of this floor.
A continuous floor? The floor… always remains the same?
That was hard to believe, but since when had the System lied to him?
Xavier contemplated the time difference. An hour here only being a minute back home… and there was no limit to how long he could be on this floor?
He smirked. Couldn’t help himself. This floor… it was reminiscent of the fifth floor, where the waves of the Endless Horde would simply continue to attack the castle for seemingly forever.
Maybe he could do something with that, like he did on the fifth floor… he had been the first person in the Greater Universe—at least, in his universe—to ever defeat the Lord of the Endless Horde. He was sure that, more than anything, was what had gotten him to the place he was in right now of potentially becoming the Weapon of the System.
The fact that there were no records for this floor also took a little bit of the pressure off. Well, not a little, it took a lot of the pressure off.
So did the warning about attacking other Champions—though it was incredibly vague.
“Yeah,” Xavier said. “I guess I’m here for the Hunt.”
“Well, in that case, your first drink is on the house.” She motioned to the different barrels behind her and started describing the different drinks that she had available. It was clear that she was used to dealing with off-worlders who didn’t understand the type of alcohol they served here.
“I’ll just have whatever is most popular,” Xavier said.
The woman rubbed her hands together and grabbed a mug. “Whisper Ale it is, then.”
“Whisper Ale?” Xavier asked. “Why is it called that?”
“The tale says if you drink enough of it, you start to hear the whispers of the dead,” she said, putting on a spooky voice. “Or, well, it’ll get you really drunk, at least.”
Xavier didn’t really like being drunk, but he also didn’t think the alcohol would have much of an effect on him anyway—nothing Sam served did anything to him. His constitution had simply become too strong. But he found he liked the taste of alcohol, and the ritual of drinking it.
He sipped from his mug. His eyes widened.
“God, that’s strong.” He put the mug back down on the bar and suddenly felt a little foolish.
Of course the alcohol would be stronger—he was on the one hundredth floor! Everyone around him was likely many, many levels higher than himself. Those who didn’t have their cores shielded were definitely D Grade—not that he hadn’t been able to deal with D Grades before.
But he certainly hadn’t drunk D Grade alcohol before.
I’m definitely out of my depth.
The woman chuckled as she saw him put the ale back down on the bar. “How was that?”
“Smooth,” Xavier said. “Really smooth.” He figured he wouldn’t need another sip for a while. The last thing he wanted was to start hearing ghosts… “So, I just go to that board and take one of the notices down?”
The barkeep nodded. “Then you hunt the beast and bring back its pelt for a reward.”
A hunt quest, like in an MMO.
Xavier couldn’t help but notice how similar this all was to games he’d played in the past. Now that he’d discovered that the System had been created by someone, it made him wonder if perhaps that someone had been into video games or something at the time—assuming there were video games wherever this person had been in the universe. Maybe that’s why everything was the way it was.
It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Xavier nodded at the barkeep and thanked her for the drink—even though he wasn’t even sure that he liked it—then he headed over to the wall of notices. There was a sign at the top of the board he hadn’t noticed before that read Hunt Quests. He sniffed. Shook his head.
Every single one of the beasts he could see on the board were D Grade—and… some of them were even C Grade. Xavier blinked.
C Grade beasts? The most powerful woman in his entire sector was only a C Grade! The System couldn’t really expect him to be on a floor where there were C Grade beasts running around, could he?
“First time on the floor?” said someone with a deep voice.
Xavier turned around. The voice had come from his left, but no one was there. It took him another second to turn his gaze downward. The man who’d spoken was short, had a massive beard, and had a warhammer resting on their shoulders.
A dwarf.
“How’d you know?”
“Noticed the way you were staring at the C Grade beasts on the board.”
Xavier ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, they just… seem a little out of reach.”
The dwarf threw his head back and laughed. It was a loud belly laugh that filled the entire tavern. “A little out of reach? You make it sound as though you think you’d be fighting them on your lonesome!” The dwarf glanced around. “Speaking of being on your lonesome, I didn’t notice you appear with a party.” He narrowed his eyes and leant in conspiratorially. “You aren’t soloing this floor, are ya?”
“I am, actually.”
The dwarf leant back and raised his bushy eyebrows. “Ohhh. Well. Big man. I’d slap yer shoulder, but it’s a lil’ outta reach.” He chuckled, then poked his index finger at one of the C Grade beast notices, crinkling the paper. “That right there is what we call a Raid Monster.”
Xavier raised his eyebrows right back at the little dwarf. “A Raid Monster?” He glanced about the tavern again. “You mean to say that different parties here will team up to take it on?”
“Aye. You know the term. Good. Seemed liked you were more clueless than that.”
Oh, I’m plenty clueless, Xavier thought, but didn’t say. “I, ah, know a thing or two.”
“I’m sure you do, lad. I’m sure you do. Likely you won’t be taking on something like that while you’re on the floor. The people who go on raids? They only take Champions who have a hundred beasts slain off the board.”
Xavier gave a low whistle. “A hundred beasts. The floor only requires ten. How many have you gotten?”
“Me?” He slammed a fist onto his chest and grinned. “Been here a month, floor time. Gotten five kills.”
Xavier suppressed a frown. The dwarf said his kill count as though it were something to be proud of. Five beast kills from the board in an entire month worth of floor time? Xavier did the math, wondering how much time that would be back in his own universe.
Only a little over twelve hours. Huh. That’s not even a full day.
The dwarf held his hand forward. “The name’s Gimble.” Gimble looked down at his own hand, with a slightly confused expression. “Humans, you like to shake hands, don’t you?”
Xavier took the dwarf’s hand. “My name is Xavier. And yes, we do.” He chose not to give the dwarf his last name. He had no idea what sector the man was from. Did the System combine people from the same area of the Greater Universe on this floor, or was it as random as the tenth floor Melee had been?
He’s probably never heard the name Xavier Collins, but better to be safe than sorry.
“Well. Good to meet you, Xavier. As you’ve just arrived, I’m sure I’ll see you back in Hunter’s Home before long. Unless you intend on taking a break from the floor,” Gimble said.
Hunter’s Home? I guess that must be the name of the tavern.
Xavier contemplated that for a moment. The floor was continuous, as the notification had said. That meant that if he took a break, time would keep passing here. An hour for each minute back in their actual universe. If he was gone for an hour, days would pass here.
If he was gone for an entire day?
Almost two months would go by…
“I’m not sure if I’ll be taking a break any time soon,” Xavier said. When he’d been looking at different gear, he couldn’t help but wonder how he would ever acquire a soul bound weapon. He hadn’t been in a position to talk to other people from around the Greater Universe back in the Staging Room.
But on this floor? It seemed he had access to a great many Champions, all of whom he was sure were a higher grade than him. The longer he stayed here without taking a break, the better chance he might have to make connections with them. Perhaps he’d be able to figure out how to get his hands on a soul bound weapon after all…
That wasn’t his main objective, however. His main objective was fighting one of the beasts from the board. He wanted to get an idea of how strong they were, and just how out of his depth he truly was.