After reading through all the notifications showing him the rank ups he’d received to his skills and spells from his first battle on the hundredth floor, Xavier read through the kill notifications.

There, he was very curious about.

The first five wolven turned out to all be the same level, something he supposed wasn’t too surprising.

You have defeated a Level 210 Wolven!

You have gained 260 Mastery Points (E Grade).

He skimmed over the other four, but they each offered the same number of Mastery Points.

Then he read the last kill notification.

You have defeated a Level 225 Alpha Wolven!

You have gained 350 Mastery Points (E Grade).

Xavier blinked. His eyes widened as he looked at the levels of the enemies he’d defeated. He’d fought D Grades before. The highest-level D Grade that he’d fought before today had been Level 230.

These Wolven had been… a lower level than that?

They were still D Grade, but that, more than anything that had happened since he’d entered the one hundredth floor, shocked him.

When he had fought the other D Grades, his level had been significantly lower than it was now. He’d been Level 108 when he’d defeated the last D Grade enemy back on that planet that had invaded Earth.

Since then, he had gained so many attributes it was rather insane, not to mention over 50 levels along with the countless dungeon titles…

Yet these wolven had been a challenge.

It was true that he’d utilised more powerful spells back in that fight—Spirit of Vengeance being one of them.

But this… there was far more to this.

These wolven are way, way more powerful than the D Grade humans I fought! Even though their level is almost the same!

Xavier supposed he shouldn’t be surprised when the level of a beast or Denizen didn’t match up with what he assumed their actual power would be, considering… well, himself.

But still, it came as a shock. They also offered the exact same Mastery Points as the other D Grades he’d slain, something which he honestly didn’t think was all that fair…

Maybe whatever sector of the Greater Universe this floor is on, people are more powerful for their level and grade…

He would need to be aware of that in the future, for whoever—or whatever—he came up against next.

Not that he’d been able to scan these beasts, or even use Identify on them. He hadn’t known what their level was until he’d gotten the kill notifications for them.

Still, it would be wise for him to be cautious, so that’s exactly what he was going to do.

Xavier frowned when he got to the end of the list of notifications. A part of him—a big part, if he were honest—had been hoping that he would have gotten some sort of title from that fight. But there was nothing. He supposed that made sense.

There had been nothing truly remarkable, nothing title-worthy, about his performance during that fight… still, he was used to getting titles left and right.

Now, he wasn’t sure when the next time he would get one would be.

This floor doesn’t even offer a record title, and even if it did, it looks like I wouldn’t be able to gain it…

He took a look at how many Mastery Points he still needed to get to Level 162.

Mastery Points (E Grade) until next level: 6,225/10,000

I gained 1650 E Grade Mastery Points from that one fight…

That was definitely new.

Maybe making it to D Grade won’t take all that long…

Xavier stood and brushed himself off.

It was time to keep moving. But he had a few decisions to make along the way.

As Xavier walked through the forest, he contemplated his position. On this floor, he needed to defeat a beast from the notice board every week. When he’d gotten here, he’d thought it would be wise to defeat as many of them as swiftly as possible, as he needed to defeat ten such beasts before he was able to make it to the next floor.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Xavier wasn’t used to lingering on different floors on the tower. Not anymore.

But that particular habit wasn’t going to help him. Not here.

He needed to take a different approach to the hundredth floor. He needed to take the same approach that he’d taken on the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions—the floor where he’d taken down the Lord of the Endless Horde.

That, out of everything, had been the moment that he’d proven to himself that he was worthy of being a Champion.

If Julin Myers hadn’t laid down his weapon right when the System had first integrated Earth, allowing Xavier to win their fight, and unknowingly sacrificing his life… Xavier wouldn’t be alive right now.

He wouldn’t have fought those goblins and gained the first kill of any Denizen from Earth, or the first quest title.

He wouldn’t have been the first Champion from Earth to make it to the tower.

Xavier hadn’t deserved any of it—or, at least, he hadn’t felt as though he had. He’d fought hard to feel worthy of it all. Of being a Progenitor—or being a True Progenitor. To ensure that the Navy SEAL, Julian Myers, hadn’t died for nothing that day.

Killing the Lord of the Endless Horde had proven to himself that he was worthy.

Now, he felt the need to prove himself again.

He’d had far too much trouble fighting those wolven. Xavier looked at the mini-map, specifically at the area in which he was supposed to find the Magma Bull, the target of his first Hunt Quest.

Xavier had an entire week to kill this beast, and here he was going after it at his first opportunity.

That’s not the way I’m going to play this. One hour here is only a minute back in the tower. No one is waiting for me. No one is missing me. Earth will be fine while I take my time on this floor. And if I don’t take my time, I’m liable to end up dead, anyway.

Xavier smiled. Broadly. He felt a sense of purpose. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t felt purpose lately—his purpose to protect Earth had been fulfilled, at least for the meantime, and it was still a driving force in his life.

But this? This would be a true challenge for him—which meant it would have a true reward.

He was still angry with the System for doing this to him, but that anger was fading, along with some of his pride.

I need to farm as many beasts as I can before I face that Magma Bull. And I need to fight better than ever I have. That encounter with the wolven was sloppy.

I can do better. Far better.

The Magma Bull’s territory was straight ahead of him.

Xavier turned left instead, the five wolven corpse puppets following behind him, padding along the underbrush, not taking a single breath.

Xavier felt as though he were in a situation he had never found himself in before. Ever since he’d been thrust into the Greater Universe when the Earth was integrated by the System, he’d been thrown from one floor to the next, or charged with protecting Earth, or had been flitting from one dungeon to another.

Many of his adventures had been alone, but they’d all been urgent.

This, here, felt different. This, here, felt like he could actually take his time and he wouldn’t being doing his world or his people a disservice. He wouldn’t be failing anyone, because time moved so slow here…

He thought back to his brief interaction with the dwarf, Gimble, back in Hunter’s Home. The dwarf had said he’d been here for month, and his party had taken out five beasts from the notice board.

Xavier had thought that had been a dismal performance, but maybe he’d been looking at things the wrong way.

There were a lot of Champions relaxing in there, instead of out fighting every moment. Maybe that’s something I’ll get a chance to do while I’m on this floor as well.

If the System was going to thrust him into this position, Xavier was going to take as much advantage of it as he possibly could.

Starting with training.

As he walked through the forest, the corpses of the dead wolven following behind him, under his control, he couldn’t help but smile.

What the System had done to him… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

It was another ten minutes of walking until Xavier came upon another beast—or at least, until he came upon one that wanted to make its presence known. In the one-hundred metre radius he could see everything of, he hadn’t spotted a single enemy, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. If he couldn’t hear them, that didn’t mean they couldn’t hear him. He hadn’t known many beasts to hide, but he also knew it could happen—like with the kraken back on the nineteenth floor.

This forest is massive. Perhaps larger than any other I’ve seen. There could be millions of beasts here.

He’d gotten a bird’s eye view of the forest when he’d been high up in the air, after leaping straight upward during the fight with the wolven. He hadn’t been focused on it at the time, but he had noticed the forest stretched as far as his eye could see—and he could see pretty damned far.

The beast was making an odd snuffling sound. He couldn’t see it yet, only hear it. It was out of the range of his Farscope.

I wonder if someone here will be able to show me how to upgrade the Farscope.

Xavier felt like some adventurer in an RPG as he stalked through the forest, looking for beasts to farm. Or a character from one of the many fantasy novels he’d read—and a few he’d tried to write.

This was more like what he’d imagined things would be like when he’d been thrust into this new reality at the start.

The snuffling sound became louder and louder. Xavier banished his thoughts and focused only on the sound. He split his mind, so he could monitor the area around him. The leaves rustling in the trees. The wind whistling, making swaying the branches.

The last beast he’d fought hadn’t been alone, he didn’t want to make the mistake of assuming that this one would be.

From the noise alone, Xavier was getting the feeling that this was some kind of boar. But he didn’t have to contemplate that long, as it started barrelling through the trees straight for him.

Xavier couldn’t yet see the beast, but he could see its effect on the forest. Trees were uprooted or snapped straight in half, falling left and right as it thundered toward him, the sounds of its feet—hooves?—crashing into the ground.

Xavier couldn’t sense any other beasts around. Just the one. Hopefully, things would remain that way.

He waited a little longer. The beast came into view, the trees no longer obscuring it.

“That’s a big one,” Xavier muttered.

He’d been right about it being a boar. Xavier wasn’t sure how he hadn’t managed to see the beast until now. It was huge. Damned huge. Not the biggest beast he’d ever faced, but definitely up there.

It was as tall as a three-storey building and had tasks that looked sharp enough to pierce through enchanted steel. Xavier tried to use his Identify skill on the beast, but once again he had no luck.

I need to figure out how to change that.

Xavier waited until it was within the one-hundred metre radius of his Farscope ability. Then he waited some more. He’d yet to cast a single spell. He didn’t want to do that too early. So far, all he did was hold his ground and wait.

He didn’t have to wait very long. The giant boar was fast. Not as fast as the wolven he’d just faced, but close enough.

He checked the distance every millisecond as it came closer and closer. Nothing on the thing glowed—no ranged spell seemed to activate. Xavier thanked his lucky stars for that.

Finally, when Xavier deemed it was close enough, he cast his first spell of the fight.

Time Alteration!