The inside of the chest was empty.

Xavier almost slammed the lid back down like some petulant child who didn’t get the same number of presents for his birthday as he had the last, when he realised something—this wasn’t a normal chest.

It was a storage device, much like the Storage Rings he wore on his fingers. The moment he’d opened the chest he could feel the mental connection to it, and when he tried to put the chest into his own Storage Ring a notification appeared.

You cannot place a dimensional storage device of this size into your Storage Ring.

Xavier frowned. He tried to open the chest, but there was something blocking him. He knew that one could create safeguards to stop others from accessing Storage Rings, but he didn’t know how to crack them. He would have to take this back to Hunter’s Home and see if anyone there knew what to do. And if that didn’t work, he could always take it back to the tower.

He stood back up and sighed. He’d been looking forward to seeing what kind of loot he would have gained from opening that, but at least he had something to look forward to after his advancement.

Other than the new class, and possibly the new race…

He still had to choose one of those boons. He’d been thinking about seeking advice from others back at Hunter’s Home, after some reflection he decided it was best to make the decision without their help. He didn’t want to reveal even more about himself to Felicia or Gimble.

Otherworldly Communion would have to be enough to help him make the decision.

Xavier tilted his head to one side as he considered that option again. The choice he was to make… it was an incredibly personal one. Could someone else really help him make this decision? Or was he still being a little indecisive after what had happened to the different versions of himself?

He thought of the three different boons he could choose from. First, he wondered why the System was even giving him a choice. He would have thought the System would have known which would be the best thing for him to do, and wouldn’t the System want him to go with the most powerful path?

Xavier considered that for a moment. Maybe the System hadn’t chosen his path because all three choices had an equal potential to make him more powerful, and the most important thing for him was simply choosing his own path to power…

He withdrew a seat from his Storage Ring and sat down in the middle of the Fetid Forest Troll’s former bedchamber. He tapped his foot on the stone ground. Higher Value Race Upgrade, Higher Value Class Upgrade, or Permanent Attribute Boost.

The third of the three choices attracted his attention. It was the most benign of them. More attributes were never a bad thing. Strong attributes were part of the reason he was so powerful in the first place. He considered that as an option, but it felt too… well, boring.

He’d just gained a massive number of attributes from the three titles that he’d gotten defeating the C Grade Fetid Forest Troll. Yeah, he could always use more, but he would surely gain more other ways.

He couldn’t let the chance of the other two rewards slip from his fingers, so Xavier crossed the Permanent Attribute Boost option from the list.

Higher Value Class Upgrade was clearly a good choice. If he wasn’t an Otherworldly Reaper, he wouldn’t have been able to summon the Spirit of Time, meaning he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’d just done. If he were able to get an even stronger class than whatever it was he was about to get, that would help him immensely in the years to come.

He almost decided to go with that option when he stopped himself.

The race upgrade seemed like the wild card. He didn’t even really understand what that would entail. Right now, his race was considered that of a human, even if he was an altered human, on his status screen that’s still what it said.

He brought up the notification that he’d gotten about the Racial Shift.

You have activated a Racial Shift.

You have embraced properties of other races into that of your own as a human. There are shifts happening under the surface of your being. If you continue walking down this path, there will be permanent consequences.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

So far, nothing had changed about this. It still that “Human(?)” in his status window. He wondered if the change would initiate on its own after a while, or if it would happen when he advanced to D Grade.

Something told him it would be the latter.

Did he really want to become something else? The way he’d been assimilating properties into himself like mad, not to mention embracing the bestial part of him that had emerged as a consequence, it certainly did seem as though he wished to become something other than human.

A class upgrade wasn’t permanent—not really. Each time he advanced to a new grade, he would be given the choice of a new class. But a race upgrade, that would change him on a fundamental level, in ways that he couldn’t even currently imagine.

Xavier let out a long sigh and stood from the chair. He was feeling restless. Part of him wished he could summon the Spirit of Time and go through what would happen if he chose the two different options and went through with his advancement.

He paused, tilting his head to one side. Technically, he could do that. He would have to spend another six months waiting for the cooldown on summoning her to be up, but it was possible.

Xavier drummed his fingers on the troll’s table as he considered this option. Six months was a long time for him to wait to advance in rank—and he thought he’d waited long enough already—even if he was on a tower floor where time moved differently to that of his own universe.

He shook his head. No. He didn’t think it would be worth the wait. Yes, it would be amazing to see what the options would be ahead of time—amazing to see where his choices brought him. But he couldn’t do that for everything.

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The longer he spent away from Earth, the more likely the people there would be in danger. Eventually, he would need to keep moving through the Tower of Champion’s floors so that he could return home and make his people stronger.

Not to mention show the others in his sector that he could live up to the threats he’d made.

He smiled at that thought. By the time he made it back to Earth, if things continued to go as they were—if he was truly able to defeat the C Grade dragon and claim that egg before he left this floor…

Well, something told him his power would be even closer to that of Empress Larona. The empress herself needed him. She’d sent Sam to him for that very reason. There wasn’t any way that she would be a threat to him because of that—at least, none that he could see.

He might very well return as the second most powerful Denizen in the entire sector, with no one there able to pose a threat to him at all, even if his planet was no longer restricted.

Xavier leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands. The race upgrade was the one that was calling to him the most, because he didn’t know what it would entail. It felt like the biggest risk, but also the risk with the largest potential reward.

And Xavier had always been a risk taker—he wasn’t about to stop taking risks now.

Xavier chose his boon.

You have chosen Higher Value Race Upgrade.

When you advance to the next grade, your race will change to something more suited toward your abilities, creating a stronger vessel in which to house your power.

You are not able to choose your race. Once a Racial Shift has been activated, the decision cannot be unmade.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier frowned. He was right. The Racial Shift that he’d activated wouldn’t happen until he advanced to the next grade. He supposed that made sense considering the question mark in his status hadn’t appeared until he’d made it to E Grade in the first place.

I suppose it’s time I finally activate this advancement.

Xavier glanced around the cave. He strained his hearing, but it didn’t sound as though any of the beasts that were moving back into the area of the forest that had once been claimed by the Fetid Forest Troll had returned.

He was alone. Safe. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take some precautions. He waited a little while longer. The cooldown on his Time Alteration spell had ended a little while ago, so he was able to cast the spell instantly. He made the time dilation field cover the entire cave. Inside, there would be no way that anyone could reach him, no matter how long the change took.

The last time he’d advanced through grades, it had been back when he’d been facing the Lord of the Endless Horde. That Denizen, though cruel in the way that he had taken over much of his sector, had some honour in him. He’d waited until Xavier had finished advancing to the next grade before commencing the fight. Ultimately, the lord’s honour—not to mention his arrogance—had been the reason why Xavier had been able to defeat him.

That wasn’t a luxury Xavier imagined he would ever gain again in the future.

With the time dilation field up, Xavier breathed a little easier. He always felt safest within his time dilation field. Even safer than he felt when being at Hunter’s Home, even thought that was a Safe Zone.

Xavier took a breath and willed the advancement to begin.

Are you sure you wish to activate your advancement from F Grade to D Grade? If you have not prepared your body, mind, and cores appropriately, your attributes, spells, and skills might be damaged, or the transformation may cause your death.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier couldn’t help but chuckle at the notification that appeared before him. It was more than a little absurd to think that he hadn’t properly prepared his body, mind, and cores for this transformation. He was likely the most prepared any Denizen could ever be.

Yes, Xavier willed, I’m sure.

Just as the last time he had activated an advancement, a bright light enveloped him, and Xavier lost all awareness of everything around where he sat.

~

Empress Larona floated in the blackness of space, where she could See everything. The future she’d envisioned so long ago, the one she had been constantly working toward… the threads of fate were becoming more solid, intertwining, forming into thick ropes, ones she hoped would never be cut.

Something tugged at her consciousness. She was constantly keeping an eye on the one who had the potential to change everything for the Silver River sector—the one who had the potential to save it.

The boy had advanced faster than she had thought possible. The threads of fate seemed to shift with every move that he made. The future she wished to come to pass she was almost certain of now, but there were other futures that she was becoming aware of. Other things to do with Xavier Collins. Things she never would have dreamed of, for she had never looked past the death of her own sector.

How could she? That had been her obsession for so many years.

But this…

Empress Larona was the most powerful Denizen in the entirety of her sector, but she knew that in the Greater Universe her powers didn’t amount to much. She might be a True Progenitor, but she wasn’t one of the Old Ones—not by a long shot. She hadn’t been around long enough to accrue true power.

Which was why she was so confounded by how powerful this child was becoming. She knew he would become strong enough to save them—or, at least, that had always been her hope. He had always had the potential, before he’d even been a twinkle in his father’s eye.

But something had shifted, a few floors ago, within the young Denizen.

More threads had appeared, giving the boy millions of possible futures that she hadn’t seen before. And in those futures, she saw much… In some she saw heroism, in others she saw tyranny. Depending upon which path the man walked, he could become the saviour of their universe, or he could become something far, far worse…

Some of those futures filled her heart with more hope than it had ever held, while others… they filled her with a dread that was beyond the dread she had felt for her own sector’s future for so many years.

And now, the futures had shifted once more.

The young Denizen was already advancing to D Grade.

~

The man stood in the vast divide between sectors, upon a great ship that moved through the void of space.

He was the most powerful man in his universe, the first True Progenitor to ever live. The oldest of the Old Ones. Travelling by ship was a slow way in which to move through the Greater Universe, but there was something nostalgic about it. Back in his day, before much of what was now commonplace had been established, this was one of the first ways in which Denizens had discovered to breach the divides.

Though he was standing, he was deep in meditation. It had been a long while since he had left his tower. A long while since he’d stepped back out into the universe. When there are no new things to experience, one loses the will to adventure.

But that little anomaly he had observed defeat the Lord of the Endless Horde not long ago had changed. The Oldest One had sent his favourite descendant to the boy, to guide him and befriend him, and she had reported that he was no longer taking her advice.

Now, he had observed that the boy was on the hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions, and was activating his advancement to D Grade.

The System had intervened, had pushed—no, shoved—the boy forward through the tower of Champions in a way that he had never observed before.

His hunch about this Xavier Collins—that he might one day become the Weapon of the System—looked as though it would pay off.

And that was worthy of a meeting.

But the Old One was in no rush. It would take a while for his ship to arrive in a sector on the far side of the universe. Leaving his own sector was a risk. There was a delicate balance in the universe, one where he was the ruler at the centre. If people discovered that he had left, even for a short period of a few hundred years, it had the potential of creating a power vacuum the likes of which had never been seen before.

He opened his eyes and stepped over to the transparent force shield on the observation deck and looked out into the vast blackness, staring at a universe that for a long time he had known would one day come to an end—an end he would do anything in his power to stop, for life was too important to ever give up, and immortality had been a right he’d claimed early.

By the time I reach him, how powerful will this child be?

~

Xavier found himself, not for the first time, floating in darkness. His surroundings were filled with… nothing.

And before him, a notification.

Initiating advancement of Denizen XAVIER COLLINS from E Grade to D Grade.