Xavier, Howard, Siobhan, and Justin spent a good deal of time talking with Adranial and the other members of her party about what strategy they should use for the Eleventh floor. Xavier wasn’t worried about the four of them usurping his party’s record clear, not after they’d spoken for a few minutes—there simply wasn’t any way for them to do it as efficiently.
When the conversation finally turned to the twelfth floor, Xavier’s interest was piqued. He leant forward in his chair and paid close attention to everything the woman said.
The twelfth floor was, according to Adranial, quite a doozy. It was one of the most talked about floors in this sequence, one that Champions came to with equal part excitement and dread. Like the tenth floor with the melee, it was unique. It did not simply teleport one’s party into a difficult situation with monsters or Denizens that needed killing.
It pitted them against others in the Greater Universe.
There would be several other parties on this next floor, and there would be no way to determine who those parties would be, or what sector they would be coming from.
Not that that part mattered much to Xavier.
Xavier listened carefully, his frown deepening the longer she spoke. The way she wanted him to go about this floor wasn’t… the way he usually would. It didn’t take into account the potential for lost life.
Xavier wasn’t against killing. It might have seemed that way, from how he and his party had gone about the last floor, but he’d killed his fair share of Denizens. Whilst in the Tower of Champions. Whilst on Earth. And even when on other worlds within his sector to prove a point.
“Why is the System pitting us against each other?” Howard asked. “What does it have to gain from all of this?”
Adranial stared at the former cop, tilted her head to the side. It was rare that Howard ever addressed Adranial. “That question isn’t helpful.” She looked at the ceiling. “To know the intentions of the System… it is something that is beyond the likes of you and me.” Her gaze dropped. For a moment, it fell on Xavier. But only for a moment.
When there was nothing more to be said about the floor, Xavier and his party headed back to the Staging Room. With Adranial, they’d discussed the most popular tactics for the floor. Back in the Staging Room, he and his party chatted about what tactic they might use.
Justin tapped his foot, crossed his arms at his chest. “We should just get onto the next floor,” he said. “We all know you’re going to be able to get the record.”
Xavier frowned, wondering what was making Justin so eager. To be fair, Justin was always a little overeager. Xavier tended to find it endearing. “I don’t want to go in half-cocked. You heard what Adranial said—there’s no repeating this floor.”
“Are you going to go with her plan?” Siobhan asked. She bit her lip.
Xavier sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to, but…”
“It’s hard to see a better option,” Howard said.
For a moment, Xavier wondered if the titles he was trying to get were even worth it. He was already incredibly strong. So what if he missed out on a title clear or two, and instead tried to do the right thing? The honourable thing?
He lowered his head, wondering what to do. “Justin’s right.”
Justin stopped tapping his feet. “I am?”
“I’m as surprised as you are,” Siobhan said with a wink.
Howard chuckled. The big man pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning on. “Plan?” He stared Xavier in the eye.
Xavier strode toward the door to the next floor. He walked past each of them without giving them any eye contact. “We do what we have to.”
They materialised in a small cave chamber. It reminded him of one of the early floors they’d been on, but he knew that the whole floor wouldn’t be like this.
The chamber was barred. This was the safe room. The first ten floors had safe rooms on almost every one of them. There’d been a pattern that was easy enough to discern. Adranial had told them that pattern was no longer reliable. Everything changed past the tenth floor.
“So…” Justin clapped his hands together, clicked his fingers, clapped his hands together again. A nervous, waiting habit. “When you, rather gruffly, said ‘we do what we have to,’ did you mean… you’re gonna kill everyone?”
Xavier smirked. “It would be the most effective method of winning.”
Siobhan scrunched up her face. “You know, when you talk like that, I never know if you’re joking or not,” Siobhan said.
Xavier sighed. “It can be hard to tell.” He walked straight up to the bars and folded his hands behind his back.
The truth was, he wasn’t sure which way he was going to go yet. This floor, much like the tenth floor, wasn’t based on time, but Participation Points. Adranial had told them the various ways in which Participation Points were traditionally earned on this floor.
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Unlike the tenth floor, there was a way to get a record clear on this one, even though the floor was unique.
It wasn’t time, nor was it number of kills, or waves defeated like on the floor with the Endless Horde. It was Participation Points.
The party with the most Participation Points by the end wins the floor. Xavier had debated with himself whether or not he should solo this floor. Leave the others back in the Staging Room. He was confident they would survive this floor if they tackled it on their own. The kill every other party method of defeating this floor wasn’t as common as Xavier would have thought.
In fact, there were unspoken pacts among most sectors in the Greater Universe that stated that cooperation on this floor was better than outright violence toward each other.
This was something that Xavier found difficult to believe, but also something that he hoped was true.
On the other hand, it would be a lot easier to justify taking out the other parties if they attacked his first.
I don’t think that will be necessary.
The ground shifted. A loud, rumbling sounded. It was something that he’d been ready for—something that Adranial had warned them about. Rock dust fell from the ceiling, onto their heads, into their eyes. Xavier looked up. Noticed the rock dust didn’t bother him at all.
Curiously, even with his Farscope ability, he wasn’t able to see through the walls around him. They were simply solid rock that stretched for as far as his ability could see. And there wasn’t much to see on the other side of the bars, either.
“You know that’s my first earthquake,” Siobhan said. She had a hand on the wall for support, even though she wouldn’t have needed it.
“Mine too,” Justin said.
Xavier hadn’t experienced an earthquake before either, but he was focused on thinking through his next moves. He could have done this back in the Staging Room—perhaps he should have—but it didn’t feel the same back there. He liked being on the ground. Liked being where the action was.
Thinking about things in the moment seemed more effective to him than simply extrapolating what would happen from the comfort of the tavern or the Staging Room.
Perhaps that would make him a poor general, but for what he needed to do it had worked for him so far.
A notification appeared in their vision.
Welcome, Champions, to the twelfth floor!
It is time, once again, to test your mettle against the creme of the crop of the Greater Universe, or well, anyone else who happened to be doing this floor at the same time as you.
The mission objective is to defeat the Dark Lord Altruin of the Altruin Empire and assist the collective alliance in their attack on the lord’s grand city!
Xavier frowned. Adranial had told him, word for word, what this notification would say. Like some other floors, he found it hard to believe just how weak the people here were.
Traditionally, a Champion on this floor would be around Level 30 to Level 40, and the enemies on this floor were around Level 35—which was a step up to the last one.
The Dark Lord Altruin, however, would be the first E Grade enemy on any of the floors that people were intended to fight. Xavier had, of course, fought E Grade enemies in the past. He’d killed thousands upon thousands of them when he was fighting the waves of the Endless Horde. It had taken him months to get enough experience to get to E Grade himself by fighting them—though the only reason it had taken him so much longer than the people he’d powerlevelled was because the System had been heavily restricting the Mastery Points he’d gained from the kills, while those he’d powerlevelled hadn’t been restricted at all.
Still, it was interesting to see that the System was already pitting people against E Grades on the twelfth floor—and that was in fact why this floor was supposed to be a cooperative effort with the other parties. The only way that the Champions would be able to defeat the E Grade enemy was with the help of others, so the more of the collective alliance’s army that survived, the more likely the floor was to be cleared.
Though “supposed to be” wasn’t really the full story, as everyone knew that the party who contributed the most received the most Participation Points, and the best way to contribute the most was to ensure that the other parties contributed nothing—the System, even, at times, would send encouraging notifications to this effect, according to Adranial.
The System enjoys conflict. As long as people are killing, it will give them Mastery Points, and in this case, Participation Points.
But Xavier wasn’t going to play that game. He rolled his head around his neck, summoned his scythe-staff to his hand, and spoke to the others over his shoulder. “You three stay here in the safe room.”
Justin stepped forward. “Stay here?”
Howard leant back against a wall, crossed his arms over his chest. “You expected him to take us along?”
“Well, after last time…”
Siobhan sighed. “Tell us how things go.”
Sometimes, he forgot how it made him feel to keep these three out of the floor and do it by himself. It looked as though they were each eager, to varying degrees, to be involved, but none of them fought his decision. There was no point in doing that.
The safe room will open in 10 seconds.
The notification popped up, then a countdown timer appeared in the top right corner of his vision. He readied himself.
Another notification appeared.
You are but one of five parties who have been included in this fight. The more you contribute to the effort to defeat the Dark Lord Altruin, the more Participation Points and Mastery Points you will receive. Though these other parties are here to help you in your cause, they are not your friends. Be wary.
Xavier frowned. He wasn’t used to the System being so… blunt bout these things. It seemed to be talking a little differently to how it normally would, though it was consistent with what Adranial said the notification would be.
There was more. He continued to read it as the timer ticked down.
The attack on the Dark Lord’s city has already begun. The city is surrounded. Once this safe room opens, there will be a ramp up to the surface. Follow this ramp and you will find the other parties close by.
The safe rooms, unlike on other floors, didn’t have any sort of time limit. His party could stay inside them for the entirety of the floor. Some parties actually used that as their tactic to clear this floor. Adranial had sneered at that “tactic,” calling it the coward’s way. A party would hide within the safe room, not receive any Participation Points, and let the other parties who’d appeared on the floor deal with the mission.
Xavier wouldn’t have thought doing that would qualify them for clearing the floor, but apparently the System didn’t care as long as the objective was carried out.
As long as the objective was carried out.
The bars rose. Xavier grinned.
He knew exactly how he was going to deal with this floor.