“What?” Felicia said, blinking at him from the other side of the bar in Hunter’s Home, but her tone gave her away. “What birds?”

“That’s how you watch people out there, isn’t it? That’s how you throw your sight?”

Xavier had noticed, more than once, that the same bird had been observing him while he was out fighting beasts. He’d been aware of it for a good while now. He’d not thought too much of it, if he were honest, but whenever he did think on it he knew it was strange.

Felicia bit her lip. “Maybe.” She sighed. “All right, yes, it’s how I do it.” She shook her head. “But you should heed my warning, Xavier. The way some of these people are looking at you, I can tell it’s not the good kind of attention. As much as I love having your company on this floor, and have certainly profited it, maybe it’s time you left. And it would be wise if you took that time mage, Liana, with you. She may be safe here, but people know she’s the one who’s spent the most time with you. If you left and they wanted information on you…”

She left the rest of the words unsaid. Xavier didn’t need her to spell it out for him. He understood what she was implying.

He drummed his fingers on the bar. Despite the fact that he could see people in the bar with Farscope, he still had the urge to turn around and stare at each of them. To ferret out who it was that might not just wish ill will for him, but actually be planning to carry something out.

Do I even fear any of these people?

He thought on that a moment. And he found that he didn’t—he believed that he could win a fight against any Champion in this place. That didn’t mean he was right. There could be another True Progenitor in this bar, for all he knew.

But it wouldn’t just be one Champion he’d fight, it would likely be an entire party. Maybe even two, for all he knew. And something told him whoever went after him would do it at a time that he was most vulnerable.

Like when he was fighting a beast…

If they were the type to be plotting an assassination, they wouldn’t be the type to fight fair.

“You really think someone is after me?” Xavier asked Felicia. He didn’t see why she would lie.

“I can’t say for sure, Xavier. But, tell me, have you made any enemies?”

Xavier looked down at the bar. Oh, he’d certainly made a few enemies, despite barely having ventured out into his sector. He imagined the threat he’d made to protect Earth… well, there would be a lot of people out there who’d want his head for that alone.

Then there was that father of the man he’d killed. He was C Grade, and from a whole other sector to Silver River. Who knew what kind of power such a man could bring to bear? What kind of connections he might have?

Xavier inclined his head. “Yes. I’ve made my share of enemies. Didn’t think any of them would be able to reach me here…”

He would say it would be a huge coincidence if anyone who knew who he was and wished him ill will turned up here, but as long as he’d been on this floor… word might have already had time to spread about his whereabouts, from Champions that had long moved on from the floor. Time moved different here, that was true, but he’d been here for many months.

A minute passed for every hour here. He hadn’t kept exact track of how long he’d been here in entirety. That was difficult when he spent so long inside time dilation fields. But at least eight months had passed. Maybe nine. If it was nine, than just over four days would have passed back in his universe.

It might have even been more than that.

That would certainly be enough time for someone to get the word out. And it’s not like people hadn’t circumvented the System’s rules around the Tower of Champions in the past. He had met Adranial on the tenth floor because she’d been put there, not out of coincidence, after all.

Xavier turned where he sat on the stool and stared at the noticeboard. At the two C Grade beasts he wished to face, and kill, before he left this place.

The Nightmare and the C Grade dragon.

If he were to take Felicia’s warning seriously, and he didn’t see a reason not to—she may have been using him for the bets made on him, and she’d led him into dangerous situations in the past with misleading information, but he didn’t see why she’d lie about something like this, especially since… wouldn’t she wish for him to remain on this floor?

If he were to heed her warning, maybe he would be facing them sooner than he’d thought.

A thrill ran through Xavier at the very idea of that. It was absurd that he should fight such powerful enemies at Level 202, but Xavier had done plenty of absurd, not to mention seemingly impossible, things in the past.

And he’d succeeded at them.

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He looked at the dragon in particular. Defeating that dragon would see the culmination of a plan he’d put in place some time ago, back when he’d finished facing the Magma Bull at that volcano.

He would finally be able to summon Volkarin—the dragon spirit from the Otherworld—to the Mortal Realm in a physical body.

Into a vessel—the dragon egg this C Grade dragon protected.

This was a task he’d planned to carry out when he felt ready. But since when had he ever felt ready to go up against the threats he’d defeated in the past?

“Thank you, Felicia, for the warning. Now, as to that Hunt Quest reward…”

~

Felicia stared at Xavier and gave him a nod. With a thought and a wave of her hand, she activated the System and prompted it to give him his most recent Hunt Quest reward.

After that, the young man took a table in the corner, bringing his mug of coffee with him. He sipped at it, staring at the noticeboard in quiet contemplation.

Felicia suppressed a sigh. She sauntered on over to the other side of the bar and served another Champion. She couldn’t help but feel a tinge of guilt at what she’d just done.

No one here was a threat to Xavier Collins. Even if they wished to harm him, none of these people were strong enough. And who would sign an assassination contract for a floor like this one? Those from integrated words knew what the punishment for such a crime would be…

Felicia’s warning had been a false one. She’d once again gotten a message from the System. This one had been more insistent than ever.

The young Champion was no longer being challenged by this floor the way he was training, and the System wished for him to move along. Once again, it had asked her to push him toward a challenge, one she again believed he wouldn’t be able to face.

The guilt didn’t last as long as it usually did. Every other time she’d done this—pushed the young man toward something she was sure would get him killed—he’d come out victorious.

Why wouldn’t the same thing happen this time around?

He was only going after the most powerful C Grade beasts on the entire floor, after all…

~

Xavier calculated the amount of time that he’d been training since he’d become D Grade—since the last time that he’d cast Summon Otherworldly Spirit and used it to bring forth the Spirit of Time.

The one and only time that he’d done that.

It had been six months. He could use it again.

That spell, he was sure, had been responsible for his victory against the C Grade Fetid Forest Troll. Without that spell, he knew for certain that he would have died facing that thing.

He’d been intending to use the spell to summon the Spirit of Time again when he faced these two, far more powerful, C Grade beasts, even though he knew there was six months between casts, as the cooldown lasted for what felt like forever, and gaining a level didn’t help anything.

He could cast Summon Otherworldly Spirit, and he had done so since summoning the Spirit of Time, but he had been locked out of summoning that particular spirit. It had a locked cooldown.

He knew why, of course. It was the most powerful spell he had in his arsenal. Having the ability to see different timelines branching off—and not just to see them, but create them—and gaining knowledge from each of those timelines… if he could use that kind of power more often, he would most certainly abuse it.

Even though it meant the deaths of versions of him in other timelines.

He’d felt guilty about that, since it had happened. That he had caused the death of… well, himself. More than once. But he also knew that when he cast that spell, he’d made the decision. This other version of him? That man hadn’t existed until the decision had been made. Up until that point they had been the same person.

When he thought too hard on it, it did strange things to his mind, like the time he read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

That book had been absolutely mind-bending.

Xavier was sitting at a table in the corner of Hunter’s Home as he thought through all of this. He’d already made his decision—he was going to heed Felicia’s warning. He felt paranoid just being in this bar now, with all the enemies that could be lying in wait. Any of these Champions could be someone who ultimately wished to kill him.

He let out a sigh. That was a reality that he would need to get used to. Considering what the System wished him to become, and what it wished him to do, and how powerful he was… there was no way that he wouldn’t be noticed.

And, when he did return to Earth, and his sector? He was the type of person to want to throw his power around to get things done.

He was liable to make a great deal more enemies in his future.

I guess I’ll learn to live with people wanting to kill me.

Xavier hadn’t received anything significant from the Hunt Quest that he’d just completed. A few ranks in the spells and skills he’d used, but no random spell like the first two times he’d collected the reward for his Hunt Quests.

And he knew why—none of the Hunt Quests had been a challenge for him. He’d even solo-fought a few C Grades while he’d been out there. Those certainly had better rewards, but now that he’d become D Grade and gained so much more power… those fights hadn’t been near as hard as fighting the Fetid Forest Troll had been.

Xavier stood from the corner table and strode to the board of Hunt Quests. He tore a notice from the board and walked straight out of the tavern, leaving his coffee mug half-drunk. He didn’t nod over at Gimble as he left—the dwarf was yet to unlock that Fetid Forest Troll’s treasure chest, and Xavier couldn’t deny he was a little annoyed at that—nor did he look over at Felicia. He had a mission. He’d made a decision. And once he made a decision, he didn’t like to dawdle.

He was going to use Summon Otherworldly Spirit to bring forth the Spirit of Time. But he wasn’t going to do it when he fought The Nightmare—he was going to do it when he fought the C Grade Elemental Dragon. He wouldn’t wait to use it on both.

If there were threats lurking here, it was time for him to move on.

Xavier left Hunter’s Home behind. He leapt into the air, soaring high above the great forest, his great black wings flapping. He spotted his destination instantly. The Dark Mountains. The very place that he’d first met the time mage Liana. The place where he’d fought the Stone Bear.

The place where the infected beasts that were controlled by the C Grade entity known only as The Nightmare dwelt.

For a short time, when Xavier had been F Grade, he’d touched the mind of The Nightmare. He’d felt how vast and powerful it was. During that time, he’d even been able to control it.

But he’d been able to do that by chance. The circumstances that had happened that led to him gaining control would be impossible for him to replicate. That was something he was almost entirely sure of.

Because The Nightmare hadn’t been aware of him, or his abilities, the first time Xavier had taken control of it. Now, it knew who he was. If he tried what he’d done before a second time… it would bring all of its power down upon him.

Xavier just had to make sure he was the stronger of the two.