Xavier released a breath as he looked around at the six dryad corpses littering the ground of the clearing. He inhaled the fresh scent of blood. Something inside of him stirred, as it often did when he smelled blood.

When he had been E Grade and had assimilated a great deal of beast properties into his body, it had given him a bloodlust he’d never before experienced, one that made him want to drink the blood of his fallen enemies. Something had changed within him, turning him more beast-like.

But whatever that something was… it was no longer the same. It had changed when he had advanced from E Grade to D Grade and turned into a dragonkin.

The thing that stirred within him was muted. There was a part of him that wished to drink the blood from the fallen, but that part of him was buried deep, deep inside. As though it were a primal, hidden part.

Dragonkin had evolved past such desires, and Xavier found it was no longer something he needed to control.

The first thing Xavier did was walk over to the corpse of the dead Champion and take off the man’s Storage Rings.

He had killed the six dryads with an ease that hadn’t been possible the day before. He would have been able to defeat them before—he had just defeated a C Grade enemy while E Grade. These dryads wouldn’t have been a match for him.

But he hadn’t needed to strain. He hadn’t needed to use his most powerful spells. He hadn’t used Time Prison or Time Alternation. He hadn’t used Soul Strike or Summon Otherworldly Spirit. He hadn’t even needed to use Soul Sacrifice to create a bridge to the Otherworld and have spirits burst through that bridge into the mortal realm and fight for him.

Xavier considered turning the dryads into Soul Puppets but thought better of it.

He had a lot of things he needed to do, and he wasn’t going to linger around this part of the forest long enough to benefit from having minions.

Xavier looked down at the staff that was in his hand. The fight hadn’t garnered him a single Mastery Point, and that had been a choice he had made. Not because he didn’t wish to gain any levels, but simply because he wished to make his soul bound weapon as powerful as possible as swiftly as he could.

There were several notification from that battle that he hadn’t looked at. He’d been too enthralled in the fight to bother. He ignored the kill notifications and looked at the skill and spell rank notifications that had popped up.

Telekinetic Enhanced Strike has taken a step forward on the path!

Telekinetic Enhanced Strike is now a Rank 101 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Soul Block has taken a step forward on the path!

Soul Block is now a Rank 101 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Soul Shatter has taken a step forward on the path!

Soul Shatter is now a Rank 101 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Willpower Infusion has taken a step forward on the path!

Willpower Infusion is now a Rank 101 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Evasion has reached Rank 101!

Red In Tooth And Claw has reached Rank 101!

Close Combat Fighting has reached Rank 101!

Xavier chuckled to himself. Those ranks had come more easily than he’d expected, though he knew that wouldn’t always be the case. Soon, the ranks he received from fights like this would dwindle. Unlike all the other times he had been fighting on this floor before this moment, he was finally fighting enemies of the exact same rank as him, even if they were many levels above his Level 200.

No wonder they all went down so easily.

There was another notification after all of the spell and rank notifications.

Your Soul Bound weapon, Lost Bone of a Dead God, has advanced along its path.

Lost Bone of a Dead God is now Level 35.

Lost Bone of a Dead God’s attributes have changed.

+10 Strength is now +50 Strength.

+10 Speed is now +50 Speed.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

+10 Intelligence is now +50 Intelligence.

+10 Spirit is now +50 Spirit.

Xavier tilted his head to the side. The weapon had gained thirty-five levels in a single encounter. That, too, he knew wouldn’t always be the case. If he were honest, he thought it should have gained even more levels than that, considering it was an F Grade weapon, and he had been slaying D Grades. But, then again, he didn’t really know how quickly soul bound weapons progressed. Perhaps it scaled differently when you were using one but weren’t the same grade as it.

He knew that attributes weren’t the only thing about the weapon that had changed, as well. He could sense it.

Xavier looked at the weapon in his hand. Right now it had the appearance of a staff. He tilted his head to the side and made it shift. It transformed, seeping into the skin of both his arms and reinforcing his forearm, hands, fingers, and claws just as it had before. Spikes formed at the back of his hand, and they were larger than they had been before the fight.

The weapon had also transformed from Staff to Bone Reinforcement significantly faster than it had before.

Xavier tilted his head to the side and looked down at his hands. He made the weapon transform back to Staff, then back to Bone Reinforcement. He couldn’t help but smile at what he saw.

One thing he had been worried about when it came to this weapon was just how slow it transformed from one thing to another. It still transformed far slower than he wished it too, of course, but now he knew for a fact that it would keep getting faster as he levelled it up.

Xavier wondered just how much more powerful the weapon would become when it reached E Grade, and then D Grade.

That made him wonder about something else, back on Earth. Guardian, the golem that protected Collinsville, advanced at the same rate that he did. That golem must have just become incredibly powerful for a planet like Earth after Xavier had advanced to D Grade. He wondered if the people in the town were aware of that.

If Guardian knows, then the others will know. At least when time catches up, as it moves far faster here.

Xavier looted the corpses of the dead dryads, but not the corpses themselves. Usually, he would take beast corpses into his Storage Ring, but Forest Dryads weren’t beasts. They were Denizens, just as he was. They wouldn’t even be a part of the Hunt Quests he could obtain on this floor. He didn’t bury their bodies as a respectful gesture either, he simply left them to the forest, so it could reclaim them in time. He figured beings such as these would be partial to such a thing.

Then Xavier made his way back to the cave of the Fetid Forest Troll, and grabbed the chest that he’d found there. Thankfully, no one had taken it while he had been gone, testing his new abilities.

On his way back to the cave he’d killed as many different beasts as he could. Each of those kills brought more levels to his soul bound weapon. He gained a few skill and spell ranks too, but nowhere near as many as that first encounter with the dryads, as the beasts he fought were nowhere near as strong.

Every D Grade enemy he fought on his way back to the cave succumbed to death in a single spell or strike.

Xavier was grinning to himself as he contemplated his newfound power. He simply couldn’t help himself. He’d known he’d become stronger, but just how strong, he was still finding out.

These enemies he’d just ploughed through with ease had been so powerful when he’d first come to this floor. The System had pushed him forward in the Tower of Champions, jumping him straight to the one hundredth floor well before he was ready for it.

At first, Xavier had thought the System had done it to humble him, because the threats he’d encountered on the other floors weren’t threats to him at all. The floors weren’t a challenge for him anymore—even gaining the top title for the floors had become easy for him.

The Voice of the System said he needed to be challenged, and challenged he was. Even the normal beasts he’d encountered in the forest on this floor had been difficult for him to defeat.

But they hadn’t been difficult for very long. He’d quickly advanced his abilities, found new ways to use the spells he already possessed, and became all the more powerful for it.

But he wondered what it would be like the moment he stepped onto the next floor. He’d done everything he needed to achieve for this floor quite some time ago. All he’d needed to do was complete ten Hunt Quests.

He had done far more than that, and he intended to do even more.

By the time he left this floor he wanted to have killed the most powerful C Grade enemy on it. The dragon that protected its egg—the egg that he wished to take so he could use it as a vessel for Volkarin, the dragon that was the Spirit of Vengeance.

When he reached the next floor… the Tower of Champions would, once more, pose little challenge to him.

Xavier contemplated his power as he flew back to Hunter’s Home, carrying the large chest from the troll’s cave in his arms. He couldn’t put the thing in his Storage Ring. Something about it being spatial storage prevented him from doing so. But he could carry it easily enough.

It didn’t take him long at all to reach the tavern. He retracted his wings before he pushed open the doors and stepped inside. Felicia was the first to see him enter. Her eyebrows shot up as she saw the wings tucked behind his back.

Xavier knew that it wasn’t completely unusual to see wings on a Denizen, but usually those wings came from some sort of spell. Xavier’s wings did not. He could retract them straight into his back if he wished, but honestly, he wanted to show them off.

Why wouldn’t he?

Felicia’s shock wore off quickly, her expression returning to normal. Either that, or she had a good mask on. Other Champions in the tavern looked his way. A few of them stared. He was beginning to garner a bit of a reputation around here. When he’d first arrived, he’d been just another Champion stumbling onto the hundredth floor for the first time. But people quickly discovered he was here without a party.

Felicia, the barkeep and the owner of this establishment, had running bets on most of the Champions who set foot in this place. She’d had many on him. A solo Champion, especially one who had no former knowledge of the hundredth floor, made for interesting bets.

The most recent of which was him going up against a C Grade enemy alone. And the fact that he’d done it while he was E Grade? Well, he was sure someone would have let that little detail slip.

Which was why, he was sure, that every single person in that tavern was surprised to see that he was alive. Every one of them, perhaps, except for Gimble.

The dwarf sauntered up to him, a tankard of ale as large as his head gripped in one hand. He was shaking his head and laughing, his long beard swaying from side to side as he walked.

“Xavier Collins, you bastard, you’re still alive? Did ya chicken out? And where in the Greater Universe did those damned wings come from, aye lad?”

Xavier blinked, looking at the dwarf. “I defeated the C Grade Fetid Forest Troll.” He tilted his head to the side. “Did you expect me to lose?”

Gimble stopped in his tracks. He looked Xavier up and down in a new light. “To lose? No, I didn’t expect that, lad, else I wouldn’t have pointed ya toward it…” The dwarf shook his head again, this time in disbelief. “I thought you had a chance, lad. But… you actually defeated that thing? And before you advanced?”

“Always the tone of surprise,” Xavier muttered. He supposed he couldn’t blame the dwarf for thinking there was a chance he could have lost. “I guess that favour I owe you just got a lot more valuable.”

“Aye, lad. That it did. That it did.” Gimble was just staring at him now. Maybe the dwarf had believed he had a chance of winning, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t surprised by it. He nodded his head at the chest in Xavier’s arms. “What’s that, then?” There was a glint in the dwarf’s eyes. “Treasure?”

“Indeed it is,” Xavier said with a smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to break into spatial storage boxes, would you?”

Gimble threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, I think I know a thing or two about that, lad.” He put his tankard of ale down on a nearby table—but not before bringing it to his lips and downing the whole thing in a series of large, loud gulps. The dwarf rubbed his hands together. “Lemme have a look at that. Let’s find out what’s inside.”