Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 18 - The Demon of the Depths

Xavier made his way up the mountain on the Thirty-First Descent of the Hell Moon Thazamar, killing pack after pack of Amalgamons with his new tactic. As powerful as it was, however, he wasn’t going to use this tactic for all 1,000 clears of the floor.

It wasn’t because the tactic would get boring—though he knew that it might, after a while, he’d developed enough patience that he could see himself grinding in this way for as long as necessary, if need be—but because these Amalgamons would pose a better challenge to him if he fought them in a different way.

Besides, as much as Xavier wanted to continue fighting only inside of the time dilation field, soon enough he would need to seriously start upping the ranks of his different spells.

Though he doubted that would happen on this descent.

His plan for upping the ranks of his spells had been in his mind for a little while now—he saw no point in ranking up the spells he couldn’t use in the time dilation field until he’d gotten to Level 300, unless the enemies he faced on the deeper descents were too powerful for him to fight in this way. When he did finally reach Level 300, he could delay advancing to C Grade for as long as he needed until all of his different spells were ranked up to 150.

Level 300 was feeling very far away. He’d gotten a lot of levels on the Thirtieth Descent when he’d been grinding it over and over again, and he’d gotten a bunch of levels as he’d cleared the first twenty-nine descents with that party of C Grades, as they’d taken turns clearing them.

But, even after the thousands upon thousands of enemies he’d killed—a huge amount of them being C Grade—Xavier was only at Level 242.

Though he knew that was a massive achievement, for him to have gained so many levels in this grade so quickly. He was breaking the mould by doing it at this  speed, when it tended to take people several centuries to reach their next grade.

Xavier often wondered if other Denizens were simply fighting in slow motion. He couldn’t truly be as unique as he seemed, could he?

Of his spells, Xavier missed using the whole full breadth of his abilities, but he knew that time—despite his ability to manipulate it—ultimately wasn’t on his side.

It would always keep creeping forward.

When the time came to defend the Silver River sector from the threat that was heading toward it, the threat that could destroy everything and everyone within it, he needed to be ready.

The farther he climbed up the mountain toward that tower, the more packs of Amalgamons he found. They were getting closer and closer together, and the packs were starting to grow bigger. When he’d first arrived in this place, he’d been fighting groups of six.

By the time he reached the mountain’s peak with the tower, he was fighting groups of a full dozen.

The mountain’s peak where the tower sat was a great expanse of flat ice. Despite what it had looked like from down below, there was no snow here. The whole place was completely frozen.

On his way up, he’d encountered a waterfall that was frozen. The water had been stopped as it flowed down the mountain. That told him something, at least—this place mustn’t always be quite this cold. For there to have been a waterfall, at one point there must have been water.

He looked at the expanse of ice, figuring it must have been a river before it froze over. The tower lay at the centre of that river.

Beneath the ice, Xavier could sense more runes. He’d been sensing them all over the place, though he hadn’t stopped to examine them since the first one he’d uncovered beneath the snow after the mist had teleported him here.

He tilted his head to the side. The runes felt a bit stronger than the other ones he’d encountered, and he couldn’t help but notice a slight blue glow beneath the surface of the ice.

There were twenty packs of Amalgamons up here, twelve demons in each. The line of sight was such that he could see them all at once. It made him wonder if they would attack all at once if he dropped the time dilation field, but that wasn’t a theory he was about to test—not on his first clear of this place, at least.

Xavier frowned at the tower. The descent had clearly pushed him toward this place, but he didn’t know why. None of the other descents in the Hell Moon had had a goal other than kill the demons.

Was there something else that he was supposed to do here?

If I have to save a princess in that tower…

He shook his head. He doubted it would be anything like that.

Xavier landed on the ground, just before the river of ice. The time dilation field was still active, but he hadn’t managed to maintain every single one of his portals.

Maintaining the portals for long enough to reach here had taken far too much mental toll, and the toll on his energies was significant as well—he couldn’t cultivate Spirit Energy fast enough to replace what he was losing as the pressure of maintaining the portals increased more and more.

He’d had to close one portal after another, until finally only one remained. Then, he’d had to shrink that portal until it was no larger than a dime.

Still, he’d made at least one of the portals reach this far—all the way to the peak of the mountain—and his Portal spell had ranked up three times in the process, which meant he was most certainly on the right track.

He knelt just in front of the river of ice and examined the blue below. Unfortunately, using Identify on it didn’t actually give him any information. Whatever that glow was, its properties were protected by the layer of ice above it.

It wouldn’t be hard for him to break through that ice and have a closer look at the glow, and whatever runes might be hiding underneath, but Xavier was eager to get to the end of this descent. He would have plenty of opportunities in the future to figure out what that glow was.

And if it was some sort of trap, well, something told him there was little way around him activating it—surely examining it would activate it instantly.

Maybe I shouldn’t step on the ice, just in case.

Another thing that confirmed to him that this was a trap was the fact that he couldn’t see below the ice even with his Farscope ability. The runes must have been blocking that from him. While that was rare, he’d encountered things that were able to block his Farscope before.

Xaiver rose back to standing and looked over at the tower again. He looked all the way to the top of the tower, where there was a large window—one without any glass.

Something was wafting out of the window—something he hadn’t noticed before, probably because it wasn’t moving outside of his time dilation field.

Mist.

Xavier raised an eyebrow. Was it really that simple? The tower at the top of the mountain was his way out of this place? It must take him to the stairwell that headed down to the next descent back on Thazamar.

He wondered if there was anything stopping him from flying straight to that window and going through it—not that he would want to leave this place before completely clearing it of enemies.

Xavier summoned Lost Bone of a Dead God to his hand, in its bow form, and got to work.

The arrows he’d been crafting since reaching this descent had been getting stronger. The bones of these demons were the strongest ones he’d ever harvested. His Fletching skill had grown considerably, too.

Xaiver loosed one arrow after another until hundreds were hovering in the air at the edge of the time dilation field, ready and eager to propel forward.

Xavier, still standing just before the river of ice, expanded his time dilation field. He had developed several different ways of expanding the time dilation field now. He could snap the field so it encompassed every single one of the Amalgamon packs at once, but that would defeat the purpose of the tactic he was using.

So Xavier pushed the field only as fast as his arrows could soar.

Every single one of the arrows hit their target.

Xavier grinned broadly. It wasn’t only kill notifications that popped up when all the arrows hit—he’d gained a level, reaching Level 243!

He chuckled and shook his head. Despite all he’d just done on this floor, he was finding it hard to believe he’d just killed 240 Level 370 C Grade beasts all at once.

This is absolutely insane. Since when did I become this powerful?

He glanced up at the sky, as though looking straight at the System, and was glad it wasn’t prone to nerfing abilities. If this were actually a video game instead of real life, the game devs would have sorted him out a long time ago.

With every single one of the Amalgamons on the field of ice that surrounded the tower at the highest peak of the mountain now dead, Xavier released a breath.

All that was left was to enter that tower and face whatever demons lay within it. Then, he would be able to return to the Hell Moon.

And start this all over again.

He looked at the mist, frozen in time, that wafted out of the tower window. There was a small part of him that was disappointed with how easy this descent had been, and he was hoping there would be something interesting to fight inside of that tower.

Xavier looked at the ice, and the blue glow beneath it. He wasn’t about to step on that. He was sure now that it was some kind of trap, and even with all the Amalgamons dead, that didn’t mean he should be setting off whatever it was.

He expanded his wings with a snap, then began to fly straight over the ice. The instant he passed over the threshold—even in the air above it—a notification popped up.

You have activated a Trap!

All your currently active spells have been dispelled.

Your cores are blocked for five seconds.

Your cooldowns are blocked for five minutes.

Xavier’s eyes widened at the sight of that. The time bubble burst, and suddenly he could hear the whistle of the wind in this cold place and see the mist moving as it flowed from the tower’s high window.

There was something else he could hear, too. A cracking, snapping sound. He knew, immediately, what it must be. With his Farscope ability he could see the ice breaking beneath him, a massive shadow moving below it.

No wonder the runes blocked me from seeing under that ice with Farscope—they were hiding something! More than just a trap!

The shadow broke free of the ice. A great cascade of freezing water shot up as a huge monster emerged. The first thing Xaiver saw was its teeth. Needle-sharp, from a circular maw, much like the tentacle-mouths the Amalgamon possessed, except this mouth was big enough to swallow him whole, and each of those needle-sharp teeth were as long as a sword.

And there wasn’t just one of them.

There were dozens.

Xavier only just managed to dodge the first of the massive tentacle-mouths as he used Identify on the beast beneath him.

{Demon of the Depths – Level 399}

The Demon of the Depths is a beast similar to a Kraken, except it has the ability to rip the energy from a being’s core.

It has fifty tentacle-mouths that each act as though they have a mind of their own, fighting to get to their prey.

The Demon of the Depths is strongest when it’s in its own territory.

If you stumble into this beast’s domain, remember that you have lived a good life, and that all lives must one day end.

A Level 399 beast.

Xavier had never faced anything that powerful before.