Chương 11: Injured (1)

The spectral chains around him answered his call, but they weren't just ghosts any longer. Sold metal links clanked and ground against each other as they shot towards the soldier, snaking their way around its chitinous armor. Then, Rowan clenched his fist. The ant's armor strained under the pressure, but it still held. Then, the steel links began to fracture—first one, and then another. Soon, fissures had appeared all across the shifting chains. Realizing the clock was ticking, he moved.

Rowan crawled on all fours, crying out in pain as he slid open wounds across the rough stone floor. He reached out with a shaking hand and felt the cold metal of the mace in his palm. As he turned around to attack the ant, the first chain shattered. Shards of metal burst apart, only to dissipate into blue particles as the shell of steel fell apart, leaving only links of ethereal light, a mere ghost of what once was. Yet, despite its dire injuries, the soldier strained further, and another shattered.

Rising up on a shaky, bloodied leg, Rowan hefted the mace. He brought it down on the cracked armor of the insect's head. Then, he did it again. A third chain broke. Only two remained. Even as the ant rose to meet him, no longer fully constrained by the chains, he let out one final cry of defiance, stabbing the mace into the ant's eyes again and again, each thrust forcing the weapon deeper into the insect's head.

[You have slain Soldier Ant - Level 6] — He was assaulted with wave after wave of pain the moment he regained consciousness, tearing him from the warm embrace of sleep. Clenching his teeth, Rowan opened his bleary eyes, trying to take stock of the situation. He was lying in a pool of bodily fluids—a mix of his own blood and the milky yellow ichor of the ant in which his mace rested as well. The liquids had already soaked through his pants, but it didn't really matter; they were ruined anyway.

After confirming there were no immediate threats, he turned his attention back to his own body. His torso and arms were fine, but his legs… Rowan cringed at the sight. They were mangled almost beyond recognition. Sure, they still looked like legs, but a good half of his legs were barely visible beneath a layer of red. It seemed like every few inches, another chunk of flesh was missing.

"Fuck…" Rowan let out a growl as he tried to shift his body, eliciting a jolt of agony. When he remained still, the pain was manageable, but when he moved, it was far, far worse. At least it looked like the bleeding was coming to an end. Most of the smaller wounds had stopped altogether, with the larger ones still trickling blood. It seemed that his stats were doing him some good.

Taking a few deep breaths, he went over the notifications he'd received during and after the fight, searching for anything to take his mind off the pain. [Mana Manipulation lvl 3 → Mana Manipulation lvl 4] [Bind lvl 1 → Bind lvl 2] [You have slain Soldier Ant - Level 6] [Level 2 → Level 3] Rowan blinked in surprise. He hadn't realized [Bind] had leveled up. He supposed it made sense, but he'd missed it in the chaos of the fight. Looking at the final notification, he felt a small smile creep onto his face.

That level was probably what'd stopped him from bleeding out. Leveling up automatically put points into vitality and toughness. If it had instead given him purely free points, he doubted he'd be alive. Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 3 Stats: Strength: 9 Dexterity: 7 Toughness: 10 Vitality: 9 Mana: 7 Free Points: 1 The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Active Skills(2/10): Bind lvl 2 Mana Manipulation lvl 4 Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan (Layer Quest) Defeat 10 Enemies Reach Level 20 System Credits: 75 Immediately, he assigned his free point to vitality, bringing it up to 10. He didn't know how much of a difference it would make, but he would take anything to speed up his healing. Looking at the deep gouges in his legs, Rowan wondered if his body would even regenerate the flesh.

What if it just repaired the skin, leaving him hobbled and scarred? He shuddered and pushed the thoughts out of his mind before he could fixate on them. There were more pressing matters at hand, and even if his legs were to stay forever marred, there wasn't anything he could do. So, unable to move or really do anything at all, Rowan continued looking over his status screen. Opening his quest to defeat ten enemies, he looked at the progress. He only had to finish off one more ant. Then, he would get his rations.

The second the thought entered his mind, he regretted it, but it was already too late. Hunger and thirst struck him with their full force, forcing out a weak groan. The adrenaline and pain had been distracting him from his body's needs, but now that he thought of them, he couldn't go back. Trying to distract himself from his ever-increasing suffering, Rowan looked inward. The mana in his body was still there, swirling around, but it was smaller. Much smaller than before.

It looked to be increasing in size, which was good, but activating [Bind] to face the ant had taken a toll on his stores. It didn't really matter, though, as he was just looking to improve his [Mana Manipulation]. Eyes closed, Rowan moved the energy around his body, not pushing it out like he'd done every time before. It was good practice to try to maintain control over the mana outside of his body, but he saw no reason to waste it.

After his recent conflict, he was beginning to realize how valuable the resource really was. If he could do that with what little mana he had, what would happen when he had five or ten times more? Slowly, he increased the speed and amount of energy he was moving, building up his control. When he'd activated [Bind], the mana within him had felt torrential, endless, uncontrolable. But now that he thought back to it, it really hadn't been that much mana. He just wasn't yet capable of manipulating that much.

Even though he'd managed to activate the skill, much of his mana still went to waste, dispersing into the air before he'd had time to infuse it into his chains. If he could just improve his control, he'd be able to do so faster, more easily and without using as much energy. Thinking about his chains brought him back to the moment he'd activated the skill. The spectral chains had 'solidified'.

The word sounded wrong, but Rowan didn't have any better way to describe it; the metal had just appeared out of nowhere, coating his chains. Perhaps the steel was just a shell around the phantom chains? He shook his head; he'd have to use the skill more to try it out. He was tempted to do so immediately, but it just wasn't viable. He was injured and immobile, and needlessly depleting his resources could spell his death.

So Rowan had no choice but to lie back and continue practicing his [Mana Manipulation], all while doing his best to ignore the incessant pain. — [Mana Manipulation lvl 4 → Mana Manipulation lvl 5] Rowan let his head thump back against the stone floor. Finally. With nothing else to do, he'd been practicing cycling his mana for hours. It seemed that each level of the skill would be harder and harder to achieve, which, while expected, was still frustrating.

But the level up was just in time, as from the end of the tunnel, Rowan heard the clicking of legs and the chittering of mandibles. The constant noises of ants passing in the distance had faded to the background, but this was different. Louder. Craning his neck, he tried to see what was coming. He had an awkward angle, but he could just make out the general shape of the creature. It didn't help that his chains cast the area around him in a soft light, leaving anything outside of their reach even harder to make out.

He tried to focus further and bring up the insect's level, but he couldn't. It seemed like he would need a clearer look at the ant to get a description. As much as he wanted to prepare for the upcoming battle, there wasn't much he could do. He kept cycling his mana and gripped the mace, pulling it from the pool of blood. Its spikes were still coated in gore from its last victim, but it would have to work. Then, all he could do was wait.

Rowan knew it couldn't have been longer than a minute, but it still felt as if it took an eternity for the ant to reach him. Every nerve-wracking second dragged on, but finally, the ant arrived. [Worker Ant - Level 2] The insect marched closer, took a moment to regard him, and then went straight on the offensive. All the while, Rowan forced himself not to activate [Bind].

He didn't think the skill was strong enough to kill the ant on its own, and if he ensnared it when it was still too far away for him to strike with the mace, he'd be done for. The ant was just a foot away, but he held out for a little bit longer. Finally, when the creature bent its head down to bite him, Rowan finally struck back, the mana that had been flowing through him finally finding a use.

"Bind." As he spoke, he realized it wasn't necessary to speak the name out loud. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he just did. Not that it really mattered; it helped him envision and activate the skill, so, for now, he would keep doing it. Plus, it sounded cool. Metal ground against stone as newly manifested chains shot forth, snaking their way around the worker's body. As the insect was bound in steel, Rowan tried to figure out how the skill worked.

Of course, that didn't mean he was going to neglect attacking the ant in favor of keeping it alive to test the skill on. No, that was too big of a risk. So even as he tried to experiment with his chains, he brought the mace down on the creature's head. Soon, Rowan realized he could will the chains to move, and they would obey him. So, with a thought, one of the chains detached from the insect's abdomen, making its way to the ant's mandibles, preventing it from biting him and injuring him more than he already was.

At the same time, his constant strikes to the worker's head penetrated its armor, drawing a spray of golden ichor. Realizing the fight was coming to an end, he willed the chains to constrict as he'd done against the previous ant. And then, with one last strike, the ant fell.