Chương 13: Injured (3)

Rowan wasn't sure how much time passed as he lay there, wounded legs caked in dry blood. One day? Three? He'd entirely finished the first waterskin, and his food stores had dropped by a third. He'd nearly died of boredom, too; the only thing keeping him sane was practicing his mana control and the occasional ant to break up the monotony. Still, that didn't mean he hadn't made good progress.

[Mana Manipulation] had reached level 6 from his practice, and the occasional use against ants that stumbled across him had pushed [Bind] to level 3. As for his legs, they were actually healing well. Many of the minor wounds were healed, and while the larger gouges had remained, they were getting shallower. It was strange, unnatural even, to watch flesh grow back like that, especially so quickly. It made no sense. But, on the other hand, nothing had made sense since the System had arrived.

He could actually move his legs without too much pain now, and while they were still slightly too weak to support his weight, Rowan had managed to crawl away from where he'd fallen after fighting the soldier ant. His injured limbs were already filthy, but he cringed at the very thought of how bad it would be if he'd remained lying in the pool of blood and ichor. With how fast he was healing, Rowan thought it would only be another day or two before he could walk.

Faster if he could get the extra stats from leveling up again. Still, even if he really would be back on his feet so soon, he knew it wouldn't be easy. It would proabably be hard for him to walk at first, so it would probably be better for him to avoid getting into any situations where he'd need to flee in the near future. Pushing himself against the stone wall of the cave, he closed his eyes as he began to cycle mana. Hopefully, he'd be walking again soon.

— Slowly, steadily, he forced himself onto his feet, clinging onto the cave wall for support. After taking a few moments to get used to the sensation of standing, he took a step. Then another. As he was taking the third, he stumbled, nearly falling before he regained his balance. He took a few more steps, even going so far as to walk without the support of the wall. Then, he slowly sat down, not letting his body collapse.

This was already his third attempt at walking, and he was progressing far faster than he'd expected. With days of zero use and how his muscles had been damaged, Rowan had thought he'd be spending a long time regaining strength. Instead, it seemed that his stats were taking care of that for him, making it a far simpler matter to regain mobility. At this rate, he would be able to walk somewhat normally within a few hours. Not for the first time, Rowan smiled as he looked at his new stats.

As he looked at the strange numbers that'd kept him alive and were making it so easy to recover from his wounds. Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 3 Stats: Strength: 9 Dexterity: 7 Toughness: 10 Vitality: 10 Mana: 7 Free Points: 0 You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Active Skills(2/10): Bind lvl 3 Mana Manipulation lvl 6 Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan (Layer Quest) Defeat 20 Enemies Reach Level 20 System Credits: 90 With no information provided, he could never be sure how close he was to the next level, but Rowan had the feeling he was getting there. With all the time he'd had to think while immobilized, he'd spent a while considering his stats.

He wanted to decide on which stats were the most important so he could prioritize putting his free points into them. Of course, he only gained one per level, but that didn't mean it wouldn't change in the future. His biggest problem was that his stats were all important. But still, in the end, Rowan had managed to make a hierarchy. At the bottom were vitality and toughness. He knew how valuable they could be, especially since they were the only reason he wasn't dead or still crippled at that very moment.

The problem was that they already received stats from his level-ups, and except in certain situations, Rowan just didn't think they were worth putting his free points into. Toughness, especially, as it received two points per level. Next up was dexterity. It was still important for dodging the ants' attacks, but he could already do that most of the time. As for fleeing from the creatures, he could outrun all of them. Even the soldier ant had barely kept up with him, and he'd had an injured calf.

The only reason it wasn't at the bottom was that he didn't gain points in it after leveling up. Finally, he had strength and mana. Just like toughness and vitality, he received a point in each when he leveled up. Still, they were his priority. Toughness was great when he got hit, but Rowan would prefer if he could simply not get hit at all. Instead, he would kill his attackers before they could get to him.

Mana would allow him to use [Bind] for longer and make the skill more powerful, while strength would, well, make him stronger. Nodding to himself, Rowan closed his Status Screen. He would alternate putting his free points into strength and mana, and every once in a while, he would put a point into dexterity. Then, with a thought, he brought up a screen he headn't looked at since the very beginning of the Tutorial: the number of users remaining. Users Remaining: Easy Difficulty: 1. 30b Normal Difficulty: 2.

20b Hard Difficulty: 698. 04m Hell Difficulty: 116. 54m Apocalypse Difficulty: 11. 22m The numbers in Easy and Normal Difficulty seemed mostly the same, with only marginal decreases. Hard and Hell Difficulty had more noticeable decreases, but Apocalypse… It was the only Difficulty that Rowan remembered the initial user count of: 20. 46 million. And now, they were down to 11 million. That meant that nearly half of them were already dead. So many in just the short time since they'd arrived.

Rowan took a shuddering breath before closing the screen. It was terrifying, the sheer number of deaths. But now wasn't the time to think about it, not when he was trapped in the caves trying to survive; it would only weigh down his mind. In fact, Rowan wasn't sure if he ever wanted to check it again. To watch humanity's numbers dwindle didn't seem like it would be any good for his mental health. He just didn't want to have to see millions die, nothing more than a number on the screen.

So, taking a few minutes to calm himself, he pushed it to the back of his mind, forcing himself to focus on the present. After all, it was time to get back to walking—or at least trying to. — Rowan bent his knees, getting as low as he could before launching back up, shooting several feet into the air. Then, he sprinted back and forth within the cavern. After doing a few more leg exercises, he stopped, grinning to himself. His legs were just as good as they were before he was injured.

In fact, they were better than before! Stats and leveling really did work wonders. Still, despite having finally recovered, he took care not to waste too much energy. His rations were finite, after all. Speaking of rations, Rowan took a moment to check them. He had only one waterskin left, but it was still about three-quarters full. As for the food, it was harder to tell. Around half of the meats and fruits were left, maybe a little more? He couldn't remember exactly how much there had been at the beginning.

Still, that meant he would have to get hunting. Of course, he wasn't only going to hunt. He was also going to try to find a way out of the caves. The rations he got from completing quests were all well and good, but what happened if he stopped getting quests? Or, more likely, when the number of enemies he had to kill just wasn't possible anymore? It had gone from ten to twenty, so what was stopping it from jumping to fifty? A hundred? He couldn't just stay in his little area of the cave system anymore.

He had to go deeper, and hopefully, he would find a way out. Rowan knew it would be dangerous, venturing into the ants' territory, but where else could he go? He could enter one of the other side tunnels, sure, but there was no guarantee he would find more enemies to kill, and eventually, his rations were bound to run out. Looking about and realizing there was nothing else he could do, Rowan set off into the ants' domain.