Chương 15: Colony (2)

Rowan's eyes widened as he stared at the beast standing before him. Level 10. That was stronger than the lesser chimera had been. Instinctively, he tried to activate [Bind], but the chains didn't respond. He was still out of mana. Muttering a curse, he did the only thing he could, hoping to take the creature by surprise. He ran straight at it The ironclad ant, easily the size of a car, lunged towards him, but it hadn't been expecting his sudden movement.

The massive insect missed entirely, its mandibles passing him by. Rowan felt a gleam of triumph as he sped past the ant. But it was cut short as he felt his foot catch on something. The soldier ant, still clinging onto life, had snagged the back of his shoe with its mandibles. But its grip was weak. He pulled his foot from its grasp and, with a single swing of his mace, put it out of his misery.

[You have slain Soldier Ant - Level 5] [Level 4 → Level 5] He felt some of the victoriousness trickle back into him as he watched the ant's mangled body go still, only for it to be ripped away again as he looked up. In the time that it'd taken for him to deal with the soldier, the ironclad ant had recovered, turning around to face him. For a few seconds, they stared at each other, unmoving, before Rowan broke the stalemate. Turning away from the insect, he broke into a sprint.

As he ran down a random tunnel, praying not to run into any insects, Rowan opened his status screen.

Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 5 Stats: Strength: 11 Dexterity: 7 Toughness: 14 Vitality: 12 Mana: 10 Free Points: 1 Active Skills(2/10): Bind lvl 5 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 Not even taking a proper look at his progress, Rowan threw his free point into dexterity.

He didn't know if it would be enough, but he would take anything he could get. He closed the screen and risked a glance behind him. The absolute bulldozer of an ant was just a few meters behind him, and it was closing in with each passing second. Gritting his teeth, he pressed harder, pumping his legs and flooring it down the stone tunnel. He wanted to just turn a corner and then hide in a crack or side tunnel, but that wasn't feasible. Not with the incessantly glowing chains wrapped around him.

If he had enough mana, he could've tried turning them solid, but he didn't think that even that would completely stop them from glowing. So he ran and ran, fleeing from the seemingly unstoppable force behind him. Attached to his belt, the bag of rations constantly bounced off his legs. It wasn't large enough to be a real hindrance, but it was still annoying. So far, the tunnels he'd run through had been barren of life other than the softly glowing moss, but his luck was bound to run out eventually.

He slowed down just enough to turn another corner, but as he entered the tunnel, Rowan saw the forms of ants just a few dozen yards from him. There were just a few workers, but it was more than enough to impede him if they tried to. And he couldn't even slow them with [Bind], since his mana reserves all but empty. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Cursing to himself, he ran faster, covering the distance between him and the insects in seconds.

The first two ants didn't even have time to react, but the final one noticed him and moved to block his path. Taking advantage of his improved stats, Rowan leaped upward. His body moved up, over the ant, and then it… kept going? He let out a small cry of pain as, near the peak of his leap, the top of his head bumped against the cave's low ceiling. Still, the jump did its job, and he landed behind the worker ant.

As he took a moment to gather himself, Rowan watched as the massive ironclad ant rounded the corner, charging straight towards him. Then, he looked at the poor worker ant, still trying to figure out where he'd gone, standing between the two of them. He almost felt bad as he looked at the three smaller ants. They were too slow and the tunnel too narrow for them to have any escape. Then, Rowan shook his head. Who was he kidding? He didn't care about the ants; they tried to kill him on sight.

It was good that they were in the way of his pursuer. Two ants with one… ant? Still shaking his head, he took off running again, feet pounding against the stone beneath him. As he fled, Rowan realized just how surreal his situation was. He was underground, wrapped in glowing, spectral chains, and being chased by a truck-sized ant in a world with a magical System. And for some reason, he was enjoying it. Well, not his current predicament, but despite its many low points, he'd enjoyed his overall experience.

It was the freedom to do what he wished, the feeling that, despite his life being at risk, he was in control. He didn't need to rely on others, on a system that had failed him. Didn't have to barely scrape by, or at his worst, beg on the streets. Rowan shot into a side tunnel to avoid an oncoming soldier ant. Sure, he still had to rely on the System, but it was different. From what he'd experienced so far, it was reliable. He killed a certain number of enemies, it gave him rations.

He practiced or learned something new about his skills, they leveled up. He knew what he was getting. He had a clear path to survival, and at the same time, the freedom to do what he wanted. Glancing over his shoulder, Rowan saw that the distance between himself and the ant was widening, if only because it struggled with corners. But he was getting tired. He had far more stamina now than before the System, sure, but he was also running faster, pushing his muscles further. Eventually, his body would fail him.

So he began searching for a way out. For something, anything, that would help him escape. But there were no tunnels too small for the insect to enter, and no obstacles large enough to stop it. So he kept running, his muscles burning all the while. But his ironclad pursuer showed no signs of struggle as it tore through the underground passages, crushing smaller ants beneath it. Rowan fled for minutes on end, never letting the insect close the gap between them.

Then, he turned into yet another side tunnel, only for it to open into a much larger and grander cavern. It was nearly the size of the one he'd found himself in after gaining his class. There were a few workers harvesting moss from the walls, but that wasn't what caught his attention. No, at the opposite end of the cave, there was a tunnel branching off it. And, at its mouth, were stalagmites. Big stalagmites.

There were stalagmites and stalactites scattered across the cave system, but never were they large or plentiful enough to cordon off a tunnel's entire entrance. But while it looked like it could block all but the smallest workers from getting through, Rowan thought he could slip through. So, with escape in sight, he moved. Behind him, his pursuer had already entered the cavern as well. He had to be fast.

If any of the worker ants noticed him, they didn't have time to show it as he sped by, putting everything into covering this final stretch. But the problem with the wide, straight expanse was that without the curves and corners of the rest of the tunnel system to slow down the ironclad creature behind him, it could run without anything to hold it back. And run it did. Rowan glanced behind him as he reached the halfway point across the cavern, confident in his lead.

But his confidence waned as he saw the insect charging like a bull, accelerating with each passing second. He needed to do something—and do it fast—if he didn't want to end up as a smear on the stone floor. Looking at his mana reserves, Rowan realized they'd replenished slightly. Not enough to hold even a worker for long, but it was something. Gritting his teeth, he activated [Bind], funneling what feeble reserves he had into the skill.

Immediately, his chains came to life, steel links scraping against each other and snaking around his body before shooting towards the ironclad ant. Rowan didn't even bother trying to bind the behemoth's body. Instead, he went for the legs. They crept around the insect's skittering legs, tangling them. And though its body continued forward, it had only two free legs to catch itself. They weren't enough.

Rowan wasn't looking anymore as he booked it towards the stalagmites, but he heard the deafening crash of the ant's body hitting the floor. As he continued running, Rowan noticed something. The farther away he got from his target, the more mana [Bind] seemed to use, burning through what little he had remaining in seconds. Was it the cost of creating and maintaining a longer and longer length of chain? The steel links never seemed to run out, after all. Still, it didn't matter.

The chains tangled up in the creature's legs were already dissipating without any mana to maintain them. Finally reaching the spikes of stone jutting up from the ground, Rowan looked back at his pursuer. The ant was back on its feet, charging after him, but it was too late. With a smile on his face, he squeezed between two stalagmites, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of stone scraping on his bare skin through the holes in his clothes. As he stepped through to the other side, he let out a little laugh.

He'd done it. He'd survived.