Chương 37: Hope (2)

Rowan was still smiling as he stood over the corpse of the final bloodspawn. To think that not too long ago, he'd been terrified of facing a single one of them. Now that he was stronger, though, there was a certain satisfaction in putting an end to the creatures. He had no desire to go around killing, but he felt no remorse at ending the lives of the creatures around him; both the bloodspawn and the ants had been constantly attacking him and making his life hell since he'd been stuck in the caves.

With a sigh, he dismissed his mana constructs and chains, letting them dissipate. Then, he kept moving. As he walked, Rowan checked his status.

Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 10 Stats: Strength: 16 Dexterity: 12 Toughness: 24 Vitality: 17 Mana: 16 Free Points: 0 Active Skills(2/10): Chain Manipulation lvl 9 Mana Manipulation lvl 16 Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan (Layer Quest) Defeat 40 Enemies Defeat 10 Enemies Above Your Level Reach Level 20 System Credits: 135 Earlier, he'd already distributed his point to dexterity.

Even if he might not need it at the moment, Rowan didn't like how far behind the stat was falling. He didn't move on quite yet, though. He still wanted to think about how he planned to distribute his free points in the future. After a few moments, he made a decision. From now on, unless the situation was truly extreme, he would alternate his free points between dexterity and mana. It would still cause dexterity to fall behind the rest of his stats, but it wouldn't be by as much.

He'd already been doing something similar by distributing his points between the two stats, but it'd been mostly decided by what he needed most at that particular moment. Nodding to himself, he checked out the rest of his status screen. Everything was coming along nicely, and he thought he might be able to get [Chain Manipulation] to level 10 in the near future. With everything out of the way, he closed the screen and kept moving.

As he walked, he found himself running into dead ends or ending up in loops over and over. It was frustrating to navigate, but he kept trying. This was his first time truly trying to get somewhere through the caves—unless he counted going to the broodmother's chamber, but he didn't, since most of the tunnels led there anyway. Rowan was sure that it was possible to get to his destination, but how long it would take, he didn't know. Perhaps he was going the completely wrong way.

One step after another, he trudged onward. It was slow going, but he was making steady progress, getting closer and closer to his target each time he chose the right tunnel to go through. But at the same time, Rowan also felt himself drifting further and further away from where the broodmother resided. It was like he was at one point on a graph, and his destination was at another. Stolen novel; please report. He was growing closer on one axis, but moving away on the other.

Soon, he would have to correct his course, but Rowan was yet to find a way to do so. He'd been walking for so long now that the wound in his stomach was almost fully healed. His arm was recovering well, too. It wouldn't be long until he would have all of his limbs at their best. His mood boosted, Rowan sped up his pace, wandering down the tunnel until he reached a crossroads.

He didn't even have to think to make his decision; one path led further away from his destination, while the other one would bring him closer to it. Entering the tunnel, Rowan smiled, envisioning the surface. — The screech of bloodspawn filled his ears as Rowan slashed at the creatures trying to encircle him. His chains whipped around, lashing the beasts as blades of mana flew through the air. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] The last one leaped at him, claws extended, only to be met by Rowan's foot.

The moment his leg made contact with the beast, he released a wave of condensed mana, sending the fungal bloodspawn crashing into the cave ceiling. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] He stepped out of the way of the falling body and turned his attention to the final beast. [Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 14] It had the highest level out of any enemy he'd ever fought, and defeating it would even let him make progress on his class quest. But it wasn't any regular bloodspawn, either.

No, it was a brute, several times taller and bulkier than its brethren. So large that it had to bend down in order to fit its 4-meter-tall frame in the relatively confined space of the tunnel. It would be challenging, perhaps even more than the armored creature he'd fought not too long ago had been. The bones protecting its body had been terribly durable, but it'd been the same size as him. His current opponent, though, was not. And Rowan wasn't sure if he could win.

Just like the one other brute he'd fought before, the bloodspawn had a bulbous, hammer-like tumor in place of an actual hand. Before Rowan could observe the creature any longer, it let out a deafening roar and charged. It moved with speed belying its massive size, closing the distance even in the cramped tunnel. Taking a deep breath, Rowan retaliated. His arm whipped forward, pulling a length of chain with it.

He'd already balled up the end of it to give it more force, and as it flew through the air, he further boosted it with [Chain Manipulation]. He put everything behind the blow; with how fast the brute was closing the distance between them, this would be his only opportunity to land a solid strike with the flail. The chain whipped forward, moving so fast that he could barely see it. One moment, it was behind him; the next, it crashed into the bloodspawn's chest.

The massive beast stumbled backwards and nearly fell, unable to deal with the force behind the blow. Rowan smiled in satisfaction as a loud crack rang out from the creature, signaling the breaking of some kind of bone. Not giving it a chance to regroup, one of the two mana constructs that he'd been using against the weaker—and now, dead—bloodspawn shot forward. It shot towards its head, aiming for one of its many mouths.

But at the last moment, the beast jerked out of the way, and the blade only sliced across the side of its face before shooting past it. He grunted in annoyance. The creature didn't even have eyes! How did it know to dodge the projectile? With a thought, he launched the second projectile, sending it towards the brute's ankle. The blade sliced into the creature's Achilles tendon, [Mana Manipulation] allowing it to rotate and cut even more.

At the same time, the other mana construct, which had shot past the bloodspawn, turned around. It launched toward the beast's back, and this time, it didn't react in time. Rowan grimaced as the humanoid let out a painfully loud roar of pain, but he was focused on something else. The first strike with the chain-flail had been surprisingly effective, stunning the creature enough that it was yet to continue its charge. But it also meant that the brute was still in perfect striking range.

Taking advantage of the pleasant surprise, Rowan pulled the flail back with a mixture of his skill and strength. Then, taking a breath, he whipped the weapon forward again. As he put even more force behind the blow to maximize the whiplash on the chain, he felt something straining in his arm. Ignoring the pain, he watched as the ball of chains flew forward and crashed into the bloodspawn. This time, he'd aimed for the stomach, but his aim had been off, and the flail had hit the beast just above its knee instead.

But, in the end, it actually worked better that way. The brute's leg gave out beneath it, and it fell to the floor. As the creature lay there for a few seconds, barely moving, Rowan felt a bit of excitement creeping into him. Had he really done it? Incapacitated the beast so easily? But before the feeling could grow, the bloodspawn let out another cry. He stumbled back, clutching his ears. Clutching his head, Rowan gritted his teeth against the ringing in his ears. Then, after a few moments, he refocused.

The roar had easily been the loudest thing Rowan had ever heard. Still, his stats let him endure and recover in just a second. But a second was all that the creature needed. His eyes widened in surprise as the beast that had just been lying on the ground was suddenly before him, already bringing a hammer-like arm down on his head. Desperate, he tried to think of something, anything, that he could do. But he came up empty. There was nothing he could do; the blow was just coming too fast.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Rowan tensed, preparing for the inevitable. And then, as Rowan's death grew near, something stirred within the chains wrapped about him.