Chương 40: From Within the Chains (3)

Rowan stared in confusion at where the orb of mana had exploded, taking a solid chunk of the wall with it. Then, slowly, his expression of confusion morphed into a smile. Whatever this was, it was amazing! It was like a grenade! Thinking back, he recalled what he'd seen just before the construct had exploded. His new method of compressing the energy made it far more stable once he released it. But it wasn't perfect; it was just a collection of concepts he'd taken from the presence's technique.

And while it was mostly stable, something in the way he condensed it was missing, allowing part of what was supposed to hold it all together to slowly deteriorate. And once it was gone, everything else followed after. But Rowan wasn't sure if he even wanted to try to fix it. The instability that came with an incomplete technique like his could make an amazing weapon. Especially if he could trigger the explosion at will…

He would've liked to continue to fantasize about all the different ways he could use the mana, but he was drawn out of his stupor by the screeching of bloodspawn in the distance. Cursing to himself, Rowan began to condense more mana within himself; his body was in no condition to move, much less fight, so his mana and chains were the only things available to him. As he continued compressing his mana, an idea came to him. Immediately, two orbs of energy appeared before him.

But Rowan didn't try to stop them from deteriorating. Instead, he simply continued his preparations. And once the two constructs were just seconds from a devastating explosion, he took control of them, stopping the process. Then, he continued his preparations. About a minute later, the bloodspawn arrived, drawn by the sound of the explosion. Rowan knew that using more of the mana grenades came with the risk of drawing more enemies, but despite the strength of the constructs, they weren't that loud.

And with the stone tunnels as insulation, anything that heard them would have to be relatively close. That meant that the bloodspawn coming after him were probably the only ones in the area, so he wouldn't have to wait Rowan watched as the bloodspawn approached. There were five of them, three humanoids and two hounds. None of them were particularly powerful, with the strongest being level 7. Still, their numbers were dangerous, especially while he was incapacitated.

Behind the two mana grenades, he formed half a dozen tiny darts. Then, he formed a dozen more; his control had come a long way, and even with him now controlling seventeen constructs, he could do it. It was still impossible to do any complex maneuvers with so many at once, but he didn't need to. Once he had a clear path to the group of bloodspawn, Rowan launched the projectiles. The creatures tried to react, but they were too slow.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 3] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] With just the first volley, Rowan had killed two of them, a humanoid and a hound. The rest paused for a moment before charging once more. But they only made it a few steps before the two mana grenades exploded, blasting brilliant blue energy in every direction. When he'd first launched them, the orbs had simply bounced off of the bloodspawn, doing little damage. But they'd bounced back towards him, away from his targets.

Still, in the few seconds before they were to explode, the bloodspawn had charged. And now, they were directly above the explosives. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 2] Rowan let out a little laugh. Just like that, only one beast remained. And it was already weakened from the attacks it'd endured. It let out a roar and charged, ignoring its wounds. But he was ready. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

With a thought, he sent his chains after the creature. It was strange, since he usually used his arms to do so, but his arms were in no condition to move. And, in the end, it really wasn't necessary, anyway. It was just like how he used to say 'Bind' each time he activated the skill. It'd helped him better use and visualize it, but it also had the obvious weakness of signaling the skill activation to his opponents—not that it had mattered against the ant.

Now that he couldn't even move his body anyway, he figured he might as well use it as a learning experience, a way to practice using them without signaling it with hand gestures. Chains burst forward, wrapping themselves around the bloodspawn. When he'd activated them, he'd imitated what the presence had done by sending compressed instead of normal mana into the steel links. Unlike when he'd seen the being do it, there were no immediate, profound effects. Still, they seemed a bit more powerful than usual.

As he held the struggling humanoid in place, Rowan tried to implement other things he'd seen the presence in his chains do. What little he'd gleaned from the being's brief use of the steel links had been enough to push [Chain Manipulation] forward two levels, so it had to be good. But, as he tried to do so, Rowan came to a realization. Even though he'd managed to gain some minuscule understanding of what the presence had done with his chains, it wasn't like [Mana Manipulation].

No, if he were an ant and the being's control over mana was the ocean, then its control over chains was the universe itself. With no other choice, he was forced to accept that such control over the chains wasn't something he could do right now. But that didn't mean it wasn't something he could strive for. Rowan had experienced the sheer power and gracefulness behind the presence's control firsthand, and he wanted it. He knew he wouldn't achieve it anytime soon, but someday…

He was pulled from his thoughts as a screech rang out in the tunnel. A moment later, he heard a resounding crack as the bloodspawn tried to destroy the chains binding it. It failed, but the chains were damaged. As it continued struggling, Rowan formed a dagger of mana before him. With the new method he'd devised for condensing mana, it was far more efficient than what he'd done before, and the blade was done in just a few seconds.

Then, before the struggling humanoid could try anything else, he launched the blade forward. It flew into one of the creature's many open mouths, piercing deep into its head. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 7] Rowan smiled as he watched its limp body fall to the floor. That had gone… far better than he'd expected. Normally, even the lower-level bloodspawn were able to put up a fight, mostly due to how they learned from their brethren's experiences.

But there wasn't much they could do against him, bombarding them from afar. He would have to do it more often. Of course, against larger or armored enemies, he would probably have to engage in melee combat, but just knowing that he would be able to annihilate his enemies like this would be useful, especially when he was incapacitated like he was now. With a sigh, Rowan waited, listening for the sounds of more bloodspawn, but after a few minutes of silence, he let himself relax.

He took a moment to rest before turning his attention back inwards, observing his mana. He wanted to see if he could imitate the being's ability to move mana around. Even if he could figure out only the slightest bit of it, it would still help him greatly. So he concentrated, trying to mimic what he'd seen. It wasn't nearly as complicated as the compressing of the mana, but Rowan hadn't observed the process as carefully, making it just as hard. Cursing himself for not paying more attention, he started working.

There'd been dozens of different ways and patterns the presence had moved his mana in, but he only remembered a few. They were all relatively simple, but as he tested them one after another, he found most of them useless; they relied on other patterns, ones that he couldn't recall, to properly function. But he still found two that worked. They both worked on their own, but together, they were far better. Slowly, he merged them both into one, bending the mana to his will.

His understanding of how they worked wasn't great, but it was growing with each passing second. Individually, they just boosted the speed of his [Mana Manipulation], but when working in tandem, the mana twisted and turned, looping in on itself and creating a vacuum that pulled more mana into it, pushing itself forward. Essentially, it created a self-perpetuating loop, allowing the mana to move without his input.

But it moved terribly slowly, barely faster than he'd been able to move mana when he'd first gained the skill. If he were being honest, Rowan was surprised it worked at all, given the incomplete technique and how his skill paled before that of the presence in his chains. Nonetheless, he kept practicing, and while it wasn't great on its own, it lessened the effort he had to spend on cycling his mana.

It didn't seem like much, but if he were attacked, it would allow him to focus more of his attention on the actual fight rather than keeping his mana moving. Rowan continued practicing with his mana for hours, just lying on the stone floor. But slowly, even though he wasn't that tired, he felt himself drifting off.