Chương 47: People? (5)

(5) (5)"For most of the Tutorial, we—" He gestured at the other members of his group and took a breath before continuing.

"—have been living in Outpost. It's one of the larger settlements around here. It was one of the safest places around, and it stood out from the other settlements because there was a police force." He shook his head.

"Crazy, ain't it? An actual police force in the Tutorial.

"Recently, though, there were some monster attacks on the town, and the walls got breached. Things have been in chaos since then, because even as people were trying to rebuild the damaged walls, more creatures keep coming and destroying their progress before they could complete it." Rowan frowned. He'd never really considered what was going on above him, but it seemed that they'd formed a civilization of sorts.

Once Henry was done with the story, he would have to ask more about the different settlements and how society worked now.

"At that point, most of the order had crumbled, and the people who usually enforced laws were too busy fighting off beasts to deal with anything within Outpost. Things were getting bad, so we tried to find a way out. We weren't just going to sit around and wait for the town to fall; that'd be stupid.

"Not including Isabella, our group used to have two more people. They both died defending the settlement from the beasts when they breached the walls. They were heroes, no?" He paused for a moment, his expression darkening before he continued.

"During a lull between the attacks, we took a job from the leader of Outpost himself. It was to come out here and investigate and find the source of some strange creatures that had been appearing. Turns out, he was talking about the bloodspawn." He took a breath and let out an unenthusiastic chuckle.

"Well, we found them. We're still not sure why he needed to send a party over there, but he did. It was risky trying to leave the city during such a dangerous time, but once we'd gotten about a mile away from the town, there were barely any dangers left; all of them had realized that the walls of Outpost had been breached. They're surprisingly smart, those bloodspawn." Henry stopped talking for a moment and gingerly rubbed his shoulder before continuing.

"Our destination was a smaller settlement around where the reports of the bloodspawn were coming in. It wasn't as well defended as Outpost was, but the area was also supposed to be less dangerous. We arrived just in time to see a level 15 boar wipe out everyone there.

"We'd taken a few wrong turns on the way to the town, so we were running low on food and water. We'd been intending to restock and leave Cynthia behind there while we checked out what was going on in the area. But with everything destroyed…" He sighed.

"We stayed there for a few days, living off whatever we could find.

"Then we kept going for another day or so, still looking for the bloodspawn, but there weren't any signs of them. That night, we decided to head back without the information and see if Outpost was still standing. The town we were supposed to stay at had been destroyed, after all, and we were running out of resources." He shook his head.

"Then the bloodspawn found us.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened next, but once we'd dealt with the creatures, Isabella was gone. We heard her screaming and fighting in the distance, so we chased after her. And eventually, we ended up at the entrance to these caves. We tried to get Cynthia to stay back, and she said that she would. And, well, you know what she actually did, don't you?" He shot a glare at his adopted daughter before pulling her into a hug with his good arm.

"Just don't do that again, right? It's too dangerous." Cynthia nodded.

"Okay…" Turning his attention back to Rowan, Henry finished.

"And now we're here. After the town we were going to stay in got destroyed, we were intending to just head back to Outpost empty-handed, but now that we're already this deep in, "He took a breath.

"Do you know what the source of all the bloodspawn is?"

"Yes." Rowan nodded, but he wasn't telling the full truth. The broodmother here only produced the houndish bloodspawn, nothing else. His current theory was that there were several broodmothers, each of them producing a single kind of creature and then sending them to each other. That was why, despite the broodmother producing only the small, doglike beasts, the bloodspawn in the area were quite balanced.

"Do you think you can take us to it?" Henry asked. For a few seconds, Rowan contemplated the question. On one hand, he wanted to get to the surface. On the other hand, the broodmother's chamber wasn't too far from here, and if he showed it to them, it wouldn't be too long a detour. Even more, the party before him knew the path to the surface, while he didn't. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

So, with a shrug, he said, "Sure, I can take you there. It's actually not too far from here."

"Thank you," Henry replied.

"We'll have to pay you back for everything you've done for us, huh?" Eren laughed, speaking for the first time in a while.

"What would we give him? Before all of this, we might've had something of value, but we don't have much—" She stopped, a pensive expression coming onto her face.

"Actually, we collected quite a few weapons at the destroyed town. Once we're out of here, feel free to take whatever you want from those."

"Showing me the path out of here will be payment enough." Rowan smiled.

"But I wouldn't mind taking a look at those weapons. Actually, do you think there's any chance you could get me a change of clothes?" He gestured at his mostly naked body.

"I'd rather not go about like this." Henry chuckled.

"I don't see why not. We wouldn't want someone at one of the settlements mistaking you for a monster, aye? You'll need to wash all that blood and dirt off, too." Rowan nodded.

"Let's get going, then?" — Rowan could've gotten them to the broodmother's chamber in just a minute if he wanted, but that would mean entering from the ground level, where they could get swarmed by dozens or even hundreds of powerful bloodspawn. Instead, he did what he normally did, taking a more roundabout path to find a tunnel that looked down into the chamber. Most of the group followed behind him, while Cynthia insisted on staying at his side.

But after a few minutes of walking, Rowan heard the sound of bloodspawn up ahead. He gestured for the group to stop and then ushered the little girl back to her adoptive father. Then, he faced the two humanoids coming from ahead. His mana wasn't low anymore, as it'd recovered nicely while he'd been resting, but he still didn't want to waste it. Deciding to make it quick, he infused mana into his chains, lengthening one of them until it was long enough to form a flail.

As the duo of bloodspawn came into range, he attacked. The ball of chains swung forward, catching one of the creatures in the chest and crushing it against the wall. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] The beast's companion let out a screech of rage and rushed at him, but Rowan was ready. As it neared, steel links snaked their way around his left arm and hand. Then, as the creature lunged at him, he slammed his fist into its chin.

There was a sickly crack as the bloodspawn flew backwards, skidding across the stone floor. Before it could even get up, the flail slammed down on its head, ending its life. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 5] With a breath, Rowan retracted his chains and cut off the mana to them. Then, he turned and looked back at the people behind him. All of them were staring at his chains, but none of them asked about them. It was for the best, since he didn't think he would've told them much even if they asked.

Still, defeating the bloodspawn had been enough to finish his quest. While he didn't claim it quite yet, Rowan felt a sense of comfort knowing he could replenish his stores at any time. Gesturing for the group to keep following him, Rowan continued, walking through the tunnels. After a few seconds, Cynthia sped up, running back up to stand at his side.

"That was cool!" She said, smiling brightly, pointing at the chains.

"Can I feel them?" Rowan smiled and nodded. He'd half expected her to ask him what his level was, but it seemed that she'd given up on that. Still smiling, Cynthia tried to touch the chains wrapped around him, only to find that her finger passed right through them. Giggling, she kept poking at the spectral links, trying to touch them. After a while of poking, she seemed to grow bored, so Rowan infused a touch of mana into the chains, turning the translucent blue links to solid steel.

Seeing the solidified chains, the girl somehow managed to smile even more brightly before trying to touch the chains again. She jumped in delight as she ran her fingers along the steel links. As he watched her, Rowan just shook his head. He didn't know how she was still able to be so innocent and childlike after going through so much, but he didn't really care, either. He just knew that he wanted her to stay like this. Slowing down until he came to a stop, he turned back towards the group.

Eren and Henry were both watching Cynthia as she played, their expressions soft. The siblings were watching, too, but as always, their faces remained unreadable. As for Lucas, he was just staring at the ceiling. Rowan cleared his throat, getting their attention.

"We're almost there. It should be safe enough, since we're going to be watching from above, but still, try not to make too much noise." A few seconds later, he arrived at the end of the tunnel, looking down into the chamber dozens of feet below them. It was cast in golden light filtering down from the holes in the ceiling. Well over a hundred bloodspawn stood around the massive broodmother as her tentacles moved around the floor, eating up the fungi. As she stepped towards the edge, Eren let out a gasp.

"There are so many of them…" The rest of the party arrived a few seconds later, looking down as well. Watching as Henry stared down at the horde, hatred burning in his eyes, Rowan shook his head. He'd thought that he hated the damn creatures, but the man before him took that to a whole new level. Even as Henry watched them, muscles twitched in his jaw. But after a few seconds, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Damn, that thing's…" But Rowan toned the man out. For in the cavern below them, every single bloodspawn was moving, their heads swivelling about wildly and letting out wild screeches. Then, from a tunnel on the other side of the chamber, a single ant stepped out.