Chương 56: Surface (2)

Tears still fresh on his face, Rowan smiled. Then, with a Herculean effort, he ripped his eyes from the ocean, turning his attention to the figures approaching from far behind him. There was a group of five running towards him. But, in front of all of them, was a single, little figure. Cynthia.

"Uncle Rowan!" She shouted, her voice carrying surprisingly far for her small stature. Rowan opened his mouth to respond before closing it again.' Uncle Rowan'? Where had that come from? He'd met her, what, a day ago? Shaking his head, he lifted his left arm, waving at her. Then, with a smile, he began walking towards them. He moved at a slow, relaxed pace, still savoring the world around him.

He hadn't even been a nature person before the Tutorial, but something about such beauty after so long spent in the dank, moldy tunnels that used to be the only part of this new world he knew… he nearly started crying again, but stopped himself.

He didn't really care about the whole 'crying was weakness' thing. He'd just spent the past who knew how long trapped underground. He could cry! And if anyone told him otherwise, well, he had power now, didn't he? Still, though, he would rather not be sobbing when he met with the party. A few seconds later, Cynthia reached him, letting out another shout of 'Uncle Rowan' and wrapping her arms around his legs. Smiling, Rowan wrapped returned the hug, ruffling her hair as he did so.

He didn't know how she'd done it, but she'd managed to make herself one of his favorite people in the world. It wasn't saying much, since he hadn't had too many great relationships back on Earth, but still, he'd only known the little girl for less than a day. Perhaps he was extra susceptible to childish charm due to the serene mood he was in, but at that moment, he knew one thing: if anything in the world ever tried to hurt the precious little being wrapped around his legs, he would end it.

At that moment, Henry and the rest of the party arrived, pulling him out of his thoughts. Looking away from Cynthia, Rowan smiled and waved. Smiling in return, Henry said, "You made it, huh? We were worried about you, but Cici here never doubted you for a moment." Rowan noticed Lucas eyeing him almost condescendingly, but he ignored the man. Instead, let out a little chuckle and returned his attention to Henry.

"I made it. Not without paying a price, though." He gestured at the wound on his side.

"The poison here has mostly worn off, so I'll be fine, but it'll take a while to heal.

"I'd have tried to hide the injury from Cynthia, given how you can see my ribs, but from what I saw of her in the tunnels, that kind of stuff doesn't really affect her, does it?" This time, Eren was the one to respond.

"No, no, it doesn't. To be honest, she's less squeamish than I am. I don't know how she does it, but it's a good thing for someone her age, at least here in the Tutorial." Henry laughed.

"I suppose she's just special, huh? When I first found her, I had to save her from a bunch of wolves. She was already covered in blood. It was a lot, you know? Almost as much as you were covered in. But she didn't care. Speaking of, you had time for a bath down there? The fight must've been easy, then?" He chuckled softly at his own joke. For a moment, Rowan contemplated asking why Cynthia had been covered in blood, but decided not to. Instead, he focused on Henry's question. What did he mean by a bath?

Looking down at himself, Rowan's eyes widened. Somehow, he hadn't noticed it before, but his body was no longer covered in blood. In fact, it was cleaner than it had been in ages. Realizing what had happened, he answered the bald man's question.

"I wouldn't really call it a bath. You remember the ring of water that goes all the way around that chamber?" Henry nodded.

"I got thrown into that after killing the broodmother. Almost drowned. It did clean me off, though." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"That's rough," Henry winced.

"But you did it, eh? Does that mean there won't be any more bloodspawn?" Rowan sighed.

"No, I don't think it does. I've only seen that one, but I'm ninety percent sure there are more broodmothers somewhere in the caves."

"Well, welcome to the surface! I can see you found it is beautiful as we did when we first arrived here." The man smiled, looking at Rowan's still tear-streaked face.

"Most of the Tutorial isn't like this. But here…well, it reminds me of Earth, y'know?"

"It really is beautiful." Remembering something, Rowan asked, "Also, what's with this whole 'Uncle Rowan' thing? I've known her for what, a day?"

"Cici gets very attached very quickly to some people. I don't really know where the 'uncle' thing came from, but she must like you, no?" Henry shook his head.

"I don't know what made her cling to me, but with you, it's probably because you saved us all, but I wouldn't try to understand how a child's mind works." Rowan half expected Cynthia to butt into the conversation, but it seemed that she either didn't care or wasn't paying attention. And, well, Henry was right. There wasn't much point in trying to understand a child's mind. He contemplated trying to figure out why, but accepted that if he wanted to, he would just have to ask.

Following the path of Henry, he decided not to even try to decipher the child's mind. Then, he took his focus off the subject. Rowan had been putting off asking about the shining light to focus on catching up and just… enjoying some of his time here before worrying about things like that. And with how none of the party seemed particularly worried, he didn't think it was anything too dangerous. Still, he needed to know the answer, and he wasn't going to delay any longer.

"What was with that light earlier? It nearly blinded me. Actually, what's with the entire tower? What even is it?" This time, it was Eren who answered his question.

"I've been wondering when you would ask. The light shows up once a week and lasts for about two minutes. The first time it happened, no one was prepared, and some people even went blind, which is basically a death sentence here. But now that everyone knows when it will happen, we prepare for it.

"I'm not sure exactly what it is, but most people think it's some sort of attack. As for the tower itself…I don't know. No one really knows. Some people who got close to it said that it was the home of some powerful being, but that's just stating the obvious." She shrugged.

"Oh, I just realized we should've warned you that the light was coming. I'm so sorry about that. It must've been quite the surprise when you came up." Rowan laughed, mind already swirling with ideas and theories about the tower.

"It's alright. You said that the light is only like that for a few minutes at a time, right? So it was just bad luck that I happened to come up in the middle of that." At that moment, Cynthia detached herself from him, stepping back and looking up at him.

"Awwww, you don't look cool anymore!" Rowan's eyes widened.

'Cool'? Thinking back, he remembered how she'd thought that the dried blood covering him was cool. He shook his head. She was truly a strange little girl.

"Yes, well, you don't think that this is cool?" He gestured at the wound on his side. It felt wrong to be asking a kid if it looked cool, but Cynthia wasn't a normal child.

"It's cool!" She smiled for a moment before pouting once more.

"But not as cool as it was when your whole body was like that." He smiled back at her before looking back towards the other five people.

"You know, from what I've experienced down there, I would've thought that it would be more dangerous up here. I mean, I'm not saying there aren't dangers, but I've been looking around, and I haven't seen a single thing." Eren smiled.

"That's the bloodspawn for you."

"What?"

"I thought you would've figured it out! They kill everything. All of them have left already, and now that they're gone, they've left the entire area barren. It'll probably repopulate with time, but for now, this has turned from one of the most dangerous places to one of the safest." Rowan scratched his chin.

"Are you sure there aren't any more bloodspawn left around here? There might be some that didn't return to the broodmother, so we should stay vigilant." Still, it was nice to know that the area was probably safe.

"If there are more bloodspawn out here, there aren't going to be a lot," Eren said.

"Trust me, we saw how many of them were pouring back into the caves. We actually ended up having to wait a couple of minutes for them all to pass by before we could continue through the tunnels and get back to the surface."

"It was terrifying," Henry interjected.

"And it could've gone very badly if we'd decided to try and head up immediately. It was the twins who saved us." He gestured at the two black-haired teenagers.

"It was their idea to wait a bit before heading up the tunnel that led to the surface." Rowan perked up at the mention of the two near-silent teens. So they were twins. He'd assumed they were, but he'd never asked, and even if he had, he wasn't sure if they would respond. They hadn't spoken a single word since introducing themselves to him. What had their names been again? He tilted his head. Jeremy and Emma? That sounded right.

There was no mind stat, but something about the System was certainly increasing his ability to remember things; the him from before the Tutorial would have never been able to recall their names.

"Oh, don't mind them," Henry continued, echoing his thoughts from just earlier.

"They don't talk unless absolutely necessary, you know?" With a smile, Rowan responded.

"It's alright. I'm usually not very talkative, either, but I mean, you guys are the first people I've seen in ages." Henry laughed a bit before turning away.

"Come on, let's get you back to camp."