Chương 6: Caves (2)

Rowan faded in and out of consciousness for what seemed like ages. In those brief flashes where he was aware of himself, he was bombarded with notifications, but he was too tired to check them. But as time passed, his waking periods grew longer, until finally, he found himself completely conscious. Shifting his body, he rubbed the bleariness from his eyes and looked about. He was leaning on a—Rowan froze. A coffin? No, that wasn't the right word. A sarcophagus.

Scrambling away from it, he pressed himself up against a smooth stone wall. After glancing about wildly, taking in the rest of the room, he realized he was in a tomb. He took slow, deep breaths until his heart was beating at a reasonable rate. Then, he tried to take stock of the situation. Starting from the beginning, he recalled what had happened before he'd blacked out. Something about the lake had poisoned him. He'd wandered deeper into the cave, and then… he didn't know.

Everything after that was a blur of stone and darkness. But at the very end, he had the faint memory of a glowing chain. Now, though, it was gone. As he thought, Rowan blinked in confusion. He'd been poisoned. Why wasn't he dead? The memories were hazy, but he could recall the terrible pain from just before he'd fallen unconscious. Had touching the chain healed him somehow? Or was it something else entirely? Now, he was in a dimly lit tomb. It was eerie enough on its own, but where was the light coming from?

After a quick glance at the shadows, Rowan hastily looked down to inspect the state of his body, freezing the moment he saw it. He was the light source. Or at least the spectral chain wrapping around his body was. Letting out a strangled cry, he grabbed at them, trying desperately to free himself. But his hands passed right through the glowing links. After a few more seconds of panic, he calmed down; the chains weren't doing anything immediately harmful to him. At least, he didn't think they were.

Whatever they were, Rowan assumed they had something to do with the message he'd received right before he'd been overwhelmed by the poison. It had said that he'd claimed an inheritance called 'Chained Lord.' Taking a deep breath, he began checking all of his missed notifications. If there were going to be any answers, they would be there. It seemed that he'd received several quests while he was out. Most of them didn't stand out as anything special, but one of them did. It was already completed.

Quest Received: Reach Level 10 and Obtain a Class(Complete, Level Requirement Bypassed Via Inheritance Class) Rewards: 75 System Credits He'd gotten a class? When? Rowan thought back to the strange, incorporeal chains that bound him, somehow still weighing him down. Was it because of those? Had the 'inheritance' he'd claimed been a class? The level 10 requirement being bypassed was strange, since he was still level 1, so Rowan assumed that he would've normally gotten a class once he hit level 10.

Shaking his head, he tried to claim the reward. Much like how he opened his Status Screen, he focused on claiming the prize, and the window disappeared. He took a moment to look over the other quests. One was to defeat 10 enemies, and the other was to reach level 20. For a moment, he wondered what was defined as an 'enemy', but those thoughts crumbled away as Rowan fixated on the third and final quest.

Layer Quest Received: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan Rewards: Rations 2 Pieces of Rare Gear Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. 1000 Credits??? Access to the Second Layer Slowly, he read over the quest, making sure not to miss anything. He wasn't quite sure what a Layer Quest entailed, but it seemed important. While the other quests had only a single objective, this one let you choose one.

Whatever the beings were that he was supposed to defeat, they certainly sounded intimidating. After looking over the rewards, he closed the screen. The question marks interested him, but no amount of dwelling on them would reveal the real prize. Then, he opened his Status Screen.

Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance) Level: 1 Stats: Strength: 6 Dexterity: 7 Toughness: 6 Vitality: 7 Mana: 5 Free Points: 0 Active Skills(2/10): Bind lvl 1 Mana Manipulation lvl 1 Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan (Layer Quest) Defeat 10 Enemies Reach Level 20 System Credits: 75 Rowan blinked. That was a lot. He had a class, quests, skills, credits, and even his stat points had increased. Looking at his new stats, he stopped.

Was that why he'd survived the poison? If he remembered his previous stats correctly, that meant that he'd gained 3 points in each one. Looking back at his class, he tried to see if he could bring up a description by focusing on it. Chained Lord (Unique-Inheritance) Eternally sealed, you forever fight to free yourself from the chains that are both your prison and salvation, inheriting the power of your predecessor. But be warned, for the power behind the seals comes at a cost.

-[Redacted] Stats per level: +1 Strength +2 Toughness +1 Vitality +1 Mana +1 Free Point Sealed: 7/7 For a long while, Rowan just stared at the screen.

"What the fuck?" The entire description was just a bunch of cryptic nonsense! He sighed. At least it told him what the stat gains were per level. He'd been hoping that, just like when he'd first gained the class, it would be 3 points to each stat, but it seemed that the huge jump in stats had only been a one-time thing. Focusing back on the rest of the description, Rowan shook his head. He'd gotten a quote. That was it. And he didn't even understand half of what it was saying.

All that it really told him was that he was chained up and that breaking out would have consequences. Getting an idea from how there was a description for his class, he tried the same with the rest of the screen. One after another, he focused on his stats, but nothing came up. Not letting it get to him, he moved on to his two skills, but just like with the stats, the screen didn't react. Closing the window with a grunt of frustration, he looked more closely at the chains binding him.

Sure enough, scattered across the links were seven seals. Or at least he assumed they were. Each one was a circular pattern floating just a fraction of an inch above the chains themselves. Some of them were simple, while others grew more and more elaborate, etched with glowing inscriptions. Burying his head in his hands, he let out a groan. It was just too much. The constant influx of new information was helping him fend off his fear and panic, but it was making his head hurt.

Deciding to leave the confusing world of stats and descriptions behind, Rowan decided to take a look around the room. He'd been so consumed by his new class and quests that he'd barely given it a cursory glance. He'd already established that he was in a tomb, but that was it. The walls were perfectly smooth except for carvings of chains that danced around the room, almost as if they were binding the tomb itself. The floor wasn't exactly dirty, but there were bits of dust and dirt on it.

The steel sarcophagus in the center of the room, though, was pristine. There wasn't a single mote of dust to be found on it. For a moment, Rowan considered lifting the lid on it. Whatever was in there had to be valuable, and even if he couldn't, it would be a good measure of how his strength stat actually affected him. But he stopped himself. It was a sarcophagus. In a tomb buried deep underground. In a world with magic and monsters. He stepped away, putting distance between himself and the metal coffin.

Situations like this never played out well for the person who tried to find out what was hidden within the sarcophagus. After taking a few minutes to look around the tomb, he decided there wasn't much point in staying in the eerie room. Taking a deep breath, he walked out to confront whatever lay in the darkness beyond.