Chapter 15 – Colony (2)

Chapter 15 – Colony (2)

Rowan’s eyes widened as he stared at the beast standing before him. Level 10. That was stronger than the lesser chimera had been. Instinctively, he tried to activate [Bind], but the chains didn’t respond. He was still out of mana.

Muttering a curse, he did the only thing he could, hoping to take the creature by surprise. He ran straight at it

The ironclad ant, easily the size of a car, lunged towards him, but it hadn’t been expecting his sudden movement. The massive insect missed entirely, its mandibles passing him by.

Rowan felt a gleam of triumph as he sped past the ant. But it was cut short as he felt his foot catch on something. The soldier ant, still clinging onto life, had snagged the back of his shoe with its mandibles.

But its grip was weak. He pulled his foot from its grasp and, with a single swing of his mace, put it out of his misery.

[You have slain Soldier Ant – Level 5]

[Level 4 → Level 5]

He felt some of the victoriousness trickle back into him as he watched the ant’s mangled body go still, only for it to be ripped away again as he looked up.

In the time that it’d taken for him to deal with the soldier, the ironclad ant had recovered, turning around to face him. For a few seconds, they stared at each other, unmoving, before Rowan broke the stalemate.

Turning away from the insect, he broke into a sprint. As he ran down a random tunnel, praying not to run into any insects, Rowan opened his status screen.

Name: Rowan Crowe

Race: Human

Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance)

Level: 5

Stats:

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 7

Toughness: 14

Vitality: 12

Mana: 10

Free Points: 1

Active Skills(2/10):

Bind lvl 5

Mana Manipulation lvl 6

Passive Skills(0/10):

Quests:

Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan(Layer Quest)

Defeat 20 Enemies

Reach Level 20

System Credits: 90

Not even taking a proper look at his progress, Rowan threw his free point into dexterity. He didn’t know if it would be enough, but he would take anything he could get.

He closed the screen and risked a glance behind him. The absolute bulldozer of an ant was just a few meters behind him, and it was closing in with each passing second.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed harder, pumping his legs and flooring it down the stone tunnel. He wanted to just turn a corner and then hide in a crack or side tunnel, but that wasn’t feasible. Not with the incessantly glowing chains wrapped around him.

If he had enough mana, he could’ve tried turning them solid, but he didn’t think that even that would completely stop them from glowing.

So he ran and ran, fleeing from the seemingly unstoppable force behind him. Attached to his belt, the bag of rations constantly bounced off his legs. It wasn’t large enough to be a real hindrance, but it was still annoying.

So far, the tunnels he’d run through had been barren of life other than the softly glowing moss, but his luck was bound to run out eventually.

He slowed down just enough to turn another corner, but as he entered the tunnel, Rowan saw the forms of ants just a few dozen yards from him.

There were just a few workers, but it was more than enough to impede him if they tried to. And he couldn’t even slow them with [Bind], since his mana reserves all but empty.