Chapter 24 – The Sound of Water (2)

Chapter 24 – The Sound of Water (2)

As Rowan realized that the seals might not have only been holding back power, but also the entity within the chains, he made a vow: He would never, ever break one of the seals unless he had no other choice. Not unless he was going to die anyway.

But unless it came to that, he simply couldn’t make himself do it. His experience with the presence had shaken him to the core, and in the briefest flash it had been awake, it had felt as if whatever was in those chains could’ve extinguished his life with a mere thought.

Or, Rowan thought, he might try to do so when he was much, much stronger. Strong enough that he thought he could stand against whatever was inside his chains. But when that time would come, he didn’t know.

Readying himself, Rowan took a swig of water and set out; he’d wasted enough time already. It was time to kill some more bloodspawn.

—

An hour later, he paused, hearing bloodspawn nearby. As he prepared, Rowan remembered something: he hadn’t used his free point yet. Taking a moment, he brought up his status screen.

Name: Rowan Crowe

Race: Human

Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance)

Level: 7

Stats:

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 9

Toughness: 18

Vitality: 14

Mana: 12

Free Points: 1

Active Skills(2/10):

Bind lvl 8

Mana Manipulation lvl 11

Passive Skills(0/10):

Quests:

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

Defeat 30 Enemies

Reach Level 20

System Credits: 110

He read over his stats, nodding to himself. But he didn’t invest his free point. Not yet. Rowan was torn between mana and dexterity. On one hand, he’d been running out of mana a lot recently, and he needed more of it.

On the other, dexterity was by far his lowest stat, and if he needed to flee from any of the fungal bloodspawn—especially the doglike ones, who were terrifyingly fast, even at lower levels—he wasn’t sure if he could outrun them.

A long moment of contemplation later, Rowan’s mana reached 13, and he closed his status screen. Above him, he could still hear the faintest sounds of running water, as he’d refused to leave the tunnel that seemed to run directly beneath an underground river.

Thus far, he hadn’t found any way to the actual watersource short of blasting his way through the stone ceiling, but, hopefully, the day would be soon.

With everything else done, he summoned a six-inch-long blade of mana and moved towards the sound of the bloodspawn.

And a moment later, he rounded a corner, and there, before him, was a lone bloodpawn. But it was different. Taller and broader, nearly twice the size of the ordinary humanoids.

And, unlike most other bloodpawn he’d seen, it had no claws. Instead, it had a swollen, bulbous ball of fungi and flesh at the end of one arm.

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 9]

Rowan contemplated retreating and searching for more familiar prey, but before he could, the brutish creature noticed him. The bloodspawn let out a booming, deep roar. Then, it charged.

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