Chapter 27 – Broodmother’s Chamber (1)

Chapter 27 – Broodmother’s Chamber (1)

[Bloodspawn Broodmother – Level 24]

Rowan backed away from the edge of the cliff as he stared at the broodmother. Level 24.

That was more than twice the level of the strongest enemy he’d ever faced. And it wasn’t alone. Around it were dozens of fleshy beasts, more than he’d ever seen, even at the battle between the ants and bloodspawn.

After he’d recovered from the shock of so many of them, he took stock of his surroundings.

What he’d initially thought of as a cliff he was standing at the edge of was actually more of a steep slope. Below him, the many bloodspawn were in a massive, globelike chamber.

Dozens of side tunnels connected to it, whether they were at ground level or dozens of feet up, like the one Rowan was in. In the center of the room was a massive, bulbous creature.

Then, he turned his attention to the most important thing of all. The water. From a hole in the ceiling, an unending stream of clean, clear liquid poured out. The waterfall pooled in a small pond below, seemingly formed by the water slowly eroding away the stone floor.

But it didn’t stop there.

The water from the pond spread out along the edge of the cave, almost like a moat. It flowed through channels nearly as deep as the pond itself, wrapping all the way around the chamber.

Not all of it was visible, though. A significant portion of the water wasn’t, actually.

While the liquid flowing from the pond had eroded its way through the rock, there were many instances where there was still a roof of stone over the moat, with the water going under it.

Most of the tunnels connecting to the massive hole in the massive cave had rocks serving as a sort of bridge between the main area and the branching tunnel. Still, there were a few that had nothing bridging the gap, meaning that anything trying to get from one side to the other would have to slog through the water.

Beneath the water was also the only spot in the entire massive cavern, other than directly around the broodmother, that was not covered in crimson fungi.

For a moment, he wondered how none of the water was overflowing and flooding the entire area. Then, looking closer, he noticed.

From the ring of water came several small streams—six of them, to be exact—each running into one of the side tunnels.

Rowan practically salivated at the sight of the liquid, but he couldn’t get to it, not unless he was willing to expose himself to all of the bloodspawn.

So he held himself back and tried to think of a plan to get to it—he stopped. It really wasn’t that urgent, at least not anymore. He was just five enemies away from completing his quest, and with so many bloodspawn wandering around, he could pick off a few of them with ease.

Nodding to himself, he focused back on the horde of bloodspawn waiting below him.

While his chains did a good job of illuminating things, they simply weren’t bright enough to illuminate the whole room. Instead, through several holes in the ceiling, beams of light shined down.

It gave him hope that the surface wasn’t too far away, but he didn’t let himself get too excited; for all he knew, the surface could still be hundreds of feet above him.

Still, the beams of sunlight washed over the bloodspawn, allowing him to make out every one of their figures.

Despite the extreme numbers of hounds in the area, there were surprisingly few of them in the chamber, with the only one he saw being more powerful than pretty much any of the doglike bloodspawn he’d seen before.

[Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 10]

It was far larger than the normally dog-sized beasts, easily the size of a car or the ironclad ant he had fled from back when he was still in the ants’ territory.

The massive hound also looked more similar to the humanoid bloodspawn than its smaller brethren, as it had multiple mouths as well. Although Rowan wasn’t really sure it counted, since the beast had three heads, with just a single maw to each.

Stolen story; please report.

Then, he focused on the other creatures in the room, one after another. Not them all, of course; there were just far too many for that. He only looked for those that were particularly large or dangerous-looking.

There were three of the brutish fungal beasts with the hammers of flesh on their arms, standing in a circle around the broodmother. All of them were level 10 or higher, stronger than the previous brute he’d killed.

There were also a few other variants of the creatures, some with different types of weapons and even one with bone armor.

But what truly caught his attention was that every single one of the bloodspawn had ‘fungal’ in their name.

Every single one but the broodmother.