Chapter 30 – Pugilism? (3)

Chapter 30 – Pugilism? (3)

Rowan dodged away from the bloodspawn’s desperate strike. Then, in the split-second it was overextended, he moved in.

His chain-covered knee met the creature’s stomach, doubling it over.

Despite the blow, the beast tried to retaliate, but a blade of mana pierced into the back of its neck. With it bent over even more, the humanoid couldn’t even react as he drove his knee into its face.

The fungal creature cried out from its too many mouths and stumbled back. But, just a moment later, it fell backward, legs pulled out from under it by chains.

Rowan grabbed his mace and darted forward, slamming it down onto the creature’s head. There was the crack of a shattered skull, and a moment later, a glowing blue dagger plunged into its head.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn – Level 7]

Letting out a breath, Rowan grabbed the waterskin at his waist, holding it to his lips until there was just enough for one more drink.

Three more enemies. Then, he would get more water. But he couldn’t just go kill one after another; he was beginning to run low on mana. He still had almost half left, but it wouldn’t last him forever. And finding the right prey wasn’t easy.

There were potential opponents everywhere, sure, but so close to the broodmother, they were powerful. Even the weaker hounds were usually part of a larger group or moving alongside a stronger bloodspawn.

He had considered taking on one of the smaller groups, but decided that he would rather do so with full mana. If he was going to do it, he wanted to be able to go all out.

If he didn’t, Rowan feared that a prolonged battle might allow more bloodspawn to join the fight and eventually overwhelm him.

Despite the close proximity to the broodmother, there really weren’t that many creatures in the area, as most stayed in the main chamber. Still, there were enough that he didn’t want to take any risks.

If he wanted to have a full mana pool, he would have to stop fighting and wait for a while.

But he couldn’t exactly lie down and rest, either. Well, actually, he probably could, but he would have to remain awake and vigilant. It was too big a gamble to doze off.

If he was going to sleep, he would move farther away from the broodmother’s chamber and hope that nothing stumbled upon him.

With a sigh, Rowan decided that he would keep wandering as he had been before, just avoiding fights instead of seeking them. There was something else he wanted to do anyway: properly scout out the area, and, in particular, the water.

With a thought, he cut off mana to the chains still wrapped around his body. At first, he’d only done it for his fists and forearms, but he’d expanded it to his legs so he could better use them in combat as well.

Doing this had even gained him a skill level, bringing [Bind] from level 9 to level 10.

Rowan picked up the bag of rations he’d set aside before the fight, hooking it to his belt. Then, he released his hold over the mana blade at his side, letting it fall to the ground.

With his mace—which had proved surprisingly effective against the bloodspawn, though only when they were already downed so that he could take a full swing—in his hand, he set out.

—

As he walked, Rowan practiced cycling mana within himself. It wasn’t much of a challenge, at least compared to how difficult it’d been when he’d first started practicing it.

But in exchange for the ease came a downside: he didn’t gain any skill levels or improve at all by doing it. It didn’t have much point if he didn’t make any gains from it, but he wasn’t quite sure how to make it more difficult, either.

He could keep making it faster and move larger and larger amounts, but he was already capable of moving more than he ever needed faster than he ever needed.

And the more the speed and amount increased, the smaller and more difficult the gains became. But he did have one idea: to condense it.

He already condensed mana to make his constructs, so why couldn’t he do the same thing within his body? If he could do it, it would…Rowan actually wasn’t sure what it would do.

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He had some theories, but until he tried it, he couldn’t be sure if it would be any different than just moving more mana at once. He would have to be careful, too; he didn’t know what would happen to his body if he compressed the mana too much.

So, taking a deep breath, he concentrated. The mana within his body felt different from that outside his body, but it only took a few moments to figure out what he had to do.

It was a simple concept, almost exactly the same both inside and outside of his body. But he didn’t go all in immediately, just isolating a small amount of mana within his body. Then, he started compressing it, going as slowly as he could.

As it grew denser, it began to feel off. Not in a bad way, just different from the rest of his mana.