Chapter 33 – Chain Manipulation (1)

Chapter 33 – Chain Manipulation (1)

Time lost all meaning as Rowan faded in and out of consciousness, stuck in a state of half-sleep. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, and yet, a small, fearful part of him forced him back each time he began to drift off.

But no bloodspawn came.

And slowly, he felt his exhaustion winning the internal battle, overwhelming his paranoia. Soon, the world slipped away as he finally let himself rest.

—

He woke to pure agony. Pain radiated from his abdomen and arm, his body silently screaming.

Cursing through gritted teeth, Rowan forced himself to inspect his body.

He bent forward, looking down at his torso. It was bare, with just a few rags left of his shirt.

Then, he looked to his stomach.

What had started as a tiny nick had expanded several times over, leaving a deep gouge. It was wider too, easily a finger’s length from side to side.

But, to his great surprise and relief, the wound was no longer expanding.

It still looked sickly and discolored, but it seemed whatever poison resided in the fungal bloodspawn’s claws had run its course.

He turned his attention to his right arm.

The flesh on top of his forearm had been eaten away, exposing tendons and even the tiniest hint of bone. Rowan tried to move his fingers, and a scream of agony escaped him before he could stop himself.

Taking deep breath after deep breath, he calmed himself before testing his mobility once more, this time more carefully.

If he pushed himself, he could bend and extend them slightly, but the tendons responsible for that had all been withered away, at least partially.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Much to his relief, neither of the wounds was bleeding; he didn’t want to have to bandage them with the last of his ragged clothing.

Most of his pants were gone, to the point that they were practically shorts. Torn, bloody shorts, but shorts nonetheless.

He knew there wasn’t anyone else down here with him, but he still felt the need to protect his dignity, and if he was forced to rip apart what remained of his clothes, he would be entirely naked.

As for his left arm, it was mostly healed by now, and though it still hurt to move, he could move it. And that was a drastic improvement from a few days ago.

But, of course, the moment one of his arms had recovered, the other was crippled. Rowan let out a little chuckle, trying to ignore his body’s suffering. He was almost forgetting how it felt to have two usable arms. Still, it was time for something else. Food, and more importantly, water.

Name: Rowan Crowe

Race: Human

Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance)

Level: 9

Stats:

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 11

Toughness: 22

Vitality: 16

Mana: 15

Free Points: 0

Active Skills(2/10):

Chain Manipulation lvl 6

Mana Manipulation lvl 15

Passive Skills(0/10):

Quests:

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

Defeat 30 Enemies (Complete)

Reach Level 20

System Credits: 110

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After taking a moment to appreciate his stats, Rowan moved down to the quests, only to freeze as his eyes passed over his active skills.

[Chain Manipulation]. That hadn’t been there before. Thinking back, he thought he remembered a message about it during the fight, but he’d been too focused to pay attention to it.

It seemed like [Bind] had evolved into something more versatile and, hopefully, better. It was strange how the skill was already level 6, but he thought it’d probably just carried over from [Bind], which had been over level 10.

The revelation that skills could evolve was both surprising and interesting, but that was about it.