Chapter 52 – Escape (1)

Chapter 52 – Escape (1)

Rowan’s fit of ecstasy was put to an end as he began to cough up the last dregs of water left in his chest.

Then, with a breath, he looked around.

The underground stream he stood beside was one of a half dozen that flowed from the broodmother’s chamber.

One of a half dozen that he hadn’t been able to find when he’d been searching for water. Sure, he hadn’t been actively looking for them, focusing more on the main river, but it still surprised him that in all of his time wandering around the area, he hadn’t encountered a single one.

Although, after a few seconds of thought, he supposed it made sense.

There may have been six streams, but there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of tunnels in the area, so many that it had taken him multiple days just to get from one side of the chamber to the other without passing through it.

Even more, the stream before him made little sound compared to the river and the waterfall. This, combined with the insulation of the stone walls, meant that it was nearly impossible to hear it.

Shaking his head, Rowan refocused. He had to get out of here.

He considered taking some time to cut out the flesh that had been poisoned by the three-headed hound’s claws, but not only would it take too long, but he thought it might have already gotten too deep for him to get rid of.

The only way he knew back to the caves was back through the broodmother’s chamber. And the only way for him to feasibly survive that was if all of the creatures there were distracted and fighting one another.

He didn’t know how long it’d been since he’d blacked out and whether or not the battle had concluded, but not knowing just increased his sense of urgency.

Taking a deep breath, he set off at a light jog, following the small stream back to its origin. As he moved, he checked out his stats.

Name: Rowan Crowe

Race: Human

Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance)

Level: 13

Stats:

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 12

Toughness: 30

Vitality: 19

Mana: 19

Free Points: 1

Active Skills(2/10):

Chain Manipulation lvl 13

Mana Manipulation lvl 20

Passive Skills(0/10):

Quests:

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

Defeat 40 Enemies (Complete)

Defeat 10 Enemies Above Your Level

Reach Level 20

System Credits: 135

Before he looked through anything else, Rowan focused on one thing: his free point.

He’d promised himself that he would alternate between mana and dexterity unless the circumstances were truly dire, but now, he thought they were.

Even as he moved, the wound on his side burned as the poison ate away at his flesh. He needed more vitality.

Both toughness and vitality would help combat the poison, but he thought that the latter would be more effective, since, if the stat worked the way he thought, it would help him actually fight the necrotic effects rather than just resisting them.

Putting the point into vitality, he picked up the pace, ignoring the pain.

He could’ve placed the point into dexterity to ever so slightly speed up his movements, but he didn’t think that would be a wise decision; the rot was already too deep into his body for him to just cut it out, so speeding up his pace wouldn’t do anything to help with it.

Admittedly, it would let him get to his destination a few seconds earlier, but he highly doubted that would make any difference.

As he continued running, Rowan continued thinking about random things, over-explaining his own decisions to himself to keep distracted from the pain in his side.

After a while, he remembered to look through the rest of his status. His stats were coming along nicely, with toughness at thirty and vitality at twenty.

This book’s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Dexterity was seriously lagging behind, but he could deal with that later. Actually, did he even need the stat? If he just kept increasing his strength, couldn’t the sheer power behind his steps give him a similar speed boost?