Chapter 6 – Caves (2)

Chapter 6 – Caves (2)

Rowan faded in and out of consciousness for what seemed like ages. In those brief flashes where he was aware of himself, he was bombarded with notifications, but he was too tired to check them.

But as time passed, his waking periods grew longer, until finally, he found himself completely conscious.

Shifting his body, he rubbed the bleariness from his eyes and looked about. He was leaning on a—Rowan froze. A coffin? No, that wasn’t the right word. A sarcophagus. Scrambling away from it, he pressed himself up against a smooth stone wall.

After glancing about wildly, taking in the rest of the room, he realized he was in a tomb.

He took slow, deep breaths until his heart was beating at a reasonable rate. Then, he tried to take stock of the situation. Starting from the beginning, he recalled what had happened before he’d blacked out.

Something about the lake had poisoned him. He’d wandered deeper into the cave, and then…he didn’t know. Everything after that was a blur of stone and darkness. But at the very end, he had the faint memory of a glowing chain.

Now, though, it was gone. As he thought, Rowan blinked in confusion. He’d been poisoned. Why wasn’t he dead? The memories were hazy, but he could recall the terrible pain from just before he’d fallen unconscious. Had touching the chain healed him somehow? Or was it something else entirely?

Now, he was in a dimly lit tomb. It was eerie enough on its own, but where was the light coming from? After a quick glance at the shadows, Rowan hastily looked down to inspect the state of his body, freezing the moment he saw it.

He was the light source. Or at least the spectral chain wrapping around his body was.

Letting out a strangled cry, he grabbed at them, trying desperately to free himself. But his hands passed right through the glowing links. After a few more seconds of panic, he calmed down; the chains weren’t doing anything immediately harmful to him. At least, he didn’t think they were.

Whatever they were, Rowan assumed they had something to do with the message he’d received right before he’d been overwhelmed by the poison. It had said that he’d claimed an inheritance called ‘Chained Lord.’

Taking a deep breath, he began checking all of his missed notifications. If there were going to be any answers, they would be there.

It seemed that he’d received several quests while he was out. Most of them didn’t stand out as anything special, but one of them did. It was already completed.

Quest Received:

Reach Level 10 and Obtain a Class(Complete, Level Requirement Bypassed Via Inheritance Class)

Rewards:

75 System Credits

He’d gotten a class? When? Rowan thought back to the strange, incorporeal chains that bound him, somehow still weighing him down. Was it because of those? Had the ‘inheritance’ he’d claimed been a class?

The level 10 requirement being bypassed was strange, since he was still level 1, so Rowan assumed that he would’ve normally gotten a class once he hit level 10.

Shaking his head, he tried to claim the reward. Much like how he opened his Status Screen, he focused on claiming the prize, and the window disappeared.

He took a moment to look over the other quests. One was to defeat 10 enemies, and the other was to reach level 20. For a moment, he wondered what was defined as an ‘enemy’, but those thoughts crumbled away as Rowan fixated on the third and final quest.

Layer Quest Received:

Defeat the Guardian of the Forest or Defeat the Leviathan

Rewards:

Rations

2 Pieces of Rare Gear

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1000 Credits

???

Access to the Second Layer

Slowly, he read over the quest, making sure not to miss anything. He wasn’t quite sure what a Layer Quest entailed, but it seemed important. While the other quests had only a single objective, this one let you choose one.

Whatever the beings were that he was supposed to defeat, they certainly sounded intimidating. After looking over the rewards, he closed the screen. The question marks interested him, but no amount of dwelling on them would reveal the real prize.

Then, he opened his Status Screen.

Name: Rowan Crowe

Race: Human

Class: Chained Lord (Inheritance)

Level: 1

Stats:

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 7