Read I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse Chapter 21 online for free - AllNovelFull
Kairos looked down the stairwell for the basement.
"Is this supposed to be the entrance to hell?"
It looked like an entrance down into a cave. However, there were what appeared to be red veins pulsating around these rocket walls, almost like the place itself was alive. Tori furrowed her brows when she saw this.
"It wasn't like this before."
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"What was the situation before?"
Tori closed her eyes.
"There were these monsters chanting to something around this red prism that was floating in the air. I wanted to snatch it, but wasn't sure about the strength of those monsters."
Kairos furrowed his brows, then turned to Nicole, holding out one of his fire axes.
"Oh yeah, take this. You will probably need it."
Nicole took the fire axe with a firm grasp and nodded.
"Alright!"
Kairos then turned to Tori, who wasn't moving.
"Are you going to lead us in?"
Tori stuttered.
"I-I…"
Kairos gave her a deep look. There was a clear amount of hesitation on his face, but after a few seconds, he sighed.
"I can take the lead."
Nicole's eyelashes jumped.
"But-"
"It's fine."
Kairos shook his head and began walking down the steps.
Tori's eyes widened, clearly surprised. However, Kairos paused as he walked down the steps and turned to glare at Tori.
"Believe me, I will make you regret it if you try something."
Tori's face twitched, but she nodded soon after.
"Got it."
With that, the group began walking down the steps. The pulsating red lines made it feel as though they were walking down the belly of the beast.
And when Kairos reached the bottom, he surveyed the area.
"Huh."
Tori had been right behind him. She stepped down along with him then looked at the area.
"Eh? This isn't what I remember at all."
Kairos turned to Tori.
"When was the last time you came here?"
Tori spoke softly.
"Just… a day ago."
Kairos nodded.
"It appears that the red prism you were talking about has some sort of value then."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Probably some kind of a super shovel."
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"What are you two talking about?"
He made his way down towards the ground floor, then looked around.
"Ah."
Instead of a basement, there was a giant cave that had been hollowed out. The overall area they could see was around the space of a football field, which was far greater than any basement was supposed to be. Far off into the distance, were two separate pathways that seemed to contain endless darkness.
Kairos' eyebrow twitched.
"Does anybody have a flashlight?"
Chase nodded.
"Ah, I should have one."
He reached into his own backpack and pulled out a flashlight after a little bit of rummaging. Kairos took it with a bit of surprise.
"That's convenient."
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
"If you camp within the forest overnight, this thing becomes more useful than you'd think."
Kairos looked it over before switching on, letting it release a fairly strong beam of light. He then began walking towards the two pathways.
"So. Left or right?"
Harold furrowed his brows.
"Do we really have to go down here?"
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"No. But we also don't have to search for food, either."
Harold narrowed his eyes.
"But scavenging for food is a risk we have to take if we want to live."
Kairos sighed and walked forwards.
"Food is for our immediate survival, but without a certain amount of power, we won't survive anyways, or even be able to acquire that food."
Harold still seemed against it.
"But-"
"Honey."
Sydney gave him a sad look.
"He's right. People are simply becoming too strong too fast."
Harold turned to her, then let out a soft sigh.
"A-Alright."
With that, Kairos clicked his tongue and began walking forwards.
"Well, we really don't know what is down either path, so we might as well just go down the left one."
The group followed from behind, causing countless rocky tapping sounds to reverberate across the air. It almost made the place seem bustling despite how empty it looked.
The pathway was rather large. If they wanted to, four of them could comfortably walk shoulder-to-shoulder. However, it was only Kairos at the front while the rest of them clumped up from behind.
At first, it was just a straight tunnel. The red veins across the walls seemed to grow a little larger, but that was it. And eventually, they came across a set of three tunnels.
Kairos shone his light between the three pathways that hardly looked different from the other.
"It appears to be a maze."
Chase rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
"I recall a saying, that if one were to hug the left side of the wall, they could get through any maze."
Kairos tilted his head to the side.
"Well, that only applies if the destination is from one end of the maze to the other. If the goal is actually the center of the maze, then a set of walls that aren't connected to the rest will thwart that."
Nicole blinked a few times.
"What?"
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm just saying that the tactic isn't perfect. Though we may as well follow it for now."
With that, he began walking down the left path of the three options while the others followed from behind. It was just a normal pathway at first but slowly expanded to become a rather large room. Then up ahead, there were two more pathways.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"Ok, if this really ends up becoming even more complicated, then we should probably give up."
Suddenly, Nicole spoke up.
"Um… are we back to where we started?"
Kairos turned around and raised an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?"
Nicole took a peek backwards and pointed.
"Isn't that the staircase we came from?"
Chase furrowed his brows and walked back.
There was indeed a staircase. Just to be sure, he walked up that staircase and pushed open the door.
After a few moments, he came back down and nodded.
"It is the place we entered from."
Harold frowned.
"This place is too weird, we should just leave."
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"Wait. This might actually make things easier."
Tori's eyes widened.
"Eh? Really?"
She was a little nervous because her suggestion seemed to be a waste of time.
Kairos rubbed his chin.
"If these pathways work like a passcode and send us back whenever we get it wrong, it should be possible to brute force the right way."
Chase scratched his hair.
"But surely there will be consequences of getting it wrong, right?"
Tori pointed ahead.
"Is that the consequence?"
Kairos spun back to face forwards and saw a total of six monsters appear from both of the pathways up ahead. However, these monsters were very different compared to the others they had seen before.
Unlike most that had clothes that were horribly ripped due to their transformation, these ones had black robes covering their body. On top of that, they did not roar like most monsters upon appearing.
Instead, they just stood at the entrance of the pathways, watching.
Kairos frowned.
"Are these the monsters you were talking about earlier?"
Tori blinked a few times.
"Um, they had the same robes, but these ones seem a little different."
Eventually, one of the monsters walked up, standing in the middle of the room. Unexpectedly, it spoke up.
"One."
Its voice was horribly garbled and deep. If one wasn't paying close attention, then they wouldn't be able to make out the meaning of the word."
Nicole nervously took a step back.
"I don't like these things."
Chase rubbed his chin with great interest.
"It seems that it wants one of us to step up."
Harold looked up with trepidation.
"We should get out of here."
Kairos looked at Harold, before turning back.
"…Let me try it."
Sydney furrowed her brows.
"That can't be a good idea!"
Kairos walked up with the fire axe resting against his shoulder, not heeding their warnings at all.
"I'm just really curious, alright?"
Nicole reached out, but stopped halfway through, slowly letting her hand fall back down to her side. There was a concerned expression on her face, but she decided to let it go.
Eventually, Kairos stood across from the monster.
"Now what?"
The monster bent its knees slightly and balled up its fists. It was taking on a stance.
"Proof."
Suddenly, it shot forwards. However, Kairos already saw this coming, thus was not caught off guard. He stepped to the side and raised his axe.
The monster threw a punch towards Kairos at a startlingly high speed. However, it was nothing to him paired with his future vision and higher agility.
Kairos gave up on striking and got ready to dodge the attack.
…Yet the very moment he did, his future vision warped before showing the monster's fist pull back as the other shot forth.
Kairos decided to swing his axe at that fist instead. And once more, his future vision distorted, before showing him that the fist twisted at an elusive angle, out of the trajectory of the axe.
Thankfully, because of Kairos' high agility, he was able to react in time, shifting his axe to block.
A loud bang rang out.
Kairos hurriedly backed off while furrowing his brows.
Although from the outside perspective, all they did was exchange blows once, it obviously wasn't so simple. Though the monster was strong, it wasn't really that big of a deal for Kairos.
His strength was a substantial amount higher.
However, the moment Kairos decided to change something because of something he saw in the future, the monster seemed to be able to predict that, as though it had the same ability.
However, it didn't seem to be perfect, as the monster still wasn't able to attack him through it. Kairos strongly suspected that the monster was able to tell how he was attacking from how his body moved.
As these thoughts swirled in his mind, the monster charged forth once more. On the other hand, Kairos made sure to keep his distance.
His main advantage was the reach provided by his fire axe, thus he fully intended on using it. Right when the monster would be in range, Kairos swung with his axe.
He saw that the monster dodged to his left in his future vision, thus redirected his trajectory to the left. Unfortunately, it seemed that the monster saw it coming as his future vision warped, showing the monster dodging to the right.
Kairos clicked his tongue and gave up on the swing altogether. Instead, he backed up some more.
Nicole shouted.
"Do you need help?"
Kairos grit his teeth.
"I got this, don't worry!"
This time, he swung his fire axe horizontally, so that the monster couldn't dodge to the side. However, the monster ended up jumping into the air.
Kairos hurriedly canceled his strike and got ready for the monster in the air.
But his future vision warped again, showing the monster simply running towards him.
Kairos cursed internally before retreating once more.
He wasn't used to this kind of fight, where his opponent could also predict his movements. Though he was stronger, the monster's technique was definitely superior.
If it wasn't for his future vision, Kairos might already be dead.
He quickly realized that there was no way he could win like this.
Kairos narrowed his eyes and swept out with his leg. He was confident that this would trip the monster if it hit because his strength was substantially higher.
Kairos saw the monster leap upwards with his future vision, but did not stop his sweep with the leg. However, right when the monster leaped in reality, Kairos also flung his axe out.
And flew straight towards the monster's neck.
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Kairos didn't put his full strength into the attack, but was also pretty confident that he would be able to hit the hooded monster hard while it was in the air. Worst case scenario, it blocks the attack with its arm.
However, his future vision showed him that things could be worse.
A third hand burst out from the monster's chest, extending out and grabbing the blade of the fire axe.
Seeing this, Kairos immediately stopped his swing and shot backwards.
However, he quickly saw that the arm coming out of the monster's chest wasn't so simple. It had no skin, making it a bright red mass of muscle and was able to extend out much farther than its normal arm.
Despite the fact Kairos retreated, the arm continued to shoot towards him and grab onto the blade of the axe. It was simply too fast for him to do anything.
Kairos attempted to resist, but quickly realized that this arm was far stronger than normal, to the point it could lift him up if he stubbornly held on to the axe. As such, he decisively let go of the axe despite knowing that it was his only weapon.
A little bit of insanity seeped into his adrenaline-filled mind once he realized that he would have to beat the monster using his bare hands.
Kairos' eyes became bloodshot as he hunched over.
Then, he blinked a few times before calming down.
The monster spoke.
"Pass."
It was horribly distorted and fleshy sounding like usual, but the tone behind it made the meaning clear even if the word itself wasn't so clear.
The arm that had burst out of the monster's chest continued to extend out towards Kairos, but at a moderate pace. It held out the axe right in front of him, which Kairos promptly took.
The arm then rapidly disappeared into the monster's chest as it went back to its original position. However, before the monster went all the way back, it turned its head around to look at Kairos and nodded.
"Strong."
Kairos blinked a few times before walking back to the others.
"I guess they want to test us for some reason."
Nicole took a deep breath.
"That was dangerous!"
Kairos nodded.
"That arm was unexpected."
As they were talking, three of the hooded monsters walked up. The one in the middle was at the front and raised three fingers.
"Three."
Seeing this, Harold furrowed his brows.
"We don't have to listen to them, right?"
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
"I suppose not. But that would be boring."
Tori's eyes were slightly widened.
"It would be a waste not to interact with monsters that actually have intelligence!"
Kairos sighed.
"But of course, I don't think those things would hesitate to kill one of us. So if you do choose to go up, you should understand that your life is at risk."
Chase smirked.
"Haha, that is not enough to stop me."
With that, he walked a few steps forward, but still hung back. Tori shot a look at Kairos before turning to the monsters.
"They seem tough, but… I should be able to deal with them."
She walked up until she was only a few meters away from the monsters. They did not react to her presence. It seemed like they wouldn't act until three people stepped closer.
Sydney and Harold were both extremely reluctant. They didn't look like they would step up anytime soon. As for Nicole, she was also hesitant, but eventually grit her teeth and walked up as well.
Harold's eyes widened slightly as he saw this.
"Nicole!"
Nicole cowered slightly, but remained resolute in her decision.
"I will back off if it gets too dangerous!"
Sydney also seemed concerned.
"But…"
Nicole gave a small bow.
"I want to build a peaceful future, so I won't give up any opportunity!"
With that, she left her parents speechless, then got up next to Tori. Nicole stared at Tori with a frown, clearly showing her dislike.
In response, Tori simply cleared her throat.
"You can't just go charging in recklessly."
Nicole pouted.
"I will do what I want to do."
Tori pressed her lips together.
"You can't completely commit to any of your actions, or you will be left helpless once the opponent reacts in time. That's why I was able to knock you out immediately, but couldn't for your friend."
Nicole furrowed her brows.
"What are you talking about?"
Tori sighed.
"If you were paying attention to the fight he had earlier, you would notice he constantly gave up on swinging once he noticed it would be unfavorable to do so. Keeping your options open is always necessary."
Nicole seemed a little hesitant, but eventually decided to ask for advice.
"What options should I be keeping-"
"Proof."
The monster at the front interrupted her. Tori narrowed her eyes.
"No time!"
She immediately swung her katana, which the monster at the front blocked.
A clear thump rang out.
Though her attack tore through its flesh easily, it stopped right in its tracks after hitting the bone. The monster began pushing back, but Tori immediately retrieved her katana and backed off.
Her strength was not enough to deal with this kind of monster easily.
On the other hand, Nicole hurriedly put on the red watch during this time. Right afterward, she swung the fire axe at the monster's head. Unfortunately, the monster was one step ahead, literally. As in the monster took a step forward and let the handle of the fire axe hit his forearm, thus rendering the attack null.
Nicole's eyes widened as she found herself at a loss. The monster wasn't going to show any mercy and shoved her hard, making her stumble back a few meters before falling onto the ground.
Tori clicked her tongue and turned to Chase.
"Damn. Can you help us out?"
Chase simply frowned as a mana arrow formed on his bow.
"There are two other monsters to deal with and you two can't deal with a single one?"
As he said, there were two monsters standing a few meters behind. They had their hands outstretched as blue mana slowly gathered in their hands.
Kairos who was watching this couldn't help but be displeased.
"Why do they get to use magic already…"
Chase had his arrow pulled back already, while the two monsters still seemed to be gathering mana. The monster at the front immediately noticed this and had his eyes trained on him.
As Chase aimed toward one of them in the back, the monster in the front also moved over. This made Chase curse under his breath.
"You have to hold down that guy in the front!"
Tori sighed.
"Easier said than done!"
Chase's eyebrow twitched.
"If you can't find a way, we are just going to make a fool of ourselves."
Nicole got up to her feet and repeated to herself mentally that she had to find a way to prevent the monster at the front from moving.
However, no ideas came to mind, thus she ended up charging forwards and raising her fire axe. Tori seemed a little frustrated, but did the same thing as well since she couldn't think of anything better.
The monster held both of its forearms up like swords. It simply remained in that position, standing there like a rock.
Nicole swung the fire axe, but did not use all of her strength as Tori said. Though it was definitely not slow, the monster was able to step back and avoid it entirely. As for Tori, she did a rather elusive strike, one that seemed to go for the torso, but actually went for the neck.
The monster seemed to fall for it, blocking its torso. However, it also hunched over, protecting the neck with its forearms.
With another thunk, Tori's katana pierced through its flesh but stopped at the bone. Knowing how hard this monster's bones were, she did not even try to push any further, taking a step back.
Though their first attacks weren't successful, the two of them swung once more.
Chase thought that he could use this time to shoot his arrow, this pointed it towards the other monster in the back.
However, the one protecting them immediately noticed. It kept its forearms up and charged to the side like a bulldozer, knocking over Nicole and forcing Tori to retreat.
Chase clicked his tongue once more.
He began sweating slightly, thinking that his only chance of hitting the arrow would be by curving it to throw the protecting monster off. However, he could only curve the arrow once and really didn't want to use it just so that it would go in the monster's direction.
Ideally, Chase would use that curving ability to redirect it towards the direction that someone dodged.
He slowly narrowed his eyes as he began to lose faith in the two people up front.
Nicole got back up to her feet with frustration. Although she intended on listening to Tori about having more options, she also had no idea what those other options were supposed to be.
It was almost like someone was telling her, 'Just solve the problem using calculus.'
As though that was supposed to help her when she didn't even know calculus.
The monster had taken a decent amount of damage from Tori's attacks. However, the bleeding from his wounds would stop in a matter of seconds while not affecting his ability to move.
In other words, it would take an extremely long time to injure the monster enough so that it was no longer a threat. Considering that there were two monsters in the back, casting something, they did not have that time.
Tori swung her katana once more, trying to be tricky like a snake.
However, the monster was able to cover most of its vital points with its forearms, thus it simply landed on the forearms once more.
Nicole charged forth while raising the fire axe as several thoughts flashed in her mind.
'I need to stop it, but what can I do?'
'Options… what are my options…'
It was hard to think under the effects of the red watch, but she forced herself to do so.
Tori frowned slightly as she felt that the same thing would happen again. And as for Nicole, she thought the same. Her axe shot towards the monster's chest, but Nicole was still thinking about what she could possibly do.
She thought about doing a wrestling move, but didn't even know what those looked like.
For some reason, Nicole thought about Kairos and how she would wrap her around his shoulder as a greeting.
She tried to get rid of that thought, thinking it was useless. But then, a rather strange idea came to her mind.
The monster bent its knees, getting ready to take a hit. However, Nicole ended up dropping the axe altogether. In that short moment where pretty much everyone was confused, she got behind the monster and threw herself forward at full force, with one arm extended out.
Nicole would always do this same move to Kairos pretty much every time she saw him. The first couple of times, Kairos always seemed to be able to resist the push, hardly even stumbling.
For whatever reason, this made Nicole feel dissatisfied. As such, she slowly learned how to tackle more effectively, while Kairos would learn how to remain as stable as possible. This mini-war that they had with one another for so long made Nicole really good at toppling people over.
It was a really strange skill, but it came in handy during this time.
The monster currently had his knees bent in a way that would let him take on a lot of force from the front without falling over. However, the same didn't apply to his back.
As such, when that arm suddenly slammed against the side of its shoulder, it stumbled forwards, hardly able to control itself. It even ended up falling over, using its hand to hold itself up.
And at that moment, Chase released his arrow.
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A blue mana arrow shot through the air like a bullet, straight towards one of the monster's skulls. The monster casting immediately noticed this, thus canceled its casting, and tried to sidestep the moment it saw Chase release his arrow.
However, the monster was not prepared for the sudden curve. There was no longer a place to dodge.
The arrow shot forth unimpeded.
Well, almost unimpeded.
Right before it hit, a tiny inconspicuous cross on the monster's belt lit up, creating a translucent blue barrier.
An ear-piercing crack rang out, like the sound of shattering glass.
The mana arrow hit the blue barrier, doing significant damage to it, evidenced by the cracks all across it. On top of that, the monster even stumbled several steps backwards before falling over.
However, there wasn't any damage dealt to the monster itself.
While that was happening, Tori had glanced at the other monster casting a spell. Although she couldn't tell how close it was to completing it, a fairly corporeal ball of mana had formed.
Now that the monster blocking her was knocked down, she dashed towards the monster, intending on interrupting its casting process. Unfortunately, that wasn't the best timing.
While Tori made it halfway, the ball of mana had condensed fully before disappearing altogether.
There was a flash of light before three red mana missiles appeared, shooting towards Tori at different angles. Though they were fast, she also had extremely good reaction time, thus could sidestep.
Unfortunately, it turned out that they were homing, thus followed her.
Tori grit her teeth as an extremely unwilling frown formed on her face. It looked pretty bad when all of the magic missiles shot towards her from all ends, giving her no chance to dodge.
Yet right before they hit, Tori dissipated into red mist, letting them pass harmlessly through her. The magic missiles proceeded to scatter randomly, no longer homing as their target disappeared.
One of them shot towards Chase, but he simply stepped to the side and avoided it.
After another second, Tori reappeared, but looked a little different.
There was a considerable amount of blood dripping down from underneath her eyepatch while her skin had noticeably reddened. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were bloodshot.
But she was still moving.
Tori continued running towards the monster. It attempted to run away, but its speed was slower. Tori gradually closed the gap, getting closer and closer.
During this time, the monster that Nicole had knocked down recovered from the fall. At this point, Nicole no longer had a weapon and was just awkwardly holding onto the monster's shoulder.
She tried to back up, but the monster was one step ahead, shoving her off before turning around.
At this time, Tori had caught up to her target. Both the monster and Tori swung towards their respective targets.
Tori's katana became a blur as it shot towards the monster's neck. However, like the last one, a cross lit up before creating a blue barrier.
Tori's sword landed with a loud clang, but was rebounded. The barrier itself was undamaged.
If that wasn't bad enough, Nicole froze like a deer in headlights as a fist rapidly shot towards her face. It all happened too fast. Other than Kairos, the other spectators could not even register what happened before it had already occurred.
Yet, when it all seemed to turn bad, the monster's fist stopped right in front of Nicole's face. Her hair blew back from the wind as she remained frozen.
Then, the monster spoke.
"Pass."
Tori had pulled back her katana, ready to swing, but held back after hearing that. As for Chase, sweat had formed on his forehead as his breathing became heavy, but he still had a confident smile. The monsters all walked back to their original positions.
Harold and Sydney seemed to be experiencing a collision of several emotions at once.
Harold grit his teeth, but also cried a little bit.
"Nicole! That was too risky!"
Sydney hurriedly nodded.
"It truly was!"
Nicole lowered her head slightly, feeling slightly ashamed.
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"I believe she did well. Her body is unharmed, what is the big deal?"
Tori walked back with a slight limp.
"But she should've at least tried to dodge."
Nicole pouted slightly when she heard that and snuck a peek at Kairos. Noticing her gaze, he simply sighed.
"Don't freeze up in fear next time."
Nicole nodded before coming back to the sidelines with her head down.
After a few moments, the last two monsters walked up.
They stood side by side near the middle of the cavern and spoke at the same time.
"Two."
"Two."
In the end, most of the group ended up looking at the only two people that haven't gone, Harold and Sydney.
Hardol's face twitched.
"I'm not going to go!"
Sydney furrowed her brows.
"This… I don't feel comfortable participating in this event."
Kairos tilted his head to the side.
"Maybe you two don't have to. Perhaps we can try it again with the same people."
He walked up, intending on participating in another fight. Then, he looked at Chase, Tori, and Nicole.
Though Chase had a confident smile, Kairos was able to tell that man was feeling weary. At most, he would only be able to shoot one arrow. As for Tori, she seemed to have overexerted herself greatly, still panting like she had just ran a marathon.
As for Nicole, she seemed a little despondent, but was still the best candidate as the others were essentially out of commission.
Kairos looked at her.
"Hey, Nicole. Do you want to try to fight this with me?"
Harold and Sydney both seemed to be against it.
Harold frowned.
"But it was too close of a call last time! We shouldn't!"
Sydney shook her head.
"Why can't someone else do it?"
Kairos sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"I was just asking, alright? If she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to."
Nicole pressed her lips together. She avoided eye contact with her parents and looked at Kairos.
"I will try!"
Both Harold and Sydney seemed a little astounded as they watched Nicole walk up. Both of them were about to open their mouths to retort, but the monsters at the front spoke up first.
"No."
"No."
They shook their heads before pointing at Harold and Sydney in sync.
"Them."
"Them."
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
"What if they don't want to fight?"
The monsters shrugged.
"No."
"Entry."
Kairos' eyebrow twitched.
"For all of us?"
They shook their heads.
"Only."
"Unworthy."
Kairos tilted his head to the side.
"Ah, alright."
He turned to Harold and Sydney.
"I guess you two don't have to do anything, but you won't be let in. Maybe the rest of us could go check it out?"
Sydney furrowed her brows.
"I… guess this would work. Are you sure you want to go with those monsters?"
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"Not sure, but I've decided I'm going to."
Harold furrowed his brows.
"But you will stay with us, Nicole. It is too dangerous otherwise."
Nicole pouted.
"But…"
Sydney frowned.
"It's too dangerous!"
Nicole looked at her parents, then looked at Chase, Tori, and Kairos. Although some of them were winded, there was still an air of confidence that lingered around the three.
It was then Nicole decided she didn't want to be one that stayed safe all the time. She looked at her parents directly and bowed slightly.
"I've decided that I'm going to go."
Harold and Sydney both seemed a little aggrieved over her decision.
"You can't!"
"Why won't you just stay with us?"
Nicole bowed.
"This is the decision I have made. Sorry, Mom and Dad."
Chase smirked slightly, interested in the conversation. As for Tori, she seemed a little bored, wanting to get over this already. On the other hand, Kairos just watched silently, without showing any expression.
Harold opened his mouth.
"You…"
Sydney looked down.
"…If that truly is the decision you insist on making, then we must participate as well."
Harold looked at her with a bit of surprise.
"You mean… fighting with those things?"
Sydney smiled bitterly.
"We can't leave our daughter alone, can we?"
Harold pressed his lips together.
"…You're right."
Kairos waved his hand.
"Hey, for now, take my axe."
He said this because Harold only had a metal pipe while Sydney had a wooden bat they picked up earlier from the bandits at the grocery store. Although they were just barely enough to be considered weapons against the regular monsters. However, for these ones, it may not be a bit lacking.
However, right as he said that, the monsters spoke up.
"No."
"Transfer."
Kairos' eyebrow twitched.
"Well… Never mind then."
Sydney smiled bitterly.
"Haha, thanks for trying anyway."
She then turned to Harold.
"Are you ready?"
Harold sighed.
"As much as I'll ever be. If we are going to fight, we can't embarrass ourselves in front of the kids."
Chase let out a faint chuckle that could only be heard by Karios and Tori. Neither questioned it. They understood what he meant by that laugh.
Both Sydney and Harold stood side by side in front of the monsters, raising their weapons. At that moment the two monsters spoke.
"Proof."
"Proof."
The two suddenly dashed forth, and each reached out with their respective claw.
It wasn't apparent at first, but both of the monsters were actually missing an arm. One missing the left, the other missing the right. This was because their black robes covered that fact up, so it was hard to notice.
Harold ended up panicking slightly, taking a step backward to dodge, but lost his balance slightly. He furrowed his brows, realizing that fighting wasn't as easy as how it seemed.
As for Sydney, she was a little more prepared, thus took a step back, dodging the attack, then promptly counterattacked.
The monster she attempted to strike ended up dashing to the side, avoiding it altogether. Then, it began to circle around, trying to pincer the two.
As for the monster attacking Harold, it took a step forward, attempting to slash him once more.
Harold furrowed his brows as he held onto the metal pipe with both hands to block it.
With a clang, the claw slammed onto the metal pipe, making Harold stumble backwards once more. He was on the verge of falling, but just barely kept up.
Sydney turned to face the monster that had circled behind them and swung her baseball bat with both hands. The monster in question took a step back, avoiding it once more.
Kairos' eyebrow could help but twitch as he saw this. He intuitively knew what they should've done, but they kept making simple mistakes. In his mind, he tried to imagine them doing the right thing, almost like how some people tilt their body as they play a racing game as though it would help them turn.
However, it wasn't like Kairos could just control the actions of others with his mind.
The two monsters swung at them again. Both Harold and Sydney were able to block, but lost a bit of their balance in the process. And right when they blocked, a strange orange light came from the missing arm of one monster while a dark blue light came from the other one.
The two monsters began to turn around and attacked at the air behind them. Both Harold and Sydney did not think too much of the colors, thus swung with their weapons, given the opportunity.
But then, the two monsters suddenly swapped positions, already mostly done with their attack.
Harold and Sydney were both caught off guard. The claws slammed against their weapons at a bad angle for them, making them stumble.
Harold, in particular, almost fell down.
The monsters didn't let up, swinging with their claws once more.
Sydney was going to use her wooden bat to block, but saw in the corner of her eye that her husband could hardly even stand, much less block the attack.
As she saw the claw shoot towards his heart, she reached out.
"Harold!"
Without thinking, Sydney reached out with her hand, defending Harold from the claw.
However, in order to do so, she had to pay.
A disturbing fleshy sound rang out.
The monster's claw directly pierced into Sydney's arm, but was stopped in place. It was the part of her arm that had been changed by the red sun. It wouldn't have been too much to be concerned about, however, the monster that Sydney neglected wasn't just going to leave her alone.
Its claw scratched against her back, prompting Sydney to cry out in pain.
Harold's eyes widened.
"Sydney!"
Nicole reached out with her hand, taking a step forward.
"Mom!"
As for Kairos, Chase, and Tori, they watched on indifferently.
Nicole began running forth, but the monster that Kairos had fought earlier suddenly spoke up.
"No. Interference."
She ended up freezing.
In that time, Harold grit his teeth and swung his metal pipe as hard as possible towards the monster that scratched up Sydney's back.
In the end, he hit that monster hard on the head, forcing it to stumble backwards. As for Sydney, she was in a daze from the pain. The monster that had pierced through her arm withdrew its claw, realizing that part of her was strangely durable.
Harold then tried to swing at that monster.
However, it threw its head back, dodging the attack. Right afterwards, Sydney had come to her senses and immediately realized that this was a good opportunity to attack, thus swung her bat.
However, as she did so, a bright orange light came from the side of the monster. Sydney committed to her swing nonetheless, but the target shifted with another. Not prepared for the sudden shift of positions, she missed.
And even ended up stumbling forth.
The monster fully intended on capitalizing on the opportunity, its hand shooting straight towards Sydney's heart. The person in question didn't realize that her life was being threatened, but there was someone else that did.
Harold.
He felt his entire life with her flash by his eyes. And then without thinking, just threw his body in front of her.
Nicole seemed to be on the verge of losing it and ended up running towards them when she saw what happened. But strangely enough, the monster that chastised her before didn't seem to care now.
The monster's claw that had been going for Sydney's heart ended up shooting towards Harold's instead.
Harold closed his eyes, losing complete faith in his survival.
As for Sydney, her brain still didn't process the events.
And then…
"Pass."
The monster suddenly stopped its attack, one millimeter away from Harold's chest.
Nicole who was running ended up slowing down to a stop.
Sydney blinked a few times, overloaded by the series of events that happened. As for Harold, his legs trembled before giving way, making him land on his knees.
"Sh… Shit. What the fuck just happened?"
The two monsters casually left.
Chase muttered to himself.
"That was unexpected."
As for Sydney, she ended up hugging Harold and sobbing a little.
"What are you doing! You almost died!"
Harold was still in a daze.
"I… I don't know."
Sydney's back ended up bleeding pretty badly.
Kairos called out.
"Nicole, get the bandages."
Nicole flinched, then hurriedly got out the medical kit. Harold and Sydney both calmed down a little bit, and Nicole hurriedly wrapped some bandages around her mother's body.
Harold took a deep breath.
"Wait, your arm! You were also hit there, right?"
Sydney gasped.
"Ah, how did I forget!"
She pulled down the sleeve. However, instead of a horrid wound like they were expecting, there was only a scar that was already in the process of scabbing over. Harold blinked a few times.
"How…"
Although he didn't catch that good of a look during the battle, Harold knew that the wound was far worse than that.
Kairos had walked over and raised an eyebrow.
"It seems that the red sun made that part of your body have extremely high levels of regeneration."
Sydney blinked a few times.
"Oh…"
The hooded monster from before had all grouped up and began walking down the left tunnel. The one in the lead turned its head around.
"Follow."
Kairos looked at the others.
"Anyway, now that we all passed, should we have a look?"
Chase chuckled.
"That's what we did all of this for, no?"
Kairos ended up taking the lead, following behind the monsters, while the others followed from behind. It seemed that Sydney and Harold were still a little reluctant, but they had gone too far now.
As they walked, Kairos wondered how these monsters were able to retain their sanity to this extent. After all, the other monsters seemed to retain their intelligence a little, but not enough to use genuine combat tactics or formulate enough thought to even speak.
Upon reaching a set of four tunnels, they chose the one on the far right. Then, there were seven tunnels.
The monsters led them down the third one.
Kairos cleared his throat.
"Hey, where are we going anyway?"
The monster at the front spoke.
"Church."
Kairos' eyebrow twitched.
"There is a church here?"
The monster nodded.
"Yes."
Chase rubbed his chin.
"I was never a fan of going to church."
He narrowed his eyes.
"But I feel like this one might be more interesting."
The red veins lined against the tunnel walls became far larger. It reached the point where it had reached the thickness of an arm. It was a little creepy, but other than pulsating strangely, they didn't do anything else.
And eventually, the tunnel opened up to reveal what looked like a large prayer hall. The roof was raised quite high and there was even a chandelier with a set of candles on the ceiling. All across on the left and right side of the room were prayer mats. Some of them seemed slightly folded, while others had a few wrinkles.
They had been used recently, but nobody was kneeling down on them.
At the center of this room was a pillar. And on top of that pillar was a fairly small red prism, rotating lazily. However, that was not the most noticeable thing in the room.
At the very back was what seemed to be some sort of magic circle. It shone with a bright blue, shining so brightly it was the main illumination of the room. There were various patterns, but the most notable was the giant pentagon in the center. Standing in between that magic circle and pillar was a young man wearing the same hooded robes.
The hood covered up part of his face, just barely showing his nose. He had a black glove on one hand and what looked like a red bead in that hand. It was clear that this was a normal person.
A few meters away from him was a middle-aged man also in black robes, kneeling down with his head on the floor.
As they walked into the room, the man noticed them. He looked up and smiled amicably.
"Ah, I see that you are the new recruits for our Church of Evolution!"
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"Nice place you got here."
The man laughed.
"Yes, yes. It naturally is for an esteemed church. I am The Red Priest. You have come at just the right time! This is the last follower that shall be baptized. Watch as our god bestows his blessings!"
Suddenly, the red bead in his hand began to glow slightly. Then, it shot a red beam straight towards the middle-aged man. Almost immediately, he began screaming in pain.
Sydney's eyes flew wide open.
"What are you doing?!"
The young man chuckled as the light from the bead died down.
"This is the baptism. Don't worry, he is in pain now, but that is because he is discarding his mortal shell and becoming one of the blessed!"
The middle-aged man's breathing was unsteady. His skin had reddened considerably. He was clearly sweating and in pain, but had a smile on his face.
"Yes! This is true! For too long I have lived in such a filthy and imperfect way. But now, I can truly join our god as one of his angels!"
The young man nodded.
"Yes, yes. Now be prepared for the second dose."
The red bead began letting out a red light once more, making the man scream out in agony once more. His body began to expand and mutate. The black robes on his body used to be loose-fitting, and even oversized, but now they were tightly wrapped against his body.
Nicole cringed in fear at this strange display. She wanted to tell the two to stop right now, but was too scared to say anything.
The light from the red bead dimmed once more.
Now, the middle-aged man began to growl, almost like he was an animal. It looked up at The Red Priest and seemed to be on the verge of attacking.
Seeing this, Harold furrowed his brows.
"Watch out!"
However, The Red Priest was not afraid. In fact, he chuckled.
"Do not worry. They still understand the meaning of our god and will not bite the hand that feeds."
This was a little hard to believe as the half transformed middle-aged man pulled back his partial claw, ready to attack.
Harold frowned.
"Are you… sure?"
Suddenly, the middle-aged man lunged forth, swiping towards The Red Priest's face.
Yet, right before it was about to connect, his attack stopped.
The Red Priest did not even flinch that entire time and even had a small smile on his face. Instead, he let out a calm and gentle voice.
"Remember who we follow."
The middle-aged man let out a garbled voice.
"God… of… Evolution."
Then, he slowly got back down on his knees and his head against the floor.
The Red Priest nodded.
"Good."
Kairos and the others watched on in astonishment.
The red bead then began to glow once more. The middle-aged man spasmed violently, letting out monstrous cries of pain.
But eventually, those cries of pain disappeared despite the red light shining on him.
The middle-aged man was now a monster.
It slowly stood up, then put his hands together in the praying gesture.
The Red Priest smiled.
"For."
The monster bowed.
"Perfection."
The Red Priest sighed.
"Very well. Your baptism is complete. Now join the others for the search in the holy land."
Like that, the monster walked over to the glowing magic circle at the back of the room. The very moment its foot was set down, it vanished entirely.
Tori let out a long breath and muttered.
"Freaky…"
Chase smiled.
"That appears to be quite painful."
The Red Priest laughed.
"Of course. But it is but a small price to pay for salvation. Since you are the new recruits it is understandable you don't get it. But do not worry, for I will educate you on the ways of our god."
He motioned towards the other monsters.
"My followers that have already been baptized, please go to help the others search for the holy land. For now, I will perform the natural procedures that they should go through."
The six monsters nodded before making their way to the magic circle.
Sydney furrowed her brows.
"Um, what if-"
"Be respectful and wait for them to leave."
Kairos interrupted her. He knew that she was going to express her reluctance to join this religion. Kairos was on the same page, however, he wanted those strong monsters to be gone before then.
The Red Priest chuckled.
"No need to be so formal, what is your question?"
Kairos shook his head.
"This is simply proper manners."
The Red Priest nodded.
"Alright, alright."
Once all of the monsters disappeared, Sydney looked around awkwardly before saying what she intended.
"What if we don't want to join this church?"
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The Red Priest seemed a little confused by Sydney's question. He laughed.
"What do you mean? Don't be ridiculous, it is a rare blessing to be among the few that see the word of our god straight from the source."
Nicole pressed her lips together.
"But-"
Kairos raised his hand, cutting her off.
"Though I don't truly understand what this baptism is, I am willing to give it a try."
Nicole looked at him with a bit of despair. However, Kairos simply flashed a calm smile.
"Trust me, ok?"
Nicole nodded with a bit of hesitation.
"O-Ok…"
The Red Priest laughed.
"Wonderful, it appears you are truly eager, and that is only natural!"
Kairos put on a courteous smile.
"Of course!"
As he walked up, Chase took the bow off of his back. However, he didn't do anything special, he just began casually inspecting it.
Kairos began sweating slightly. He really didn't want to be hit by that red light from the bead. The room was silent, save for Kairos' echoing footsteps.
He walked around the pillar in the center, not even taking a glance at the red prism in the middle. Kairos' eyes widened slightly.
He was in full focus, ready to do something if his future vision told him something unfavorable would happen. However, even when he got up next to the man, The Red Priest did not act. Instead, he spoke.
"Now, kneel down child."
Kairos nodded.
He ever so slowly did the kneeling motion as The Red Priest lifted the red bead.
Then out of nowhere, Kairos lunged forwards and swung with his axe, straight towards the man's neck. He fully intended on killing him.
At the same time, Chase immediately pulled up the bow and let a mana arrow form on it.
Yet, right when that happened…
"Insolent!"
The Red Priest took a step back, avoiding the axe. He had his eyes narrowed, but now, they part open with anger, revealing two blood-red eyes.
There was still a smile on his face, but it was no longer friendly.
Kairos intended on following up on his previous strike, at the very least intending on shoving the man into the teleportation circle if nothing else worked.
However, he suddenly fell down to his knees.
For some reason, his eyes began burning up painfully, making him lose focus.
One second later, a screech of agony rang out, almost as if that person was thrown into the fiery pits of hell itself.
That was Tori.
She had dropped her katana and collapsed onto the ground. Her body was spasming violently, like she was having a heart attack.
As for Chase, the mana arrow that formed immediately dissipated while he himself also dropped his bow, falling down onto his knees. His confident smile was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, his eyes had widened as sweat poured down his forehead. His breathing was both rushed and erratic. Chase was grabbing at the center of his chest, almost like he wanted to peel out his own heart.
As for Sydney, her legs buckled as she grimaced in pain. She held onto the reddened part of her arm and ended up taking a few steps back before hitting the wall behind her.
Nicole furrowed her brows and ended up grabbing hard onto the section of her arm that usually wore the red watch.
The only person that was unaffected in this whole thing was Harold, who looked around with clear confusion.
The Red Priest spoke with the same gentle voice, but dragged his words a little and did not try to hide his hostility.
"I don't understand… how can you not understand the truth when it is so clear."
Harold looked at everyone in pain and began sweating in anxiety.
The Red Priest took in a deep breath.
"All of you may not understand now, but as part of the blessed, you must learn to open your eyes to our true god."
He shook his head and sighed.
"It appears that ignorance truly is too terrifying, making one turn on the very being they were supposed to worship."
The Red Priest closed his eyes.
"But no matter. Once all of you are educated… you will understand."
Harold grit his teeth and held onto the metal pipe a little tighter. He took another look at everyone else in agony and realized that he was the only one standing.
He decided not to question why he was the only one unaffected, and thus charged towards The Red Priest, raising the metal pipe high in the air.
"AHHHHHH!"
The Red Priest's eyes widened considerably.
"A heathen?"
Harold responded by running towards him while gritting his teeth.
The Red Priest seemed considerably confused.
"How was a heathen able to pass the trials? That is…"
At this time, Kairos was covering his eyes with both hands. However, that did not stop the painful sensation. Though that didn't mean he was fully experiencing it.
In fact, Kairos was overreacting a little.
That was because the glasses were able to block a large portion of whatever was assaulting his eyes with great pain. He covered his eyes, but that was mostly to push the glasses onto his face a little closer.
The pain really was intense despite being blocked.
However, Kairos quickly removed his hands once he heard Harold's scream. And with his future vision, he saw The Red Priest lunge for the red prism hovering above the pillar in the center.
And so, Kairos moved.
He too lunged for the red prism, but also pushed against The Red Priest's body, pushing him back.
The Red Priest was immediately incensed.
"You vermin! How dare you disgrace the Church of Evolution!"
He clearly struggled intensely. However, the strange thing was that his strength was not much more than the average human.
Kairos took full advantage of that fact, first seizing the red prism. However, he also saw with his future vision the red bead glow with an unbelievably intense light.
His entire body felt like it was lit on fire.
Kairos decisively kicked The Red Priest as hard as he could, sending him flying towards the teleportation circle.
The Red Priest's eyes were bloodshot.
"You! All of you will all pay for-"
Then, his back landed on the magic circle, causing him to disappear entirely. Suddenly, all the pain disappeared, and the situation stabilized.
Kairos had a frown on his face. Honestly, he wanted to try his luck and kill the man. After all, it was better to have corpses as enemies, unless they are a necromancer, of course. However, not only did he drop his axe, but there was simply no time unless he was willing to suffer the consequences of that red bead.
But the most important thing was that he believed the source of their pain was from their evolved body parts. Since that red bead would force evolution, then the consequences were obviously extremely frightening.
Kairos let out a sigh, then rubbed his eyes, pushing up his glasses in the process. Though he didn't have it as bad as everyone else and had a high willpower stat, he still teared up quite a bit, showing how bad it was.
As for the others, they were all panting, recovering from the painful sensations, other than Harold that is. Tori was still spasming slightly and even frothing at the mouth. As for Chase, he had both hands on the ground.
Sydney and Nicole seemed to be fine after a little while though.
Harold looked at the magic circle, then at Kairos, then at Sydney and Nicole. He ran towards them.
"Are you all ok?"
Sydney nodded a few times as she took a deep breath.
"Y-Yeah."
Chase spit out a mouthful of blood.
"…That was an unpleasant experience."
As for Tori, she still seemed to have just gotten out of hell itself.
"Wh… Where am I?"
Kairos pushed up his glasses.
"You're in heaven."
Tori suddenly sat up.
"What! I can't be dead!"
Then, she looked at her surroundings and blinked.
"…Oh, I'm not dead."
Tori massaged her temple with one hand and picked up her katana with the other.
"What happened to that weird guy?"
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"I kicked him into the magic circle. He's wherever that thing leads to."
Chase laughed.
"Thankfully you dealt with that quickly…"
He still had one hand over his heart, but slowly removed it.
Kairos sighed.
"Wasn't able to kill him, but… I was able to get this thing."
He held up the red prism closer to himself. The bottom part of the red prism had a spherical indentation. It seemed that it was somehow related to the red bead.
Suddenly, a status panel appeared in front of Kairos.
[Status]
[ID: 000000000001]
[Hide]
That was all that it said. It took Kairos a second to process, but he quickly realized what it was.
"This prism has its own status panel…"
Chase's eyes widened. He walked over and took a look at the status panel as well.
"…It does not tell much, though. Though the ID might be special in some way."
Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
"There is definitely some use for this. However, there isn't any instruction manual that tells me what to do…"
Nicole walked over to Kairos with a bit of an anxious expression.
"A-Are you ok?"
Kairos looked up, a little confused by the question.
"Uh, I think so? Am I wounded somewhere?"
Nicole blinked a few times.
"Ah, no, no. I just… you were so close to that guy…"
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"It's all ok now, don't worry so much."
He shifted his gaze towards the prism and narrowed his eyes.
"Instead… we should find out what this does."
Then, Kairos tucked it away.
"But before that, we need to get out of here just in case those guys can come back."
The others were more or less in agreement, thus with Kairos in the lead, they got out of the cave. He had remembered the order they used to get into this place, and decided to just use the same order to get out. From there, they walked up the steps and out of the cave, finally back into the neighborhood they were familiar with.
Nicole took a deep breath.
"…It's so strange to think that there's actually just a giant cave right underneath us."
Kairos rubbed his chin.
"I don't think that was naturally formed, at least not man-made."
Chase chuckled.
"The red veins, right?"
Kairos nodded.
"Yes. I think… I think that this prism should be able to replicate that. Unless the creation of the cave was actually one of their special abilities or something."
Tori raised both eyebrows.
"That… that would be so strong!"
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
"Would it?"
Tori scratched her hair with frustration.
"Yes. It is really hard to create a genuinely safe space, in any building, especially because of the windows. If you don't barricade them really well, then the monsters can just break through them. And even if you do barricade them well, they can still break through with a bit more effort."
She looked towards the prism in Kairos' hand.
"If… If that can create tough walls, then it means we can make a safe base anywhere."
Kairos slowly nodded.
"That does sound pretty nice."
He looked towards the others.
"Also, I'm feeling really hungry right now. Why don't we get to another grocery store and hope that it is not looted? Maybe then we can see if this prism really works and hole up there if it does."
Nobody was against it, and with that, the others set off towards another grocery store.
Sydney led the way as she was pretty sure she knew where the next one would be. Along the way, they met a few small groups of monsters. They were nothing too big to deal with, such that Nicole, Sydney, and Harold were enough to take care of them.
Kairos decided not to interfere because the points wouldn't have much use for him right now.
By the time it was relatively late in the afternoon, the group came across another grocery store.
But this time, there were corpses scattered across the ground.
A bloody battle was happening right at this moment.
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"Get the fuck out of here! You're not going to step a single foot closer!"
"I'm either dying right here, or walking over your dead body into that grocery store!"
Two large groups of people were fighting each other over control for the grocery store. It had worked up to be quite the messy fight, with many human corpses on the floor in the form of bashed skulls and people bleeding out from stab wounds.
Kairos looked at the groups and noticed that there were only a couple people left on each side. Not to mention, they were injured, so they would be very easy to take care of.
He took a step forward, but suddenly Chase called out.
"Wait."
Kairos turned around and raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
Chase slowly crouched down, gently laying his hand against the floor.
"…We should wait a little before getting closer."
Kairos blinked a few times.
"Did you hear something?"
Chase closed his eyes.
"I can feel the tremors."
It was then, Kairos could feel a very light rumble under his feet with his future vision. He then shifted his attention back to the front.
And there was a monster, hiding at the side of the grocery store.
However… instead of trying to take advantage of weakened people, it began running away. Like it was running for dear life.
The rumbling eventually became clearer, to the point that it was audible to everyone. Nicole blinked a few times.
"What… what is that?"
Tori furrowed her brows.
"Wait, I think I remember…"
Suddenly, a thundering roar resounded, one that sounded like a lion's, but heavily distorted. Loud thumps resounded one after another as a giant monster charged towards the grocery store.
This monster was over five meters tall, but that didn't truly encapsulate its size. That was because the monster was unbelievably burly, nearly being wider than it was tall. The arms were so large in relation to the rest of its body, it even beat those people that injected oil into themselves just to make themselves look extra muscular. Though most monsters had lost their hair, this one still had some yellow hair left on its head.
The group ended up backing up a little, even though they were already quite far away.
Tori spoke under her breath.
"That's the thing that threw cars around earlier!"
Chase sighed.
"It is quite unfortunate to encounter this creature right when we wished to access the store."
The monster charged in and picked one person up with one hand, messily consuming them, and smashed its fist down on another, obliterating them.
This made the people fighting each other panic. Some people began running away, which was a fairly normal reaction. However, some people decided to waste time to stab the people running despite a much greater threat before them.
In the end, because of these people who valued winning the fight over their own lives, the monster was able to either snatch up or kill every single one of these monsters.
Sydney recoiled slightly when she saw this scene.
"That is frightening."
As for Nicole, she narrowed her eyes, staring at the monster intently.
"Wait… is that Chad?"
Kairos' eyes widened as he also took a closer look.
"…Those are the same clothes. It is Chad."
Nicole blinked a few times.
"No wonder he is so muscular."
Chase rubbed his chin.
"It appears that it will be quite difficult to enter that grocery store, don't you think?"
Harold frowned.
"Difficult? There's no way we are going to get in with that thing in the way…"
Kairos let out a soft sigh and turned to Sydney.
"Where is the next closest grocery store?"
Sydney frowned slightly.
"…Not counting the ones we have visited, the next one is at least three kilometers away and a little off track."
Tori blinked a few times.
"Off track?"
Kairos rubbed the side of his head.
"…Off track if we want to get to the wilderness."
After a period of deliberation, he decided that there was no point in hiding it now. Chase raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything.
The monster began feasting on all of the dead corpses, prompting most of the group to look away.
Nicole smiled bitterly.
"Maybe we can go to the wilderness then find food there?"
Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Do we have anybody that knows how to gather food in the wilderness?"
Chase rubbed his chin.
"I've hunted game before, but in terms of the various vegetation that is edible, I essentially know nothing."
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his index finger.
"Would there be any wildlife in the closest wild that there is?"
Chase shook his head.
"Not for a while. There are measures that are taken so that most wildlife won't ever be close by. The most you would get are a few rabbits."
The anxiety of the food situation kept creeping up on Kairos, making him extremely stressed.
Seemingly noticing this, Nicole raised a finger.
"It's still ok! We can just wait for it to leave!"
Tori furrowed her brows.
"From what I've seen, that thing constantly rushes towards wherever it can find more food."
She sucked in a sharp breath.
"I'm pretty sure the only reason I escaped it was because it chased after another large group of survivors… and ate them instead."
Kairos blinked a few times.
"So that means…"
The monster looked around, seemingly aimless. But then, it turned towards the grocery store. Though the ceiling was quite high inside, able to contain the monster's height easily, the door was made for people that were roughly two meters tall.
However, that didn't seem to bother the monster as it rushed in, directly smashing through the door and wall of the place.
Kairos bit down on the end of his thumbnail.
Nicole's eyebrow twitched.
"O-Oh…"
There were several bodies inside the store, which the monster began eating without showing any manners whatsoever. Various organs and half-chewed flesh spilled out, splattering across the ground.
After being done with the bodies, it then grabbed onto the various packages from the aisles, devouring them whole, not caring about all the packaging it was eating in the process.
Kairos took a deep breath.
"…Well, we have two choices. We can run away and pray we get some food along the way, or we try to kill this thing."
Harold furrowed his brows.
"Isn't it obvious we should run away?"
Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Maybe if our metabolism was normal. However, right now, I already feel like I haven't eaten in days. I'm sure it isn't as intense, but still the same for the others."
Harold seemed confused.
"Eh? I don't feel that hungry."
Nicole muttered.
"Um… my stomach feels a little empty."
Chase raised his hand.
"I'm not hungry, but I also ate an energy bar just now."
Kairos took a deep breath.
As everyone evolves, this will mean they will need more food. This went for everyone on the planet, meaning that food supplies as a whole would deteriorate frighteningly fast as people continued to change.
"…There is a third option."
Nicole let out a soft gasp.
"What is that?"
Currently, the group was standing in the alleyway of a house. Kairos peeked into a window that was for some reason within the alleyway and looked in the house.
"We take the food inside these houses. Chances are, we will have to go through a few, but it will be enough eventually."
Chase tilted his head to the side.
"Ah, that is far easier. Why haven't we been doing that?"
Sydney seemed enlightened, and even excited. But then, she thought of the woman from earlier with her two children.
"…But we might be taking from people that need it to survive."
Tori pouted.
"I doubt they would live that long anyway."
Nicole's eyes widened.
"How could you say something like that?!"
Kairos sighed.
"I assume that some of you aren't in agreement."
Sydney frowned.
"I… I don't think I could do it."
Chase blinked a few times.
"Isn't taking food in general still taking what others could've needed? Just because it was from a grocery store and not a house doesn't truly change the fact. Yet, we did it. This is simply what we do to survive."
Kairos massaged his temple.
"If some of us are unwilling, then we should just drop it. Sometimes it's not about the actual morality of the action, but the perspective that they take."
He was tempted to convince the others to loot from the houses. However, he also knew that the cohesion of the team would weaken significantly. It would essentially become him, Chase, and Tori, against Nicole, Sydney, and Harold.
There was nothing wrong with this itself. However, Kairos still needed someone to watch over him while he slept, and he frankly could only trust Nicole and her parents for that.
And so, Kairos quickly ended the talk here.
He looked towards the giant monster.
"…How about this, the people that wish to fight with that monster can do so. Some of us would be a liability anyway."
Kairos attempted to pretend that the option of just running away didn't exist, and just suggested it instead of saying it outright.
Chase blinked a few times and looked at Kairos a little strangely, but chuckled.
"Well, since I have a bow, there is no need for me to get close to the danger, so I will naturally participate."
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
"As I am the one that needs the food the most right now, as I used many points after killing those monsters in the freezer, I will also participate."
Tori clearly seemed to be hesitating.
"We really can't just go through a few houses?"
Kairos closed his eyes.
"If you wish to split off from the team, then sure, you can go ahead and do that."
The corner of Tori's lip twitched.
"…I-I will help you fight it as well then."
Nicole raised her hand.
"Me too!"
Harold and Sydney both furrowed their brows. They were about to say something, but Kairos spoke up first.
"You can't participate directly."
Nicole's eyes widened.
"Ehh? Why?"
Kairos shook his head and put it bluntly.
"You will die too easily. Chances are, you may be more of a liability."
Nicole clearly seemed despondent.
"B-But…"
Kairos sighed.
"You can still help, but you will be on standby. If there is an opportunity, then you can take advantage of it."
He looked over, and noticed that Nicole still seemed a bit sad.
"…I'm counting on you to save me, alright?"
Nicole's eyes lit up.
"Ah, you got it!"
Kairos stood up and walked towards the grocery store.
"Then let's get to it."
The monster was currently rummaging through the aisles, not caring about anything else around it. Though that was fair enough considering it was essentially the top of the food chain right now.
However, it's not like a wolf has never been killed by a pack of deer before.
Kairos spoke softly to Chase.
"Since it's not paying attention, you might as well hit it with an arrow once we are close."
Chase laughed.
"That was the plan."
He lifted his bow as an arrow of mana congealed on top of it. As for Tori and Kairos, the two of them slowly got closer to the monster, taking note to not make too much noise.
The monster directly uprooted one of the aisles, then tossed it to the side, causing it to crash into something else. Then, it bent down and began eating some more food.
Tori and Kairos both got up close to the monster and raised their weapons.
They were close enough to feel the heat coming from it.
Then, Chase let his arrow loose.
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The blue mana arrow tore through the air, going straight for the giant monster's head.
Both Tori and Kairos had their weapons raised, and swung when they saw that arrow.
A clear bang rang out.
The monster was hit hard on the head by the mana arrow, forcibly ripping off some of the flesh and revealing a cracked skull. It couldn't keep its balance, slamming its head against the aisle it was eating from.
At the same time, both Kairos and Tori swung towards the monster's ankle, both having the same idea.
Both of them pierced through easily, but Tori found it difficult to pull her blade out from the monster's thick flesh. While Tori's agility let her have strong piercing power, her lack of strength still hampered her in the end.
The monster pulled its head out from the aisle it just crashed into, then let out a thundering roar that shook the ground.
Kairos saw the monster suddenly whip around and hit Tori hard, immediately killing her. Originally he expected for her to use that strange move that let her turn into mist, but it seemed she could no longer do that for now.
Kairos decided to try and save her life. He was confident enough that if he felt strong amounts of pain he could stop himself in time, so that his life wasn't lost.
And as such, in the span of one second, he pushed hard off the ground, grabbed Tori's arm, and pulled her out of the way.
Almost immediately after, the monster's hand slammed against the ground with a large crash, scattering shards of pavement everywhere. The katana was still stuck within the monster's ankle, however, Tori didn't care about that right now.
Her eyes were wide open while her heart beat frantically.
After all, she almost died just now.
Tori stuttered.
"T-Thanks."
Kairos frowned.
"Thank me by picking up one of the weapons on the floor."
Tori snapped to and looked at the weapons at her feet. The people from earlier were all consumed by the monster, but their weapons were still left behind, though they were bloody.
The two weapons within reach of Tori were a baseball bat and a small knife. Without hesitation, she picked up the small knife before getting some distance from the monster. Kairos was a little confused by her choice, but prioritized getting away.
The monster screamed angrily as it reached out towards the two. However, it stumbled as it tried to take a step forward. It was clearly hampered by the injuries it had taken to its ankles.
Kairos even had the time to peek at Chase, to see his state.
Though it was hard to see Chase from this far away, it wasn't hard to tell that he was a little out of it. Chances are, he wasn't used to shooting so many arrows within the same day.
However, Chase still had both hands on the bow, just not drawing an arrow back right now.
Kairos assumed that he needed more time to recover. He turned to Tori.
"Focus on stalling."
Tori nodded and took a few steps back.
The monster was still trying to walk forwards, but ended up tripping and falling down onto his knees with a loud thud. It let out a groan of frustration, staring at the two of them with its large yellowed eyes.
The monster used its hands to forcefully drag himself towards the two. However, while it wasn't that slow, both Tori and Kairos had enough agility, thus were able to run circles around it easily, leading it into various directions one after another.
Kairos was anxious at first, but realized that it didn't have the same frightening regeneration that Sydney had, thus was still crawling around. Eventually, he was even beginning to feel pretty confident.
Yet, as though he was jinxing himself, he suddenly saw a vision of blood red rain pouring down from the skies.
Less than a second later, it shifted to a vision of him soaked in that blood red rain, screaming and turning into a monster.
And finally, it showed him reaching out to touch a few drops of that rain, then him staring at this finger changing.
Kairos suddenly came to, gasping for air. The monster seemed to realize that and charged towards him.
Suddenly, it reached out with its hand, attempting to grab Kairos. However, while he was in a muddled state, that didn't mean he wasn't going to react. His future gave him plenty of warning time to jump up out of the way.
The hand slammed down hard on the place he was just in.
However, Kairos was not the most concerned about this. Instead, he looked up into the sky and noticed that a dark cloud was coming, and fast too.
He spoke as loudly as he could.
"Don't stay outside, it's going to rain!"
The others seemed a little confused, but the faint sound of rain gradually became clearer. Kairos panicked slightly when he noticed this. The raincloud was moving way too fast to be normal.
And so, he dashed into the grocery store, stepping right over the dead bodies.
The monster promptly followed, slamming against one of the aisles as it entered.
As for Chase, he began running towards the grocery store. Though he didn't understand why Kairos suddenly charged in, he felt that there must've been a reason that was enough to do so. On the other hand, Tori was feeling rather hesitant, but remembered that Kairos had saved her life earlier.
And as such, she dashed into the grocery store.
Kairos ran down the aisle as the monster behind him repeatedly slammed into them. Eventually, the monster seemed to realize that it wouldn't catch up, thus directly uprooted one of the aisles and threw it towards Kairos.
It shot through the air fast, but it wasn't like Kairos wasn't paying attention to what the monster was doing. His future vision was enough to know what was going to happen, plus the loud creaking sounds.
Kairos was currently in the middle of two aisles, so he grabbed onto the side of one and pulled himself up, flipping over it.
A loud crash and metallic screech reverberated where he just was.
After landing down, Kairos immediately continued running away. As for the monster, it directly smashed through the aisle to get to Kairos, roaring angrily as it did so.
It did not take long for the two of them to begin approaching the end.
Kairos decided to pick an arbitrary direction, dashing off towards the left. As for the monster, it decided to take a shortcut by directly breaking down the aisles in his way, traveling less distance than if it were to walk around.
It wasn't enough for the monster to catch up to Kairos, however, it got closer.
Kairos began sweating, not knowing how exactly he was supposed to deal with the thing behind him. Though he was fine now, it would eventually catch up.
Soon, he reached another dead end and was forced to turn.
With the strength of the monster, its movement was hardly impaired even when it was required to bust through obstacles to move forward.
And as such, it got even closer.
Kairos could feel the thumps of the monster's crawling from behind him, causing cold sweat to form on his back. He could tell that after one more turn, the monster would catch up.
To make matters worse, when he looked towards the front of the grocery store, he saw Nicole run inside, while her parents followed after her.
When he told them to go inside, he meant for them to go inside a house. However, it seemed that his earlier comment about counting on Nicole made her a little overambitious.
While Kairos was going through countless scenarios that could somehow salvage this situation, Tori suddenly leaped up from a nearby aisle, landing onto the monster's back.
The monster attempted to reach for its back, but Tori was able to nimbly avoid it and even climb up towards his neck.
After doing these crazy gymnastics, she had gotten right next to the messy wound left by Chase's arrow. Then, she slammed the knife with full force, straight into the exposed cracked skull, pushing it in partially and leaving it there.
Almost immediately after, the monster roared in pain. It reached towards its neck, attempting to catch Tori, but leaped off right after, doing a backflip in the process.
The monster turned around, ignoring Kairos completely, and then rushed towards Tori.
Yet, as it pivoted, a mana arrow shot from across the store, shooting straight towards the knife.
…But missed ever so slightly, landing onto the skull, further cracking it. The knife was lodged a little deeper, but it was still not enough.
Kairos couldn't help but raise both eyebrows when he saw what Tori did. He didn't even consider that as a method of combat before, running on top of the enemy. Though it seemed that his methods were too limited in view.
The monster's attention was now completely taken by Chase. It bulldozed straight through all the aisles, rapidly approaching him.
As for Chase… he still had that confident smile on his face. However, he wasn't moving.
In fact, he even ended up falling onto one knee, while his hand grasped onto his heart.
"Shit… it seems I have overdone it."
Chase could tell that the monster was rushing over to him. After all, that thing was five meters tall. However, he also didn't know what was left.
Chase began crawling towards the side with one hand on his heart. However, with how slow he was going, he wouldn't even be able to outrun a toddler.
It was a symbolic struggle, more than anything else.
As the sounds of destruction came closer and closer, Chase cursed under his breath.
"…I should've just stayed put."
He looked up to the side, seeing the giant monster right next to him, letting out a loud roar.
A bitter smile formed on Chase's face.
"And I already told myself I wouldn't be a hero."
His eyes narrowed as the monster reached for him.
"I'm an idiot, aren't I?"
Yet, right before he was about to be smashed into a pulp, a figure flashed by and swept him up out of the way.
As a loud crash echoed from behind him, Chase's eyes widened in surprise. He quickly calmed down and smiled.
"Haha, thank you, pretty flower."
He tilted his head to the side.
"Though I always thought that it would be me holding you in a princess carry as I saved you, not the other way around."
Tori clicked her tongue.
"Do you want me to drop you?"
Chase chuckled.
"Sorry, sorry."
The moment Tori saw that arrow fly through the air, she knew that the monster's attention would be shifted to Chase. Initially, she didn't care all that much, thinking of a way to use that diverted attention to kill the monster.
However, Tori also thought about the time Kairos saved her by just a hair. Though she didn't understand why he did it, that fact touched her. And as such, she decided to try and save Chase as well.
Though, that might've not been the best decision.
After all, now the monster was charging after Tori while she was carrying someone, all the while strength wasn't her strong suit.
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Tori began panting hard as she carried Chase's trembling body. She couldn't help but frown.
"Why are you so heavy!"
Chase gasped.
"How could you call a damsel in distress fat?"
Tori's eyebrow twitched. She opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it. Suddenly, she leaped up while holding Chase close, impressively vaulting over one of the aisles. Right afterwards, a large chunk of metal smashed at their location.
Upon landing, Tori grimaced as she used all she had to stabilize herself and continue running.
"You really can't move yourself?"
Chase chuckled.
"Honestly, it's hard to even speak. A fish on land would probably outperform me in agility right now."
A deafening bang resounded as the giant monster directly bashed through the aisles, continuing to chase after the two running away.
While this was happening, Kairos was looking towards the entrance of the store. Nicole and her parents were all looking at the monster in astonishment and fear. However, Kairos was paying attention to the red rain that was pouring down from outside.
Although it did not make much noise, the water from the red rain began seeping into the store, prompting Kairos to call out.
"Get away from the entrance!"
Nicole was the first to snap out of her stupor, hurriedly running away. As though that was a signal, the other two promptly did the same as well.
When Nicole looked back, she frowned.
"Is that blood?"
Kairos furrowed his brows.
"I don't know, just don't touch it!"
The red rainwater began seeping into the grocery store, slowly removing the safe ground they had to stand on.
Kairos climbed on top of one aisle and gestured with his hand.
"Get on top of one of these."
He then looked towards the monster that was currently chasing after Tori and Chase.
"I'm going to go help them."
Without waiting for a response, Kairos began jumping between the aisles, almost like he was playing a platformer game. There were several times where he saw himself fall in his future vision, but quickly changed how he landed each time, saving him from falling.
At first, Kairos was going fairly slowly, hopping between each one and making sure that he was stable. But after a few rounds, he just began running at full speed, only briefly pushing down with one foot on each aisle.
Like this, he quickly reached the monster just as Tori was beginning to despair
Kairos recalled how Tori had jumped onto the monster earlier, and tried to imitate it, jumping straight towards the giant monster.
And he succeeded.
However, Kairos quickly realized that getting a stable footing on the monster's back wasn't going to be easy. He saw himself slipping with his future vision after getting his feet on its back.
Though he attempted to shift the positioning of his feet upon landing in reality, he still saw himself slipping. Kairos frowned and decisively plunged his fire axe into the monster's back, pushing through the thick layers of muscle.
The monster immediately let out a roar and reached over to his back. Kairos could feel the vibrations while on its back and saw the hands rapidly approaching him.
However, before they could reach their target, Kairos hoisted himself up with the fire axe, like he was rock climbing. He promptly abandoned it, then grabbed onto the handle of the knife that had been impaled into the monster's skull.
Kairos held onto the monster's shoulder for support, then pushed inwards with all of his might. The bones had already been broken through, leaving only some sort of tight muscle that was really hard to push through.
Kairos' hand trembled as he continued to push down on the knife. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if this would kill it.
But he decided to bet it all on this.
The monster then reached for Kairos angrily, aiming to crush his body into a pulp.
Its arms cast a shadow over Kairos' body.
Yet, the person in question was not scared.
After all, he had already seen the outcome of this situation.
The monster abruptly fell limp, crashing against the floor like a rag doll.
The head continued to move, opening and closing its jaw repeatedly. However, other than that, there was nothing it could do.
Tori looked over her shoulder, then let out a sigh of relief when she noticed that the monster was killed. She abruptly dropped Chase, who got the wind knocked out of him after he hit the floor.
His eyelid twitched as he sucked in a cold breath.
"If I didn't know better and let my head hit the ground, I could've gotten a concussion or even died."
Tori clicked her tongue.
"Sucks for you."
Chase blinked a few times.
"You really don't know how to treat a damsel."
Tori kicked him in the side.
"You're a man! Stop calling yourself a damsel!"
Chase grimaced in pain, but still forced a smile.
"It's discriminatory to say males cannot be damsels!"
Tori clenched her fist.
"The definition of damsel is an unmarried woman!"
While those two were at it, Kairos took a deep breath. He pulled out his fire axe with a forceful tug, then walked around to the front of the monster's head, staring right into its eyes.
Kairos smiled as he rested the handle of his fire axe on his shoulder.
"It's kinda strange how our positions switched like this, Chad."
The monster continued to open and close its mouth, only able to produce the sound of its teeth clacking.
Kairos sighed.
"I know you weren't trying to help me, but honestly, you were protecting me for a while in high school. So thanks for that."
When Kairos was nearing the end of grade six, he had been a victim that had frequently been bullied by the other students and was known not to fight back.
Since he did not want to attract attention, he simply decided to take it.
However, there was one day when a group of three kids came up to him and attempted to take his glasses. Kairos saw this happen in his future vision and promptly dodged.
However, the kids continued to try and take his glasses.
Though Kairos was fine with being physically injured, these glasses were not only expensive, but one of a kind. They helped him deal with a large amount of his mental stress, thus were incredibly valuable to him.
However, the kids kept trying to take it.
And eventually, Kairos was forced to push one of them to get them off. He was relatively gentle and was able to force back each of them using his future vision to predict their attacks.
The three kids backed off. However, it quickly spread across the school that Kairos really liked his glasses.
And as such, many people would try to steal his glasses, especially for those three kids earlier.
Kairos got extremely pissed off by this.
And so, one day he decided to take action.
Kairos waited until it was recess, and as expected, the three kids were back at it again. Honestly speaking, Kairos just saw this as three kids that were just messing around, not really understanding that their actions were hurtful.
Which was quite a strange thought considering he was also a child.
However, Kairos wasn't confident that he could constantly protect his glasses from the others. There were already a few close calls.
And as such, he wanted to set an example.
Once the three kids walked up to him on the tarmac, they naturally reached for his glasses with their hands, smiling mischievously the whole time.
But this time, Kairos threw his fists.
With a dull thump, it landed right onto the kid's face.
The kid stumbled back, and frowned angrily. As for Kairos, he found his fist stung pretty badly from that hit.
The three kids immediately tried to gang up on him, but it wasn't like they were professional fighters. With the advantage of his future vision, Kairos was able to easily evade them.
In the end, he was able to slam one of their heads against the brick wall of the school, knocking them out. He was able to shove another kid, who fell on his back and got the air knocked out of him, making him cry.
As for the last kid, he tried to turn around and run. However, Kairos didn't want that to happen, so he tripped him.
From there, all three of them were down.
Kairos didn't really think what to do at this point, but then thought that these guys would probably come back to take revenge. If that really did happen, that would be far worse.
And so, he decided to break their arms.
Kairos pushed their elbow down onto the ground and pulled their arm back in the direction that it wasn't supposed to go.
Naturally, this was extremely difficult. He instead decided to step on their elbow while pulling up on their arm as hard as he could.
It was still difficult, but he was able to snap it.
Excited by the success, he proceeded to do it to the other two kids.
Most of them ended up screaming extremely loudly, but Kairos didn't mind it as that would probably intimidate the others more.
In the end, Kairos was also a dumb kid.
He was in essence, just like the others, not understanding how much harm he was causing.
In the end, all three boys were permanently crippled.
Kairos was going for the intimidation tactic, and it worked.
It worked a little too well.
In the end, he was expelled and had to finish the rest of grade six at another elementary school.
The parents of those three children tried to press charges, but it turned out that Kairos was too young in that specific government to be considered able to commit any crimes.
Kairos realized he messed up.
However, when he went to a completely brand new middle school, he was picked on again.
But there was this one bully that was considered the top of the food chain there. That bully was Chad. He arbitrarily chose Kairos to pick on, and while he was never nice, Chad cared more about sports than bullying. It was the satisfaction of exerting power that appealed to him more than anything else.
At the same time, Kairos was able to spread rumors that Chad would not let anyone else bully him. Kairos became his 'property'.
With that, while nobody dared become his friend except for Nicole, his life all the way to high school was relatively easy save for a few special cases.
Kairos looked at what Chad had become now. He raised the fire axe high with a smile.
"So long, my bodyguard."
Then, he let it slam down.
The monster's skull split in two, and its jaws gradually slowed to a stop.
[Killed Creature (Daring Kill – Two Ranks Superior to Killer) – 1.0 points awarded]
[First Ten To Daring Kill (Eighth – by ID: 345315364923) – 15 points awarded]
[Recalibration…]
[Points awarded will be evaluated as though the host is rank E due to (Daring Kill) accomplishment]
Kairos' eyes widened considerably. Though it was pretty reasonable that the giant monster's rank was higher than normal given its strength, he was still a little surprised by how many points he had gotten.
However, it seemed that there were also downsides to his feat, as his rank was now considered E. That meant the monsters that would normally give him 0.3 points, would now give him 0.1 points.
While this was not a good thing, Kairos had been considering trying to evolve his rank anyway. He took this as a calling to do so.
However, there were other issues to deal with first.
The rain was still bleeding into the store.
Kairos looked towards Tori and Chase.
"Hey, let's get to the second floor of this place."
Without waiting for their response, he waved towards Nicole and her parents who were on top of an aisle, looking at him with their mouths wide open.
"Let's go to the second floor!"
They seemed to get the message.
Tori got her katana back and walked away, prompting Chase to cough awkwardly.
"Could you… carry me? I still can't move."
The corner of Tori's eyebrow twitched.
"…You really are a damsel."
Chase was taken aback.
"That's just unfair."
Tori rolled her eyes with a smirk and picked him up.
As for Kairos, he lagged behind a little, crouching behind an aisle and opening up his status panel.
"Alright… let's do this quick."
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[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: F]
[Objective: Drink Red Rain]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 30.5]
[Stats –
Strength – 4.0
Endurance – 4.0
Agility – 4.9
Willpower – 4.0
Mana Capacity – 0.0
Magic Affinity – 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Hide]
The thing that immediately jumped out to Kairos was the extremely large amount of points that he had. It was to the point where he really didn't have to care about wasting them by adding them to his current stats.
However, one thing he almost missed was the changed objective.
[Objective: Drink Red Rain]
Before, it stated to touch the red sun. However, now it was to drink the red rain. By connecting all the dots, it wasn't hard to tell that they had a similar effect.
Nonetheless, that red rain was approaching right now, so Kairos did not want to waste any more time.
[Strength 4.0 – 4.9 Points 30.5 – 29.6]
[Endurance 4.0 – 4.9 Points 29.6- 28.7]
[Willpower 4.0 – 4.9 Points 28.7 – 27.8]
The expected warmth and hunger quickly assaulted him, prompting Kairos to grab a nearby snack and begin eating it.
…And waiting.
All of the options to add points were greyed out, meaning he could no longer add anything. Kairos assumed that the condition for evolution was maxing out all of these points, but it seemed a little more complicated than that.
Kairos' eyebrow twitched.
"…I'm missing something, right?"
His glasses had a few bloodstains on them, so he took them off in an attempt to have a better look at the status panel. Though in the back of his mind, he doubted that this would do anything.
Yet, the moment Kairos removed his glasses, his eyes widened considerably.
Because he could see a second vague status panel behind the first.
[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: 44/150 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup]
[Objective: Gain 6 Evolution Points]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 27.8]
[Stats –
Strength – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.0
Magic Affinity – 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Inborn Abilities: Shattered Truth (F-)]
[Hide]
The addition of 'Inborn Abilities' was a little startling to him, but it wasn't too big of a shock to him since he knew about his future seeing ability. Though he did think the name, 'Shattered Truth', was a little strange, he didn't mind it.
The main thing that surprised Kairos so much was how the rank and objective changed. Instead of the rank showing a letter, it was replaced by evolution energy. Along with that, it showed that there was a specific amount of evolution energy he needed to rank up.
The objective was also switched to gaining evolution energy instead. It seemed that the system was trying to help get people to evolve with the energy, but told them the most 'efficient' way of acquiring that energy.
Kairos could guess that too much evolution energy would have adverse effects and probably also force one to evolve. He probably did not want to go above 150, considering it showing 45/150.
He looked towards the giant monster's corpse, then became curious about something.
After a bit of hesitation, he stuck his hand into its open wound, letting the blood run down it. At the same time, he paid close attention to the evolution energy counter.
Kairos kept it up for thirty seconds, not seeing any change. In the end, he began retracting his hand as the red rain was starting to get a little close.
But right as he was doing so, it changed.
[Rank: 45/150 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup]
Kairos let out a soft sigh, realizing that even being in contact with other evolved beings would increase one's own energy. However, considering how slow it was despite being such a high ranked creature, it shouldn't be a problem if people were careful.
He then looked towards the red rain that was gradually creeping in.
Kairos recalled seeing himself touch a bit of that water with his finger. Honesty, he wasn't brave enough to do so, but still wanted some evolution energy. And so, he took a few steps forward, crouching down and keeping his hand above the red water.
Kairos made sure to be walking back slowly so his feet did not touch it.
And sure enough, just being nearby made his evolution energy rise slowly. It was close to the rate of about one point every fifteen seconds.
Just as he hit fifty, Nicole called out for him.
"Kairos? Where are you?!"
Kairos hurriedly got away from the red rain, closed the system, and grabbed a few packages of snacks. He then ran out into the open, waving the snacks around.
"Sorry! I just got a little hungry!"
Nicole looked relieved, but also aggrieved.
"There's plenty of food upstairs! Come on, hurry!"
Kairos nodded.
"Alright!"
With that, he promptly ran up the steps, meeting up with the rest of the group. This section had more miscellaneous items, such as clothes, purses, and even an electronic section.
Nonetheless, none of the group showed too much interest in the items.
Harold was just sitting around, while Sydney was eating some stuff she had found. As for Tori, she was sitting on a bench and Chase was lying down powerlessly next to her.
Nicole let out a soft sigh.
"I found him."
Chase lifted his head and looked at Kairos.
"You took quite a while."
In response, Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"Was a little hungry."
He then pulled out the red prism from his pocket.
"Anyways, now that there isn't anything trying to kill us, maybe we can try and figure out what this thing is."
Suddenly, the system popped up.
[Status]
[ID: 000000000001]
[Hide]
Kairos had his glasses on currently. He decided to take out one of the disinfectant wipes and begin wiping it to clean the blood off.
And that was when he saw the red prism display something else.
[Status]
[ID: 1/10]
[Energy: 7/1000]
[Hide]
Kairos was attracted by the change in ID, from just a one, to one out of ten. It seemed that this was a part of some ten-piece whole.
As for the energy, Kairos hedged a guess and assumed it was the same as the evolution energy. However, that wasn't the strangest thing to him.
He was the most surprised by the fact he… had an idea of how to use it now. Almost like it was some sort of instinct.
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
"…Is there a switch on it? Maybe?"
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
"Let me try something."
He tried to move the red prism with his mind.
Then, it began to float up out of his hand.
Tori raised both eyebrows.
"What did you do?"
Kairos scratched his hair.
"I'm not sure. It's a little hard to explain."
He then began thinking of creating a small platform.
Suddenly, red veins began to appear on the floor in front of him, rapidly expanding. Then, a stone platform began to rise out of the ground with those red veins covering it. The overall size was around the average dinner table.
Kairos wanted to try to do more, but found he couldn't
The red prism had dimmed substantially. While it was originally a blood-red color, now it was more of a mahogany.
Kairos peeked at the second status panel.
[Energy: 0/1000]
Sydney let out a soft gasp.
"You… you did that?"
Kairos rubbed his chin.
"It seems so… This prism is able to create things. Though it seems to have run out of juice."
He snatched it out from the air, continuing to inspect it for a little before tucking it away. Then, Kairos walked over to the stone table and gently felt it with his hand.
The stone was smooth, and so was the red vein.
He let out a hum.
"I'm going to test how durable it is."
Kairos lifted the fire axe up with both hands and tightened his grip. Then, he swung.
An extremely high-pitched clink rang out.
Kairos hit the stone table and ended up stumbling back a few steps. As for the table, there wasn't even a scratch.
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"That's sturdy."
Kairos nodded.
"Let me test if these veins have the same strength."
And so, he repeated the process.
Another high-pitched clink rang out.
Kairos stumbled a few steps backwards like last time. However, there was a bruised look on the vein. Though just a few seconds later, it healed back to normal.
Tori nodded approvingly.
"It did take a bit of damage, but this thing is still incredibly tough. We can use that to create a homebase wherever we want."
Nicole muttered to herself.
"…We can make a safe place."
Kairos' eyes drifted.
"One moment, I'm going to go see if I can add energy back into this thing."
He pulled out the prism and went back down the steps.
By now, a thin layer of red water had coated the bottom of the grocery store. Kairos held onto the prism by one end, then stuck it out so just the tip touched the red water.
In mere moments, the energy value shot up.
[Energy: 10/1000]
It began increasing at a rate of about 10 energy per second, but that rate quickly slowed down. The redness of the water around the prism decreased significantly. However, the redness from the surrounding water came to fill in the gaps quickly.
In the end, it began filling up at about 5 energy each second.
The prism went from its dark mahogany to red in just a few moments.
While Kairos was waiting, he was about to open his system panel. However, he quickly stopped himself.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Because Nicole was behind him.
Kairos turned around.
"Why are you here?"
Nicole pouted slightly.
"I'm not allowed to watch?"
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
"Just don't get too close to the red water."
Nicole nodded.
"Ok!"
She sat down on the steps, a little bit behind Kairos. After a moment of awkward silence, she spoke up with a small smile.
"It seems that the future we were talking about isn't that far away. Now that we can make those walls…"
Kairos blinked a few times.
He was very aware that while this prism could make a fairly sturdy wall, he doubted that it would last that long.
Everything was becoming stronger by the second.
And the best example was the giant monster that they just fought. Though Kairos wasn't sure if it would be able to break down walls made by the prism, it shouldn't take too long for something like that to arise if it already has once.
Though he wasn't sure if he should've stated the truth so blankly in front of her.
…But in the end, it was better to say it earlier.
Kairos shook his head slowly.
"All of the monsters are growing stronger. The walls will not be able to protect us forever, maybe only a year if we are being optimistic. The only real way of staying alive is fighting and growing stronger with the tide."
Nicole looked slightly despondent.
"Ah."
After a moment of silence, she smiled bitterly.
"…But wouldn't a year of comfort be better than just fighting for the rest of our lives?"
Kairos looked towards Nicole.
"Who said we would be fighting for the rest of our lives?"
He then looked towards the red prism that was slowly filling up with energy, but wasn't really looking at it.
"Surviving is for more than just the happy things."
Kairos' eyes became a little dull.
"It's to be proud of the life you lived, as fickle it may be."
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[Energy: 1000/1000]
Though it took quite a while, the red prism was finally fully charged up, no longer accepting any of the energy from the red water. It was now letting out a fairly strong glow, almost like it was a special light bulb.
Kairos retrieved it and shook off the few droplets of water still on it.
Nicole was still watching from the steps behind. She couldn't help but be interested in the glowing prism.
"It looks kinda like a glowstick."
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"A little bit."
Even after tucking it away, Nicole continued to stare at him from here.
Kairos couldn't help but cough.
"Are you going to go up?"
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
"I'm just waiting for you."
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"Don't worry about me, I just want to be alone for a moment."
Nicole seemed rather hesitant.
"O-Ok…"
She began walking up the steps, but took several glances over her shoulder before she left. Once she did, Kairos let out a soft sigh.
[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: 51/150 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup]
[Objective: Evolve]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 27.8]
[Stats –
Strength – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.0
Magic Affinity – 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Inborn Abilities: Shattered Truth (F-)]
[Evolve]
[Hide]
Kairos noticed the new option, evolve, just casually sitting there.
And so, he decided to press it.
Several panels popped up.
[Use 5 points for stable evolution? Yes/No]
[Use 10 points for natural ability? Yes/No]
[Use 5 points for Frost Spell or Fire Spell? Frost/Fire Yes/No]
[Confirm]
After a bit of deliberation, Kairos decided to put on his glasses, and saw something really different.
[Points will be used, if had, for evolution]
[Use 5 points for Frost Spell? Yes/No]
[Confirm]
The first two choosable options disappeared, while the option to take the fire spell had also left. Kairos couldn't help but furrow his brows.
It seemed that at least 5 points were needed for one to evolve stably, while 10 points would give some sort of ability. However, one wouldn't know that under normal circumstances given how vague it was. If one also wanted to acquire the spell, that would be another 5 points.
In total, that was 20 points for just the evolution. That kind of price was quite frightening given that his total stats did not even add up to twenty when they were maxed out.
…When the others tried to evolve, he would have to stop them before they hit twenty points.
It seemed that spells could only be acquired during the evolution process, or at least most easily during so. That meant that rising in evolution rank recklessly without enough points would be terrible for one's foundation. Their strength in the long run would probably decline significantly.
After letting out a soft sigh, Kairos put the glasses back on.
"…And here I thought I had plenty of points."
He selected yes for all the options and decided to take the fire spell. His reasoning was that it would let him start a fire, which they could then use to cook food. Though Kairos knew it was theoretically possible to start a fire out in the wilderness, he also had no idea how to do so.
Kairos double checked that everything was selected properly, and confirmed that the fire spell was what he wanted.
Then, he pressed confirm.
Almost immediately, Kairos felt his body seize up, but return control the next second. Warmth radiated from his body uncomfortably, while various strange squirming feelings filled up his entire body, almost like there were countless parasites within.
However, it also felt like the parasites were created from his own body itself.
Kairos noticed that his bones were growing larger, making him a couple of centimeters taller. He began to sweat from nearly every orifice as his body expanded ever so slightly.
The process itself was not painful, though it was uncomfortable. This was against Kairos' expectations, especially since all of the evolution he had seen was accompanied by painful screams and frightening mutations.
He eventually assumed that it was because of the five points he spent on a stable evolution. Perhaps if he didn't pick that… he would be turning into a monster right now.
After a while, Kairos felt that things settled down.
He was about to open his status panel, but before he could, something else assaulted his senses. However, it was quite pleasant.
Some refreshing cool energy began seeping into his body, circulating through his blood and giving him a strange sense of relief.
It was almost like he began breathing for the first time in his life.
After a bit of confusion, Kairos immediately thought of something.
Mana.
He opened up his status panel once more.
[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: 1/1500 Evolution Energy – 500 required for Rankup]
[Objective: Evolve]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 7.8]
[Stats –
Strength – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.1
Magic Affinity – 0.1]
[Special Abilities: Fire Spell (F), Pulse Spell (F)]
[Inborn Abilities: Shattered Truth (F-)]
[Evolve]
[Hide]
Kairos was slightly startled by the giant increase in evolution points needed for a rank up. However, he quickly got over it. Instead, his eyes went towards his mana capacity and magic affinity stat.
They were both at 0.1, as opposed to zero. Not to mention, the option to add points to them was no longer greyed out.
As expected, Kairos was able to gain the fire spell. On top of that, he gained the pulse spell which was the natural ability he spent 10 points on.
He intuitively understood how to use both of them. Though, he didn't exactly understand the theory behind it. It was like how most people could walk, but far less would be able to explain the specific muscle contractions needed in order to keep balance and walk forward.
Eager to test it out, he reached out with his hand towards the wall and casted the pulse spell. In the process of casting, Kairos already felt quite exhausted, the cool feeling circulating within his blood quickly disappeared as it gathered towards his hand.
Then, with a faint swish, a sudden force shot out of his hand.
It slammed against the wall with a dull thud. When Kairos moved his hand out of the way, he saw a circular dent in the wall, with a diameter of almost half a meter.
The dent was only a centimeter or two thick, but this was quite satisfying to Kairos. After all, his magic stats were as low as they could get right now. If they were increased, the power should also be increased tremendously.
After a period of deliberation, he decided that mana capacity was going to be his biggest priority. He came to this conclusion because of Chase, who frequently ended up unable to shoot his deadly arrows because of the lack of mana.
And so, he increased it.
[Mana Capacity 0.1 – 5.0 Points 7.8 – 2.9]
Kairos immediately felt like the blood circulating through his veins had become empty. However, he could feel the presence of mana in the air slowly filling up that emptiness.
He then thought about if he should save some points for increasing his physical stats. But considering they were already pretty high and his magic was lagging behind, he decided to dump it all into magic affinity.
[Magic Affinity 0.1 – 3.0 Points 2.9 – 0]
Kairos felt like the mana suddenly became clearer, almost like it used to be a faint fog, but now had condensed into little droplets.
He reached out towards the wall with his hand again, before gathering mana towards his palm. Something that was immediately apparent was that he could choose how much mana he put into the spell.
After a bit of hesitation, he decided to put less than half of the maximum mana he could inject in.
Then, let the spell loose.
A faint whipping sound rang out, and immediately after, a deafening bang reverberated throughout the building.
Kairos blinked a few times.
"Huh."
He did not need to move his hand to see that he had blown away the wall next to him, creating a hole that was roughly five meters in diameter. It was almost like the wall had been shot by some massive bullet.
Past the wall was the outside, revealing the red rain that came pouring down.
Nicole immediately rushed down the steps.
"Kairos? What happened?!"
Kairos coughed awkwardly.
"Um… it seems I have increased my rank."
Nicole blinked a few times.
"Eh?"
Kairos walked up the steps, and was greeted by both curious and frightful expressions.
Chase raised his head up from his lying position.
"Did something happen?"
Kairos coughed.
"So… that giant monster I killed earlier gave me a lot of points. And with those points, I was given the option to evolve. After doing that, it used up my points and I was given some spells to use. The sound you just heard was the effect of that spell."
Chase's eyes widened.
"…Wow. I'm jealous. If I was just a little bit more accurate with that arrow, I would've been the one to get those points."
He laid his head back down and sighed.
"But alas, my aim was off."
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"You will be able to increase your rank soon too, I imagine. Plus, you are already able to use mana, aren't you? If you did rank up, it would probably make your arrows even stronger."
Chase coughed.
"The chances for that are low."
Tori frowned slightly.
"We should've gotten some points as well. We took part in killing the monster."
Kairos blinked a few times.
"I don't think that's possible. It just seems that the points are given to the killer regardless. Anyway, since my rank increased I won't be getting as many points from the kills, so I will let you all do so if there isn't any big threat."
Tori let out a soft sigh.
"I suppose that's just the way it is."
Sydney had paused slightly, but then continued eating some food.
Seeing this, Kairos finally felt the extreme hunger from his body. He couldn't tell earlier because of his excitement.
"Hey, where's the food on this floor?"
Sydney pointed towards a direction and kept one hand over her mouth as she chewed.
"Over there."
Kairos jogged over to that location and began eating everything like a wolf. Everyone else also began eating.
Once they finished up, they decided to take shifts. Kairos was still not comfortable letting either Chase or Tori take a shift, thus rotated with Nicole and her parents.
Chase let out a casual remark about it, but did not protest any more than that. As for Tori, she didn't have a single complaint, directly falling asleep right then and there.
Chase and Kairos were both quite surprised with how little Tori cared, but that was probably better anyway.
And so, the night passed by uneventfully.
By the time morning came around, Kairos got up and stretched. He couldn't help but think he slept really well, despite doing so on a few pairs of clothes he took from the store.
It was then he remembered there were no longer any more nightmares about that red sun.
On the other hand, the others seemed half dead when they woke up, not used to sleeping without their beds. The only exception to this was Tori.
She had actually slept on the cold hard ground, not even getting anything underneath herself. And she woke up with a neutral expression, almost like sleeping like that was normal to her.
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
"Hopefully the rain is gone by now. If it isn't, then we will have to stay here for a little longer."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Then we should be able to make it to the wilderness."
