Kairos let out a soft sigh as he continued to run through the forest. He tucked away the green crystal for now, deciding that he would try to experiment with it after. If things came down to him really needing the ability to see mana, then he could try the last resort and stick it into his eye.
Though, he knew from experience that would be quite the unpleasant experience, which was why he decided to hold off for now.
At first, there was only the sound of his footsteps hitting the grass. But as time passed, Kairos could begin hearing the buzzing sounds of insects.
He was initially concerned about having to deal with evolved insects which would probably be quite annoying. However, he couldn’t quite catch a glimpse of any of them. In fact, whenever he got close to any of the nearby sounds, they would suddenly disappear.
It almost made him feel like he was imagining those sounds, but they would appear behind him right afterwards, like they were making fun of him.
Kairos didn’t harp on that fact, but there wasn’t much to think about as he continued to run through the forest. At some point, he caught a glimpse of an insect scampering off, just barely in the corner of his vision.
This immediately reminded him of the other time he had seen monsters that were afraid.
It was due to the presence of his mother, which was fair enough given how exaggeratedly strong she was. But this time, it was his presence that seemed to deter the insects away.
They seemed to have an instinctive way to not only detect beings with a high rank, but a built-in command to run away from them. Kairos wondered why he could never feel anything like that though.
There were definitely times when there was a nearby high-ranked being, but he did not hold that sense that told them where they were. If he did have that, then he wouldn’t have been unaware of his mother’s presence until she plainly announced herself.
Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly as he continued to run.
It seemed to be an ability that normal humans didn’t have access to, as none of his party noticed any danger either. He wondered if there was a way for him to gain that ability without turning into a monster.
As he was thinking about this, he noticed that the surrounding trees and foliage had begun to thin. Then all of a sudden, he came to a clearing that showed a city in the distance.
Kairos couldn’t help but wonder how Ling was able to find this place when it was quite far away. He originally believed it was quite close, but taking into account how long he had walked, it was at least a couple of kilometers.
While it wasn’t too big of a deal for him to run that distance with his stats, it shouldn’t be nearly as easy for Ling to scout this far. From the looks of it, Ling had probably spent quite a bit of effort in those three days to track down the place that they came from.
That meant he originally wanted to return with the others, but somewhere along the way, he changed.
Or Kairos was misinterpreting it and Ling just used some special way to find this place.
As he got closer to the city, he noticed certain landmarks he remembered in the distance. It was one of the apartment buildings still standing. The reason why it stood out was that many of the other tall buildings around it were either knocked over completely, while some of the others were heavily damaged.
Kairos could generally pinpoint the direction he was initially separated from everyone but decided against it. After all, they were probably gone by now.
He instead guessed the general direction of the city that Tiana resided in before heading off there.
The one week deadline to return was getting close, and if he was to reunite with everyone else, that would probably be the best place to do so.
And so, he made his way into the city and went in that general direction.
Along the way, he met a few monsters that were out and about on the streets. Upon noticing him, they rushed towards them with a roar. Kairos noted that they didn’t seem to be afraid of him before performing a horizontal sweep with his spear.
With a light whip, it streaked through the air and cleanly decapitated the few monsters that rushed towards him. Their heads soared in the air before smacking onto the ground along with their bodies.
Kairos lamented over the fact he acquired no points in the process, but that was one of the natural disadvantages to ranking up he was just forced to deal with.
He continued to move forth, but that was when a child-like voice called out.
“Please help us! We-”
The voice was suddenly cut off, as someone anxious begged the person to be quiet. Although they did so in the accent of a whisper, it was actually almost as loud as the shout from earlier. Though, the person doing so didn’t seem to realize.
“You’re going to get us killed!”
Kairos spared a casual glance to where the voice had come from. He saw that there was a girl several stories up in an apartment, sticking her hand out of the window and waving. Behind her, was a woman who wrapped one arm around the girl’s torso and used the other to cover her mouth.
The two were desperately fighting each other, one trying to pull forwards and the other back.
Kairos could tell from their movements that they were very weak.
He instinctively thought that they were faking it, but quickly discarded that thought process. After dealing with powerful people for so long, he forgot that there were also others that were just trying to survive.
Kairos watched their struggle go on for a few more seconds.
He couldn’t help but speak up.
“Is there really a point to continuing? I’ve already seen you.”
The woman holding back the little girl suddenly trembled, unable to put any strength into her arms anymore. This let the little girl break free letting her wave her hands in the air and boldly speak out.
“Yes, yes! Please help us! You are so strong, you must be able to!”
Kairos rubbed his chin.
“It is true that I could help.”
The little girl nodded excitedly.
“Yeah!”
The corner of Kairos’ lip turned up.
“But I could also get myself some food by breaking into your place to steal all of it.”
The little girl’s expression froze on her face. On the other hand, the woman couldn’t help but express her distraught in an ugly, deep frown.
“Please, you can’t do that!”
It was at that point a third voice came from behind.
“We can’t negotiate anymore, we have to escape now!”
Hearing that, the woman did not argue, instead grabbing onto the little girl and dragging her back.
Kairos let out a sigh.
“That’s a good plan, but there’s one small problem with it.”
As he said those words, his knees bent slightly. Then, he pushed off the ground hard, letting him shoot up into the air.
His foot slammed into the window sill and he used one hand to grab onto the side of the window for balance.
On the inside, was a little girl, a woman, and a teenage boy. They all looked at him with expressions of both shock and fear.
Kairos gave a small wave.
“Hey.”
They remained rooted to the spot for a few seconds.
That was when the teenage boy suddenly rushed forth, closing both of his eyes with his hands out in front of him.
“Run away!”
The woman cried out. She grabbed onto the boy’s shoulder.
“No, don’t!”
The boy turned around with a frown.
“You have to run, don’t worry about me!”
However, the woman refused to let go.
“No, your father said we all had to live, remember?”
Tears formed in the boy’s eyes.
“And for you to live, I will have to give up my own!”
He ended up breaking free.
“AHHHHH!”
The little girl cried out
“No, big brother!”
With both eyes closed and his head lowered, the boy ran towards Kairos and shoved him.
…Unfortunately, Kairos hadn’t moved back whatsoever. And that was including the fact he hardly exerted any strength.
He coughed awkwardly.
“So have you got it out of your system yet?”
The boy slowly opened his eyes and looked upwards. He was clearly filled with fear.
“I-Impossible.”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“I just jumped up several stories and landed right in the window frame. You couldn’t have expected that a light shove would be enough to knock me down, right?”
The boy fell onto his rear.
“No… it’s all over.”
The woman and little girl also had expressions of despair.
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyways, if all of you are at F rank, I can bring you to a farm to work on.”
The three of them froze in place, having difficulty processing the situation.
The little girl was the first to recover.
“So… you came to help us?”
She had a wide smile on her face, forgetting all of the fear she just held onto earlier.
Kairos shook his head, making the girl cringe. But before they plunged into despair, Kairos spoke.
“First off, you have to be F rank. If that is the case, then I can give you the choice of working on a farm. Though you must note that ninety percent of all you harvest will be collected by the city.”
Both the boy and the woman began to calm down after a while.
While they were working up on the words to speak, Kairos took a casual glance around and couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
“This place… smells as bad as it looks.”
There was trash strewn about everywhere, with a room even half ajar with trash spilling out of it, while the washroom seemed to have feces spilling out too.
Kairos had definitely gotten used to smelling bad things from the amount of blood he smelled along with interacting with several people that hadn’t showered in a while.
However, the smell here was still far worse by comparison.
“How can you even live in this place?”
The little girl’s smile drooped slightly.
“We don’t have another choice.”
Kairos nodded.
The boy clenched his fists hard.
“We… we are F rank. How much food can we get from working on the farms?”
Kairos shrugged.
“Ten percent of everything you grow. It will be enough if you work hard enough,”
The woman frowned.
“We… we can’t accept leaving this place.”
The little girl stamped her foot.
“No! I’m not staying here anymore!”
The boy’s breathing got a little heavy.
“Give us… give us twenty percent and we will go!”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“Look, I made you an offer based on how that place works out of consideration for your situation. Frankly, I really don’t need you to come.”
The little girl rushed to Kairos and hopped on the spot.
“We will go! We will go!”
The woman bit her lip.
“No! It’s not safe to leave!”
The boy seemed hesitant, but then he took a glance at the place he was in. It was practically a wasteland.
“Mother… we have to go.”
The woman looked down.
“But-”
“We can’t survive here!”
The boy shouted with clenched fists. A sad frown was on his face, while his voice softened considerably.
“This is our only chance…”
The woman froze on the spot, but slowly nodded a moment after.
“Ok… ok, ok…”
Kairos sighed.
“Alright, hurry up and pack whatever you want to bring. I won’t wait for long.”
The three anxiously went to pack their things upon hearing that.
At that time, a window slowly slid open.
“Um, could we take part in your deal too?”
A young man poked his head out of the window and timidly spoke.
Kairos casted a glance.
“F rank, and ninety percent will be given to the city.”
The young man nodded quickly.
“Thank you! I will get ready now.”
Then… several other windows slid open, revealing even more people.