“Wait, he’s still out there, he must be out there!”
Nicole was reaching out, while Chase was holding her back, though clearly seemed to be struggling in the process.
He clicked his tongue as he pulled.
“Of course he’s still out there, he isn’t the type to just die like that. If we just wait, he will naturally show up.”
Nicole’s lip was trembling.
“But… but… what if he’s in trouble?”
Kairos coughed awkwardly and gave a weak wave.
“Uh, hello.”
Chase looked up with a bit of surprise.
“Oh, hey you’re back.”
Kairos nodded.
“Yeah.”
Nicole was frozen on the spot when she initially saw him. Then moments later, she uncontrollably broke out into tears. She slipped out of Chase’s grasp before running towards him.
At that moment, Chase furrowed his brows and looked down at his own hand.
“Eh?”
Kairos let out a sigh and gave a small wave.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. You can calm down now.”
Nicole still rushed towards him, which made Kairos feel a little awkward. He could see that she was going for a hug, but didn’t really want to do so right now.
As Nicole got closer, Kairos decided to just ignore her for now, and just let her do as she wished, as embarrassing as it was. It would probably lower his image of a ruthless leader to the rest of the people, but he could find a way to work around it later.
But then, his eyes widened.
Because he saw everything went black once Nicole got near. The sensation of someone colliding into him never happened. A moment later, his vision came back, but Nicole wasn’t there.
From behind him, he heard Nicole’s voice.
“H-Huh?”
Kairos turned around and saw that Nicole was actually behind him. He quickly pieced various things together before realizing that she must’ve somehow phased through him.
Nicole stared at her empty hands for a moment, before turning around to look at Kairos with a gaze of despair.
“I… I’m dreaming?”
Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose, quickly realizing this was getting complicated.
“Nicole, Chase, go to my room for now, alright? I’ll see you there soon.”
Chase broke out of his confused stupor first and headed back to the center of the city. As for Nicole, she had still convinced herself she was somehow in a dream and began muttering to herself about something.
Kairos tried to reach out to her, but his hand phased right through her shoulder.
He then let out a resigned sigh.
“Get to my room, alright? You can worry about stuff there. Just go. Oh, also try to get Tori and Sydney there too.”
Nicole slowly looked up with teary eyes. It was fairly clear she still believed that the Kairos in front of her was an illusion. However, she still got up to her feet and began walking back toward the center of the city.
Kairos took a deep breath.
Before turning around to look at the rest.
“Come with me, since you’ve made it here you all have to be assigned to one of the plots of land to farm.”
With that, he also walked towards the center of the city.
Though, he couldn’t help but stop, because Quinn was mumbling something to himself like a crazy man.
Quinn’s eyes were on the wall, looking directly at him. However, his eyes were also unfocused, showing that he was actually deep in thought.
“The wall… can move on its own. But how? What is making it move?”
He then pressed his hand against the wall.
“It is clearly durable, made out of some kind of tough material. But doesn’t that also mean that it’s quite heavy? Is this the work of some hydraulic forces acting on the door? Or maybe it is because of some sort of material. Though it could also be hollow on the inside…”
Kairos cleared his throat.
“Um, shouldn’t you be worried about the fact you’re starving to death first?”
Quinn broke out of his stupor, with fluttering eyelids.
“Oh, righ…”
He abruptly cut himself off, before falling down like he was blown over by a gust of wind.
Kairos caught him by the back of his shirt before he fell. With a small sigh, he began dragging him along, almost like he was carrying a dead body with him.
The others began following without saying anything about the situation. They gazed around the place curiously, and also had faces filled with hope.
The various farmers working on the fields ended up looking at them curiously, wondering who these new people were.
But as much staring as people did, nothing major ended up happening.
Upon reaching the center apartment, he held out his hand.
“All of you wait here, I’m going to talk with someone who can work on you all getting assigned.”
With that, he walked in while dragging Quinn along with him.
As he was going down the hallway, off to go into Tiana’s room, he found himself running into the person in question.
She appeared a little surprised seeing him there, and let out a small gasp of surprise.
“Oh, you’re finally here. I know I said you could, but I didn’t think that you would actually leave for about a week before coming back.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I didn’t plan it either, but a few things came up that delayed me by quite a bit.”
Tiana nodded, before taking a glance at Quinn, who was being dragged around while unconscious.
“Um, is there a reason you need to drag that around? Or are you trying to find a way to dispose of a body?”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“It’s just someone I picked up. He may not be strong, but he seems to be quite smart. I want to give him a chance to try and be useful with his head.”
Tiana nodded.
“Ah, alright. He definitely looks like he’s going to need something to eat though.”
Kairos shrugged.
“Seems like it.”
Tiana put a finger on her chin.
“Then do you need another room for him?”
Kairos opened his mouth with the intention of saying yes but ended up closing it soon after.
“Well… there’s no need. He can take Sam’s room for now.”
Tiana’s lips parted slightly, about to ask a question, but she tactfully stopped herself.
“I see.”
Kairos waved his hand.
“Anyways, do you need any extra people to begin farming? I brought quite a few over here.”
Tiana put her hands together.
“Oh! You didn’t need to, but there are quite a few plots of land that aren’t taken. I can get someone to assign those people.”
Kairos nodded.
“They are just outside the building. I gotta talk to some people for now, so I’ll see you later.”
Tiana reached out one hand to gesture him to stop.
“Ah, I need to talk to you later about some things related to the city, please come to my room after you’re done.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Alright, I’ll be there soon enough.”
With that, he first put Quinn into where his father’s room was before coming back down to open the door to his own room. Despite this not being the first time inside, he still was a little dazzled by how luxurious it all was with the multiple couches and floors.
At the moment, Tori was lightly bouncing up and down on one of the bigger couches.
“Wow, why is his place so much better than mine?”
Chase waved his hand.
“Well, he’s the one that girl cares most about, so that’s only natural.”
Nicole was hugging her knees sitting on top of the couch, lightly sobbing to herself. Chase shot her occasional glances, clearly confused as to why she was so sad. On the other hand, Sydney seemed to be quite lost, not really thinking about anything.
Kairos closed the door behind him and waved.
“Hey, sorry for the wait.”
Tori immediately turned to look at him and raised her arm to wave, but cringed in pain before letting it fall back down again.
“Agh… Hello!”
Chase leaned back into the couch he was sitting on and rested his arm on the back.
“Hey, I was waiting for a damn while for you to come.”
Sydney slowly turned to look at Kairos and let out a small gasp.
“Kairos… you’re actually back?”
Nicole first looked at Kairos, then at the other two.
“You guys can… see him?”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“Um, yeah? Can you not?”
Nicole blinked.
“It’s… not a hallucination?”
She slowly got up to her feet and walked over to Kairos. She slowly brought one hand up to Kairos’ face before lightly touching it.
“Wh- you’re real!”
In response, Kairos sighed.
“Yes, I’m real. I’m a little confused about what happened earlier, but I think that might be your natural ability at play.”
Nicole wasn’t really listening, and instead threw herself at him, giving him a big hug.
“I was so scared!”
Kairos rolled his eyes but didn’t fight it.
“Alright, alright, I’m here now. You can calm down.”
He gently patted her back with his free hand, waiting for a few seconds before Nicole eventually let go.
Nicole looked a little dazed.
“Wait, so earlier… that wasn’t a hallucination?”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Do you not know what your own natural ability is? Of course not.”
That was when Chase spoke up.
“Um… but I’m pretty sure she’s still F rank, right? How would she have an ability?”
Kairos’ eyes widened when he heard that.
“What?”
When his gaze suddenly darted to Nicole, it made her jump slightly.
Kairos shook his head.
“Are you really F rank?”
Nicole slowly nodded.
“Y-Yes?”
Kairos sucked in a cold breath.
“Can you open your status panel?”
Nicole did as told, but still looked quite confused.
[Status]
[ID: 934783245676]
[Rank: 98/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup]
[Objective: Evolve]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 90.5]
[Strength – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.0
Magic Affinity – 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Inborn Abilities: Lost (F-)]
[Evolve]
[Hide]
Kairos’ eyes widened in surprise for multiple reasons.
The first was that Nicole’s evolution energy was dangerously high. From what he could surmise, if that reached one hundred, she would start transforming into a monster. And that was obviously a bad thing.
The other was how many evolution points she had. Kairos didn’t remember exactly how many points he got from the dungeon, but the number should be quite close to the amount she had now.
Though the biggest thing was definitely the fact her inborn ability that used to show ‘Lost (Null)’ now showed ‘Lost (F-)’.
In other words, this was the activation of her inborn ability that somehow unlocked.
Kairos opened his mouth, about to question her about it. However, he decided it would be better to talk about that in private. Instead he asked something else.
“Why are you still at the F rank?”
Nicole looked at him curiously.
“Um, I thought it would be better to wait for you to help with the evolving since you can give extra options. Also it would give more points when killing monsters, right?”
Kairos sighed.
“Of course, but there are also disadvantages. Naturally people will get stronger, so you also need more strength for that. But also, having a higher rank gives you more resistance to transforming into a monster.”
Nicole let out a small gasp.
“Really?”
Kairos nodded.
“Let’s do the evolution right now, just in case.”
The corner of Chase’s lip twitched.
“Um, could you help me out as well after?”
Kairos nodded.
“Sure.”
Nicole took a deep breath.
“Ok… what options do I have?”
Kairos pressed the evolve button for her, and saw a variety of options.
[Use 5 points for stable evolution? Yes/No]
[Use 10 points for natural ability? Yes/No]
[Use 5 points for Frost Spell or Lightning Spell? Frost/Lightning | Yes/No]
[Confirm]
He rubbed his chin.
“There’s either frost or lightning?”
Kairos expected her to ask for his opinion, but to his surprise, Nicole made her own decision.
“Could I have the frost spell?”
Kairos slowly nodded and after selecting the various options, he pressed confirm.