[Quinn]
[ID: 701584234432]
[Rank: F+]
[Objective: Evolve]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 40.3]
[Strength – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.0
Magic Affinity – 0.0]
[Special Abilities: N/A]
[Evolve]
[Hide]
After opening his status panel, Quinn pressed onto the evolve option without much hesitation.
[Use 5 points for Wood Spell? Yes/No]
[Confirm]
Kairos considered telling him that he could help give him more options if he was the one that did it, but he doubted that Quinn would care much about offensive power anyway, and didn’t seem to be the type of person to care about fighting.
Though, considering the points he has now, he seemed to have fought quite a bit in the past.
Quinn clicked yes for the wood spell and proceeded to press confirm. He then closed his eyes, as his body began to redden and heat up.
After a minute or so, he opened his eyes once more.
“Hm… it really is quite a strange feeling. I’ve learned the spell, yet haven’t at the same time.”
He opened his status panel once more.
[Quinn]
[ID: 701584234432]
[Rank: E-]
[Objective: Survive]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 20.3]
[Strength – 4.9
Agility – 4.9
Endurance – 4.9
Willpower – 4.9
Mana Capacity – 0.1
Magic Affinity – 0.1]
[Special Abilities: Replicate (F), Wood Spell (F)]
[Hide]
Without thinking too much about it, he maxed out his mana capacity, sending it straight to 14.9, and increasing his magic affinity with the rest, sending that to 5.6.
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Say, you said you were going to break a promise, but I don’t see you doing anything particularly strange…”
Quinn casually shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, it was a casual promise, more than a real one.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
Quinn sighed.
“To explain it, I’ll have to backtrack slightly. I was in a group with a few other people, and we all decided to take care of all the monsters inside the apartment we were in. In that way, we worked together to take care of several monsters. Although there were close calls, all of us were able to make it out of every fight alive.”
He blinked a few times.
“And so, we eventually got some points and were also given the option to evolve. One of our party members did it without hesitation, but when he did it, his body began contorting strangely, almost like he was a ragdoll. We hadn’t seen someone evolve before, so we thought that it might’ve been normal.”
He let out a faint chuckle.
“Unfortunately, it turns out it was very much not normal. One of our strongest party members had turned into a monster, and we faced heavy casualties before finally putting him down. We originally had the full support of everyone in the apartment, they believed in us fully, that we would be able to protect them all. However, once they found out one of us had transformed, the treatment had reversed fully.”
Quinn blinked a few times.
“After thinking about it for a while, I figured that there must’ve been a solution to properly evolve. Considering that it was possible to spend points in order to acquire new abilities, I figured that points would also be useful for the evolution process itself. I proposed this idea, but it was immediately shot down by everyone, even when I volunteered to be the experiment. One of our more emotional group members made us all promise we would never evolve.”
Kairos paused for a moment.
“I see.”
Quinn shook his head.
“In the end, our biggest threat wasn’t the monsters, but the people that had lost their trust in us. They began trying to kill us, and with most of the party heavily injured, it was nearly impossible to fight back. All of them ended up dying, and I holed myself up in that closet you found me in.”
Kairos nodded.
“…I imagine you don’t like those people you protected then, especially since they backstabbed you.”
Quinn let out another sigh.
“…Well, a small part of me does. But I also understand the reason they did all of that was just how human emotions work. People rarely ever think about logic, even if they think they do. In reality, humans are just things led around by their emotions.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I guess it can’t be helped considering humans have evolved to use emotions to survive.”
Kairos slowly nodded.
“…So, what did you get in your evolution?”
Quinn tapped his chin.
“Well, other than feeling quite hungry, I now understand two spells. Though, they are both quite strange.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“Strange? In what way?”
Quinn let out a small chuckle.
“Perhaps it’s best I show you.”
He raised his hand before channeling mana into his palm. After a few moments, a piece of paper was gradually conjured into his palm.
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched.
“…I guess we don’t have to worry about paper anymore.”
Quinn laughed.
“Guess not. Though, I must say my other ability is far more intriguing.”
Kairos smiled.
“Oh, now my expectations are up. Please show me.”
Quinn raised his hand, and a piece of paper conjured in it once more. Kairos was initially a little confused as to how this was different, but then he saw that the piece of paper looked exactly the same as the outline he had created earlier.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
“…You can just duplicate things?”
Quinn shook his head.
“No, it’s a little more complicated than that. There are several requirements that I am sure of. In fact, it’s not really a duplication spell in the first place. I have to completely memorize something, or I suppose visualize what I wish to create. Then, I have to also completely understand the processes behind how to actually create what I am imagining. From there, both the quantity and complexity cause it to use more mana.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“That is… indeed strange.”
Quinn looked at the pencil and raised his hand again. Then, another pencil slowly conjured on top of it. He furrowed his brow.
“Hm… it appears I’m already out of mana. This ability is quite taxing.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Seems quite useful, especially for a person like you.”
Quinn clicked his tongue.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
Kairos cracked his neck.
“It means whatever it’s supposed to mean.”
Quinn sighed.
“Alright then.”
A strange expression formed on his face.
“Though, one thing I must say is that I did not feel the flow of mana within myself at all. Most of my focus was actually on what was happening internally, but it wasn’t as though it was vague, but rather I couldn’t even catch it.”
Kairos nodded.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant by knowing the spell but having no idea about the processes behind it.”
Quinn looked at him strangely.
“Then that begs the question… how were you even able to create that diagram?”
The corner of Kairos’ lip turned up.
“Because of special circumstances, I can see mana.”
He figured that he would have to reveal that sooner or later, though it wasn’t exactly the biggest secret to keep. It would be preferable if Tiana didn’t know about it, but maybe she didn’t know her execution ability was directly related to mana.
Though it was wishful thinking, Kairos just decided to hope.
Quinn was rubbing his chin with great interest upon hearing that.
“Hmm… no wonder your diagram was based on someone else rather than yourself.”
He looked at the diagram depicting the frost spell once more, then closed his eyes.
After a few moments, he opened them again.
“…This is quite annoying.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“What do you mean?”
Quinn sighed.
“Although I know where the mana is supposed to go, I have no idea how to manipulate it properly. Since there is no indication of how mana flows through my body, it feels like playing a first-person shooter with the monitor turned off and without sound.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“You played those kinds of games before?”
Quinn spoke flatly.
“When I was young, yes.”
Kairos stared at him strangely, with a look of disbelief. As for Quinn, he looked back and could tell what Kairos was thinking.
“Look, people change when they get older. Is it really that strange?”
Kairos paused.
“…I suppose not.”
Quinn shook his head.
“Anyway, your ability to see mana is honestly quite unfair. You should be able to learn many spells, while others will lag behind tremendously in this aspect. In fact, I doubt they will even try, because they don’t even know that it’s a possibility.”
Kairos laughed.
“I guess so.”
Quinn stretched.
“Anyway, I’m both hungry and tired so I’m going to leave. If you want to talk more about this stuff, just knock on my door.”
Kairos gave a small nod.
“Alright.”
And with that, Quinn left.
Kairos leaned back into the couch, feeling that he had gotten a little sidetracked from his original goal, a countermeasure against Tiana’s strange mana execution. Although, when he thought about it, going down the path of learning spells was probably the only way he would find one.
And realistically, there wasn’t any rush since while Tiana was cruel, she seemed to favor him along with the rest of his group by quite a bit.
Nonetheless, it made Kairos feel uncomfortable.
He shook his head and decided he might as well continue trying. One of his ambitions was to learn how to cast someone else’s natural spell, such as Nicole’s invisibility. However, one slight problem with that was the complexity was on another level. It wasn’t just twice as hard, or even ten times as hard. Kairos simply doubted that his manipulation of mana could even do the correct motions required.
This was what made him decide to take small steps towards that eventual goal. He would first learn more elemental spells and also master them.
With that in mind, Kairos looked down at the frost diagram once more and began to practice casting it over and over, using the minimum mana for the spell to output.
Later on, he was called to join the rest of the group to gather points, and he joined them.
For a few days, he repeated this routine.
In the morning, they would spar against Tiana. In the afternoon, Kairos would practice the frost spell. And at night, they would fight against the monsters.
During this time, Tiana had notified him that she wanted to enact the plan to create an artificial river in roughly a month. Along with that, Kairos also got Quinn to help him create an outline for other elemental spells.
Soon enough, they were in the middle of the third week of the apocalypse.
It was getting close to night on this day, so Kairos was wrapping up his spellcasting practice. By now, the fridge was coated in a very thick layer of ice. It would probably take a while for it all to melt.
After putting away all the drawings Kairos stood up.
Yet, right as he did so, he collapsed to his knees, while grabbing onto the sides of his head.
He had a vision.
First, it flashed to the city showing all of the farms, except all of the farmers were groaning in pain as they immediately transformed into monsters. There was a strange and concerning red glow coming from the ground.
Then, it flashed to Tiana with a strange horrified look.
Then, it flashed to him walking in the middle of the city road with the others. There was a strange red glow coming from the ground, causing the bottom of their shoes to begin burning to ash. Except, that was the least of their problems, as all of them were grabbing onto the sides of their head as they transformed into monsters. The process was far slower for Kairos, but it was happening to him as well.