Kairos was beginning to doubt himself. He was thinking that it would be ridiculous that there would actually be a situation where a corridor genuinely had nothing within it. But maybe, there was just randomly a corridor with no traps like what Pablo had said earlier.
Yet, right as he was thinking that, he felt a stinging sensation on his neck from his future vision..
Kairos’ eyes widened considerably as he threw his head back reflexively.
Yet, the strange thing was that he didn’t see anything after doing so. His eyes narrowed intensely as he broke into a full sprint down the corridor. Nothing happened for a good few seconds, but then he felt a stinging sensation across his torso in his future vision.
Kairos leaped upwards and planked in the middle of the air. Once again, he didn’t notice anything passing by at all, but decided to trust what he felt. Inside he was feeling a little bitter, as just now he tried so hard not to rely on his future vision, yet here he was dealing with this.
Nonetheless, there was nothing he could really do.
Kairos did not see or hear what he assumed was a spell. He couldn’t hear it, nor could he see it. Not to mention, the only way he could feel it is if it directly hit him. This confused him greatly, making him wonder what it was.
However, one saving grace was that each attack was rather infrequent. It would only happen once, and happened every few seconds. The biggest problem was that for the life of him, Kairos wasn’t able to detect whatever attack that was.
Yet, after a while, he found that this situation was actually rather advantageous to him, while it would be very deadly for others. Because of his future vision, he didn’t actually have to detect it, so long as he could feel the pain.
In the end, he was able to get through it all relatively easily.
He made it to another room and set his foot down in there. However, he couldn’t help but look back at the path he was just on, wondering if he could even survive something like that without his future vision.
After rubbing his neck gently with his hand he looked forwards once more.
And in the distance from another corridor was Nicole, simply floating through it. It was apparent to Kairos that she was using her inborn ability, which made it so that the traps didn’t activate.
Nicole’s eyes lit up when they saw Kairos, and when she eventually did reach the room she ran up excitedly.
“Kairos!”
She pulled him into a hug without asking. It was almost like she was worried this would be the last time she’d ever see him.
“I was so scared…”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“What do you mean scared? Your ability lets you just phase through things.”
Nicole puffed up her cheeks.
“I was worried about you! I had no idea where you went!”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Anyway, we should focus on finding a way out of here.”
Nicole let go of him and gave a small nod.
“Ok!”
Kairos cleared his throat.
“How many rooms have you checked now?”
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
“Um… I think four? If I don’t include the one that I started in.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Huh. Well, what direction did you take each of those times?”
Nicole let out a soft hum.
“I just went one way, and then I eventually saw you.”
Kairos thought for a moment, thinking of what that implied. If he didn’t count the room he or she had started in, that would mean the length of this way was six rooms long. Assuming that this place was in the format of a square, there would be a total of thirty-six rooms.
His eyelid twitched when he thought about that. It seemed that his first run in the dungeon might’ve actually been quite lucky.
Kairos shook his head and decided to stop thinking about it.
“Whatever. Let’s start by going… that way.”
He assumed that the outer edges of this place all led to dead-end rooms. Since he went in a line, and Nicole did as well, they were still at the edge, meaning one way was potentially one of those dead ends.
And so, he chose the other one.
As for Nicole, she didn’t question that logic whatsoever and went down the path. She didn’t end up triggering any of the traps, seemingly because she was using her inborn ability to walk through it.
Kairos followed after and was immediately greeted by bullets. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he tilted his head forth, letting one glide past his neck. Though, there was no time to relax as the pace immediately picked up.
In a matter of a second, ten bullets fired toward him, making him twist his body and slide out his leg in a somewhat erratic manner.
The rate of bullets gradually sped up until there were roughly fifteen bullets firing at him each second. Kairos found this quite difficult. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder why it was so unreasonably hard.
Nonetheless, he focused on dodging. The bullets themselves seemed to move slightly slower than actual bullets. However, as he was just barely grazed by one, he could tell that their power was far greater than normal ones.
The actual dodging process wasn’t too difficult, especially with his future vision, but the problem was that there were simply far too many bullets to dodge. He could see Nicole ahead looking back with concern.
Kairos wanted to go faster, but if he wanted to dodge everything, then he would pause his steps frequently. Eventually, with the pressure of Nicole’s gaze, he couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t worth it.
Sure, he could dodge all of the bullets by a hair, but his main objective was still to get through the corridor. With this in mind, he grit his teeth and pushed forwards, knowing fully well that he would end up taking a hit for it.
A bullet tore through his thigh, splattering blood around and making Nicole look rather devastated.
Kairos let out a sigh and continued on, ignoring her reaction.
He once again got hit, this time in the shin. However, he also knew that would happen. With a frown on his face, he continued on with full conviction. There were usually one or two bullets that he wasn’t able to dodge each second, and all of them ripped through him almost like the bullets were actually a beast’s claws tearing him apart.
Most of the injuries were on his legs, but there was occasionally one that would pierce through other places like his lower torso or shoulder.
The entire time, Nicole looked like she really wanted to help, but also had no idea what she could do. Kairos made sure to put on as composed of an expression as he could to assure her that he was not in any real danger, though she still seemed rather scared.
After a rather tiring ordeal, Kairos was able to make it to the other end.
His legs were covered in abnormally large bullet holes, however, none of them were now that much of a big deal. When they did make it to the other side, Nicole and Kairos found themselves next to Chen, who was in the corner of the room panting to himself.
He looked over to see Nicole who didn’t have a single hair harmed on her body and the bloody mess that Kairos was before letting out a sigh.
“It seems like we shouldn’t have followed whatever it was that called out to you.”
Nicole was gasping for air, and the moment she could talk, she began freaking out.
“Are you ok? D-Do you need a bandage? I can use my shirt!”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“I’m fine, you can see that it has already stopped bleeding. Putting any kind of bandage over it wouldn’t help anyway.”
Chen nodded when he heard that.
“Seems like you focused a decent amount of points on your endurance. Seems like that saved your life.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I suppose. How are you faring?”
Chen sighed.
“I need a little rest, but I should be able to go through the pathways pretty easily. Though, I have no idea which direction we are supposed to go in. Are we even actually supposed to be going anywhere?”
Kairos cracked his neck.
“Probably. The system called this place a dungeon, and in games, those are usually places where you grind for stuff.”
Chen furrowed his brows.
“But the original definition of a dungeon refers to something like a prison or cell.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Well, no point in waiting around. We have to at least try to get through. Though, I don’t recommend going through the path I just went.”
Chen rubbed his chin.
“There were quite a few bullets. Hm… I’m going to test how strong they are.”
He then stood up and walked to the corridor they had just been in. Yet, surprisingly enough, bullets didn’t shoot out. But rather, a spear suddenly burst out of the wall. Chen was able to dodge it easily and got back in the room, but a confused expression was on his face.
“Huh? That’s strange.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes as well.
“…It is.”
He stepped back into the corridor, and a bullet was fired in his direction. Kairos immediately got out of the way, letting it slam into the ground and shatter into pieces.
“The traps are different for different people.”
Chen gave a small nod.
“That is indeed quite strange. Seems like we can’t scout for each other then.”
Nicole gradually calmed down when she realized that Kairos wasn’t even crying out in pain. Then, out of curiosity, she took a step into the corridor she had just come out of, and a spear burst out of the wall from the exact same direction that it did for Chen.
“…Eh?”
Chen raised an eyebrow.
“That is strange. It seems only to be different for you”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“Ah, whatever. Let’s just focus on trying to find an exit. Where did you come from?”
With the information, he predicted the reason why it was like this was because he had completed the dungeon once before. Naturally, he didn’t want Chen to mull over it any longer just in case he was really sharp.
Chen looked towards a corridor and gestured with his chin.
“That’s where I came from. I guess we have to choose between one of those two.”
Yet, as he was saying that, there were sounds coming from one of the corridors. And the person responsible wasn’t Pablo.