Kairos cleared his throat.
“Chen, do you have enough points to reach the maximum rank?”
Chen blinked absentmindedly before responding.
“Huh? Oh… I think so.”
Kairos gave a small nod.
“Ah, then why don’t you get ready for the promotion?”
Chen furrowed his brows slightly.
“I don’t have enough food to support the evolution anyway, why are you in such a hurry?”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched.
“Some of the people here are probably really strong. You saw that kid, didn’t you? He had enough strength to easily push you away. Maybe he’s even at the C rank already! I’ll even let you use my dungeon points to buy food, alright? The most important thing is staying alive.”
Nicole hurriedly nodded.
“Staying alive is the most important thing…”
Chen narrowed his eyes slightly. He seemed to ponder over it for a few moments before sighing.
“Yeah, you’re right. If you’re really willing to go so far as to use your dungeon points as well, then I can’t say anything more.”
He opened up his status panel. Seeing this, Kairos began channeling the gale spell and made sure to do it as quietly as possible too. While that was happening, Chen began adding points without suspecting a thing. Nicole watched on curiously, but didn’t say anything.
The process itself was a little tedious, so it took him quite a bit of time to accomplish. This gave Kairos ample time to prepare the spell. It seemed that Nicole had an understanding of what was going on and wordlessly took a few steps back.
The expression on her face wasn’t one that was concerned or fearful in any way. In short, it seemed as though she didn’t care about how they were killing someone they were working with for such a long time.
Although Kairos didn’t want her to mope and whine about it, how little she cared was still a little off-putting to him. Nicole stared directly at Chen rather than looking away, fully intending to watch everything happen.
Kairos couldn’t help but feel her character has been more and more off lately, but decided not to think about it now. The most important part was finishing his promotion mission. He kept his eyes on Chen’s fingers as they tapped on his status panel.
By the time he was about to tap his screen one more time, about to max out his stats, he sighed.
“I’m not going to intentionally use up all your points, but I’m not going to lie, it probably won’t be enough even with them all.”
The corner of his lip twitched before he gave a careless shrug.
“Yeah, but there’s no helping it. Maybe if Nicole is willing, she could hand over some points too.”
A bitter smile formed on Chen’s face.
“Ah, whatever. The most important thing is surviving.”
Kairos muttered.
“Yes… Yes, it is.”
As Chen upgraded the final point, he let out a sigh.
“Anyway, let’s go back. I should be able to promote any moment…”
He trailed off as he stared in front of him. From Kairos’ perspective, he didn’t see anything. However, he was fairly sure that the promotion requirements had appeared. Though he could’ve kept channeling the gale spell, he had already done so for roughly thirty seconds now and figured that now was as good of a time as any.
Yet, when he released the gale spell at Chen’s neck, he saw in his future vision that while it would cut in, it wouldn’t cut in all the way through. However, he quickly thought of something.
Out of nowhere, he suddenly threw his head back. At the same time, he sneakily released the wind spell at Chen. Before Chen had a chance to read the requirements for promotion, a sharp bang resounded from his neck.
A scar that appeared on his neck suddenly formed.
His eyes widened in surprise as he hurriedly covered his neck with his hand, slowing the bleeding. Kairos couldn’t help but internally marvel at his endurance, but on the outside, he acted like he was panicked.
“Someone attacked! But where?”
Hearing that Chen looked around himself like a lost lamb, but there didn’t seem to be anything for quite a long while. Chen furrowed his brows intensely.
“What the fuck? Where did that come from?”
Kairos acted frustrated.
“Whatever! Just promote already. Whoever is attacking us clearly isn’t some sort of a pushover!”
Chen grit his teeth.
“I can’t! There’s a bunch of missions that I need to complete first.”
Kairos furrowed his brows.
“What? The hell are you talking about?”
Chen cursed under his breath.
“That’s not important now, just try to find whoever’s attacking us!”
Kairos sucked in a cold breath.
“Fine!”
As Chen looked around like a man with paranoia, Kairos followed suit. But in reality, the entire time he was just channeling for another gale spell.
In the midst of their watch, Kairos spoke out, trying to keep Chen from figuring anything out.
“Hey, I… I think this person is targeting me. Whatever that attack was, it was definitely coming for me.”
Chen narrowed his eyes as a frown formed on his face.
“It went straight for my neck. It’s clear that they’re targeting all of us. It was right after I had put in all my points too…”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“I… guess so.”
After channeling for another thirty seconds, out of nowhere he performed another exaggerated maneuver to dodge before releasing another gale spell at Chen. This time he was prepared, flicking his knives in the direction of the attack.
An uncomfortably high-pitched shriek resounded.
And right after, a series of cuts appeared on Chen’s chest and arms. They were small and all shallow, but it still caused damage to him. Kairos clicked his tongue before looking off into the distance.
“I really think they want me dead for some reason!”
Chen frowned.
“It looks like it, but it looks like they plan on hitting me if you dodge.”
Kairos nodded.
“That makes sense.”
Internally, he let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like Chen was following his logic. The last thing he wanted for him to think was how suspicious it was that all of the attacks were going straight toward him.
While they were continuing to act panicked, Chen eventually caught onto Nicole. She was just standing in place, staring at Chen with more or less hollow eyes. This made Chen frown.
“What are you doing just standing there? Look around for the person targeting us! You’re going to get hit if you just stand there!”
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. He coughed awkwardly, trying to salvage the situation.
“Don’t worry about her! She’s fine, don’t you remember how she walked down all those hallways unscathed? She can remain invulnerable.”
Chen furrowed his brows harder, feeling something was off, but unable to put his finger on what..
“…I guess so.”
After a few moments, he shook his head.
“Staying here is no use! We have to close the distance and try to attack them.”
Kairos promptly nodded.
“Ah, right! I didn’t think of that.”
And so, Chen rushed forth, where the last gale spell came from. As for Kairos, he lagged behind, pretending he was really exerting himself. The expanse really was wide, meaning they had quite the distance to run if they wanted to go all the way to one side. But at the same time, it looked like Chen was willing to do so.
That was when Kairos pointed the spell at Chen once more, releasing it.
At the same time, he cursed and ducked down.
“Shit!”
The gale spell slammed hard onto the back of Chen’s head, sending him toppling forward and doing somersaults. But the strange thing was that despite being a spell that should instantly kill most, there was only a bloody bruise on the back of his head.
Kairos began to realize that perhaps he had made a poor choice on the person he waited to grow. Although he knew Chen must’ve had some sort of skill that made him more durable, he didn’t think it would be to this extent. Though he was unclear about the power of the gale spell, he was fairly sure if he took the hits that Chen had, he would die.
Yet a few moments later, he stood back, albeit dazed.
Kairos took a deep breath.
“Fuck! They’re playing around with us! Why can’t I see them at all?”
Chen let out a painful groan while a hand was on the back of his head.
“Goddammit… goddammit… what is happening?”
While he was doing that, Kairos swirled the mana around in his body in order to replenish his mana. And to his surprise, it happened rapidly. If he were to compare it to the normal rate, this would be at least five times faster.
He was beginning to prepare another spell when Chen called out to him.
“Hey! You should add points to your stats now too! There’s no point in holding onto them in this kind of situation.”
Kairos furrowed his brows.
“Now is not the time! I’m going to get killed if I just stand around.”
Chen didn’t relent.
“Their attacks are only happening every thirty seconds or so. Just do a little bit at least! That much can’t hurt.”
Kairos shook his head.
“And what if it does?”
Chen narrowed his eyes.
“Then at least show me your status panel so I know what to expect from you!”
Hearing this Kairos once again shook his head.
“What? Just know I’m not that strong. Can you focus on the fight we’re having now?”
A glint flashed by in Chen’s eyes. The way he looked at Kairos was different. Out of nowhere, he lunged at him with the daggers.
Kairos backed out of the way.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing?”
Chen scoffed.
“I should be asking you that! Are you the one casting those spells?”
Kairos was honestly surprised that Chen was sharp enough to notice something, but he decided to keep up the act regardless.
“Huh? Since when? I haven’t even made the motions for a spell yet! Why are you targeting me?”
Chen’s lip twitched.
“…If it isn’t you, then sorry. But this is just to be safe! After all, surviving is the most important thing!”
Chen seemed to pull two red daggers out of nowhere. Bright purple flames were emanating from said daggers. It was fairly clear that he had no plans of holding back any longer.
Seeing this, Kairos narrowed his eyes. He released the gale spell once more, but this time he had only channeled it for ten seconds. Chen didn’t even try to dodge, letting it slam into his chest and leave a bright red scar. At the same time, he yelled.
“I knew it! I knew it was you!”
Kairos rolled his eyes before channeling the pulse spell.
“Took you long enough.”
Chen swung his daggers with conviction, while Kairos retaliated with his spear, though only used one hand to hold it, making it seem as though he was using a really long sword.
Kairos’ knees bent down as he swiped forth, slamming into one of the knives before he leaped back. Seeing this, Chen threw the other knife at him. The purple flames began dimming, but still showed to be pretty strong as they came towards him.
In response, Kairos twisted his leg at a strange angle, forcefully bringing him to the side. Chen retrieved the knife before continually trying again and again. However, it quickly became apparent to him that Kairos was strangely good at fighting.
Though he wasn’t perfect, the techniques that he picked up from the last dungeon helped greatly, making him seem like a pro.
Chen grit his teeth.
“…This entire time, you were pretending? For what?”
Kairos didn’t say anything. Instead, he suddenly closed in. Chen took advantage of this opportunity, stabbing his knives into Kairos. But the strange thing was, Kairos didn’t even try to dodge, getting himself hit pretty badly.
Chen’s injuries were beginning to heal, while Kairos appeared to wither. But before Chen could celebrate, he saw a glowing blue palm vibrating slightly right at his stomach.