Chen saw several chains wrap around his body. For some reason, he couldn’t even think about struggling against the chains. All he knew was that he would die. And that it would be painful.
He didn’t know why he had that strange instinctive feeling, however, he didn’t doubt for a single second. Despair began setting in along with deep fear. Desperation took hold like nothing before.
Kairos and the others saw Chen clench onto his knife resolutely, and swing it. However, it was not towards anyone else. But rather himself.
The expression on his face told of how desperate he was to kill himself right then and there. Yet, as the knife traveled towards his neck, it suddenly stopped. The extremely tense expression on Chen’s face disappeared out of nowhere, replaced with one that looked hollow.
Somehow, it looked even more lifeless than the face of a dead man.
Kairos saw a notification.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
[Basic Promotion Missions Finished – Additional Information About Abyss Realm Available]
He gave it a glance, but refocused on what was happening with Chen. For the next few seconds, he just stood there petrified. It almost made Kairos wonder if the notification was somehow for something else.
However, his doubt was washed away once he saw Chen gradually tip over and fall to the ground, landing on one of his daggers. If it wasn’t clear that he was dead before, the gushing blood from his neck made it clear that there was no way he was going to live regardless.
Pablo watched the entire thing with a complicated expression.
“What… what happened?”
Kairos blinked a few times as he began thinking of what could’ve possibly happened.
“He seemed to be a person who was really hung up on being a good person for whatever reason. The spell I used tends to make people face what they don’t want to, so he probably died over guilt for abandoning everyone.”
Although that wasn’t exactly what happened, this was his genuine prediction. After all, it didn’t really make sense to him otherwise.
Pablo blinked a few times.
“…Why does he care so much about the rest of the group? Didn’t he even say that he would sacrifice me despite how much I’ve contributed?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I dunno. I guess sometimes people just build their entire identity around something. I guess what Chen did was build it around being a good person.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“And he ended up paying with his life for thinking that way.”
Pablo frowned.
“And here I thought Chen was smart. How could he die in such a stupid way?”
Kairos shot him a glance.
“Everyone needs something to hold themselves together. Apocalypse or not.”
Pablo scoffed.
“I don’t need anything like that.”
Hearing that, Kairos decided just not to respond. He gave a glance to Nicole, who was just looking at him passively the entire time. Eventually, he coughed.
“Well, anyway… I’m going to go back with Nicole. We just collected a few red crystals in that cave for evolution points, so we’re done for now.”
Pablo’s eyes widened slightly.
“Red crystals?”
Kairos nodded.
“Yeah, just go in there and get some red crystals and after you come back out you’ll get a point for each one you collected.”
Pablo nodded with a clear interest in his eyes.
“Ah, then I’m going to do that.”
Without another word, he went inside.
Kairos let out a soft sigh afterward and whispered to Nicole afterward.
“I finished the first three parts of my promotion mission.”
Hearing that, Nicole smiled.
“Ah, that’s great! What do you have to do next?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Let’s go back to my room first. I’ll have a look after I get there.”
Nicole gave a small nod.
“Ok!”
The two of them went all the way back down the stairs. As they went back down, they ended up encountering Oliver once more, but he didn’t even seem to notice them so they passed by each other wordlessly.
Once Kairos got back into his room, the holographic projection spoke up in a rather robotic-sounding voice.
“You can use your evolution points to trade for dungeon points now!”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched.
“…Ah, so they changed the system like that?”
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
“Eh? You make it sound like you’ve been here before.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“In particular, I’ve been to a dungeon before, yes.”
Nicole let out a gasp.
“R-Really? But when?”
Kairos waved a hand.
“It was when that weird plant thing took me away. Afterward I got ended up accidentally triggering the dungeon, but it worked out in the end.”
Nicole let out a soft sigh.
“Oh… that sounds scary. But at least you’re ok now.”
Kairos slowly nodded. He couldn’t deny he was at least a little frightened, especially when he ended up fighting an invincible giant skeleton, one of the disciples of the church. He shook his head.
“Anyway, I’m going to take a closer look at what the final mission is all about.”
[Promotion Mission]
[Requirements –
1 – [Broken Limits]
Limit break each stat. Stats can be limit broken through using Prestige. These points are naturally acquired if one ranks on a global leaderboard (Dungeon Leaderboards do not count).
2 – [Trademark]
Upgrade one ability to the D-Rank. Any ability may be upgraded to complete this mission. If an ability was previously upgraded to D-rank, then this mission will automatically be completed
3 – [Proven]
Kill a creature at the peak of D-Rank. The peak of D-Rank is classified by any person that is currently working on their promotion mission.
4 – [Custom – Isolation]
Spend thirty days alone in the Abyss Realm. Further information about the Abyss Realm has been unlocked.
The first three requirements were grayed out, as he had already finished them. The only thing left was the fourth one, which had a paragraph of additional text underneath.
[Additional Information]
[The Abyss Realm generally can only be accessed once one of the beings of the lowest floor opens a gateway. However, this can be circumvented with a teleportation spell provided by the system.]
[This teleportation will only be provided once. In order to fulfill “Custom – Isolation” The teleportation must be completed without any intelligent living organisms nearby. Otherwise, it will automatically fail. Afterward, once thirty days have passed, an automatic teleportation will allow you to come back up. In order to start the teleportation, a large amount of mana must be gathered first.
Currently needed mana – 10.3x current maximum mana]
Kairos narrowed his eyes as he looked at all the information. The mana requirement wasn’t too big of a deal to him considering he could just recover mana from the surrounding environment. The only issue was that he felt a little reluctant about the thirty days requirement.
From what it sounded like, he wasn’t going to be able to come back to this world for a long time. Thirty days might not be the longest time in the world, but it definitely wasn’t short. Especially not when so many people were rushing to get stronger.
The only thing Kairos could hope for was that whatever this abyss realm was, there was still a way for him to get evolution points.
Nicole scratched her cheek in curiosity.
“Um, what is the mission? I can’t see anything.”
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“I have to go somewhere for thirty days, it looks like.”
Nicole let out a small gasp.
“Ah, then I’ll come with you!”
Kairos’ eyelid twitched when he heard that. She probably wouldn’t take kindly to hearing that he would have to go alone. After a bit of thought, he slowly shook his head.
“It would be better if you focused on your custom mission. It will be easier to complete it when we are separated.”
Nicole looked a little distraught when she heard that.
“But… but… I can just do it with you, right?”
Kairos cleared his throat.
“How about this? We will first complete the third part of your mission in this dungeon, then after I finish up some business I will go to do my own mission. If you can finish your custom mission before the thirty days are up, then you can come to me.”
This was a lie for the most part. Though he didn’t exactly know where this abyss realm was, from the sounds of things it was almost impossible to get there via normal things. However, he was pretty sure if he told Nicole the truth, she would probably have some sort of breakdown.
Nicole believed this lie, but nonetheless, she didn’t seem to be willing.
“I… I can do it really quickly! T-There’s no need for that.”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“If you can do it quickly, then we basically won’t be separated. Then it will be fine, right?”
Nicole bit the bottom of her lip.
“I…”
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“Even if you don’t complete it in thirty days, I will come back to see you once those days are up, alright? But try your best to finish it within that month. We are separating to get stronger. That way we can spend time in the future together without worry.”
Nicole despondently looked at the ground.
“…Ok.”
Kairos let out an internal sigh of relief.
“Thank you for being so understanding.”
Nicole let out a sniffle and grabbed onto his arm with both hands, snuggling intensely. She let out child-like grumbling sounds too.
Kairos sighed when he saw this.
“Look, I’m not going right away. I’ll stay for at least three days before I go, ok?”
Nicole nodded slowly.
“Ok… but I’m not letting go for now.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Alright then, we can just sleep here then.”
Nicole smiled.
“I’ll go buy the blankets!”
Though it sounded like she was going off on her own, she ended up dragging Kairos to her own room in order to buy the blankets, then for whatever reason, she went back to his room to lay them back down.
After putting down the blanket and pillow, she immediately got under while pulling Kairos with her. Then, without hesitation she wrapped her arms and legs around him, clinging to him almost like a spider.
Kairos blinked a few times as he faced her clinging.
He thought that it would’ve been easier to deal with this, as he had already dealt with this several times before. However, now it suddenly felt a little more unsettling. Before, even if Nicole was being overly clingy, it was in a very gentle way.
Now, she was holding on a little more tightly than normal. Though it wasn’t painful, it felt a little different, which made it quite unsettling to Kairos. However, he decided not to worry about it.
It was probably just because she knew they would separate soon.
