Soon, the city was within sight of the three of them. Kaede couldn’t help but gasp in awe that someone was actually able to construct something like this.
“But… how? The amount of coordination to build walls this high…”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure, but I think that it was actually made by only one person.”
The corner of Kaede’s lip twitched.
“…Huh. I guess my perspective is still too small.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Honestly, there isn’t much to it right now, but it’s something.”
Kaede laughed.
If this isn’t much, what does that say about everyone else?”
Nicole giggled.
“That’s just because we are super strong!”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Above average, at least.”
The gate opened for them, and the three of them got back inside. As they walked back into the city, Kairos noticed that everyone seemed noticeably more relaxed compared to normal. From what he could tell, it seemed that all of them were rather well fed.
In fact, he could even see people that were boiling potatoes with cooking ware they got from somewhere.
Upon making it back to the center building, they met with Tiana who was waiting at the center entrance. She gave a small wave and glanced at Kaede.
“Hey, who did you bring with you?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“A friend made along the way.”
Tiana raised an eyebrow.
“Is that so?”
Nicole gave a small nod.
“She knows so many things!”
Kairos cleared his throat.
“One other thing that I wanted to say was that I’m going to be leaving for roughly a month soon.”
Tiana’s eyes widened.
“You just came back, and now you’re telling me you got to leave for even longer?”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“Sorry. I’m sure you can just ask Quinn about some things while I’m gone.”
Tiana looked back at him for a few moments before sighing.
“Alright, whatever…”
She glanced at Kaede.
“There are still some rooms on the third floor, just take one of the ones that aren’t occupied.”
Kaede gave a bow.
“Ah, thank you!”
She didn’t exactly understand who Tiana was, but she was still able to glean that she had a substantial amount of authority, and thus naturally felt like she had to be more formal. Though, Tiana didn’t really seem to care about her. Instead, she was more focused on Kairos.
“What are you even leaving for?”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“It’s for my promotion mission. It’s not like the city will fall apart entirely just because I’m gone for a little, right?”
Tiana let out a soft sigh.
“I guess so, but don’t just up and leave randomly, ok? At least tell me before you do so.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Fine, fine.”
With that, Tiana left. Nicole led Kaede up the third floor to show her the rooms she could take while Kairos went to his own room and prepared some food. Nicole and Kaede both came back later, and the three of them went through a large amount of food.
As Kairos was finishing up he let out a sigh.
“I guess I’ll be going now.”
Nicole flinched.
“Y-You don’t mean the leaving for one-month thing, right?”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“What else could I mean?”
Nicole pouted.
“But it’s too soon!”
Kairos took a deep breath.
“I am leaving now, but that is so we can spend more time together in the future.”
Nicole let out a sad hum.
“But does it have to be now?”
Kairos shook his head.
“The sooner I go, the sooner I can come back.”
Nicole bit the bottom of her lip. She clearly did not want this to happen, but she eventually nodded.
“…Ok.”
Kairos stood as a small smile formed on his face.
“I’ll see you soon enough.”
Nicole smiled sadly.
“Ok…”
Kaede at some point coughed awkwardly.
“Uh, see you.”
From there, Kairos left without looking back. As promised, he went over to Tiana’s room and knocked on the door, as he was planning on leaving. Tiana answered promptly and raised an eyebrow.
“You’re going already?”
Kairos gave a small nod.
“Yeah. Is there something specific you wanted to discuss with me before I leave?”
Tiana thought for a moment before nodding.
“Come inside. It’s not too important, but I’d prefer if other people didn’t hear.”
Kairos did so without much complaint. Once he stepped into her room, he found that it was in a far messier state than before. No, perhaps the better word to use was chaotic.
There were charts scattered all across the place, covering nearly the entire place. It was rather difficult to even walk around. Nonetheless, Tiana navigated it rather easily, clearly quite used to walking through the place.
She led him to a set of folding chairs and the two of them sat down across from each other.
Kairos let out a chuckle.
“This place has gotten… a little crowded.”
Tiana shrugged her shoulders.
“There are more things to keep track of, so there’s no helping it. Regardless, the thing I wanted to tell you about is that soon I should be able to help you from afar. For your promotion mission, it might help out quite a bit.”
Kairos rubbed his chin in interest.
“Really? How does it work specifically?”
Hearing that, Tiana smiled bitterly.
“I… I’m not really sure. It’s honestly a little confusing.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Is the ability description too vague?”
Tiana furrowed her brows.
“No, it’s more like that ability isn’t showing up at all. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy and that somehow gave me superpowers.”
Kairos laughed at first, but his expression gradually turned serious soon after. He quickly realized that the ability must’ve been an inborn one.
“…Do you mind if I look at your status panel?”
Tiana raised an eyebrow.
“I already showed it to you before, so it’s fine. But why do you want to see it?”
Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly.
“I just want to confirm something.”
Tiana looked back at him for a few moments before eventually nodding.
“Alright then, mister mysterious.”
She opened up her status panel, and Kairos directly took off his glasses.
[ID: 005312430000]
[Rank: 510/15000 Evolution Energy – 5000 required for Rankup]
[Objective: Gain 4490 Evolution Energy and Complete Promotion Mission]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 2436.7]
[Strength – 30.0
Agility – 30.0
Endurance – 30.0
Willpower – 30.0
Mana Capacity – 30.0
Magic Affinity – 30.0]
[Special Abilities: Ruler (D), Beyond Limits Spell (D), Earth Spell (D), Metal Spell (D)]
[Inborn Abilities: Conqueror (E-)]
[Hide]
Kairos’ eyes widened as he read through everything.
“…You have a lot of evolution points. How did you even get these if you just spent all your time holed up in the city?”
Tiana smiled.
“I can get them just for managing the place. More people there are inside and the stronger they are, the more I get.”
Kairos’ eyelid twitched.
“That’s rather unfair. Though… that’s not what shocks me the most.”
Tiana leaned in slightly, looking curious.
“Oh? And what shocks you the most?”
Kairos looked intently at the section that mentioned inborn abilities, staring at it intently.
[Inborn Abilities: Conqueror (E-)]
He was quite surprised at its rank. After all, his ability was only at F+, and that was considering the fact it used to be F- as well. By now, he figured that the displayed ranks of inborn abilities worked differently compared to normal ones.
An ability at E- wasn’t really worth looking at under normal circumstances, especially since it only took ten points to upgrade an F grade one to that point. But it was an entirely different story for E.
Out of curiosity, he opened up his own status panel, then attempted to upgrade his own inborn ability.
[Upgrade Shattered Truth to E- Rank with 1000 points? | Yes/No]
He sucked in a cold breath. Considering he didn’t even have fifty points right now, it seemed like it was going to take quite a while. He lamented over not having Tiana’s cheat to get an overwhelmingly large amount of points.
At this point, Tiana had her brows furrowed.
“What are you thinking about? Just say it out loud! You’re going to kill me with curiosity!”
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. And at that time, an idea suddenly formed in his head.
“…Say, how much do you trust me?”
Tiana stared back at him blankly.
“I’ve trusted all your calls so far, so I might as well take it all the way.”
Kairos pressed on her inborn ability.
[Upgrade Conqueror to E Rank with 2000 points? | Yes/No]
Then, he sucked in a cold breath.
“Even if that means using up two thousand of your points?”
Tiana’s eyes widened significantly.
“Huh? And how would you even do that?”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“I’m too lazy to explain.”
Tiana clicked her tongue.
“Fine, just do whatever you were talking about then.”
Kairos gave a small nod before pressing yes.
Tiana’s status panel closed immediately afterwards, while her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She lurched forward, falling off and taking the chair down with her. Kairos reached out to catch her but stopped in the middle.
Because before she did fall, her body suddenly stopped, almost like she was suspended in the middle of the air.
Afterwards, a rather heavy pressure began emanating from her. It made Kairos feel like the gravity suddenly increased several times over, to the point that it became difficult just to stand.
That was when a translucent purple figure gradually rose out from Tiana’s unconscious body. At the same time, Tiana was slowly lifted back up, until she was standing with her back straight.
Behind her, was a roughly three-meter tall translucent purple figure of a woman. The woman didn’t resemble Tiana much, since she appeared to have long hair, and also had no facial features. Yet, despite that fact, it looked rather confident. If the figure did have a mouth, it would probably have a confident smirk.
Kairos blinked a few times.
“What the hell did I just do?”
Tiana still had her eyes closed, while the purple figure tilted her head to the side slightly. It didn’t make any noise until it eventually grabbed onto Tiana’s shoulders.
That was when her eyes flew open. She immediately began gasping for air like she was drowning.
“The hell? What just…”
She trailed off before slowly turning to look behind her. Her face froze when she saw the purple figure.
“What the-”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Do you feel different now?”
Tiana turned back to him.
“Huh? What?”
She didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but suddenly her eyes lit up.
“Wait a minute. You were talking about using two thousand points or something, right?”
Kairos gave a small nod.
She then opened her status panel and noticed those points were indeed gone.
“What did you… do to me?”