As Kairos continued to walk with Nyoka, he began wondering if being with someone else would technically lead to him failing the mission. However, just as those doubts appeared, the system made a panel appear in front of him.
[Time Left Before Teleportation: 29 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes, and 03 seconds remaining]
It was almost like the system was trying to tell him that it was fine. Regardless, that wasn’t all that reassuring. For all he knew, Nyoka could’ve been leading him to an elaborate trap. Though, he doubted there was any real reason for him to do so.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Kairos spoke up.
“So could you give me the gist about this place? Especially about all those terms you use so offhandedly.”
Nyoka nodded.
“Ah, yes. It’s just hard for me to understand that you are actually new to this place. Now… where do I start?”
He tapped his chin a few times in thought. If this was going to take as long as the story, then Kairos was going to lose it. However, Nyoka thankfully spoke up promptly.
“For starters, I guess you should understand that everybody around here wants black blood. Almost everything here needs it to survive, activate cores, evolve, heal injuries, and more things that I’m too lazy to list off. As for what cores are, they are things that let us perform special abilities. Generally speaking, they are used for killing in flashy ways, but it can also do things like allowing someone to fly, or teleport.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“Where do you get these cores?”
Nyoka cleared his throat.
“As for a reliable source, dungeons. But you can also kill other people and salvage some of the cores that they have to take as your own. That’s what most people do nowadays. The more cores you have of the same kind, the more powerful the ability becomes. Though, it’s a little complicated.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Just tell me, I’d like to know more about them.”
Nyoka smiled bitterly..
“Alright, alright. They look like cubes, and the power system also works in cubes. You can use the ability with one core, but it is only powered up once you get a total of eight. To put it simply, think of how many small cubes you would need to make a bigger cube with a length of two.”
Kairos rubbed his chin and stared upwards, thinking about it intently.
“So after that, you would need twenty-seven cubes to get to the next rank?”
Nyoka smirked.
“Yeah, just cube the level, and that’s how many cores you need. Seems like you get all of that. That’s basically all you need to know for how people get stronger down here. There are other things, but they aren’t all that important.”
He tilted his head to the side.
“As for the general mentality to have… you have nothing to fear.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“And how exactly does that make any sense?”
Nyoka laughed.
“To put it plainly, people are afraid because of the possibility of something dangerous. Maybe going into the mountains will attract a mountain lion. Or for the average person, when it’s dark, they’ll be scared there’s secretly some sort of monster hiding in the shadows watching you.”
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“The only difference here is that you don’t have to wonder if there’s a monster in the darkness watching you. Because regardless of where you are, there will always be at least one monster watching you from somewhere, if not multiple. And as such, there’s no need to fear.”
He smirked.
“There’s just no point.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“It doesn’t seem all that dangerous right now.”
Nyoka shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s what people think when they first get here. To put it simply, it’s like how people see ants on the ground sometimes. Although they could crush them beneath their feet with ease, it’s usually just a waste of their time for most people.”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched.
“I could be getting this wrong, but are you basically just saying don’t get unlucky?”
Nyoka pressed his lips together.
“Not exactly. It’s more like… don’t be too hopeful that you’re going to survive.”
Kairos stared at him blankly.
“I… see.”
Nyoka shook his head.
“Anyway, let’s not talk about that anymore. I actually have two other people that I’ve been with since the first layer. I’ll take you to meet both of them at my place. Don’t get offended if they suddenly attack you. Your appearance doesn’t look the most friendly, to say the least.”
Kairos chuckled.
“What do I look like? I assume there won’t be anything like mirrors around this place.”
Nyoka sucked in a cold breath.
“Er… I suppose the best way to put it is that you’re no prince charming.”
Kairos sighed.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind I guess.”
While the two of them continued to talk about rather random things, they eventually made it to what looked like a rather rickety house. It was only one story and had gaping holes on many sides. It definitely didn’t look all that reassuring, nothing compared to the city that he was used to.
Kairos pointed at it.
“Is this your place?”
Nyoka stared at it for a few moments before shaking his head.
“Ah, no it isn’t.”
Kairos gave an approving nod.
“Hah. I almost thought your place was actually this decrepit.”
Nyoka laughed while raising both arms in the air, with his black fang in a reverse grip.
“To be more accurate, it’s an imitation.”
Kairos shot him a glance, about to ask. However, his future vision told him everything beforehand. A soft rumble came from the ground and a split second later massive cracks formed around, reaching a whole ten meters away.
At the same time, Nyoka slammed his dagger down towards the ground. A black flash burst out from the ground. Kairos leaped backward so as to not get caught, but Nyoka had a wild smile on his face, like someone that lost it.
Kairos could tell that his pupils began dilating. For a moment, everything felt like it was slowing down.
At first, he saw what looked like a giant black bud rise up from the ground. In particular, the tip of the bud looked unnaturally sharp. However, it missed Nyoka. But that wasn’t the end, as it suddenly expanded into several three-meter long petals, forcefully breaking apart the ground and sending several large chunks of rock all around.
Kairos brought one arm to shield himself, but focused on Nyoka.
His position was practically perfect, to the point that it seemed to be a coincidence. The strange flower missed him, and when the petals expanded, he was in a gap between two of them fitting in between. However, from his confidence, it was clear he had done something like this countless times.
His black fang continued to plunge downwards ruthlessly before slamming down. A high-pitched shriek resounded, while the petals frantically moved around.
Kairos got a little bit closer and saw that in the center of the flower was a giant white eye. And Nyoka had ripped into it, causing less than pleasant looking fluids to spill out. After a few moments of frantic moving, the flower seemed to realize the problem. Several petals shot towards Nyoka, but before they could hit him he leaped high up into the air, dodging them entirely.
Several loud clangs resounded when the petals hit each other, awfully similar to the sound of countless swords clanging against each other.
Upon missing its target, the flower continued to cry out. It almost seemed like a baby complaining that it wasn’t fair.
Kairos wondered how many evolution points he would get for killing the thing, especially because the method that the things down here obtained power was so different. He looked up into the air and put one hand at the side of his mouth before calling out.
“Hey, do you mind if I kill this thing?”
While Nyoka was in the air, he still had a psychotic smile on his face. Though after hearing Kairos, it disappeared in a flash. He tilted his body to the side before skydiving out of the way.
“Sure, it’s all yours.”
Kairos bent his knees and smiled.
“Thanks.”
He pulled his spear back before suddenly lunging forwards. He directly leaped over the rampaging petals. After all, it sounded like those things wouldn’t break easily. But the eye may as well be unprotected.
Kairos lifted his spear above his head. When he reached the center, he saw the torn up eye looking back at him. It almost seemed to be pleading, but he couldn’t care less about that.
With all of his strength, he brought his spear down as hard as he could, assuming that the monster would be rather durable.
A deafening bang resounded.
The spear split straight into the eye mercilessly, tearing through it. At some point, Kairos felt like he hit something, after which the eye blew up like a water balloon. This didn’t make him let his guard down though, especially because he didn’t see the system notification.
Not to mention, with how durable monsters on the surface were, he wasn’t taking any chances.
Without delay, he brought his spear up once more and continued to slam the eye, or what was left of it. Though, the system notification never showed up. He was actually getting a little nervous, thinking that he had missed the true weakness of the thing.
That was when Nyoka awkwardly coughed from right next to him.
“Uh, it’s already dead. You don’t have to beat it like you’re beating your meat.”
Kairos was in the middle of raising his spear, but kept it up there. He turned to look at Nyoka, who was looking back with a hopeless expression. Kairos looked down at the mess he made.
The petals had already laid on the sides like they were wilted, while it was hard to tell there was even an eyeball below his feet beforehand.
After a few moments, he spoke up.
“Are you sure it’s dead?”
Nyoka scratched the back of his head.
“Um, it has been dead since the first time you hit it. Do you have some sort of trauma of things living after you killed them or something?”
Kairos paused. When he looked at it, the thing definitely looked like it had died. However, he hadn’t gotten a notification for it. This confused him like no other. He sighed.
“There’s usually a… thing that tells me when I’ve killed something. But it didn’t work even after hitting it, so I just kept on doing so waiting for the sign.”
The two of them looked at each other strangely for the next few moments.