Kairos shot a glance at Nyoka, who looked completely fine. It was almost hard to believe that man was a giant snake just a few moments ago.
“That was quite impressive. Is there any way I can do something like that too?”
Nyoka let out a laugh.
“If you’re willing to stomach a lot more black blood, then maybe. I also must ask, is there some way I could do that ability you used at the start of the fight as well?”
The corner of Kairos’ lip turned up.
“Although it isn’t impossible, there are too many restrictions. The first and foremost being that you won’t be able to sense mana, especially not if it’s here.”
Nyoka raised an eyebrow. It was clear he had no idea what he was talking about, but got the message that it wasn’t going to be anything easy. He let out a soft sigh.
“That’s a shame. I wonder what mana feels like.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Find a way back to the surface and I think I can show you. Though, that may be a little difficult.”
Nyoka smiled bitterly and shot him a glance.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to find a way back up for my entire time here, but it seems like you have to go deeper through the layers if you want to get back up, which is quite ironic. I’m quite surprised you haven’t gotten hung up over going back. Do you not have anything you want to get back to?”
Kairos blinked a few times. He didn’t really want to expose the fact he was going to teleport after thirty days. At the very least, not yet. So he told a little half-truth.
“…It’s not like I have nothing I want to go back to, but there’s no rush. Even after years go by, it should still be there. It’s not really something that will disappear before I get back.”
Nyoka gave a small nod, but there was a bitter smile on his face.
“I’m not going to lie to you, but it’s definitely going to be more than just a couple of years if you want to get back. And that’s assuming we even could go back in the first place.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“As I said before, there’s no rush. If I really don’t get back… then so be it.”
Nyoka narrowed his eyes after hearing that.
“It really makes me wonder what exactly you are talking about.”
Kairos rolled his eyes and walked over to the demon corpse.
“Well it doesn’t matter now, there’s plenty of time to think about it later, wouldn’t you say?”
Nyoka let out a soft sigh.
“I guess that is one way to look at it.”
Upon making it to the demon corpse, Kairos began pulling away the flesh at the demon’s torso, trying to get to the black heart that he had been told about. And as promised, he did eventually find a large black heart that was now still. It looked quite similar to what a normal heart was, except for the fact it appeared to be unnaturally large in a few sections and lined with what looked like tiny spikes.
“So how do we get the cores out of this thing?”
Nyoka came over and pulled out his black fang. First, he cut off all the strange spikes before peeling the heart almost like it was an orange. Black blood spilled out first, and underneath all of that were a total of three glowing cores.
He clicked his tongue upon seeing them.
“Most of them were still destroyed. At least they don’t look too bad.”
He gently took them out and placed them on his palm. There was a glowing dark gray one, another that looked metallic, and also a reddish-orange one that stood out, particularly because of its distinct color.
Nyoka first pointed at the dark gray one.
“This is the one that allows you to harden your skin.”
He then pointed to the metallic one.
“And this one is how the guy turned his limbs into a giant sharp blade and used those horns as weapons as well.”
Then he pointed to the last one.
“As for this one… I have no idea what it is.”
After staring at it for a few seconds more, Nyoka’s brows began to furrow. He thought about it for a little while before letting out a laugh.
“I’m not entirely sure what this is exactly, but it can’t be that good as he hadn’t used it even as he was about to die. Though the unknown has always made me curious, so I won’t mind taking this one and letting you have one of the others.”
Kairos thought about it for a few moments before tilting his head to the side.
“Considering that there are only three which can’t be split that well, how about I just take that unknown one and let you have the other two since you did most of the work.”
Nyoka thought about it for a few moments before smiling.
“Alright then. How about the corpse?”
Kairos took a look at it for a few moments.
“…Maybe I can just have an arm. I doubt I can stomach much more.”
Nyoka laughed.
“That is fair, that is fair.”
He proceeded to hand the reddish-orange glowing cube to Kairos, while taking the two others, handing the one for hardening skin to Sara, and the blade one to Jeff. At that time, Kairos decided to directly throw the cube into his mouth, hoping for the best.
He could distinctly feel it traveling down, and once it reached his stomach he could feel the black flesh in his body moving instinctively, going into his stomach and pulling the cube out.
From there, it was held near the center of his body with a few strands of black flesh, where the black heart would’ve been if he had one.
[Unlocked Special Ability: Conversion (???)]
Kairos raised an eyebrow when he saw that system notification. It seemed that the system was unable to read the rank because of how this specific ability worked. After casting a glance at Sara that was currently swallowing a cube of her own, he opened his status panel.
[Status]
[ID: 345315364923]
[Rank: D+]
[Objective: Survive]
[Proof Of Perfection Points: 43.1]
[Stats –
Strength – 30.0
Endurance – 30.0
Agility – 30.0
Willpower – 30.0
Mana Capacity – 30.0
Magic Affinity – 30.0]
[Special Abilities: Alone (D), Water Spell (E), Pulse Spell (E), Gale Spell (E), Darkness Spell (E), Fire Spell (F), Abyss Form (F), Conversion (???)]
[Hide]
As he was about to tap it, Nyoka called out to him.
“So what does that core do?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I honestly have no idea.”
From there, he tapped onto the skill to check if there was a skill description, and thankfully one popped up.
[Conversion (???)]
[Grants the ability to transform red blood into black blood]
It was short and simple, but Kairos could already feel that it was pretty good. The biggest thing was that he wasn’t going to stay in the Abyss realm forever, meaning that another way to get black blood was quite useful to him.
Not to mention, it would mean he would have to drink less black blood in general. Though, it seemed the only way to sate his hunger was with the flesh.
Kairos refocused on the demon corpse, forcefully cutting away the arm by using his spear like a saw. As black blood spurt out, he decided to let it drip into the chest cavity of the corpse, letting the others have it.
From there, he resolutely took a big bite and then activated his new ability at the same time. Just in case there were any noticeable effects, he wanted to cover it up by the fact he was eating the black flesh.
As for the effects, he could feel them immediately. The blood pumping out of his heart stopped short of going through his veins and was instead pulled out by the black flesh in his body, rapidly getting converted into black blood. To compensate for this, his heart started beating far faster while his bones rapidly produced more blood.
The thing that Kairos immediately noticed was the blood conversion was rather massive, nearly overwhelming him. For every drop of blood that he used, Kairos guessed that at least ten drops of black blood formed.
In fact, he quickly stopped after converting about a cup of red blood as he could feel his body wasn’t ready for more. In fact, the black blood he got from the ability was probably quite close to the amount in the arm he was eating.
One small thing that he noted, was that he had gotten a bit more hungry in converting that red blood. Even if he didn’t need the black blood in the demon’s arm much anymore, he would still have to eat the flesh to replenish his hunger.
And so, that’s what he did.
By the time he finished everything, the black blood in his body roiled, making it feel as though worms were squirming underneath his body.
He felt the black flesh over his body get thicker, while two things began growing out of his head, while he felt his nose changing as well.
[Abyss Form (F) -> Abyss Form (F+)]
Out of nowhere, everything felt so clear in his head. His hearing had improved considerably, letting him clearly hear sounds from Sara and Jeff draining the black blood out of the demon. On top of that, his sense of smell had grown far better as well. Though, that might’ve been more of a bad thing.
Sara cast a glance over at him after he had finished his transformation, and her eyes lit up. She ran over with a hand outstretched towards his head.
“That’s so cute!”
Yet, before she ended up touching his head, she froze in place, as though only now realizing what she was doing.
“U-Um, sorry.”
Kairos waved a hand dismissively. Though her reaction made him far more curious about how he looked. Unfortunately, there were no mirrors around.
“That’s fine. But uh, what do I look like right now?”
Jeff looked over, and his eyes widened in surprise.
“You have what looks like two little cat ears on your head.”
Kairos stood there in place for a few moments.
“…I’m becoming a cat? Is that what my transformation is going to be?”
Nyoka couldn’t help but laugh as he saw what Kairos had become.
“Hey, hey what’s so bad about being a cat? This is a good thing, didn’t you say you wanted to get your own transformation? You’re one step closer!”
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. Though he did want a transformation, he felt like a cat just… sounded too non-threatening. However, he quickly reassured himself by saying that maybe he would become another one of the feline species, like a lion, or maybe even a tiger.
Yes, he just had some tiger ears on his head. That’s all it was.