n

n

n“Wait, he’s still out there, he must be out there!”

nNicole was reaching out, while Chase was holding her back, though clearly seemed to be struggling in the process.

nHe clicked his tongue as he pulled.

n“Of course he’s still out there, he isn’t the type to just die like that. If we just wait, he will naturally show up.”

nNicole’s lip was trembling.

n“But… but… what if he’s in trouble?”

nKairos coughed awkwardly and gave a weak wave.

n“Uh, hello.”

nChase looked up with a bit of surprise.

n“Oh, hey you’re back.”

nKairos nodded.

n“Yeah.”

nNicole was frozen on the spot when she initially saw him. Then moments later, she uncontrollably broke out into tears. She slipped out of Chase’s grasp before running towards him.

nAt that moment, Chase furrowed his brows and looked down at his own hand.

n“Eh?”

nKairos let out a sigh and gave a small wave.

n“I’m fine, I’m fine. You can calm down now.”

nNicole still rushed towards him, which made Kairos feel a little awkward. He could see that she was going for a hug, but didn’t really want to do so right now.

nAs Nicole got closer, Kairos decided to just ignore her for now, and just let her do as she wished, as embarrassing as it was. It would probably lower his image of a ruthless leader to the rest of the people, but he could find a way to work around it later.

nBut then, his eyes widened.

nBecause he saw everything went black once Nicole got near. The sensation of someone colliding into him never happened. A moment later, his vision came back, but Nicole wasn’t there.

nFrom behind him, he heard Nicole’s voice.

n“H-Huh?”

nKairos turned around and saw that Nicole was actually behind him. He quickly pieced various things together before realizing that she must’ve somehow phased through him.

nNicole stared at her empty hands for a moment, before turning around to look at Kairos with a gaze of despair.

n“I… I’m dreaming?”

nKairos pinched the bridge of his nose, quickly realizing this was getting complicated.

n“Nicole, Chase, go to my room for now, alright? I’ll see you there soon.”

nChase broke out of his confused stupor first and headed back to the center of the city. As for Nicole, she had still convinced herself she was somehow in a dream and began muttering to herself about something.

nKairos tried to reach out to her, but his hand phased right through her shoulder.

nHe then let out a resigned sigh.

n“Get to my room, alright? You can worry about stuff there. Just go. Oh, also try to get Tori and Sydney there too.”

nNicole slowly looked up with teary eyes. It was fairly clear she still believed that the Kairos in front of her was an illusion. However, she still got up to her feet and began walking back toward the center of the city.

nKairos took a deep breath.

nBefore turning around to look at the rest.

n“Come with me, since you’ve made it here you all have to be assigned to one of the plots of land to farm.”

nWith that, he also walked towards the center of the city.

nThough, he couldn’t help but stop, because Quinn was mumbling something to himself like a crazy man.

nQuinn’s eyes were on the wall, looking directly at him. However, his eyes were also unfocused, showing that he was actually deep in thought.

n“The wall… can move on its own. But how? What is making it move?”

nHe then pressed his hand against the wall.

n“It is clearly durable, made out of some kind of tough material. But doesn’t that also mean that it’s quite heavy? Is this the work of some hydraulic forces acting on the door? Or maybe it is because of some sort of material. Though it could also be hollow on the inside…”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“Um, shouldn’t you be worried about the fact you’re starving to death first?”

nQuinn broke out of his stupor, with fluttering eyelids.

n“Oh, righ…”

nHe abruptly cut himself off, before falling down like he was blown over by a gust of wind.

nKairos caught him by the back of his shirt before he fell. With a small sigh, he began dragging him along, almost like he was carrying a dead body with him.

nThe others began following without saying anything about the situation. They gazed around the place curiously, and also had faces filled with hope.

nThe various farmers working on the fields ended up looking at them curiously, wondering who these new people were.

nBut as much staring as people did, nothing major ended up happening.

nUpon reaching the center apartment, he held out his hand.

n“All of you wait here, I’m going to talk with someone who can work on you all getting assigned.”

nWith that, he walked in while dragging Quinn along with him.

nAs he was going down the hallway, off to go into Tiana’s room, he found himself running into the person in question.

nShe appeared a little surprised seeing him there, and let out a small gasp of surprise.

n“Oh, you’re finally here. I know I said you could, but I didn’t think that you would actually leave for about a week before coming back.”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“I didn’t plan it either, but a few things came up that delayed me by quite a bit.”

nTiana nodded, before taking a glance at Quinn, who was being dragged around while unconscious.

n“Um, is there a reason you need to drag that around? Or are you trying to find a way to dispose of a body?”

nKairos waved his hand dismissively.

n“It’s just someone I picked up. He may not be strong, but he seems to be quite smart. I want to give him a chance to try and be useful with his head.”

nTiana nodded.

n“Ah, alright. He definitely looks like he’s going to need something to eat though.”

nKairos shrugged.

n“Seems like it.”

nTiana put a finger on her chin.

n“Then do you need another room for him?”

nKairos opened his mouth with the intention of saying yes but ended up closing it soon after.

n“Well… there’s no need. He can take Sam’s room for now.”

nTiana’s lips parted slightly, about to ask a question, but she tactfully stopped herself.

n“I see.”

nKairos waved his hand.

n“Anyways, do you need any extra people to begin farming? I brought quite a few over here.”

nTiana put her hands together.

n“Oh! You didn’t need to, but there are quite a few plots of land that aren’t taken. I can get someone to assign those people.”

nKairos nodded.

n“They are just outside the building. I gotta talk to some people for now, so I’ll see you later.”

nTiana reached out one hand to gesture him to stop.

n“Ah, I need to talk to you later about some things related to the city, please come to my room after you’re done.”

nKairos waved his hand dismissively.

n“Alright, I’ll be there soon enough.”

nWith that, he first put Quinn into where his father’s room was before coming back down to open the door to his own room. Despite this not being the first time inside, he still was a little dazzled by how luxurious it all was with the multiple couches and floors.

nAt the moment, Tori was lightly bouncing up and down on one of the bigger couches.

n“Wow, why is his place so much better than mine?”

nChase waved his hand.

n“Well, he’s the one that girl cares most about, so that’s only natural.”

nNicole was hugging her knees sitting on top of the couch, lightly sobbing to herself. Chase shot her occasional glances, clearly confused as to why she was so sad. On the other hand, Sydney seemed to be quite lost, not really thinking about anything.

nKairos closed the door behind him and waved.

n“Hey, sorry for the wait.”

nTori immediately turned to look at him and raised her arm to wave, but cringed in pain before letting it fall back down again.

n“Agh… Hello!”

nChase leaned back into the couch he was sitting on and rested his arm on the back.

n“Hey, I was waiting for a damn while for you to come.”

nSydney slowly turned to look at Kairos and let out a small gasp.

n“Kairos… you’re actually back?”

nNicole first looked at Kairos, then at the other two.

n“You guys can… see him?”

nChase raised an eyebrow.

n“Um, yeah? Can you not?”

nNicole blinked.

n“It’s… not a hallucination?”

nShe slowly got up to her feet and walked over to Kairos. She slowly brought one hand up to Kairos’ face before lightly touching it.

n“Wh- you’re real!”

nIn response, Kairos sighed.

n“Yes, I’m real. I’m a little confused about what happened earlier, but I think that might be your natural ability at play.”

nNicole wasn’t really listening, and instead threw herself at him, giving him a big hug.

n“I was so scared!”

nKairos rolled his eyes but didn’t fight it.

n“Alright, alright, I’m here now. You can calm down.”

nHe gently patted her back with his free hand, waiting for a few seconds before Nicole eventually let go.

nNicole looked a little dazed.

n“Wait, so earlier… that wasn’t a hallucination?”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“Do you not know what your own natural ability is? Of course not.”

nThat was when Chase spoke up.

n“Um… but I’m pretty sure she’s still F rank, right? How would she have an ability?”

nKairos’ eyes widened when he heard that.

n“What?”

nWhen his gaze suddenly darted to Nicole, it made her jump slightly.

nKairos shook his head.

n“Are you really F rank?”

nNicole slowly nodded.

n“Y-Yes?”

nKairos sucked in a cold breath.

n“Can you open your status panel?”

nNicole did as told, but still looked quite confused.

nStatus

nID: 934783245676

nRank: 98

/100 Evolution Energy – 50 required for Rankup

nObjective: Evolve

nProof Of Perfection Points: 90.5

nStrength – 4.9

nAgility – 4.9

nEndurance – 4.9

nWillpower – 4.9

nMana Capacity – 0.0

nMagic Affinity – 0.0

nSpecial Abilities: N

/A

nInborn Abilities: Lost (F-)

nEvolve

nHide

nKairos’ eyes widened in surprise for multiple reasons.

nThe first was that Nicole’s evolution energy was dangerously high. From what he could surmise, if that reached one hundred, she would start transforming into a monster. And that was obviously a bad thing.

nThe other was how many evolution points she had. Kairos didn’t remember exactly how many points he got from the dungeon, but the number should be quite close to the amount she had now.

nThough the biggest thing was definitely the fact her inborn ability that used to show ‘Lost (Null)’ now showed ‘Lost (F-)’.

nIn other words, this was the activation of her inborn ability that somehow unlocked.

nKairos opened his mouth, about to question her about it. However, he decided it would be better to talk about that in private. Instead he asked something else.

n“Why are you still at the F rank?”

nNicole looked at him curiously.

n“Um, I thought it would be better to wait for you to help with the evolving since you can give extra options. Also it would give more points when killing monsters, right?”

nKairos sighed.

n“Of course, but there are also disadvantages. Naturally people will get stronger, so you also need more strength for that. But also, having a higher rank gives you more resistance to transforming into a monster.”

nNicole let out a small gasp.

n“Really?”

nKairos nodded.

n“Let’s do the evolution right now, just in case.”

nThe corner of Chase’s lip twitched.

n“Um, could you help me out as well after?”

nKairos nodded.

n“Sure.”

nNicole took a deep breath.

n“Ok… what options do I have?”

nKairos pressed the evolve button for her, and saw a variety of options.

nUse 5 points for stable evolution? Yes

/No

nUse 10 points for natural ability? Yes

/No

nUse 5 points for Frost Spell or Lightning Spell? Frost

/Lightning | Yes

/No

nConfirm

nHe rubbed his chin.

n“There’s either frost or lightning?”

nKairos expected her to ask for his opinion, but to his surprise, Nicole made her own decision.

n“Could I have the frost spell?”

nKairos slowly nodded and after selecting the various options, he pressed confirm.

n