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nKairos decided to go out and do some exercise. Considering that it was more or less safe near the city, he decided to go onto the walls. He could also do some pseudo patrolling that way.

nThough, he didn’t exactly know how people got onto the top of the walls.

nNonetheless, that much wasn’t truly a problem for him.

nAt first, he was walking towards the walls, but his pace gradually quickened. It became a brisk walk, before becoming a run, then just a full on sprint.

nBecause of how fast he was, it attracted quite a bit of attention. However, nobody raised too much of a fuss, since he was just going on the pathway. Other than scattering a bit of dirt, nothing happened.

nOnce he got close to the wall, it began to rise, but as it did so, he leaped up, landing on the wall as it rose. He felt his feet press hard against it and focused on continuing to move upwards, climbing up the wall.

nHe gradually felt himself losing momentum as he continued upwards, but was still getting close enough to the top.

nKairos wasn’t exactly the best at running on the wall, and thus did quite a bit of wasted movements. However, with the help of his future vision, he was able to do enough to almost reach the top.

nCatching the ledge with his hand, he then pulled himself up.

nUpon reaching there, he was greeted by a surprised person wearing a soldier’s uniform.

n“Eh? How did you get up from there?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“I climbed up.”

nThe person looked quite flabbergasted but decided not to question it.

n“Er… I don’t think anyone is supposed to be here, but there isn’t much to see anyways.”

nKairos rubbed his chin.

n“I see. By the way, how do you get up here?”

nThe soldier hesitated slightly, but answered his question.

n“There is a part of the wall that acts kinda like an elevator, but Tiana only activates it when I am supposed to change shifts with another soldier.”

nKairos nodded.

n“I see. Well anyway, I will be running around this thing.”

nWithout another word, he began doing just that, leaving the soldier a little confused.

nAt first, Kairos kept a moderate pace, which by normal standards was actually really fast, even faster than a car would normally go. However, Kairos found that his muscles were hardly fatigued from running at this speed.

nHe gradually began picking it up, increasing the speed even further.

nAlthough he felt a slight burn, it was nothing that strong. Kairos somewhat felt like he was actually going slowly. However, from the way the wind was roaring past his ears, that definitely wasn’t true.

nKairos continued pushing himself until he felt adrenaline coursing through his entire body. Slowly but surely, he sped up even further.

nIt took quite a while, but he eventually circled around the entire wall, passing by the soldier. It caused the man to panic, and nearly fall off the wall because there were no guardrails, but Kairos caught him before he did so.

nAnother dead person would probably piss Tiana off, even if she didn’t really care about the farmer earlier.

nHowever, he only spent the time he needed to stabilize the man. He continued running, without caring much about anything else. Gradually, he felt his muscles burning up in pain.

nKairos found it quite valuable to know the extent of his physical capabilities, which seemed to be quite frightening after so many stat points. Although physical stats weren’t as flashy or nearly as strong as magic, it stood to show how long it could be used.

nBut that wasn’t really his focus right now.

nHe was running to improve his mental state, and although he couldn’t say for sure at first, it seemed like it was beginning to improve, though not by much.

nNonetheless, as small as it was, the feeling was nearly addicting. To the point that it made it hard for him to think about anything else.

nThe person that was standing on the wall had already gotten used to him running across, standing somewhat near the ledge so as to not to get in the way.

nKairos didn’t exactly know how long he had been circling around and around, but it didn’t take too long for his entire body to feel like it was burning up. This was different from the feeling of exercise he normally felt.

nSweat poured out of his body quite violently, to the point that his clothes were soaked already. He was feeling very thirsty because of it. However, while that sweat helped with his temperature, it continued to rise further and further. Most of his sweat actually evaporated before it fell off of its body.

nKairos finally stopped and felt that his body was literally burning alive.

nWhile he still had the stamina to continue going forward, the problem was his body’s temperature. It seemed like he was an overheating computer.

nWhile in this state, Kairos slowly caught his breath. He made sure to take large ones, but mostly for the sake of expelling the heat in his body. It was extremely uncomfortable, making him want to find something cold as well as something to drink.

nWith that in mind, he leaped off the building and rushed back.

nUpon reaching his room, he wasn’t sure it would work, but was surprised to find the water in the taps were still running. He drank quite a bit of water from that and even doused himself with it.

nQuenching his thirst was quite refreshing, but the high temperature was still very hard to deal with. Though he was sure the water was originally cold, by the time it went past his throat, it had already become really hot.

nThis reminded him of the time the first red sun rose. How the heat continued to rise. The way he dealt with it was by passing out, which helped as his body lost heat. However, he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be able to help at this point.

nHe was actually worried that if he rested now, something would catch on fire from the heat.

nWhile considering his options, he suddenly remembered that Nicole had the frost spell.

nIn reality, he wanted to avoid her, especially after their last encounter. However, he knew that wasn’t something he should be doing.

nAnd now, considering he had another reason to go to her, he decided that it was basically a sign for him to go to her.

nWith that, he went towards her room and got next to the door. He couldn’t help but hesitate for a few moments, wanting to back out.

nBut then, he knocked on the door.

nWhen he did so, he heard a loud thump on the inside, along with the sound of something clattering onto the floor. Then a few moments later, the door opened, revealing Nicole inside.

nShe seemed a little shocked to see Kairos.

nBoth of them were stunned for a second or so, but Nicole was first to break out of her stupor once she noticed Kairos’ condition.

n“Ah! Are you alright?”

nKairos coughed.

n“Um, I think I’m overheating. I remembered you got the frost spell, so I was wondering if you could use it a bit on me.”

nAfter a few seconds, Nicole let out a small gasp.

n“A-Ah, I increased my magical stats by quite a bit, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

nShe held out her hand close to Kairos, her open palm facing forwards.

nA bit of mana began converging, and soon the air in front of her directly froze, becoming ice. It continued and somewhat connected to Kairos. Yet, right when that ice touched him, it cracked before melting to become water.

nKairos took a deep breath.

nEven though it wasn’t much, he could tell it helped quite a bit.

n“Sorry if this is too much to ask, but could you do it on a larger scale? Like a much larger scale.”

nNicole hesitated slightly, but nodded.

n“Alright.”

nThis time, she channeled more than five times the original mana she did originally. She was afraid of hurting Kairos, which was why the first spell was so sparse. However, from what it looked like, it hardly affected him.

nThis time, when the frost spell finished, a flash of ice formed.

nKairos felt a cold wind blow over him, while his entire body was coated in a thin layer of ice. The floor and surrounding walls had some ice on them too, which appeared to be indirectly affected.

nThe ice that had formed cracked just like last time before melting.

nKairos was feeling a lot better, almost like he was taking a refreshing shower. For a moment, his exterior felt like it was freezing. Yet, just a few seconds later, the excessive heat rushed out of him, causing him to begin sweating once more.

nHe was honestly quite surprised that the heat was this bad. But then realized if the heat even affected him with his high endurance, then it must be pretty bad.

nKairos laughed awkwardly.

n“Could you do one with double that power?”

nNicole shook.

n“But… that one froze you whole! I almost thought I accidentally killed you.”

nKairos sighed.

n“And look, I’m still sweating after that. It will be fine, just do it.”

nNicole bit the bottom of her lip, but ended up complying. With most of her remaining mana, she let her spell loose.

nA large amount of cold air shot out from Nicole’s palm.

nUpon hitting Kairos, it caused a large amount of ice to form around him, making him look like a rather clumsily made ice statue. The cold air also ended up freezing the surrounding area, covering most of the hall and coating the doors.

nKairos somewhat regretted telling Nicole to do that, as he really did feel extremely cold afterwards. While the inside of his body still felt like it was burning, the outside was freezing cold.

nHowever, as time passed, the heat died down, while the ice around him cracked and began melting. Soon enough, The ice around him cracked, letting him move.

nNow, he felt a little cold, but he preferred that far more than his previous state.

nKairos took a quick glance at their surroundings as he shook off a few pieces of ice stuck on his clothes.

n“I probably should’ve told you to do this somewhere else, huh?”

nHe kinda saw this coming, especially because of his future vision. However, the heat really was bothering him.

nNicole looked at her surroundings in surprise.

n“M-Magic is quite scary…”

nKairos slowly nodded.

n“It can work against a large group of weaker things because of its large area of effect. It can also alter the terrain.”

nNicole blinked a few times.

n“Eh? Ah, I guess that makes sense.”

nShe looked down at the floor and clasped her hands together.

n“Um, so is that all you came here for?”

nKairos didn’t respond for a few moments.

n“…I guess I might as well talk with you since I’m here.”

nNicole scratched the back of his head.

n“Hehe… then, should we talk in my room?”

nShe walked inside, while Kairos followed. He wanted to close the door, but found it was stuck in place due to the frost. He was fairly certain that he could force it closed, but was a bit scared of snapping the door off its hinges by accident.

nAnd so, he left it.

nNicole brought him over to her own room, letting him inside.

nKairos didn’t really feel uncomfortable because it was her room. In fact, he would probably feel more comfortable being in Nicole’s actual room, because he had been there many times before.

nHe honestly felt like he should’ve been more hesitant. But for some reason, now that he was here next to her, he didn’t really care anymore.

n“Hey, Nicole. I know I’m never really honest to anyone, even myself. But let me be that way now.”

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