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n

nKairos closed his eyes for a few moments. After thinking to himself for a while, he decided that if he truly was becoming some sort of monster, then so be it. Of course, he would prefer to retain his original personality, but not at the cost of his life. There was no helping getting stronger if he was going to be in the middle of the apocalypse.

nIn other words, he needed to kill someone at the peak of D rank to get promoted faster.

nThe only problem with that was the fact it wasn’t going to be easy to find those kinds of people, not to mention identifying them in the first place.

nKairos let out a sigh.

n“Well… nothing’s going to get accomplished if I just stay in the city all day.”

nHe used the water spell to wash off a little so that he wasn’t just covered in blood. After that, he went down to meet with Tiana, to inform her that he planned on leaving alone.

nAfter going down all of the steps, he knocked on her door, after which it was opened after a minute or so. Tiana peeked her head out and blinked a few times when she noticed that it was Kairos on the other side.

n“Um, hello. What is it?”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“I plan on leaving the city for a little while. It shouldn’t be more than a week.”

nTiana stared at him for a few moments with a neutral expression before nodding.

n“Alright then. Could you first freeze all the potatoes though? They’re in the warehouse right now.”

nKairos gave a small nod.

n“Got it.”

nWith that, Tiana closed the door, asking nothing more from him. Kairos then went to the warehouse, and found where the potatoes were being stored, which were definitely not a small amount, then he slowly cast the frost spell a few times to get it all.

nAs he was coming back out, he ended up meeting with Nicole.

nShe was in the middle of leaving the center building and jumped when she saw Kairos.

n“Ah! You’re here!”

nKairos nodded.

n“Uh, yeah.”

nNicole tilted her head to the side.

n“Um, I just wanted to say that I’m going to leave the city for a little bit.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Ah… alright then. I was actually planning on doing the same thing.”

nShe tilted her head to the side.

n“Eh? Really?

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“There’s not much of another way to finish the promotion mission.”

nNicole let out a soft giggle.

n“Ah, that’s what I was thinking of too!”

nKairos scratched the side of his head. He was a little surprised that Nicole took the initiative here, as she usually cowered whenever something involved a moderate amount of danger. Though he wasn’t too sure about Nicole, her inborn ability should be more than enough for her to escape most situations.

nHe cleared his throat.

n“It would probably be more efficient if we split up.”

nNicole tilted her head to the side.

n“…Are you sure? It would be safer if we both went.”

nKairos stared at her for a few moments.

n“But we don’t have to be that concerned about safety.”

nNicole frowned.

n“Don’t you remember all those things we saw before? What if you run into one of those!”

nKairos was about to retort, but then he wondered about how Nicole would fare. He couldn’t help but remember the monster with far too many eyes across his face that was able to control anyone that directly looked into the eyes that it made.

nHe had his glasses, so he would be fine, but there was nothing Nicole could really do.

nAfter a second of thought, he nodded.

n“Alright, we can go together then.”

nNicole smiled.

n“Hehe, alright!”

nThe two of them began walking outside, and as they did, they could overhear some singing.

n“My father told me, it’s a beautiful life.”

nKairos looked over and noticed the trio standing at the top of the building that Tiana had built for them to play inside. They were singing without a care in the world and decided to use the damn whole building as a stage.

n“So make sure you always open up your eyes.”

nNicole was also looking, and couldn’t help but smile when she saw them. She listened in.

n“Before you know it, you’ll be running out of time.”

nKairos let out a soft sigh. He didn’t say anything, but he felt like they definitely should’ve known that they weren’t supposed to do that, but they did it anyway. As he listened to them, he began wondering if he should stop them.

n“You should fight for who you want to be. Don’t look back on what it could’ve been.”

nThough, when he looked at the rest of the people working on the farm, there was nobody that looked outright opposed to it.

n“You’ll find it. You can make your way across the sea, find new places you’ve ain’t ever been.”

nIn fact, when Kairos paid more attention, he found that most of the people were listening in on the singing. There was a relatively small group crowded around the building, but most of the people were just sitting down and looking at the three singing in the distance.

n“Now I believe. I’ll live a life that’s filled with stories to be told.

nKairos shook his head before looking forward again. Although they weren’t doing what they should’ve been, it seemed to be a good thing overall so he decided to overlook it. Though, as he saw the city walls rising once more, he couldn’t help but take notice of the last bit of lyrics that he heard.

n“I’ll make it through the darkness and make sure I’m coming home. Even if I’m walking all alone, I’m always coming home, I’m always coming home.”

nHe gave one glance over his shoulder before he continued on with Nicole out into the rest of the city. Nicole gave him a glance.

n“Where do you think we should go first?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“It doesn’t really matter. Though I imagine going to the place Edward’s at is a little pointless as we shouldn’t kill our allies for the promotion mission. So… let’s just go to the right.”

nNicole nodded with a smile.

n“Ok!”

nKairos clambered up a building, and Nicole followed suit. From there, the two of them began running across, ignoring most of the monsters that they came across. As he ran, he mainly paid attention to the mana he saw flowing through the air.

nHe remembered that Ling had found a dungeon with this power due to an excessive concentration of mana. Kairos tried to pick apart the mana he did see, trying to find anything like the dungeon or just something that might’ve been valuable.

nIt was almost like trying to make out the various stars in the night sky, but it was currently the middle of the day.

nUnfortunately, Kairos wasn’t able to catch onto anything for quite a while.

nThough, they did eventually end up seeing some people in the distance. Kairos stopped and began wondering if any of them were at the peak of D rank. After all, the kinds of people that would go outside were either desperate, or the kinds that were actually strong.

nHe narrowed his eyes and looked at the figure in the distance.

nThe first impression he got was that they weren’t nervous, which meant they at least had the confidence to hold their own. Though, he wasn’t sure about whether or not that meant they were at the peak of D rank.

n…But they at the very least shouldn’t be too far.

nKairos gave Nicole a glance, to which she responded with a bitter smile. It seemed that she had already understood what he was thinking about.

nKairos climbed up one of the higher buildings that were in front of the group of people, then called out to them.

n“Hey! What’s your business here?”

nWhen he looked down, he could see there was a group of ten people. One of them was standing at the front and looked far more confident than the rest. It was easy to glean that he was the leader of the others.

nThe said leader raised his hand in the air and called out.

n“We do not intend on fighting, but if you’re going to get in our way, then we will retaliate.”

nNicole was behind Kairos and whispered to him.

n“U-Um, do you think that these people will work?”

nKairos let out a soft sigh.

n“They sound confident enough to be strong, but…”

nHis eyes narrowed.

n“Someone that was also at the peak of D rank would probably be a little more aggressive, assuming that they were strong enough and hadn’t already completed that part of the promotion mission.”

nNicole scratched the side of her head.

n“So there’s no point?”

nKairos rubbed his chin.

n“…Well, we might as well make sure.”

nAfter saying that, he looked over the group once more and spoke out.

n“And why should I be afraid of your so-called retaliation? It doesn’t sound like any of you are all that strong.”

nThat was when a little boy in the back raised up his fist and yelled back.

n“We may not be that strong, but Chen will beat you up easily! He’s super strong!”

nKairos scoffed.

n“Oh really, and what can prove this Chen person is all that strong?”

nA woman within the group called out as well.

n“He reached the D rank more than a week ago, before all of us! When were you able to reach the D rank?”

nThe person at the front, presumably Chen, let out a sigh.

n“Well, promoting earlier hardly signifies strength, but I can assure you that I am no pushover.”

nKairos paused for a moment, pretending that he was mulling over it.

n“Show me your status panel then! If your stats are high, then I’ll believe you. That’s concrete proof!”

nA few people within the group were beginning to get pretty disgruntled.

n“Who does this guy think he is?”

n“Why are we even listening to this guy? We should just beat him up!”

n“Yeah, Chen can just kill him outright! There’s no reason why we should listen to him!”

nAfter hearing all of that, Kairos couldn’t help but get more interested. He began wondering if perhaps Chen was at the peak of D rank, but was just a cautious person that didn’t want to piss off any monsters.

nA smirk gradually began forming on his face.

n“If this Chen person really is so strong, then he should show his status panel! If not, then just fight me!”

nChen furrowed his brows. It seemed that he really didn’t want to get into a fight for whatever reason.

n“Fine, I’ll show it to you. Will you be able to see it from up there? You probably don’t have that good vision if you’re using glasses.”

nAfter hearing that, Kairos couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, as it didn’t sound like he had anything to hide.

n“…Just open it. If I can’t see it, I’ll get closer.”

nChen let out a sigh before opening up his status panel.

nStatus

nID: 657623584253

nRank: D

nObjective: Survive

nProof Of Perfection Points: 5.1

nStats –

nStrength – 29.9

nEndurance – 29.9

nAgility – 29.9

nWillpower – 14.9

nMana Capacity – 29.9

nMagic Affinity – 25.4

nSpecial Abilities: Mountain (E), Lightning Spell (E), Drain Spell (E), Water Spell (E)

nHide

nThough it wasn’t the easiest for Kairos to make out from the distance, he was able to manage. Using his twenty-twenty vision and filling in the blanks for the letters he couldn’t make out, he deciphered what the status panel said.

nAt first, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the man was in fact not at the peak of D rank. But at the same time, he was very very close to reaching it.

nIn other words, all he had to do was follow him around and wait for him to reach that peak.

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