n

n

nLike with all the rest, the apparitions eventually ended up disappearing. Kairos shook his head and didn’t think about what those things showed him any longer. Instead, he began thinking about the advantages that this spell provided.

nFor starters, channeling it longer seemed to improve the distance for which someone’s surroundings blackened. On top of that, the longer he channeled, the longer it would end up lasting. The final thing that Kairos didn’t put too much emphasis on was the mental weakness aspect of the spell, seemingly the phantom trying to pull at one of the person’s insecurities.

nNonetheless, it didn’t do anything to actually physically hamper the person in question. Kairos let out a sigh, feeling a little sad that was the main effect of the spell, but at the very least whatever it decided to apparate could be a distraction.

nAfter all, despite using it on himself, he wasn’t exactly hampered much at all.

nHe rubbed his chin and thought to himself for a few moments.

nHe still had a little over twenty evolution points for him to use, along with a few spells he could upgrade to the E rank. Although it might’ve been a waste for him to spend them all recklessly, at the very least he would be able to get them back easily in the dungeon.

nWith that in mind, Kairos opened his status panel once more and began upgrading his spells.

nGale Spell (F) – Gale Spell (E) | Points 22.1 – 12.1

nThe reason he wanted to upgrade the gale spell was that he couldn’t stop thinking about how the dungeon used the gale spell against him. He also remembered the attack he couldn’t detect, and was pretty sure it had to be somehow related to the gale spell.

nDarkness Spell (F) – Darkness Spell (E) | Points 12.1 – 2.1

nAs for this spell, it was already useful on his own, but he was quite curious what ranking up this ability would do. Perhaps the apparition could actually become a lethal threat instead of just a distraction.

nHe closed his eyes as his mind suddenly gained enlightenment, understanding other ways he could use the spell. For starters, he became a little surprised about the gale spell. He found himself able to reduce the ability to detect it even further.

nAfter a bit of thought he tried doing so immediately, holding out four fingers.

nKairos prioritized making it as silent as he possibly could, and while he was channeling there wasn’t a single sound. Unfortunately, something he could tell was that the power was rather lacking.

nThat didn’t discourage him though, as he continued to push more and more mana into the spell, and over the slow process of nearly thirty seconds, he finally found himself willing to release the spell.

nHe held his breath as he released the spell, and a just barely audible sliver of wind was heard before an explosive bang slammed against the wall. A hair-line thin crack formed on the wall and quickly regenerated right after.

nBut as thin as it was, the power was definitely there.

nKairos rubbed his chin, wondering if he had done anything wrong. There was still a sound when he released the gale spell, which irked him. Though, to be fair, even just the sound of casual conversation would easily mask it. Perhaps even someone breathing a little heavy would as well.

nNonetheless, it wasn’t the perfectly silent killer that he had imagined.

nYet, at the same time, Kairos decided not to complain. After all, it was only at the E rank. Perhaps if he upgraded it to the D rank, then he could make something that was nearly completely silent.

nKairos rubbed his chin and thought about the changes to the darkness spell. He could tell now that he could make an AOE radius that would encapsulate all intelligent beings within the spell effect. But naturally, it would have lower effectiveness compared to just targeting a single person.

nIt was slightly disappointing to him, but he decided not to complain about it. Surely it would have some sort of use down the line.

nFrom there, he rested on the cold ground, letting the time pass by. His expression softened as he got lost in his thoughts, and before he knew it, a sudden rocking sensation came from the room he was in.

nWhen he got up, he noticed that a corridor had formed on one end. After a bit of thought, he decided to get up and walk through the corridor. A familiar massive area was revealed to him. There were countless rooms lined up next to each other along the walls. When Kairos counted, he was fairly sure there were at least one hundred different rooms.

nAt that same time, he heard someone call out.

n“Kairos! Kairos, are you there!”

nNicole had run out screaming out loud like a child that got separated from their mother. And ironically enough, she was only a couple of meters away from him. Kairos let out a sigh and waved toward her.

n“I’m over here, don’t worry so much.”

nNicole’s head snapped to him before she ran towards him with open arms. After colliding into him and hugging him tightly she let out a sigh of relief.

n“I… I thought you might’ve been in trouble.”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“You worry too much. I’ll be fine, alright?”

nNicole gave a small nod.

n“Alright…”

nA few moments later, both Kaede and Chen stumbled out of their rooms. They both seemed a little out of it like they were experiencing a hangover. However, they seemed to have gotten over the most of it.

nChen looked over at the other two and called out to them.

n“Did you guys just get here as well?”

nKairos nodded.

n“Pretty much, yeah.”

nKaede looked over at Nicole, seeing that she was more or less stable before coughing.

n“Ah, hello again.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“…Hi, I guess. What do you want?”

nKaede coughed awkwardly.

n“Um, nothing. I’ll be on my way.”

nShe looked around the vast expanse for a little while, looking upwards at the ceiling, where a white crystal gave off some light, almost like it was the moon.

nFrom there, her eyes caught on the many rooms far away, leading her to walk over to them. After she walked away, Kairos refocused his attention on Chen.

n“Hey, you can use your dungeon points to get more evolution points, right? I imagine you should do that before anything.”

nChen looked back at him with confusion.

n“Huh? Since when were we able to do that?”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“…Are you not able to do that?”

nChen scratched the side of his head.

n“Er… I don’t remember being able to. I looked over all of the shop items.”

nKairos grabbed onto the side of his head with frustration.

n“What? Really?”

nChen blinked a few times.

n“…I’ll go check again, but I’m pretty sure that it was never there.”

nWhile Chen was saying that, Kairos went back to his own room to check out the shop, and Nicole followed from right behind.

nShop

nDungeon Points: 1

nWater and Rice – 1 point

nOrange Juice and Hamburger – 3 points

nWine and Oysters – 5 points

nPillow and Two Blankets – 1 point

nRandom Upper-Elemental Spell – 10 points

nHide

nAnd just like Chen had said, there was no option to buy evolution points. His eyebrow twitched when he came to that realization. How did he miss such a small detail?

nHe hurriedly shook his head before pressing the back button.

nAs for Nicole, she tilted her head to the side.

n“Um, Kairos, that’s just a projection! Not a real person.”

nKairos turned to her and nodded.

n“Yeah, I know that already.”

nNicole pouted.

n“…Then why were you staring at her so much?”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“To look at the shop. What else?”

nNicole looked confused.

n“I didn’t see anything though?”

nKairos narrowed his eyes slightly as he thought. Then he came to a conclusion, only he could use the shop from here because it was his room. He coughed.

n“Um, let’s go to your own room. I think you’ll be able to see it from there.”

nNicole’s eyes widened ever so slightly, but relaxed after hearing that.

n“Ah, ok.”

nUpon entering Nicole’s room, she walked up to the projection and waved her hand in front of it a few times before jumping back in surprise.

n“Ah! It really is a shop. Huh… when did I get thirteen points?”

nKairos let out a soft sigh.

n“Regardless, you should buy the upper elemental thing.”

nNicole hurriedly nodded.

n“Ok! Um, um… is it the one that says random elemental spell? I can’t find anything that says upper.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Oh… yeah, it’s that.”

nHe shook his head. If he thought about it, his being an upper-elemental was probably related to this being his second dungeon. He should’ve thought about that earlier, but for some reason, it slipped his mind entirely.

nHe took in a deep breath, realizing that the effects of those darkness spells may have been more than he expected.

nNicole tilted her head to the side.

n“Um, I got a vine spell. What is that?”

nKairos shook his head, breaking out of his stupor.

n“Ah, I’m not sure. Why don’t you test it?”

nNicole held out her hand in a relaxed position after hearing that.

n“Ok!”

nVines suddenly began forming from the ground, growing rapidly and reaching outwards like snakes. Nicole smiled when she looked at it all.

n“Wow! It feels like I have a bunch of extra arms!”

nKairos nodded.

n“Seems like it.”

nAfter that, they walked out, where Chen was looking around. Upon laying his eyes on them, Chen walked up.

n“Yeah, I didn’t see it at all. Do we have different shops?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“I guess so. But more importantly, we gotta clear this floor as well if we want to get out of here. The only thing we can hope for is that there aren’t too many of them.”

nChen sighed.

n“Yeah, but what exactly are we supposed to do for that? It’s not like the system even told us what we were supposed to do.”

nKairos slowly nodded.

n“That… is true.”

nHe looked around and noticed that there was a staircase in the distance. But instead of a spiral staircase. It was just a normal once that seemed to continue for quite a while. Kairos pointed at it.

n“That seems like a good start, doesn’t it?”

nChen nodded.

n“Yeah, I guess we should go there first of all.”

nWith that, the three of them began walking toward the staircase. Soon enough, they reached the steps and started walking up them. However, as they did so, Kairos saw a familiar face walking down the steps.

nIt was someone he had met in another dungeon before.

nOliver.

nThe giant scythe left a pretty big impression on him.

n