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nChen saw several chains wrap around his body. For some reason, he couldn’t even think about struggling against the chains. All he knew was that he would die. And that it would be painful.

nHe didn’t know why he had that strange instinctive feeling, however, he didn’t doubt for a single second. Despair began setting in along with deep fear. Desperation took hold like nothing before.

nKairos and the others saw Chen clench onto his knife resolutely, and swing it. However, it was not towards anyone else. But rather himself.

nThe expression on his face told of how desperate he was to kill himself right then and there. Yet, as the knife traveled towards his neck, it suddenly stopped. The extremely tense expression on Chen’s face disappeared out of nowhere, replaced with one that looked hollow.

nSomehow, it looked even more lifeless than the face of a dead man.

nKairos saw a notification.

nKilled Creature – 0.1 points awarded

nBasic Promotion Missions Finished – Additional Information About Abyss Realm Available

nHe gave it a glance, but refocused on what was happening with Chen. For the next few seconds, he just stood there petrified. It almost made Kairos wonder if the notification was somehow for something else.

nHowever, his doubt was washed away once he saw Chen gradually tip over and fall to the ground, landing on one of his daggers. If it wasn’t clear that he was dead before, the gushing blood from his neck made it clear that there was no way he was going to live regardless.

nPablo watched the entire thing with a complicated expression.

n“What… what happened?”

nKairos blinked a few times as he began thinking of what could’ve possibly happened.

n“He seemed to be a person who was really hung up on being a good person for whatever reason. The spell I used tends to make people face what they don’t want to, so he probably died over guilt for abandoning everyone.”

nAlthough that wasn’t exactly what happened, this was his genuine prediction. After all, it didn’t really make sense to him otherwise.

nPablo blinked a few times.

n“…Why does he care so much about the rest of the group? Didn’t he even say that he would sacrifice me despite how much I’ve contributed?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“I dunno. I guess sometimes people just build their entire identity around something. I guess what Chen did was build it around being a good person.”

nHis eyes narrowed slightly.

n“And he ended up paying with his life for thinking that way.”

nPablo frowned.

n“And here I thought Chen was smart. How could he die in such a stupid way?”

nKairos shot him a glance.

n“Everyone needs something to hold themselves together. Apocalypse or not.”

nPablo scoffed.

n“I don’t need anything like that.”

nHearing that, Kairos decided just not to respond. He gave a glance to Nicole, who was just looking at him passively the entire time. Eventually, he coughed.

n“Well, anyway… I’m going to go back with Nicole. We just collected a few red crystals in that cave for evolution points, so we’re done for now.”

nPablo’s eyes widened slightly.

n“Red crystals?”

nKairos nodded.

n“Yeah, just go in there and get some red crystals and after you come back out you’ll get a point for each one you collected.”

nPablo nodded with a clear interest in his eyes.

n“Ah, then I’m going to do that.”

nWithout another word, he went inside.

nKairos let out a soft sigh afterward and whispered to Nicole afterward.

n“I finished the first three parts of my promotion mission.”

nHearing that, Nicole smiled.

n“Ah, that’s great! What do you have to do next?”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Let’s go back to my room first. I’ll have a look after I get there.”

nNicole gave a small nod.

n“Ok!”

nThe two of them went all the way back down the stairs. As they went back down, they ended up encountering Oliver once more, but he didn’t even seem to notice them so they passed by each other wordlessly.

nOnce Kairos got back into his room, the holographic projection spoke up in a rather robotic-sounding voice.

n“You can use your evolution points to trade for dungeon points now!”

nKairos’ eyebrow twitched.

n“…Ah, so they changed the system like that?”

nNicole tilted her head to the side.

n“Eh? You make it sound like you’ve been here before.”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“In particular, I’ve been to a dungeon before, yes.”

nNicole let out a gasp.

n“R-Really? But when?”

nKairos waved a hand.

n“It was when that weird plant thing took me away. Afterward I got ended up accidentally triggering the dungeon, but it worked out in the end.”

nNicole let out a soft sigh.

n“Oh… that sounds scary. But at least you’re ok now.”

nKairos slowly nodded. He couldn’t deny he was at least a little frightened, especially when he ended up fighting an invincible giant skeleton, one of the disciples of the church. He shook his head.

n“Anyway, I’m going to take a closer look at what the final mission is all about.”

nPromotion Mission

nRequirements –

n1 – Broken Limits

nLimit break each stat. Stats can be limit broken through using Prestige. These points are naturally acquired if one ranks on a global leaderboard (Dungeon Leaderboards do not count).

n2 – Trademark

nUpgrade one ability to the D-Rank. Any ability may be upgraded to complete this mission. If an ability was previously upgraded to D-rank, then this mission will automatically be completed

n3 – Proven

nKill a creature at the peak of D-Rank. The peak of D-Rank is classified by any person that is currently working on their promotion mission.

n4 – Custom – Isolation

nSpend thirty days alone in the Abyss Realm. Further information about the Abyss Realm has been unlocked.

nThe first three requirements were grayed out, as he had already finished them. The only thing left was the fourth one, which had a paragraph of additional text underneath.

nAdditional Information

nThe Abyss Realm generally can only be accessed once one of the beings of the lowest floor opens a gateway. However, this can be circumvented with a teleportation spell provided by the system.

nThis teleportation will only be provided once. In order to fulfill “Custom – Isolation” The teleportation must be completed without any intelligent living organisms nearby. Otherwise, it will automatically fail. Afterward, once thirty days have passed, an automatic teleportation will allow you to come back up. In order to start the teleportation, a large amount of mana must be gathered first.

nCurrently needed mana – 10.3x current maximum mana

nKairos narrowed his eyes as he looked at all the information. The mana requirement wasn’t too big of a deal to him considering he could just recover mana from the surrounding environment. The only issue was that he felt a little reluctant about the thirty days requirement.

nFrom what it sounded like, he wasn’t going to be able to come back to this world for a long time. Thirty days might not be the longest time in the world, but it definitely wasn’t short. Especially not when so many people were rushing to get stronger.

nThe only thing Kairos could hope for was that whatever this abyss realm was, there was still a way for him to get evolution points.

nNicole scratched her cheek in curiosity.

n“Um, what is the mission? I can’t see anything.”

nKairos let out a soft sigh.

n“I have to go somewhere for thirty days, it looks like.”

nNicole let out a small gasp.

n“Ah, then I’ll come with you!”

nKairos’ eyelid twitched when he heard that. She probably wouldn’t take kindly to hearing that he would have to go alone. After a bit of thought, he slowly shook his head.

n“It would be better if you focused on your custom mission. It will be easier to complete it when we are separated.”

nNicole looked a little distraught when she heard that.

n“But… but… I can just do it with you, right?”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“How about this? We will first complete the third part of your mission in this dungeon, then after I finish up some business I will go to do my own mission. If you can finish your custom mission before the thirty days are up, then you can come to me.”

nThis was a lie for the most part. Though he didn’t exactly know where this abyss realm was, from the sounds of things it was almost impossible to get there via normal things. However, he was pretty sure if he told Nicole the truth, she would probably have some sort of breakdown.

nNicole believed this lie, but nonetheless, she didn’t seem to be willing.

n“I… I can do it really quickly! T-There’s no need for that.”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“If you can do it quickly, then we basically won’t be separated. Then it will be fine, right?”

nNicole bit the bottom of her lip.

n“I…”

nKairos let out a soft sigh.

n“Even if you don’t complete it in thirty days, I will come back to see you once those days are up, alright? But try your best to finish it within that month. We are separating to get stronger. That way we can spend time in the future together without worry.”

nNicole despondently looked at the ground.

n“…Ok.”

nKairos let out an internal sigh of relief.

n“Thank you for being so understanding.”

nNicole let out a sniffle and grabbed onto his arm with both hands, snuggling intensely. She let out child-like grumbling sounds too.

nKairos sighed when he saw this.

n“Look, I’m not going right away. I’ll stay for at least three days before I go, ok?”

nNicole nodded slowly.

n“Ok… but I’m not letting go for now.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Alright then, we can just sleep here then.”

nNicole smiled.

n“I’ll go buy the blankets!”

nThough it sounded like she was going off on her own, she ended up dragging Kairos to her own room in order to buy the blankets, then for whatever reason, she went back to his room to lay them back down.

nAfter putting down the blanket and pillow, she immediately got under while pulling Kairos with her. Then, without hesitation she wrapped her arms and legs around him, clinging to him almost like a spider.

nKairos blinked a few times as he faced her clinging.

nHe thought that it would’ve been easier to deal with this, as he had already dealt with this several times before. However, now it suddenly felt a little more unsettling. Before, even if Nicole was being overly clingy, it was in a very gentle way.

nNow, she was holding on a little more tightly than normal. Though it wasn’t painful, it felt a little different, which made it quite unsettling to Kairos. However, he decided not to worry about it.

nIt was probably just because she knew they would separate soon.

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