n

n

nSoon, the city was within sight of the three of them. Kaede couldn’t help but gasp in awe that someone was actually able to construct something like this.

n“But… how? The amount of coordination to build walls this high…”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“Well, I’m not entirely sure, but I think that it was actually made by only one person.”

nThe corner of Kaede’s lip twitched.

n“…Huh. I guess my perspective is still too small.”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“Honestly, there isn’t much to it right now, but it’s something.”

nKaede laughed.

nIf this isn’t much, what does that say about everyone else?”

nNicole giggled.

n“That’s just because we are super strong!”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“Above average, at least.”

nThe gate opened for them, and the three of them got back inside. As they walked back into the city, Kairos noticed that everyone seemed noticeably more relaxed compared to normal. From what he could tell, it seemed that all of them were rather well fed.

nIn fact, he could even see people that were boiling potatoes with cooking ware they got from somewhere.

nUpon making it back to the center building, they met with Tiana who was waiting at the center entrance. She gave a small wave and glanced at Kaede.

n“Hey, who did you bring with you?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“A friend made along the way.”

nTiana raised an eyebrow.

n“Is that so?”

nNicole gave a small nod.

n“She knows so many things!”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“One other thing that I wanted to say was that I’m going to be leaving for roughly a month soon.”

nTiana’s eyes widened.

n“You just came back, and now you’re telling me you got to leave for even longer?”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“Sorry. I’m sure you can just ask Quinn about some things while I’m gone.”

nTiana looked back at him for a few moments before sighing.

n“Alright, whatever…”

nShe glanced at Kaede.

n“There are still some rooms on the third floor, just take one of the ones that aren’t occupied.”

nKaede gave a bow.

n“Ah, thank you!”

nShe didn’t exactly understand who Tiana was, but she was still able to glean that she had a substantial amount of authority, and thus naturally felt like she had to be more formal. Though, Tiana didn’t really seem to care about her. Instead, she was more focused on Kairos.

n“What are you even leaving for?”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“It’s for my promotion mission. It’s not like the city will fall apart entirely just because I’m gone for a little, right?”

nTiana let out a soft sigh.

n“I guess so, but don’t just up and leave randomly, ok? At least tell me before you do so.”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“Fine, fine.”

nWith that, Tiana left. Nicole led Kaede up the third floor to show her the rooms she could take while Kairos went to his own room and prepared some food. Nicole and Kaede both came back later, and the three of them went through a large amount of food.

nAs Kairos was finishing up he let out a sigh.

n“I guess I’ll be going now.”

nNicole flinched.

n“Y-You don’t mean the leaving for one-month thing, right?”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“What else could I mean?”

nNicole pouted.

n“But it’s too soon!”

nKairos took a deep breath.

n“I am leaving now, but that is so we can spend more time together in the future.”

nNicole let out a sad hum.

n“But does it have to be now?”

nKairos shook his head.

n“The sooner I go, the sooner I can come back.”

nNicole bit the bottom of her lip. She clearly did not want this to happen, but she eventually nodded.

n“…Ok.”

nKairos stood as a small smile formed on his face.

n“I’ll see you soon enough.”

nNicole smiled sadly.

n“Ok…”

nKaede at some point coughed awkwardly.

n“Uh, see you.”

nFrom there, Kairos left without looking back. As promised, he went over to Tiana’s room and knocked on the door, as he was planning on leaving. Tiana answered promptly and raised an eyebrow.

n“You’re going already?”

nKairos gave a small nod.

n“Yeah. Is there something specific you wanted to discuss with me before I leave?”

nTiana thought for a moment before nodding.

n“Come inside. It’s not too important, but I’d prefer if other people didn’t hear.”

nKairos did so without much complaint. Once he stepped into her room, he found that it was in a far messier state than before. No, perhaps the better word to use was chaotic.

nThere were charts scattered all across the place, covering nearly the entire place. It was rather difficult to even walk around. Nonetheless, Tiana navigated it rather easily, clearly quite used to walking through the place.

nShe led him to a set of folding chairs and the two of them sat down across from each other.

nKairos let out a chuckle.

n“This place has gotten… a little crowded.”

nTiana shrugged her shoulders.

n“There are more things to keep track of, so there’s no helping it. Regardless, the thing I wanted to tell you about is that soon I should be able to help you from afar. For your promotion mission, it might help out quite a bit.”

nKairos rubbed his chin in interest.

n“Really? How does it work specifically?”

nHearing that, Tiana smiled bitterly.

n“I… I’m not really sure. It’s honestly a little confusing.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Is the ability description too vague?”

nTiana furrowed her brows.

n“No, it’s more like that ability isn’t showing up at all. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy and that somehow gave me superpowers.”

nKairos laughed at first, but his expression gradually turned serious soon after. He quickly realized that the ability must’ve been an inborn one.

n“…Do you mind if I look at your status panel?”

nTiana raised an eyebrow.

n“I already showed it to you before, so it’s fine. But why do you want to see it?”

nKairos narrowed his eyes slightly.

n“I just want to confirm something.”

nTiana looked back at him for a few moments before eventually nodding.

n“Alright then, mister mysterious.”

nShe opened up her status panel, and Kairos directly took off his glasses.

nID: 005312430000

nRank: 510

/15000 Evolution Energy – 5000 required for Rankup

nObjective: Gain 4490 Evolution Energy and Complete Promotion Mission

nProof Of Perfection Points: 2436.7

nStrength – 30.0

nAgility – 30.0

nEndurance – 30.0

nWillpower – 30.0

nMana Capacity – 30.0

nMagic Affinity – 30.0

nSpecial Abilities: Ruler (D), Beyond Limits Spell (D), Earth Spell (D), Metal Spell (D)

nInborn Abilities: Conqueror (E-)

nHide

nKairos’ eyes widened as he read through everything.

n“…You have a lot of evolution points. How did you even get these if you just spent all your time holed up in the city?”

nTiana smiled.

n“I can get them just for managing the place. More people there are inside and the stronger they are, the more I get.”

nKairos’ eyelid twitched.

n“That’s rather unfair. Though… that’s not what shocks me the most.”

nTiana leaned in slightly, looking curious.

n“Oh? And what shocks you the most?”

nKairos looked intently at the section that mentioned inborn abilities, staring at it intently.

nInborn Abilities: Conqueror (E-)

nHe was quite surprised at its rank. After all, his ability was only at F , and that was considering the fact it used to be F- as well. By now, he figured that the displayed ranks of inborn abilities worked differently compared to normal ones.

nAn ability at E- wasn’t really worth looking at under normal circumstances, especially since it only took ten points to upgrade an F grade one to that point. But it was an entirely different story for E.

nOut of curiosity, he opened up his own status panel, then attempted to upgrade his own inborn ability.

nUpgrade Shattered Truth to E- Rank with 1000 points? | Yes

/No

nHe sucked in a cold breath. Considering he didn’t even have fifty points right now, it seemed like it was going to take quite a while. He lamented over not having Tiana’s cheat to get an overwhelmingly large amount of points.

nAt this point, Tiana had her brows furrowed.

n“What are you thinking about? Just say it out loud! You’re going to kill me with curiosity!”

nThe corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. And at that time, an idea suddenly formed in his head.

n“…Say, how much do you trust me?”

nTiana stared back at him blankly.

n“I’ve trusted all your calls so far, so I might as well take it all the way.”

nKairos pressed on her inborn ability.

nUpgrade Conqueror to E Rank with 2000 points? | Yes

/No

nThen, he sucked in a cold breath.

n“Even if that means using up two thousand of your points?”

nTiana’s eyes widened significantly.

n“Huh? And how would you even do that?”

nKairos smiled bitterly.

n“I’m too lazy to explain.”

nTiana clicked her tongue.

n“Fine, just do whatever you were talking about then.”

nKairos gave a small nod before pressing yes.

nTiana’s status panel closed immediately afterwards, while her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She lurched forward, falling off and taking the chair down with her. Kairos reached out to catch her but stopped in the middle.

nBecause before she did fall, her body suddenly stopped, almost like she was suspended in the middle of the air.

nAfterwards, a rather heavy pressure began emanating from her. It made Kairos feel like the gravity suddenly increased several times over, to the point that it became difficult just to stand.

nThat was when a translucent purple figure gradually rose out from Tiana’s unconscious body. At the same time, Tiana was slowly lifted back up, until she was standing with her back straight.

nBehind her, was a roughly three-meter tall translucent purple figure of a woman. The woman didn’t resemble Tiana much, since she appeared to have long hair, and also had no facial features. Yet, despite that fact, it looked rather confident. If the figure did have a mouth, it would probably have a confident smirk.

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“What the hell did I just do?”

nTiana still had her eyes closed, while the purple figure tilted her head to the side slightly. It didn’t make any noise until it eventually grabbed onto Tiana’s shoulders.

nThat was when her eyes flew open. She immediately began gasping for air like she was drowning.

n“The hell? What just…”

nShe trailed off before slowly turning to look behind her. Her face froze when she saw the purple figure.

n“What the-”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“Do you feel different now?”

nTiana turned back to him.

n“Huh? What?”

nShe didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but suddenly her eyes lit up.

n“Wait a minute. You were talking about using two thousand points or something, right?”

nKairos gave a small nod.

nShe then opened her status panel and noticed those points were indeed gone.

n“What did you… do to me?”

n