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nAs Kairos continued to walk with Nyoka, he began wondering if being with someone else would technically lead to him failing the mission. However, just as those doubts appeared, the system made a panel appear in front of him.

nTime Left Before Teleportation: 29 days, 21 hours, 47 minutes, and 03 seconds remaining

nIt was almost like the system was trying to tell him that it was fine. Regardless, that wasn’t all that reassuring. For all he knew, Nyoka could’ve been leading him to an elaborate trap. Though, he doubted there was any real reason for him to do so.

nAfter a few moments of awkward silence, Kairos spoke up.

n“So could you give me the gist about this place? Especially about all those terms you use so offhandedly.”

nNyoka nodded.

n“Ah, yes. It’s just hard for me to understand that you are actually new to this place. Now… where do I start?”

nHe tapped his chin a few times in thought. If this was going to take as long as the story, then Kairos was going to lose it. However, Nyoka thankfully spoke up promptly.

n“For starters, I guess you should understand that everybody around here wants black blood. Almost everything here needs it to survive, activate cores, evolve, heal injuries, and more things that I’m too lazy to list off. As for what cores are, they are things that let us perform special abilities. Generally speaking, they are used for killing in flashy ways, but it can also do things like allowing someone to fly, or teleport.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“Where do you get these cores?”

nNyoka cleared his throat.

n“As for a reliable source, dungeons. But you can also kill other people and salvage some of the cores that they have to take as your own. That’s what most people do nowadays. The more cores you have of the same kind, the more powerful the ability becomes. Though, it’s a little complicated.”

nKairos waved his hand dismissively.

n“Just tell me, I’d like to know more about them.”

nNyoka smiled bitterly..

n“Alright, alright. They look like cubes, and the power system also works in cubes. You can use the ability with one core, but it is only powered up once you get a total of eight. To put it simply, think of how many small cubes you would need to make a bigger cube with a length of two.”

nKairos rubbed his chin and stared upwards, thinking about it intently.

n“So after that, you would need twenty-seven cubes to get to the next rank?”

nNyoka smirked.

n“Yeah, just cube the level, and that’s how many cores you need. Seems like you get all of that. That’s basically all you need to know for how people get stronger down here. There are other things, but they aren’t all that important.”

nHe tilted his head to the side.

n“As for the general mentality to have… you have nothing to fear.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“And how exactly does that make any sense?”

nNyoka laughed.

n“To put it plainly, people are afraid because of the possibility of something dangerous. Maybe going into the mountains will attract a mountain lion. Or for the average person, when it’s dark, they’ll be scared there’s secretly some sort of monster hiding in the shadows watching you.”

nHis eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

n“The only difference here is that you don’t have to wonder if there’s a monster in the darkness watching you. Because regardless of where you are, there will always be at least one monster watching you from somewhere, if not multiple. And as such, there’s no need to fear.”

nHe smirked.

n“There’s just no point.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“It doesn’t seem all that dangerous right now.”

nNyoka shrugged his shoulders.

n“That’s what people think when they first get here. To put it simply, it’s like how people see ants on the ground sometimes. Although they could crush them beneath their feet with ease, it’s usually just a waste of their time for most people.”

nKairos’ eyebrow twitched.

n“I could be getting this wrong, but are you basically just saying don’t get unlucky?”

nNyoka pressed his lips together.

n“Not exactly. It’s more like… don’t be too hopeful that you’re going to survive.”

nKairos stared at him blankly.

n“I… see.”

nNyoka shook his head.

n“Anyway, let’s not talk about that anymore. I actually have two other people that I’ve been with since the first layer. I’ll take you to meet both of them at my place. Don’t get offended if they suddenly attack you. Your appearance doesn’t look the most friendly, to say the least.”

nKairos chuckled.

n“What do I look like? I assume there won’t be anything like mirrors around this place.”

nNyoka sucked in a cold breath.

n“Er… I suppose the best way to put it is that you’re no prince charming.”

nKairos sighed.

n“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind I guess.”

nWhile the two of them continued to talk about rather random things, they eventually made it to what looked like a rather rickety house. It was only one story and had gaping holes on many sides. It definitely didn’t look all that reassuring, nothing compared to the city that he was used to.

nKairos pointed at it.

n“Is this your place?”

nNyoka stared at it for a few moments before shaking his head.

n“Ah, no it isn’t.”

nKairos gave an approving nod.

n“Hah. I almost thought your place was actually this decrepit.”

nNyoka laughed while raising both arms in the air, with his black fang in a reverse grip.

n“To be more accurate, it’s an imitation.”

nKairos shot him a glance, about to ask. However, his future vision told him everything beforehand. A soft rumble came from the ground and a split second later massive cracks formed around, reaching a whole ten meters away.

nAt the same time, Nyoka slammed his dagger down towards the ground. A black flash burst out from the ground. Kairos leaped backward so as to not get caught, but Nyoka had a wild smile on his face, like someone that lost it.

nKairos could tell that his pupils began dilating. For a moment, everything felt like it was slowing down.

nAt first, he saw what looked like a giant black bud rise up from the ground. In particular, the tip of the bud looked unnaturally sharp. However, it missed Nyoka. But that wasn’t the end, as it suddenly expanded into several three-meter long petals, forcefully breaking apart the ground and sending several large chunks of rock all around.

nKairos brought one arm to shield himself, but focused on Nyoka.

nHis position was practically perfect, to the point that it seemed to be a coincidence. The strange flower missed him, and when the petals expanded, he was in a gap between two of them fitting in between. However, from his confidence, it was clear he had done something like this countless times.

nHis black fang continued to plunge downwards ruthlessly before slamming down. A high-pitched shriek resounded, while the petals frantically moved around.

nKairos got a little bit closer and saw that in the center of the flower was a giant white eye. And Nyoka had ripped into it, causing less than pleasant looking fluids to spill out. After a few moments of frantic moving, the flower seemed to realize the problem. Several petals shot towards Nyoka, but before they could hit him he leaped high up into the air, dodging them entirely.

nSeveral loud clangs resounded when the petals hit each other, awfully similar to the sound of countless swords clanging against each other.

nUpon missing its target, the flower continued to cry out. It almost seemed like a baby complaining that it wasn’t fair.

nKairos wondered how many evolution points he would get for killing the thing, especially because the method that the things down here obtained power was so different. He looked up into the air and put one hand at the side of his mouth before calling out.

n“Hey, do you mind if I kill this thing?”

nWhile Nyoka was in the air, he still had a psychotic smile on his face. Though after hearing Kairos, it disappeared in a flash. He tilted his body to the side before skydiving out of the way.

n“Sure, it’s all yours.”

nKairos bent his knees and smiled.

n“Thanks.”

nHe pulled his spear back before suddenly lunging forwards. He directly leaped over the rampaging petals. After all, it sounded like those things wouldn’t break easily. But the eye may as well be unprotected.

nKairos lifted his spear above his head. When he reached the center, he saw the torn up eye looking back at him. It almost seemed to be pleading, but he couldn’t care less about that.

nWith all of his strength, he brought his spear down as hard as he could, assuming that the monster would be rather durable.

nA deafening bang resounded.

nThe spear split straight into the eye mercilessly, tearing through it. At some point, Kairos felt like he hit something, after which the eye blew up like a water balloon. This didn’t make him let his guard down though, especially because he didn’t see the system notification.

nNot to mention, with how durable monsters on the surface were, he wasn’t taking any chances.

nWithout delay, he brought his spear up once more and continued to slam the eye, or what was left of it. Though, the system notification never showed up. He was actually getting a little nervous, thinking that he had missed the true weakness of the thing.

nThat was when Nyoka awkwardly coughed from right next to him.

n“Uh, it’s already dead. You don’t have to beat it like you’re beating your meat.”

nKairos was in the middle of raising his spear, but kept it up there. He turned to look at Nyoka, who was looking back with a hopeless expression. Kairos looked down at the mess he made.

nThe petals had already laid on the sides like they were wilted, while it was hard to tell there was even an eyeball below his feet beforehand.

nAfter a few moments, he spoke up.

n“Are you sure it’s dead?”

nNyoka scratched the back of his head.

n“Um, it has been dead since the first time you hit it. Do you have some sort of trauma of things living after you killed them or something?”

nKairos paused. When he looked at it, the thing definitely looked like it had died. However, he hadn’t gotten a notification for it. This confused him like no other. He sighed.

n“There’s usually a… thing that tells me when I’ve killed something. But it didn’t work even after hitting it, so I just kept on doing so waiting for the sign.”

nThe two of them looked at each other strangely for the next few moments.

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