I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

Kairos' eyelid twitched when he heard what the man with green hair said.

"What do you mean by that?"

The man chuckled.

"I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. You were the one that messed up my entire garden, weren't you?"

Kairos blinked a few times, realizing the man wasn't going to be fooled. He actually did know exactly what he was talking about. Earlier on, he was captured by a strange monster with roots that brought him over to some strange place with trees that had faces. It was in that place that he killed the trees and then got the green orbs.

He could tell fairly easily that whoever was managing the garden was someone that he didn't want to mess with just from looking at it. Though, he didn't regret taking the green orbs, as he really did need to use them if he wanted to survive the dungeon. But he really didn't expect to meet the person behind it, especially not this soon.

Kairos cleared his throat.

"Ah, hello there. I apologize for dirtying your garden, but I was dragged in there against my will. My only desire was to escape."

The man raised his eyebrow.

"You wanted to escape, but killed everything that was inside?"

Kairos fell silent.

The man let out a laugh seeing this.

"Ah, well all that can be water under the bridge. We can work together, alright?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Alright then, what are you proposing?"

The man's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"It appears you have some sort of mana to regenerate mana rather quickly. May I know what that is?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"If I tell you, then everything will be water under the bridge."

The man chuckled.

"Well, if it is some sort of item that allows you to do such a thing, then I must request to have that. But to show my sincerity, I won't take it for free. I can even provide a few green orbs in exchange."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not an item. I just figured out that if I circulate mana in my body like a vortex, then it will naturally attract the surrounding mana as well."

The man stared at him blankly, the smile on his face suddenly gone.

"Don't lie to me."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"I don't really know what to say, because I wasn't lying. It's a little rude for you to just assume that."

The man shook his head.

"If it was that easy to regenerate mana, then everyone would be able to do it, fool."

Kairos scoffed.

"Then what how do you think I'm going it? I never said it was something easy."

The man narrowed his eyes.

"Then it's one of your special abilities?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"You can look at it that way."

The man rubbed his chin.

"Then show me the skill in your status panel."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"It doesn't show there. It's not a skill granted by the system."

The man frowned.

"Then show me."

Kairos blinked a few times. He didn't really want to show his status panel, but there wasn't anything too important in there so long as the man didn't have an ability similar to his. And so, he opened it up.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: D-]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 25.9]

[Stats -

Strength - 14.9

Endurance - 17.7

Agility - 14.9

Willpower - 14.9

Mana Capacity - 14.9

Magic Affinity - 29.9]

[Special Abilities: Alone (D), Water Spell (E), Pulse Spell (E), Fire Spell (F), Gale Spell (F)]

[Hide]

The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at each ability intensely.

"...What does the alone and pulse spell do?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"One makes my spells a bit stronger, and the other is basically just a shockwave spell."

The man clicked his tongue.

"That does match what I know from names... wait, your mana capacity isn't even at thirty?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"...I can increase it if you want."

Without too much hesitation, he increased his mana capacity. With the nature of how he regenerated mana, having mana would make it easier to do so.

[Mana Regeneration 14.9 -> 29.9 | Points 25.9 -> 10.9]

After doing that, Kairos began swirling the mana in his body to rapidly regenerate mana, reaching his full mana capacity in just thirty seconds.

"Still don't believe me?"

The man stared back at him in complete shock.

"You understand the laws of mana?"

Kairos smiled bitterly.

"Understanding is overexaggerating it by quite a bit, but I do know a thing here or there."

The man rubbed his chin with interest before holding out a hand.

"Well, let me take a step back here. Hello there, my name is Kian. May I know yours?"

Kairos looked back at his hand with a bit of skepticism.

"I'd prefer not shaking hands, but hello Kian. My name is Kairos."

Kian gave a small nod.

"Alright then. Well, one of my main priorities is securing a method to collect large amounts of mana. I do have a few options I know of, but securing them would end up being just a little too inconvenient for me."

He gestured towards Kairos.

"And since it seems you know a method to absorb quite a bit of mana, I would like to ask for your help."

Kairos hesitated. He already felt how shaky Tori's relationship with them was when he saw her abandoning them in the dream. But at the same time, he made an alliance with Edward's group despite not really trusting them either.

Making allies didn't mean he had to trust them with everything. And so, he slowly nodded.

"Alright then. Should we start?"

Kian narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I would prefer if your mana capacity was at thirty before we start."

Kairos stared back at him with a blank expression.

"Huh? Isn't it close enough to thirty at this point? It's only a tenth of a point away."

Kian shook his head.

"Ahaha, it seems you still don't understand. When one's stats reach the maximum, one will be given a promotion mission. Part of that comes breaking through the limits of your stats."

All of a sudden, Kairos' mind flashed back to what Tiana's stats were. There were all at 30.0, not 29.9 like the limit he was currently facing.

"That's... strange. It sounds rather complicated."

Kian shrugged his shoulders.

"It seems that you aren't aware, but most people are fighting to become the first person to reach the C rank, especially because of the unnatural difficulty that it comes with."

Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly.

"What is required?"

Kian paused.

"It requires you to be placed on the leaderboards for limit-breaking stats. There are also custom missions along with... one more if you wish to be promoted."

Kairos shot him a sidelong glance.

"You mean those Top whatevers?"

Kian nodded.

"It seems you've been on a few of them, so it shouldn't be too big of a problem. The only thing you need is some more points."

Kairos scratched the side of his head.

"No helping that, it seems."

Kian waved his hand over, as though calling someone over.

"No problem with that. I can let you have some of my creations to speed up the process."

Before Kairos could say anything else, he saw a large number of mushrooms rush over from the distance. They would jump onto whatever monsters they could along the way and drain their body in order to make more of themselves.

Kian gestured towards the large wave of mushrooms coming over.

"Just kill them all, and you should have the points required to start the mission."

Kairos felt a chill go down his spine. He felt a little foolish working so hard trying to get rid of all the mushrooms when the man literally had an army of them already. With a sigh, he raised one hand, pointing two fingers towards all of the mushrooms. Then, he let loose the water spell, crushing all of them into a muddy paste.

As countless notifications flashed by his screen, he turned to Kian.

"Thanks for the points."

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded]

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded]

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded]

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded]

[Multi-Kill (Type - Normal) - 0.3 points awarded]

The wave of notifications was beginning to make it hard to see, though despite there being a swarm, he could make out one that appeared quite different from the others.

[Massacre (Type - Normal) - 5 points awarded]

He only saw it appear maybe two times, but the amount he gained was substantially different, to the point that it was the same amount as just barely ranking in the top ten of one of those leaderboards.

Eventually, Kian cleared his throat.

"Alright, alright. I believe you have enough points now, am I right?"

Kairos gave a small nod.

"It should be, yeah."

Though he did want it to continue, asking more from a person he initially stole from probably wouldn't go too well.

[Status]

[ID: 345315364923]

[Rank: D-]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 79.3]

[Stats -

Strength - 14.9

Endurance - 17.7

Agility - 14.9

Willpower - 14.9

Mana Capacity - 29.9

Magic Affinity - 29.9]

[Special Abilities: Alone (D), Water Spell (E), Pulse Spell (E), Fire Spell (F), Gale Spell (F)]

[Hide]

Kairos blinked a few times as he realized a problem.

"...I don't have enough food to support the stat increase I'm going to do."

Kian scoffed.

"You have that nature core, don't you?"

Kairos fell silent, making Kian sigh exasperatedly.

"Consider this a down payment. By taking this, there's no going back."

Kian held out his hand as a bright green energy coalesced around it, before creating a familiar green orb, or to be accurate, a nature core. He casually tossed it to Kairos, making him feel a little taken aback.

Was it really something so insignificant to him that he was willing to give it up like that?"

Kairos didn't say anymore as he stabbed the nature core and began drinking from it. While he could feel his body get filled with energy, he hurriedly increased his stats.

[Strength 14.9 -> 29.9 | Points 79.3 -> 64.3]

[Endurance 17.7 -> 29.9 | Points 64.3 -> 52.1]

[Agility 14.9 -> 29.9 | Points 52.1 -> 37.1]

[Willpower 14.9 -> 29.9 | Points 37.1 -> 22.1]

Kairos took a deep breath. He expected a far harsher backlash from increasing his status points by so much, but other than his heated-up body there was essentially no pain. Right as he thought it was going to be painful, the effect of the nature core kicked in, enhancing his body tremendously.

And right when he felt all the changes settle down, another system message appeared in front of his eyes that Kian didn't seem to be able to see.

[Promotion Mission]

[Requirements -

1 - [Broken Limits]

Limit 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).

2 - [Trademark]

Upgrade 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

3 - [Proven]

Kill 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.

4 - [Custom - Isolation]

Spend thirty days alone in the Abyss Realm. Further information about the Abyss Realm may be found after all other missions are completed.

Kairos narrowed his eyes when he looked at all the missions. Though he didn't fully understand it all, it was fairly clear that this mission was far from easy. The third mission in particular made him suddenly go on alert.

He put his all into channeling the pulse spell as he dashed away from Kian.

After all, with the third mission, it would make perfect sense for someone to grow a person to the peak of D-rank before killing them.