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

Kairos furrowed his brows, thinking about the implications of a person being able to see mana. Ling didn't seem to understand what he was talking about at first, but as he began pondering it, his eyes lit up in realization.

"Oh... that makes so much sense then. That's why nobody ever saw those bright lights like me."

Kairos couldn't help but feel a little baffled, as it sounded like this was an ability Ling was born with, yet he couldn't even tell that he had it after so long.

Nonetheless, he wasn't going to spend this time questioning the kid's intelligence.

"...What kinds of blue lights do you see?"

Ling looked around the place.

"There is like, a ball just above their faces, which then goes into a lot of tiny little strings that go up and down."

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"How big is the ball? Show me with your hands."

Ling scratched the back of his head.

"Uh..."

He held his two hands apart to be roughly ten or so centimeters apart. Kairos couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, thinking that they were quite tiny for the size of an explosion that happened earlier.

Then, Kairos looked out towards the other trees that were still relentlessly destroying everything around them. Though now that he had some time to look around, there was one tree that had remained still. It was the one that had just grown, the one that Kairos and Ling watched grow from a person.

He walked over to it.

The face seemed to be in agony, but more than that, it showed confusion. Kairos wanted to test something on this tree, but he still needed some sort of weapon to do so. He considered his options, but there really weren't many at all.

However, he did think of one.

Kairos pulled out the red prism from his pocket. Thankfully, it hadn't fallen out yet.

He saw its status panel appear.

[Status]

[ID: 1/10]

[Energy: 1/1000]

His face twitched when he saw the incredibly low energy value. He remembered when he last used it to clear out a space, it had run out of energy entirely. The fact that it was one right now thankfully meant that it could recover on its own, but it seemed that the rate was unbearably slow.

Kairos sighed, but was thankful that it even had energy in the first place. From there, he began growing a thin pole out of the ground with sharp ends on both sides.

Ling seemed rather fascinated, but also creeped out.

That was probably in consideration with the red veins bulging around it.

Kairos focused on creating a suitable length while maintaining sharp ends. He also wanted to make it thicker, but found he could only just barely do so before running out of energy.

In the end, he made a rod that was very thin and had two sharp ends, one of which was lodged into the ground. It was essentially a miniature spear.

Kairos wrapped one hand around the hilt, and immediately felt uncomfortable. This was in part because of how thin it was, but also because of the bulging red veins that appeared on it.

He then casually attempted to pull it out, but to his surprise, it remained in place even though he tugged on it with a decent amount of strength.

Kairos furrowed his brows before clenching a little more tightly, causing his knuckles to whiten. With a muffled grunt, he pulled hard onto it.

His hand began trembling, while his feet actually began sinking into the ground. Though it was dirt underneath him, it was tightly packed. In fact, the black roots of the trees underneath actually made it even more solid, despite all of their thrashing around.

Yet, the spear did not even budge.

Kairos clicked his tongue before wrapping both arms around the spear and taking on a proper stance to pull it out. Even when using everything he had, the spear was unbelievably difficult to pull out.

However, he could just barely feel some give.

Kairos wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but considering he felt that tiny bit of movement twice, he was fairly sure that it was working.

And so, he continued to pull with more enthusiasm.

By now, both of his feet were submerged in the ground. On the other hand, several cracks had formed in the earth around the spear. These cracks originated from the spear's location and snaked outwards.

It was then that the very earth itself was pulled up.

And finally, when Kairos nearly found himself knee-deep in the earth, the spear had come out. He was panting heavily by the end and took some time to inspect his newfound weapon.

"...I never knew the Excalibur was a spear."

Ling let out a surprised gasp.

"Eh? It is? But it looks a lot like a sword."

Kairos looked at him strangely before ignoring him. It seemed like the spear was somehow attached to most of the ground beneath it, despite being so thin.

Kairos couldn't help but wonder how difficult it would be to uproot a large platform created by this red prism if it was so hard to do so for such a tiny spear. Though it was definitely inconvenient for him in this situation, he couldn't help but feel assured that a base created with this red prism in the future would be very strong.

Kairos let out a soft sigh as he tested swinging the spear around. It made very clear whipping sounds as it traveled through the air. Though it was very thin, it still had some weight to it. Not an exaggerated amount, but definitely more than one would expect from its size.

Kairos then looked at the black tree in front of him that still seemed confused.

"Sorry about this, but it would probably be better for you anyway."

He looked at Ling.

"Can you put your hands on the tree to show me the size of the blue light you see?"

Though confused, Ling compiled, putting his hands roughly ten centimeters away on top of the tree's face.

Kairos then rested the side of his spear at the top of where Ling indicated it.

"Alright, step back."

Ling hurriedly stepped back, watching on in curiosity.

Kairos gradually pulled back the spear, but made sure to keep it at the same elevation. Then, the spear whipped through the air.

An uncomfortably loud snap filled the air from the sound of a sonic boom.

The spear ripped straight through the tree, appearing on the other side rather easily. The severed half of the trunk did not immediately fall down. Instead, it abruptly shifted to the side while still on top.

Then, it gradually began tilting from the force of gravity before smashing onto the ground.

The face on the trunk of the tree didn't seem to realize what just happened, but still seemed rather aghast, like it could somehow sense that something bad had happened to it.

Kairos nodded to himself as he looked at the spear. The red veins had been damaged, but they were already regenerating and had recovered completely by the next second.

Because of how thin yet durable the spear was, it could also double as a sword.

After that, he climbed on top of the newly formed stump and took a look at the thing in the center.

There was a bit of light green faintly glowing in the center.

Kairos gently pried around it with his spear, pushing away the bark to reveal more of it. What he discovered was that the tree had a small green ball inside of it. After a few more moments of observing it, he forcefully dug through it.

Kairos was definitely not showing the proper care considering that this thing exploded on him last time, digging away without much concern.

This was because of his future vision.

However, to Ling, it seemed as though Kairos was completely unafraid. At first, Ling thought he was being a fool, but seeing as nothing happened, his opinion shifted to Kairos being an expert.

It really wasn't that though.

Kairos had accidentally damaged the green orb earlier and quickly stopped himself, but realized that damaging the green orb wouldn't cause it to explode while exposed to air. Instead, a cyan liquid would rush out very quickly but was otherwise harmless.

Once most of the green orb had been exposed, Kairos grabbed onto the orb and began to pull.

The tree below him suddenly started screaming in agony. The branches that had been unresponsive all this time suddenly started to thrash around, though their coordination was quite off, sometimes jittering around in place, and other times awkwardly bending in random directions.

Kairos obviously knew that the tree was in pain, but that didn't seem to concern him. In reality, he saw this as mercy. While the tree seemed to be calmer than the rest, it would probably end up freaking out like the rest once it realized it had become a tree.

With those thoughts in mind, he pulled out the green orb.

[Killed Creature - 0.1 points awarded]

The tree suddenly stopped moving, and the black branches fell limp.

Ling shivered and shifted his gaze away slightly so that he wasn't directly looking at Kairos, but enough so that he could still see.

As for Kairos, he took a closer look at the green orb in his hand.

He didn't actually have the slightest clue what it was, but the reason he went through all this effort to extract it was because of the potential offensive nature. After all, the explosion from earlier was enough to shatter the blade of the glaive.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the explosion was mostly caused by built-up pressure, so they wouldn't really be able to work as bombs by themselves.

However, Kairos wasn't willing to give up on it yet, as shown by him holding it in his hand.

When he had punctured it accidentally earlier in his future vision, he couldn't help but think about drinking whatever liquid it was. Though that kind of mentality was rather suicidal, Kairos had his ways around it.

Despite the massive mental strain, he extended his future vision to two seconds. He nearly blanked out, but was able to hold on.

Without delay, Kairos slashed open the orb and tried to drink the liquid within.

He did not even try to do it slowly, as that would be counterintuitive.

An overly sweet taste filled his mouth.

Though Kairos wasn't one to deny a sugary treat, the sweetness of this liquid was far too overbearing, to the point that it made him want to vomit. However, he held on.

A second passed as the liquid continued to make its way down his throat.

A warm sensation had spread through his body. Although it could be considered comforting, Kairos couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled.

But within this myriad of feelings, he could also feel the pain in his leg numb significantly. Even his mind felt a little clearer.

Before another second passed, Kairos quickly stopped himself.

The spear in his hand shot towards the green orb, before abruptly freezing.

Kairos took a second to deliberate over the risks.

His head was hurting really badly, impairing his judgment, but he tried his best to push through it.

From what he could tell, the liquid from the green orb didn't seem to have any immediate harmful effects, other than being too sweet. Though, there could be ones that only came afterwards.

Kairos massaged his temple using the tip of his finger with clear frustration.

The stress was making it hard to think.

His mind couldn't help but wander to the refreshing feeling he felt, though it was only for a split second.

Kairos let out a soft sigh.

He decided he was going to drink it.

His justification was that his current injuries would make it hard to survive anyway, so he might as well take this gamble.

And so, Kairos punctured the green orb.