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

Kairos walked with the others, in a rather expansive hallway. Unlike the previous one they had been to, this one was not nearly as linear. Within just a minute or so of walking, they had encountered several branching pathways, some even splitting off into three or five different ways. On top of that, there were quite a few rooms along the way, leading to smaller areas with monsters within eyeshot.

The monsters themselves didn't seem to care much about their presence so long as they didn't enter the room and were more or less resting there idly.

After walking for a while, he pointed at one of the more freaky large ones and spoke up.

"Say, why are those things just sitting there like that? It's almost like they have an aggro range like a video game. Also, is there no point in fighting them?"

To his surprise, Jeff was the one that spoke up.

"Most dungeons exist because of some incredibly dense black blood-related thing at its core. Everywhere inside the dungeon has a kind of energy within them. The rooms themselves had a slightly higher concentration of energy. It isn't exactly black blood, but it is essentially the same in function. That's why there are monsters attracted to them, and simply want to remain there. Though if you step inside..."

Jeff reached down to pick up a pebble before throwing it in one of the rooms.

Just as the soft clacking sound resounded, a violent growl followed before a tail came crashing down on the pebble, turning it into dust. The tail retracted back slowly after a few seconds.

After expressionlessly turning away, he continued on.

"They get really territorial. They don't want to share any of that energy. At the same time, there's really no reason to go in there, as you'll just be fighting a monster in an unfavorable cramped environment for no reward other than the monster corpse itself."

Jeff shrugged his shoulders.

"If there was some sort of valuable item there previously, then it's long gone if a monster has already taken their spot there. And unless it's recently formed, a dungeon will always have its rooms taken by monsters."

He took a deep breath.

"But as you go closer to the center, you will find more dangerous monsters and frequently find things that can't simply be consumed in their entirety by a monster. We are ignoring the outskirts since there is rarely a reason to ever fight anything here. That doesn't mean it's impossible for something good to be in one, but it simply isn't worth the time and effort."

Kairos was silent for a little while, processing everything that he said. Eventually, he gave a few nods.

"Wow, you seem to really know your stuff when it comes to this... dungeon stuff."

Jeff simply shook his head, his face just barely moving in response to his speaking.

"Not really. I take notice of these kinds of little things. That's all really."

Sara let out a giggle as a rather wide smile blossomed on her face. She gave Kairos a sidelong look.

"He's the one that figured out how to do those tests in the previous dungeon. Without him, we probably wouldn't have even been able to make it to that one part."

Kairos turned to Jeff with a new look of respect. He didn't expect that someone who hardly said anything and appeared not to think about anything at all was actually so analytical.

"That is quite impressive."

Jeff let out a small sigh, clearly not pleased, but also not displeased about the compliment.

"That's just a thing I can naturally do. While I can pick up on cold hard facts and nuances, the same cannot be said about other things."

Nyoka let out a laugh, looking back with a cheeky grin.

"Basically, it means he can't read emotions at all. Frankly, he needs someone to just tell him to his face to understand what the other is feeling."

Jeff shrugged his shoulders, not even shifting his gaze.

"How are you supposed to understand something subjective that has multiple possible answers? Not that it would matter if people just made things clear."

Kairos couldn't feel a sense of parallel with him, though only to a certain extent. From the sounds of things, Jeff's avatar being a literal rock golem was quite fitting for him. There was a part of Kairos that wanted to share this, just for the sake of it.

It would make things clearer, as Jeff put it. Yet, Kairos didn't even feel the urge to do so. It hadn't even bubbled up before being forced down. It simply wasn't there in the first place, despite the fact he liked the idea of it.

He was being a hypocrite to himself without anyone even knowing it.

And so, their time was rather silent as they continued on through the paths. As they continued, a black fog gradually became visible. Although it was incredibly small, Kairos could just barely tell that some of it was black blood seeping into his skin.

However, it was akin to a human opening their mouth in some mist in an attempt to sate their thirst. It simply wasn't a significant amount.

Though it wasn't an unpleasant thing. The others seemed to be slightly uplifted from this kind of air. Well, other than Jeff, but that was an exception.

Eventually, Nyoka stopped, prompting the rest to do so as well. He looked over at a corridor that led into a room. Unlike the ones at the start, this was incredibly large, having a similarly needlessly high ceiling like the corridor, expanding far into the distance.

It was almost as though it was a throne room, with stairs in the distance and a giant moth, with its wings at its side residing there silently.

Nyoka gave a short nod after looking at it for a while.

"Think that's good for a run?"

Sara turned to look at Jeff, who in turn silently stared for a while. Eventually, he just let out a soft hum.

"It's worth a try, if nothing else."

Seeing that they were going to fight, Kairos held up a hand, getting their attention.

"Uh, is there anything I should know?"

Nyoka stepped into the room rather boldly, prompting the moth to twitch before unfurling its wings. As he did so, he gave a glance over his shoulder.

"Just that any real plan falls apart in practice. Intuition is more reliable at that point."

Right after he said that, the giant moth let out a squeaky, but deafening, screech. Various spots were all over its wings, outlined by gray marks across its body. Nyoka took a few steps forward before falling down, transforming into a snake as he reached the ground, before slithering on ahead.

Sara followed suit, jumping into the air as her body transformed, flapping her arms as they were violently morphing into wings. As for Jeff, he simply ran in as his body turned to stone. However he slowed down considerably after transforming fully. He proceeded to slowly walk over. It would probably be a while before he actually made it to the center.

Seeing all of them transform, he decided to follow suit. His body contorted rather grotesquely, but at this point, he got used to it. He heard excited barking inside his head, the wolf now in his mind and also incredibly excited.

Thankfully, it showed restraint and let Kairos do what he wanted, just happy to be along for the ride.

Within the form, he involuntarily sensed the others' emotions, which were mostly nothing. Sara appeared to be slightly nervous, but it was only a flutter that lasted a few moments.

As for the moth itself, it appeared to be afraid. At the same time, it was putting up a brave front along with anger. It seemed as though it wasn't confident in winning, but was willing to put up a fight until the end.

This made Kairos curious as to whether a negotiation was possible, but considering the lacking forms of communication, he tossed that idea away.

After taking in a deep breath, he began running ahead. As they started to get close, Kairos noticed that the moth was starting to get anxious, but also daring. Paired with his future vision, he could tell that an attack was coming.

With that in mind, he immediately activated his harden skill, consuming some black blood to form a layer of protection.

A little while later, the moth pulled back its expansive wings before the patterns on its wings began vibrating. The air around it then distorted. Kairos intuitively guessed what was going on and already ducked down before covering his ears with his hands.

Then, a supersonic blast pierced through the entire room.

Sara let out a screech in her eagle form and began losing air, falling down erratically as she attempted to keep herself in the air. As for Nyoka, his eyes narrowed, but didn't seem to be majorly affected.

As for Jeff... he was a rock.

But for Kairos, the hardened skin over his body all cracked while a ringing sound filled his ears.

Now that he looked more closely, blood was coming out the sides of Nyoka's head, and Jeff was no longer moving.

It seemed things wouldn't be as simple as he thought.