Chapter 71 - Tori's Evolution

Tori looked at Kairos with a bit of confusion.

"What do you mean, you can see other options?"

Kairos wiped the blood off of his face.

"I found out when I was helping Sydney earlier that I can select a different spell for you, rather than the one that is displayed."

Tori tilted her head to the side.

"But the spell here says lightning, it sounds pretty cool, so I don't think I'd want something else."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Just let me take a look, maybe I'll find something you would like more."

Tori scratched the side of her head.

"Um, ok."

Kairos walked over and took a look at her status panel.

[Status]

[ID: 133543657645]

[Rank: 52/100 Evolution Energy - 50 required for Rankup]

[Objective: Evolve]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 31.9]

[Strength - 4.9

Agility - 4.9

Endurance - 4.9

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 0.0

Magic Affinity - 0.0]

[Special Abilities: N/A]

[Inborn Abilities: N/A]

[Evolve]

[Hide]

Kairos clicked on the evolve option. Though Tori looked a little uncomfortable, she decided not to interfere.

[Use 5 points for stable evolution? Yes/No]

[Use 10 points for natural ability? Yes/No]

[Use 5 points for Lightning Spell or Wind Spell? Lightning/Wind | Yes/No]

[Confirm]

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"I can see a wind spell available. Do you want to consider it?"

Tori scratched the side of her head.

"Uh, which one is better?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I have no idea, honestly. But take a second to think about what kind of spell you would like."

Tori rubbed her chin with her thumb and forefinger.

"Huh..."

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"There isn't too much of a point in overthinking it. In the end, we don't know what either of them do."

Tori turned to him and proceeded to smirk.

"Then maybe the wind spell is better for me so that I can sweep you off of your feet."

Chase's face twitched.

"...Then I suppose I have no choice but to be swept up by my dashing white knight."

Tori giggled.

"Alright, I have decided! I choose the wind spell!"

Kairos pressed his lips together.

"Um, are you sure you want to make your choice so... arbitrarily?"

Tori shrugged her shoulders.

"Thinking too much has never done me any good before, so I'm not going to get so hung up on it."

Kairos blinked a few times, then nodded.

"Alright, I can't fault that."

He didn't want to spend too long just for her to make a decision anyway. With that in mind, he selected the wind spell and hit confirm.

The status panel changed, and Tori ended up shivering in surprise as well. Her body reddened slightly, but it calmed down soon after. She took a few deep breaths, sucking them in as though it wasn't enough for her.

After thirty seconds or so, the changes seemed to stop. Tori let out a small sigh.

"Wow, that feels... refreshing."

She proceeded to open up her status panel.

Kairos had wiped off the blood on his face before putting on the glasses.

[Status]

[ID: 133543657645]

[Rank: E-]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 11.9]

[Strength - 4.9

Agility - 4.9

Endurance - 4.9

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 0.1

Magic Affinity - 0.1]

[Special Abilities: Wind Spell (F), Wing Spell (F)]

[Hide]

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Wing spell?"

Chase blinked a few times.

"Hmm... a white knight with wings, huh?"

Tori kept her eyes on the status panel, but was already opening up her backpack to take out various snacks that were stored inside. Kairos noted that some of them seemed rather luxurious, such as caviar. He was a little confused on where she got it from, but decided not to question it right now.

Nicole seemed quite excited.

"Does the wing spell mean you can fly?"

Tori spoke while chewing on her food.

"I really hope that's not all that it does. I don't really care about flying anyway."

Nicole let out a soft gasp.

"But!..."

Sydney tilted her head to the side.

"There might not be that many practical uses of being able to fly."

Chase narrowed his eyes.

"It does sound situational, but we shouldn't be so fast to judge its effects, no?"

Tori nodded.

"It has to be something good! I spent so many points for it."

Without a second thought, she activated the wind spell. Wings suddenly sprouted out of her back, but far from traditional ones that birds would have. These wings were not only red, but appeared to be bat wings.

They were not all that large, spanning a length that was less than her arms.

Tori looked over her shoulder and raised both eyebrows.

"Wow, I wonder what I can- ah!"

The wings suddenly retracted on their own, while she ended up gasping for air.

"What? Why did it suddenly stop?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"You need mana in order to cast these spells. Since you just evolved, your mana is at the bare minimum, so it's only natural you can't keep it up for long."

Tori let out a muffled groan while still chewing on her food.

"That's lame."

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

"But also relatively reasonable."

Tori opened up her status panel, then without hesitation began putting points into agility. Kairos was honestly a little surprised, he imagined that she would at least try to put a little bit into mana.

After watching her continue to press the same button over and over again, Kairos couldn't help but speak up.

"Wait, wait, don't you want to put at least a few points into your magical abilities?"

Tori did not stop increasing her agility even as she responded.

"Eh, I can do that later."

Kairos tried to reach out to her hand, but saw that Tori would easily dodge out of the way, then decided to continue trying to convince her.

"If you have too much of one stat, then the rest of your body won't keep up! I already tried adding many points into the magical stats, and ended up coughing blood after using a spell."

Tori nodded.

"Ah, that makes sense."

Though she agreed, Kairos couldn't help but feel a little aggrieved.

"You..."

Because she was still adding points in agility. Chase's mouth was agape ever so slightly.

"Haha, you are very... independent."

Tori smiled proudly as she put both hands on her hips.

"Hehe, of course!"

Her body was essentially glowing red at this point while sweat poured down almost like a waterfall. Her clothes were soaked more or less instantly.

She tapped her chin with the tip of her finger.

"Hm. I can't add any more points."

Kairos looked rather speechless, then proceeded to shake his head.

"I guess you maxed it out."

He peered over at the panel and saw that her agility value was now at 14.9 points, seemingly the new maximum of this rank.

Tori smiled slightly.

"See? I almost have two points left over! Now I can increase my magical stats."

Kairos raised his hand.

"Wait, if you already put so much in agility, you might want to increase your other physical stats so that they can keep up with your agility."

Tori shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, it's already imbalanced, so why does it matter?"

Without waiting for the others to respond, she began increasing her magical stats equally.

Kairos opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but then closed it right after. She was more or less right anyway, her stats were already severely imbalanced, so it didn't matter too much anymore.

By the end, Tori looked at her status with a satisfied smile on her face.

"I like how this looks!"

Kairos looked over at the status panel.

[Status]

[ID: 133543657645]

[Rank: E-]

[Objective: Survive]

[Proof Of Perfection Points: 0.0]

[Strength - 4.9

Agility - 14.9

Endurance - 4.9

Willpower - 4.9

Mana Capacity - 1.0

Magic Affinity - 1.1]

[Special Abilities: Wind Spell (F), Wing Spell (F)]

[Hide]

The new giant stat for agility was very easily noticeable. And from there, she had spent her points more or less equally on the two magic stats.

After doing that, Tori continued to stuff her face with various snacks and began casting the wing spell once more.

Suddenly, the red wings appeared on her back once more, but were also notably much larger than last time, nearly reaching double her arm length.

The others ended up taking a few steps back to make some room.

Sydney seemed a little apprehensive.

"Oh my..."

Tori took a glance at her wings and smiled.

"Ah, these look quite nice."

With that, she raised the wings and flapped them. A strong gust of wind blew down, while Tori herself soared up into the sky like a bullet.

Kairos was quite surprised, and from Tori's bewildered expression, she also seemed to share the same sentiment.

Within just a few seconds, she had already soared up thirty meters into the air.

Tori then soared around in the sky, swooping up and down as though she was a bird.

"Woooooooo!"

Kairos called out.

"Don't forget you have a limited amount of time!"

After hearing that, Tori shot towards the ground at frightening speeds, prompting the rest of the group to flinch.

Chase's eyes widened.

"Slow down, slow down!"

Tori didn't seem to listen, still catapulting down at the same speed. When she was a meter away from the ground, Nicole couldn't help but look away, not wanting to see someone splatter onto the floor.

Yet, there was no sound of collision.

Right before hitting the ground, Tori's wings flapped, killing most of the momentum. She then touched the ground with one hand and turned it into a cartwheel. After a few rotations, she stopped and jumped up to her feet.

Tori smiled brightly as the wings retracted back into her body.

"I take it all back! Flying is way too cool!"

The rest of the group looked at her with a bit of shock. Chase let out a soft sigh.

"Well, you don't exactly fit the image of a white knight with those wings."

Tori smirked confidently.

"Hehe, then I can just be the demon king that kidnaps you, the fair maiden."

Chase rolled his eyes.

"It seems like I won't be able to do anything if you can move that fast."

Kairos decided to ignore the weird interaction these two people had with each other.

"Tori, do you still have mana to test out the wind spell?"

Tori nodded casually.

"Ah, right! That thing."

After saying that, gusts of wind began stirring around her. Her clothes flapped wildly with the wind along with her hair. These winds circulated at roughly two meters around her, thus they didn't affect the others.

Soon, the winds died down.

Kairos blinked a few times, and mentally compared that spell to his fire version.

"...Maybe I shouldn't have suggested that spell to you."

Chase let out a soft hum.

"Perhaps you could use it along with your wing spell to propel you at extreme speeds?"

Surprisingly, Tori didn't respond right away. Instead, she seemed to be in a partial daze.

"I feel like I can shift the winds in many different directions at the same time. If I get close to someone, I could probably make it really hard for them to move, then propel my katana as well."

Chase nodded.

"There seem to be a couple uses then."

Kairos hummed.

"I suppose there are a few uses, but it looks more so like a support spell."

Tori rolled her eyes.

"Why do you sound so concerned? It's my spell, and frankly, I like it."

Kairos raised both his hands up as though surrendering.

"Alright, alright."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Damn, I want to evolve too, but I'm still missing a few points."

Tori raised a finger.

"Ah, I remember seeing a large swarm of monsters chasing something when I was flying. Let's go there!"