Chapter 186 Ripe

The first thing that Kairos felt was unease. After all, for all intents and purposes, Chen thought that this was his first time in the dungeon and that he was more or less a weakling.

However, showing that he had already been in one of these dungeons would ruin this facade.

In other words, meeting someone that had known he had been in a dungeon was a little bit inconvenient. His face tensed up as he decided it would be best to start the conversation so that he could lead it the way he wanted.

Yet, right as his mouth opened, it closed soon after.

Because he noticed several things off about Oliver. He was looking down at the ground almost like he didn't deserve to look up. His eyelids were baggy, while the giant scythe with a chain was being dragged behind him.

It looked like someone that hadn't gotten sleep in a long time, but for people of his caliber, skipping a few nights of sleep wasn't all that big of a deal. It seemed that whatever happened to him was rather bad.

He walked slowly past the three of them, not even acknowledging their existence. In fact, he didn't even put up his guard should one of them suddenly attack them.

Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly and decided just to let it be. That would be more convenient if he didn't want to talk.

Unfortunately, Chen was just a little too curious. He called out to Oliver.

"Hey... are you ok man?"

Olive slowly turned his head to cast a glance. He just barely spoke out, almost like he was on his deathbed.

"No."

From there, he turned around and kept walking. However, Chen didn't seem to just want to stop there.

"What did you do?"

Kairos couldn't help but think his terminology was a little strange. Instead of asking what was wrong, he simply asked what he did, assuming that Oliver had done something to end up in such a state.

Though, from Oliver's reaction, it seemed to be dead on. He stopped moving, save for his body which was faintly trembling. His eyes were dashing in all directions, almost like he was afraid of being seen for whatever reason. On top of that, his breathing had become erratic, along with the occasional cough.

Despite not being given a clear response, Chen continued on as though he was having a conversation.

"Don't be so hung up over it. After all, it's not like we had a choice. Not a real one anyway."

Oliver's gaze slowly became a glare.

"...I made my choice. But sometimes, what you choose doesn't matter. Not if they didn't see your relationship the same way."

For whatever reason, Chen seemed to get triggered by that statement.

"What? The hell are you talking about? Of course it's normal to choose to live! Who wants to die? It's not like we wanted to kill anyone!"

Oliver blinked a few times.

"I suppose that's normal. But I chose to die. Because I thought that we would always be together."

His expression twitched.

"I just wanted... our farewell to be a little bit nicer."

Chen grabbed onto the side of his head with a hint of insanity.

"What? Since when?! You chose to die? What kind of person are you, are you insane?"

In a fit of fury, he picked Oliver up by the collar of his shirt. He didn't care at all that this child might've been a little more dangerous than what he looked like.

Nicole leaned over to Kairos and whispered to him a little fearfully.

"What is going on?"

Kairos blinked a few times before muttering quietly.

"...Chen is projecting and trying to justify his actions by seeing if others did the same. And that's all the while knowing that his actions were wrong, which can't be changed by whether or not others did as well."

Hearing that, Nicole watched on a little pitifully. Chen began screaming at Oliver, and it seemed as though as time went on he forgot the reason why he was doing that himself.

"It just makes no sense! It makes no sense! You're lying to me!"

Oliver stared back passively, but it was clear that he held a strong disdain for Chen.

"Not everyone is like you. It may be stupid, but there are things I am willing to give my life for."

Chen narrowed his eyes.

"Oh yeah? Then why are you here right now, alive?"

Oliver stared back with a plain expression.

"My sister and I were offered a choice. One of us would have to die. Over the years we had been together, I always looked out for my sister, getting enough food so that the both of us could live. Getting into the apocalypse surely was a big change for everyone else, but nothing really changed for us."

The corner of his lip twitched.

"I thought for a moment, and decided that I should be the one to die, but I wanted to say my farewells. Yet, before I could propose any of that, my sister attacked me, swinging her hammer straight at me. It hurt. But not wanting it all to end on a sour note, I defended myself while telling her I just wanted to say goodbye."

Oliver gradually began smiling.

"But she didn't believe me. She kept attacking me. And that was when she showed what she truly thought about me all along. Despite all the time we spent together, she never saw me as a comrade. Apparently, I was a tool to her the entire time. Someone to use so that she could survive."

His smile gradually died down.

"No matter how much I tried to get through to her, she never listened. And in the end, while thinking I was defending myself, the blade of my scythe ran through her throat. I didn't even mean to kill her."

Hearing all of this, Chen froze up, but he still seemed fairly angry.

"Y-You're lying."

Oliver pushed Chen back, easily breaking free of the grip he had him in.

"I don't know what you did, but we are not the same."

With that, he left, leaving Chen by himself. He seemed to be stunned. Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly, not really out of pity for him, but more so wondering if this would stop him from getting the points to become a D rank.

"Hey, you don't have to listen to him. I don't know what happened, but if you really didn't have a choice, then what else could you have done?"

Chen blinked a few times before nodding.

"A-Ah... yeah. That makes sense."

As for Nicole, she rested her head on Kairos' shoulder and grabbed onto his arm.

"That's... so sad."

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"I guess having someone betray you like that is pretty sad."

Nicole shook her head.

"No, I mean that guy's sister."

Kairos looked back at her strangely.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Nicole spoke softly.

"It sounds like she sacrificed herself and painted herself as an enemy so that her brother could move on. But the person she cared so much about doesn't even know."

Kairos was speechless.

"How did you get that from the story?"

A small smile formed on Nicole's face.

"I just... had a feeling."

Kairos shook his head, not wanting to be hung up over the topic any longer.

"Whatever, we gotta find a way out of this place. Let's see what we can do at the top of the stairs."

In reality, his first thought was that this dungeon probably had monsters to kill like the last one. That way, there was a way for Chen to get some evolution points. Though, the person he wanted to get up there was still in a daze, standing around.

He sighed.

"Chen!"

Chen flinched before looking over.

"Ah, what's up?"

Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

"I don't know what you're thinking of right now, but first you gotta get out of here. There are people waiting on you, remember?"

Chen seemed to relax greatly after hearing that.

"Ah... right. I can't stop now. There are too many people depending on me."

And so, the three of them proceeded to walk up the steps, slowly making their way up to the top. It was a rather tedious process, but they did eventually get there. However, Kairos frowned deeply once he did get there.

Because unlike the three different pathways that the first dungeon had, there was only an enormous cave that abruptly led to darkness. He remembered it was the one where fetching red crystals would grant you points upon coming back out.

At least, that's what he imagined it would be.

Nicole held onto Kairos a little tighter.

"What is that? Will we be separated again if we go there?"

Hearing that, Kairos coughed awkwardly.

"I don't think so. It looked like Oliver was coming from this place, probably exploring it to also find a way out of here. We should keep a lookout for anything... especially any sounds we may hear."

Without responding, Chen simply went inside, letting his body get enveloped by the darkness. Kairos went in as well, which led to Nicole doing the same as she was still holding onto him.

His very thought was that it was going to be a pain to find any of these red crystals, especially considering how difficult it was when he had tried before.

Yet, the moment he stepped in he could hear faint voices calling out to him from almost every direction.

"I didn't do it! I didn't do it!"

"Why? It's not fair! It's not fair!"

"I didn't mean to! I really... really didn't mean to!"

It was to the point that he thought about covering his ears. While they weren't particularly loud, hearing so many people shout out as though they wanted people to believe him was quite the uncomfortable experience.

Kairos cleared his throat.

"Chen! Are you there?"

Though he said that, he was fairly certain of where he was, as he could hear heavy breathing in a general direction. Chen spoke up afterward.

"Um, yeah. I hear you."

Kairos coughed before trying not to sound suspicious.

"Do you hear those sounds of people? I think it's related to something. Try to pick up whatever is making those sounds and bring them outside so we can take a look at them."

Chen was none the wiser, thinking of something else.

"Ah, alright."

With that, all of them began collecting the stones that were emitting these strange voices. Kairos found himself a little limited in doing so since Nicole was still holding onto his arm and didn't plan to relent any time soon.

Once the three of them got back out, they saw that they were carrying red crystals.

[You have removed a red crystal - 1 point awarded] x 7

Kairos' eyes widened in surprise.

Instead of dungeon points, they directly gave evolution points. He looked over at Chen, noticing he had gathered quite a few.

It seemed the time wasn't long now.

The fruit was about to be ripe for the picking.