Kairos blinked a few times.
“Why shouldn’t I go in there?”
Aria’s eyelid twitched slightly.
“It’s just… not good.”
Kairos sighed.
“I believe you, but could you tell me why it’s so dangerous? Like some sort of monster roaming the place?”
Aria looked at him for a little while.
“Well, there are doors on both sides of the hallways. I believe the requirement to get a point is by entering a room and then closing the door while inside.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“…Sounds like a game of chance?”
Aria shrugged her shoulders.
“While none of us know what happened to the first ten, five people have died. And four of them died because of those rooms.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“I see. Thanks for the information.”
Aria smiled.
“Haha, alright, have a safe trip!”
Kairos turned around and continued to walk away. Though as he did so, he couldn’t help but feel as though the gazes of hyenas were stuck to his back. He was deliberating over the situation as he got closer to the stairs.
Aria was definitely hostile, and chances are, the other two were too. That was evident from how she almost attacked him, but stopped once she realized Kairos could tell.
Yet, she suddenly shifted her stance.
Kairos didn’t think that it was a shift of heart. She definitely seemed anxious that he might end up dying, showing genuine concern.
He began thinking of what reasons there could be.
Then he remembered that killing someone would allow one to take all of their points. On top of that, there were a decent amount of evolution points that came with it.
Perhaps that was the reason she proposed the alliance earlier. So that they would have access to when he was most vulnerable.
Once he eventually got a large number of points, they would probably kill him. Maybe they wouldn’t have been able to hold back if Kairos told the truth, that he actually had fifty points on him.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
He had to get out of this floor.
And out of this dungeon as well.
The smell of desperation in the air was too much for him.
He soon came across the spiral staircase. It was far larger up close. The simple width of the steps was enough to have two cars drive beside each other with plenty of space in between.
Kairos looked upwards, where the spiral staircase seemed to go up into a black void.
“…This may take a little while.”
With a sigh, he began running. Kairos found himself quite surprised at his own speed, which was on the same level as a car.
The tapping sounds of his footsteps reverberated in his ears, while the wind blew past his hair. For a brief moment, Kairos forgot about everything else.
The wide staircase was quite convenient for the sake of running fast, giving him lots of room to go.
His surroundings gradually became darker and darker, until he eventually found himself at the top.
Kairos panted slightly, then looked down the spiral staircase.
A sense of dread immediately filled him as he saw how high up he was. It wasn’t a fall that he could survive, that much was for sure.
…Maybe he should’ve taken greater care in climbing up the steps.
Nonetheless, Kairos decided to focus on other things.
As said, there were three ‘hallways’. Though the only issue was that they were more like cavernous expanses. One path had dried blood and seemed to be a vast expanse of emptiness. Another was just pure black.
And the last one consisted of several hallways and doors. The wallpaper had flowers on it and looked rather nice, while the doors were an unassuming brown. They appeared to form some sort of infinite maze, as even from here Kairos could see countless branching paths that seemed to go everywhere.
Though on paper, it sounded a little ridiculous that the most dangerous place wasn’t the one that was pitch black or the one that had dried blood littered over it. Yet, when Kairos looked at all the hallways, he couldn’t help but feel weirded out.
Even if Aria didn’t mention it, Kairos probably wouldn’t have taken that place lightly.
It was simply too out of place, like a trap.
With consideration of the other two paths, the one that was pure black was still fairly off-putting to Kairos. Considering that he had no idea what was really inside there, he felt that was fair enough.
And so, he began walking down the bloody path, which was rather large and empty.
Yet, before he had even traveled for a minute, a person suddenly jumped out in front of him.
“Stop right there.”
It was a young man, with short black hair like Kairos, except styled. He held out one hand, while the other was in his pocket.
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
The man paused for a second.
“So, you’re the new guy, huh?”
Kairos sighed.
“So what if I am?”
The man snuck glances at the bag Kairos was holding as well as the spear.
“Well, if you want to pass, there’s a fee. You have to trade in five points for bread and water before giving it to me.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“And if I don’t pay?”
The man smiled.
“Then you aren’t passing.”
Kairos tilted his head to the side slightly.
“And how sure are you of that?”
The man’s eyes widened slightly. It was at this point Kairos realized they were bloodshot. He was smiling strangely.
“…I’m willing to bet my life on it, so I’m pretty sure.”
Kairos furrowed his brows. He stood still, observing the man for a few more moments. It took a little while, but he noticed that there was actually little to no fat on the man’s body.
His muscles were clearly defined and were large enough to make it seem like he was normally built. If the lighting was a bit better, Kairos would’ve noticed this immediately.
Especially because it couldn’t help but remind him of the man on the first floor, who was starving.
At the time, the man also had a decent amount of muscle on him.
In fact, Kairos actually thought he was faking it once the man began fighting. Logically, it made no sense that someone starving could fight that hard.
But now, he reevaluated that opinion.
There was something about the young man in front of him that seemed a bit different. Kairos had experience dealing with bullies, but none of the ones he dealt with before gave the same vibe as the man in front of him.
After a few moments, Kairos sighed.
“To get the bread needed, I will have to go all the way back down. How about you first let me in-”
“No.”
The man was shaking slightly.
“No way in hell. You have to pay first.”
Kairos found himself unable to speak for a little while.
“…Why aren’t you trying to gain points yourself?”
The man did not speak for a while.
“You don’t need to know that. Either come back with food, or don’t come back at all.”
Kairos raised his hands.
“Alright, alright.”
He backed off, walking back to the center.
Kairos rubbed his chin before sighing.
“If only there was some way to get a straight answer from people.”
He then set his sights on the pitch-black hallway. After a moment of hesitation, he walked inside.
Just as Kairos was told, his vision was abruptly cut off, leaving him in total darkness. He found it oddly comforting, soon realizing that it reduced his stress considerably.
And so, Kairos began walking as though it wasn’t actually pitch black, but a beautiful field of flowers.
But he was abruptly taken out of his delusion when he heard some muffled sniffling in the distance.
“Why… why…”
The sounds of messy eating filled the air, like the sound of a pig eating.
“Why…”
Kairos paused, keeping himself as silent as possible. He decided to listen in on the ramblings.
“I… I already ate so much…”
The person in question began hyperventilating.
“Why is it still like this? This is impossible… it has to be. Just one bread was enough for an entire day before! I must be dreaming… yes… dreaming.”
A soft laugh resounded.
“My body will be so plump, and all of these useless muscles will all disappear. When I wake up… everything will be different. Yes, I will be living a better life…”
Kairos furrowed his brows. This person sounded just like the man he saw earlier, sounding both dangerous and desperate.
While Kairos wondered how he should get past, strange gurgling sounds filled the air.
Muffled groans of pain soon filled the air as well, along with the sound of some liquid splattering on the ground.
A few moments later, a dull thump along with a clatter rang out.
Kairos felt something roll over and touch his foot.
He decided to forget about what just happened, and kick away the thing that rolled next to him. He put his focus on what the person said.
It sounded like the food that was being provided by the dungeon wasn’t enough after a while. Perhaps the food somehow lost effectiveness as a source of nutrition.
Kairos also focused on how the person in question held resentment for their own muscles. Relating to the previous statement, it seemed that they had contributed to his starvation.
Yet, he knew that the human body should’ve converted muscle into energy once it needed to. So there shouldn’t have been a problem…
Unless that mechanism was taken away.
Kairos couldn’t help but recollect his own experience with rationing food with the others. It only took them a few days to completely break down, despite having a decently large amount of food.
It seemed that muscles now remained on the body forever.
Kairos’ eyebrow couldn’t help but twitch, considering he had maxed out his physical stats not too long ago.
He shook his head and decided to try and walk further into the pitch-black hallway.
For the most part, it was silent. Yet, out of nowhere, he began hearing a whispering. Kairos could tell that he wasn’t imagining it because he heard it twice.
After a bit of hesitation, he walked towards the whispering.
And it became a little clearer.
“…I will never stop…”
“…die…die…die…”
“…never forgive…”
Kairos furrowed his brows and decided to extend his future vision before walking closer. A strange humming sound filled the air, along with a faint vibration. As Kairos continued to walk closer, he found that the sounds were coming from the ground.
He held his spear with his armpit then reached out towards it, ready to retract if he felt something wrong in his future vision. Though, he only ended up grabbing onto some sort of cube.
Whispers continued to emanate from that cube, making his hand vibrate uncomfortably.
After a few moments of hesitation, he walked out while holding onto it.
Soon, Kairos suddenly found himself back in the light. He looked down at his hand and saw what he expected.
It was a red crystal, like Aria had mentioned earlier.
Murderous mentions continued to emanate from the crystal, but Kairos didn’t feel afraid. He could feel that they weren’t targeted at him. As for what it was targeted at, he didn’t know.
The red crystal gradually began disappearing from his hand, almost like it was dissolving into air.
[Dungeon Currency Transferred – 1 point added]
Kairos blinked a few times.
“That was easy enough.”
He decided to go back in, and try for some more. After all, it seemed rather easy the first time.
He scoured for a few minutes.
Then for thirty minutes.
Kairos wanted to go further, thinking he might have gotten unlucky. However, he also considered it would be a little difficult to find his way back if he continued like this. As such, he made his way back.
He ended up spending nearly an hour backtracking as he didn’t go the exact right path, but he found himself back in the light soon enough.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“…It seems that getting this currency is quite difficult.”
His gaze then shifted to the hallway with doors.