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

Chapter 123 Running, And Not Running

Kairos decided to go out and do some exercise. Considering that it was more or less safe near the city, he decided to go onto the walls. He could also do some pseudo patrolling that way.

Though, he didn't exactly know how people got onto the top of the walls.

Nonetheless, that much wasn't truly a problem for him.

At first, he was walking towards the walls, but his pace gradually quickened. It became a brisk walk, before becoming a run, then just a full on sprint.

Because of how fast he was, it attracted quite a bit of attention. However, nobody raised too much of a fuss, since he was just going on the pathway. Other than scattering a bit of dirt, nothing happened.

Once he got close to the wall, it began to rise, but as it did so, he leaped up, landing on the wall as it rose. He felt his feet press hard against it and focused on continuing to move upwards, climbing up the wall.

He gradually felt himself losing momentum as he continued upwards, but was still getting close enough to the top.

Kairos wasn't exactly the best at running on the wall, and thus did quite a bit of wasted movements. However, with the help of his future vision, he was able to do enough to almost reach the top.

Catching the ledge with his hand, he then pulled himself up.

Upon reaching there, he was greeted by a surprised person wearing a soldier's uniform.

"Eh? How did you get up from there?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"I climbed up."

The person looked quite flabbergasted but decided not to question it.

"Er... I don't think anyone is supposed to be here, but there isn't much to see anyways."

Kairos rubbed his chin.

"I see. By the way, how do you get up here?"

The soldier hesitated slightly, but answered his question.

"There is a part of the wall that acts kinda like an elevator, but Tiana only activates it when I am supposed to change shifts with another soldier."

Kairos nodded.

"I see. Well anyway, I will be running around this thing."

Without another word, he began doing just that, leaving the soldier a little confused.

At first, Kairos kept a moderate pace, which by normal standards was actually really fast, even faster than a car would normally go. However, Kairos found that his muscles were hardly fatigued from running at this speed.

He gradually began picking it up, increasing the speed even further.

Although he felt a slight burn, it was nothing that strong. Kairos somewhat felt like he was actually going slowly. However, from the way the wind was roaring past his ears, that definitely wasn't true.

Kairos continued pushing himself until he felt adrenaline coursing through his entire body. Slowly but surely, he sped up even further.

It took quite a while, but he eventually circled around the entire wall, passing by the soldier. It caused the man to panic, and nearly fall off the wall because there were no guardrails, but Kairos caught him before he did so.

Another dead person would probably piss Tiana off, even if she didn't really care about the farmer earlier.

However, he only spent the time he needed to stabilize the man. He continued running, without caring much about anything else. Gradually, he felt his muscles burning up in pain.

Kairos found it quite valuable to know the extent of his physical capabilities, which seemed to be quite frightening after so many stat points. Although physical stats weren't as flashy or nearly as strong as magic, it stood to show how long it could be used.

But that wasn't really his focus right now.

He was running to improve his mental state, and although he couldn't say for sure at first, it seemed like it was beginning to improve, though not by much.

Nonetheless, as small as it was, the feeling was nearly addicting. To the point that it made it hard for him to think about anything else.

The person that was standing on the wall had already gotten used to him running across, standing somewhat near the ledge so as to not to get in the way.

Kairos didn't exactly know how long he had been circling around and around, but it didn't take too long for his entire body to feel like it was burning up. This was different from the feeling of exercise he normally felt.

Sweat poured out of his body quite violently, to the point that his clothes were soaked already. He was feeling very thirsty because of it. However, while that sweat helped with his temperature, it continued to rise further and further. Most of his sweat actually evaporated before it fell off of its body.

Kairos finally stopped and felt that his body was literally burning alive.

While he still had the stamina to continue going forward, the problem was his body's temperature. It seemed like he was an overheating computer.

While in this state, Kairos slowly caught his breath. He made sure to take large ones, but mostly for the sake of expelling the heat in his body. It was extremely uncomfortable, making him want to find something cold as well as something to drink.

With that in mind, he leaped off the building and rushed back.

Upon reaching his room, he wasn't sure it would work, but was surprised to find the water in the taps were still running. He drank quite a bit of water from that and even doused himself with it.

Quenching his thirst was quite refreshing, but the high temperature was still very hard to deal with. Though he was sure the water was originally cold, by the time it went past his throat, it had already become really hot.

This reminded him of the time the first red sun rose. How the heat continued to rise. The way he dealt with it was by passing out, which helped as his body lost heat. However, he was pretty sure that it wouldn't be able to help at this point.

He was actually worried that if he rested now, something would catch on fire from the heat.

While considering his options, he suddenly remembered that Nicole had the frost spell.

In reality, he wanted to avoid her, especially after their last encounter. However, he knew that wasn't something he should be doing.

And now, considering he had another reason to go to her, he decided that it was basically a sign for him to go to her.

With that, he went towards her room and got next to the door. He couldn't help but hesitate for a few moments, wanting to back out.

But then, he knocked on the door.

When he did so, he heard a loud thump on the inside, along with the sound of something clattering onto the floor. Then a few moments later, the door opened, revealing Nicole inside.

She seemed a little shocked to see Kairos.

Both of them were stunned for a second or so, but Nicole was first to break out of her stupor once she noticed Kairos' condition.

"Ah! Are you alright?"

Kairos coughed.

"Um, I think I'm overheating. I remembered you got the frost spell, so I was wondering if you could use it a bit on me."

After a few seconds, Nicole let out a small gasp.

"A-Ah, I increased my magical stats by quite a bit, so it shouldn't be a problem."

She held out her hand close to Kairos, her open palm facing forwards.

A bit of mana began converging, and soon the air in front of her directly froze, becoming ice. It continued and somewhat connected to Kairos. Yet, right when that ice touched him, it cracked before melting to become water.

Kairos took a deep breath.

Even though it wasn't much, he could tell it helped quite a bit.

"Sorry if this is too much to ask, but could you do it on a larger scale? Like a much larger scale."

Nicole hesitated slightly, but nodded.

"Alright."

This time, she channeled more than five times the original mana she did originally. She was afraid of hurting Kairos, which was why the first spell was so sparse. However, from what it looked like, it hardly affected him.

This time, when the frost spell finished, a flash of ice formed.

Kairos felt a cold wind blow over him, while his entire body was coated in a thin layer of ice. The floor and surrounding walls had some ice on them too, which appeared to be indirectly affected.

The ice that had formed cracked just like last time before melting.

Kairos was feeling a lot better, almost like he was taking a refreshing shower. For a moment, his exterior felt like it was freezing. Yet, just a few seconds later, the excessive heat rushed out of him, causing him to begin sweating once more.

He was honestly quite surprised that the heat was this bad. But then realized if the heat even affected him with his high endurance, then it must be pretty bad.

Kairos laughed awkwardly.

"Could you do one with double that power?"

Nicole shook.

"But... that one froze you whole! I almost thought I accidentally killed you."

Kairos sighed.

"And look, I'm still sweating after that. It will be fine, just do it."

Nicole bit the bottom of her lip, but ended up complying. With most of her remaining mana, she let her spell loose.

A large amount of cold air shot out from Nicole's palm.

Upon hitting Kairos, it caused a large amount of ice to form around him, making him look like a rather clumsily made ice statue. The cold air also ended up freezing the surrounding area, covering most of the hall and coating the doors.

Kairos somewhat regretted telling Nicole to do that, as he really did feel extremely cold afterwards. While the inside of his body still felt like it was burning, the outside was freezing cold.

However, as time passed, the heat died down, while the ice around him cracked and began melting. Soon enough, The ice around him cracked, letting him move.

Now, he felt a little cold, but he preferred that far more than his previous state.

Kairos took a quick glance at their surroundings as he shook off a few pieces of ice stuck on his clothes.

"I probably should've told you to do this somewhere else, huh?"

He kinda saw this coming, especially because of his future vision. However, the heat really was bothering him.

Nicole looked at her surroundings in surprise.

"M-Magic is quite scary..."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"It can work against a large group of weaker things because of its large area of effect. It can also alter the terrain."

Nicole blinked a few times.

"Eh? Ah, I guess that makes sense."

She looked down at the floor and clasped her hands together.

"Um, so is that all you came here for?"

Kairos didn't respond for a few moments.

"...I guess I might as well talk with you since I'm here."

Nicole scratched the back of his head.

"Hehe... then, should we talk in my room?"

She walked inside, while Kairos followed. He wanted to close the door, but found it was stuck in place due to the frost. He was fairly certain that he could force it closed, but was a bit scared of snapping the door off its hinges by accident.

And so, he left it.

Nicole brought him over to her own room, letting him inside.

Kairos didn't really feel uncomfortable because it was her room. In fact, he would probably feel more comfortable being in Nicole's actual room, because he had been there many times before.

He honestly felt like he should've been more hesitant. But for some reason, now that he was here next to her, he didn't really care anymore.

"Hey, Nicole. I know I'm never really honest to anyone, even myself. But let me be that way now."