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

Kairos led Quinn to where he kept the spell diagrams, then spread them all out on the table.

Quinn raised an eyebrow as he observed them.

"What in the world is all this?"

Kairos sighed.

"I've been trying to keep track of how mana moves within a person's body."

Quinn turned to him with a bit of confusion.

"Couldn't you have drawn them a little cleaner? These are all rough sketches."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

"...I'm not that great at drawing."

Quinn sighed and placed a finger on the drawing.

"Is mana represented by each little line you drew here?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Well, no. It's a little rough, but the gist of it is there."

Quinn shook his head disapprovingly.

"It is there for you, but not for me."

Kairos sighed.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Quinn silently took a piece of paper and pencil before roughly sketching a circle. He then set his pencil down on the sketch.

"When you look at this, you see a circle, correct?"

Kairos nodded.

"Yeah."

Quinn tapped his drawing with the pencil.

"That's because you are automatically correcting what you see in front of you to make a circle. However, this may not actually be what this sketch is trying to represent."

He then used the opposite end of the pencil to erase certain sections of the circle. What originally looked like a normal sketch now had a strange wavy pattern.

"From what you know, it looks like a circle, but what I could've meant was actually this pattern. Of course, it's close to a circle, but not exactly the same."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Is it not quite close though?"

Quinn rolled his eyes.

"If someone screws up a single number in rocket science, the entire thing explodes. Getting as close as possible is far more important than you could imagine."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"...Well, the fact is I can't draw like a printer, alright? There's no helping it."

Quinn sighed.

"Then how about this, I'll try to recreate your drawing, then you correct any mistakes in my interpretation. And I want you to be as exact as possible."

Kairos nodded.

"Alright then."

Quinn picked up the pencil, but he did not start by drawing a new sketch. Instead, he attempted to recreate the outline of the body, using Kairos as the template. His strokes were sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but all of them were very clean.

As he was doing that, Kairos couldn't help but remember this was the frost spell he had seen from Nicole.

"Um, by the way, this template isn't of me."

Quinn turned to look at him.

"Then who in the world is it?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"It was Nicole."

Quinn let out a sigh.

"Alright then."

He erased his initial outline before making it far more feminine. Kairos couldn't help but speak up.

"You don't need to actually see her recreate her outline?"

Quinn shook his head.

"I already met her once in the hallways. There's no need for that."

Kairos furrowed his brow.

"...But wouldn't you still need a reference?"

Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"The first thing I do whenever looking at someone new is analyze them. Understanding their general body shape is just one of the few things I memorized."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

"That makes you sound like a hardcore stalker."

Quinn let out a dry chuckle.

"Guess I'm stalking everyone then."

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Ah, sorry. That means you're the king of stalkers then."

Quinn cracked his neck.

"Well, I may not be a scientist, but at least I'm a king in some respect."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"Congratulations to you then."

He watched as Quinn drew Nicole's outline. He couldn't help but be surprised at how accurate it was. It was far quicker than he did, filled with confidence and very neatly made.

Kairos couldn't help but speak up.

"You seem to have practiced this a lot..."

Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"I've drawn many recreations of many things for the sake of experiments. It has to be as accurate as possible, and there generally wasn't much time to waste. With that kind of pressure, it's only natural to have this level of competence."

Kairos felt that logic was somewhat flawed, but didn't question it.

"I thought you said you weren't a scientist?"

Quinn sighed.

"Being trained to be something and actually getting the role is different."

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like at least the world of art has been missing out without you in it."

Quinn shook his head.

"Art is more about creativity and making a picture that inspires interpretation. Recreating things we see in real life is generally not popular in art."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"I see."

Quinn tapped his pencil on the paper twice.

"Alright, does this seem accurate?"

Kairos smiled bitterly.

"Honestly, a little too accurate. You even shaded some parts of Nicole..."

Quinn nodded.

"Alright then, time for the hard part then."

He took another piece of paper and recreated the outline he had just made on it. From there. He closely studied the rough sketch that Kairos had made. For at least ten or so minutes, Quinn hadn't even put the pencil onto the paper, just staring at the rough sketch like he was lost in a trance.

Kairos couldn't help but feel he was taking this a little too seriously, but decided not to talk about it.

Eventually, Quinn raised his pencil and set it down on the paper.

Unlike when he was frozen like a statue before, his pencil almost moved like lightning. Kairos couldn't help but wonder if he secretly had a super high agility stat, though that was probably not the case.

With how fast he was going, it definitely seemed like he would make a mistake sooner or later, but each line was both crisp and made with confidence.

In roughly a minute, the entire picture was recreated into a clean outline. From there, Quinn took a few more minutes to do some basic shading, giving the picture more depth and also clarifying how he believed mana to be shaped.

Quinn set down the pencil and let out a sigh.

"Alright, take a look at it and point out any inconsistencies."

Kairos picked up the paper and brought it up to his face. He was immediately quite surprised, since it looked like a printer had made this, not a person. At first glance, it looked accurate, but since Quinn had put so much effort into it, he decided that he should be through as well.

He closely inspected each part one by one before comparing it to what he had seen in his memories. After roughly five minutes, he set it back down.

"Most of it is essentially dead accurate, but the near the hands the mana becomes more spread out. As for the heart, it is more compressed, while the mana in the head is more scattered."

Quinn sighed.

"You could've told me that earlier."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry, didn't think of it. Ah, and also one more thing. Mana in general doesn't look like blood. It isn't as solid as it appears in the drawing, but more... like it's on the verge of dissolving."

Quinn nodded.

"Alright then, let's try this once more."

He took another piece of paper and immediately began sketching once more. In a matter of minutes, he finished drawing it all. There was far more shading in this one, showing quite a bit of depth to it all."

Kairos slowly nodded.

"...I can't seem to find any inconsistencies with this one. You did this rather fast."

Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"Normally it only takes one try, but it took me multiple, so I would say it's rather slow."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched. He wondered if Quinn even realized he was bragging, and decided to remain silent.

"Anyway, is there anything you can find out from the drawing?"

Quinn let out a soft hum.

"I won't be able to come up with much since there won't be any cross-referencing with one example, but with a few assumptions I can make a prediction."

Kairos tapped his chin.

"Then hit me with it."

Quinn spoke promptly.

"Alright. Assuming that the spell starts at the head, it appears that the mana there is being prepared, as say some meat would be before it is put into the oven. Then, in the heart, I assume that's where some sort of conversion process takes place, similar to when meat is heated up. Then, that mana is sent outwards to the rest of the body, ready now to cast. When it reaches the hands, it seems some sort of reaction happens for the spell to be cast."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"...Huh. That sounds about right, and you've never even cast a spell before."

Quinn leaned back into his chair.

"Making predictions is only natural if you want to be a scientist. Could you show me an actual representation to see if I was correct?"

Kairos nodded.

"Alright. It may take a while though because I'm not very proficient in casting this spell."

Quinn looked at him strangely.

"Didn't you say you automatically learn how to cast the spell, but not learn the specific processes?"

Kairos paused for a moment.

"...Well, I figured out how to cast the spell without actually learning it."

Quinn stared at him for a good few seconds.

"I don't exactly know how it is to cast a spell since I haven't done it before, but that doesn't sound like something a normal person can do."

Kairos sighed.

"Just those drawings aren't something a normal person can do either."

Quinn shook his head.

"No, they can. The point here is practice. Many people see someone do something proficient and chalk it all up to talent. In reality, even if that's the case, quite a bit of work has to be put behind it. However, the apocalypse hasn't started that long ago, yet you've already been able to cast spells without actually learning them. That means you either got lucky, or you're somehow able to learn this kind of thing rapidly."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"...I guess so. I never thought about it that way."

Quinn rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Kairos looked at the diagram that Quinn had drawn and began casting the frost spell. It was considerably easier than last time. Following Quinn's explanation of what was actually happening, he supported the process with the right intention. In this way, it took roughly a minute to finish the casting process.

It was still a far cry from the nearly instantaneous casting of someone that had been given the skill, but it was far better than before.

He even had confidence to channel to spell, thus did so ever so slightly.

Kairos then walked to the fridge and unplugged it. Afterwards, he opened up the fridge completely before releasing the frost spell within.

A fairly large wave of mist shot out and coated the interior of the fridge along with its contents in a relatively thick layer of ice. It had also spread out to the outside of the fridge, making it a little awkward to close the door as it was now frozen in place.

After a moment of deliberation, Kairos just decided to leave it like that.

As for Quinn, he was rubbing his chin the entire time.

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Get any new revelations?"

Quinn let out a hum.

"Only being able to see the effects truly does make it hard to notice. But I do feel as though I understand it better."

He tapped his chin a few times.

"Say, how can I learn how to cast spells as well?"

Kairos blinked a few times.

"If you evolve while having enough spare evolution points, you can also pick a spell to learn. I suggest you make sure you have extra points even after that though, as the evolution process itself needs evolution points."

Quinn clicked his tongue.

"I see... no helping it then. Guess I'm breaking a promise."

He then opened up his status panel.