"What was that about encountering lower ranked Eclipsed?" Lorenne asked as she handed her solar tech to Nox.

After that encounter, the team had decided to go back to the cave and reevaluate their strategy.

They'd do fine against a single tier 3 Eclipsed, but what if they encountered multiple, which shouldn't be possible for a tier 1 rift, but they still had to take that into consideration.

Nox took the healing solar tech from her, it looked like a simple wrist band, but according to her, it should be able to fix his arm.

Though, he could already feel his SE trying to fix it, but this quicker.

He used his good hand to strap the band on on his wrist, wincing a little as the wrist band held firmly in place.

"I think we were getting close to the 'boss'," Elias said, "hence the reason we encountered a tier 3."

"Don't you think the shift was too sudden?" Lorenne asked, "one moment, were dealing with Nightlings and then suddenly, we're supposed to face a tier 3 dark Cyclops?"

Elias placed a hand on his chin as he thought about her words, she was right, usually, the difficulty of the Eclipsed they were moved closer to the main boss, but the change was too sudden.

Nox, on the other hand, tapped the wrist band gently as he poured his SE within and multiple blue holographic screens suddenly filled his arm, showing the extent of the damage.

"...Damn," he muttered.

His forearm bone was fractured in two places, and the muscles around the elbow were partially torn.

Even with Solar Energy flowing through him, healing something this messy would've taken hours, maybe even a day.

He suddenly felt a prickling sensation, almost as if a bunch of needles were forcing their way into his skin and though they didn't hurt, he felt uncomfortable.

If he could see within his body, he'd have noticed that said prickling sensation was caused by a thin thread of golden SE, which split into multiple smaller threads and each went to work.

Using the already abundant SE within his body, Nox watched as his arm straighten itself in seconds, though cool, the sensation was far from fun.

Levi, sitting by him, watched closely as his arm healed itself with a bit of curiosity, only to turn to the cave's entrance when any of the team raised their head towards him.

Speaking of which, the cave entrance had been blocked with a barrier which, although couldn't keep out anything that was above tier 2, worked fine against anything else.

"Should we contact the academy?" Nox asked as the pain in his arm faded.

Elias placed a hand on his chin, as much as he wanted to clear this rift, he had to remember that he wasn't alone.

He was the leader and each of his team's lives were worth as much as his, so he couldn't carelessly risk it.

He looked at his watch, hesitated for a second before sighing and putting his hand down, "we'll sleep on it, if you guys still think we should give up, then I have no issues."

The trio nodded in agreement, before they turned back to the portable camp fire..... A tech that Nox didn't even know existed.

Elias seemed to have everything in his inventory which made Nox a bit jealous, imagine how much Credits he'd get if he sold all that.

"I think it's ready," Lorenne pointed out.

As Nox said, Elias had everything...and that included cooking pots and bowls.

Turns out, he was also a great cook, a fact proven by the mouth watering scent escaping the pot.

Elias chuckled as he handed each of them a bowl before lifting the lid, "it is."

It was a basic soup with with veggie, but for some reason, it smelt like some type of five star restaurant meal.

Elias carefully served each of them before serving himself and sitting back down.

Nox looked at the soup in hand before scooping a generous amount, his eyes widened the moment it landed on his tongue.

"This is good," he muttered before taking another scoop and another and before he realized, the bowl was already empty.

"Second?" Elias asked with a small smile on his face before standing back up and pouring him seconds.

The other two, although eating with a it more decorum, were not any better since they also finished the first servings and soon requested another.

"Where'd you learn to cook?" Lorenne asked, "aren't nobles supposed to have maids or something."

"Yeah," Elias nodded, "but I usually sneak into the kitchen, even though I'm not allowed there, and the maids would teach me a thing or two about cooking."

"I see," Lorenne nodded as she continued eating, "this is really good."

There was silence for a while as the quartet ate in peace, until Elias suddenly broke it with a question.

"So," he turned to the three, "why did you guys join the academy?"

They looked at him in question before he quickly explained,

"Y'know, like what's your personal reason for joining the academy," he said, "as for me, it's because I want to surpass my father."

"I want to bring my family's name to the very top of Aureum."

The determination was clear in his voice as he spoke with clenched fist. After his words, he turned to the other three, "what about you guys?"

They thought for a while before Lorenne spoke up hesitantly, "I-I have someone I need to make proud, I want that person to proudly look at me."

The next to speak surprised the three, Nox especially since he was sure Levi couldn't speak, but he was proven wrong with his next words.

"My sister -" he simply said, with no intention of elaborating.

Then, all three pairs of eyes shifted to Nox.

He froze, spoon halfway to his mouth.

"…What?" he asked.

"Your turn," Elias said. "What's your reason?"

Nox stared into the campfire for a long moment, the orange glow reflecting in his golden eyes.

His reasoning wasn't as noble as theirs or anything similar.

He didn't have anyone that would be proud of him if he achieved anything, he had no determination to reach the very top, and he had no one to protect.

All he wanted was simple,

"I guess it's because I want to live comfortably?" He slowly said, "solar knights are the richest people I can think of."

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