[Present Day]

Nox had spent the past days either going deep into the forest in hopes of finding a way out of this place or hunting for edible Eclipsed.

And like that, a month quickly passed.

He had long given up on the idea of being rescued since the Astra he knew would've done it the moment she had the chance to.

"I guess I'll just have to head east since there seemed to be nothing the other way," he spoke turning to a small pile of rocks he had stacked in the cave.

The top most one had a smile scribbled on it, a testament to Nox's current mental state.

Well, one would immediately assume he was crazy just by appearance alone since he now looked like someone who hadn't seen civilization for a month now....

Which, he hadn't.

His black hair had grown longer and messier than it previously was, the academy's jacket had been discarded while he was escaping a tier 4 Eclipsed, leaving him with only the black shirt underneath.

Nox's eyes had heavy bags under them, a testament to the fact that he hadn't slept in at least, a few days.

After all, the moment he tried closing his eyes, all he saw were the corpses of Elias and Levi.

That day's scene played over and over in his nightmares and he could only do the one thing he was good at.

Run.

Nox refused to sleep because he refused to face those nightmares over and over again, he didn't want to see their hollow eyes or cold corpses staring at him in judgement.

Fortunately, he seemed to now be producing a lot more SE than before which quickly dealt with any breakdowns his body experienced due to the lack of sleep.

Not so much for the eye bags though.

"Don't look at me like that," Nox muttered, referring to the rock, "it's not like I can't escape if I encounter a threat I can't face."

"Besides," he walked up to it and picked up the one with the smiley face, "you'll be coming with me."

The rock wasn't just a random one, it was his partner. He had taken down multiple Eclipsed thanks to it.

All he had to do was coat the rock with SE and he got himself a projectile. It's first use was just as a distraction object..

Until it defied its fate and went a bit off course, landing directly on the skull of a tier 2 Eclipsed, easily killing it.

That earned it the name, "The Marvelous Rock".

And now, Nox took it wherever he went, whether that be in search of food or in his quest to find a way out of here.

It was an indisposible partner, it got his back and he got its.... whatever blindside rocks had.

Or maybe his insanity had just gone past the stage to be normally handled and he needed to be locked in a white room.

"Alright then," he approached he cave's entrance, pressed a button on the wall and the barrier that also doubled as camouflage went down, "what will we encounter east."

***

An hour of walking and still no change, all around were trees.

According to Lorenne's book, no tier 2 rift was supposed to be this big, but he had long discarded the idea that he was in a tier 2 rift.

The presence of tier 4s told him that he was at least in a tier 3 one.

Nox encountered a couple of lone Eclipsed, mostly tier 2 and 3s, nothing the [Marvelous Rock] couldn't handle.

Though, they were careful enough to avoid any Eclipsed moving in packs regardless of how weak or strong they were.

Fortunately, the number of Eclipsed in packs were few and far between. They mostly only included Eclipsed in the form of animals that had pack mentality.

Like wolves/hounds.

Even the marvelous rock advised against fighting them, and Nox wasn't going to argue with the expert.

It had been in this rift a lot longer than he has and it knew what was and was not safe to do.

"Hmm?" He suddenly paused as he felt something.

Nox took a single step back and again, he felt it. Taking a step forward he felt it again, nothing had changed around him, but it just felt like he was going through some kind of thin layer.

"What do you think?" He summoned his must trusted advisor, the rock and asked.

He was silent for a while before taking two steps back and two forward, "you're right, it's definitely a barrier."

Activating his boots, Nox blinked to a nearby tree which gave him a view of his surroundings.

As far as he could see, there were only tree, until he turned further east and noticed something,

"Smoke?"

From what he knew, there weren't Eclipsed that used flame based abilities or maybe they were undiscovered as if now.

"What do you think?" He turned to the marvelous rock again, "should we check it out?"

As usual, the rock gave no verbal answer but he nodded anyway and looked back at where the smoke was rising from, carefully observing it.

The smoke wasn't thick, just a thin column rising into the sky, dark against the pale canopy. It was steady too, not the chaotic plume left behind by a fight or a forest fire.

Which meant only one thing.

"Civilization," he whispered.

Nox looked at the rock before nodding a bit.

"Alright," he said, tucking the Marvelous Rock into a pouch which he had clipped at his waist since he didn't want to be sending and taking it out of the inventory, "we'll take a look, carefully."

***

Turns out, from where he had passed the barrier to the smoke wasn't that far.

Nox hadn't encountered any Eclipsed but he still stuck to above the trees, just in case something was lurking in waiting below.

He soon closed in on a clearing and his eyes immediately widened when he spotted what was moving there.

"Humans?"

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