Two weeks quickly flew by.

As it turns out, even first years were expected to enter rifts and thanks to Astra , Nox's batch had to enter theirs in just seven days.

So he had been absorbing as much as he could in such short amount of time, luckily, he was a fast learner...a fact that he was just finding out himself.

With professor Sirius' help, he had learnt as much as possible about rifts, what were the rules in them, the no go zones and the 'get-the-fuck' out of there signs.

Luckily though, most of those signs would not appear in the dungeon they were going to venture, but it still wouldn't hurt to know.

As for his Engineering classes, let's just say Professor Illyra was a bit too enthusiastic to have him and he had ended up standing out, which was far from what he wanted.

Though, he was still known as the insane kid from the test, a rumor that seemed to have spread really fast.

The only silver lining to this was that there were two people in the class he knew, he wouldn't have to be a loner... Not that he would've, even if he wanted to, the professor wouldn't let him.

Illyra had taught him how to properly channel SE through pre-existing conduits in Solar Tech.

Apparently, most Solar Knights relied purely on instinct, forcing energy where it didn't belong and praying the tech responded. Illyra called that 'the dumb brute method.'

A method that sounded extremely familiar to a certain someone.

She had taught them how to select materials for you Solar tech, how to make sure they didn't explode when activated.

Basically how to make solar tech useful, though, most of it was just the basics, since they were first years but at least Nox could now say that he had officially learnt the basics of fixing Solar Tech.

And that was basically how the two weeks went, from general classes to combat to engineering classes.

Speaking of combat classes.

***

Nox slammed hard into the ground.

Again.

Astra stood over him with her arms crossed, eyes narrowed, expression unimpressed.

"You're thinking too much," she said. "Your body knows what to do, let it move."

"I am trying to let it move," Nox groaned as he got off the floor.

"Try harder."

The goal of this training was simple, Astra's solar tech, Aurora, will come at him in different forms, his goal was to switch the forms of his solar tech fast enough to counter the incoming attack while also trying to get close to her.

And that was exactly what he had been trying to do every evening of the past week, after his classes.

She seemed to have changed her mind about him becoming her lab rat, instead, he was now a training dummy to be tossed around as much as she wanted.

Which was not a better alternative.

Nox picked up his solar, splitting it in the middle and transforming it into two daggers, similar to the ones he used during the test.

"Again," he said as he took a battle stance.

Astra looked at him before commanding her orbs to move towards him.

They split into multiple smaller ones before turning to staff, aiming directly at him with speeds that were definitely unsafe.

But Nox did not panic, instead he gently let the SE flow through him, and moments before the the staffs could touch him, he teleported away.

He reappeared just behind her and before his attack could connect, he suddenly teleported back, just in time to avoid one of the incoming spears.

Astra wasn't going to move from that position and all Nox had to do was leave a cut on her and he wins, something that had proven a challenge.

The moment he rematerialized, one of the staffs slammed into him, knocking the wind out of him and sending him barreling.

Astra had somehow anticipated where he would reappear and took advantage of the fact that he wasn't able to move his SE fast enough yet.

"That's it for today," Astra suddenly said, calling Aurora towards her and the tech mergerd together again and clipped itself directly on her belt.

"Pay up," Linda extended her hand towards Devon.

"Damn it," Devon muttered before tapping his watch with hers as it let out a ding, "I really thought he had it this time."

The trio had been allowed to stay and watch since they were Nox's friends, with Cass even sometimes being forced to join the hell of a training, since he couldn't fight with a solar tech to save his life.

"And that's 200 credits," Linda said with a small smile as she checked the notifications on her watch.

The had been making bets of Nox being finally able to leave a scratch on Ascended Dawn for the past few days, and each time, Devon lost.

Yes, Nox's growth had been insane but he seemed to have forgotten that the difference between Adept and Ascended wasn't just three ranks.

It was also a difference of skill, knowledge and experience, all of which Astra had overwhelmingly in her favor.

"Yo Cass," Devon muttered, "watchu lookin' at?"

Cassian's attention moved from the elevated platform where the two had been fighting and towards Devon.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Do you think Nox has a chance of ever completing this challenge?" Linda was the one who asked.

Cass turned back to Nox who was now standing and Astra who still maintained her position.

"The next training,"he answered.

"He'll complete it by the next training?" Linda asked, confused as to the reason for Cass's thoughts.

"Yes," Cass nodded, "considering how close he was to completing the goal of the training, I'll say tomorrow."

Devon shook his head, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, "man, I don't know 'bout that, I'm tired of losing my creds to her."

Linda just chuckled at his words, she knew that he didn't truly believe that Nox would put a cut on an Ascended rank, he was just betting just because...

"Alright then," Linda stood up, "I have to go prepare for the rift next week, see you guys."

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