"Good luck."
That's all Cedric told them before they entered the chambers he made. Floyd and Darwin wore solemn faces. They looked at each other one last time and nodded before they entered, sealing the chambers behind them.
These chambers are pelted with all sorts of enchantments. Even if disaster descends within the camp, these chambers won't be affected. Additionally, these will contain the fluctuations of Floyd and Darwin's aura; not even a trace of them will leak out. The demons should never sense what's happening around here with this.
Success or failure will depend on the boys, though. Cedric already assisted them as much as he could; the rest is up to them. Of course, it'd be fantastic if they succeeded, but failure is fine too. So long as they're alive, there's always going to be a next time.
"I wonder how long they'll take." Erica muttered her question.
"That depends," Elric answered. "My breakthrough took an entire week to happen, but it might be shorter because they're using Essence Souls instead of Demon Souls."
"Mental demons really hamper the process, aren't they?" Francis commented.
"They really do." Elric smiled wryly. "Oh well, they should be fine. Francis, can you keep watch this time? It should've been Darwin's turn, but as you can see..."
"No prob." Francis waved his hand in dismissal. "I'll do it. Besides, Cedric made guarding way easier with the base improvements he made."
"Speaking of which..." Elric turned his head and looked at the newbie who's expertly repairing the team's equipment once more. "He's certainly energetic, isn't he?"
"He certainly is," Francis replied with a chuckle. "With how he functions around us, you'd think that he's been doing this all his life. Oh yeah, that reminds me, you're not asking him where he got that purification altar of his?"
Francis had his guesses. The House of Light was mentioned in the conversation earlier, but he kept quiet since Elric didn't say a thing.
"It doesn't matter. And don't investigate any further. He's entitled to his secrets. Besides, he's not harming us with these. If anything, revealing this tidbit of information to us poses more risks to him than us, yet he still did it because he wanted to help. As the team's captain, how can I fault him for that?"
"And don't forget, he's actually not supposed to be here." Elric solemnly stated, "If it weren't for the tensions between our races, it wouldn't be his turn to be here just yet. As talented as he might be, there is still much for him to learn at the academy. He should be spending his days training and learning there instead of risking his life out here."
"Sadly, life's just unfair." Francis responded to the sentiment with his own sigh of lament. "Alright, whatever. I didn't raise this matter because I'm suspicious of him, anyway. I did it out of habit. You can't blame me; we just returned from purging a traitor, after all. But yeah, I think Cedric's a good guy.
A damn good guy. I don't see him betraying us or the race for that matter."
After saying this, Francis walked towards the monitoring tablet and sat down in the chair next to it while whistling a tune. Sometimes, Elric envies how Francis could easily go into his carefree mode. Alas, they were raised in different environments.
"So you're just going to state that to me until I'm done here?"
"...that doesn't sound bad." Chrissy chuckled. "I mean, you're eye candy and all. It'd be better if you were naked, actually."
"Perv." Erica snorted on the side.
"Oh, you. I'm just being vocal about my wishes. For all we know, you too would like that," Chrissy teased.
Cedric shook his head in fondness. He's already used to the girls' attitude; he's been with them for a while now, after all.
Typically, repairing armor and weapons shouldn't have taken him this long; he, after all, works fast. However, the condition of the team's equipment was worse than he initially expected.
Most of it can be blamed on this damn corruption. With how potent it was around this place and how much the team had been using their equipment, the erosion these items had to endure was immense. It's actually a damn miracle that these things still maintained their shape after going through this.
Cedric wasn't just 'repairing' them per se. He also enchanted them as he repaired them. He's leaving runes and symbols on the equipment that will allow them to strongly resist corruption and increase their durability. It wasn't much, all things considered, but out here, this might as well be considered a lifesaver.
His smithing skills are great; he's a master smith, after all. Repairing the team's equipment, even though this was the first time he had seen and touched some, was a simple matter to him.
Even without the Acala System, the knowledge he learned from his professions remained in his head, and the skills he practiced remained sharp. He just needed to perform them manually this time, but again, that's a simple matter for Cedric, who could multi-task.
Speaking of multi-tasking, as he did his work within the camp, Cedric was also paying attention to their surroundings. Even with Francis keeping watch, Cedric still had his field of senses spread out as much as he could. He didn't feel too much burden since he's used to it by now, and he's doing it just in case they're in enemy territory, after all.
'There are a lot of demons roaming around. It should be higher than normal since we're on the cusp of war, and a lot of them are pretty close to the camp.'
'Fortunately, the formation has been improved.' Cedric muttered inwardly. 'If I didn't prioritize that, we would've been swarmed by now.'
Cedric saw large clusters of demons roaming around the area. Some got lost in the mist that the base's formation has been releasing, but none have gotten close to the base at all thanks to the misdirection, which meant that the formation was working as intended.
Amidst his thoughts, Cedric suddenly shivered. His eyes widened, and his entire body froze for a bit. He then placed his hammer down, took a deep breath, and looked up. Within his perception, he saw Francis looking in the same direction while wearing a solemn face.
This was then followed by Elric bursting out of his tent with a clouded expression on his face.
"Damn it! What now!?"