The lack of sunlight caused the Vitreus itself to dim down in intensity, making the slightly dim cave, dark. The only source of lights were the faint accents of the naturally growing crystal formations. Aleister turned his head up.

"Are you an idiot?" Syn snapped her fingers again. "Quickly, look away!"

"What's the problem?"

"Just because the moon has partially covered up the Sun, it doesn't give you the ability to look at it. The light and energy it radiates is still enough to damage your eyes and blind you."

He reached into his bag and took out the pair of black tinted glasses Master gave him. "I'm assuming this is the solution."

She nodded. "It's not perfect, especially in these conditions, but if you do want to look at the eclipse, it will provide enough of a barrier of protection."

His amazement at such an event would have to wait just a little longer. He latched the glasses onto his shirt collar. There was still a task at hand that needed completion. After approaching the lake's edge, he crouched down and smirked. "Hey Syn, how well are you able to see in the dark?"

"Very. Why do you ask?" she said, standing next to him.

He waved his hand in front of his face. "The crystals don't provide enough light. Which means it's too dark to make out the colours of the damn fish."

With a wide grin, Syn said, "This is an unfortunate situation you're in. Would your five gold pet bird have been able to help you now?"

"I don't know how well birds are able to see in the dark, so possibly? But, that bird would probably cost more than five gold coins. Congratulations. You have forced me to admit that you are indeed superior to a five gold pet bird. Quite the tough competition and a difficult achievement to have accomplished I might add."

"Glad to know you hold me in such high regards," Syn said right before pointing at the fish right next to him. "Gold." But, she didn't give Aleister the time to capture it before she pointed at two other fish and said, "Left one is white, right one is black."

"One at a time, please?"

"Should have specified that earlier," she said with a shrug. "You can also think of this as training. Basic enemy location memorization and movement pattern prediction."

Aleister rolled his eyes. "Saying a bunch of long words together doesn't suddenly make it training."

"Wrong."

"What do you mean—you know what? Forget it." He didn't even bother to argue with her right now. What she said wasn't entirely incorrect. The koi in the lake did move in certain pattern, but it was just better for him to finish this as fast as possible so they couldn't move too far. His many hours of practice paid off as he caught the gold koi and then the black and white koi in rapid succession.

He let out a sigh as he stuffed the jars into his bag. But it wasn't one of relief.

"What's wrong? You caught all of them just fine."

"Feels a bit anti-climactic. Can't believe I wasted all of those hours on something so trivial."

"That's not the right mindset to have," Syn said, shaking her head. "The reason it seemed trivial was because of how many hours you practiced. Had you trained less, you might have not been prepared enough and they would have gotten away after the eclipse already ended. Don't let your own hindsight blind you."

"Yeah, yeah, the past is dead or whatever."

"Dramatic, but yes, you can't change the past, so don't worry about it. Besides, you succeeded, not failed, so there is even less of a problem here."

Aleister put on his shades and looked up. The Moon had shifted over enough now that it almost covered the Sun in totality. There was only a slight sliver of the Sun's edges visible around the black silhouette. Those edges were like a blazing red ring of fire. Even with the shades, he felt his eyes strain and thus looked away. However, the pain didn't fade away, in fact, it only seemed to grow stronger. He groaned and fell onto his knees. He took off the glasses and pressed his eyes with his palms.

"What's wrong?" Syn asked quickly, her voice pitched up.

He forced a chuckle. "I think I looked at the eclipse too long or got a faulty pair of eye protection."

Syn snatched the glasses from his shirt. "No, these are perfect, and let alone a few seconds, you could stare at the eclipse for over an hour before anything would happen to your eyes."

He rubbed his eyes as the sharp pain faded away. The rubbing action didn't actually help. In fact, all it did was leave his eyes completely dried out, which caused them to burn. "It's fine now." He opened up his eyes with some rapid blinks. "I guess I just won't look stare into the Sun from now on."

"You might be fine now, but there must be an underlying cause for the reaction to have occurred in the first place."

"Great, I'm so happy to have contracted some sort of ancient disease that hasn't been observed for thousands of years."

"No, its more probable that you just have weak eyes."

"I'm okay with that," Aleister said as he stood up. He grabbed the shades right out of Syn's hands and put them back on. "And by from now on I meant after the eclipse for obvious reasons."

"If you go blind, don't tell me I didn't warn you."