Back at the camp, Noelani walked into Adam’s shed.

“This is the last time we saw Adam; we don’t know how he got out without alerting us. We searched here but found nothing suspicious.” Gan said.

Noelani looked around and was immersed in her thoughts.

‘Hmm, it’s true that there doesn’t seem to be anything suspicious here, but, if what I guessed about Adam’s talent is true, then…’

Noelani looked at the only thing not made of trees, the fireplace.

“Hey, Phan! Use your earth stomp on the fireplace and someone brings a torch here!” Noelani commanded.

Hearing the command, her disciplined team swiftly executed the orders. Every one of them has learned not to question what she orders and trust she knows best.

Phan raised his foot and the stones, of the fireplace under him, started to float up.

The next moment, he stomped with all he had.

*stomp* *bang* *crack*

With the powerful stomp, the fireplace crumbled and sunk into a dark pit.

Noelani took a torch and shined it above the newly discovered pit.

“There’s a tunnel! Is this how Adam escaped without us finding out? How did he build it?”

Noelani’s team could make out the tunnel Adam made and escaped through.

But seeing this, Noelani turned around towards Gan.

“Gan, what happened to the level-2 and level-3 creatures?” She asked.

“It took a while, but the creatures eventually dissolved and left some shadow stones, but they are much bigger than the ones from the corruption shadows, it’s the size of a human head. We left it in your shed.” Gan answered.

“Hmm, I guess those are level-2 and level-3 shadow stones. How is the purification?” Noelani continued.

“The purification of level-2 took a while, but level-3 still has not purified from the last time I saw it.”

Hearing what Gan said, she nodded.

“I see, but from now until I say otherwise, don’t allow anyone to use their innate orb.”

After saying this command, Noelani turned around and left everyone confused.

***

Adam got up after that explosion.

“Ugh!”

He was hurting all over his body.

‘What in the world happened?’

He looked around and found a few of his innate orbs scattered all over.

He began to gather all of them but soon found out that one of them is missing.

“Darn, just why did it happen?!” Adam exclaimed in frustration.

He starts to think about the events that led up to the explosion.

Thinking of that crazily oscillating multicolored orb, he guessed that’s where the problem lies.

Normal skill orbs oscillate all the time, but not to such a degree.

‘Perhaps the oscillation is a sign that the skill orb is unstable. There is also the issue of the orb colors, I have not yet seen a skill orb with more than color.’

He shook his head; he needs to be more careful next time.

But looking down, he sees his arm is bent at an unnatural angle, his entire body also feels like it's broken.

But for some reason, his pain level is not as severe as it should be, considering his body’s state.

‘Is this also the effect of the ooze on my body?’ Adam guessed.

But at that moment, he felt something.

The ooze was spreading to his arm and it began moving slowly back into the right position.

This continued until he felt his mana empty.

Adam frowned for a while, then eventually towards a ledge that led up to the tunnel he and the other shadows built.

Getting into the tunnel, he is embraced by the cold and eerie sensation of the dark miasma.

He understood he needed to nourish the ooze to recover from the injury, but it’s expanding more and more.

“Damn it! It's all Noelani’s fault! If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this predicament right now! I would have been able to separate the innate orb and slowly improve my living conditions, but instead, I’m stuck here in this forsaken hole and this thing on my body! DAMN IT!”

Once Adam entered the miasma, anger began to brew in his mind, combined with his previous grievances, which had caused him to explode into a maniacal rage.

*bang* *bang*

He began to punch the wall with all he could, what was surprising is that the rocky had a small crack from his human fists.

“DARN IT! DARN IT!”

Adam kept on punching, even using his broken arm, which now seemed to be perfectly fine.

*crack*

However, he was knocked out of his rage when he heard the sound of cracking not too far away, he looked over to see the light snake breaking out of the rocky prison, which had been damaged by the innate orb explosion.

Adam rushed back into the purification dome and immediately used his skill to trap the snake creature back more firmly.

“Phew, that was close, if not for this snake I don’t know what would have happened.”

Adam was thankful for this creature, though it does not seem like the creature meant to help him there.

But he also noticed that the light snake seems to have completely recovered, although, it’s not as big when Noelani was holding it.

Adam walked over to the snake.

“I can feel the ooze is clouding my judgment much more than before, so, even though you helped me, I’m going to have to use you again to reverse the ooze’s growth.”

He said to the snake in an apologetic tone.

***

Back at the camp.

Noelani entered her shed and went to her innate orb’s room.

She saw her innate orb which has many tree roots extending from it.

This is the innate orb that controls all the camp’s infrastructure, if one was able to dig up all the trees of the camp, they would find all the roots connect and lead to Noelani’s innate orb.

Noelani looked to the side of three extra large white bright stones. However, one of them has sparse black strands on it.

“Fortunately, I got two level-2 complete mana stones, I can use on some else,” Noelani said to herself.

She knew these so-called complete mana stones are stones that provide 100 units of energy. That means she can level up her innate orb to level-3!

“Alright, let's start! I want to upgrade my orb twice before the clouds reach its zenith.”

“Once it does …”

“I can start trading!”