Inside the hole was a long and dark tunnel that only had one narrow path leading ahead. The only source of light within the tunnel came from Adam's flaming body. He surveyed his surroundings but did not notice any presence other than himself. Deeming it safe, he ventured into the darkness.
With no signs of danger to be found, he started to become more aware of the reactions of his own body. In particular was his flaming core that was still churning at a rapid pace - evidence of his own residual adrenaline from the previous encounter.
Adam's nature was still that of an adventure-seeker, starved of excitement and desire in his life, he could only desperately seek out replacements while on earth. However today in this new world, his nature had been stirred beyond his wildest dreams, and he could not stop thinking back to that encounter with the worm.
Never in his life had he been more terrified, yet that emotion was contested with an equally intense desire for living. Above those two feelings, the joy and exhilaration that he felt upon overcoming that encounter was so great that it was addicting.
'That was it, that was what I've been waiting for my entire life!' He realized.
'More! I want more! I want to go back to right now and face that worm again, and win!'
Adam's body burned more intensely in response to his desires. So intense in fact that it was actually alarming to even Adam.
'What's going on? My flame has never gotten this hot before, even when I was escaping from that worm.'
He decided to test out the power of his flames and went to wall of the tunnel and touched it with his body. Surprisingly the wall actually got a bit scorched as an imprint of his body was left in the area he touched.
'Wow! It was actually this much of a difference in temperature. Even when I had been laying down on the ground for those 10 seconds, there was never an effect like this.'
Unfortunately, as if to intentionally dampen his excitement, the flames died back down. They even went a bit lower than his normal temperature. Adam did not panic as he felt that this was reminiscent of his temporary exhaustion from his explosive escape.
This drain was both much softer in effect and shorter in duration compared to last time. It only made him a bit slower than normal and lasted for approximately 3 seconds before his body went back to normal.
'So it wasn't permanent but rather a temporary effect, does that mean it functions like an ability? Was that thing that pushed me out of the lava also an ability?'
Reflecting on how both of these 'abilities' had been activated, Adam remembered that each one had been in response to something. The first one, which he decided to call "Eject" due to the feeling of being ejected from a jet plane, was likely a mechanism in his body that automatically activated in response to his body's instinct to flee from a predator.
The second one, which he dubbed 'sear' in response to the effect it had of searing what he touched, seemed to be in response to his intense desires.
'I'm not quite sure how to replicate 'eject', but if I focus my desires again, I may be able to replicate 'sear'.'
Despite being in an unknown tunnel and having no idea whether there may be other inhabitants hiding further within, Adam threw caution to the wind and began to practice utilizing sear while he floated through the tunnel. He tried to increase his temperature by focusing on the desire to become hotter.
The first few times, he was unable to muster up a temperature like he had done before. Finally after the 6th try, where he started to become greatly frustrated with his inability to replicate the effect, it came again. Just like the first time, his flames became hot enough to leave a scorch-mark on the wall of the tunnel. It was a result of a change in the desire. This time he only thought of scorching the wall.
'I did it! So the desire itself has to be to attack something, not just to increase the temperature.'
Now that he had found a bit of truth within the exploration of his new ability, Adam's excitement rose again as he eagerly awaited for his his body to recover. As his body went back to normal, Adam noticed something.
'Did my body just recover a little quicker? It was so slight that I can't even be sure of it. I'll have to try out this 'sear' ability some more.'
He was about to attempt the 'sear' ability again, but his body cried out in protest, telling him that he needed to feed it something for expending so much energy.
'Ah... it was just getting interesting. Hopefully there are things I can eat at the end of this tunnel.' He thought to himself with a sigh.
As if on cue, a light appeared within the darkness in front of him. It signaled the end of the tunnel, and Adam quickly moved on to see what was outside of the volcano. Upon exiting the tunnel, he was greeted with the wide of expanse of nature, though this was a nature that was not native to his world.
There were many trees around him, but unlike normal trees these were white like bone and had only a few black leaves rigidly attached to their spiny branches. The ground underneath was hot and cracked and there were only thorny bushes in place of vegetation. These bushes had extremely tough and spiny thorns surrounding their exteriors, shaped in the form of a cocoon.
The only thing that Adam found familiar was the night sky, with the same countless stars littering the vast space, and a moon to help illuminate the earth.
'I made it outside. This isn't quite what I expected, but at least it seems like there are no other monsters nearby.' Adam thought, taking in the new sights.
His body sent him another reminder of the task at hand. He decided to look for anything that might be edible, first searching around the trees and bushes. Although the bushes seemed like they might be guarding something, it was too much of a hassle to try and burn down the large amount of thorny bramble in his current state. Looking to the trees, he found that were odd looking bugs among the trees' black leaves.
The bugs were noticeable among the trees due to their shiny steel-like shells that glittered in the moonlight. Their body shape reminded Adam of ants from his world, with the only difference being that they were about 2.5 centimeters long, about half of his length. The bugs were munching on the leaves without a care in the world.
'Either I can try eating the leaf or the ant, but either way the ant has to go for me to get the opportunity to eat. I'm not sure how much heat it can take, but searing it would be worth a try.' He thought to himself, the gnaw of hunger making even the ant-like creature seem tantalizing.
With the only possible sources of food in his sight being the leaves and the ants, Adam decided he would hit two birds with one stone and try out both to see their effect. He slowly floated onto a branch where an ant was feasting on a leaf.
As he neared it, the ant sensed the presence of a threat and turned around. Seeing the living flame right behind it, it readied its large mandibles and launched itself forward, slicing through Adam, causing no damage.
As futile as the attack looked, the ant actually had the right idea. The core within Adam's body was the only solid part as well as his only physical vulnerability. If the ant's mandibles had actually reached his core, Adam was sure his life would've been snuffed out. Knowing this, he had purposefully awaited for the ant to attack and had allowed for the ant to pass through him.
With the ant still attempting to turn around for another attack, Adam sprang into action and attached himself to the ant, covering the entirety of the top-side of its body.
Focusing on his desire to burn it to a crisp, he activated 'sear' and rapidly raised his temperature and could soon hear a loud screech of what he presumed to be pain coming from the ant.
The ant's armor started to gain a red hue as it's protective armor went past its boiling point and started to cook the insides of the ant. The previously carefree ant was now floundering around in pain. It managed to get Adam off it's back, but also unintentionally sent itself off the branch, falling to the ground with a 'thud'.
Adam, under the effects of the cooldown, followed it with a delay and found it still writhing in pain as the flames refused to die out despite the ant's best efforts to get rid of it. The exoskeleton started to melt under the flames by this point, and one could only estimate on how much worse the damage was to the inside.
The sight alone caused Adam to stiffen, unable to take any other action than look on in horror. He was lucky he did not have a sense of smell, or the effect on him would have been much worse.
Seconds turned into minutes before the ant finally stopped moving. Adam's shock was only overturned by his hunger, which seemed to have no sympathy for his conflicted conscience.
He wasn't quite sure what to do at this point, but fortunately his body acted as a guide for him, by instinct he touched the ant's head with his body, whereupon his flames extended into the sockets and swallowed everything inside, turning it into ash while serving as fuel for his fire.
'Is that what's like for someone to be burned alive? That was fucking awful. Do I seriously need to do that everytime I want to eat? I-I don't know if I can do this.' He thought to himself with an inner grimace.
The revitalization his body was experiencing could not be denied, but neither could the screeches of agony that he had heard. There was no humane killing, no safe and quick way to provide food for himself, only the savage strength of his flames. How many living beings would fall to his flames? He could only shudder at the thought.