Adam walked in the tunnel he built and checked up on the ooze from time to time.
'This ooze is familiar, it's reminiscent of the dark spawn during the tribulation.' Adam thought.
Comparing the black ooze on his body to the ooze of the dark spawn during the tribulation and its ooze back two weeks ago, it was a lot closer to the former than the latter.
'The dark spawn was able to withstand being in the camp's dome only after the tribulation and its look changed slightly. It could mean the ooze improved in strength or level, most likely level-2, so does that mean this ooze on me is of that same level?'
'it explains why the transformation and growth are so fast.' Adam guessed.
Adam kept thinking while walking until he reached a dead end, he raised his hand and a hole opened up.
Adam got out and saw that the miasma was still prevalent but has diminished considerably since he last saw it.
'The dome is noticeable during the morning, luckily the miasma is still prevalent which will cover my escape.'
Adam's next plan was to go get the stones in his stash and find a place to set as his base for now.
He needs to start duplicating the innate orb, otherwise, one innate orb is not strong enough to reverse the ooze's size, he tested this already in the escape tunnel.
But…
'What is this strange feeling?' Adam thought.
Adam looked towards a particular direction; he had a feeling something was calling…
For help.
'isn't that the dungeon's location?'
***
Deep in the dungeon.
Noelani was plowing through any creature that tried to stop her.
Soon she reached a stone room with a black orb in the center, there was black ooze expanding from the orb to all around the room, as though black mold is growing from a central point.
"I finally reached the core," Noelani said with a smile.
She then commanded the light elemental to start attacking the ooze. However, it was not easily taken out as the corruption shadows were.
'Now that the corruption has reached level-2, it will take much longer to clear with my luminous snake.' She thought with a solemn face.
'It should still barely be fine, I rushed as much as I could just to quickly finish this before my upcoming plans.'
Noelani looked at her so-called luminous snake and her innate orb, if one of the camp members were here, they would be able to notice both the snake and the orb are smaller than when Noelani left the camp. As though they got weaker.
Adam wondered how to accomplish Noelani's feat to augment the purification dome, however, he did not know this method does not only improve purification domes but any light-type ability.
Even the luminous snake.
However, no matter what Adam nor anyone in the camp tried to do, they could not replicate this method.
That's cause…
It was Noelani's real talent skill!
Her talent bestows her a trait with features such as powerful light augmentation and a unique connection with the light element.
The name of a person who acquires such a trait is called the child of light.
In her previous life, it was almost impossible to gain this trait naturally, however, she was able to do it using her talent.
But…
There is an important caveat.
The name given to her talent is…
Yin Yang Birth!
That's right, as can be guessed from the name, if there is the birth of yang, the light child, there must be the birth of yin, the dark spawn!
***
Adam looked in the direction of the dungeon, he could feel the thing calling him is panicking the more time passed.
'Heh, what do you want me to do? I can barely save myself.' Adam thought sarcastically.
He has already guessed the truth, for the most part, at least he believes so.
Since Noelani left so quickly, it is more than likely she went towards the dungeon, which is now "unmanned" after the dark spawn's death.
Whatever is calling seems to be afraid of something, which is probably Noelani or her snake-light creature.
And he was sure this feeling is related to the ooze that's growing on him, so the thing calling must have something to do with the dark miasma or the like, it's not something he wants to be associated with unless he has surrendered to becoming a dark spawn.
Besides, he is in no way an opponent of Noelani and the creature.
Adam shook his head and started to move, however, his purification dome was only being projected by one orb so the shadows could even go in and fight him.
Adam, not surprisingly, saw a corruption shadow appear in the short visible distance outside of the dome.
He began to prep for a fight but noticed something.
The creature stopped moving.
Adam looked at the creature and had the urge to try something.
"Left," Adam said.
The creature moved to the left.
"Right"
The creature went back to its starting location.
'I can control the shadows. Why? Fabian was able to do so only after becoming the dark spawn. But my transformation is still a way off from that. Then why can I command the shadows?' Adam was confused.
He looked at his stomach.
"Is it because the ooze is level-2?"
It sounded plausible, but, if he can control the shadows then should he…
Adam looked back in the direction of the dungeon.
***
'Strange.' Noelani thought while her luminous snake was tearing through the ooze.
'Surely Adam would have been captured by now, at the very least be killed.'
In Noelani's expectations, Adam would notice the ooze on his stomach and would have to either try purifying it or hide in his shed.
The former would get the other camp members to notice him, and the expected confrontation should cause him to lose sanity, in the end, both cases should speed up the transformation.
With her team members' abilities, they should easily subdue him, especially since he is not strengthened with the mana stones and the transformation still needs a long time to be complete.
So, she quickly rushed to the dungeon to complete her task here and later plans to kill him once she returns if he was not finished off.
Even if things somehow turn badly and Adam was able to run out of the camp, then the transformation would speed up and so would her light augmentation ability.
But what she's observing is contradictory to those three possibilities.
'Judging from the slow growth of the light augmentation, it means he is constantly using a purification dome, how? The moment he gets in contact with a dome with the level-2 corruption, the camp should have noticed.'
'It's almost impossible to steal an innate orb and run out of the camp, I have stationed guards protecting the orbs at all times. So how?'
'Darn, another problem to deal with, should have picked someone else.' Noelani annoyedly thought.
She already knows the best utilization of her talent is to keep killing the designated dark spawn and rotate to the next person, this way the dark spawn never gets out of hand.
Noelani had already planned the next 10 people to become dark spawns.
For someone to become a dark spawn, it needs multiple conditions to be met, some normal and others strange. Normal conditions include the destruction of the innate orb, while the odd conditions include the feeling of being an outcast.
It's why she early on let Fabian and his team of independent orbs' owners become in constant contention with the other camp members, it's easier to make one of them isolated, especially with a leader like Fabian.
The list of potential dark spawns all come from that group.
It's just that, Adam was picked after Fabian.
Noelani planned for Adam to only be a dark spawn for today, this is because she still wanted the light child trait to accomplish a few things for today. The reason she wanted to get rid of him quickly was that she has not prepared enough stop gab measures in case things go wrong.
She plans to designate the next one a little later.
Luckily for her, she did not have to care so much when she designated Fabian, there were several reasons for this.
One, her talent was at level-1 which only makes spawns of level-1, so she was confident to deal with it using her experience.
Two, the transformation with level-1 takes a long time, so she had more than enough time to prepare for unexpected situations.
Three, she almost had the entire camp on her side.
The reason Fabian was picked first is that Noelani experienced Fabian's cruel actions in her past life, she was going to get rid of him early on.
However, Noelani remembers Adam died early on in her past life, this meant he had weak combat strength. He was also someone that usually kept to himself, both details made him an appropriate candidate to be designated.
But the real reason Noelani designated Adam next is that…
It was on a whim.
To her, it does not matter who gets picked, at the end of the day, it is all for the good of humanity.
Adam just got unlucky and incited her anger.