Adam did meet a few people in the space and explained what he knows, he did not know if they will make the move like him. However, he realized that it’s possible to isolate your voice, so you can only have one person hear you instead of everyone.

But very soon some people started saying that the fog was dissipating, so he immediately left the orb space.

He did see that the fog slowly dispersing but what caught his eyes more was that the clouds up above were much brighter. He guessed that that would be the reason why the dark mist was being dispelled.

Looking at the forest, the sight is still obstructed but not by the black fog but by the trees.

He now can much easily see where the shadows are. It’s a lot easier to move and avoid them, perhaps he won’t even have to fight when going to the gathering point.

Checking the things he has, the fruit is in his shirt pocket, the seeds are in his right pocket, and the stick is held by his right hand.

Looking at the direction of the meeting location, he becomes determined to move. He first commands the light orb to “shut off” and sees the purification dome shrink to the orb. But what caught adam off guard was a bright light shooting out of the innate orb and traveling up towards the sky.

  “What?!”

Since being mentally connected to the orb, he knew that the light that shot out was the energy inside the innate orb. This means shutting off the orb releases the energy used for communicating and setting up the purification dome. He immediately tried commanding it to turn on but “turning it back on” would require energy.

“It can’t be!”

He started to think about everything he learned, and he remember that the mysterious lady’s neighbors’ orbs did eventually turn back on.

“Was this on purpose? Make people shut-off their orbs and force them to come to her to find out how to turn them on?”

Adam was angry at himself for not realizing fast enough what the “shut-off” action was doing. It felt like moving one's hand and not realizing it would spill a glass of water, the action itself did not release the energy but the inadvertent movement released the energy.

Maybe he should have thought about asking if someone tried shutting off and if no one responded, he could have thought something was wrong.

“Never mind, the plan hasn’t changed much, I’m still going there. I’ll figure things out when I get there.”

Shaking his head, he started to move.

*pant*

Adam’s been walking for quite a while but he’s already exhausted. He’s an overweight middle-aged man, it’s to be expected for him to lose breath just by walking, but when the need to run away whenever he meets a shadow creature is added, then he won’t last for long.

“Can I even make it there? I need a spot to take a break.”

Every now and then, a shadow creature notices him and starts moving in his direction, making the need to start running.

 He also needs not stray too far away from the direction of the gathering point.

Adam checks the area around him, there aren’t any shadows nearby, and decides to rest a bit.

“Hmm?”

Adam spots a young man in his 20’s running about 100 meters away from him, it seems he’s going to the greeting point as well.

However, the young man seems to be in a panic. Adam did not think there was a need to be this worried about the shadows. They usually could be outpaced by just fast walking, or jogging if they surround you, there was no need to sprint with all one had like the young man is doing.

Adam hid, unsure of what the situation is yet, perhaps he may offer a helping hand if it’s not hopelessly dangerous. Soon, behind the young man, something became visible.

‘What the hell?!’

Adam saw one of the shadow creatures, though a bit larger than others he’s seen, but had some of its body replaced with wood stumps and branches, it even had twirled tree stumps going over its shoulders and torso.

The most troubling thing Adam found was that each time the creature lifted its tree and shadow arm up, tree vines and roots would spring up and try to catch the young man running. Even some trees would bend and try to obstruct the young man’s movement from time to time.

“Why is that shadow so different from the others? Can all the shadows become that?”

Adam's heart dropped to his stomach, even though he was avoiding and running away from the shadow creatures, he was slowly getting accustomed to them and the fear of them had somewhat dissipated. He believed that if the shadows can be dealt with by just running away, then they're not much of a problem. But it seems he was just lucky not to run into an “evolved” version of the shadows, perhaps this is not a rare occurrence.

Adam reprimanded himself in his mind, this is a strange situation he found himself in. Applying normal logic and common sense is a mistake that can lead to death.

Bringing his attention to the current situation and looking at the young man avoiding the obstacles, which caused the distance to increase from the wooden shadow creature. He became worried, he’s too old and unfit in comparison to the young man, if he was in the young man’s shoes, he would surely meet his end.

Adam decided to move in a direction away from the confrontation while keeping in mind the direction of the meeting spot, there is no way he can help the young man fight off the creature, the best he could do is distracted and sacrifice himself, no way is he doing that for an unknown person.

Besides, the young man almost escaped the creature’s ability range, at least, from Adam’s approximation of the range. Adam felt that the young guy could be a professional athlete after seeing how he moved.

Adam has moved much more carefully after seeing the “evolved” shadow creature, he was not sure that all the shadows can evolve or if that creature is “born” into it.

*pant*

However, his body is still not used to much exercise, so even avoiding the normal shadows can be tiring.

“*pant* Huh?”

Adam spotted a few people attacking a normal-looking shadow, it was a group of three circling the creature and using sticks to attack while keeping their distance. The creature kept trying to grab one of them but each time the person being attacked would dodge back while the others circling the creature would use their sticks to attack it from the side or back. Eventually, the creature collapsed to the floor followed by the three’s barrage on the collapsed creature.

Adam reached the group as soon as he saw the shadow creature gradually dissipate to reveal a black egg-sized stone.

“Hey, did you guys reach the meeting point? Is it close by?”

While keeping his panting to a minimum, Adam asked the three men while looking at the black stone left by the shadow.

“*pant* You just got here? the meeting spot is not far away from here. But there is not much point to going there yet before getting one of these.”

One of the middle-aged men in the group said while picking up the black stone, he looked around Adam’s age with a rough beard and well-built.

“Why?”

“Since you shut-off your innate orb, you now require energy to power it back on, so you need one of these stones to power it back on.”

The man said while pointing at the brownish murky orb in Adam’s hand.

Adam nodded.

“I was wondering how to do that, by the way, did you guys meet with the lady that spread this info?”

“You mean Noelani? She’s amazing, she was able to organize everyone quickly and bring everyone together.”

A young man in his teens said enthusiastically.