‘it’s so hard to sleep’ 

Adam sighed.  

He was laying on the hard floor trying to sleep, but he was also lying near the edge of the dome looking at the pitch-black fog outside, every now and then he could see a shadow walk by, making it hard to relax.  

All the orbs have become dimmer, becoming more like night lights, while the yellow clouds that were seen earlier that morning no longer could be seen. 

He wanted to turn around but would have to face someone’s feet.  

It could not be helped, all the people that gathered decided to sleep in Noelani’s dome. Even those who still decided to put up their purification domes. No one would want to have their orb run out of energy while asleep. 

Adam did notice that the exceptionally weak orbs have a purification dome that seemed feeble, he even saw that some shadows could insert their hands in them. Perhaps they could even enter if they really wanted to, but it was too uncomfortable for them, at least that’s how Adam speculated. 

Luckily Noelani’s dome is not as affected as the other domes, though it’s still weakened. 

Adam started to think back on all that has happened and thought about what Noelani has said so far.  

Honestly, he is the type of person that easily trusts others and has become much more paranoid about who he believes over the years.  

But Noelani seemed to be genuine about what she has said, and he has shared the same experience as her when it comes to having an ability. The more he thought about it the more convinced he was to just join his innate orb with the rest of Noelani’s orbs.  

Doing so would give something up, or so he guessed, but it's not like he can do much about it. Going with the collective is undoubtedly safer.  

It’s not like he can try taking the lead so that others subordinate their orbs to him, first, he has no visible advantage against Noelani. She’s combat proficient, charismatic, and knowledgeable considering her unique ability. The only lead he has would be his duplication unique ability, but it has a critical weakness … his own “energy”. 

After using it 10 times to duplicate the green peach, he could only do another duplication after a few hours.  

This means that if his recovery is uniform throughout the day then he could do 10 copies once a day, though he is still unsure if his physical activity affects this.  

Considering all the supernatural evidence around him, he speculated that there is another type of “energy” that is used when duplicating, which is why it takes so long for the duplication ability to be active again.  

Thinking about the energy stone that can refill the energy of the innate orbs with different magical functions, perhaps he can try using it to try refilling his duplication ability somehow.     

But for now, he plans to duplicate his innate orb. 

Putting his hand on it and making sure his body covered what he was doing. He was still persistent on keeping the ability a secret, at least for now. 

He activates his ability; a dim golden glow overlaps the offed orb and begins to expand into a shape of the orb to then solidify into a new real orb.  

‘It worked! Off-’ 

Adam was excited but immediately felt a wave of exhaustion that almost knocked him out, looks like duplicating the orb costs more than multiple of the green peach, though he could tell the cost increase comes from the “physical energy” and not the mental energy.  

This means he could do another duplication if he could recover his “physical energy” exhaustion, yet he knew it is not muscle or vascular exhaustion even though he felt it physically.  

He fought off the sleep, it would be hard to explain why he has two innate orbs out of nowhere.  

He stood up while leaving one orb on the ground, holding the other orb facing away from others, and picking up his stick, and walking towards the “bathroom area”. 

After Noelani’s dome expanded, it enveloped a relatively big rock that now everyone goes behind it and does their business there.  

Going there Adam sees a bunch of pits that had been dug and closed up, he begins to dig a pit using a sharp ended rock, but after making sure no one is around, he drops his duplicated orb and covered the whole while making sure others can tell that this spot has been used. 

He quickly went back to his spot and slept as soon as he laid down. 

The next day Adam woke up and was put on duty to start digging. 

Last night, there were three duties that were agreed on for everyone, one would be digging towards a nearby sizeable pond, the green peaches helped with hunger, but thirst was not so easily resolved.  

The second duty was to grab rocks that were of a certain size and shape, Noelani was planning to later teach everyone how to make stone knives. The third was to escort people who have yet to come to this place. 

Adam has already given his orb to Noelani, but after he did, Noelani showed another upside of having multiple orbs.  

In the orb space, Noelani was able to amplify her message and reach orbs that were not possible to reach beforehand.  

However, this required the original owners to be also in the orb space in order for the message to be amplified.  

It was concluded that this is because the orbs are only half “owned” by Noelani and still needed the original owner to participate. 

But regardless, Noelani spread the message that she and her team will be moving towards visible orbs and escorting those who want to be escorted. 

No reply came since no one had the same reach as Noelani, but it was assumed that the message came across, at least to the nearest surrounding orbs and those people can spread the info. 

*Dig* 

After the clouds brightened and the dark fog had receded, which the group now calls the morning in this foreign place, Adam began to dig with a few others.  

He wanted to go out with the escort group and get more shadow stones, but he was sure Noelani was told about his poor performance and so she decided to have him dig here. 

However, Noelani has said there will be a rotation between getting duties in the camp like gathering items, which is going to be called gatherers duties, and duties outside of the camp like hunting the shadows, which will be called hunting duties.  

Adam had a mixed feeling about leaving the camp. He wanted to stay in the safe area of the camp but really wanted to get his hands on more shadow stones. 

He also wanted to get some experience fighting the creatures, even though it’s risky, but after all, he is in a situation where there will be more fighting in the future, or so it seems.  

Also, from the hunting he had done yesterday, Adam thinks that he should be alright if he doesn’t make the same mistakes and work well with his team. 

Checking the one energy stone he got after purifying his shadow stone from the hunt yesterday, he started to contemplate on what to do next. He tried to actively absorb the energy while holding it but had no success. He wanted to experiment more, maybe even try eating it, but he doesn’t think he needs to rush these things. 

Wiping the sweat off his brows he looked at the large pond, the water looked extremely dark. Adam estimated they had been working for one to two hours digging a line from the camp to the pond, they also did not have much of an issue regarding the shadows, since they had practically all been hunted here. 

The group he had been digging with are mostly made up of individuals who are less physically strong. The same could be said about the group doing the rock gathering task.  

However, Noelani was adamant that anyone who was abled-bodied should participate in fighting against the shadows regardless of their gender and age.  

She said that everyone’s tasks will all be rotated eventually so everyone will participate in the hunting of shadows.