Adam talked to the group a bit more to gather info, while they were resting. Adam was surprised for not seeing many shadows around and the group could have the leisure to take a break in this area.

While coming here, the shadows would flock to him when he’s not in a purification dome.

The group is made up of Harris, the middle-aged man, Hamza, the young man, and Aditya who looked to be in his 20s.

Adam found out that Noelani organized people into groups as soon as they got to the gathering location and start going to collect the shadow stones, as she calls them, to light up their innate orb. This is why there are not many shadows in the area, since multiple shadows have already been hunted.

The shadow stones are used to power the innate orbs, but first, need to be purified in the purification dome first, the result is called an energy stone.

From what Noelani informed the group, purifying items costs energy, but the energy stones cover the energy cost of purifying a shadow stone with some leftover.

Using the appraisal facility, she found out that it takes 2 points of energy to purify a shadow stone, while an energy stone would recover 5 points, meaning only 3 points of profit.

However, Adam did not only get info from the group, but he also provided them with some of his own.

“There are evolved shadows?!”

Hamza asked in surprise, the other two also wore faces of shock and worry. They had started to let their guard down while traveling and fighting the shadow creatures, meeting an evolved shadow while having their guard down would be an unfortunate way to go.

Adam nodded.

“Yeah, from what I saw, the young man was probably able to flee but I would have a hard time replicating what he did. Don’t forget though, if there are other evolved shadows, it’s not necessarily the case that they would have the same wood ability as the one I saw.”

“We still don’t know much about our situation or where this really is, it should not be too surprising if new info like this comes up.”

Harris said while standing up.

“We need to move quickly and get the shadow stones. Adam, are you coming with us or going to the meeting area?”

“No, I’ll join your group since I still need an energy stone to open my innate orb”

Harris nodded and the group started to move. Adam suggests not to move in the direction of the evolved shadow and the group agreed.

“By the way, Adam you're from Canada, right?”

Aditya asked while walking.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Everyone we’ve met is from around the same area.”

“Yeah, if we were teleported with people who can’t speak the same language it would be tough.”

Hamza pointed out.

Adam nodded in confirmation, a language barrier would be an extra hurdle to cross, but whatever moved them to this place, did consider geographical location when placing them here.

But the last memory he had before waking up here was him going to bed in his apartment. The nearest people geographically would be his neighbors, but he hasn’t met a single person he knew before, nor the other people in the group. So, there is some randomness on where people are placed.

“There’s one!”

Adam’s thoughts were cut short by Hamza’s cry.

In front of them was a shadow sluggishly walking.

“Keep your voice down, we don’t want more shadows to be attracted.”

Harris reprimanded.

“Sorry”

The group quickly surrounded the shadow.

Adam put his innate orb to the side and followed the group’s strategy that was taught by Noelani, which was to surround the creature and move back when attacked, in case the one being attacked is tired or is injured, the group should move in a circle and rotate so that the one being attacked is different.

It’s a relatively simple tactic once you think about it, but it’s crucial for complete beginners to have a systematic way of dealing with the shadows.

“The clouds are starting to darken”

Aditya pointed out.

The exhausted group looked up at the sky to see the clouds starting to dim.

“Let’s go back.”

Harris said.

“*pant* What happens if the clouds dim?”

“Then the dark fog will thicken.”

Harris answered quickly and in an indifferent tone, without explaining some more.

Adam could sense his irritation towards himself, the same goes for the other two. He couldn’t really blame them, his stamina and dexterity are laughable, so the team was held back while fighting. There were even times where his mistakes put others in harm’s way.

Lucky though, the team is mostly uninjured except for a few scratches here and there, they also were able to gather 7 shadow stones in total, two before he joined. He only took one though.

Which means he’ll have the opportunity to open the innate orb.

Walking with the group, Adam shakes his head mentally, it’s unfortunate that his physique is so weak.

Soon Adam begins to see a bunch of light blocked by the many dark trees in front.

“We’re here!” Hamza exclaimed while speeding up.

The group reaches the gathering area.

At first, Adam thought he was seeing a wide-stretching dome. But looking closer, it was actually a number of domes separated by small gaps.

He could see some domes have trees in them which are much lighter in color compared to the forest ones, he could also see some greenery starting to grow on them.

“Hey!”

The dome the group was going to enter first, to quickly avoid the chilling cold that was slowly growing because of the thickening fog, was occupied by a middle-aged lady who stopped the group.

“Don’t come in while you guys have those shadow stones, my purification dome is already as small as possible.”

Adam noticed that her dome was much smaller than his own when the innate orb was active.

“Don’t worry Karen we were going to do that already.”

Harris reassured the lady called Karen and moved between the domes while keeping his shadow stones hidden in his clothes, Adam learned from the group that things you don’t want to be purified must be hidden from the light of the purification dome and the innate orb.

The group followed in his footsteps, Adam noticed people carefully eyeing their movements, it seems there have been cases where someone purified their stones in others’ domes.

Adam also estimated the number of people here, which he guessed to be about 30-40 and composed of mostly males. He definitely saw considerably more innate orbs in the orb space, it seems not everyone decided to move here or failed to do so. However, the number of orbs is less than the number of people, which appeared odd.

‘I guess they did not get a shadow stone before the clouds darkened.’