*dig* *dig* *splash*

After a long time of digging, the clouds began to darken. But the team finally opened a path for the water to flow through.

“Everyone move out of the way!” someone yelled to the digging group, it was Gan.

Adam learned that Gan was a martial artist and proficient at hand-to-hand combat.

Noelani left him in the camp to guard and keep the order.

There are a number of times where he single-handedly took out one of the shadows by himself. Adam was quite impressed by his quick movement and stamina. Especially because Gan was also participating in the digging of the water channel, but still had the energy to keep fighting from time to time.

But at this moment, Gan was commanding everyone to move out of the way, this is because the water was not only a drowning hazard but also “poisonous”.

Last night, there were a few who got hit by the shadows, though the shadows caused a considerable amount of physical damage, the actual injury came from their “corruption” as Noelani called it. The corruption caused the body part that was hit to turn dark.

It was akin to how the trees would become corrupted and become darker when not in the purification dome and exposed to the dark fog.

It took a while for the corruption to fade off while staying in the purification dome, the injury would cause great pain and it would cause pus and blood excretion, though by a small amount.

However, even before Gan commanded, everyone ran out of the way and made sure not to get hit by the water.

It was obvious that this water was corrupted like everything else not in a purification dome, but no one wanted to test if the water could cause the same kind of corruption as the shadows.

It did not take long for the rock gatherers to come; they were attracted by the sound of water flowing to the purification dome where they saw a small pit that was dug for the water to pool in.

*sizzle* *sizzle*

As soon as the water entered the purification dome, which was is even bigger and brighter than yesterday, the water began to sizzle and slowly became clearer.

“I… is it drinkable?” Someone couldn’t help but ask. Right after that question was made, someone started running to drink the water, then others followed suit which led to a stampede.

Everyone has been thirsty for a while. The fruits helped with everyone’s thirst, but it would take a lot of fruits for anyone to be truly quenched from their thirst and there were not many fruits, to begin with.

“Hey! There is enough water for everyone, wait for your turns, someone is going to get hurt if you all rush up!” Gan tried to calm the situation, but it was hopeless, there were too many who ran for the water.

Luckily the pit dug was wide enough so that people were able to spread out a bit. A few people like Adam did not participate in the stampede.

There were a few scuffles here and there, but everyone eventually got a chance to drink and quench their thirst.

After a while, the teams who were tasked with escorting people came back one after another.

Some had dark faces, from what Adam heard, they saw tragic scenes where young children left their purification orbs and ended up as bruised, corrupted, and lifeless corpses.

Adam also had a gloomy look after their description.

On the other hand, there were teams who were able to get young children, even babies, alive and well, though greatly frightened of course.

It was not just the children, but the old and disabled had a higher likelihood to face a gruesome end before the teams got to them.

Everyone who came back was able to get water and fruits to feed themselves.

“Where is Noelani?” Adam heard Gan asking someone, Adam knew her name was Simone.

“She said she will be hunting on her own,” Simone answered.

“She separated from your team?! Why did you let her?”

Simone shook his head.

“We could not stop her even if we wanted to.”

*sizzle*

Gan wanted to continue but was interrupted by the sound of sizzling, he could tell it was coming from inside the dome but was much louder than when purifying the energy stones.

Looking over, he saw Noelani who had just come back, but what was strange is that she was holding a bunch of wood and tree vines that are in strange shapes and giving off a lot of smoke.

Seeing the scene, Adam's eyes widened.

‘Isn’t that-’

“Those are that evolved tree shadow body parts! You killed it?” It was Mike, who Adam saw fleeing from a shadow that was manipulating trees and vines.

Noelani nodded.

“I got a hint that it was a good opportunity to attack it, so I went and hunted it. I got somewhat lucky.” She explained.

“Then why did you bring those body parts back?” Mike asked, confused.

Noelani had a smile on while carrying the items towards the center of the purification dome.

Everyone was curiously staring, they wanted to see what she was going to do next.

Noelani reached her innate orb at the center and put the body parts next to the orb.

Then, to the surprise of the watchers, Noelani put her hand on her stomach and when she lifted it, there was a light green glowing sphere that was constantly oscillating its shape. It looked to be 1 cm in diameter.

Before anyone could say anything Noelani moved the sphere to the innate orb and the sphere was able to drill into the orb without leaving a mark.

Everyone was speechless.

“Noelani …. What was that?” Mike asked, he confronted the tree shadow, so he was really interested in what Noelani got from killing it.

“That was a skill orb,” Noelani said with a smile.

‘a … a skill orb?’

There was a pause for a moment.

“Noelani, are you saying that that small sphere could allow you to use the ability of the tree shadow.” It was Gideon this time that asked.

Noelani nodded. “Yeah, but it would cost you mystical energy to use it which is limited for everyone’s current bodies. You could think of it as the same energy in the innate orbs and energy stones.”

“Then why did you put it in your innate orb!? You’re trying to hoard it for yourself, aren’t you?!” Fabian interjected the conversation and accusatorily asked Noelani.

Noelani turned to him with a cold look. “I have done everything for the good of everyone. What I’m doing is making it useful for all of us, not just me”

Before Fabian continued to argue, Noelani continued to explain what she was doing.

“It is true that anyone would be able to use the skill, but a single person’s energy is limited. However, if the skill can be turned into a facility in the innate orb, then it would be much more useful for everyone, especially because we are pooling our resources and energy.”

Adam was stunned by this explanation; he was facing the same problem with his duplication ability.

“You can turn a skill orb into a facility? How?” someone in the crowd asked.

Noelani nodded, Adam's eyes lighted up. If he could have his orb handle the copying of items then he would be able to refill the energy and duplicate endlessly.

“What is useful on these ‘evolved’ shadows, or let’s call them skilled shadows, is not only the skill orb they have but also their body parts. These shadows don’t have the same body as the other shadows, their body has been added with limbs and organs that work with and strengthen the skill.”

Noelani explained which made Adam mentally frown, he can’t really get those body parts as Noelani was describing, the ability or skill originates from himself.

“Once you can get a skill orb, you can place it into the innate orb and wait. The innate orb will convert the skill orb into a facility with the help of those useful parts” Noelani said while pointing at her orb.

Everyone was surprised to see that the tree parts had slowly attached themselves around Noelani’s orb.

“That’s amazing!”

“We should start looking for more of the skilled shadows tomorrow!”

Some in the crowd began to cheer.

“it’s not all that great, it still is going to take a while for the facility to be usable,” Noelani said while putting her hand on the orb.

She brought up her appraisal screen, no one could see it though, it was found out that only owners could see the appraisal information shown on the orb.

“It says it will take 5 days for it to convert and become a facility.”

The crowd excitement was reduced.

“How is the energy usage?” Asked Gan, he’s been worried about the energy usage for a while now.

“It has increased by a sizable amount” Noelani answered.

After the answer, everyone had calmed down. A new facility is definitely a good thing but it comes with a cost.

There was a momentary silence that let Adam ask a question he’s been curious about.

“Noelani, can your hint ability be turned into a facility?”

Hearing the question many were silent but quickly perked their ears up, everyone knows how powerful and useful her abilities were and wanted to know if the ability could be shared.

However, Adam was more worried about his own ability than Noelani’s, he really wanted to outsource the replication to his orb if he could.

“… I don’t know,” Noelani answered.

Everyone was somewhat disappointed with the answer.

“What do you plan on using this new facility for?” Gideon brought back the conversation to the issue of the facility the camp is paying for with energy and its purpose.

Noelani looked at him and smiled.

“Start building of course”