Staring at a fistful of berries, Adamu pondered on what to do.
There weren't many to be discovered in the forest on the side of the river he had access to, considering berries usually needed decent sun exposure.
After not finding anything near the walnut tree, he'd expanded some of the search areas, with luck being on his side when he discovered a patch in the treetop coverage. Adamu had no idea what exactly had caused the gap, but it had stayed that way for quite some time, thus allowing some bushes the freedom to grow as they liked, thus allowing Adamu to be lucky and find some kind of berries.
It looked remarkably similar to a Blackberry variant. Only Adamu wasn't 100% sure if it belonged to the same strain without tasting it, and there remained the problem of Adamu’s hesitation because very few humans realized that one needed energy to gain energy from the things one consumed.
As such, with so little food acquired, Adamu was stuck between the dilemma of breaking or not breaking the homeostasis his body was currently engaging.
Therefore, if Adamu consumed the berries, some of the already stored energy within his body, in the form of fat and sugar, would be spent to engage the digestive process at full power to break down the nutrients before any energy could be recovered, thereby breaking even on the energy debt scale or hopefully exceding it.
“No…” Adamu finally decided. “It's not worth resetting the homeostasis. The subsequent hunger would be much harder to deal with. I will do another gathering run tomorrow. Depending on the find, I will contemplate making some traps since the Beasts stay away from me.”
With a plan of action finally set upon, Adamu considered the second major problem of the day, the summoning of the Illusion and the initial stupefaction forced onto him. As such, Adamu knew he'd be having trouble dealing with multiple raven/cat creatures before actually recovering and breaking the stupefaction.
Thus, he needs to either finally resolve the reason for its existence or think of a roundabout method of influencing the stupid version of himself.
Both actions carried problems.
The first one, Adamu had no current idea of how to fix his existential paradigm of possibly not being Adamu or the boy he'd been reborn in. “Now that I am thinking about it, I know nothing about the past of the kid. Not that there was much to his past. Not if the Orb of Rebirth had to result in the replication of the last user of the Orb to fill in the missing gaps of the new Orb user.”
After a moment of silence, Adamu considered meditation as the solution if he could dive deep enough to unearth the memories of the boy because there had to be something in there, even if it was half-broken jargon of nonsense.
However, in the end, the meditative scenario was sidelined for a moment of safety and not imminent danger. The main reason was that Adamu had no idea how long the trance would last and the subsequent side effects. As such, that left Adamu with only one path. Enter a meditative trance to embed an idea into the subconscious part of his mind so hard that it would punch through the incoming stupefaction
“If I am to try it? What kind of scenario am I looking for?” Adamu murmured. “Waking up would be a good choice, but I am not sure that will be enough since the only reason I actually managed to wake up was the danger, the combat, and the subsequent Essence touch as it uses the Spirit Body as a springboard to reach the physical body. Without all three, waking up by himself will be hard.”
In the end, after considering it for some time, Adamu dismissed the waking-up scenario since one possible side effect that reached him was actually waking in the real world and not the Illusion, and he needed the Illusion if he was to undergo an Essence Awakening as soon as possible.
That being the case, Adamu was left with the sole remaining action he could undertake, and that was to embed a combat scenario with possible routes so his Spirit Body could take and execute them autonomously.
As such, Adamu took no chance and immediately sat cross-legged. It took some time since his new body was unfamiliar with the required mental state to achieve the deep trance state he needed to reprogram his subconscious actions.
Still, he made it after about an hour of conditioning his physical mind that it should take a nap while his Spirit Mind, in a sense, would take over. However, the only reason it took an hour for Adamu, despite being experienced, was the headache reminding him of its presence.
Then, in the darkness of his mind, Adamu envisioned scenario after scenario of possible combat based on the experience he had already undergone inside the cave. Going over a few and dismissing many, Adamu finally conceived one that gave him the best possible solution under the conditions the combat scenario witnessed so far had not been modified.
And even if it was, all Adamu needed was the condition of the first step to be satisfied before the rest didn't matter as much.
Thus, Adamu, having found his solution, kept repeating the scenario over and over and over. Yet, regardless of how much focus Adamu had spent on doing his mental programming, it turned out to be a useless effort at first glance because no enemies came for him.
However, that could not be further from the truth.
Ignoring the fact that Adamus' mental subconscious reprogramming worked or not, one fact did come forth. The overuse of his focus before Ani’s Summon reached him had exhausted so much of Adamu’s focus that for the first time, he actually fell asleep for real instead of his Spirit Body forming and entering the Dreamscape, or Illusion as Adamu liked to refer to it as.
Thus, contrary to how some speculated, Ani’s Summon to the Dreamscape did not form the Spirit Body. No, it only gave the energy and the framework upon which to build during the summoning process. As such, if there was no profound power present and one’s focus was thoroughly exhausted, the Spirit Body formation at midnight would automatically fail.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Therefore, the individual would not reach the Dreamscape.
Therefore, the individual would be safe from the greatest dangers inside the Dreamscape, provided that one was actually safe in the real world in the first place.
All in all, the night passed rather quietly in Adamu’s little cave, with no physical danger reaching him.
However, the same could not be stated for the mental and spiritual side.
Generally speaking, when a physical-biological body enters a deep but restful state, the Mind and the Spirit naturally combine their wavelengths and connect to the Plane of Dreams. Once there, the fused Mind and Spirit automatically formed a Dream Body through which one could explore the Plane of Dreams.
Regardless, one should not mistake a Dream Body for a Spirit Body. The two things were similar, yet vastly different in form and purpose.
A Dream Body connects one to the ethereal Plane of Dreams and nowhere else. Additionally, since a Dream Body was automatically created by the Plane of Dreams for the individual, the individual will never have full control of said Dream Body.
A Spirit Body, on the other hand, was an all-purpose mental/spiritual construct created by the individual for the individual. As such, a Spirit Body usually only ever needed to be created once and thus forever to be enjoyed till destroyed.
What one did with one’s Spirit Body was up to the individual, as it could substitute for every other version of the Spirit Body, like a Dream Body, Astral Body, or something else entirely.
There simply were no limits to the variety and their possibilities.
Thus, unlike a material body, a Spirit Body, which had no upper limits, became the foundation for Divinity.
Thus, the formation of a Spirit Body also marked the second foundational phase of Magic Users after the acquisition of Magic itself.
Additionally, how a Spirit Body formed also determined the Rank and Path of the Magic Users, with the first being upgradable while the second stuck with one forever.
As such, with no Spirit Body formed and no Dreamscape to which one went when receiving Ani’s Summoning, Adamu’s Mind and Spirit wavelengths fused and sought the upper Dimension known as The Plane of Dreams.
However, instead of connecting to the Plane of Dreams in order to experience nice and pleasant Dreams awaiting Adamu, all that welcomed him was a Nightmare.
A Nightmare made from Monsters, Bloodshed, Evil, Corruption, and Tentacles.
Soooo… Soooo… so many tentacles that sought, trapped, caught, flayed, penetrated, and sucked the juices out of their victims.
If not for Adamu’s slightly reckless abandon to abuse his focus to reprogram his subconscious self, he would have become a shining beacon upon this Nightmarish Plane. As such, Adamu’s Dream Body would have already been sought, trapped, caught, flayed, penetrated, and sucked clean of everything it could have been, yet left with just enough to not cripple the Mind-Spirit embodying the Dream Body all so the individual would return to its material form just to repeat the same the very next day and probably into Eternity itself if possible.
Instead, what transpired was Adamu running for his Dream Life through nightmarish environments while attempting to dodge tentacles or hide when possible. Only it never was because the more Adamu ran, the more attention he generated from the tentacles seeking him out.
In the end, just before down came to Ina’Ani’s world, and Ina’s Light chased away Ani’s shadow, thus removing the effect of the Dreamscape cast upon Ina’Ani, Adamu’s Dream Body had been caught by a lone and thin tentacle that had snuck on him from who knew where.
It latched itself on the right leg and pulled hard, so hard that Adamu’s Dream Body flailed to the floor and subsequently got dragged by the thin yet remarkably strong tentacle.
Adamu had tried his best to strike the tentacle, but everything he tried proved to be futile. Instead, similar tentacles emerged, again from out of nowhere. They latched onto his extremities and tugged hard til Adamu was strung mid-air, similar to how one strung one’s clothes on a string to dry in the sun.
But that was where it ended.
Oh no. Not even close.
No, what came next was the ripping of clothes Adamu’ hadn't even realized he wore on his Dream Body. Then came three more slithering tentacles, only these were more… wet, Adamu realized. Why they were wet, he had no idea. Nor did he want to understand. Instead, Adamu struggled as hard as he could. He used every bit of Dream Muscle he could muster into action.
He even gyrated his hips to avoid the two lower tentacles.
Yet, regardless of his efforts, all of it proved to be useless. Two of the wet tentacles reached his thighs, and one went to his throat.
Then, just as they inched closer and utterly changed Adamu into something he did not wish to be nor ever realized he could be, Ina’s Light washed over the little mountain Adamu hid in.
Almost instantly, Adamu’s Mind and Spirit were tugged from the Plane of Nightmares, thus collapsing his Dream Body.
However, the tentacles were not pleased.
Not at all.
On the contrary, they were furious because something unbelievably alluring got snatched away from them. In response, the tentacles chased after the Mind-Spirit they desired. The tentacles crossed the upper Dimensions and reached the lower ones. But just before they entered the material world known as Ina’Ani, True Light barred their way on top of burning the tentacles.
Yet, it seemed as if the tentacles were determined this time.
The allure of the one being snatched and protected was just too much because the temptation came not from the Mind-Spirit but from what it represented. And if the tentacles hadn't sensed it wrongly, the Mind-Spirit could be transformed into a key.
A Key for unlimited access to degeneracy, debauchery, perversion, corruption, and soooo much MORE.
As such, the tentacles shifted, shielding one small and thin, but most importantly, wet tentacle. Thus, while the small, thin, and wet, tentacle managed to penetrate the wall of True Light relatively intact, the others burned to ash as a sacrifice of success.
Where, when, and how the small, thin, and wet tentacle would land? And where, when, and how it acquired the Key to unlimited degeneracy, debauchery, perversion, and corruption was no longer the concern of Ies’Oll, The Lustful One.
Not when the small, thin, wet tentacle was ingrained with the Scent of the Key.
***
Title - The Lustful One;
Rank - Eldritch;
Class - Dominion - Bias - Corruption;
Type - Passive - Active;
Effect [Passive] - Prolonged exposure automatically degrades the Spirit Integrity Value of everything below the Rank of Divine;
Effect [Active] - Direct exposure degrades the Spirit Integrity Value of targets at the Rank of Divine;
Cause [Passive] - Corrupt large numbers of Spirits below the Rank of Divine within a short amount of Time;
Cause [Active] - Corrupt the Spirit of one Divine Ranked Existence;