“Praise be to Ina, The Light of the World,” Adamu proclaimed in his bid to announce the Dawn Prayer. “May She Reign Eternally as the Rightful Throne in the Skies Above to banish the Darkness Below Forevermore.“

Once again, a Ray of Light descended on Adamu, only to vanish moments later.

With the Ray of Light gone, Adamu returned to examining his makeshift campfire. Unlike how he had imagined it, the makeshift campfire made out of rough-looking rocks remained pristine. Better said, it remained just as Adamu had left it. Even the relatively flat rock resting on the others was where it was supposed to be.

“This just proves it more,” Adamu noted. “Something strange is going on. Why were there no creatures attacking inside the Illusion?”

Wondering, for a moment, Adamu sidelined it in favor of cleaning his little camp because it would receive more use later in the day. Meanwhile, after it was relatively clean, Adamu made his way to the river since there was no convenient source of water nearby. Once there, he would lubricate his insides with some Good Water.

Leaving the stick acquired the previous day, the stone cutter, and the leftovers of the dead fish, which remained remarkably fresh despite having spent an entire night inside his little cave, Adamu made his way to the river.

As for why the fish remained bug-free?

Adamu could only attribute the same answer to the other creatures staying away from him. As such, Adamu was ready for another day of grilling fish. Nevertheless, before the enjoyment came, Adamu first had to gather firewood on the way back from the river.

The trip to the bending river bank, found on his first trip into the forest, was quick and with no interruptions coming Adamu’s way outside of waving a good morning greeting to the squirrels.

Once he reached it, multiple gulps of water refreshed Adamu. However, right when he was about to make his way up the mountain valley, his eyes caught sight of a small corner of the river bank.

A corner that had hurt his fingers quite a bit. Seeing it made him remember that his stone cutter had become quite dull.

“Ugh… Fine.”

Slightly reluctant, Adamu spent some time searching for decent rock specimens when he noticed a dark shine right where the river met the earth. It was somewhat submerged in the water, but the early rays of light aligned properly to alight its existence compared to the gray rocks beside it.

Narrowing his golden eyes in suspicion, Adamu slowly made his way to it before fishing it out of the water, only to realize that he had hit a hand-sized jackpot for the day.

“Obsidian?” Frowning, Adamu carefully handled the stone as he examined it. “It's got impurities, but it's definitely obsidian glass. Wonder where it came from? Mmm… Considering the shallow depth, could there be volcanic activity upriver?” With no answers reaching Adamu, he left the obsidian on one particularly noticeable rock and searched for more, but even after what could only be half an hour of search, no more black glass reached his sight. “Oh, well, I'll take what I can. Now, I just have to be very careful when chipping it because it's already small enough.”

Nodding, Adamu made his way to his chipping corner and began working.

Being careful netted him a decent obsidian pocket knife without any handles, as such, he spent some more time chipping a bigger version from stone despite already having one sharp instrument.

Spending even more time, Adamu grinding the stone even sharper, after all, one never knew when an instrument was needed. And since there was no sheath for his obsidian pocket knife, he couldn't carry it casually around since he could easily cut himself.

Right when Noon came, and Adamu completed the Noon Prayer of Gratitude, at least gratitude in his mind, he ceased working on his stone cutter.

On the way back to his camp, because of the obsidian knife and the stone knife, Adamu took a little side trip to search for some big leaves and vines. Once they were in his possession, a small bag was made to carry the two knives, thus leaving his hands free to carry as much dry firewood as possible.

In the end, even after he returned to his camp, more trips were required. However, once he left the newly made tools behind, there was room for some herbs in his leaf bag. So anytime he found something similar to his memories it was picked up to serve as seasoning for lunch or early dinner, depending on one's view.

Once he'd had enough, Adamu recreated the Ritual Pattern on the ground and pleaded for another Ray to come down from the heavens to light up his pile of wood scraps. After the Ray of Light vanished and the campfire nourished enough, the top rock was back in its place.

Sadly, Adamu still had no solid source of water to clean it, but a bit of picking and scraping from his fingers on top of fish juice did the trick.

Soon enough, food with a few herbs on the side reached his guts.

Just like the previous night, Adamu wolfed down the fish meat with remarkable speed, and just like that time, the fish meat tasted extremely flavorful.

However, contrary to what Adamu expected, the greenery gave very little flavor to the dinner in comparison to what the fish made his tongue feel. That made him somewhat suspicious of what he was eating. In the end, after a moment of contemplation, the only logical conclusion came in the form of Essence enhancing the base flavor of the fish.

Food aside, of course, after no more could fit inside Adamu's stomach, Adamu concentrated on his possible activities. One of them was the Tree Field Effect Resonance Waking Trance, especially when considering his intuition trigger regarding its inner workings.

That being the case, Adamu found a relatively rock-free place near his camp, and after digging a bit with his bare hands, he plunged his feet inside the earth before covering them with the uncovered loose earth.

Done impersonating a tree, Adamu relaxed and entered the Waking Trance. Soon enough, Adamu’s vision blurred and cleared. Then, he modulated his voice box to the vibrations he needed for manual control of his Kyrilian Field. Once he had that, Adamu once again achieved the Tree Field Effect Resonance Waking Trance, and when he did, his awareness of his Kyrian Field increased, all while the focus expenditure lessened to keep it active as the very environment helped offload the stress caused on Adamu’s Spirit.

Stolen story; please report.

As such, he enjoyed himself in the newfound experience, although not one that Adamu had never ever heard of before since Adamu was pretty sure it was possible to replicate with Nature Magic quite easily. But then again, almost everything was possible to replicate and improve with Magic added to the equation. Hence, enjoying the sensation of being connected to the world like and unlike being connected to the Realm Grid, time passed exceedingly fast for Adamu.

By the time Adamu realized the growth and sensations delivered by his bio-electro-magnetic field, a sensation arose from within him, like an alarm announcing something important coming up.

Recognizing the sensations, Adamu unplugged his feet from the earth only to almost instantly realize that his awareness almost instantly shrunk down to the bare human limits, meaning the five basic human senses of touch, smell, scent, sound, and taste. It was that contrast that alerted why Adamu had indulged and immersed himself in the Tree Field Effect Resonance Waking Trance.

It was simple. It made Adamu remember how he used to be, or at least a facsimile of how he used to sense the world.

“Anyway. The novelty/remembrance will vanish with enough repetitions.” With this realization, Adamu faced the incoming Dusk and made the Dusk Prayer to the Source of True Light.

That done, Adamu examined the embers of his campfire before shrugging his shoulders in defeat.

Next, he checked the leftovers of the fish he caught the previous day.

In the end, it too, got a shoulder shrug and was tossed away further from the cave entrance. Some other animals would get a free meal. Most importantly, Adamu would not risk spoiling the meat, and although Adamu doubted his physique was weak enough to succumb to it, it was better not to risk it when easily avoided.

Back at the little camp, Adamu picked up the long stick, the obsidian pocket knife, and the rough stone cutter before returning to his little cave.

Then, just as Adamu entered the cave passage entrance, Adamu glanced at the dimming True Light and incoming True Darkness. A small suspicion wormed its way into his mind. One he had dismissed because it was unneeded before, but if following Night proved similar to the previous one, Adamu would be forced to find a direct way into the Illusion instead of waiting for the summon.

Shaking his head, Adamu dismissed the thought for the moment and journeyed back to his small refuge cave. There, he spent some time meditating and going over scenarios of a small five-year-old boy fighting for his life just in case something occurred.

When Midnight came, Adamu’s body instantly plopped to the side, and a small boy appeared inside the Illusion. However, just like the previous Night, no raven/cat creatures came for the little boy.

After the Illusion cracked three times and shattered the final time, Adamu woke up with a frown on his face.

“I don't like this. I don't like this at all.” Adamu voiced out in doubt. “I've already been doused and burned with the wake-up call to not give this Realm an inch of an opportunity when messing with me.”

“There is no way that something is not up after everything I went through.” Adamu declared. Still, with circumstances outside his control, Adamu could only further sideline the feeling of doom coming for him. Instead, the only thing he could do was prepare as best as he could.

As such, Adamu made his way outside the cave and into the incoming Dawn.

With the Dawn Prayer behind him, a scenario similar to the previous day occurred.

A trek through the forest to the river to take a good mouthful of water, then on the return, he gathered more firewood and prepped the campfire, in case he'd need it only Adamu doubted he would since he'd eaten well in the last two days.

Very well, in fact, as such, there was no need to be anxious about food since the homeostasis in his body got reset, meaning Adamu had no need to eat anything for a few days.

Instead, Adamu focused on slowly preparing his camp for the next day.

Then, when Noon came and another Noon Prayer echoed into the skies, Adamu was left with two choices.

Either spend another half a day experiencing the Tree Field Effect Resonance Waking Trance, and probably get nothing in return, aside from a high centered on the long gone past, or work on improving his weapons.

In this case, transformed his stick into a spear or a spike.

“Both options have good and bad things about them.” Adamu pondered. “A spike will be easy to make but weak otherwise, especially since the stick came from a vine tree. And while it was firm enough to function as a spike, a spear would be the superior option.” Nodding with affirmation, Adamu pondered on. “That means adding the stone knife as the spearhead or the recently acquired obsidian pocket knife. After all, the obsidian pocket knife had no handle for safe handling. Plus, after I chipped it into shape, it is rather small for use in melee combat.”

“Thus, throwing the obsidian pocket knife might be nice, but poking from a distance sounds much better,” Adamu affirmed with his thoughts. “Spear with an obsidian pocket knife on top, it is.”

“Now… How do I do this?”

With the question posed, Adamu began examining the stick with more detail.

After imagining an imaginary foe, Adamu stabbed, swung, sliced, and blocked the incoming imaginary foe with the stick.

Ultimately, he wasn't pleased with the stick at all.

Not only did the stick bend too far when swung too fast, but its balance was quite off, which was not surprising considering the sub-optimal material quality of the wine tree. However, without leaving it in the sun to dry for months, it was the best Adamu would get without Magic involved.

“Or was it?” Adamu wondered when his mind snapped on the words sun and dry.

Almost instantly, his golden eyes settled around the campfire and where the Ritual Pattern, now barely visible, used to be. Then, a moment later, they moved and settled on the Sun, which no longer blindly urged him to become its lifelong zealot since he technically was one with the Oath.

“Mmm… If it does respond, how far could I take it before the Deity gets angry at me?” Adamu wondered. “Considering I am the one Praying, I should have some clout to bargain with, but before I blindly ask for drying a tiny stick of wood, let me try something more vital and appealing.”

Nodding at the course of his thoughts, Adamu left the stick on the ground and rushed back to his campfire before picking up a few pieces of charcoal. With the charcoal in hand, Adamu searched around the camp for a decently leveled place to draw upon.

After a quick search and debate, Adamu settled on a big stone embedded into the mountain valley that bore it.

Standing before it, he visualized what he needed and began drawing a Ritual Pattern.

Once it took on a basic shape, it was time to add the decorations that heavily embezzled to a Deity of Light. Of course, Adamu knew very little about Ina herself and her kinks, but most Light-based Deities were easier to please than the Deities of the other Elements. Hence, a shiny ball at the top, descending down Rays of Light upon the ground while delivering a miracle, was a decent option.

Adding a few pious believers onto the side of the miracle it became even better.

“Hmm… Something is missing?” Adamu noticed after he finished outlining with the charcoal. “Ah, an Obelisk that connects the Heavens to the Earth.” Nodding, Adamu went back to correcting the image, although it was a bit hard without anything to wash away the charcoal from the vertical stone drawing.

In the end, a bit of greenery to wipe away the surface of the black ‘paint’, and the Obelisk was completed, with a tiny bowl at the bottom of the stone artwork.

Done with the obvious, Adamu ignored the front of the shabby artwork in favor of measuring the depth needed for the three-dimensional Ritual Pattern he meant to carve with the power of the Sun.

Once that too was complete, Adamu noticed the Dusk approach.

“Hmph… Good enough, for now. I'll finish it in the morning and make the attempt at Noon when the Sun is at its strongest.”