Thinking for a moment, Adamu nodded with curiosity, after all, being its maker, he could conjure another Light construct for the Idol if needed.

Focusing on the Eternal Light shining bright above him, he first dimmed its illumination and called it back.

Then, through Sun Bearer, Adamu interacted with the Ethereal Light Construct on Ina’s Idol.

The only reason Adamu thought it could work at all, instead of offending Ina, was because the artwork was actually more of a general depiction of a luminescent body in the sky. The circle at the top of the carving could easily be interpreted as the moon instead of the sun.

That, and the fact that Ina could not manifest her light show when he prayed inside the Illusion, so even if he angered her somehow, it would not be that bad.

Either way, it was effortless for Adamu to interface with the Ethereal Light Construct and make it absorb the Silver Light, which saturated the fairytale-like ancient giant forest. As such, for one second, Adamu noticed a flicker within the Silver Light around him, similar to a shadow manifesting when something blocked the sun’s rays.

Still, it only lasted for that one second when Adamu sensed the Ethereal Light Construct flicker silver instead of gold.

In fact, soon enough, the color silver began to dominate the gold one.

Frowning, Adamu examined what he saw and felt through Sun Bearer. Then, on a hunch, he pulled on Sun Bearer’s reserves and channeled Ina’s Glory into the Ethereal Light Construct.

In the same instant, silver and gold met and started attacking each other in what could only be called dominance play.

Then, as the play continued, it only escalated further and further by unconsciously drawing for more power to win over its contender. Unfortunately, as Adamu observed the vibrational reverberations, he knew without a doubt that Ina’s Glory would lose because of quantity if not quality.

After all, the reserve inside Sun Bearer could never compete with the actual source generating the Silver Light.

However, before things went out of total control, Adamu used his latent authority over the Ethereal Light Construct to diffuse the harmony between it and the Silver Light. As such, with the source cut, Ina’s Glory almost instantly lunged itself at the remnants before eventually snuffing them out.

When everything was as it used to be, Adamu once more sent the Eternal Light to shine and fuel the Ethereal Light Construct. However, Adamu, on the other hand, remained close by with thoughts full of intrigue that despite sounding correct in his head, felt profoundly incorrect.

After about an hour of letting the Eternal Orb shine at full capacity, Ina’s now giant Idol fully recovered to its functional state.

However, from Adamu’s one last examination, the Ethereal Light Construct was not at its full strength. Regardless, that was expected since the Idol and the construct had grown to such great size inside the Illusion.

Sidelining the recently created artwork and everything else that it had revealed, Adamu had a far more pressing concern. Namely, no creature or Beast had reared its head at the increased luminosity of the Eternal Light.

The hybrid creatures? Adamu could imagine why. But for no Beast to appear either? That smelled of someone’s interference.

Shrugging his shoulders, Adamu focused on Sun Bearer and called back the Eternal Orb, but not before dimming its output. Then, once it was back on Sun Bearer’s top, Adamu observed the giant forest around him, with most of his attention spent glancing above him because anything could be hiding inside the dense treetops of the giant trees, and Adamu would have been none the wiser.

When still nothing occurred, one last shrug and Adamu hugged the nearest big tree and made his way back to the rat/cat den.

Once there, Adamu observed its surroundings in search of an easy target, only for no luck befell him at this point. Probably because of the desolation he had caused to their numbers prior and after he ganged up on them with the bear/cat Monster, on top of killing some of them inside the den.

That being the case, a simple plan was concocted in Adamu’s mind. But before diving, Adamu quickly climbed a big tree and picked a few of the large leaves. Once down on the ground, he dived into the entrance. Only he did not dive too deep inside before stopping and releasing his hold on Sun Bearer, all while dimming the illuminating construct on its top to its bare minimum. As such, with no more True Light and his standard vibrational resonance, Adamu hoped to lure in one of them.

However, when nothing occurred for the first fifteen minutes or so, Adamu went deeper and repeated the process.

Then, he repeated it two more times before the first squicking sounds reached his ears.

What followed was standard practice for Adamu. Bait, flare Eternal Light to stun the rat/cat, and then smack it a few times on the head.

However, it was what occurred after that mattered to Adamu.

Focusing for one moment, Adamu observed the strand of Pure Essence absorbed in his body, only to automatically separate and dissolve into thin air once it left his body. During the brief moment of appearance, Adamu had tried to influence it on his own to see if he could manually affect things.

Nevertheless, it did not go according to Adamu’s imagination because he could not interact with the strand of Pure Essence.

“Not yet, at least.” Adamu voiced out because he knew it was but a matter of time before he found the resonating frequency at which Essence operated.

The problem was getting to that point since Adamu had previously never interacted with Essence in such a way. And the few memories he possessed of his predecessors experimenting, were from the angle of Magic interacting with Essence and not Pure Essence as Adamu was forced to utilize right now.

“Oh, well. It is just a matter of Time crossed with the number of attempts. I am bound to succeed at some point.” Shaking his head, Adamu focused on the dead rat/cat that had failed to smoke away after being exposed to True Light.

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Nodding at it, Adamu took out his obsidian pocket knife and turned over the rat/cat such that its spine nested on the ground and its legs pointed at the ceiling of the tunnel. Or at least he tried. It was not like there was any muscle tension to keep the legs in that position. Either way, after a bit of finagling the leverage and the angle of his slicing, Adamu stabbed the rat cat near the neck before slowly slicing his way down the chest and stomach, all while being careful to not cut into the digestive tract, if it had one to begging with.

Then, when the organs were exposed to a degree, he carefully sliced into the innards to take the liver, the spleen, and the kidney because those were the most nutritious of all the organs inside any dead creatures. Once those were placed on one giant leaf and carefully packaged with blood staining the outside, Adamu focused on the heart and the lungs.

After them came the slicing of the rat/cat thighs, only it was more cat thigh than rat thigh.

Done with those, Adamu ceased prying for anything else since he already had more than enough meat to last him for the barbeque he planned on enjoying. Hence, once everything got packaged, Adamu made his way back to Ina’s Idol. Soon enough, he reached it and washed the meat and the leaves with the water already gathered inside the big bowl.

Then, it was all about waiting near the Idol since no other living being had crossed its place of residence.

Crack Crack Crack

Shatter

In truth, there was no cracking or shattering to be seen, but Adamu still winced when he felt the phenomena with his Spirit.

Glancing around, Adamu experienced sadness that the gathered wood and stone he found nearby had shrunk despite being bathed with True Light, thus, from big and thick dry branches and decently sized stones, they became tiny little useless things.

Dismissing them from his attention, Adamu quickly checked Ina’s Idol and the Ethereal Light Construct attached to it. Nodding with affirmation that it worked as it should, he left it behind and went for the elevated ground nearby. Once there, he plucked Sun Bearer into the same place as the day before and switched Sun Bearer and the Eternal Light into recharge mode.

Then, Adamu scoured the forest for stones and dry wood.

By the time everything was gathered and prepared, Dawn had arrived with a Prayer to accompany it.

After that came the grilling and consuming to fill the pit that was Adamu’s stomach.

Eating as much as he could, Adamu laid down to enjoy the sunlight hitting him.

Though, his mind was somewhere else. Specifically, he was planning how to make a Sanctuary without being able to tap on the Realm Grid so he could tap the Realm Grid once inside it. Adamu already had a place for that selected, namely around Ina’s Idol, as it seemed to discourage things from approaching it.

Of course, Adamu could be fantasizing about it, but since the sanctuary would be on the smaller side, it wasn't a bad place to permanently set camp. The only problem was making the damn thing because Adamu had no true Magical Ingredients, and that meant he would be forced to work with Hard Light once again. Which was fine, but before he could even attempt it, a trimming jog awaited Adamu.

Scowling for a second, Adamu picked up Sun Bearer, leaving the Eternal Light recharging, and returned to Ina’s Idol.

“Oh, Light of the World, Hear this Mortal’s Plea and Grant him the Power to trim this place a bit, Sword of Light.”

When the sword made out of light made its appearance, Adamu sent it into the air to cut the tree foliage in such a way that it no longer blocked the sunlight from reaching the Idol and the soon-to-be-built sanctuary.

Thankfully, since the Sword of Light was extremely sharp on top of being remotely controlled, all the trimming did was make Adamu experience indignation for using a Spell/Miracle of such a high Rank for a trimming job.

Shaking his head, after finishing the mundane assignment, Adamu examined the Idol and the water generation. With a nod and an appreciation for the increased water generation, Adamu slurped what water had already gathered. Then, his mind focused on briefly measuring the surroundings before using Sun Bearer like an ordinary stick and making indented lines in the earth around the Idol.

About five meters from Ina’s Idol, Adamu created two outer circles, with five small inner circles equidistantly placed inside these two circles. In between the two outer circles, Adamu made the protection symbols of the sanctuary.

After the Protection Pattern appeared, Adamu focused on finalizing the insides of the Ritual Pattern by creating more lines, which formed more squares, circles, and triangles. In the end, the five small circles, once connected to each other with lines, created a closed circling loop, a Pentagram, and a Pentastar to finalize the Ritual Pattern.

What they would do was up to Adamu, but each of the five small circles represented one Basic Principle of Magic.

Enchantment, Evocation, Domination, Alteration, and Conjuration.

Then came the details with more symbols and decorations to make it more appealing to the eye and to hide what did what for the Ritual.

With the obvious Ritual Pattern completed, it was time to truly make use of Light.

Placing Sun Bearer right in the middle of the Ritual, Adamu, once again, was reminded that he had been using Sun Bearer more like a Staff than the shaft of a spear it was intended for.

Shrugging his shoulders, Adamu called on Ina’s Glory and summoned it above Sun Bearer to take the necessary shape and function.

“Oh, Light of the World, Hear this Mortal’s Plea and Grant him the Power to conjure a Source of Your Might, Eternal Light.”

Done chanting, the Spell/Miracle worked its wonder and summoned an Orb of Light the size of one of Adamu’s fists. However, unlike the first Eternal Light conjured while inside the rat/cat den, this one was far more unique, mainly because of what it was meant to do, and that was to gather True Light in vast quantities from high up in the sky or at least above the treetop line of the forest.

As such, this Orb of Light was made to not emit light in all directions, but instead to channel everything gathered in only one, thus, the one attached convex lens at its bottom.

A moment later, Adamu sent the orb into the sky. Once it was above the treetop line, Adamu had it cease its climb and start absorbing the abundant True Light spewed out by the flaring Sun crossing the horizon.

That done, Adamu once again pulled on Ina’s Glory inside Sun bearer and chanted.

“Oh, Light of the World, Hear this Mortal’s Plea and Grant him the Power to distribute the Might of Your Light, Eternal Light.”

The chant done, another Orb of Light manifested. This one was bigger, with nine attachments added to it. One convex lens to receive the Light from above. One concave lens in the middle of the Orb, diverging the incoming Light into seven separate Rays, with six meant for the Ritual and one for Ina’s Idol to speed up its water generation.

Examining them, for a moment, Adamu centered it about five meters above him, who was in the center of the Ritual he planned to establish as his sanctuary.

What came next was five quick prayers for similar orbs. These were simpler since they only needed five convex lenses and one concave lens. After conjuring each one separately, they got placed into one of the smaller circles found at every triangle ending of the Pentagram/Pentastar.

Then, and only then, was Adamu ready for the hardest part. The difficulty was reflected when it took much, much longer for Adamu to shape Ina’s Glory into the proper pattern he needed. Barely minutes into it, his head began to sweat from the strain the Spirit exhibited without any profound power to lubricate the process.

Still, Adamu was determined to give his all, such that when the pattern was finalized, he immediately Cast/Prayed for the Spell/Miracle he needed.

“Oh, Light of the World, Hear this Mortal’s Plea and Grant him the Power to establish a Shelter in your Name, Eternal Light - Sanctuary Core.”