Observing one’s Aural expression might as well be mindreading. Adam noted one more time in his mind before smoothly stepping back out of the rat/cat creature’s pouncing range, only to sidestep to the side of the creature and step forward one step while twirling Sun Bearer with its slightly glowing spear blade right through the rat/cat creature’s neck.

Slash

That done, Adamu followed his momentum and stepped forward before turning around to observe the behavior of the creature he had just slain, only it had yet to realize this fact because the sharpness of the spear blade was such that the creature had yet to notice that it had been cut, in the first place.

Then, as it turned its head, the neck muscles and bone no longer stretched as seamlessly, forcing the inherent connectivity of its flesh to fall apart.

Plop plop

The rat's head and the cat's body dropped to the ground, allowing fresh blood to push itself out of the two big arteries present in the neck. In the same instant, Adamu felt a tiny strand of Pure Essence enter his body only to instantly transform into a tiny spark before vanishing somewhere inside him.

Recalling the sensation for a second, he instantly understood how to develop further. However, the very next second, Adam remembered the Sea of Pure Potential inside him and just shook his head at the uselessness of killing these creatures.

At least, the spawn type.

The bigger ones, though, were a different case when Adamu remembered the little crystal in his possession.

Setting those aside, Adamu settled his thoughts on the cut he had just made.

“Too sharp, it seems.” Adamu… There, all thoughts ceased, and Adam corrected his thoughts. “I am Adam. I am Adam.”

Chanting five times in his head, Adam nodded and finally reflected upon the cut he just made, only this was not the first time he had tested out the Sun Bearer’s sharpness on the rat/cat creatures, but this was the first time he did with his new Aural Vision to contemplate upon the results, as such, it was easy for him to verify that even the creature's Aura had not instantly recognized that it had been sliced in fact.

“Guess it's not a bad problem to have.”

“That aside, I have to get a better grip on my identity,” Adam reminded himself again.

Shrugging his shoulders at the habit, and with his curiosity sated, Adam ignored the bloody body and simply resumed his trek to the depths of the rat/cat body.

Though it had taken a few days to ponder about his Awakening, his Methodology, and its consequences while prepping and getting used to his new conditions, Adam finally admitted that it was time to understand just why Causality steered him down to these depths.

Unfortunately, as Adamu had realized soon after his Awakening, the Compulsion the Aspect had cast on him no longer existed. As such, he no longer possessed a convenient guiding arrow to point him to the prize awaiting him, if it indeed existed, to begin with.

Either way, he had long since mapped out the upper tunnels of the rat/cat den complex, thus, the only thing that was not in his mind was the lower levels, where most of the creatures roamed. Additionally, now that he had gotten stronger somewhat and had a Profound Power upon which to rely all the time, instead of the fixed reserves inside Sun Bearer, Adam had no fear to face anything above the expendable minions he'd gotten so used to slaying.

Meanwhile, while no action reached him, Adam chanted his little mantra in his head to fortify his identity.

In truth, Adam could embed a thought, a command, within his subconscious and unconscious Mind easily, now that he had access to his Mindscape, to almost instantly fix the problem. However, Adam was leery of something vital as his core identity becoming partially askew since he was unsure of the true depth of the merger of his budding identity as Adam and the mental prosthesis known as Adamu.

As such, the old but slow way was the way to go.

About an hour later, Adam reached the tunnel that led to the lower levels.

Once descended and inside the lower tunnels, Adam reflected that everything still looked the same, so he treated it the same way even after coming across multiple hybrid creatures trying to mob him to death but obviously failing to Sun Bearer’s sharpness.

Moreover, Adam wasn't even using the flashlight stunning strategy because even without any sources of illumination guiding him, he could perceive the blending colors of the rat/cat creatures, thus easily estimating their physical appearance and actions. However, since the same did not apply to the uneven tunnel terrain, Adam still needed light to know where to step as the Petal representing his Spirit remained folded inside him, just like the rest of them, thus, in this moment, Adam was as normal as most humans who had yet to awaken.

As such, the very convenient 720-degree perception was currently not active to show him the way.

Hence, Sun Bearer illuminated the way down the depths.

Ignoring those thoughts, Adam settled his mind on the word Petal.

He was not sure why, but Adam could not stop himself from referring to each of the five slices of his existence as anything other than petals. In all honesty, he did have trouble finding the right words to describe it any other way, with Branch being the main contender to replace Petal, as both did an adequate job at describing his current self.

In the end, as Petal kept returning to his thoughts, plus the way he unfolded and folded his existence like a flower every time he used his Methodology, Adam had made it official after a lengthy debate within his Mindscape.

However, that was not the end because soon after, Adam defined each of the Petals with a unique terminology instead of the Magic terms he had initially planned on using, after all, after some clearheaded pondering, it was apparent to Adam that his Methodology was unique.

Very unique, in fact.

Therefore, in his mind, it was not a bad idea to make it even more special.

Thus were born The Five Petals of Existence, of the as-of-yet unnamed Methodology.

The Petal of Form, which represented his Body by being connected to the Enchantment Principle of the Five Basic Magic Principles included within the creation of the Methodology.

The Petal of Function, which represented his Essence by being connected to the Evocation Principle of the Five Basic Magic Principles included within the creation of the Methodology.

The Petal of Change, which represented his Aura by being connected to the Alteration Principle of the Five Basic Magic Principles included within the creation of his Methodology.

The Petal of Purpose, which represented his Mind by being connected to the Domination Principle of the Five Basic Magic Principles included within the creation of his Methodology.

The Petal of Resolution, which represented his Spirit, sidelining the fact that Adam no longer had a Spirit, by being connected to the Enchantment Principle of the Five Basic Magic Principles included within the creation of his Methodology.

Better said, Adam’s Spirit had interwoven with every layer of his existence, hence, it was everything and nothing at the same time, thus explaining why he always felt at home when in his base state, as then his whole existence was in balance.

Four more dead hybrids lay at Adam’s feet.

“I am getting closer.”

Nodding at that fact, Adam continued seeking the center of the rat/cat den, as that was very likely where he would find the Dungeon entrance if his conjecture proved correct about the hybrid creatures and the big Monsters, though he had only met one so far.

Between the annoying fights, Adam’s thoughts kept returning to the Methodology of his Awakening, and it was for a reason.

While examining the improved Methodology and categorizing everything it delivered, Adam had found, after a bit of calculus, of course, that right now he possessed twenty Abilities, with four base Abilities per each Petal of Existence.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

However, if that was not enough, Adam’s Methodology contained redundancies, which enabled him to express each base ability through six different variations. As such, a total of a hundred and twenty variations existed upon which he would have to experiment before defining and categorizing them all for proper learning and streamlining.

Additionally, in theory, at least, each variation could be expressed internally or externally, thus potentially doubling or even tripling the number of ways in which the Methodology expressed itself.

Honestly, it was a lot of work, but compared to memorizing SpellCraft and its permutations, it was a godsend.

That being the case, before descending into this rat/cat den and after organizing and streamlining his Methodology, Adamu had created a formal and an informal naming set for the inner cogs of his Methodology.

The formal name was the technical name for the future scholars of his Methodology, if there ever came such a time, while the informal one was for practical usage.

Hence, The Five Petals of Existence became the formal designation while The Five Grand Masteries became the informal one.

Nevertheless, unlike the formal version defining each Petal, in the form of Petal of Form, Function, Change, Purpose, and Resolution, the informal one had yet to truly manifest because Adam was just starting to figure out what each Petal or Grandmastery did and represented.

After the main terminology, it was time to downgrade its hierarchy. Unfortunately, there it was the complete opposite, with the formal being yet to be decided, while the informal ones flowed easily down the ranks of Grandmastery.

With each Grandmastery possessing four Masteries, meaning twenty Masteries in total. Moreover, since every Mastery had six variations to its execution due to the inherent Methodology redundancies Adam built into it, a total of twenty-four variations existed per Grandmastery, hence Adam simply decided to dub each variation as a Skill, thus there were in total a hundred and twenty Skills in his possessions.

Therefore, in theory, at least, six Skills had to be mastered per Mastery and twenty-four per Grandmastery.

Naturally, only time and practice would confirm the theory.

Either way, the individual Mastery names would come later after Adam figured out what each Mastery focused on.

On the formal side, Adam still debated if he should continue with the plant motif.

The main reason?

The fact that Petal Combo sounded nifty in Adam’s mind because he was indeed unfolding, folding, and refolding his existence each time a Skill/Petal Combo was executed or released.

However, the more he debated in his head, the more Adam disliked the Plant terminology since none of the following terms seed, or root, describing a plant, much less the others, fit that well into the theme, hence the slight regret that the Plant terminology had in fact taken root within his Methodology.

Luckily, he had a backup plan for the needed terminology.

Ignoring the future for the present, Adamu slayed another batch of the hybrid rat/cat creatures, further inching closer to the Dungeon.

Soon enough, he even found the final tunnel leading right to it.

Nonetheless, he did not enter the tunnel right away. Instead, Adam paid more attention to his surroundings and dimmed his Sun Bearer’s Eternal Light to the bare minimum before approaching the tunnel. Glancing around the corner, Adamu discovered not a tunnel but a cavern.

A big one, at that, thanks to a radiating Aura painting the cavern with a reddish hue originating right from the center of the cavern.

Closer to pink, actually. Adamu clarified after observing the color in more detail before suddenly recognizing a simple problem with his thoughts and rectifying it.

I am Adam, I am Adam, I am Adam.

After repeating it at least five times, Adam ceased the mental exercise and returned to observing the red/pink hue saturating the cavern.

Well… Well… Arent you a sneaky one. Adam noted when he suddenly realized that a chunk of stone was, in fact, not stone at all. Hmph… Would not have even noticed the difference had it not moved slightly.

Still, why is it sporting the same coloring as the red/pink hue saturating the cavern?

Not quite getting the answer from outside, Adam faulted himself as the problem, hence he took his time to distinguish the colors further.

However, no matter how he tried, it all remained the same.

Not done just yet, Adam unfolded the Petal of Function and called on his Essence to flood his body, from seemingly out of nowhere, before nudging some of it into his golden eyes, as his control over his Essence remained subpar, at best, without unfolding his Mind, or The Petal of Purpose.

Either way, the picture before his eyes still turned clearer as the different hues of red told him a story.

A story that made much more sense compared to before.

That being the case, Adam studied everything again, only to realize another mistake.

It’s the Monster that is radiating the pinkish hue into the surroundings. Adam understood. Mmm… That means the pure red is from the Dungeon Entrance.

Though… Why am I perceiving it like that?

Shaking his head at the mystery, Adam continued studying the pinkish Aura of the Monster. And a Monster it was. No doubt about it. Not only because it was big but also because its outline resembled the small rat/cat creatures.

Still, unlike the small ones, the Monster was less rat and more cat, just like the bear/cat was more cat than bear.

Undoubtedly, an ongoing theme. Adam voiced in his head, further reinforcing the idea of something influencing the design of the hybrids in the area. Best I ignore that for now.

Continuing his observation, not much was discovered, even after many minutes of staring.

With no other choice, Adamu frowned and scratched his face in thought of how to deal with the big problem before him.

There is too much red color saturation to see if it does possess a Pattern, but I should assume it does. That means the moment it figures the fight won't go its way, it will use it.

Ceasing there, Adamu tried imagining what it could be from everything he had been exposed to so far, only there was not much.

Still, there was enough for one conjecture.

All of the hybrids so far were using Fear, one way or the other.

What if the Fear determined the direction of the Pattern? Or at least a possible direction.

Mmm… If that is the case? Then it will either be a simple physical buff like the bear/cat. Or it will become a Summoning Command by taking into account the type of Fear the smaller hybrids attempted to flood me with.

Soo… Finish the Monster with one strike? Or kill it before the minions arrive?

Mmm… It is possible if I go all out from the start. But do I want to?... No… I need to get used to being a fighter without relying on the Bloodline to power through with force.

Determined to do just that, Adam pulled back his head before taking the backpack off his back.

It was made from the bear/cat Monster's hide, and while it was simple with no pockets on the side, it was big enough to carry some provisions just in case he got stuck down here for longer periods of time.

Once it was down, Adamu rethought his approach and refolded the Petal of Function before unfolding his Body, Essence, Aura, Mind, and Spirit in that order. If it needed a descriptive chant with the new formal names, then.. it would be something like this; Petal Combo - Form of Resolution - Through Function, Change, and Purpose!

The informal one had no name yet.

Regardless of the naming scheme, though, Adam was sure that this very Skill/Petal Combo represented the very first Skill/Petal Combo of his Methodology.

Why was Adam so sure?

Well… It had to do with Adam’s experiments and how he had organized the intricate gears of his Methodology. But… Most of all. It was because it was the rightful opposite of the last one, the 120th Skill/Petal Combo, as it dealt with the internalization or externalization of his Warrior Bloodline Manifestation.

Only Adam gladly stayed away from it until he had found the solution for all that bottled Potential. Though, this did not mean that he had not experimented at all, just that meant extreme care was given to the last Skill/Petal Combo.

Another reason why Adam figured it to be so relied on the fact that the first Skill/Petal Combo provided very little at first glance. The only obvious thing was the increased range of the spherical perception around Adam, from five to ten meters in radius, at the cost of losing Aural Vision from his eyes.

Still, even just that was meaningful because ten meters of ground perception provided ample space to avoid stumbling during combat provided one was used to that mode of perception in the first place, and Adam was because he had prepared for this dive by getting used to it.

Once it was up, Adamu slowly made the corner into the cavern and went inside.

With Sun Bearer in his right hand, Adam went inside the cavern step by step.

The Monster made no notion that it had discovered him, but then his sphere of perception touched a small ridge not too far from him, causing the Monster to shudder as if it was still asleep, yet desiring to wake up. Then, as the ridge edged in on his spherical perception, a pink color saturated the ridge, making Adam realize that it was not, in fact, a ridge in the cavern but a tail.

A tail that, by the looks of it, rivaled his improved spherical range in length.

The length aside, the more tail he covered with his sphere, the more the Monster shuddered when, all of a sudden, a head rose above the body before glancing back at Adam.

Taking a deep breath, Adamu loosened his posture.

“Hey there, big fella,” Adamu said. “Did I wake you from your nap? If so? Don't worry. I will be sending you to the eternal version soon enough.”

The only replay Adam received was a mix of a screech and a hiss.

SCRIIIISSSS