Being certain the giant rat/cat Monster would not stand up and try to kill him, Adam relaxed somewhat, but not enough to not pay attention to his surroundings.
Luckily, only one entrance existed into the cavern, so being alert was quite easy. As such, Adam waited, just standing there with Sun Bearer in both hands, providing additional support while his body flushed out the adrenaline fueling his combat state.
Only after the majority of the combat haze subsided had Adam possessed the free mental capacity to process the longstanding queue of things he'd noticed during the fight.
Even then, it was only after he ignored the stings of his injuries.
The first was that the Monster had not, in fact, called on any of its spawns. But as Adam now suspected, neither could it have because its Pattern Ability was to enhance itself, only this one focused heavily on its tail, which, as Adam now processed and felt even closer, was quite a powerful thing.
Unfortunately for the Monster, a Sword of Light Spell was designed to cut things not meant to be cut, and augmented scaled rat tails were not even close to that category.
That being the case, Adam was fairly certain that no new enemy should appear for quite some time unless, of course, one suddenly spawned from the center of the reddish hue saturating the cavern.
Ignoring that fact, Adam focused on the more beneficial facts, such as the unexpected automatic behavior of his spherical perception shrinking when he sensed being in mortal danger. However, it was not the fact that it had done so automatically that surprised him, but the fact that it had defended him somehow, thus mitigating a certain amount of Force forced on him through the whip-like blows of the rat tail.
Glancing one last time around himself, Adam tried shrinking and expanding the spherical perception around his body.
Doing it multiple times, Adam looked for what he suspected would be the phenomenon known as condensing. And he was right. It was there when Adam started searching for it. Pondering on it for a moment, he consulted the improved Methodology he sort of created and sort of improved, only he could not remember how exactly.
Either way, after the fight, Adam easily found and correlated the hints within the mental version of his Methodology.
“Ahh… Should have seen that one sooner.” Adam voiced out, almost in admonishment of his own mistakes, but then he remembered that he'd been very busy with other facets of the Methodology as well, so he forgave himself the hick-up.
One forgiveness later, Adam focused on a small but loose stone beside him in his spherical perception.
Then he focused and tried to lift it with just his spherical perception. Not quite seeing the immediate result he envisioned, Adam frowned when a possibility reached him. Quickly shrinking the said spherical perception down to its usual five-meter radius around him, Adam focused again on the tiny stone and instantly noticed a difference.
“Makes sense.” Adam noted. “Can't do much if it’s completely stretched out.”
With the immediate problem figured out, Adam focused and tried again, only for the stone to do nothing.
Frowning once again, Adam tried a few different methods before finally finding the one working solution.
As it turned out, the true method of stone levitation was to envelop the little stone with his spherical perception by separating and yet not disconnecting that small separated part of his spherical perception from the source. After that, however, it was all about the proper application of thoughts mixed with the Force Aspect provided by the Skill/Petal Combo.
Thankfully, that part was easily accomplished with Adamu’s memories of a Force Aspected Spell called Mystic Hand.
Floating and moving the stone around him from various angles, Adam soon grew bored of it despite the ability to manipulate the world around him with Profound Powers.
Still, having been pointed to a glaring little mistake he'd overlooked, Adam quickly experimented on the distinctions allowing him to fake a Mystic Hand Spell by constantly folding and refolding his existence and studying the sensations they delivered.
The greatest amount of Adam’s attention centered on the unfolding and refolding process of the individual Petals by comparing it to what occurred when a complete Skill/Petal Combo occurred.
Unfortunately, for Adam, right now only two Skills/Petal Combos could provide him with the necessary information, and one of those dealt with his Warrior Bloodline Manifestation. The other one hundred and eighteen Skills/Petal Combos? Well, they provided something alright, but the delivered sensations paled compared to the first one now that he knew what to look for.
In the end, after enough unfolding and refolding, Adam figured out the general consensus of where things lay for his Methodology.
Closing and opening his eyes, Adam focused his Mind because what he was about to do would influence him forever.
However, before he did, Adam unfolded his Spirit, his Petal of Resolution inside himself. When he did, an ethereal space of nothingness manifested in his awareness as Adam found himself within his Mindscape.
Centering his thoughts such that there was no leakage or unconscious echoes from his Mind, Adam projected a line of thoughts into it.
I, Adam, First of Men, proclaim that the informal nomenclature for The Petal of Resolution is to be designated as The Grandmastery of the Shroud.
As such, since there are four Masteries per one Grandmastery, I, Adam, First of Men, proclaim that The First Mastery of the Shroud is to be designated as The Coating Mastery.
As such, Skills One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six detail the initial parameters and limits of the Shroud Coating process.
Almost instantly, the proclamation echoed within the Mindscape as Adam’s words dug deeper and deeper into his Mind. When they did, it was not just his conscious use of the terminology that would change, but his subconscious and unconscious, as well. More importantly, since his as-of-yet-unnamed Methodology was rooted in his mind, just like every other every part of his existence, the proclamation would affect the whole Methodology.
Adam did not even have to wait for long when the first changes occurred.
They were small, of course, as he had not done anything major. But from this point on, his spherical perception would become his Shroud, and since his Shroud was technically his Spirit, it meant Adam was the Shroud and the Shroud was Adam.
At least, in theory, that is.
After naming the first Grandmastery and Mastery, Adam returned to base reality outside his body before pushing his Spirit, his Shroud, outside the body, to its default spherical range of five meters in radius.
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Almost instantly, Adam noticed the difference between before and after the naming, as the Shroud around him felt slightly more tangible, slightly more dense in its composition.
Sensing it, Adam smirked for a second before quickly refolding and unfolding himself to utilize the Skill/Petal Combo number one.
That done, his Spirit, his Shroud, instantly amplified the tangibility and density of its natural properties by piggybacking on the innate Force Aspect present within a physical form, aka his Body.
Basically, physical nature attains a spiritual quality.
Blinking for a moment, Adam suddenly achieved an epiphany regarding the last Skill/Petal Combo and the untapped potential bottled within him. Luckily, Adam was quick enough to clamp on said epiphany such that no ripples of his realization manifested inside him, thus preventing his eager subconscious self from unconsciously tapping into that Well of Potential.
Having named the first Grandmastery and Mastery, Adam played with his Shroud, for a moment, by picking up a random small stone and applying the Force Aspect within the first Skill/Petal Combo.
Though, in the end, after noticing the improvement thanks to his actions, Adam sidelined the newest discovery and refolded his existence back to baseline human to focus on the other pressing matter, namely finally figuring out the circumstances of the reddish hue dying every bit of the cavern he found himself in.
Of course, that was only after another glance around the cavern to make sure no hidden entities had avoided Adam’s attention while he had been somewhat occupied with his Methodology. Then, all of a sudden, his body suddenly ceased moving after Adam’s golden eyes settled on one side of the cavern. Blinking a few times, Adam tried to deny the fact, but he could not do so because what his golden eyes stared at was nothing.
“Noo… I got distracted and forgot to deploy the Eternal Light.” Adam said, his voice tinged with regret as there would be no reward for his very first Monster slaying. “Wait… I don't remember gaining any kill reward, either. Did I miss it somehow? Or was there no reward at all?”
Stuck with no answer, Adam moved on, though he would not forget about the mystery.
“Thankfully, there were at least some benefits to be attained from the fight.” Nodding and shaking his head at the situation, Adam sidelined the missing hybrid Monster and instead focused his golden eyes on the anomaly in the cavern.
Before he explored it, however, Adam focused on Sun Bearer, specifically, on the Eternal Light embedded inside the pitch-black ring on Sun Bearer’s spearhead.
Willing it, the Eternal Light separated from its resting place and levitated high into the air, close to the stone ceiling. There, he simply desired it to glow up and fill the cavern with True Light, thus revealing everything it shined on, even the origin of the anomaly.
It was large, almost comparable to his current teenage-sized body.
It was spherical, but that did not surprise Adam, not with Adamu’s memories detailing a few facts about Dungeons and the theories about them. However, what stumped Adam was the fact that it was invisible to the naked eye. As such, the only reason Adam even realized it was spherical at all had to do with the red hue surrounding its round body visible only through his Aural Sight.
Stepping closer, yet not touching it Adam pondered as he examined the Dungeon Portal, if it was a Dungeon Portal in the first place, as it lacked the familiar blue glow present in Adamu’s memories. A blue glow where the density of the color determined the amount of Mana present within the Dungeon because a Dungeon could only spawn within Mana Zones, and since most such Mana Zones were underground, that was where they spawned first before eventually creating pathways to leading to the outside to lure in prey and devour their Spirits to fuel their own growth and the growth of everything they spawned when said prey died within the Dungeon.
“Mmm… The red hue could be attributed to different Realm Rules, I guess?” Adam posited briefly before a reminder of his knowledge sowed his doubts. “Then again, Dungeons have stayed remarkably consistent with their inner workings throughout the Realms… On the other hand, normal Realms don't have a corrupted Realm Grid either.”
Ignoring the differences, for the moment, Adam quickly recalled what he knew of Dungeons.
“According to Adamu’s knowledge and that of the First of Men. In the early ages, Dungeons were first introduced by the Divine to curb the rampant overflow of Mana occurring as a consequence of Rapid Realm Growth Spurts.” Adam uttered out as he observed the possible Dungeon before him. “Hence, the reason why all natural-born Dungeons only ever appear within Mana Zones.”
“Thanks to the enormous amounts of free energy fueling their birth and growth, they are often referred to as Realms within Realms because of the Pocket Dimensions present within the Dungeons.”
“Sigh… If only I could use Magic. A Mystic Eye would do wonders right now.” Adam said before eagerly adding his hope for the future. “It's fine, though. I will find a way to use it again.”
“Now let me test this thing, though not before grabbing my backpack.” Adam cautiously determined before walking toward the cavern entrance to grab said backpack.
“Don't want to be thrown inside by happenstance without supplies.”
Once it was within his grasp and back on his back, Adam returned to the center of the cavern.
Recalling and slotting the Eternal Light back to Sun Bearer, Adam slowly inched his right hand toward the reddish-colored spherical portal entrance.
Nonetheless, as much as Adam wished something to happen, he was glad when nothing did, and his hand simply passed through said Portal, similar to the Monster and the Radiant Bolts he fired on said Monster.
“Alright, let's try it again.” This time, Adam unfolded the Petal of Function to flood his body with Essence. “Oh… There was some slight resistance. Alright, Essence is part of the key.”
Determining that, Adam unfolded the Petal of Change, causing his Aura to become active and malleable, though still trapped within his body. Still, that did not matter when an outside source bathed Adam with its own signature.
Taking a second to make sense of it, Adam suddenly realized that he had felt it before every time his Shroud got deployed. Only it was so faint it did not exactly trigger his attention. Similar to background noise, Auraly speaking. Though, now that he was but a hand's breadth away from it, he was able to truly take in the sensations delivered by the possible spherical Portal.
Nodding at their existence, Adam tried touching it again, and though he expected it, confirming its actual surface with his fingers felt somehow special, as if there was more to it than initially anticipated.
A moment later, his whole right palm was on the spherical portal.
“Mmm… Let me try mimicking the Magical approach.” Adam declared before focusing on transferring the malleable Aura trapped within his body into the portal.
Unfortunately, regardless of his attempt and despite becoming malleable, Adam’s Aura refused to budge. He had noted it before but chucked it on having no receptacle nearby to test as Sun Bearer did not count due to their linked nature, thanks to the Spirit Bind between them.
With no other choice, Adam opened the third Petal of Existence, the Petal of Purpose representing his Mind and the Basic Principle of Domination in Magic.
The instant that part of his existence unfolded, the input of information related to his Aura and everything it sensed increased by magnitudes. At the same time, a control factor was added to his Aura, allowing Adam to manipulate his Aura as if it were his plaything.
At least, that was the sensation he gained. In practice, however, it was far harder to accomplish the preconception since Adam’s Aura desired to remain in its natural state. Luckily, Adam knew that that too, could and would be remedied by unfolding his Shroud to lubricate the process, but before he did, an experiment without it was his goal.
Thus, when Adam managed to mold and conduct his Aura into the possible spherical portal, he was giddy at the response sent his way. Nonetheless, while a response was appreciated, what it told was not even close to being expected.
Access Denied
Naturally, the denial came not in words but through shared sensations and mental nudges.
However, it being a denial, in the first place, only cemented the unexpected because natural Dungeons welcomed all that entered it.
“Is this an artificial one?” Adam wondered before repeating the same action multiple times to receive the same reply. “Behaves like an artificial one, at least. Still, if it can deny, it can be penetrated by either force of guile.”
“Doubt I can force it as I am now. Guile it is.”
The guile part centered on the fact that the spherical Portal in question spewed out red hues seen through Aural Sight. Only before the attempt was made, Adam needed to figure out exactly which Skill/Petal Combo would allow him the attempt.
Searching through his memory of the recently organized Skills/Petal Combos within the Methodology, Adam focused on the possible theoretical answer.
Number 67