Another two weeks pass by.

*bang*

Adam dropped a boulder he was exercising with.

“phew”

He sat on the floor for a bit to recover his stamina.

‘It has been nearly a month since we got here,’ Adam thought while resting his body.

A lot has happened since Fabian has left the camp.

For one, all people that were still scattered all over the island ended up joining the camp.

The reason for this is that Fabian, who Noelani calls the “Dark Spawn” now, has led a small team of skilled shadows all over the island.

There were a few deaths that occurred from it.

Now, because of the increased danger, there has become a single hunting team that is allowed to leave the camp.

That team is the only one strong enough to fight Fabian and his skilled shadows, it is also the only team with skill orbs.

It’s Noelani’s team of course.

From what Adam heard, during the first two weeks when Noelani and her team tried exploring the dungeon, there was a big problem that kept troubling them and hindering the gathering of skill orbs.

It was the skilled shadows, but not any skilled shadows, normal skilled shadows could be dealt with without any issue. It was the corruption shadows with skills of the “dark” type which caused the biggest problem.

Normally skilled shadows would have their skill augmented by their body parts, but the dark skill types would not only have their skill augmented by their body, but also the dense dark miasma covering all over the dungeon.

This made these creatures many times more dangerous than any other skilled shadow.

But because Fabian was leading skilled shadows out of the dungeon, dark type or otherwise, it has made the rate of skill orb gathering much faster.

Especially since Noelani leads her team well and only goes out during the morning, when the corruption shadows and Fabian are weakened, there have not been any casualties so far.

Some have even said that it’s a good thing that Fabian had become a dark spawn.

However, it is said that the number of dark type shadows had become the dominant skill type of the skilled shadows.

Or so Adam heard.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nonetheless, Noelani has got a lot of skill orbs, but as could be expected, none were shared with Adam and his disbanded team.

Noelani did expand her team by bringing all the good hunters in the camp into her team, and even with the added team members, all were equipped with skill orbs to fight with Fabian and the corruption shadows.

*knock* *knock*

“We’re having a meeting soon!” Adam heard someone announcing.

“Alright!” Adam answered.

The person quickly left to other homes and inform them.

Adam got up and went to his fireplace, the fire is almost extinguished.

He stretched his hand and the earth started to move.

Surprisingly, under the fireplace, there was a passage.

Adam was able to dig this using the skill orb he got two weeks ago.

That is correct, when Fabian was trying to forcibly take the skill orb, Adam placed it in his body and was able to duplicate it then.

He gave one of the copies to Fabian and kept the other.

The skill condenses sand and rocks to make them into denser boulders. It’s why the entrance that Fabian found was surrounded by large boulders, it was the skilled shadow that moved the earth out of the tunnel and created those boulders.

If you use the skill carefully, you can move boulders and sand, though not accurately, which could be how that creature moved those giant boulders.

Adam jumped down and saw a few things, there are a number of mana stones, an inactive orb, and stone crusts.

Adam recovered his spare innate orb and had placed it here.

Adam looked at his accumulated “wealth” and couldn’t help but feel proud.

Unfortunately, though, he was planning on leaving the camp earlier this week but decided against it because of the new danger brought by the dark spawn.

Looking at his innate orb, which could be easily fully charged, Adam has been struggling over whether to activate it and transform his newly found skill into a facility but has chosen against it for the past two weeks.

That’s because it would be troublesome to keep up with the energy consumption. If he were to get his stash outside of the camp, then he should have more than enough energy to complete the transformation.

But, Adam and his previous teammates were only allowed to do gatherer tasks inside the camp, since none of them were able to join the hunting team, so he was not allowed to leave the camp.

Another reason is if the stone parts were to connect with the orb, then it would be harder to move than otherwise.

Adam went to the small pile of stones and began to copy; he was able to produce 4 new stones. His mana has improved in capacity again but not at the same rate in the first two weeks.

He went out and put everything back to how it was, next he left his home to the meeting area.

***

“I have gathered you all for something important I think you should all know.” Adam reached the meeting and listened to Noelani give a speech.

“Every end of the month, there will be a test!” Noelani announced.

Everyone who heard what she said was surprised, but no one interrupted her, it speaks to the amount of prestige and power she has established over the past month.

“Perhaps it's not to think of it as a test, but a tribulation that all humans must face,” Noelani explained

“The tribulation is usually a besiegement of a powerful corruption shadow. These corruption shadows are stronger than any other shadows we had faced, they are of a higher level.”

Noelani saw the worried and confused look on everyone’s faces.

“So far, all the shadows we have killed are of level 1, the same level our orbs and facilities are at. However, the tribulation will cause creatures level 1, 2, and even 3 to appear if we are unlucky.”

“Can we beat kill a level 3 corruption shadow?” Someone in the crowd couldn’t help but ask.

“There is no need to worry, even if we can’t kill it, we can keep it from entering the camp thanks to the walls we have built and reinforced,” Noelani answered

Everyone seemed to calm down because of Noelani’s answer.

“But…” Noelani’s face turned more serious.

“After this tribulation and each subsequent tribulation, the level of the shadows that are produced daily will be increased. This means that after this tribulation, there can be level 2 or 3 shadows that could be spawned from now on.”