When first seeing the gold light in his hand, Adam knew it was meant to be used on something but was flabbergasted that it could duplicate items. Not just physical ones but also felt he could duplicate anything he really wanted.
“What an amazing ability!”
The first thing he thought of was that food and water are no longer an issue.
“But where am I supposed to get them?”
Looking around he could not see any water or food to eat.
“Hmm?”
He noticed one of the shadows picking a dark black fruit out of one of the dark trees and putting it in its belly.
Next, the creature continued going in some random direction.
Seeing this scene, Adam guessed that this was how the creatures “eat” and started looking at the trees near him to find any of those black fruits, but they were rare to find.
Out of the dozen or so trees near him, only one had the fruit. In fact, if he gathered all the fruits from the trees he can see, the amount of these fruits could be counted on one hand.
When looking around, there are not any shadows he can see currently, so he could sprint to go grab one and get one of the thick sticks laying around. Plus, his confidence increased since he got so many answers from Mike and after learning about the lady that traveled through the fog.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the purification dome, he is met with a biting cold and a sense of danger.
He quickly looks around to see if there are any of the shadows around but sees nothing. He checks back to see the innate orb and is comforted to see the orb inside the purification dome. He was perplexed on why he felt that there is danger, almost like the feeling was born unnaturally.
But waiting for a bit, he sees nothing wrong and started sprinting towards the items he wanted to get. He is able to quickly reach the location of the black fruit and picks it with no trouble.
But, in the corner of his eye, he can see a shadow walking in his direction. Startled, he begins to run towards the stick, thinking that he has enough time to grab it and then decide whether to fight or flee into the dome.
Running as fast as he could, he took hold of the stick and immediately looked back to see the location of the shadow, only to find that the creature is still far away.
“*pant* They’re so slow.”
Adam saw how slow the creatures moved during his time in the purification dome, it's just that confirming that their speed does not change when he leaves the dome is a pleasant affirmation.
While panting, he still was not sure if he should try to fight the creature or go back into the dome, since he will eventually have to fight them.
But remembering what Mike told him about the fog weakening in a few hours, he decided that there is no need to take any extra risk and went back into the dome.
Entering back into the purification dome, he feels as though he is washed with a wave of comfort.
“Ah, so comf-”
*sizzle*
However, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of sizzling, he quickly looks back to see if the creature was trying to get into the purification dome and causing the sizzling sound, only to see it still far away.
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He looks down only to see that the stick and the fruit were giving off a light smoke and making the sizzling sound.
He lets go of them instinctively.
While monitoring them, he sees the fruit slowly shrink from the size of an apple to the size of an egg. The stick did not shrink so much but its color is not so dark anymore.
The fruit changed from a black dark color to a red and green one. Smelling it, Adam’s mouth started to water, he hasn’t eaten since he woke up and doesn’t know how long he slept for. He wanted to satiate his hunger immediately, but his rationality held him back.
First, he’s not sure this is edible and what those creatures eat is not indicative of whether it is edible for humans or not.
Second, he can duplicate it so he can have as many as he can later.
Whether it’s edible or not, he can duplicate it and find out later.
Adam duplicated the fruit multiple times, but quickly found limitations and rules to his ability.
One, he can duplicate multiple items at a time.
Two, the gold light that envelops an item can’t expand too far otherwise a headache would set in, which limits the size and number of items being duplicated.
Three, duplication causes both physical and mental exhaustion, so he can’t unlimitedly duplicate items.
Four, the item being duplicated, and the amount of the item influences the cost of the duplication, for example, the pebble he duplicated cost less energy than copying a single fruit.
“Phew...”
Adam sat down exhausted looking at the 10 new red-green fruits on his lap. He started to doubt the usefulness of his ability. If he only can duplicate this much then he’s not sure he can even feed himself with this ability, he’s still unsure how the ability’s exhaustion affects his health.
Shaking his head, he touched the light orb to go back into the orb space.
Looking around in the space he can see mike’s orb, he can tell that it’s a bit dimmer than before, which means that the owner of the orb is not in the space. He wondered if there was a way to cut the orb off from this space but didn’t know-how. Looking around, he noticed one of his neighbors seems to be in the space.
“Hey!” Adam called out.
“Hello? Can you help me? There are creepy things here, I don’t know what to do. There are others that told me that they had no idea what to do, either.”
Adam began to explain what mike told him; the person is named Sarah. When Adam started to explain the location of the mysterious lady, he found that the lady’s neighbors have all disappeared, instead there all their orbs were clustered in one spot which is supposed to be the lady’s location.
“That’s awesome, but I’m scared to go alone.”
“It’s not like we have much choice, if we stayed where we are we’ll eventually die of hunger”
Adam thought about his ability but was unsure if he can feed himself with it, it's not like he can stop the fruits from rotting.
“Actually, I don’t mind staying in my spot if that’s the case.” Sarah surprised Adam with her response.
“My purification dome has a tree filled with fruits. It can last me for a while.”
“What?! Are those fruits red and green? Did you try one out? Are you okay?”
Adam asked in quick succession.
“Yeah, some are greener than others but from the few I ate, they are really good and once you eat it I feel I’m full of energy. I don’t really feel thirsty after eating. It’s weird though, I can see that the fruits are growing back quickly, some of the picked locations have already grown back to about a pea-size. Do you also have a tree?”
Hearing this Adam was delighted with this news.
“No, I don’t but I got a black fruit from one of the dark trees. Once it entered my purification dome, it started to sizzle and turn into a green-red fruit with a size smaller than an egg.”
“Oh, the one on my tree is about the size of an apple. They are super juicy and eating two or three would satisfy my hunger.”
“If they are the same type of fruit, then getting them from the forest is worse than growing them yourself.” Adam shared his thoughts.
“Maybe.”
Adam left the innate orb space so he can finally feed his hungry self. But not before telling Sarah to start preparing, though she’s still not sure whether she will still go.
Adam looked at one of the fruits he duplicated and started to eat it, it was a bit dry, but he did feel a lot more energetic the moment he ate it.
“it’s not bad!”
He loved its taste but did not stop eating and continued. In the end, he finished about 9 before deciding to stop.
He still felt hungry and a bit thirsty but decided to leave one in order to duplicate it later.
He felt a bit disappointed with the fruits, he had his expectations high from what Sarah described.
But he still got the seeds, he was wondering if he could get a few trees to start getting a few of these fruits.
“I guess this should be called a plum fruit since it shares so many similarities.”
“Well, whatever, all these things will be dealt with later, since I’m planning to move towards the gathering spot there is no point to plant the seeds here.”
Thinking of this, he went into the orb space to inform others and wait until it’s time to move.