After making sure that there was no clear danger, Adam made the two gigantic hands remove all the debris and rocks that fell from him destroying the upper floor, before generating a strong wind to deal with the dust and dirt, and also to make the air below much more breathable.

He was excited and wanted nothing more than just going down there and exploring that place as much as he could, but he knew better than to do that, he still had to be careful.

Finally at ease, he made the half-spherical barrier that was around them hover down slowly towards the big empty hall.

While Adam was working, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Susan didn't seem to be doing that well, she was a bit pale and was doing her best trying not to look under them, he saw her trying to stabilize herself by holding into the side of the barrier, but then she looked at where her hand was and she became even paler. He guessed that the almost transparent barrier wasn't doing well for her while they were floating in the air.

They were going to get down soon, so he just decided to deal with that later as he scanned the hall under them with keen eyes.

The hall was empty, there was nothing in it, even after giving it a deep scan nothing new appeared, Adam was a bit disappointed at that, but he soon controlled himself, not letting it get into him, he turned his head and looked at the big door.

He frowned a bit, the door itself was under the protection of the same type of runic glyphs that covered the floor above, one made and improved especially for one single purpose, concealment.

But unlike the one above, this one was still somehow whole, even though he noticed after concentrating his senses on it that it too was getting cruder, at a barely noticeable rate.

What this one had in common with the one above though was that it was powered by a type of mana he was feeling for the first time, a type of mana that didn't belong to any of the known races,

'Could it be that it's really them,' his heart began beating fast.

With a barely contained smile and a fast-beating heart, he had the barrier enclosing them touch the ground fast as he almost made the gigantic hands rip the door from its hinges, but he managed to take a deep breath, close his eyes and hold it for a few seconds before releasing it again slowly.

That done, he took a better look at the door.

He had travelled through Tellor for many years, tracking down forgotten myths and legends discussed by different people from different races, but then and finally, it seemed as if he had found a clue that might put him on the right path, and he wasn't going to waste or destroy this chance because of his haste and his inability to control himself.

He calmly dispelled the barrier around him, living only Susan under its protection and had her wait in that place while he moved towards the door.

There were no carvings or decorations on the door, not even some noticeable runic glyphs, it seemed as normal as could be.

Studying the door for a while, Adam found himself in somehow of a dilemma, he was able to feel the runic glyphs there, but that was it, he could not see or affect them. Finally, he had to give up.

Runic glyphs were never his strongest point, he wasn't truly blank when it came to them, but the higher tiers of that discipline were way above his limits.

He could try to just destroy the door along with whatever runic glyphs were keeping it in place, but that also had the problem of the possibility of there being some countermeasures that would also destroy whatever was kept behind it, and he couldn't take his chances with that.

He tried touching the door itself, or the area around it, searching for some hidden mechanism, but he still found nothing.

Finally, after thinking about it for a while longer and after no small amount of hesitation, he turned to Susan as he said:

"Susan... Can you touch this door for a second?" He didn't let too much of the hesitation he was feeling deep down reach the surface.

"What door?" Asked Susan as she blinked a few times.

Adam frowned as he took a closer look at her, she genuinely seemed as if she had no idea what he was talking about, as if the door in front of him wasn't really there.

"You can't see it?.." He murmured to himself as he turned to the door, And as he did, it hit him.

After thinking about it, there was no reason at all for him to be surprised, the door was protected by runic glyphs with the sole purpose of concealing it, yes that effect was fading away, but he still shouldn't have expected a human to see through it.

Then again, Susan was too weird of a human to the point that he found it hard to think of her as one at all, so him forgetting that wasn't that unbelievable.

He shook his head to clear his mind of all those unimportant things and turned to her:

"Come here for a second."

After a split second of hesitation, Susan moved and stood in front of the door alongside him, she looked at what Adam guessed was a wall to her with eyebrows frowned in concentration, yet it seemed that she still saw nothing.

"Can you touch this wall please?" Requested Adam as his eyes seemed to glow in anticipation.

Susan looked at him in a mix of hesitation and confusion, and as their eyes met he saw that deep down, there was a clear sign of fear. She then took a deep breath, and before he had the chance to understand what she was afraid of, she reached out to the wall and touched it.

As soon as her hand touched the wall, Adam felt a few changes happening, the first one was the mana moving up Susan's arm, it wasn't the first time he felt that, as it was the same thing that happened when she touched the floor before or even before that.

"Click!"

And the second was him feeling the runic glyphs on the door disappearing, and with that, a click was heard as the door was pushed open for a sliver.

With that happening all his attention was pulled away from her and thrown at the door and what lay behind it.

"Wh... What just happened?" He was still drunk at his plan's success and what might be behind that door when the frightened and trembling voice of Susan sounded from next to him.

Looking at her in confusion, he noticed her holding the hand that touched the wall close to her chest, and how it seemed paler than the rest of her body.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

When his eyes fell on her, she took a few steps back and the colour drained from her face, and again he saw fear in her eyes.

Her eyes were wide, her face was pale and she was trembling a bit, seeing her like that, he froze and forgot his happiness for a second.

"I... I did that, didn't I? That..." She pointed at the door, "was because of me, wasn't it? I felt something going up my arm, was... Was there a problem with that? Was that why you made me do it? Why you made me touch it first?"

It was clear that Susan was afraid and that she was losing her cool as she shouted those words while taking shaky steps backwards and away from him.

Seeing her in that state, Adam knew that he messed up, and he knew that he had to fix it fast.

He totally forgot, or didn't even consider, what Susan might think if the door appeared in front of her suddenly, how she would react to that and how it would seem from her point of view, and the shell shocked expression she had told him how much she left her imagination roam.

"Calm down, nothing bad is going to happen to you, what you felt is normal, no need to worry about it," he said.

Looking at her expression, he knew that his words didn't work and she was still hesitant about trusting him.

He sighed and studied the different possibilities that he had, he wasn't going to lose much by telling her the truth, or at least what he thought the truth was, the only reason he hadn't done that till then was that he didn't see a need to and he himself didn't know what was wrong with her, he had a few clues and observations, but that was it, nothing too profound about it.

"Okay, I swear that I will tell you about all of this later, everything I've noticed and everything you need to know, but not now, we have to deal with this first, I promise you that nothing bad will happen to you," he tried with the most sincere voice he could muster.

Adam looked on as Susan tightened her hand into fists and looked at him right back with fear and hesitation, many thoughts seemed to pass through her mind and she seemed to be having a hard time making her choice, Adam tried his best to appear as honest as he was feeling, and it seemed that it somehow worked because after a while, she gave him a small nod, he decided to ignore how forced it felt for now.

"Good, don't worry, I really mean you no harm," Adam comforted her for one last time before bringing his attention back to the door.

The protective veil on it was already gone, so he only had to pull a bit and it would open up. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and made one of his gigantic hands pull the door open.

Grey, that's all that Adam saw inside, whatever was behind the door was covered by the grey fog that covered every single part of it.

It didn't take long for him to realise that it wasn't truly fog, but the same mana that he felt before, a type that he never met in his life before.

"It seems as if one of the primary attributes of this mana is concealment..." He murmured.

Adam manifested two shining spheres of milky white light and made them pass through the twisting grey mana.

Even though he was keeping a close eye on them, he still lost contact with them after they went past the door for a bit, he couldn't even feel them through his connection to them as their caster, as if they have disappeared entirely.

He kind of expected that, but he still felt a tinge of annoyance at it, he knew that he met another problem and he wasn't sure how to move forward from there, of course, if he wanted to throw everything to the wind, he would be able to destroy whatever was emitting this effect, but what's the point of that? What he needed was new information and clues, using violence might lead to the distraction of important leads by mistake.

Yet, even with that, entering a place like that grey mana filled space in front of him with no plans or any preparations was a stupid idea, who knew what might happen to him inside that weird mana. So he had to think of a solution.

His biggest problem then was how it was his first face-off with that weird mana, and how should he deal with it and what should he expect.

After a lot of thinking and experimentation, among of which was using different types of scrying spells to try and see what was inside -he got nothing out of it- and throwing small animals and creatures to it -they never reappeared, and he couldn't even hear them after a certain point- he had to admit that he was only left with one last thing he could think of -except destroying the whole place of course- one that sprung to him the moment he knew what the grey fog was.

He turned his head and looked at Susan with an awkward and embarrassed smile.

It seemed as if Susan's heart stopped for a moment when she saw him look at her with that expression and her breath got caught in her throat as her face paled even further.

"Don't worry, don't worry, I won't ask of you to go inside," Adam explained hurriedly when he saw the clear changes in her expression.

She appeared to relax at that. Adam had noticed how her expression turned from bad to worst with each animal he threw inside that endlessly twisting fog.

"So... So what do you want?" She asked.

It was clear from the way he looked at her that he had a plan for her.

"Come and stand here beside me," he said.

Taking her place next to him, after not a short while of contemplating, he continued with some hesitation:

"All you need to do is reach your hand through the door to touch the fog."

Even though whatever Adam threw inside only disappeared entirely after crossing a certain distance away from the door, the grey mana filled the whole space behind it, it just couldn't pass through it, as if there was some kind of invisible barrier there.

"Don't worry, here look," Seeing that she was still hesitating, Adam reached out his arm through the door and touched the grey mana, he kept it there for a while and nothing happened at all, "see? Don't worry nothing will happen to you, and even if something does happen, I'll be right next to you, I'll make sure that no harm shall befall you,"

Those words and the demonstration seemed to calm her down a bit, and after taking a few deep breaths, she pushed her hand in.