Stepping into the apprentice realm had quietly removed one of the restrictions Adam had since awakening, he was no longer limited to dirty bronze conduits.
His core being could now bind to black iron–grade conduits without any drawback whatsoever.
These conduits were sturdier, cleaner, and far more reliable under pressure and luckily for him, Vanessa was in possession of one.
After going through her storage item, Adam found exactly what he needed.
A black iron–grade conduit.
Adam turned it over in his hand, feeling the denser essence pathways carved into its surface.
"It’s not a knife," he muttered, gripping it firmly, "but it’ll have to do."
He didn’t waste ti after that.
Using an armant restraint taken from Vanessa’s storage item, Adam secured her properly.
He made sure it was tight enough that she wouldn’t be able to move even if the Mind Geist regained full control and he positioned her far from the hole so she wouldn’t be dragged in or used as leverage; only when he was sure she was safe did he turn back to the hole.
That vile sensation intensified the closer he got, like fingers brushing against the inside of his skull. Adam slowed his breathing, centering himself as he reached the hole.
He planted his right foot at the edge and jumped.
The ground vanished beneath him, as darkness swallowed him whole.
He fell feet-first, air roaring past his ears as the shaft stretched far deeper than it ever should have. The updraft from his descent tugged at his hair and clothes, his senses screaming warnings even though there was nothing to see.
No walls.
No light.
Just depth.
Then...
THUD!
His boots hit solid ground, knees bending instinctively to absorb the impact. Before the darkness could reclaim him completely, a sharp hum sounded overhead.
And light blood.
A small, drone-like light he’d scavenged from the manager activated midair, hovering as it bathed the area in a pale white glow.
Adam straightened slowly.
What it revealed made his jaw tighten.
He had landed inside a vast, artificial, and wrong cavern. The walls weren’t natural stone but sothing grown rather than carved, warped with vein-like structures pulsing faintly as if the place itself were alive.
Cables and tal supports were half-embedded into the rock, suggesting that this wasn’t just a hiding place. It was a nest.
And sowhere in the depths of it, Adam could feel a presence watching him.
Adam let out a slow exhale, forcing the last trace of tension from his shoulders.
His eyes locked onto the only path cutting through the cavern.
Just a single passage leading deeper, as he stepped forward.
The mont he entered the path, his senses sharpened to a razor’s edge. Every breath was asured, every footstep placed with intent.
The walls on either side pulsed faintly as he passed, the vein-like structures brightening and dimming in a slow, nauseating rhythm, as if the cavern itself were aware of him.
Adam moved carefully at first.
Too carefully.
Minutes passed and there was no ambush, pressure spike or hostile intent slamming into his mind.
Trying to make lower my guard?
Gradually, he picked up the pace, slow walk to brisk stride, stride to jog. His steps echoed softly through the passage, his body loose but coiled, ready to react.
Then...
Sothing dropped from above.
Adam twisted instinctively, the attack missing his head by inches and crashing into the ground where he had been a heartbeat earlier.
BOOM!
He didn’t stop moving, as a second strike followed imdiately, aid at where he landed, but he was already gone.
He skidded to a halt, turning just in ti to see his attackers erge from the shadows.
Acolytes.
Mission hall uniforms torn and stained, eyes glazed, movents jerky and wrong. And behind the two who attacked first, more figures stepped forward, crawling out from alcoves and cracks Adam hadn’t noticed before.
He recognized every one of them.
That didn’t make it easier.
Adam’s jaw tightened.
"I’m sorry," he said flatly, "but I’m running out of ti and you’re all in my way."
They answered Adam’s predicant with wet, distorted hisses that scraped against his nerves. One of them even stepped forward, their posture stiff, mouth twisting unnaturally as he spoke.
"Go back, the master is giving you a chance to survive. Go further and you’ll—"
Adam’s fist slamd into his gut.
The air exploded out of the man’s lungs as his body folded, the impact launching him backward into the pulsing wall.
Boom!
"I told you," Adam said calmly, already moving, "I don’t have ti."
A blade flashed toward his head.
Adam leaned aside, the strike slicing through empty air. He spun on his heel and drove an uppercut straight into the attacker’s jaw.
Crack!
The acolyte crumpled instantly.
The rest rushed him.
They didn’t last long.
Adam moved through them like a storm, precisely efficient, restrained only by the fact that he wasn’t trying to kill them.
Each blow landed where it needed to, joints locking, bodies dropping, consciousness snuffed out without rcy or hesitation. Before ranking up, these acolytes would never have been dangerous.
Now?
They weren’t even a warm-up.
Adam stepped over the unconscious bodies, not sparing them another glance, and continued down the path.
More appeared as he went, acolytes dragged down into the hole, stripped of will, puppets dancing on the Mind Geist’s strings.
Each one fell the sa way.
Adam’s march never slowed as he pressed deeper into the cavern, his presence alone pushing back against the unseen pressure ahead.
After so ti, Adam finally stopped encountering acolytes. That alone told him everything he needed to know.
He slowed, then ca to a complete halt, activating [Connect] fully. His perception expanded inward and outward at once, brushing against minds, scraping across soul signatures, and there it was.
One twisted, dense presence.
His speculation was correct.
I’m close.
Adam stepped off the narrow path and into a wide, open chamber.
What greeted him could only be described with a single word.
Hideous.
The cavern opened up like a diseased organ, its walls no longer rely pulsing but breathing, contracting and expanding as if alive. Veins of sickly light ran through the stone, converging toward the center of the chamber where the source of everything stood.
The Mind Geist.
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