"Wait a minute... something changed." Seth muttered, realizing how clean and plain his sight had become.

Then it dawned on him — the transparent icons, the flashes of notifications, all of the things that always hung around the corners of his vision were gone!

Before he could panic, Adam picked up on his train of thought and explained.

"The hold of the origin is quite weak here, but don’t panic. Once you wake up, everything will be back to normal."

Seth turned his gaze back to Adam, wearing a worried frown. "My body and my friends are left undefended. If I waste time, I might not have much of a body to go back to. Can you help send my consciousness back or something?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Adam chuckled, waving his hands lightly. "You worry too much, my child. You’ve just cleared a corruption zone, making the land now a safe zone of origin. Corruption can’t encroach."

Seth visibly let out a sigh of relief, but he still didn’t dare lower his guard, keeping his distance from the naked man.

Adam’s gaze flashed with amusement before he spoke, holding out two fingers. "I brought you here for two reasons. Can you guess?"

Seth’s brows furrowed as he shrugged. "I was about to ask why I’m here. You spoke about an origin soul holder, so I would guess it has something to do with that?"

Adam smiled and nodded, then started walking away, beckoning to Seth. "Indeed. Follow me."

Warily staring at Adam’s silhouette moving further away through the lush, fragrant garden, Seth had no choice but to follow lest he lose sight of the man.

As they walked, Adam began to explain. "Since you were out of it due to your state after battle, you might not have seen it, but the origin gifted humanity a racial Lamp — all because of you, dear child."

Seth blinked, asking curiously, "Me? What did I do? And what is a racial Lamp?"

Adam’s smile deepened. "Well, it’s because you’re so impressive, of course. A newly awakened planet getting rid of a corruption zone barely one day in after connecting with the origin. Not to add the feat of slaying a Charm Beast along with it as a bonus."

Adam glanced back at Seth, a deep light of recognition flashing in his gaze. He added, "I have lived for a very long time. I have seen people do the impossible, but even I am impressed by you."

Seth’s cheeks reddened. For some reason, he felt a bud of pride and satisfaction bloom in his chest.

Like a child praised by his father, he couldn’t help but feel giddy. But as soon as the feeling came, he suppressed it.

’Why would a stranger invoke such an emotion?’

They continued on their journey silently. Seth assumed he was being taken to see the racial Lamp, but at this point he had a whole lot of questions.

Less about the racial Lamp and more about this guy Adam. The man had literally admitted to having an absurdly long lifespan.

After the origin and corruption madness on Earth, Seth could accept humans living for so long after evolving and ascending higher ranks. But before all this?

’That should be impossible, shouldn’t it?’

This Adam, no matter how Seth looked at him, had no transcendent air.

From his curly black hair to his olive-shaded tanned skin, and those inviting deep brown eyes — all these features made him seem too human.

His gait, the way he carried himself, heck, even the fact that he roamed around naked all came together, projecting the defining path of what it meant to be human.

That was when Seth froze in his tracks, his eyes widening as he connected the dots.

"Garden of Eden... Adam and Eve?" Couldn’t be right. He shook his head and continued to walk, unable to accept such a conjecture.

After all, the theory he just came up with seemed too impossible.

’I mean, even if the two of them were real, they should be dead... right?’

The first humans in existence, Adam and Eve. Seth stared deeply at Adam’s back, his curiosity mounting.

After a few seconds, he couldn’t help but blurt out the question gnawing at him. He needed to be sure. "Um, sir... do you by any chance have a spouse called Eve?"

Adam stopped — not because of the question, but likely because they had arrived at their destination.

A clearing absent of any other plants except two impossibly large ancient trees.

Their trunks were so wide Seth speculated it could take about a hundred people or more to circle the tree holding hands.

Not to add the height, which he estimated to be at least a staggering 70 feet, and their branches which bloated out the skies like vast canopies, glistening fruits of different colors hanging from them.

Instinctively, Seth muttered, "The tree of good and evil... and the tree of life and death."

Adam grinned. "You finally figured it out. And yes, I indeed do have a beautiful wife named Eve."

Those words were like an explosion in Seth’s mind, as his thoughts burst into a whirlwind of conjectures.

’If the tale about the first human man and woman was true, then what else was true?’

His memories reeled back to the point where Uriel once said...

"Apparently I’m Zeus’s descendant. I think there might be more to mythologies than we think."

And then there was his second gene lineage: "The Asura King."

If these legendary mythical figures were actually real, how many more existed? And why were they dismissed from human history?

Adam could practically see the curiosity oozing from Seth. He patted the boy’s shoulder as he chuckled. "Baby steps, baby steps. You’ll find out more all in due time. Let’s finish what we came here to do first."

They arrived before the massive roots of one of the trees. Sitting right beneath it on the soil was a small ancient bronze lamp that flickered with a sparkling crimson hue.

Adam stepped out of the way, his expression suddenly turning serious for the first time since Set

h met him. He spoke,

"Now, dear child, do humanity the favor of lighting the lamp."