The Oracle Paths

'It's our chance!' Svara whispered telepathically. "Let's move the fuck out of here while they're busy killing each other."

"What about Maeve?" Kyle retorted anxiously.

"He's right, we can't abandon her or it would mean we took all that risk for nothing." Jake agreed with the playboy. "Let's not lose sight of our goal."

"And what is that goal?" A few refugees asked in the faction's shared chat?

Jake hesitated for a moment, but felt they had a right to know why they couldn't just roll out of here. Will nodded unassumingly in agreement, suggesting that he shared the same view of the matter.

"Originally we came to rescue Kyle's sister and no one else. She is one of the female slaves of Bhuzkoc. Your rescue and recruitment is just a mere coincidence brought about by the circumstances."

Some of the refugees cringed when they heard that the lives of all of them mattered less than the life of a single slave, but most were relieved to learn that their leaders were willing to take such risks to save just one person. It showed that they were not completely insensitive and that it was not impossible to develop a relationship built on trust with them.

Also, most of these refugees knew or had known someone who had become a slave to this tyrannical Nawai leader and they had a pretty vivid idea of the miserable fate that awaited them. Some of these refugees had even visited the Red District to spend their scarce Aether points and were more than familiar with the daily lives of these young women.

When you were the consumer and already had a crappy life, you had neither the drive nor the will to feel compassion. It was an emotion that weakened them, making them more touchy and flowery than their hard days allowed.

Now that they had gained power and control over their destiny, these refugees had no intention of standing idly by in the face of injustice.

Sure, not all of these refugees were angels, and a fair number of them may have had some ego-driven, tyrannical ambitions of their own, but as long as they strictly obeyed orders, Jake didn't care who they really were on the inside.

"Then let's save her." The old knight Ingranus declared coolly. " I haven't been able to stomach that Nawai person for a very long time. "

"I'm in." Kelly chipped in with determination. As a fellow woman, she could not tolerate such practices.

One by one the refugees showed their support and Jake memorized the expression and body language of each of them as a precaution. He nodded approvingly on the surface, but was already beginning to identify potential future traitors. It was the kind of paranoid, cagey person he was.

"Are we attacking now?" Nicolet and Diccon eagerly asked at the same time.

Along with Takoyaki, this trio was the one that had changed the most after getting a taste for combat. They were always the first to volunteer for a good brawl and their performance during the last days was promising. They had an honest and hyperactive character, but were not the type to plot against others. If Jake had to assign them an alignment, he would have labeled them Chaotic Good.

"No." Kyle answered decisively although this act of maturity was costing him greatly judging by his fists quivering with anger. "If it was only Bhuzkoc, I'm confident with our progress over the past few days, but it will depend on the attitude of that Black Orc that accompanies him. If he decides to intervene, we're dead."

Jake whistled his admiration for the Playboy's lucidity and composure. The last few days had been traumatic for him, but the self-control he'd gained from them would serve him well for all future Ordeals.

Kyle bit his lip in frustration as he stoically endured his comrade's whistling, but he somehow managed to resist the urge to punch him in the face to shut his foul mouth.

There was one thing, nonetheless, that Jake agreed with him on. Their progress over the past few days had greatly bridged the gap between their stats and those of the Fourth-Ordeal Evolvers making up Bhuzkoc's core army.

The refugees had no Bloodlines and their Aether stats were capped at 100 points. Without the Myrtharian Body passive, their Body stats would also be limited by their human anatomical constraints and they would have found it extremely difficult to exceed the 30-40 point threshold.

Even so, they didn't have all the auxilliary Bloodlines Skills that Jake and his companions had and there was no way they could match their advancement speed.

Will was the one who seemed to stagnate at first glance, but he was a Summoner. His dragon Charizard had never stopped growing. Most of the creatures were granted the same passive Aether Skill by the Oracle, which allowed them to grow unnaturally fast as long as they devoured and eliminated enough prey.

Like Crunch and the others, the baby dragon was no longer cute at all and his presence was already showing on the battlefield.

Regarding Svara, her Grade 6 Valkyrie Bloodline was well into level 2 and unfortunately did not have any Bloodline Skills promoting Aether and Body stats. However, her Body Stats of Strength, Agility, Constitution and Vitality were permanently magnified by a factor of 12 thanks to her Valkyrie Body and she cultivated a special energy allowing her to summon her Shadow Wolves and Ravens.

The Valkyries were in Nordic legends reputed to escort the souls of dead heroes and warriors to Valhalla, and the energy she cultivated was therefore logically of a spiritual nature. In addition to being able to save and guide the souls of the deceased who had died only a few minutes before, she could also absorb them to feed her own Bloodline and special Soul Energy.

After the last few days of fighting Digestors, she had collected many souls and her Spirit Body level had increased significantly, which indirectly affected her cognitive abilities and the power of her Bloodline Spells.

Last but not least, Jake and Kyle both possessed the Accelerated Growth and Aether Self-Encoding skills from the Myrmidian Bloodline. While Kyle's skills were markedly inferior to Jake's, it was still a Grade 7 Bloodline. He had obtained these skills after the last Ordeal by supplementing his Myrmidian Bloodline with a better blood sample.

However, in Jake's case it went even further than that. With his upgraded Aether and Soul Tribute, he could now absorb a fraction of the Aether and Soul of his victims regardless of their dangerousness.

In the last few days, the number of low-rank Digestors he had slaughtered was just unspeakable. In addition to the millions of Aether points that had come to supplement his Oracle Device, his Aether, Body and Soul Stats had also made a huge jump.

On top of that, his body's fondness for radiation, earth and heat, combined with the frequent use of his Accelerated Healing Skill, his Heat, Radiation and Earth Magic as well as his Aether Sun Core, ensured that his Body Stats would never lag behind either.

Between battles and whenever they set up camp, Jake would subject himself to the hellish temperatures of his Aether Sun Core, stimulating his cells to their utmost limits. This body and mind tempering had to be kept in check so he could be ready to fight at any time, but it was by no means a relaxing time.

Kyle and the others could see his great strength and fast progress, but they didn't appreciate how hard he was working to achieve these results. While getting that Myrtharian Bloodline had a certain amount of luck to it for which he thanked Lucia and Gerulf every night, the results that came afterwards he owed solely to his own efforts and no one else.

Checking his Oracle Status, Jake grinned with satisfaction as he contemplated his new stats.

[AETHER STATUS:]

[Strength(S): 1076.3 points] (1000>1076.3)

[ Agility(A): 1038.1 points](1000>1038.1)

[ Constitution(C): 1018.3 points] (1000>1018.3)

[ Vitality(V): 966.1 points] (618.7>966.1)

[ Intelligence(I): 801.4 points] (654.1>801.4)

[ Perception(P): 759.8 points] (715.5>759.8)

[ Extrasensory Perception(EP): 943.7 points] (768.3>943.7)

[Luck Aether(L): 1000 points]

[ Aether Core: 406 points ] (312>406 pts)

[BODY STATUS:]

[ Physique: Silver Myrtharian Body lvl3 ]

[ Height: 2.74 meters ] (2.71>2.74m)]

[ Weight: 769kg (742>769kg)]

[ Strength: 263 points (248>263)]

[ Agility: 136 points (125>136)]

[ Constitution: 301.2 points (267.4>301.2)]

[ Vitality: 276.4 points (256.1>276.4)]

[ Intelligence: 188.7 points] (179.8>188.7)]

[ Perception: 181 points] (174.6>181)]

[Aether Soul Core : Lvl 5: Can contain up to 5M Aether points. Amplifies mental attacks, Intelligence, and Extrasensory Perception by 50% when the Soul and Spirit Body are merged with it. In addition to protecting the Soul, it can be considered a proto Soul Artifact. As it evolves and becomes imbued with the thoughts of its host, it will develop its own abilities].

[SOUL STATUS: Myrtharian Soul lvl 3(Intermediate Heat, Earth, Radiation and Metal attributes), 4 Soul Glyphs: A Fish in Water, Apex Predator, Extreme Diver, Harbinger of Chaos].

[Spirit Body lvl18(17>18) (Ghost): Its density is such that the Spirit Body begins to have tangible effects on the physical world and can temporarily separate itself from its carnal envelope. Out-of-body journeys are now possible, but keeping in mind that in this form the soul is extremely vulnerable and the physical body abandoned in a state of clinical death. The soul is now partially resistant to heat and radiation and can extract a portion of the energy it contains].

[True Will: 3 points.]

His Aether stats were now almost up to the world standard of a Fourth Ordeal. If the trend continued, the Aether density of his next Ordeal would reach 1000 points and his Aether stats were actually nearing that threshold. Some had even topped it.

Despite this tremendous power-up, Jake was still not confident. His instincts kept telling him that these Fourth-Ordeal Evolvers were not so simple. When he was peeping at them in battle, he had sensed the activation of many mysterious Soul Glyphs and he was still struggling to determine their function.

What he did know for sure was that many of these Soul Glyphs were alike and therefore not the result of an exceptional opportunity like his own. When he asked Grash about this, Grash had indeed admitted that he would come to understand everything after his Fourth Ordeal.

The customary Oracle censorship had prevented him from saying more.