The Oracle Paths

Unfortunately, Jake had to shelve his dark plans into a corner of his mind shortly after. He was now very close to what he believed was the location of the Heaven Cascade, as the ensuing events acutely made him aware.

The Life Enchantments and the relentless bombardment of increasingly compact and fierce vital energy, which had initially only tickled him, finally began to take their toll. When the tributary he was swimming in abruptly widened, merging with a vast expanse of tumultuous dark blue water like an ocean in a storm, Jake experienced a sharp pain for the first time.

The sudden pain, combined with the absurd influx of vital energy trying to force its way into his cells, made him shudder momentarily, then black out for half a second before he managed to regain control. When he refocused after coming to, his heart skipped a beat upon discovering that massive chitinous protuberances, like tumors, had been expelled from his body.

Watching them dissolve in the water and get carried away by the current, he had to admit that it was a close call - his immune system nearly compromised. Not enough to kill him, his mind could survive without a physical shell anyway, but enough to waste some of his precious biomass.

He was so bewildered by what had just happened that he reflexively slowed down, deciding to reassess the situation.

"What the hell was that? That hurt," Jake gritted his teeth as he opened his status screen.

He remembered seeing a certain Life Enchantment+3 pop up at some point, but its effects had been so insignificant on his body at the time that he had subconsciously ignored it. There had been other notifications since, but their effects weren't much more pronounced.

Until now.

[Check out your bloodline tab. You might be surprised.] Xi informed him with an ambiguous tone, but he had already found it without her help.

Right now, Jake was struck dumb, a speechlessness reminiscent of his reaction when he found his new status after devouring Digestor Ruby.

[Cosmic D Starveyrves Body lvl1>lvl2 (+9): A highly morphable body combining multiple bloodlines and able to adapt to any environment. Your digestive abilities have improved again and allow you to digest anything in a shorter time and store all genetic and energetic information about the objects consumed. Your cells can now passively store, purify, and absorb anything much quicker and together possess the drawing power of a Grade 10.6 Energy Core. Even without doing anything, the body will continue to grow stronger without limit.]

[Attributes: Cosmic, Energy, Life, Space, Luck, Time]

[Abilities: Bloodline Ignition, Shapeshifting, Chitin Scales, Child of Lumyst(+1), Lumyst Breath (+3), Breath of Living Elements(+9)]

No wonder it hit him hard this time. Unbeknownst to him, he had just gained three new abilities, not to mention his bloodline advancing a level. The surprise quickly turned to elation, but his enthusiasm dampened upon realizing it wasn't exactly as it seemed.

His Cosmic D Starfeyrves Body had indeed progressed from level 1 to 2, as had several of his bloodline skills like Cosmic Chitin Scales, Cosmic Sight, and Life Manipulation, but the rest remained unchanged. All in all, his bloodline was still level 1.

Still, Jake could feel that thanks to this surge of life energy and his body's upgrade, it wasn't far off. He still had to check, however, what these two new skills had concretely brought him. Especially the latter, considering how the pain had managed to knock him unconscious.

It had been a long time since Jake considered himself immune to pain, and even though he wouldn't go as far as to say no torture could break him, he was sure a pain like this couldn't have made him faint by itself. So, there was only one other logical explanation:

It was his brain that had undergone renovations, and with his mind residing inside, he had been temporarily 'disconnected' during the reboot. He wasn't exactly thrilled about losing control of his own body, but that changed quickly after reading the descriptions of his new abilities.

The first, Child of Lumyst, didn't really surprise him, as it had also appeared during his Spirit Lumyst baptism. Aside from being shocked that his status refused to label this enchantment 'Grace' like it did for his soul, its effects on his Lumyst Aura were as expected:

[Aura of Lumyst: Enemies Killed: 3,326,934, Souls Harvested: 1,009,894. Lives Harvested: 570,040. Stat boosts: 28,792>99.456%.]

On the surface, his aura hadn't changed much, but now that he knew what he was dealing with, he immediately noticed deep changes concerning it. Not only had the stat boost quadrupled, largely due to the higher quality spirits of the Players compared to the natives of the Lustra Plains, but the real change was in the aura itself.

Now, with just a thought, he could split it into Spirit and Life Aura, using them separately or together. This meant that in addition to harvesting souls, their lifeforce was also being collected.

No waste, then, and perfect recycling that would please his eco-friendly side...

Jake was, in fact, astonished to find out after trying to separate the two Auras that his Life Aura, while containing a prodigious amount of Lifeforce, was far from having the defensive and offensive halo properties he had encountered in the Pulsars, Vitalists and Lifemancers of his first official battle.

Oh, but if he wasn't careful, his body could now leak a gentle radiance that wildly spurred the growth of nearby vegetation. Not really a perk...

However, his two other new abilities were the real deal. Especially the second one:

[Lumyst Breath: A bodily ability acquired via the one-time activation of a powerful Grace, acting as a permanent blessing giving your body the ability to convert its Lifeforce to tolerate, generate, accumulate, and manipulate Lumyst. It's the root of the cultivation system in the Lustra Plains.]

[Breath of Living Elements: Allows you to infuse your Lumyst with other attributes, and vice versa.]

It was a short sentence, but the consequences were immense. For several Ordeals, Jake had racked his brain trying to create a versatile energy source, easy to mobilize and accumulate in his body but he had faced numerous obstacles.

In the end, he had created Reiga, a form of Aether behaving like light and capable of assuming the properties of its primary attributes: Heat and Light. The advantage was that, existing in the real world, he could theoretically use it in combat and cast his heat and light spells more quickly. Its storage method was also more practical than that of an Aether Core, the stored Reiga being fully mobilizable at any moment.

But since then, Jake's bloodline had evolved significantly, as had his Attributes. It was difficult to give Reiga, closer to light, the properties of time, cosmos, or space without running into insurmountable mountains, both theoretically and conceptually. He had made progress since, but it was far from perfect.

Another proven alternative was Mana, whether the neutral version of Quanoth or the more specialized version of the Egaeans. For example, Hephais had in him the equivalent of a Shadow/Dark Core, the well of his power, while providing tangible benefits and alterations to the rest of his body, such as immunity to his own element and increased stats. This 'Shadow Mana' existed physically and could therefore be used for attack or defense, strictly surpassing the capabilities of the element it was supposed to embody.

Jake had never devoured an Egaean, but damn it all, he had devoured a whole fucking Mana Storm on Quanoth, not to mention Jeanie, a Water Mage. He could also produce an equivalent of Mana if he wanted, but he didn't do it. Without really knowing why, he couldn't find satisfaction.

Until now. Although none of these abilities clearly clarified what Lumyst was, Jake had seen enough with his heightened perception to make some conjectures. And to say the least, it was promising!

Those dimwit Light Warriors were too ignorant to understand the gold they had in their hands. In contrast, Jake could see much more now that he himself was capable of using it.

"And of course, it's when my curiosity really needs answers that the Oracle System lets us down." Jake cursed, hesitating to turn back to capture an enemy Player and get answers through his Oracle Device.

[No need.] Xi promptly dissuaded him in a sorrowful voice. [The soul of that Lord Ooom you digested should have contained this information. He himself had endured several Lumyst baptisms and must have questioned his Oracle System about it.]