The Oracle Paths

Pant! Pant!

Clung to a ladder in the dark, a man of imposing build was currently huffing and puffing on the verge of asphyxiation. His muscles were shaking and his skin was red from congestion. Regularly, the sound of drops of sweat hitting the ground a hundred meters below could be heard.

Right now, Jake almost regretted having his eyes bigger than his belly. When he had absorbed all this liquid metal, he was far from imagining the ordeal it would be just to get to the surface.

When he had tried to move through the rock with his powers, he had almost sunk like a rock to the earth's core or whatever was at the bottom of the asteroid or that Sanctuary Bubble. If the catacombs were not isolated by a thick layer of metal, he would probably have disappeared into the depths of the earth forever.

Coming to the surface had required him to use all his strength and commitment, but physical force alone had not been enough. To be able to move more than a few steps, he had to combine his strength with the full power of his telekinesis and only then, after several hours of hell, did he finally see the top of the ladder.

After a few more minutes of struggling against all the metal within him and the pull of gravity, Jake finally made it to the temple hall. The catacombs were finally behind him... or rather, below him.

Jake lay prostrate on all fours for a long time before recovering his full breath, and only then was he able to stand up again with some difficulty.

"Finally, I'm out! "Jake almost burst into tears when he saw the warm light waiting for him outside the temple.

As if hypnotized, Jake walked step by step toward the temple exit, each step fracturing the rock beneath him as his feet sank ten centimeters into the ground.

A few hours earlier, Jake had not been able to absorb all of it, but the amount of metal currently on him was outrageous. Even with this world' s Aether density, Jake could lift a maximum load of about 12.5 tons. If he was on earth, 50 tons would have been his limit.

Of course this was his maximum load and even if his Constitution and Vitality were his forte, moving around with such a load on him was unrealistic. It was only with the help of his telekinesis, whose effective force was four to eight times his actual physical strength, that he was able to go so far.

At that very moment, Jake weighed about 30 tons. A weight that his body could not support, but which was not enough to kill him if he decided to let go and lie down on the floor to rest his mind and muscles. After all, he was still quite tough with his Stone Skin.

That was about a quarter of the liquid alloy pool in the vault. This metal was just too heavy... If Jake could, he would have absorbed it all, but according to Xi it would have become dangerous for him. Maybe he wouldn't have died, but he would have become a sitting duck stuck in those catacombs until he died or the Ordeal ended.

To tell the truth, so as not to waste anything, Jake had even tried to eat the rest. That's why he now had a metal marble the size of his fist lodged in his stomach. Even after several hours of strenuous activity, the liquid alloy showed no signs of digestion.

Jake had never been able to intentionally make himself vomit and was not in pain so he had decided to live with it. However, this had inevitably put an end to his gluttonous ambitions.

As a result, Jake had to give up all that metal and that was consumed with regret and frustration that he had made it back here. Yet, despite the suffering he had endured to carry his booty, his eyes sparkled with happiness.

[Intermediate Grade>Advanced Grade]

[Weight: 30 957kg]

[Oracle Features:]

[Status: No change]

[ Guidance: Computing capacities are increased drastically. Can improve the performance of the Shadow Guide as well as the Oracle AI when access to the Oracle System's main network is impossible or fails.]

[Aether Vision: No change> The Aether Grade as well as most types of Aether can be distinguished with the naked eye.]

[Logging, Mapping: No change]

[Scan lvl3: 2200m=> 12500m]

[Auto densification: Allows the bracelet to keep the same size regardless of its mass.]

[Passive Aether absorption from the atmosphere = Aether density*35/day] (In this world: 1400/day compared to 40/day before)

[Oracle skill slots remaining: 6>15]

[Aether Encoding slots remaining: 22>55]

[New Oracle Skill: Combustion: If the bracelet lacks Aether, the liquid alloy can be used as a fuel, which could lead to a drop in the future performance of the Oracle Device.]

[New Oracle Skill: Alloy Shielding/Coating: The alloy can be used to protect the body from enemy attack or to coat a weapon, but be aware that the Aether cost is high and not without risk.]

First, just the passive generation of Aether guaranteed that he could live prodigally in any Oracle City in the Mirror Universe without having to work or take any risks. The replicated food provided by the Oracle Store was now quite affordable and wouldn't affect his Aether Storage even if he spent the day stuffing himself.

Second, the scan range had passed the 10-kilometer radius mark. This meant he could communicate with his allies within a 100-kilometer radius, which was now useful even on an island as large as this one.

The number of slots for Encoding and Oracle Skill was a bit vague, but Jake knew from Xi that it was Advanced Grade Encodings and Oracle Skills. As for normal Encoding like Inferior Strength Aether or Inferior Sharpening Aether, he could in fact collect several thousand different types of them, not that it was of any use...

The two new Oracle features were great and Jake fully understood what risks the description was referring to. This liquid alloy had an exorbitant Aether cost for each use, was perfectly useless to block a physical attack and had no real sense of belonging to his bracelet once the alloy left his body.

In other words, once out of his body, any Evolvers could easily steal his precious metal by bringing their bracelet close to him.

Furthermore, only the bracelet could be solidified. That's why the physical attacks were still working, just as driving a blade into a puddle of water would be met with little resistance.

Jake couldn't understand why, because from a strictly logical standpoint he couldn't see what was preventing the hard bracelet from extending its coverage to the rest of the body. He could only imagine that it was another limitation imposed by the Oracle and that it surely required an Oracle Skill at an exorbitant price to acquire this feature.

Nevertheless, it was perfect to protect his body from rays, radiation and other harmful invisible attacks, although he was already quite resistant to most of these attacks.

There was, however, one type of attack for which the alloy sounded extremely useful even to him and that was that of protecting his brain from mental attacks. If he covered his skull with a thick enough coating of alloy like Magneto's helmet, he could definitely endure the Zhorions mental attacks without batting an eyelash.

Driven by the satisfaction of his recent accomplishments, Jake thus kept walking step by step until he finally returned to the light of the Zhorion cave.

When he saw where all that light was coming from, and when a scorching wind caressed his face, Jake's good mood immediately suffered a major blow.

While he was collecting his liquid alloy and slowly crawling out of the catacombs, lava had continued to pour into the city. After several hours, the basement was already completely flooded and was now submerged in one to two meters deep lava. A little more and the temple hall would be flooded with lava as well.

Yet it was not all the lava that was a problem for Jake. The magma chamber above was almost empty and the lava cascade had long since been replaced by a thin trickle. If Jake really put his heart into it, he could always escape, even temper his body directly by bathing in all that lava.

Sooner or later the lava from below would eventually cool and solidify and the cave and its city would eventually disappear.

No, the reason why Jake's face was so ugly right now was because of the individual floating in the air a few meters above him.

It was a Zhorion. But not just any Zhorion.

This Zhorion had silver eyes, skin as dark as the darkness inside the temple, four membranous wings, and long silver hair veined with a vague blue light. The alien had a delicate, harmonious hourglass figure and a grace that no male Zhorion had ever shown so far.

It was a female. She was naked, but Jake could hardly feel any arousal when he first saw her. Not because she was unattractive, on the contrary her beauty was outstanding and exotic, but because the darkness of her skin combined with its lack of texture prevented him from associating her with a living being. He had the feeling that if he tried to touch her, his hand would simply vanish through it like into a black hole.

As incongruous as her appearance may be, Jake was not so tense because of this. Those eyes... That hair... That network of bluish light running through her body like an integrated circuit... That overwhelming, yet familiar aura?

He had met a similar person before.

Aslael, the Oracle Instructor.