The Oracle Paths

A few minutes later, Jake stood awestruck before an impressive five-story building with a relatively flat roof except for a small tower ending in a dome with no chimney nor windows.

From the outside this mansion looked snug and comfortable. It had been built with red pine wood and had white brick decorations. Large, octagon windows added to the overall style of the mansion and had been integrated to the house in a very symmetric way.

The building was shaped like a short U. The two extensions extended into stylish gardens circling around half the house, while the interior housed a patio partially covered by glass overhanging panels.

Each floor was smaller than the first, which allowed for larger and larger balconies and even what sounded like a pool on the fourth floor from the sounds of splashing and relaxed giggling Jake heard from below.

"These Adventurers really have it good!" Jake smirked. It was hard to believe that the end of the world was upon them.

"Only A-Rank Adventurers and mercenary groups of similar rank can access these services for free. Ordinary adventurers and mercenaries... It's already good if we can visit something other than the first floor." Trash explained bitterly.

To avoid any unpleasant twists and turns, Jake asked everything he needed to know about the Guild so as not to arouse suspicion, woke Jeanie up for fear that she would blow the whole thing, and then walked in with a leisurely walk, whistling with his hands behind his back.

[You don't want to look even more suspicious?] Xi snorted.

'I've always wanted to do this. Doesn't it make me look mysterious and confident?' Jake chuckled.

[If you looked like a wise old man of 200 years, yes. Now it just makes you look stuck up and fake.]

Cough... Jake abruptly stopped whistling, cleared his throat and pushed the door open more violently than he would have wanted.

[Hehe. You're more touchy than I thought.]

'Don't fuck with me, Xi. You know exactly what kind of temper I have.' Jake replied with a straight face. He could be quite thick skinned when he wanted to be.

The interior of the mansion matched the exterior: spacious and grand. However, although the furnishings and tapestries showed a degree of luxury, the first floor was crowded and the smell of grime and sweat prevailed. With his superhuman olfactory sense, Jake couldn't help but tighten his nostrils.

"Some of these adventurers really need a shower." Jake muttered under his breath without covering his displeasure.

As he said this, dozens of angry glares came his way, but he pretended not to notice. Inwardly, on the contrary, he was fairly surprised. He had not spoken loudly just now. Clearly, there were some decent adventurers among them.

Taking in the vast room with his eyes, Jake immediately found several counters held by young men and women in business suits or dresses. Most of the adventurers who weren't chatting or looking at the mission board were lined up at one of them. The remaining people were having a drink or a snack over a friendly game of cards or dice.

The building was U-shaped, so the room was divided into two long wings, and although they were equally crowded and noisy, he had no intention of exploring them. Walls and doors partitioned these two wings, making it impossible to see clearly what was going on inside anyway.

Not wanting to make a spectacle of himself, Jake joined one of the lines and waited his turn with Trash. After a few minutes, the line had thinned out quite a bit and as he moved forward Jake got a direct view of the half-open door giving onto the left wing. With nothing better to do, he glanced around.

On the other side, he saw a group of twenty warriors, built like hulking brutes and equipped with fancy armor, harassing a young woman. Unless it was the opposite? She seemed to be begging them to help her with something... This voice was not familiar to him, but her long white hair stirred up some old memories.

With his eyes suddenly wide open and sharp, he stared hard at the room, even going so far as to run a scan. The scan report turned out to be normal, while the young woman's appearance proved to be completely different from the one he knew.

Still, Jake wasn't the type to fully trust the Oracle. Who knew if there was an Oracle Skill capable of falsifying a scan result. As for changing one' s appearance? That was even easier.

Just as he was about to activate his Oracle Skill Promotion before running a second scan, the person in line ahead of him unexpectedly left the guild in a hurry, clearing the way. The adventuress at the counter, a shabby-looking and obviously penniless sorceress, had also finished complaining and left with a crestfallen look on her face along with her meager purse. Jake even heard her grumbling hatefully in a low voice,

"Those Adventurers' Guilds... they're all crooks!"

Upon spotting an unfamiliar handsome man, the pretty receptionist's eyes lit up, but upon recognizing the teenager wearing an oversized chain mail by his side, her kindly facade instantly crumbled.

"What can I do for you?" She forced herself to ask with a bright smile, keeping her practiced manner.

Jake slyly assessed the hostess with his eyes, whose body language and bearing exhibited prominent signs of stress and fatigue. If not for her makeup, she would have looked much older. This job must not have been easy in these times. Especially when there was no hope of ever boarding the Celestial City.

"Two reasons are bringing me." Jake replied gently, pointing to the browbeaten kid next to him. "Firstly to report the death of several of your guild members. His mercenary group got wiped out. He was the only survivor I could save. As for the second reason, I want to join your guild by creating my own adventurer group."

The receptionist widened her blue eyes in astonishment. This time she gave the boy a pitying look. This kind of news, she had been hearing several times a day since the Celestial City descent and the start of this all-out war.

"So Uncle Oaf is dead... I always thought he would outlast all the disasters." She lamented, rubbing her eyes discreetly. Her eyes were a little red after that. "He was never talented, but I've rarely known anyone so resourceful. I guess his fatness got the better of him. I always told him! Eat less or one day you'll be too slow to avoid the arrows!"

"That's pretty close to what happened." Jake remarked without delving into any morbid details. Uncle Oaf had not died from arrows but from monster bites and scratches. The cause of his death, though, was basically the same... excessive slowness.

"Let me check to see if he had taken out life insurance or stored savings in case of death."

The receptionist donned strange glasses and spoke a peculiar word. Glowing symbols flashed behind the lens of her glasses until she found the right folder. She then left for a couple of seconds and returned with a stack of parchments stapled together. She flipped through them briefly and then heaved an apologetic sigh,

"No cash or insurance. The poor fuck and his gang always spent it all on taverns and hookers every time they came back from a mission. In fact... the gang is drowning in debt. This untimely death may be the best thing that ever happened to them... I'm afraid I can't do anything."

Trash collapsed in despair as he heard the sad truth. Uncle Oaf wasn't rich. He was just a spendthrift. Jake patted his head indifferently. To him, this was no surprise at all. He had expected such a result from the start.

"Are you taking gold? I got my hands on a nice nugget a few days ago." Jake asked out of nowhere.

He again experienced a flurry of intense, greedy stares this time, raining down on him. Undeterred, he flung at them his fine middle finger. Whether they got the message or not, he didn't care.

The receptionist was momentarily dazed by his question, even wondering for a second if she had heard correctly, but she pulled herself together and hastily nodded.

"Yes, in the absence of currency we accept precious metals and all magical materials and herbs. Keep in mind, however, that we buy them back from you at a discount compared to the market price. In return, we'll dispose of them immediately regardless of their origin."

"Sounds fair to me." Jake nodded with satisfaction.

Without hesitation, he produced a gold nugget weighing several kilos on the desk and used his Metal and Heat Control to instantly reshape it into a perfect little ingot. The magic trick shocked the receptionist to the core and she began to stare at him with new eyes. The other mercenaries and adventurers also stopped eyeballing him as if they wanted to strip him. No matter the place, the strong was always respected.

"Lord Mage, what should I call you?" She sucked in a deep breath and asked much more politely.

" Jake will do."

"Very well, Lord Jake." She bowed slightly. "To create your Membership Card I need your Identity Card."

It was only now that Jake realized that the Ret'Asi Empire had not invented this method. Obviously, the Adventurers Guild had been using it for much longer and the empire had copied them and spread it to the entire population.

Already mentally prepared, he lent his brand new ID card to the young woman and she swiped it in the same brick-shaped device Jeanie had used in front of him. When she saw the result, her eyes instantly popped out of her face.