The Oracle Paths

The only ones who had a chance of making it were the C-rank adventurers and above whose Constitution and Vitality had reached a satisfactory level. Fortunately, alchemy and healing magic were well developed on Quanoth and by drinking an intermediate healing potion each, they would recover.

Jake had gotten a chance to take a look at the price of these potions and while they were affordable, their per unit price was the average salary of a D-Rank Advendurer. Their effectiveness was almost instantaneous, indirectly regenerating injuries in a flash through HP restoration.

It was a potion like this that had been used on Simgut, the Warhammer Champion he had just defeated.

The problem was that for weaker adventurers of Rank E, F and G, these potions were still too expensive. They couldn't waste them as lavishly as Simgut. For this purpose, much cheaper healing potions existed, but they could at most stabilize a wound and took several minutes or even hours to take effect.

There was also another major drawback with these potions, which was also apparent in more advanced potions. Consuming them too often intoxicated the human organism and created a form of addiction, reducing their effectiveness and forcing them to consume more for the same results.

Last but not least, their very way of healing was also their most glaring limitation. Since they regenerated a certain amount of HPs, it was crystal clear that their effects were most spectacular on frail, or basically low-level people.

If someone like Jake consumed one of these intermediate potions, the HP restoration would be most likely lower than his own HP regen/s.

The other direct consequence was that they could not directly heal the root cause of an ailment. A wound was not a big deal, but removing a poison, a curse, or a radiation was out of their league. For that, other potions existed that were way more costly.

All these potions could do was to provide a vital spark, helping the injured body to recover more quickly. In this respect, they were not unlike the Digestor Blood vials that Jake carried around with him by the hundreds.

As such, they couldn't regenerate lost limbs either, unless the species was naturally capable of doing so. They also left ugly scars most of the time.

Luckily for the natives of Quanoth, even among ordinary humans this problem did not exist. In fact, they were not even aware of its existence.

Thanks to Digitization, they could theoretically recover from decapitation and even disintegration if their HPs were deemed sufficient. The only condition was that their soul was not completely destroyed.

Nevertheless, this kind of injury was very damaging to the Spirit Body and it was not uncommon in such cases to lose several levels and suffer from post-traumatic psychic disorders for several months or years.

All sorts of remedies and spells had been devised over the centuries to deal with these complications, but their cost was staggering and the best thing to do was not to get hurt too badly.

Seeing Jeanie and Trash's condition, Jake was rather alarmed. The potion could give them back their HPs and maybe even repair their DNA, but it could do nothing against their irradiated atoms. The radiation would continue to damage their bodies for weeks to come and there was no way they could afford the astronomical cost of the potions that would ensue.

'There must be a potion solving this kind of condition somewhere.' Jake concluded as he mentally scanned the Guild's rubble.

The Guild offered discounts to adventurers when selling them potions and equipment, so logically they must have had some stock. The building's destruction had destroyed most of their inventory, but he was hopeful that he could find some of it intact.

His Purgatory Dream summoning and the lava swamp he had woven around himself had obliterated the anti-magic runes preventing him from using his powers and he was free to unleash his full might again.

With a relaxed wave of his hand, he lifted dozens of tons of rubble, then shattered it into thin blades. His eyes widened slightly and the thousands of sharp projectiles shot at supersonic speed toward Ruby's supposed hiding place.

"AAH!"

The bewitched adventurers who had created a tight bubble of invisibility around her were caught off guard as these micro stone blades struck their energy shields with terrifying kinetic energy.

BANG! BANG! ...

Several thousand impacts in a tenth of a second struck the barrier powered by the two mages of the group, destroying it instantly, then the next thousands of projectiles pierced the thick bulwark, then the heavy armor of the two tanks of the group, transforming them into pinpricks.

Stunned, their Captain threw himself in front of Ruby to take the rest of the attack, and his body burst into an intense light that finally stopped the last few blades, but not before several hundred of them had embedded themselves deeply into his body. If he didn't have a high level and such excellent armor, he would have died instantly.

'Terrifying...' The captain shuddered before worrying about his comrades. At that moment, he began to have some doubts. 'Why would we sacrifice ourselves like this for a woman we barely know?'

Feeling death approaching could restore some lucidity to the most foolish of men. Seeing his friends die needlessly like that had given him a shock.

"Keep protecting me." Ruby ordered coldly without giving a single glance to the two Rank-A Adventurers who had just sacrificed themselves for her.

These warriors were not yet dead despite the severity of their injuries. Sensing the danger, they had ingested powerful healing potions with prolonged effectiveness. The cost of these potions could even make the survivors regret having consumed them. For this reason, the adventurers in the field dubbed them Potion of Regret.

Receiving their order, the two muscle mountains in golden armor struggled to their feet with a grunt and resumed their position. Their gaze, however, was no longer as lovesick and servile as it once was. Like their captain, their brush with death had awakened their distrust and they were now on guard.

How could experienced Rank-A adventurers like them be fooled so easily. Even Simgut had performed better against Jake. Unfortunately, this was the first time they had fallen victim to such swift magical attacks. The sheer urgency of the situation and their confidence in their equipment had made them act out of reflex without thinking and they had no time to trigger any of their skills.

One could not blame them. In Ret'Asi, firearms were not common and spells tended to be unnecessarily flashy and flamboyant. There were formidable archers, but you could at least anticipate the attack by the way they strung their bows.

Throughout the attack, the elf Elduin and the dwarf Bhammod had not taken their eyes off Jake and suddenly shouted,

" We need to get the fuck out of here! Right now!"

Jake had finally found a supply of untouched potions buried under the rubble and after forcing Trash and Jeanie to ingest their contents, he was able to witness just in time the breakdown of the barrier protecting and concealing Ruby from his view.

The sacrifice of these warriors was commendable, but seeing that they were not dead and his attack had failed, he immediately changed his strategy and absorbed several handfuls of illusory lava, which he condensed, heated, and spun until the lava turned into a vicious orb of swirling, blinding white plasma.

Before Ruby and the others could even react to Elduin and Bhammod's warning cry, he grabbed one of them with one hand, then disappeared from his former position and teleported right behind Ruby, his super-dense plasma ball just millimeters from Ruby's neck.

Just before impact, Ruby's long white hair slipped out of his sight, replaced by the shorter hair of a woman with a side-shaven head.

"Hmmph! Shameless." Jake snorted as he adjusted his arm position and turned his neck in her direction.

Ruby, who had swapped positions with the adventurer by some miracle, inadvertently met his galactic eyes and the next thing she knew she was... in the same place but she felt right away that something was not right.

'An illusion!' She understood at once.

Her pupils suddenly filled with a bluish radiance and the lava world froze instantly, her comrades moving robotically around her and Jake still glaring at her, crumbled as if they were as dry as wilted leaves.

Jake who had cast this Illusion Spell with the combination of his Myrtharian Eyes and Aether Soul Core was suddenly struck with fatigue, feeling a deep yearning for sleep the likes of which he had not felt in over a year.

"Blue Soul Stones!" Jake immediately identified what this horrible feeling of drowsiness and exhaustion reminded him of.

In his Second Ordeal, unlike the Red Soul Stones, the Blue Soul Stones had the effect of tranquilizing, plunging their users and victims into an illusory dream that could spell their death. Unlike the Chaos Zhorions, the Dream Tribe favored the Blue Soul Stones and had evolved over the years to adapt to them.

Jake had gotten his Soul Glyph Harbinger of Chaos by slaughtering the Chaos Tribe and remembering how Ruby had gained so many points in an instant back then, he immediately drew the obvious conclusion.

Either she had a special Soul Glyph or she also had the Dream Zhorion Bloodline. It was dangerous, but in the end Jake still managed a smile.

" Well played, but it's too late."

Time flowed differently in the illusion and the time Ruby had wasted dissolving the illusion had given him the micro-second he needed to teleport back behind her. This time the compressed, swirling ball of plasma connected with her neck and as Jake teleported away for the third consecutive time, the telekinetic force holding the lava ball together was removed and a monstrous explosion ensued.

BOOOOM!