The Oracle Paths

"Why don't you use telepathy to communicate?" Carmin blurted out.

"To piss you off." Jake retorted silently, rolling his eyes. "More seriously, it can break my Stealth Spell. Sound and light I can pretty much handle, but covering up telepathic signs I'm less confident. Even if the probability of being spotted is still very low I'd rather not take the risk."

"Oh.." Carmin nodded with a skeptical face. " Back to your previous dilemma, the first option seems obvious to me, no? Why would we take reckless risks if we can sneak in unnoticed?"

Jake stared at her with big round eyes as if he was worried about her sanity, then let out an exasperated sigh,

"Sigh... Whatever. Let's go for the deciphering then."

He could have taken the time to clearly explain the limitations of his magic to her, to make her understand that they were far from undetectable, or that an enemy Player with a high Oracle Rank could flush them out effortlessly, but that would only worry her unnecessarily in addition to wasting their time.

Whether it was good news or bad news, he didn't know yet, but the deciphering went smoothly. It took Jake three long hours to get anywhere and two more to crack the magic barrier.

The main obstacles were twofold: the Runes' microscopic size and the fact that it was a Mana Spell. Fortunately, the Rune Aetherist Soul Class also had some hidden perks as he soon realized.

The passive skills "Aether Affinity" and "Aether Compression/Expansion" had misled him into thinking they were limited to Aether. The reality was that going all the way back to the quintessence, everything, absolutely everything was made of Aether.

While this did not make him a Mana expert, the energetic nature of Mana was obviously close enough to Aether for his Soul Class skills to work on it. Once he realized this, the next step was much easier.

With the help of his Aether Expansion skill, Jake artificially enlarged the microscopic Mana Runes that created the barrier. It was grueling and time-consuming, but fortunately much easier to accomplish in this direction than in the other. When he felt it would take too long, he compromised by creating a Zoom Spell.

With this two-way method, he was finally able to memorize and decipher the entire Mana Symbol. After that, all he had to do was deduce the counter-spell, not to make the barrier disappear, but to create a gap through which they could slip through without setting off the alarm.

The more he studied the barrier, the more he was sweating profusely, realizing that they'd had a close call. If they had really gone in headlong, all the castle's defensive measures would have been triggered at once.

They were not to be taken lightly. From what little he had seen, their Body Stats would have been decreased at least tenfold, their Extrasensory Perception would have been completely nullified, rendering them unable to sense Mana or Aether, while a poisonous gas that only the most prominent Vampires of the Dracul clan had the antidote for would have smoked them out in a split second.

Of course, this was without counting on the hundreds of Vampire Nobles who would have swarmed in from both sides to catch them.

Five hours later, after performing each component of the spell separately, Jake cast his counter-spell on himself, Jeanie, and Carmine, and the trio passed through the barrier without raising any alarms. They felt a tiny resistance as they crossed, but the lack of reaction from the latter confirmed that his spell was working.

"Phew... What now?" Carmin whispered excitedly. This commando operation was actually getting fun for her.

"This way." Jake tiptoed down the hallway.

The interior of the castle was lavishly decorated, the stone floors of each corridor and hallway covered with exquisite red carpets embroidered in gold. Realistic paintings representing various illustrious Vampires of the Dracul clan lined the walls, but it was inevitable that the painter's style was austere and gloomy.

In the end, because of the meager lighting based on lone candles and other candelabras, the atmosphere inside the castle was more like that of a horror movie.

Their only consolation was that they encountered few Vampires on their way and no more magical barriers. The downside was that most of the corridors were ridiculously narrow, forcing them to press themselves against the ceiling or perform deft contortionist stunts to avoid touching those Vampires. If they brushed against one of them, they would be instantly exposed.

Still, Jake was remarkably amazed at their luck so far. Only when Xi reminded him that his Luck was no ordinary Luck did he remember that he was indeed no longer the jinxed Jake of old. His Body Luck was progressing slowly, but every point made a difference.

With his new Rune Aetherist Soul Class, he had regained his original Aether stats and more. This included his Aether of Luck which was aligned with his other stats except for his Charisma. In other words, by regaining his Aether stats from before, his Luck had instantly increased by about 3.7 times.

'No wonder we meet so few guards. Maybe it even plays a direct role in my propensity to nail my Aether Spells on the first try.' He rejoiced inwardly.

Carmin seemed to share his view as well, for she may have been slightly pink from excitement, but her disbelief was plain to see on her face. If she had been alone, she would have sworn she was about to walk into a trap and probably turned back without regret. But because Jake looked unfazed, she was willing to go through with it.

Wyatt's freedom was at stake.

After winding through a multitude of dimly lit corridors, dodging a good dozen Vampires and climbing up and down several spiral staircases, the duo finally arrived at the entrance to the underground dungeons. In a technologically backward medieval world, what was a door? A flick of his telekinesis and he could crack any lock.

But this was no ordinary door.

"Fuck! Is this a joke?!" Jake cursed as he discovered a second armored door made of pure Adamantium just behind the first.

In addition to being impossible to destroy in a short time, the Mana Symbols enchanting this one had been placed on the other side. To access it, Jake would need to extend his mental sense through the magic metal, but he soon discovered that the material was completely impervious to his mental power.

"Damn it!" Jake's face turned ugly as he found himself back to the wall because of a crude pile of scrap metal.

"How do we handle it now?" Carmin's face broke down along with him. If they couldn't open this door, they couldn't save Wyatt.

"Wait a minute..." Jake cut her off rudely. He'd just noticed something.

This door had no handle, no lock. It couldn't be pushed or pulled, lifted or lowered, and there was no switch in the corner to retract the door. Short of destroying the rock base around it, which would make a considerable racket, they had no way to get around this door.

The only notable thing about this door was the strange peephole at face level. Trying to look through it, they couldn't see anything, but the door did seem to click into place when his eye approached it. Before it could fully activate, he pulled his head back.

An optical security scanner! In a medieval world! He had completely underestimated the ingenuity of these Vampires. Unless it wasn't them who had built this door?

"Carmin, I'm afraid our hassle-free adventure ends here." Jake commented gravely. "Prepare for battle."

"I've always been ready." She laughed, giving him her most sparkling smile. At that moment, she was the most beautiful woman in Quanoth.

Jake gasped at such charm and gorgeousness, but remembering that she used Charm Spells as easily as she breathed, he immediately regained his composure, even becoming a little bitter. With such tricky women around him, it was hard to sort out his feelings...

'Lucia where are you?' He lampooned as he visualized the candid and sincere smile of the Myrmidian princess. Of all the women orbiting around him, she was the only one who didn't seem to be trying to get something out of their relationship.

"For now we hide and wait." Jake replied to the Vampire's silent question as she wondered about his sudden change in behavior.

If Carmin had known the outrageous opinion he had of her, she would have become very angry. Because, she hadn't used any Charm spell at all, not even the passive attraction from her Charm stat. That was how distrustful he was of her. Even when she wasn't doing anything, he thought she was up to something.

Following Jake, the duo hid nearby in an adjacent hallway, waiting patiently for someone to enter or exit that door. They had prepared themselves mentally to wait for many hours, maybe even days in these conditions, but luck smiled on them once again.

Not even five minutes later, the Adamantium door creaked, and as if by magic it folded in on itself like a sheet of paper to let through a grizzled, heavily overweight Vampire whose white pourpoint and leather apron donned over it were stained with blood.

"That's our man!" Jake blurted out malevolently.

With perfect timing, they bolted from their hiding place and went on the attack, but Jake was much faster. Carmin had only taken one step forward, and he had already knocked the poor Vampire out.

"Tsk..." The young woman pouted with a vexed look at his lack of chivalry. He could at least have spared her ego by running a little slower.

Indifferent to her worries, Jake grabbed the unconscious Vampire by the neck and pressed his skull against the peephole of the door which had just reappeared. With his free hand, he opened one of his eyes and a welcome beep informed him that the optical scan had authenticated his identity.

The door folded back on itself again and they charged inside.