The Oracle Paths

Jake was still reeling from the armor he had just created. Hands shaking with anticipation, he donned each piece of equipment with deliberate slowness.

The armor was obsidian-black, hugging his every muscle. It was a mixture of thin plates and chainmail so delicate that its texture was almost like silk. The suit was stretchy, and snug, able to handle his sudden changes in size, but could also take a nuke at point-blank range.

To forge it, Jake had opted for an alloy consisting of 80% Adamantium, 10% Orichalcum, and 10% other precious magical materials to enrich the elemental properties of the artifact. The Adamantium was part of the reason for its hardness, but it was the interaction of all these other materials and Aether Runes that created the breathtaking end result.

For the first time since he had acquired this Oracle Skill, Jake had used his Portable Oracle Store to purchase a gram of Red Soul Stone and Green Soul Stone respectively at 200 times their normal price. Just like during his Second Ordeal, the Oracle Store referred to these two materials as Flintium and Naequat. These two materials were the basis for the second active skill of his armor, but also his second passive skill.

A gram of Flintium cost 100M Aether points, and 200M for Naequat, so 20B and 40B Aether points after conversion. It was a price that might seem excessive, but Jake had finally decided that what ultimately mattered was getting the final victory. And his Oracle Coach seemed to agree with him.

[Side Mission n°4: Save Laudarkvik's population from the Purge.]

[Side Mission n°5: Get your revenge against Lost Divinities.]

These were the two Ordeal Missions he had recently been issued. The irony was that the Oracle had not asked him to conquer Laudarkvik at the time, as if the Oracle did not think he could do it. Now that he had achieved the impossible, his objectives had been adjusted to reflect his new intentions and abilities.

The last mission had been assigned to him even more recently, when Ruby and Asfrid had been ambushed. The Oracle System at last had enough common decency to stop requesting him to "save his Soulmate", but that didn't stop it from finding more roundabout ways to phrase it...

Getting revenge on Lost Divinities was a vague term. The key idea was that he had to make them regret ever messing with him. That could mean defeating them, killing them, or ruining their designs on Quanoth, but it also suggested that he should undo, or even overcompensate for, any wrongs they had inflicted on him. It wasn't too far-fetched to imagine that saving Ruby or bringing her to her senses was part of it.

Unfortunately, he would soon learn that the emergence of this fifth Side Mission was no accident.

Jake finished donning his armor and the various passives in the set resonated with his body, increasing his stats and affinity for the elements related to his Bloodline. The molten rock beneath his feet, the caress of lightning and light, his own spiritual and Aetheric fluctuations were amplified by a factor of 30, adding to the increase in Perception brought on by the armor and an unseen vortex formed around him.

For those with sufficiently keen Extrasensory Perception they would have been able to see how lightning, the rock and metal forming the mountain, and light would break down into Elemental Aether before being automatically absorbed into his body, armor or broadsword. If Jake didn't limit the phenomenon, the entire area would eventually be drained of all electricity, heat, and light, and the 20km mountain he had erected would eventually dissolve entirely.

Floating in the air, Jake deployed his mental sense at maximum range and his Spirit Body expanded to encompass a full sphere of space about 65m in radius. It didn't sound like much, but such a sphere contained over a million cubic meters of space.

When he repeated the same exercise by focusing his mental sense in one direction, he managed to project his consciousness over 1,150 kilometers. And his abilities to understand and calculate had grown into something equally absurd. His mind no longer received support from his comrades through the Spirit Shell, but with his armor he was almost as powerful.

With his Perception becoming artificially a million times greater than that of a normal human ( given Quanoth's Aether density), he could now clearly distinguish the X-shape of his chromosomes with as much clarity as if it were his hand a few inches from his face.

This kind of sensory experience combined with the proper cognitive faculties was just... mind-blowing.

Jake was about to climb back down from his stormy mountain when he suddenly became stiff.

"Mmm, I used up all the metal I promised to deliver to Hade. Duty first." He muttered quietly.

His eyes flared and the integrated circuit in his armor pulsed eerily. The mountain peak, lightning and heat formed a stream of purified matter and energy that was vacuumed up by Jake and his armor as if he had turned into an insatiable black hole. The mountain was disintegrating before his very eyes and the local temperature was dropping sharply.

The stormy black clouds turned to ice and began to plummet onto the mountain below. A literal hole in the sky appeared around Jake, an occurrence that South Quanoth had not witnessed in months.

As the Myrtharian gluttonously devoured everything around him, he lifted his palm and kilogram after kilogram of Adamantium Essence and other purified materials began to ooze out of his hand in an unbroken river that spiraled around him.

Indeed, Jake had tasted his own refined ingots and the metals he produced had also changed in quality. This was the exclusive benefit of a Gold Myrtharian. In less than an hour, half the mountain was disintegrated, but he had more than met his production quotas for the past and future days.

Satisfied, Jake lost interest in the frozen mountain and returned in a few supersonic bursts to his camp. Where once stood the mountain, there were no clouds for many kilometers around, and as he looked up, he could vaguely see the Mana Superstorm's multicolored lights quickly covering the planet.

His flamboyant arrival at the camp was immediately noticed. It was not every day that a comet of plasma and lightning drilled through the clouds, banishing the darkness and bathing them in its light.

He noticed that there were almost no tents left. Most of the Myrtharian Nerds were on missions, preparing for the impending migration.

Upon landing, Jake first visited Hade to give him the metal he had produced in the last few hours. The Aether Fluid Grandmaster's eyes narrowed as he perceived his friend's unfathomable aura. With his experience as an inventor, his focus immediately shifted to his armor.

"It seems... you didn't waste your time." Hade complimented sincerely. "Such armor must have been... expensive. How much Adamantium did you use?"

"About 1600 tons."

"As I though- WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" The black-haired man known for his trademark equanimity howled in shock as he took in the horrific amount of magic metal squandered.

"It was worth it." Jake justified himself laconically.

Hade stared at the metal tile and as he watched it crumble under the boots of Jake's armor, he could only capitulate.

"What about the metal I need?" He finally remembered." I'm in no hurry, but you were the one who asked me to make these Portable Fortresses.

Jake dropped the tons of Adamantium Essence and other metals he had produced in the workshop, and Hade's expression widened to shock.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked as he examined an Adamantium bead glistening tantalizingly.

"Yeah. The result of my latest progress. That's what I used for this armor."

Hade stood pensive for a moment, stiff-faced, then he uttered,

"If you can provide me with more, I should be able to do much better than Portable Fortresses. Let's go for a Spaceship."

Jake grinned devilishly,

"I was going to suggest that. But this time, I'll help design it."

Hade frowned, but with another lingering glance at his armor he accepted his help.

"Where is Craig by the way?" Jake remarked as he looked around the workshop for the chubby Player.

"Gone to find his teammates from New Earth. A few of them were in dire straits. I asked Immyr to escort him so he shouldn't have much to worry about even if it is an ambush of the caliber that caught Asfrid and Ruby last week."

Immyr was the name of his black dragon. Jake had never seen him in a combat situation, but from the Fluid Grandmaster's confident tone he shouldn't be too weak...

"And speaking of pets, your cat Crunch and your bird Lord Phenix have returned." Hade announced with a throbbing vein of annoyance on his forehead.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

The steel ceiling of Hade's underground workshop creaked and seconds later Crunch's huge, stupid head popped through the narrow doorway. As soon as his slitted yellow eyes locked on Jake, a cocky look appeared on the feline's face.

"Meow! Hey boss, I've been looking for you."