The Oracle Paths

"This thing you wanted to show me earlier is..."

Jake's lips parted to voice his question, but Xi silenced him with a hushed tone. "Don't say it! I still need to verify that it's actually possible," she cautioned.

Having connected the dots between his newfound abilities – Life Manipulation, Cosmic Manipulation, Familiars, and Artefact Incarnation – Jake realized what Xi intended to do. It was emotionally overwhelming for him, but paradoxically, he was also quite confident in the feasibility of her plan.

Xi wanted to create a body that would belong to her, and even though it would be generated from Jake's cells, he could easily recombine his own DNA and shape-shift with relative ease. This meant that his Familiars' bodies didn't have to resemble him; they could choose an appearance and body that suited them.

Although Jake had yet to experiment with his skills as a biologist, he knew deep down that it was possible. After all, who but he could claim to know for sure what he was capable of?

Xi, with their spirits forming one or almost one, had an understanding of his abilities as good, if not better than he did. However, the question mark remained regarding his Digestor abilities. He asked her immediately to clarify his doubts.

"Xi, can you access the genetic and Aetheric database that I see when I go into deep meditation?"

[If you're talking about that Digestor ability that allows you to combine and modify different bloodlines for your next evolution... No. I cannot,] Xi admitted regretfully without beating around the bush.

Jake nodded. "I see..."

Xi didn't want to rush things, and with good reason. Jake's Oracle Status didn't mention the strange database somewhere in his mind, and even with their close connection, she couldn't access it either.

This could only mean one thing: his Digestor abilities remained a mystery to the Oracle and the rest of the Mirror Universe. This kind of all-encompassing interference was so advanced that it even deceived the Oracle AI, which was closely linked to his mind. Jake couldn't fathom how a bloodline from a mere Fourth-Ordeal Player, whatever his grade, could accomplish such a feat.

Jake had a gnawing suspicion that an entity or force greater than that of the Oracle was hiding behind this mystery. It also implied that the description of his Bloodline was incomplete. The Oracle System only had a superficial understanding of his abilities, but it was already enough for his Bloodline to be bestowed with the Grade ???.

To get more answers, Jake planned to seek the help of his master, Cekt Mogusar, as soon as he returned from his Ordeal. As for Xi's wish... Jake intended to do his best to fulfill it. But not now.

Just imagining how his companions and the academy students would react to seeing him playing God with his biomass in a public garden was embarrassing enough to make him cringe.

"Let's try it out when things are calm." Jake finally promised in a low voice.

[Hmm!]

Over the next two hours, Jake set out to explore and test his new abilities. Of course, in the most discreet and low-profile manner possible. His goal was not to blow up the Divine Academy.

He first tested his Cosmic Manipulation ability. In the palm of his raised hand, a small orb of yellow-orange plasma floated a few centimeters above his palm. Around it, several billiard-sized spheres with irregular surfaces revolved more or less quickly around this fiery orb, forming a familiar image.

It looked like a miniature representation of the solar system, except that there was only one star and three tiny planets here. The similarity only held up from a distance. Once one studied this star and planets up close, they would quickly realize that they were only pale copies of their astronomical version.

While this fake sun was rather convincing, these fake "planets" were to Earth what the Moon was: They were plain and lacked nuance.

Firstly, they had no water, and their composition was certainly diverse, but not at all credible. Indeed, Jake could only spontaneously create what he had already eaten, although he no longer had all these limitations.

The ironic consequence was that he could probably easily create a planet composed exclusively of Adamantium and Orichalcum, but if someone asked him to design an exoplanet conducive to the development of life...

Let's just say that if the Oracle entrusted him with the creation of B43, there would be no need to wait for the Digestors to finish off its future inhabitants. To survive, except perhaps for those gifted alien races, they would have no choice but to hide forever in an Oracle Shelter.

After a brief moment of amusement, Jake let go with a disgruntled twitch of his lip. In the coming months, he wouldn't have to worry about what to train for.

Jake then tested his Artifact Incarnation ability. It turned out to be more intuitive than he had initially thought. Currently, it was set to Oracle Device mode by default, hence its mental probes resembling Oracle Scans. Therefore, the first thing he tried was to change this default artifact.

He thought of his Purgatory, and suddenly, a vast dimension with landscapes precisely as he imagined them appeared in his mind. All sorts of features were at his disposal, but no mental interface was there to assist him. He had to rely on his instincts to control everything.

However, that had its advantages too. A red light flashed in Jake's silver-black eyes, and a five-meter diameter domain spread around him, covering the nearby gardens and momentarily making the Stele and the fountain disappear behind him. In this space, Jake was like a god. He could control every parameter, from the environment to the temperature, to the vegetation to the life forms, and even technology.

In that respect, his Purgatory was the same. What had changed was the difficulty of using it.

Before, to use it, Jake would have to carefully count his Aether points. The Purgatory produced 1 billion Aether points per day but squandered many more every minute when deployed at full power.

The situation was completely different now. His Space Storage and all his possessions had been liquidated, but while he had never been so poor, he was short of everything except Aether.

Jake didn't dare deploy his Purgatory at full power here for fear of incurring the wrath of Principal Grigori, a genuine Rank 4 Oracle Overseer. Nevertheless, he had this feeling that even if he encompassed the entire Celestial City in his domain, he would be able to maintain the illusion of his Purgatory forever.

It was, by far, his most overpowered ability!

Jake then tested other Artifact Incarnations, such as the Codex of Aurae, which was supposed to be a Gold Aether Artifact, but he felt an excruciating pain in his bones when he tried to give his body its properties. His body was too weak, so he then tried to summon each Artifact through a Phantasm.

This time, a multi-faceted crystalline dice was displayed in his right hand. The illusion was lifelike. Likewise, with another thought he managed to conjure up his Purgatory in his left hand, and then his God Slayer Broadsword in his right hand without much effort. He even managed to don his entire Myrtharian Adamantium Armor Set.

On the visual aspect, it was extremely cool. It reminded him of those anime characters who could summon magical weapons and armor with a single thought.

As Jake played with his new powers, an uncomfortable shiver suddenly ran down his spine, making his hair stand on end. He jerked his head up, his eyes wide open, but soon he relaxed his vigilance. The strange feeling of danger had already disappeared and it had been so short-lived that he began to wonder if he was becoming paranoid.

As Jake returned to his experiments with a boyish grin, several Ancient Designer-level spiritual presences had sneaked into the Stele he was leaning against and jointly begun to alter it with frightening speed and efficiency.

If Jake had caught them in the act, he probably would have felt the same way as a prehistoric man seeing a giant spaceship flying overhead. It was that kind of trauma.

Moments later, he felt that sense of danger again when those monstrous presences left the Stele once their maintenance work was done. Jake didn't believe in coincidences and this time he swung around and stared at the Stele, his sword brandished and his Purgatory ready to be deployed.

He stood still for several minutes until he realized that there was no one there but him. The murmurs of other students finally made him feel ashamed despite his thick skin and he gave up. It didn't matter if he was hallucinating or not... The point was that they were gone.

Time ticked by and soon Jake noticed before he knew it that the maintenance of the Stele had already been completed several minutes ago. At that moment, his eyes fluttered with excitement and he jumped to his feet impatiently.

Fearless, he placed his hand on the Stele and closed his eyes. It was time to choose a new Soul Class.