The Oracle Paths

A few seconds earlier, in another wing of the Divine Academy, a thunderous roar shattered the calm.

"STOP THIS!" Principal Grigori's enraged cry reverberated through the halls, startling the Myrtharian Nerds who were listening attentively to Ulfar's explanation about the Cultivation Rooms on their floor. The King of Beskyr remained silent with tight lips. The interruption of his guided tour had put a damper on his good mood.

Lucia's heart clenched with an unexplainable intuition as the furious cry reached her ears. Like many other Players and students, she tried to use her mental sense to locate the source of the outburst, but the academy's walls were impervious to her spiritual energy. In any case, it would have been useless. Less than half a second later, another equally enraged cry, tinged with panic, echoed from a completely different direction.

"YOU DARE!"

This time, even without using their mental sense, all the Players and students scattered throughout the academy turned their heads in unison towards the same location: the inner gardens where the Stele and the fountain were located.

"What is happening now, damn it?" Ulfar tsked, annoyed that someone was stealing his thunder.

Nyx, the twin with the Fate Bender Soul Class, made a confused moue with a finger on her lips and said, "Is another fool trying to steal the Stele again?"

It wasn't the first time such an incident had occurred, and Grigori had reacted promptly and overbearingly on each occasion. Still, why did she have the feeling that this time the principal's reaction was somewhat different? He seemed... nervous?

If Nyx could perceive it, her twin sister Eris and Ulfar, who had spent months in the Divine Academy, could also feel that something was amiss. There was no smoke without fire.

"Let's go see what's happening," the King of Beskyr suggested, but before he could finish his sentence, he felt an invisible wave of mental energy coursing through his body and penetrating the walls.

This energy was of a much higher quality, but also much faster and more elusive. The walls of the Academy couldn't stop it.

"An Oracle Scan?" Ulfar understood.

At the same time, dozens of Oracle Scans swept through the Divine Academy, emitted by curious Players who weren't afraid to spend a few million Aether points. When the King of Beskyr turned to search for who had launched the Oracle Scan on their side, his eyes fell on Lucia's distressed expression.

"It's Jake," She sighed, her golden eyebrows furrowed with worry enhancing her natural charm. "He managed to devour the Stele."

The other Myrtharian Nerds, Wyatt, and Carmin facepalmed with uncanny synchronicity. As for Ryne and Ashun, the two guests, their mouths opened wide. They were speechless.

"All right... As expected from our leader," Will grumbled, rubbing his temples to relieve an imminent headache, his face fatigued from exhaustion.

"Boss is still boss," Rogen chuckled joyfully, having already forgotten his dismay after discovering that Gerul had obtained a Soul Class of a higher Tier than his own.

"What do we do? Do we join him or wait here?" Wyatt asked neutrally, raising an eyebrow.

He wanted to finish exploring the academy and its facilities to resume his training as soon as possible. Jake's exploits and the emergence of all these powerful rivals had put pressure on him. His desire to become stronger quickly had never been more urgent.

Lucia wanted to answer him when suddenly all the Myrtharian Nerds received a telepathic message from Jake. A real telepathic message via his mental sense, not a message in the Faction Chat or a remote communication via their bracelets.

At that moment, all the Myrtharian Nerds changed their expressions. Their mental sense couldn't penetrate a single wall, but their leader had no trouble reaching them with his? What kind of absurdity was this?

If Wyatt, Carmin, Ryne, and Ashun didn't know at first whose mental sense it was, they immediately understood upon seeing the solemn expressions of the Myrtharian Nerds. This dealt another blow to the Vampire Progenitor's ego, and his resolve to intensify his training in the near future skyrocketed, becoming unshakable.

"How strong has he become?" Tim muttered under his breath.

That was what everyone wanted to know.

"What did he say?" Carmin asked out of curiosity.

"No need to wait for him," Hephais responded flatly, popping the bubble gum in his mouth. The gum splattered on his face, ruining his aura of brooding bad boy.

"He went back to his building due to a situation. He'll meet us tomorrow at the academy's briefing about our next Ordeal," Will clarified for the four Players who were not part of their faction.

When the merchant mentioned the word "situation," none of them had any doubts about what it was referring to. This emergency clearly had to do with the famous Stele that Jake had just devoured.

"As expected from our leader..." Crunch repeated in a perfect imitation of Will's weary voice.

"..."

*****

"He devoured the Stele and Grigori failed to retrieve it in time? Interesting," Hazzom, the unfathomable leader of Demiurges who had earlier saved his subordinate Bhomuro from Jake's clutches, began to smile.

He had used only his mental sense to understand what was happening.

"..."

It was a rare event that sent a shiver of fear through his companions. The last time it had happened, he had set out to conquer a new Digestor Dungeon without asking for their opinion. The losses had been severe, even for an elitist super faction like theirs.

As expected, the minds of these Intersystem class Players could not be apprehended in the same way as their humble, ordinary Player counterparts.

*****

"He devoured the Stele?" Neri displayed a mischievous smile upon hearing the juicy gossip from the mouths of other students in the midst of a heated conversation.

Just imagining all the headaches and sleepless nights that this Jake would inflict upon Psykow, her unscrupulous superior, put her in a wonderfully good mood. Skipping with her hands in her pockets in an unladylike manner, her sinister laughter echoed through the halls, terrifying passing students.

*****

Jake had indeed returned to his building as soon as Grigori had been distracted by Aurae. On the one hand, because the building was supposed to be inviolable, granting access only to its owner and authorized people. And on the other hand, he actually needed peace and quiet to study the consequences of digesting such a Stele inside his body.

At last, he also wanted to know what kind of unidentified Soul Class had been forcibly imposed upon him. It was not a matter to be taken lightly. A Soul Class altered an individual's soul deeply, personality included.

He couldn't simply accept his fate in resignation. He had to understand his exact situation in order to adjust his behavior and future plans.

Jake and Xi had already discussed how they were going to identify a Soul Class that had all of its information replaced with ???. Because yes, it wasn't just the name that was a mystery. The skills and their descriptions were unfortunately replaced with ??? as well. It was the kind of hot potato he would gladly do without.

"It won't do." Jake naturally refused to accept his fate. He was going to identify that Soul Class one way or another.

His first thought was to assume that Aurae or the Oracle was behind this trickery, but after calming down, another hypothesis began to emerge in his mind. Anything that the Oracle Device failed to appraise could only be related to the Digestors. Otherwise, his bracelet would have sent him notifications like:

[Please increase your Oracle Rank to access the content of this information.]

Or:

[For reasons that your level of authority does not allow you to know, the specifics of the Soul Class imposed on you by xxx cannot be disclosed to you. Please take note of this message.]

However, just because he may have become a Digestor didn't mean he had to accept everything.

"If I can't scan you with a bracelet connected to the Oracle System, what if I scan you using my own body through Artefact Incarnation?" He snarled grimly.

This was the plan he had decided on with Xi. With a single thought, he switched the choice of Artifact Incarnation currently set on Purgatory to the original Oracle Device. Now each of his mental probes once again had the power of an Oracle Scan.

However, in this form, his body was no longer tied to the Oracle System. But that didn't matter. He didn't need it. He would use his own senses and cognitive power to process these data.

"Oracle Status." Jake declared in a husky voice.

His Spirit Body momentarily recoiled upon itself, dangerously compressing and releasing a spiritual shockwave that spread inward until colliding and reverberating back. Jake's eyes shone like moonlight as he received the complex feedback.

His brain and soul calculated and interpreted the signal composed of billions of data for several long seconds, then Jake opened his mouth and began to pronounce word by word, his forehead furrowed in concentration:

"My... Soul... Class... Is..."