The Oracle Paths

When Jake bought this Oracle Skill he thought he had made a good deal, as it allowed him to get what he needed wherever he was. Typically, if he found himself teleported to the bottom of an ocean at the beginning of an Ordeal, he would have been able to purchase a diving suit immediately, as long as he paid full price for it.

As it was, he was too strong to need that kind of equipment and too poor to afford the artifacts and skills he really needed. Except for buying one or two small items, this Oracle Skill had never been used to its full potential.

That was about to change.

"Xi, upgrade the Portable Oracle Store to level 5." Jake requested calmly.

There was a reason he hadn't been greedier. From level 6 onwards, the price of most Oracle Skills reached sky-high prices. Even with his wealth, he had to think twice before buying them through the Portable Oracle Store where everything cost him two hundred times more.

This was because, as Xi had explained to him earlier, even though the Oracle Store only displayed prices in Aether points, its items were categorized according to value and Oracle Rank requirement and then assigned a Grade. This Grade was obviously the Grade of Aether.

In the Ordeal Store, because the value of the credits doubled with each Ordeal and their Grade increased by one, a level 1 Oracle Skill might be worth 10-100 credits, then 20-200 at level 2, 40-400 at level 3, and so on.

In the Oracle Store, although the prices displayed may differ from those in the Ordeal Store, the logic would be more along the following lines: A level 1 Oracle Skill worth 1 billion Aether points would be worth 2 billion at level 2, then suddenly 400 billion at level 3 instead of the expected 4 billion.

This was because its actual price of 4 billion Aether points was calculated on the basis of Grade 2 Red Aether, with each Grade 2 Aether point being worth 100 Grade 1.

For the most part, Jake and Xi observed that this was a recurring pattern. When it came to Oracle Skills, or Aether Skills, the first two or three levels had reasonable prices that doubled or tripled with each upgrade. But for other skills, the upgrade cost jumped exponentially from level 2 onwards.

The Portable Oracle Store Skill fell into this second category, with its upgrade cost increasing 100-fold with each level. The Oracle was no fool and knew that if it priced this Oracle Skill too low, all the Players would rush in and it was sure to lose out in the future when its Oracle Store was ransacked in the midst of an Ordeal by unscrupulous Players.

Fortunately, that was why Jake had upgraded this Oracle Skill in the first place. At level 6, it was no longer as select and could fit into the skillset of Players with more modest financial resources.

Seeing how worthwhile this Oracle Skill was, Jake weighed the pros and cons with figurative grit, then gave in to temptation and asked Xi to upgrade it once more to level 6.

[It's done.]

Jake glanced at the description of the freshly upgraded Oracle Skill and felt a deep sense of contentment.

[Portable Oracle Store lvl6: The owner of the Oracle Device can access the Oracle Store from anywhere, including during an Ordeal, and his purchases will be delivered instantly. However, the prices of the goods in the Oracle Store will be 5 times more expensive. Regardless of the item purchased, a shipping fee of 20M Aether pts will be charged.]

"Awesome."

His mood darkened sharply right afterwards when he saw that his previous fortune of 110 sextillion Aether points had just been cut by nearly 20 sextillions. The reality check brought him crashing down from his lofty dream of boundless riches.

The Portable Oracle Store lvl7 cost a whopping 800 sextillion Aether points and that was taking into account the upgrade of the Portable Oracle Store to level 6.

"Okay, I guess level 6 is my limit." Jake reluctantly sighed.

This was also the case with the Ordeal Store. Most level 6 Oracle Skills cost between 320 and 3200 credits. Even with his 3010 credits that didn't give him much room to maneuver. If he focused on one of the cheaper Oracle Skills, he could upgrade it from level 6 to 7 for 640 credits.

If he was willing to wait until the end of his Fifth Ordeal, the value and Grade of his credits would double again, allowing him to buy level 7 or 8 Oracle Skills for the same number of credits.

It was tempting, of course, but Jake had always been a firm advocate of immediately converting any credits in his possession into his own strength. What he was certain of was that he didn't want to die filthy rich and full of regrets for not spending his fortune sooner.

Yet, he was also acutely aware that he was no longer just another guy. He had a solid bank account and an ability to increase his purchasing power that was probably unrivaled among Fourth-Ordeal Players.

Therefore, Jake had only one real target in the Oracle Store: the Oracle Discount Skill. As far as he knew, only Will had bought it as a merchant and he never expected to follow suit.

[Oracle Discount lvl1: All items in the Oracle Store will be discounted by 5% of their listed price permanently for the owner of this Oracle Skill. Purchase cost: 10 credits]

This was the minimum price for a level 1 Oracle Skill from the Ordeal Store. However, as with the Portable Oracle Store, the Oracle knew that such a skill should not be too easy to upgrade or it would lose a great deal of profit in the very long run.

For this reason, its price was spiraling out of control in the Oracle Store even more than that of the Portable Oracle Store Skill, and its upgrade price in the Ordeal Store was no exception, although not as dramatic. Instead of the upgrade price doubling with each level, it tripled.

On the one hand, in the Ordeal Store upgrading from level 5 to 6 would "only" cost him 2430 credits, while in the Oracle Store upgrading from level 5 to 6 was currently costing a nightmarish 19 septillion Aether points.

It was the perfect target and his strategy was clear.

"Xi, buy the Oracle Discount Skill in the Oracle Store and upgrade it to level 5. Then spend 2430 credits to upgrade it to level 6 via the Ordeal Store." Jake ordered in a resolute voice.

[Consider it done.] Xi executed the command promptly.

A few seconds later, Jake inspected his brand new skill.

[Oracle Discount lvl6: All items in the Oracle Store will be permanently discounted by 30% for the holder of this Oracle Skill.]

Jake then reread the list of items in the Ordeal Store one last time to see if there was another good deal hidden among them, but after another long moment of deliberation, he decided not to buy anything else.

There were unique items that could only be acquired through the Ordeal Store, but even after careful consideration, Jake did not think he urgently needed them. As for the other items and skills he could afford, he could also buy them via the Blue Cube on his Floating Island at their real price.

In this context, he couldn't find a good reason to spend the remaining credits.

"That's it. I'll keep the 580 credits for next time." Jake concluded his shopping session satisfied and signaled his intention to close the interface and leave the Red Cube.

As he was about to close the Ordeal Store interface, another message from the Oracle System popped up in his mind.

[Evaluation of Player Jake Wilderth's cumulative performance in the first four Ordeals ongoing...]

[First Ordeal: Status: Alive. Main Mission: Accomplished. Ranking: 844th/8,658,435. Global Ranking: Top 0.01%.]

[Second Ordeal: Status: Alive. Main Mission: Accomplished. Ranking: 1st/11,658,435. Global Ranking: Top 0.000 000 001%.]

[Third Ordeal: Status: Alive. Main Mission: Accomplished. Ranking: 1st/6,694,729. Global Ranking: Top 0.000 000 000 01%.]

[Fourth Ordeal: Status: Alive. Main Mission: Accomplished. Ranking: 1st/9,891,386. Global Ranking: Top 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 01%.]

[Analysis completed. After deliberation, the Nobility Rank of Oracle Knight is awarded to Player Jake Wilderth. VIP Ordeal Store unlocked in advance.]

At that moment, the Ordeal Store interface that he was about to close suddenly changed and a new tab labeled "VIP Ordeal Store" appeared at the bottom of the five categories, unofficially becoming the sixth.

Jake, who was previously satisfied with his purchases, began to have a bad feeling. Had the Oracle been waiting until now to make him spend his credits in advance?

When he anxiously clicked on the tab, a short list of items scrolled before his eyes and upon seeing the price of the first item, an unprecedented sense of anger and humiliation stemming from the insidious conviction of being scammed almost made him faint. The Oracle had fooled him. Once again...

[Dungeon Digestor Nexus: The Nexus of a freshly captured Rank 15 Dungeon Digestor. Cost: 3010 credits.]