The Oracle Paths

An hour before dawn, Jake, Hephais, and the rest of their makeshift squad made their way as planned to the Ironsoul Berserker Army Quarters, Ground 3, positioned on the outskirts of the camp town. The night had been eventful, but only the two Players in the group who had actively contributed to the chaos were aware of it.

On the way back, Amy had asked which camp he was stationed at so she could join the same regiment. Jake hesitated to tell the truth, but after some thought, he decided that hiding his identity would become a major headache from now on.

Not only had Cho Min Ho circulated a sketch of his current appearance to other generals (he had learned this from Meribelle the night before), but the presence of Nerds like Hephais, Crunch, or Lord Phenix clustering around him would soon give him away.

Jake could have altered his appearance again, asked Hephais and his other companions to pretend they didn't know him, but considering their Oracle System was acting up, it was better for them to stay together. Besides, after his feats last night, he knew that friends and foes alike, both natives and Players, would now be keeping a close eye on him.

Even if he managed to fool everyone and convince his close circle, there were factors beyond his control, like the faction of loyalist Soulmancers led by Meribelle. He had no doubt that the young woman would choose him over Cho Min Ho after witnessing last night's events while tailing him, but it wasn't certain that one or more of her allies wouldn't decide otherwise.

Fortunately, the fortified camp where Amy and Lee Yon were currently assigned was only a few hundred kilometers from his, separated by a single tributary. In other words, just a neighbor's threshold for Players like them. They would have no trouble sneaking away to discreetly join his future regiment.

After all, although they officially had orders and rules to follow, there were so many anonymous conscripts that no one would bother to enforce them or check their identity unless they were suspected of treason. In a modern world, strict identification would have been the norm, but here, it was the Abyssal Revenant Ledger that arbitrarily determined if someone was problematic or not.

The Snitch Rings they had received monitored and recorded all their actions, and after their nocturnal escapade, going against all these military regulations, all adventurous Players now had the assurance that the old Revenant could be flexible when necessary. Unless a camp city faced mass desertion/migration, one or two absentees would not alarm the ancient ledger.

Anticipating such a scenario, Jake had not stopped at the Life Lumyst Baptisms after separating from Amy and Lee Yoon. Accompanied by Crunch and Lord Phenix, who had insisted on following him, the trio then hurried to ascend the Lumyst River in reverse in order to undergo as many Spirit Lumyst baptisms as possible before the next sunrise.

Although his Soul and Spirit Body were comparatively his fortes, especially compared to other natives of the Duskwight Lands, Jake had only managed to enchant his soul 14 times in a row, despite managing to swim much closer to the Underword Cascade. He was just a few hundred meters from the immensely gigantic cascade when he was finally forced to lower his aspirations.

The first reason was that his soul and Spirit Body had already reached an abnormally high evolutionary threshold even compared to average eighth-ordeal Players. The fact that his Soul and Spirit Body could recover in no time from supposedly irreversible damage that should take years to heal was a glaring sign.

On this point, the willing sacrifice of Jeanie, a Cyan Minmin boosting intelligence, had sparked unpredictable effects going far beyond a simple attribute boost.

The second reason was that Spirit Lumyst baptisms were riskier. While his body could recover from a total failure, as long as he had biomass and an intact mind, his soul had no safety net if it was severely damaged.

It was okay if the damage was light to moderate, but if his soul damage became more severe, Jake would suffer all sorts of troubles and liabilities that could compromise his mental health and safety. Amnesia, cognitive regression, and sensory deprivation were among the lesser evils that could afflict him.

It goes without saying that if his soul was completely annihilated due to a failed baptism, he could not come return to life as could be the case with his body. If his physical body remained whole, it might survive but would enter a vegetative coma until the eventual emergence of a new consciousness that would have nothing to do with the current him.

The new changes concerning his status were as follows, mirroring those following the Life Enchantments:

[Cosmic D Starveyrves Soul lvl1>lvl2 (+1>+14): Able to feed on any energy to continuously strengthen and regenerate.

[Attributes: Cosmic, Energy, Life, Space, Time.

[Soul Class: Aetherdream Inceptor

[Graces: Child of Lumyst(+1), Lumyst Breath (+3), Breath of Awakening(+9)

[Glyphs: Blacksmith (Platinum), …

[True Wills: Self, Crushing, Growth, …]

The second Grace obtained was exactly the same as that of his third Life Lumyst baptism, and like his Lumyst Aura, the two Graces had merged into an ability named Unified Lumyst Breath. He still had to explore what this Unified Lumyst Breath could do, and whether his Spirit Body could also form a Spirit Lumyst Core from now on.

For the moment being, Jake had merely confirmed that his Spirit Body now absorbed the Spirit Lumyst present in the atmosphere of the Duskwight Lands without altering it, an embryonic core seeming to slowly condense where his brain should be.

Where it became interesting was when Physical Body and Spirit Body were one, as was usually the case. Spirit and Life Lumyst would then circulate through a network of superimposed meridians, forming together the Unified Lumyst.

A larger channel than the others connected his heart, the seat of his Life Lumyst Core, to his brain, the location of his future Spirit Lumyst Core. If he had a Soul Lumyst Core, Jake supposed it must be in the same place.

The two types of Lumyst derived from them met and transmuted into each other halfway down this channel, forming a synergistic relationship beneficial to both parties, mutually reinforcing each other in an endless virtuous circle benefiting his entire body and mind.

The resemblance between this channel connecting his pair Cores and the Lumyst River connecting two waterfalls was too big to be a coincidence. Based on these new clues, Jake had a first theory about the origin of the two waterfalls and the river uniting them.

Perhaps, possibly, this world-plane where the entire ecosystem revolved around Lumyst was actually built not on something, but someone. The kind of someone on the level of Aurae.

Jake didn't feel like he was standing on a living being, so it could only be its corpse. That didn't mean that this world-plane wasn't sentient. In a world where Lumyst enchants everything it touches, anything was possible...

This led him to his third Grace, Breath of Awakening, which sounded slightly different from Breath of Living Elements. The latter allowed him to infuse his Lumyst with all sorts of attributes, although he felt like he had missed something.

Breath of Awakening was more straightforward. If he was right, its function was to spiritually awaken inert objects. With this new ability, his Lumyst was approaching the properties of the water flowing from the Underword Cascade.

By extrapolation, Jake could therefore deduce that Breath of Living Elements could breath life into inherently inorganic elements, approaching the function of Life Lumyst Water from the Heaven Cascade.

Thus, the circle was complete, a whole cultivation system revolving around enchantment had turn into his. He had only merely begun to scratch the surface of the benefits he could get from it.

Returning to his status, the alignment of his mind with his body had finally given the last push his bloodline needed to rise to level 2. The performance of all his bloodline abilities had at least doubled, not to mention his stats had risen substantially.

That was why Jake was willing to take the risk of exposing his identity. Even if they knew where he was, he was confident he could at least escape alive no matter what happened.

The other reason, finally, was that his first Grace, Child of Lumyst, was also complete. The laws of Twyluxia still rejected him strongly, but he could feel that the world's hostility towards him was no longer as skin-deep, as if he was part of it. As his Lumyst cultivation developed rapidly, he could truly feel the difference.

Time was on his side now.