The Oracle Paths

In the meantime they would have to be content with that. Even someone like Jake who possessed the Aether Self-Encoding skill would benefit greatly from these Grade 2 Encodings.

By raising his Strength, Agility, but especially his Constitution to 1000 points, his resistance to temperature and radiation would be greatly enhanced, which would allow him to accelerate his training speed a bit more, not to mention the potential time savings of raising these stats instantly.

Over the next few minutes, everyone transferred the required Aether to the appropriate people, while Will reached into their Faction Vault to provide the crystals needed to store the different types of Aether. Since Aether crystals were the main currency of the Mirror Universe, each Faction and Evolver always had a few on them at any given time.

These crystals didn't have to come from precious stones, glass would do just fine although it wasn't ideal. In fact, any object could be used as an Aether vessel within its capacity, but translucent, colorless crystals such as glass, crystal, zirconium or diamond had the merit of changing color depending on the type of Aether contained within. It was obviously not the crystal that changed color on its own, but the encoded Aether was designed with this function to simplify transactions.

For some mysterious reason, with the exception of pure Aether, the bracelets could not hold the other types of Aether and therefore needed to be stored in another form.

Someone like Jake had good enough Aether Control to control these different types of Aether with his mind to conduct this transfer mentally, but not everyone did. To avoid any accidents or Aether loss, crystals became the norm.

Grade 2 Strength Aether consumed 100 Aether points per point of encoded Strength Aether and as such this method of advancement was not affordable for everyone. With Grade 2 Aether costing 100 times more than Grade 1, but only allowing for a 10-fold increase in stats, one could imagine the price skyrocketing with the higher Grades.

That said, no one hesitated for a second to spend the Aether required to upgrade their stats. Jake spent those few million Aether points without batting an eyelid, which were nothing more than a drop in the bucket compared to his current wealth.

Even after spamming his Oracle Shield like crazy against Nylreg and Verxes, he still had 12.7B Aether points left. He could do many things with that kind of money, like robbing the Oracle Store for starters.

His comrades weren't much poorer. Tim, Will, Vincent and the two sisters were also present when they had used their Jackpot Cards in the Purgatory. They all had between 5 and 12B Aether points, enough to change their destiny no matter how hopeless they were.

Kevin, Lily and Daniel were somewhat jealous and distraught at their friends' outrageous wealth, but when Vincent gave Kevin a billion Aether points, the others suddenly felt the need to reciprocate. Not Jake, though...

Instead, he shamelessly threw out,

"I need to keep my Aether to develop the Faction, my Floating Island and the Purgatory. You'll thank me when this is over."

For good measure, he added 5B to the Myrtharian Nerds' Aether Storage. With his current Oracle Rank he could theoretically upgrade the Faction multiple times, but 5B worth of Aether points was just enough to upgrade it from level 3 to level 5.

[Faction Name: Myrtharian Nerds]

[ Faction level: Lvl5 (Promotional conditions: 10B Aether pts, Oracle Rank Command Sergeant Major or higher)]

[ Number of members: 64/800 (51 humans, 12 felines and 1 baby dragon)]

[Faction Aether Storage: 5 000 498 356pts]

[ Aether production: 0 pts/s ]

[ Faction Skills:]

[Permanent Passive Skill lvl5: Myrtharian Body (30% (20>30% or +5% per level) of the leader's capacity): Body stats boosted by 240%.]

[Faction Space Vault lvl5: 160 (40>160, double with each level) cubic meters of common storage space accessible to authorized members and which can be compartmentalized into several blocks depending on the level of authorization and trust. Activation cost: 100 000 Aether pts/day.the daily cost can be shared by the faction's members. ]

[Vitality Link lvl5: Allows the temporary transfer of member vitality to the Skill Activator. An injury can also be transferred to another member with its agreement. Cost: 600 000 (800 000> 600 000 or -100 000 per level) Aether points per minute.]

[New Skill available!]

[Main Floating Island affiliate: 12]

[Subfactions: Myrtharian Scavengers, The Aristocats]

As soon as the Faction was upgraded, everyone's expression changed dramatically. Tim and Kyle immediately flexed their biceps with delighted laughter, but not everyone shared their enthusiasm.

Lily, Enya, and Esya were on the verge of crying, their hearts caught between the joy of experiencing their bodies getting stronger and the looming horror of yet another growth spurt.

"Ugh... I grew 20cm in a few days last time... A little more and I'll be taller than my dad." Esya complained while nearly plucking her hair out of despair.

Jake snorted as he overheard her dig at him.

"So what? What's wrong with being tall?"

"If only it were just that..." Lily pouted cutely. "Look at my abs!"

To support her statement, she raised the top of her armor slightly, revealing her belly button and abnormally shaped six-pack for a girl of her age.

"Who will I appeal to with a body like that?" She shouted with a sense of desperation.

Jake's face twitched but he had no real counter-arguments to offer. There were no accounting for taste and color. Because he had chosen power regardless of the cost, he didn't have the same reservations as the three young women.

"If it's any consolation, you look hotter than ever." Kevin complimented them with a wink, saving Jake's ass on this one.

It worked like a charm. After this small compliment the three young women stopped being depressed.

"We are part of the Myrtharian Nerds." Will added more seriously, "One day this Faction will be a force to be reckoned with. One day this Faction may have millions or even billions of members. This Myrtharian Body will soon become the norm for all these people. Don't forget that the Mirror Universe is vast and that your aesthetic criteria could be considered ugly for another civilization. Until we are strong enough, it seems absurd to me to waste time on these cosmetic details."

Vincent, who hadn't said much since the beginning, shrugged indifferently.

"The Myrtharian Body Passive makes me heavier, but the benefits are well worth it."

Satisfied with the support of his male comrades, Jake grinned then ended the debriefing.

"We'll pick the new Faction Skill some other day. I think everyone is tired and needs a rest."

"About my sister..." Kyle muttered apprehensively.

"Give me a few hours." Jake hadn't forgotten. "Will, I'm sorry to bother you but can you look into it? Kyle will fill you in on the details."

"Sure." The businessman nodded in a neutral tone. He already knew about this matter.

The others wore puzzled expressions, but they curbed their curiosity.

"What about the solution I wanted to discuss with you, Jake?" Tim whispered telepathically as the others were starting to leave.

They had all decided to go to Will's Floating Island, which at least had the merit of having an operational building with all the conveniences necessary for a comfortable stay. Only the Aristocats liked it on his island. Jake could see their feces, hair and claw marks all over his island.

"If it doesn't take long we can discuss it now." Jake hesitated imperceptibly, but eventually agreed upon seeing the kid's mysterious attitude.

The other members glanced at them curiously, especially Lily who didn't understand why Tim didn't leave with her, but they eventually disappeared into the Orange Cube one after the other. When only the two of them were left, Jake erected a force field to isolate them from possible spies and said kindly,

"So, what did you want to tell me, Tim?"

Tim put on a solemn expression and took out of his pocket a vial filled with a distinctive vermilion liquid, which he handed to him. It was blood. And this blood had an unusual Aether signature that Jake had only seen in one other person.

Inspecting the sample, Jake frowned, then looked up at the teen with a serious look on his face.

"You want to trade your Blood Essence for mine?" He guessed calmly. "If our Bloodlines could be merged, it would indeed fill the gaps in your Beskyrian Bloodline. Your Lucky Body and Inner Luck Skill would also be a good addition to my Myrtharian Bloodline. Because I am the Faction Leader, the Passive Skill would retroactively increase the luck of all members.

"That's a good idea." Jake concluded, nodding his head to Tim's delight, "But, it has yet to be proven possible. I'll give you a dose of my blood in a few days and we'll go see Cekt Mogusar together to seek his advice. For now, you can keep this sample."

Jake handed the blood vial back to the teenager, who put on a relieved face. If Jake had simply taken his Blood Essence without promising him anything in return, he would have really lost out.

With this promise, Tim left a little more serene, his good mood restored. The Orange Cube flashed one last time and Jake found himself alone on his Floating Island. He was about to study the Purgatory when it was his Yellow Cube that flickered this time.

One flash later, a pack of 16 huge felines, the smallest the size of an elephant, descended on his island. All smeared with silver blood, they were dragging the carcasses of several Digestors in their mouths. A bit further back, a huge black cat with a big head was peering at him with a dumb look...

The Aristocats were back from hunting.