The Oracle Paths

Jake and Will were stunned by the cliché sounding name of this Soul Class, but after a second thought they agreed that this was a fitting occupation for the swordsman. No sooner had he arrived in the Dungeon than he had immediately offended a necromancer, then after losing track of him immediately refocused his attention on his original prey, an authentic archdemon.

With the discussion over, the group searched the Nexus Floor one last time for any loot left behind, but it had all been destroyed during the clash with the Dungeon avatar. According to Cekt, if an Aether Artifact was strong enough to survive such a confrontation, then Kokoon would not have ignored it anyway.

In the doubt that other survivors or victims would have met with the unfortunate fate of ending up trapped in the Dungeon's mucous membranes like Garrow, Cekt did a rigorous and thorough scan of the nearby floor walls, but it turned out that the swordsman was the only exception.

Funnily enough, it was this forced confinement that had probably saved his life. Kokoon had spared no one. Of the few hooded Evolvers found among the dead, there was little left but a few scraps of equipment.

Coming up empty-handed, the group finally began their climb back to the surface. With the protection of a Rank 3 Aetherist, they were all relaxed and could finally enjoy each Dungeon floor for its unique scenery and landscapes rather than for its inherent dangers.

All the Digestors had been wiped out and there was nothing left to be gained. Left fallow, the Dungeon would become a natural underground haven that would soon be reclaimed by other Digestors.

Even after the Dungeon Digestor's death, Digestors would not stop spawning, but they would no longer have any special advantages or attributes at birth. Their appearance would become partially random again, and it would be up to them to devour other prey to build their own path and perhaps mutate into something exceptional.

When he reached the Second Floor, Cekt smiled mysteriously and said something that aroused his disciple's dormant curiosity.

"By the way Jake, before coming here I also had to rescue two other disciples of mine. This will be the opportunity to introduce them to you. With you, there are seven of you in total and you represent my last generation of students. There is only one at the moment who is qualified to study with me, but I hope it won't be long before you join in either."

Jake wondered why he was telling him about all this. The little alien wasn't the type to make him jealous, nor was he the type to arouse his competitive spirit in order to pressure him to excel. All Cekt wanted was results. However, what he announced next shook him to the core.

"On my way here, I also met two friends of yours who claim to know you. They were looking for you. One was a young blonde woman carrying a blood-red sword, while the other was a ridiculously large mini giant who somewhat resembled you."

Jake and Will first thought of Sarah, the young woman they had expelled from the Myrtharian Nerds, but that didn't fit with the description of the second individual. The second person could just as easily be one of his cousins like Kevin, whose build matched.

"Can you describe the man to me?" Jake inquired in a hesitant tone.

"Sure..." The gremlin paused for a painfully long time to build up the suspense before finally blurting out. "Three meters tall, built like a mountain of muscle, dark and shiny skin like Essence Bronze, a long mane as silver as a full moon, irises of the same color, a square and protruding jaw, long translucent protruding canines and claws to match. His body temperature is like a burning furnace and his skin smells like volcanic rock and coal. Not very talkative, the man seems to be a simpleton and a bit of a fool, but his gaze is wise and clear, free of all temptations.

"You know how to choose your friends." Cekt concluded with approval.

Jake and Will exchanged a stunned look. How could they forget that memorable Kintharian?

Will had only briefly glimpsed Gerulf alongside Servius Cassius at the slave auction that marked the very beginning of their First Ordeal, but Kyle and Jake had sung his praises extensively. Jake, in particular, owed his life and his current success to him in more ways than one.

Not daring to believe it, Jake then thought of the young blonde woman accompanying him and his face went rigid with shock.

"Lucia and Gerulf!" He exclaimed in disbelief.

"It would seem that you know them well, indeed." Cekt thoughtfully stroked his goatee with a satisfied smile, pleased with the effect of his announcement.

Maeve was unimpressed at the news, but when Will explained that Kyle and Jake had been trained by Gerulf and that their faction's Myrtharian Body passive came from that giant, her reaction changed dramatically.

She herself owed her life to this Passive Skill, or the non-existent atmosphere, high temperature and inhospitable radiation of the Fourth Floor would have ended her adventure prematurely. She was intrigued by such an individual.

After that, Jake and Will were more than eager to get back to the surface and the Wendok didn't have the heart to mess with them. The translucent shield that served as their mode of transportation suddenly shot skyward, hurtling into the ultra-wide hole that Cekt had previously created with his Inference Spell.

A blink of an eye later, they were back on the surface. The conical, spiral mountain that once marked the entrance to the Dungeon had been completely wiped out by the Aetherist's Inference Spell.

The weather was as horrible as ever, the thick black storm clouds still blocking the sun from beaming down on their faces, but the anxiety and apprehension that had stuck with them for the past few days was all but gone.

The first thing the group saw as they emerged from the hole was the Dungeon's survivors clustered together around an imposing six-armed Oracle Guardian. What immediately struck them was the pitiful number of survivors.

Of the tens of thousands of beasts and thousands of Evolvers and refugees that had entered the Dungeon, only a handful remained. A few hundred at most.

Sympathetic, but not overly concerned about their fate, Jake and Will anxiously searched for the rest of their subordinates. When they spotted Svara and a few dozen familiar faces, they finally relaxed.

The duo immediately began a head count, but as they did so, their faces soon darkened. Of the nearly hundreds of refugees who had entered the Dungeon with them, only 43 remained.

Of the promising recruits, only the old spearman Ingranus and the Egaean Nicolet, who had strangely outlived Diccon and Takoyaki, remained. The orphans Kelly and Khal had also survived, but they still looked haggard after losing a piece of their soul to Urul Tak's Soul Spell.

Apart from them, the goblin couple Xort and Niss had made it out, as had the former redheaded prostitute Secyone and her two sons. Overall, all the survivors looked more confident than before and their Aether aura had noticeably deepened.

There was only one person that Jake was surprised to see still alive, but not so much because he was standing there with them, but because he was standing there alone.

He was, of course, talking about the cowardly, spineless swindler that Grash had gone out of his way to protect. The pig-like orc was nowhere in sight. By comparison, the con man had a look of remorse and self-hatred in his eyes. He looked like he had been crying.

Jake's heart sank as he guessed what had happened. If the scammer wasn't an evil Oscar-winning actor, then the candid, benevolent orc was probably dead.

Jake and Will quickly became inconsolable, but they weren't wracked with guilt either. It was just how the Mirror Universe worked. No matter how many precautions they took, no matter how prepared they were, when the day came they could only rely on themselves.

Even in his desire to save Kyle, Jake had still failed. If he had chosen to save these refugees instead, maybe he could have saved some of them, but that might have delayed his own progress. Who knows if it might have led to his death a few days or weeks later?

There was no point in dwelling on or reminiscing about the past. It was better to keep moving forward. Only by becoming stronger could he prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Sweeping his eyes over the other survivors, Jake was taken aback when he saw the Taotie Digestor. This abomination had been gorging itself all day as if the Dungeon was its own backyard, then quietly surfaced unnoticed once help arrived. They had underestimated this monster.

Garow squinted menacingly as he glared at the creature, only he knowing what he was truly thinking. According to his account, the Taotie had also been encountered on the Sixth Floor during its pursuit of Hecate. The monster had not chosen to follow them to the last floor, preferring to devour the miasma while inhaling it greedily as if it were normal air.

It was simply astounding for the Taotie to have escaped Cekt's vigilance on the way up as on the way back. Its ability to erase its presence was top tier.

Will then joined his new friend Fumdalf and the few creatures he had enlisted and invited the few surviving Nawai warriors to travel with them.

As for Melkree, the Dryad had already weighed the pros and cons and made her decision. With her subordinates all dead, she no longer had a faction to protect, and Jake had sufficiently proven that he was not a malevolent psychopath.

She would join the Myrtharian Nerds.

Shaktilar being Jake's slave, he obviously had no choice either.

Jake then nervously searched for the two familiar figures he was unable to forget and after much hesitation his gaze finally landed on two solitary individuals, a man and a woman.