The Oracle Paths

'Did you record that?' Jake asked Xi mentally.

[It' s in the can.] She chuckled proudly.

Jake didn't have eyes in the back of his head yet, but equipping a micro camera wasn't complicated. All he had to do was give a smartphone to scan to an Oracle Device and it would replicate its functions with its liquid alloy.

If the local network conditions allowed it, it could easily make a phone call or connect to the Internet. Taking a picture or a video was only a bonus.

At the moment, his Oracle Device had perfectly recorded the micro-expression change on Ruby's face. He studied the cruel smirk on her face and the silvery glimmer burning in her pupils and shook his head with slight disappointment.

'It seems I can't trust her. The Slave Contract works, but this Digestor half is a genuine sword of damocles.'

[As long as you stay alert, you have nothing to worry about.] Xi qualified this with a reassuring tone. [She has no more Aether. Even if she manages to hide an artifact somehow, as long as you don't let her replenish her Aether, she'll be like a tiger with no teeth and claws.]

'In that case, perhaps I should gently coax her to offer me her stash of liquid alloy.' Jake gave a grudging smile. 'That way, her passive Aether output will be reduced accordingly and the power of her Oracle Skills will be impacted.'

[That may be a good idea.] The Oracle AI approved his plan. [But keep in mind, a hopeless slave is not necessarily a good slave. If you take everything from her, you won't be in a position to free her once the Ordeal is over. The Digestor part of her is growing rapidly. Right now, she's like a time bomb. You don't know when it's going to blow up, but it's going to blow up sooner or later, I can assure you.]

'There's no way to help her?' Jake clouded over as he listened to Xi's pessimistic prediction.

In asking this question, it was not only pity or compassion that motivated him, but also the fear of one day finding himself in the very same plight. The Third Ordeal was designed precisely to subject them to an ersatz Corruption. He knew how difficult it was to stay true to oneself under its influence.

[Not that I know of.] Xi sighed. [If it were just the Corruption, I'd say that if you strengthen your mind and your True Will faster than it corrupts you, you have a good chance of staying yourself. For Trojan Digestors like Ruby, the Digestor and Ruby's soul have long since merged and become one. As Ruby's soul grows stronger, her Digestor part inevitably grows stronger too. She is half Digestor through and through. When Corruption influences you, you may feel like you are not acting like yourself, but in Ruby's case, even if she realizes the abnormality, she will have a strong sense that the thought is coming from her. Even if she awakens her True Will, chances are that the memories, people, ideals, and values she holds dear are not as noble and benevolent as one might expect from a young woman her age.]

As Jake and his group made their way to the next village, he remained absorbed in his thoughts the entire way. Ruby's circumstances were a bit like that of a depressed, stoned, alcoholic, sick, debt-ridden addict. No matter how much she wanted to overcome it or turn a new leaf, it was virtually impossible for her to change on her own. She needed outside intervention.

Unfortunately, at his present level Jake couldn't help her. He could only prevent her from committing further perjury and crimes that she might eventually come to regret.

What was definite, though, was that Ruby had already been ostracized by the rest of the group. Elduin and Bhammod hated her with all their guts, Jeanie was scared of her and Trash felt uncomfortable walking in front of her. Feeling her cold gaze on his back made the hairs on his neck stand on end and he had hurriedly moved closer to the two Rank-A Adventurers to feel safer.

In the late afternoon, the high, soot-black stone wall of Laudarkvik finally rose before them, and the rest of the group, except for Jake and Ruby, gulped as they caught a glimpse of the huge, dark towers fading into the clouds.

It wasn't all that impressive, to be quite frank. The clouds were rolling down to about 500 meters from the ground and a veil of ordinary fog had completely engulfed the city. As their group had been taking their time to scout the region, the brief day of sunshine had already ended and it was now pitch black.

The natives in their group couldn't see much beyond the gigantic wall studded with huge ballistas, trebuchets, and even magic cannons, but Jake found it easy to get a 3D model of the city by scanning it. Even without his Oracle Device, his keen vision had no trouble discerning the many castles in the distance.

Laudarkvik was a huge city-state with almost 100 million inhabitants. Almost ten times more populated than Lodunvals, whose population was scattered in many villages and towns under its jurisdiction before the war.

The reason why Laudarkvik was so populated and its wall so secure was obviously because this huge impregnable city also acted as an enclosure. Of these 100M residents, over 99.5 million were ordinary humans. The remaining 500,000 belonged to the various supernatural races making up the eight main factions.

BOOOOOOOH!

"Kya!!! A ghost!" Jeanie let out a shrill scream of fright as she felt something chilling brush against her.

Trash, and the two adventurers didn't notice anything until the teenager also began to shudder. His legs began to shake and he felt his eyelids grow heavy.

"Why am I so cold?" He asked as he shivered.

"Hmmph!" Jake snorted as he grabbed a translucent ghost stuck like an octopus to the orphan's leg by its throat.

The spirit didn't even try to resist and was clearly stunned when the hand closed like a vise around its neck. Jake's spirit body swelled around his hand like a glove of superheated energy and the spirit let out a shrill wail before evaporating into smoke. A fluorescent green puddle dripped to the floor.

"Ectoplasm!" Jeanie exclaimed as she scooped up the substance in her hands.

"You couldn't see it?" Jake scolded them harshly as he saw how easily they had been fooled. Trash was one thing, but Elduin and Bhammod were supposed to be renowned adventurers.

"See what?" The dwarf groused in a bad mood. It had been over an hour since he finished his last beer.

"The ghost." Jake replied curtly, pointing to the fluorescent puddle at his feet.

A flicker of realization crossed the two adventurers' faces.

"That was Tilla and Jakmi dealing with those supernatural threats..." The elf apologized with a forlorn look.

Jake did not insist. From the murderous glare he had just cast at Ruby, he could imagine what had happened to those two mages. He didn't know who those two were exactly, but what he did know for sure was that everyone he had trapped with Ruby and Laudar was dead except for them.

"Seeing ghosts is not complicated if you know how to use your extrasensory perception." Jake voiced his puzzlement. "At your level, it should be a piece of cake."

"Well, we can't." Bhammod shrugged. "The way you Guilties use your mental power to scan your surroundings is not automatically available to us. Only those with innate talent or an appropriate Soul Class can use it."

Jake immediately understood what he was getting at. To awaken the Seventh Aether Stat, it had taken a trigger, the emergence of his Proto-Soul. It happened when his Aether Intelligence and Perception had exceeded 30 in the world of his First Ordeal, where the Aether density was only 8.

He used to think it was the same for everyone, but now he knew that it was very Aether density dependent. On Quanoth, the Aether density and Aether stats of its inhabitants were set at 1000 and no training or remedy could break that cap. If the Seventh Stat was not awakened at birth, it was wishful thinking to count on a miracle.

Trash, for example, had an Extrasensory Perception of zero. He probably wasn't destined to be a mage.

That made the Blue Minmins of Intelligence like Jeanie even more valuable. By devouring them, the intelligence gain was global, affecting both the Aetheric, physical and spiritual aspects. Even if their Aether stats would remain suppressed as Jake's currently were, such a massive intelligence boost was a near guarantee of awakening that Seventh Stat.

"In that case, Trash stay close to me." Jake cautioned. "You two have nothing to fear from these weak ghosts, but Trash can't claim the same."

Jake wore a sour face as he gazed at the huge portcullis blocking their path to Laudarkvik. They hadn't even formally entered the city yet, and a wandering ghost was already treating them like its lunchbox.

Jeanie snuggled back into her pocket after collecting the ectoplasma in a vial larger than herself. Jake peered at the substance, but quickly lost interest as he realized that this city was infested with spirits and that this would certainly not be their only run-in with these ghosts.

Their group calmly crossed the bridge, glad they didn't have to wait in line. Once night fell, the humans seemed to obey some sort of curfew. Unless they were too terrified to leave their homes?

Arriving at the lowered portcullis, a gray werewolf in armor nearly ten feet tall, a Draugh, and a Wight wearing the same uniform blocked their way.

"Your papers!"

Whether it was Lodunvals or Laudarkvik, some things never changed.