The Oracle Paths

The mood, already somber given their predicament, nosedived into the negative upon receiving confirmation from Jake's lips. They had believed that as long as he was with them, they would pull through. What a letdown...

"Hey, I'm not some all-powerful god, in case you weren't aware," Jake retorted with a look that was half-irritated, half-aghast. "If I gave off the impression that I was that badass, then I'm genuinely sorry."

Hearing his 'sincere' apology, even the usually brazen Crunch and Lord Phoenix were overtaken by a sense of outrage, a vein throbbing on their temples. Hephais, who was typically the most unflappable among them, also had his mouth slightly agape.

What was even more astonishing, though, was that the others, including Amy, who knew him less well, weren't particularly surprised by what he had said, feeling even ashamed for relying too much on him.

"Don't scare us like that. How much time exactly?" Lysandra, at least managing to stay calm, redirected the conversation.

Jake turned serious, then after briefly closing his eyes to focus on the behavior of his Water Lumyst outside, he reopened them and announced with utmost solemnity,

"The water pressure around us is rapidly increasing. That can only mean two things: either we're sinking, or the water level above us is rising. We're not sinking; I've made sure of that. So, it's the volume of water that's increasing.

"This brings us to the second, and real, issue: the rising purity of the Lumyst Wate. Initially, its maximum enchantment potential was 14, the same as my Water Lumyst. Even if the water pressure continued to increase, I was confident we could survive even if the dome were to collapse.

"It will become impossible once the water's purity reaches +15. At that point, the Water Lumyst I've infused into the water will undergo a baptism, just like the Spirit Power I'm continuously using to probe the water outside the dome. When that happens, whether the enchantment succeeds or fails, I'll inevitably lose control of it. The dome will then collapse."

What Jake didn't explain was that his control over Lumyst came from his Lumyst Core. Even depleted of his Water Lumyst, he could control the Water Lumyst outside his body as long as his physical and mental endurance allowed, as long as no other Water Lumyst Cultivator competed with him for this energy. Of course, the farther the Lumyst was from him, the less grip his Lumyst Core had over it, allowing any cultivator to snatch it away if he wasn't careful. That's what had happened to the Lumyst of River's Bane after his death, when Jake had absorbed its scattered remnants.

In other words, him running out of Water Lumyst didn't really have any impact on his ability to control the water around the dome. The catch was precisely the fact that both the pressure and purity of the water were increasing, not that his Water Lumyst Cores were empty. Meribelle, the Radiant Mages present, Hephais and Lysandra understood this very well, but it wasn't necessarily as clear to the others who had never undergone more than one baptism.

"So, 36 seconds." Hephais ended the suspense as he finally removed his hand from the water.

While the others listened to Jake's explanations, he had nearly perished after his twelfth baptism. That was his limit.

Despite his disappointment at not being able to endure more, he had a satisfied smile on his face as he read the notifications about acquiring new Graces and the splendid elevation of his stats. Like Jake, his physique was now at least twice as strong.

As soon as his Lumyst Breath became complete, the assassin wasted no time and immediately mimicked Jake by starting to condense his own Shadow Life Lumyst Core to accompany his Shadow Spirit Lumyst Core cultivated the previous night.

While Hephais was focusing on his accelerated Lumyst Cultivation, panic had already set in the dome upon hearing it would collapse in 36 seconds.

"Is that true?"

"Fuck! Only 32 seconds left!"

Ekho and the others in his squad were a bit calmer, but that was because they were too weak and ignorant to grasp their plight. Their confidence in Jake hadn't been shaken in the slightest despite everything he had just said.

"Do you have a solution?" Meribelle noticed after exchanging an anxious look with one of the recruits. Having hung around him, she could tell he was not nervous.

Addressed by the young woman, Jake did not mention her not-so-discreet glances towards a member of his squad, and retorted with a slight smirk,

"I do."

With that confident tone, Jake materialized the Goblet of Ethershine (+25) he had obtained the previous night in Lustris after 'tough' negotiations. Seeing the golden cup appear in his hands, Meribelle's eyes and those of a few elite guards saved earlier by Hephais, who were loyal to Ceythie, widened in disbelief.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"It is." Jake confirmed without beating around the bush.

"9 seconds." Hephais reminded apathetically, making the dome's survivors, including Meribelle, turn pale.

Jake's lips twitched, then he commanded without further explanation by tapping the chalice as if he was about to give a housewarming speech,

"Enough jokes. Trust me and get inside."

Before any objector could voice their dissent, the space on the surface of the golden goblet distorted, and then, with a suction noise that siphoned the space, all living beings in the dome were sucked inside. Jake followed them in with a worried frown right after, leaving the cup-shaped artifact floating in the middle of the dome.

Without his active control, the Water Lumyst maintaining the dome became anarchic, and the breathable air space collapsed onto itself, the unleashed waters filling the void inside. The Goblet of Ethershine was then swept away, drifting at the mercy of the currents.

Meanwhile, the natives and Players occupying the now-defunct dome reappeared in an environment pitch black and without any apparent limits. If not for the solid surface under their feet, they might have thought they were dead.

Lysandra, and the Radiant Mages saved by Jake conjured some light, revealing a decor as bleak and lifeless as they had imagined. No surprise there, since they were inside a water container, precious artifact or not.

The only point of note was the golden floor under their feet seemed unusually flat, as if it had been added in a hurry. That was indeed the case. When Jake appeared in turn, he explained sternly,

"The space of this artifact can contain Lumyst Water of purity 25, so don't move from here. It turns out I filled it last night, so if not for the thin partition under your feet, you'd already be dead."

Essentially, they had fled the threat of the Lumyst Water trap outside for an even worse prison. Those with a Chalice of Nethershade or a Goblet of Ethershine Replica knew that the artifact could create various compartments to separate waters of different purities. It was this function that Jake had used to produce the partition under their feet.

"And what do we do now?" One of the guards loyal to Ceythie frowned as he inspected his surroundings. The fate of the Great General and his comrades worried him.

"It's better to wait here until things settle down outside." Homer, the leader of the Mumak battalion, spoke in a grim tone. "I know Corvac, see, and he's the type to prefer a collective suicide with the enemy over defeat."

Seeing that the one who had just responded had the look and nauseating aura overflowing with vitality of a Radiant Mage, Ceythie's guard was far from convinced, but a surge of spiritual pressure from Jake and the other Players present made him swallow his saliva.

Turning to Homer, Jake asked gravely, "Will my artifact hold?"

The Radiant Mage froze upon receiving the full attention of the foreigner who was his enemy not so long ago, but unfortunately, lying wasn't in his nature. It turned out he knew more about Corvac than Corvac imagined about him.

Taking a deep breath for courage, he declared apologetically as his shoulders slumped in exhalation,

"Probably not... All the Radiant Mages who have worked closely with him know he holds a Goblet of Ethershine enchanted to +28. Your artifact only has a one in eight chance of surviving this calamity if Corvac's plan is what I imagine."