The Oracle Paths

[Congratulations to Jake Wilderth for eliminating the Monsters .... Jake gains 4 reputation points.]

[Congratulate Carmin Liche on eliminating Monster Susan Burn. Carmin gains 1 reputation point.]

A series of announcements followed Daryl's departure, saluting their victory with well-deserved reputation points. Yet, Jake ignored the robotic voice to focus on the severed arm and leg before him.

Thinking back to Daryl's victorious grin, he couldn't help but smirk to himself. While the Fluid Master was reveling in the glory of having survived, Jake had surreptitiously channeled his telekinesis to snatch his Fluid Card. He was willing to bet that the old doctor would be bawling his eyes out in a few minutes.

Of course, he didn't check the contents straight away. He first collected the other Fluid Cards as well as any items in the Monsters' possession that he thought might be useful. He didn't stop Carmin from rifling through Susan's pockets either, even when she pulled out a strange parchment covered in golden runes.

Hearing Kewanee cough behind him, he also learned that the Native American woman had somehow made it through. Despite the severity of her injuries, Svara had indeed managed to pull her back from the brink of death.

"Don't ask. " The Nawai woman pleaded vainly as she felt his inquisitive gaze upon her.

"I don't need to ask. " Jake snickered.

Without a shred of empathy, he accessed her Oracle Status and checked her Logbook as well as her Aether Skills and Bloodlines. He already knew she had assimilated some sort of Valkyrie Bloodline, but he hadn't looked at her Skills in depth. After all, what could he possibly fear from a slave woman unable to disobey whom he had already defeated.

"Life and Death Reversal? " Jake probed after reading everything.

"Yes..." She looked down in disappointment. Her biggest secret had been revealed, just like that.

"Good skill. "Jake commented before turning his attention to Kewanee.

In Norse mythology, the Valkyries were minor deities who served Odin, master of the gods. The Valkyries, clad in armor, flew, led battles, distributed death among warriors, and took the heroes' souls to Valhalla, Odin's great palace, to become Einherjar. These heroines were destined to fight alongside Odin at the advent of Ragnarök.

In modern art, the Valkyries were sometimes described as beautiful maidens riding Pegasus, adorned with helmets and armed with spears. However, the Valkyrie's steed was not a Pegasus, contrary to some stereotypes. Rather, their mounts were hordes of wolves that roamed among the bodies of dead warriors.

These wolves were gruesome fighters. While the wolf was the mount of the Valkyrie, the Valkyrie seemed to be related to the raven, an animal that frequently appeared in Norse mythology and was known to hover over battlefields.

With the Oracle, it was impossible for a Valkyrie to be in the service of Odin or another Norse Earth god. Nonetheless, as with his first Ordeal inspired by Ancient Rome, there were some commonalities.

Svara's Valkyrie Bloodline was Grade 6, level 1. Unlike Jake's Grade 8 Bloodline, her Aether and Body stats did not have a higher growth potential than a normal human, but she did have a fixed bonus that multiplied her Body Strength, Agility, Constitution and Vitality by a factor of 6.

Depending on the individual, this type of bloodline with fixed bonuses could even be superior to higher grade bloodlines. For example, currently Jake's Myrtharian Body only increased the value of his stats by a factor of 4 while his Bloodline was already one level higher.

Of course, this did not mean that Svara was stronger than him. If a sedentary Valkyrie had Body Stats of 10, as opposed to 30 for a world-class athlete, that would effectively allow them to compete in theory against a human with 60 and 180 Body Stats respectively.

The problem was that like humans, they could not train their bodies beyond these fundamental biological limits. There was a limit of height, muscles etc... that could not be exceeded by sheer effort.

Jake on the other hand, could transform and evolve his body without any limits. Just by taking his Body Strength for example, which had reached 215 points, he could compete in brute strength against a human with 860 points. Of course, such a human had no chance of existing.

However, it was not these perks that interested him, but rather the Aether Skills that went with them. In line with what was expected of a Valkyrie, this Bloodline allowed to safeguard the souls of the deceased and were therefore sensitive to their existence.

Life and Death Reversal was precisely one of these Skills that allowed the soul of a deceased person to be reintroduced into their body before it dissipated. For this to work, the original body had to be regenerated or a new vessel had to be provided. With the Vitality Aether, this was easily done.

Apart from that, Svara could also summon a Familiar once a day, either a Wolf or a Raven, which she kept in a special spiritual dimension. In case of death, she had to conjure one again from the astral world, and this required a lot of energy and time. No wonder she resented him after Jake killed her Shadow Wolf.

Unconcerned about the other Villagers still alive, Jake crouched beside Kewanee, waiting for her to regain consciousness. She had lost a lot of blood fighting her enemy and even at the cost of her life she hadn't turned into a Monster. It was worth thinking about.

At first, he wanted to heal her with a couple of Healing Potions that he'd coaxed out of Kewanee herself, but he found to his dismay that Daryl hadn't been doing things by halves while impersonating a shadow tornado.

Jake and Kewanee's respective potions had all been destroyed beyond recognition. The Healer had no doubt done his homework first and knew that the Witch had an Anti-Monster Potion in her grasp that could be detrimental to them. Now all the young woman could do was heal on her own.

The rest of the night passed without a hitch and at dawn the morning report from the robotic voice repeated the past night's events. As expected, the rest of the Village had remained peaceful, the other survivors quietly staying in their own homes.

Without Daryl and the five Monsters, only 14 Villagers were left to compete. Carmin finally revealed how she knew he wasn't a Monster and it turned out that her first Role was not Farmer, but Henchman.

Henchman was a unique Role, whose only privilege was to know the identity of the original Monsters right from the start of the Round. To get rich, she could only use this information wisely.

Depending on how you look at it, this was a role that could be considered as a cheat or as totally useless. In all objectivity, Carmin had made poor use of this ability. Her disinterest in the Monster Game and her focus on filling her stomach had prevented her from doing anything meaningful.

Because of this, Carmin was currently one of the poorest villagers. Killing Susan had barely replenished her Fluid Card.

As for Jake, after transferring all the Fluid from his victims into his own Fluid Card, he reached the modest fortune of 257,635,892 units. Whether he converted this amount into Aether or used it to feed his Fluid Core, he was now unquestionably the richest man in the Village.

For the record, Daryl Fishle had contributed 92M on his own. Between his Monster and Healer roles, he had an almost insulting knack for getting rich. The other Monsters had been recently transformed and had common Roles. Rare were those who exceeded 25M, but 20M was a fair average at this stage of the game.

The next morning, Gordon and Carl heard about last night's events from the other Villagers and promptly called for Kewanee's death when they learned she was still unconscious.

The wicked officer had spent a horrible night anguishing outside as a Vagabond after the destruction of his home, and he was so terrified that he had not been able to catch a wink of sleep all night. Upon learning that there was still a Monster left, his paranoia had flared up again.

"Fuck off. " Jake shoved him off without a qualm when he caught sight of his bald head and obsequious smile. As long as Kewanee was in his house, the wimpy officer would have no chance to exact his revenge.

Jake then met up with Peter Brady to thank him for the previous day's tip. The Player was still as high on drugs as ever and he had to sacrifice some of the narcoleptic herbs he had been harvesting in the forest to get his attention.

The truth from Peter's mouth proved to be quite anticlimactic, but also left them speechless. The junkie's Role was "Village Idiot. "

If Jake had previously thought that Henchman was the most unique Role, he was mistaken. The Village Idiot was even wackier.

The Village Idiot knew everyone's Roles without exception. Being a simpleton, he also received a small amount of Fluid every day as charity. In other words, without doing anything, it was possible to amass enough Fluid to qualify for the next round.

But there was a catch. If the Village Idiot was asked about his Role or what he knew about other people's Roles, he was not allowed to lie. It was so ridiculous that no one would have thought of it.

With his initial infraction, Peter had bluffed everyone by selling what he knew about the Pit at a hefty price. If any of them had been savvy enough or even accidentally asked what his Role was or what he knew about the others', his cover would have been blown from day one.

There were two people who had unfortunately found out about his Role and they were Daryl and Carl. Daryl, because he was his official drug dealer and by being around each other the inevitable had eventually taken place. Carl, because as Confessor he had asked him from day one what his Role was after his return from the Pit to clear him of suspicion.

Indirectly the third person in the know was the Inquisitor, because Carl used to tell him everything, but the Inquisitor didn't care about the game. As soon as he got his points he qualified for the next round and left.