The Oracle Paths

Jake upgraded his faction twice in a row as planned, promoting it from rank 5 to 7. He did not unlock any new faction skill slots, but his goal was still achieved.

He then approved all pending membership applications and took a look at the mental interface with all his faction's details.

[Faction Name: Myrtharian Nerds]

[ Faction level: Lvl7 (Promotional conditions: 1000B Aether pts, Oracle Rank First Lieutenant or higher)]

[ Number of members: 2445/3200]

[Faction Aether Storage: 1 025 632 pts]

[ Aether production: 0 pts/s ]

[ Faction Skills:]

[Permanent Passive Skill lvl7: Myrtharian Body (40% (30>40% or +5% per level) of the leader's capacity): Body stats boosted by 320%.]

[Faction Space Vault lvl7: 640 (160>640, 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 lvl7: Allows the temporary transfer of member vitality to the Skill Activator. An injury can also be transferred to another member with its agreement. Cost: 400 000 (600 000> 400 000 or -100 000 per level) Aether points per minute.]

[United We Stand lvl7: For each member present within 700 meters, Aether, Body and Soul stats will be boosted by 0.7% For each additional level, the range increases 100 meters and the boost by 0.1%. Aether Cost: 1M Aether points per minute.]

[Main Floating Island affiliate: 46]

[Subfactions: Myrtharian Scavengers, The Aristocats, Myrmidian Nerds.]

In addition to being able to accommodate everyone now, there were still almost 800 places available for prospective members to be invited. All that remained was to convince the Beskyrians and Eltarians to join. If he succeeded, their faction would count 2724 members.

The Faction Skills had also been substantially improved.

The appeal of a larger Faction Vault was self-explanatory, while the Myrtharian Body passive and United We Stand greatly enhanced the members' fighting power.

The Myrtharian Body gave them strong and tough bodies, capable of adapting to harsh environments unsuited to human life. In short, it provided survivability and less dependence on primary resources such as organic food or water. Add to that heat and radiation tolerance and a digestive system capable of melting metal, and it was undoubtedly the most useful Faction Skill.

United We Stand was an active skill, but if Jake decided to embark on an expedition with the entire faction, he obviously wasn't afraid to splurge. With a quick mental calculation, Jake was shocked to discover that if all 2724 future members actually fought together in the effect area, their Aether stats would be boosted by 1906.8%.

For normal humans, this would theoretically allow them to match an ordinary Fourth-Ordeal Evolver. For a warrior like Jake, it could put him on par with a talented Sixth-Ordeal Evolver.

Basically, if Jake returned to the same Dungeon with all the Myrtharian Nerds responding, they could trounce all the Digestors on their way to the Fourth Floor, and they would have a fair chance against the Floor Boss.

He lost some of his elation, though, when he realized that the main caveat remained the same. The Digestors on the Fifth Floor were roughly Rank 7 or 8 and their build was rather titanic in size. Besides the fact that it was an ocean, ordinary members would have been eaten alive without being able to resist.

So, with fewer members able to advance further, the United We Stand's buff would have quickly diminished and could even turn against them if they ventured too far out of confidence.

Furthermore, it was unrealistic to expect all the members to stick together all the time anyway. If they could keep half the members together during an intense battle that would be quite an accomplishment.

The value of United We Stand was first and foremost military. It was in the hands of structured and organized regiments that this Skill Faction reached its full potential. Jake couldn't verify this, but he was pretty sure that many of the larger nations like New Earth possessed this Faction Skill.

The New Earth Government obviously couldn't invite all Earthlings into its main faction. Such a behemoth agglomerated thousands of minor and major factions, which it tried to make coexist and control with an iron fist.

Many ambitious Earthlings were like Jake, refusing to bow to anyone now that they had the power to resist. Whether they were criminals, ex-military, or normal people who had undergone a sharp personality change after a tragedy, many had risked everything to finish their Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh Ordeal early on.

Getting all these people to cooperate was no easy task. To make this possible, an all-powerful main faction was needed to enforce the law, along with an invincible leader of corresponding power.

For this reason, Jake had long been convinced that the politicians of the last twenty years were mere puppets. Whoever was in charge of New Earth was probably in the military.

I wonder what the rank of New Earth's main faction is.

[Hard to say.] Xi chimed in, interrupting his thoughts. [I think I hinted at it before, but the Fifth Ordeal's mortality rate is overwhelming. Over 90% at the very least, especially for ordinary Players. By that I mean, those who failed or barely passed their main mission in the first four Ordeals. The Sixth and Seventh Ordeals are not as dire, but there are rarely more than 20% survivors. Do your math.]

Jake addressed the problem seriously and recalled that even before he had participated in any Ordeal, there had already been a true hecatomb among the normal citizens. Many poor souls had simply never reached an Oracle Shelter alive.

There were already only 100 to 500 million Earthlings left on B842 a few days after the complete assimilation of the Earth. The proportion of people participating in the Ordeals was difficult to estimate, but many would never have the courage to attempt the Fifth Ordeal regardless.

However, even if Jake took the most optimistic figures, only 50 million Earthlings would ever complete their Fifth Ordeal, 5M their Sixth and 500,000 their Seventh.

As it was, it was more accurate to imagine that only 1-5% of the Players had the courage and determination to risk their lives for real. In the case of New Earth, this percentage could be as high as 100% for career soldiers, since they had to obey the orders of their superiors.

The problem was that there had been a lot of mutinies in the New Earth military recently. When a soldier became strong enough to take his destiny into his own hands, why would he continue to foolishly risk his life, except out of excessive patriotism.

Power gave obvious advantages to those who enjoyed it. Assets, territories, sex, there were no limits. How could a man or a woman subjected to authority all his life resist such a lure?

The harsh truth was that those who had survived their Fifth Ordeal would become even more reluctant to risk their lives in the next Ordeal, too anxious to lose the comfortable status they had worked so hard to achieve.

Of those who had survived their Fifth Ordeal, few would ever participate in their Sixth.

Jake didn't know how many soldiers there were on Earth originally, but it must have been less than 0.5% of the global population. A paltry number.

If he took these more conservative numbers and factored in these pessimistic considerations, the number of Earthlings who had already completed their Fifth Ordeal was probably no more than 100,000. As for those who had completed their Sixth, it would be nice if there were more than a few thousand.

While Jake was upgrading the faction, he kept strolling around and the Myrtharian Nerds began to appreciate the changes. Those who had just had their applications accepted were like inquisitive children marveling at their newfound physical strength. Only the Kintharians remained impassive, clearly unable to appreciate the change.

It would take a few days anyway, depending on their metabolism, for their appearance to change significantly.

"Hey, Jake, finally I find you." Lucia suddenly grabbed him by the hand as she ran into him in front of the Yellow Cube.

In a few days, the young woman had already grown half a head and her golden hair had gained some silver strands. Her body temperature had also increased significantly and although she was already athletic from her warrior background, her shoulder build had widened slightly.

"Where are you taking me?" Jake asked, somewhat caught off guard. He didn't withdraw his hand, however, letting his princess friend pull him wherever she wanted.

He was slightly uncomfortable with this intimate contact, but Lucia was outgoing enough to make the whole thing feel natural. Inwardly, he was surprised at the softness and warmth of her slender hand, which was not calloused at all as he expected from a swordswoman.

Seeming to guess his thoughts, Lucia chuckled and answered nonchalantly,

"I have some hand ointment."

"I see..."

Then they both burst out laughing. When they got serious again, Lucia explained,

"Ulfar and Asfrid have decided to give you a chance. They want to test you."

Ulfar was the king of Beskyr and Asfrid the priestess leading the Eltarians. With a look of realization, Jake regained his composure, an icy, stern expression hardening his face.

"In that case, let them test me. Even if I disappoint them, it won't be a big loss to the Myrtharian Nerds. They're the ones who have everything to lose by showing poor judgment."

"As long as you know it." Lucia stuck out her tongue.

A few moments later, they arrived in the Beskyrian district and she let go of his hand. A crowd was waiting for them, but to her surprise there were not only Beskyrians and Eltarians among them.