The Oracle Paths

In the end, Jake unleashed a staggering 1 sextillion Aether points in a single thought, nearly a ninetieth of his wealth. The price per square meter soared from 3,000 Aether points initially, then slowed to a final cost of around 800,000 Aether points. The average price throughout the spending spree was about 500,000 Aether points—a sum that would have once made Jake's blood run cold. And judging by the slack-jawed Oracle Guardian beside him, even Eighth or Ninth Ordeal Evolvers were not immune to such breathless spending.

As Jake's Aether points dwindled at a dizzying pace, his disc-shaped island expanded equally as fast. Its former territory soon became a mere speck compared to its newfound vastness.

Within seconds, the expansion ceased, and Jake surveyed the result. The dark gray metallic surface of the enormous disc, untouched and uniform, overwhelmed him with a sense of emptiness and vastness, as if he'd landed in a strange, flat metal desert.

198,603 square kilometers—that was the new size of his Floating Island after this lightning expansion. Its surface area increased by more than ten billion times, its diameter stretching from just over 3 kilometers to now over 500.

To put this in perspective, South Korea spans about 100,000 square kilometers, while the United Kingdom covers around 243,000 square kilometers.

In a blink, his Floating Island now rivaled New Earth's size, supported by the Earth Union Government's centralized planetary resources. The Oracle Guardian had every reason to be speechless.

The alien licked his dry lips, searching for the right words. Finally, he asked with palpable disbelief, "How did you obtain so much Aether? Your past record doesn't mention such wealth."

This question caught Jake off guard. The Oracle System had dispatched an Oracle Guardian and three TX138 models to monitor him, and yet they hadn't been informed of the reasons?

More surprisingly, it should have been possible to access any Evolver's records from the Mirror Universe through the Archives, provided one had enough authority. Logically, an Oracle Guardian with eight or nine Ordeals should have at least reached or exceeded the rank of Colonel.

Consequently, Jake couldn't help but be suspicious. Was someone high-ranking protecting his records? Or was everything about his new Bloodline considered by the Oracle System to be connected to the Digestors and therefore subject to some form of censorship?

Once again, the Oracle Guardian deciphered Jake's confusion from his expression and explained, "Your records are indeed in the Oracle System Archives, but the Oracle Store has set an absurdly high price for your most crucial and personal information. Your Oracle Knight status and Oracle Rank account for part of this, but your new wealth is likely the main reason. Your unexpected wealth indirectly protects you as well because the Oracle System knows which information you'd be willing to sell to others or not. Without the Oracle System, learning these details about you would be very difficult, if not impossible, for another Evolver, especially if they're on the other side of the Mirror Universe. Following this principle, the Oracle System employs a highest-bidder logic. If someone is willing to pay 50 billion Aether points for your information, but you're prepared to pay double to block the process, the Oracle has no reason to give in to the Player's demands."

"Ah, I get it." Jake felt enlightened.

It made sense. In short, if Jake was willing in theory to break the bank to protect his information, that was the price his enemies would have to pay to get it. It was convenient.

From another perspective, one could conclude that information too cheap wasn't actually that important to the concerned Evolver, or that it could easily be obtained by other means.

In conclusion... Money is power.

"By the way, how am I supposed to address you?" Jake abruptly changed the subject. "If I'm to endure your presence twenty-four hours a day, I can't keep referring to you with heys and ohs."

"Saros." the Oracle Guardian revealed with a nod of the head.

"Hmm, more ordinary than I thought." Jake raised an astonished eyebrow. "Anyway, pleased to meet you, Saros. Let's be friends. Now, if you don't mind, I have other things to attend to."

It was no exaggeration. In addition to terraforming his island into a more habitable abode, Jake urgently needed to replace the missing Faction Skill so the other Myrtharian Nerds would no longer be penalized.

Yet, when Jake opened his faction tab, he was immediately confronted by a far more pressing issue: the number of members.

[Faction Name: Myrtharian Nerds]

[ Faction level: Lvl7 (Promotional conditions: 1T Aether pts, Oracle Rank First Lieutenant or higher)]

[ Number of members: 3200(+116458)/3200 (112839 humans/aliens, 619 beasts)

[Faction Aether Storage: 6 236 845 pts]

[ Aether production: 0 pts/s ]

[ Faction Skills:]

[Permanent Passive Skill lvl7: Vacant]

[Faction Space Vault lvl7: 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]

On Quanoth, they had saved a significant portion of Laudarkvik's population, which Jake and Hade had then worked together to send into space, away from the Mana Storm to spare them from the Purge. Jake had completely forgotten about them when he returned to training, but Will and Lucia, being responsible individuals, had naturally taken care of them.

One of the two must have stored the Portable Fortresses, sheltering them in their Space Storage, and they were likely still inside. However, it was highly probable that the Quanoth natives trapped within these Aether Artefacts had already received their Oracle Devices. The absurd number of applicants waiting to join the Myrtharian Nerds confirmed this hypothesis.

Since Lucia, Gerulf, Rogen, Asfrid, Ulfar, and their compatriots had joined them, it was the first time their faction was once again limited by its level. It was time to upgrade it as well.

As luck would have it, the massive expansion of his Floating Island also addressed this problem. If Jake remembered correctly, they had saved far more than 116,458 natives. The figure was closer to half a million.

After Jake had left Laudarkvik to reunite with Ruby in the Schwazen Empire, the other Myrtharian Nerds had embarked on a slow and bloody pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. Along the way, they had rescued as many refugees as they could until they were forced to cease their efforts due to a shortage of Portable Fortresses.

Without this material constraint, they would have undoubtedly saved many more.

Upon seeing the prerequisites to upgrade his faction, Jake let out a mirthful laugh.

"1T Aether points? I would have surely wept tears of blood if I had to spend that amount a month ago." He mocked playfully.

Now? It was but a drop in the ocean. With his Oracle Rank of Colonel, he could upgrade his faction five times, and it would cost him a mere 11 quadrillion Aether points and change.

A sum his bracelet compressed in just over thirty seconds... Compared to his current wealth, it was hardly worth mentioning.

Without even glancing at the price, Jake clicked the Upgrade option five times in succession. He was already growing accustomed to his newfound wealth. The nonsense spouted by psychiatrists and psychologists about money not bringing happiness clearly didn't apply to him.

Being rich, after personally experiencing both extremes, was far better than being poor. End of story.

Still, upon discovering his faction's new population capacity, Jake couldn't help but concede defeat. 102,400. It was a vast improvement, but still insufficient to accommodate all the new members.

Would they really need to create additional subordinate factions like Lost Divinities and the other super factions did? He never thought they'd reach that point so soon.

As Jake prepared to momentarily set this problem aside to choose the three new Faction Skills (the one to replace, plus two new ones unlocked at levels 9 and 12), Will, Hade, Asfrid, and Lucia suddenly appeared before his Yellow Cube.

The sudden upgrading of the faction had alerted them, and they decided to come and take a look.

Will had already intended to pay him a visit to address the matter of the vacant faction skill, but the others had been mostly alerted when their own Floating Islands had been ruthlessly jostled from their orbits amidst the expansion of Jake's territory.