The Oracle Paths

He had also discovered something crucial during his forced introspection: the Soul Stones he had devoured had not disappeared. Sure, they had been digested by some unknown process, but the Naequat and Flintium ores were still in him under another form.

The atoms of these two otherworldly materials had amalgamated together and had invaded most of his cells. This was a big part of the reason why his Myrtharian bloodline had undergone a power-up.

Because his body had a higher than normal temperature and the ability to generate its own radiation, the energy inside the Soul Stones was completely snuffed out and harmless right now for better or worse.

On the other hand, it had also provided him with a simple way to counteract the noxious energy of these crystals. He could already produce heat, light and radiation before his bloodline had evolved, but his control had been somewhat limited. Among other things, he had been unable to consciously produce ultraviolet waves.

This was now possible.

It wasn't that he had become able to calibrate the electromagnetic wavelength to the nearest nanometer, but that he now had a natural instinct to perform such feats. As in a video game, his skill tree had branched out and the possibilities had multiplied.

Producing infrared, visible light or ultraviolet light was just about as difficult for him as moving his hand.

No sooner said than done, Jake applied this new method without qualms. Soon his body began to emit a bright ultraviolet light invisible to normal humans. For him it made no difference, but those who would approach him with an insufficient Constitution could easily suffer irreversible eye damage by staring at him for too long.

And the best news of the day was that the Zhorions and their minions clearly did not like sunlight. In an instant, he had become their worst nemesis. He couldn't wait to face them again.

Coming back to reality, Jake checked the Player Ranking and the time. It was 5:30 in the morning and less than 800 participants were still alive. An additional 100 Players had been eliminated during the night. Fortunately, Sarah, Kate and Kevin were still breathing.

Out of principle, he took the opportunity to monitor the situation of his other companions and cousins. Of his family, apart from Lily, Kate and Kevin, only Brice and George were still in the running. All the others had been eliminated.

Will and Enya were holding on, while Tim and the two Ziwids were together with Lily. There was nothing to report on that side, although he couldn't help but praise Will and Enya's performance. At the Ordeal's beginning, these two were clearly not the ones he would have bet on.

As for the top of the ranking, it was pretty stable. Despite the constant bloodshed among the other participants, their scores were only increasing. Whether the Zhorions were chasing them or not was not enough to stop these Players from achieving glory.

Jake himself was still ranked 19th with more than 10M points. The current quest was already at a satisfactory level of exploration and he could finish it whenever he wanted. However, the Zhorion town still had many secrets and he felt that ending the quest now would be a huge mistake.

After winning a few Soul Glyphs, Jake was particularly sensitive to the notion of a job well done. Whatever the mission, he had to see it through to the end, no matter where it led him.

Two new Hunting Feats had also been activated when he had vanquished his first Zhorions.

[ Zhorion Hunter (Silver) : 3 Zhorion killed => Next milestone: 7/10]

[Zhorion Thrall Hunter (Gold) : 8 Zhorions killed. => Next milestone: 18/100]

Ugh, it looked like he had killed a bunch of enemies during his Berserk mode. Or rather, the ones he had faced were pretty strong. The description under the feat stated that the number of points awarded to him depended on the level of dangerousness of the defeated enemy. It didn't work like that with the other island animals.

"Zhorion Thrall..." Jake repeated, stroking his chin pensively.

[Probably their servants who look like giant buff Gollums.] Xi remarked in his mind.

"It makes sense."

Jake kicked these monsters out of his mind and refocused himself on the plan. First, he returned to his artificial cave and meticulously studied the charred corpse of the warrior Zhorion. Naturally, he tried to absorb the enemy's bracelet, but to no avail.

The logical conclusion to draw was that just like them, these Zhorions would not really die on this island. The bracelet had been repatriated with the soul of the deceased. Of course, the possibility remained that this particular Zhorion did not have a bracelet, but that was unlikely. This alien had encountered no difficulty in tracking him and Lu Yan.

Well, that would serve as a valuable lesson to him. If he had to obtain the title of Arm Chopper to achieve his goal, he would gladly accept it. If he could get a Soul Glyph as compensation, that would be perfect. Jake's heart was big enough to accept such a burden.

Feeling Xi's disdain for him, Jake set to work. The corpse being useless, he tossed it against the edge of the basement with a telekinetic flick and then slid into the ground. The rock under his feet seemingly liquefied and he began to fall into the ground. Literally.

After about 30 seconds, Jake broke his fall when his senses detected a large air pocket. Red Crystals appeared in his mind and he recognized the fake stars lighting the vault at the top of the Zhorion Cave.

Faced with so much Flintium, he increased the ultraviolet light output and their wicked influence vanished as if it had never existed. He then tilted head down and soon after, he popped down out of the cave ceiling.

According to the previous day's pattern, he still had a few hours left before the sacrifices resumed and most of the Zhorions should have been going about their business. Being normally nocturnal creatures, it was surprising that the sacrifices took place during the day, but it was also possible that these aliens did not need sleep.

The cave was still dark, but this was to his advantage. Silently, he activated his Myrtharian Sight and the Aetheric signatures in his field of vision less than 150 meters away appeared in front of him. In the midst of all those brilliant Flintium Stones, the galactic glow radiating from his eyes was not conspicuous at all.

At a glance, Jake discovered that he was close to the edge of the cave and the place was relatively desolate and seedy.

Seeing that the Zhorions' density was almost zero and that there were no guards stationed below him, he relaxed markedly, not that he was particularly stressed. On the contrary, he was rather excited as before a skydiving jump.

Jake mentally assessed the distance to the volcanic chamber, then disappeared again into the rock ceiling and headed straight towards his fellow prisoners. A few minutes later, he stopped not far from the temple at the other end of the city.

The prisoners were locked in steel cages a few hundred meters from the place where the sacrifices had occurred. Clearly, no one seemed to care about them nor bothered to feed them. They were all going to die anyway.

Most of the locked Players had needed to urinate at one time or another, and the overcrowded cages reeked of both ammonia and perspiration. Scanning the cages below him, Jake spotted Sarah and his two cousins at a glance, then seeing that they were more or less alive, he turned around to take the next step in his plan.

If they had been too badly wounded to be rescued, it would have been disappointing after he had prepared such a nice surprise for these fucking Zhorions. By the way, these aliens were apparently cannibals. Jake had just seen a couple of Zhorions roasting a frail one as he passed by. This place was a dog-eat-dog world.

Now that he had assessed the distances and located the prisoners, he could move on to the third stage. A few minutes later, he had returned to his makeshift cave.

He took a few more minutes to calm down with long breaths, and then he took action.

Diving into the rock again, Jake flew back to the volcanic chamber. Yeah, his evil plan was simply to bury the Zhorion city under lava.

At first, he thought it would be a piece of cake after upgrading his bloodline, but of course it couldn't be that easy. The Zhorions were not stupid and had been careful to build their city slightly off-center with respect to the magma chamber.

This was expected, since otherwise their basement would have been breached by the volcanic conduit coming from the earth's mantle and it would have been their cave instead that would have become a magma chamber if the lava had poured directly into their city.

Anyway, this was not a problem for Jake. Just a simple setback. Instead of digging a vertical drainage pipe, he would simply have to angle it enough so that the lava would spill where he wanted it to.

Handling such a large amount of lava with his powers was difficult, but digging a tunnel was relatively simple.

As Jake wore a sadistic smile on his face, the drain that would send the Chaos Tribe to their doom gradually took shape.