The Oracle Paths

The solution was obvious, but there was one major obstacle preventing its implementation: His poverty.

In order for his faction to accommodate more members, all he had to do was raise its rank. The Myrtharian Nerds had already reached Rank 5. To promote it to the next rank, he would need to spend 10B of Aether points and hold at least the rank of Command Sergeant Major. That was the easy part, and that amount was within his grasp.

It was what came after that left him aghast and horrified. For a rank 6 faction was not enough to hold 2724 members. In the best case scenario, he could only fit a little more than half of them.

Jake had to raise the Myrtharian Nerds to rank 7 to invite everyone. Again, the Oracle Rank of Second Lieutenant required was not a concern, but the 100B of Aether points was a horrendous chasm to cross.

'How am I going to find that much Aether?' Jake kept slurring as he surveyed his island with the strictness of a finance inspector. Distressed, he paused pensively to gaze at a stately villa under construction.

The new residents had already begun building their future homes and the grandiose Corinthian architectural style of the Myrmidians already stood out from the other races. Their technology and beliefs may have been primitive, but at least their sense of aesthetics and hygiene was not to blame.

The builders had to replace certain materials, forgoing marble for other more abundant local rocks, but the result was much the same. Some knew how to make a kind of stucco by mixing plaster and rock powder, which gave a relatively clean result.

Given the way this villa was being built, it would be a spacious palace with three floors, an inner courtyard and a garden, thermal baths and a private aqueduct connecting the complex to the water tank. It was probably the temporary residence planned for their princess Lucia.

Jake could have intervened, telling them that with New Earth's technology he could offer them much better, but he deemed that he could introduce these changes in several steps. Whether it was electricity or the Internet, these people had lived without it for thousands of years and would have no trouble doing without it for a few more months.

Out of curiosity, he strolled through the construction sites, admiring their ingenuity and resourcefulness. If this were Earth, the foundations would have been formed from steel grids cast in concrete. The external decoration, in the form of paint, bricks or whatever, would then have given the desired aesthetic to the ensemble. The construction would have been faster and more solid.

Instead, he watched in growing disbelief as a group of Myrmidians who had traded in their armor for togas argued fiercely over whether the statue at the entrance should be a lion or a wolf. He even heard his name mentioned several times. Apparently, there was a statue of him planned as well.

Hearing his name, Jake shuddered and stomped off. The other Myrmidian villas were just about as ambitious, but their layout had been well thought out. There was certainly a skilled architect behind them who coordinated all of these projects.

Even if the technology and architecture were dated, everything had been properly planned so as to establish a functional city. The roads and highways had also been thought out broadly in anticipation of future expansion.

The Eltarians, despite their innate intelligence, seemed impervious to material desires. Their people lived in communion with nature in the forest and abhorred strenuous manual labor. If it were up to them, they would simply take up residence under Melkree's tree.

Because Lucia had pressured them, Jake could see them half-heartedly assisting the Myrmidians builders with their telekinesis. Their neighborhood would be built on the same model.

The Beskyrians favored mountains and the grassy valleys between them. Although they did not have the propensity for war, nor even the talent of the Myrmidians for this art, this race remained a people of hermits and hunters living by the precept that the strong preys on the weak. Tim, who had spent 5 years with them, could confirm this.

In fact, their technology was not inferior to that of the Myrmidians, but aesthetics was completely relegated to the background. They didn't care if the color of the rocks were well matched, as long as the end result was solid and waterproof. Even the king's palace under construction looked like the block of flats on Earth, minus the paint and glass windows.

As for the Throsgenians and Kintharians... they were far too busy chilling out to build anything. Looking at them continuing to enjoy their cryotherapy session or lava bath, Jake could not help but sigh.

'100B Aether points for this group of mismatched refugees... I don't know what I did to deserve this...'

Obviously, touring his island hadn't helped him earn any Aether point. He had just wasted an hour of his precious time. Well, not all of it.

At least it had cleared his mind and he had regained his numb pragmatism. If he couldn't raise that amount of money on his own, all he had to do was ask for help. After all, this was not just his faction. If the other members wanted to gain access to more powerful Faction Skills and gain a more prominent position, they had better be generous.

On the other hand, Jake also realized that 100B of Aether points wasn't actually that much money. If he held back on using his Purgatory, he could amass that amount in just over three months by doing absolutely nothing else.

With his Oracle Rank 13 of First Lieutenant and his 27 tons of liquid alloy, his bracelet was collecting almost 9M Aether points per day as well. It was a pittance compared to his Bronze Aether Artifact, but it was a staggering amount for Evolvers of the same rank as him. If word of this got out, the resulting waves of jealousy and envy would form a tsunami soaring to the heavens.

If he proactively decided to hunt Digestors with the felines, he could probably shorten that time drastically. Rank 7 and 8 Digestors were still extremely dangerous opponents for him, but rank 6s were no problem.

Their liter of blood still cost around 900 Aether points. Depending on the size and type of Digestors, it was possible to recoup several thousand times that amount by selling the corpse directly to an interested buyer.

If Jake came across a rank 6 horde, he could easily amass billions in a few hours. Of course, reality was rarely so kind.

In practice, a horde of Rank 6 Digestors did not yet exist naturally. The Aether density was too low. For these fearsome and relatively intelligent monsters to group together in this way, a Digestor of much higher rank and intelligence was needed to coordinate these troops.

In other words, if Jake actually encountered such a horde, the only sensible decision was to flee.

Still, with a little compromise, Jake could hunt rank 5s. The price per liter of blood was 10 times cheaper, but even if he ran into a horde, there would probably be nothing stronger than a rank 8 in charge. With the help of the felines, it was a very manageable opponent.

Although his clone was only a very powerful low-rank 8, Jake refused to believe that all Digestors of that level were that exceptional or the Mirror Universe would have collapsed a long time ago.

Having decided on his next plan, Jake headed for the felines, who had claimed Melkree's branches as their resting place. The Dryad enjoyed their company, so she let them be.

At the same time, he left an explicit notice in the faction communication link, calling on wealthy members to donate to help fund the Myrtharian Nerds' expansion.

While Jake expected to receive only meager donations, he was startled when a notification came in less than a minute later informing him that a large sum of Aether had just been deposited in the Faction Aether Storage. This one already contained 5B and change, but he was shocked when he saw the new amount.

[Faction Aether Storage: 31,000 498 356pts]

'Who did this?'

Apart from Mufasa and Shere Khan, there weren't many people in the faction capable of generating such an amount. Truth be told... If he was completely honest, there was only one.

'Sigmar! He didn't leave.'

Jake had almost forgotten about them, but the Players he had temporarily recruited during his Third Ordeal were still around. He hadn't heard from them since, but Will had already informed him that several of them had contacted him.

As he teleported back and forth across B842, most had already created or moved their Floating Islands near his. The black void around them was no longer utterly deserted, and several somewhat desolate metal disks were now orbiting in their field of vision.

Kewanee, Drastan and Hephais, in particular, had practically glued their Floating Islands to his, claiming to want to facilitate their interactions and strengthen their defenses.

The only one Jake hadn't heard from was the unfathomable Fluid Grandmaster Sigmar, but he had never counted on him. His generous gift came at the perfect time and caught him off guard.

As if that first gift was the start of a chain reaction, donations immediately began pouring in over the next few minutes and hours. The felines alone gave over 15B, Svara gave 4, Tim 5, and Will 11. The two sisters, Vincent and Kevin contributed comparable sums too. Even Kewanee, Hephais, Drastan and a few other members easily managed to offer a few billion Aether points.

The amount of Aether in the Faction Aether Storage skyrocketed and within hours the problem Jake thought was insoluble was solved as if it never existed.

[Do you want to upgrade your faction? Yes/No?]

Without hesitation, Jake clicked the yes button.