The Oracle Paths

During those two hours, Jake had sifted through hundreds of millions of items, but he was still far from deciding. There were plenty of interesting articles, but nothing seemed exceptional enough to push him to spend his Ordeal Credits. If he didn't find anything, he would rather save them for his next Ordeal to increase their value.

[...It would be so much easier if you weren't rolling in money.] Xi complained in his head with an exasperated voice.

[Hmmhmm. Filthy rich.] Jeanie chimed in.

Thankfully, Trash remained silent. It was already difficult enough to host a cohort of fairy spirits somewhere in his mind. He was starting to feel like his cat Crunch, who had recently confessed to suffering from multiple personalities.

"I never thought that one day being too rich would become a problem..." Jake sighed, feeling a migraine coming on.

His unreasonable wealth was indeed the cause of his dilemma. Due to the Grade 10 Energy characterizing his body and soul, Jake continually produced billions of Aether points every second without even thinking about it.

The bracelet he had recreated to reinstate Xi in her functions was currently compressing a little over 300T of Aether points per day. Such a figure was so absurd for a Fourth Ordeal Player that it was scandalous.

During his First Ordeal, 1000 Ordeal credits were estimated to be around 100M Aether points. Such an amount seemed astronomically high to him at the time. And for the common mortals, it was indeed the case.

With 100M Aether points, a First Ordeal Player could buy several manuals, skills, or techniques and even acquire a pure blood sample of a Grade 7 Bloodline.

Unfortunately, this was no longer entirely true for a Fourth Ordeal Player.

The value of Ordeal credits doubled with each successive Ordeal. This meant that 1000 Ordeal Credits were worth 800M Aether points today at the exchange rate of his early days. For ordinary Players belonging to small factions, it was an unimaginable amount.

To put things into perspective, 800M Aether points were the market value of approximately 5 or 6,000 Rank 8 Digestor corpses. Such Digestors rarely traveled alone and had average Aether stats approaching 10,000 points. It was the kind of prey that even a mediocre Fifth Ordeal Player tended to hunt in teams, and this kind of hunting was not without risk.

Like Evolvers, there was a great diversity of talents, size, and morphology among Digestors of the same rank. For every ten mediocre Rank 8 Digestors, there was one standout. Among a hundred Rank 8 Digestors, there was a mini-boss. And if, by unfortunate chance, they stumbled upon the rare gem among millions, they might encounter a "friendly" Digestor Jake, or something of the sort.

Come to think of it...Jake remembered that there was, in fact, a Digestor Jake roaming free somewhere on B42. One of the bosses of the Digestor Dungeon had adopted his appearance and managed to escape alive.

In any case, Jake was facing a serious dilemma. 3000 Ordeal Credits were worth less than the Aether points his body produced every second.

[That's not entirely true.] Xi suddenly reminded him, while consulting the Oracle System. [The prices in the Oracle Store were heavily discounted so that new Evolvers and Players could quickly acquire some decent techniques or a bloodline. Prices have increased considerably since you became a Fourth Ordeal Player. Logically, the value of an Ordeal Credit should have followed suit.]

Hmm. Xi had a point. Jake remembered that detail.

His novice manual on Aether Manipulation cost several billion Aether points the last time he checked. It was dozens of times more expensive than its value in Ordeal Credits when he bought it back then.

As for his Grade 7 Myrmidian Bloodline, it was no longer even available. To acquire a blood sample, he had to make a request in the Oracle Store through the Evolver Market.

The price of a dose of Blood Essence from a Grade 7 Bloodline theoretically sold for anywhere between 1 and 500B of Aether points depending on the species... The thing was, most sellers did not want to be paid in Aether points, but directly in Aether crystals of a certain color, but above all, of a certain grade.

It was all fine and dandy if those vendors wanted Grade 2 or 3 Red Aether Crystals, but if they demanded Grade 4 or higher Blue or Violet Aether Crystals, the exchange rate would skyrocket exponentially. This was a harsh reminder that most Evolvers and Players didn't possess a Self-Encoding ability in their bloodline. Or if they did, it was often biased towards certain Aether stats, causing a lag, or even stagnation of neglected attributes.

Sadly, fate was cruel, and it was often the mental stats that were the most difficult to increase. And it just so happened that Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Black Aether Crystals of high Grade were also the most challenging to condense. Not every Aetherist was capable of doing so.

"Xi, can you tell me the current value of an Ordeal Credit in terms of Aether points?"

[I have already checked. 1000 Ordeal Credits are still worth 800M Aether points as we anticipated.] Xi reported calmly. [Your Ordeal has earned you a little less than 2.4B Aether points. However, there is a catch. The Ordeal Store doesn't follow exactly the same pricing grids. Here, your Novice Aether Manipulation Manual is still worth 250 credits instead of the 3,000 or 4,000 credits it would cost if we based the rates on the Oracle Store outside. These Aether points have a market value of Grade 4 Red Aether. Grade 4 for Fourth Ordeal... The Oracle Store categorizes and prices its items based on the required Oracle Rank to purchase them, their rarity, demand, utility, and objective value. An Oracle Skill of level 5 or 6 that would have cost you hundreds, if not thousands of billions of Aether points outside, would cost you around 600-1500 credits here. But there is another catch. Similarly, an Oracle Skill of level 1 would still cost 100 credits. Just like your First Ordeal. Following this logic, Ordeal Credits are best spent on high-value items that require a high Oracle Rank.]

"I see." Jake understood. The Ordeal Store favored specialists who had put all their chips on one or two techniques.

However, Xi had also reminded him of another crucial piece of information. Now that he was no longer considered a beginner participating in tutorials, the prices in the Oracle Store would no longer change out of the blue.

That meant his nouveau riche status was now unalienable.

Jake thought for a moment, then said, "In that case, filter out all the items in the Oracle Store, leaving only those that can be purchased with my Oracle Rank of Colonel."

[Right away.] Xi complied.

In the blink of an eye, the number of available articles drastically dropped as if the water of an ocean had been removed, leaving only a few fish gasping for air on the ocean floor.

[Categories:]

[Aether/Genetic Code Enhancements]

[Knowledge and skills]

[Aether Skills]

[Oracle Device Skills/Upgrades]

[Objects/ Machinery/Vehicles]

Despite his formidable brainpower, it still took Jake several hours to skim through the content of the five categories. However, this time he was able to read everything with Xi filtering out articles that were of no interest to him.

At this moment, Jake finally decided on a satisfying buying strategy. Before that, he took a look not at his Ordeal Credits, but his Aether Points.

[Aether Storage: 110 376 564Q Aether pts]

"Alright. This should be enough..."

After a short hush,

[...Never say that in front of other Players.] Xi solemnly warned him. [Their hearts wouldn't be able to take it.]

"..."

Jake's plan was as follows. He and Xi had indeed found many manuals, Aether Skills, cultivation techniques, Oracle Skills, and even artifacts or technologies that might interest them. The problem was that most of the time, in the case of an Aether or Oracle Skill, one often had to buy its lower version first. Spending their Ordeal Credits on these low-level skills would be a waste.

At the same time, even if he converted his 3000 Ordeal Credits into Grade 4 Red Aether points, it would only amount to 800 trillion Aether points. It didn't even represent a hundred-thousandth of his fortune.

From this point of view, Jake still had no reason to spend his credits even if their value was now much more interesting. He and Xi were about to give up until they compared the prices of some items in the Ordeal Store to those in the Oracle Store.

It turned out that a number of items requiring an Oracle Rank of Colonel cost a reasonable amount of Ordeal Credits, while they were absent or disproportionately priced in the Oracle Store to the point that even Jake's Aether Storage would bleed if he decided to purchase one of them.

This was the case with several manuals and Oracle Skills. He needed to buy their lower versions, but Jake couldn't bring himself to spend his credits on that.

What to do then? Simple: Spend his Aether points first.

And it turned out that Jake had the perfect Oracle Skill for this, one that he had never really used before:

[Portable Oracle Store lvl1: The owner of the Oracle Device can access the Oracle Store from anywhere, including during an Ordeal, and his purchases will be delivered instantly. However, the prices of the goods in the Oracle Store will be 200 times more expensive. Regardless of the item purchased, a shipping fee of 20 million Aether points will be charged.]