The Oracle Paths

1045 Side Mission n°1

"This replica already seems pretty mind-blowing," Jake mused inwardly, his eyes tinged with envy. "The original chalice must be a real game-changer."

His otherwise stoic face wavered ever so slightly, his blazing greed mirrored in his narrowing eyes. At that moment, a resolute assertion cleared his mind of all distractions.

"The original chalice... I must get it!"

As if the Oracle System had been waiting for that cue, it immediately shot him his first side mission since the start of the Ordeal:

[Side Mission n°1: Find a way to acquire the Chalice of Nethershade and the Chalice of Etherlife and fuse them to restore the original relic. Reward: An unknown Diamond Aether Artefact.]

Jake's jaw nearly hit the floor as he read the absurd mission prompt.

"What the actual hell is this madness?! I just wanted one goddamn chalice, and now the Oracle is asking me to score another one and fuse them? Are you kidding me?!"

The Oracle System wasn't pulling any punches anymore. Long gone were the days of receiving manageable side missions that anyone with a smidgen of luck and grit could accomplish. Now, it felt like the Oracle or Aaas, or whoever was running this Ordeal-was reminding him to step up his game.

If Jake wanted to keep raking in the insane ratings from his previous Ordeals, he'd have to bust his ass way more. Easy mode was officially over.

What frightened him about this mission was that the bare-minimum requirement left little room to amp up his rating. If securing both chalices and fusing them was just scraping by, what the hell would he need to do for a perfect rating? The sheer complexity of it made his head spin.

"Cough, cough... Hey. Ahem... Shit! What the hell have I done to deserve this... This is gonna bite me in the ass... HEY CONSCRIPT!"

Snapped out of his grim reverie, Jake winced as the imposing 3000- man commander barked at him, a spray of spittle pelting his face. Apparently, the earlier lesson hadn't stuck.

Luckily for the officer, Jake was the one at fault this time, so he let it slide.

"Sorry, got lost in thought," he deadpanned, completely ignoring the fuming officer.

"Take that for shouting at me when I didn't ask for it; Jake sneered inwardly, relishing the sight of the commander grinding his teeth in impotent fury.

The Spirit Enchanter didn't quite know how to react to their bizarre exchange, but having been through more than one outlandish ritual, he had long since learned how to comport himself on such occasions. The aim was to get this rite over and done with, posthaste.

With a well-practiced motion, he carefully lifted the golden goblet before his face and closed his eyes, his forehead creasing in intense concentration. The artifact immediately began to glow with a spectral aura, and the previously empty vessel started filling with water, as if by magic.

The water shimmered with the same ghostly gray hue enveloping the goblet but its brilliance was far more intense, almost blinding. Merely standing nearby, Jake, the Spirit Enchanter, and the officer felt as if their vitality was being drained against their will.

Almost instantly, Jake's cells resisted the pull, reverting to their baseline status. Neither the Spirit Enchanter nor the officer could say the same. As if holding an about-to-detonate bomb, the enchanter nearly tossed the goblet into Jake's hands, before sprinting to the far end of the chapel. The officer had already fled to the top of the stairs from where they had come.

Jake stood there, dumbstruck, holding the relic before recalling what he was supposed to do. Still, he hesitated momentarily, locking eyes with the goblet's ectoplasmic twinkles. Now that he was so close to the chalice, the force trying to siphon his lifeforce felt even more overwhelming.

"What now?" he shouted toward the Spirit Enchanter, who was crouched against the wall at the other end of the room. "Do I have to mix it with regular water, or can I just dunk my hand in?"

It wasn't that Jake doubted his own toughness, but he chose to play it safe until he had a better grasp of this mysterious water and its mystical properties. The shaman, not losing sight of why he was here, cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed back,

"This Chalice can only hold Spirit Lumyst Water with a purity of 30%. If you're feeling ballsy, give it a shot. I reckon you can handle it."

'Xi? What's your take?' Jake swiftly sought a second opinion, although he already knew the answer he'd get.

[The water from your initial baptism didn't even contain 0.000 001% of Spirit Lumyst Water. They probably used a single droplet for the whole pool. To play it safe, one drop in the same carafe as earlier should suffice.]

"Great minds think alike, huh," Jake chuckled as he heeded the advice and dropped a solitary droplet into one of the many black earthenware jars littering the corner.

Big mistake! The moment the droplet hit the bottom of the empty jar, the vessel was suddenly enveloped in a dazzling, spectral aura. The next second, its surface was crisscrossed with radiant fissures, like a sky ablaze with lightning during a tempest. Seconds later, the jar disintegrated, reduced to ash under its own weight.

Having witnessed the spectacle from atop the staircase, the officer audibly gulped, while the shaman muttered a string of curses under his breath for overlooking such a vital detail. He could have turned back, but he knew that the carafe used in earlier baptisms wouldn't withstand the pressure either.

"Regular water first!"

"Thanks, Captain Obvious, Jake rolled his eyes, masking his own embarrassment. The destruction of the jar was indeed his own doing; he should have seen it coming.

[Hey, who could've predicted their gear would be so shoddy?] Xi immediately piped up in his mind, trying to lift his spirits. [They've got no one to blame but themselves.]

'Right, Jake's mood immediately buoyed. 'If it were artifacts I'd forged, they'd have definitely held up. Definitely!

Learning his lesson, Jake picked another similarly-sized earthenware

jar and filled it first with the clear pool water. This time, the jar held,

and he could finally add another drop of pure Lumyst Water.

Jake expected the two waters to mix like ordinary fluids, but he nearly dropped the jar when the mundane water started to shimmer, displaying luminescent cracks eerily familiar to him.

"Fuck. Don't tell me, anything that touches this water gets

automatically enchanted?"

That was exactly the case. To be precise, the spiritual energy in the Lumyst Water was attempting to awaken the innate spirituality of the lifeless substance, whatever that entailed.

This time, the magic worked, and the two waters managed to meld, albeit grudgingly. Jake thought he was past the worst, but soon the new jar began to shimmer upon contact with the diluted water. In the end, it also turned to dust.

Realizing that enchanting a durable container could take all day, Jake did something he'd sworn not to do in the early phases of this Ordeal: he used his powers.

Just a touch of telekinesis.

The enriched water mixture hovered a meter above the ground instead of splattering with the ashes of its former container, eliciting a series of stunned gasps from both the shaman and the officer.

Such raw power, without the blessing of Lumyst? It was unheard of- a monumental scoop. If reported, this would completely reshape both factions' perception of these foreigners.

Aware that he might have to silence these witnesses to avoid future complications, Jake clenched his teeth and plunged both hands decisively into the shimmering blob of water floating before him.

Unlike the first time, the moment his fingertips made contact with the liquid, a searing pain savagely exploded throughout his nervous system, setting both his physical body and soul ablaze. The agony was so excruciating, he could barely remember his own name.

"Gods, this hurts like a motherfucker," Jake snarled through gritted teeth. If this was the kind of agony diluted water could bring, he wasn't jumping into that mystic river anytime soon.

Yet, as if a celestial algorithm had finally compiled, he felt his luck kick into overdrive. The arcane gamble that the enriched water had been taking with his spiritual essence suddenly became a surefire win-its success rate rocketing to a flawless 100%.

Before Jake even had a chance to truly test the bounds of his Cosmic D Stafeyrves Soul, the ritual drew to a close.

The magic was a roaring success.

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