The Oracle Paths

The first to welcome the news was Will, who had never doubted him. Although most of them asked to stay on Jake's island, the businessman still went on to recruit the services of a few veteran Beskyrians and Eltarians a few days later. The former for their incredible luck and the latter for their telepathy and psychic foresight.

It became blatantly obvious when highlighted, but even the purest bloodline of these new members, be it from Gerulf or Lucia, did not exceed 50% purity.

The reason was simple as pie: It took two to conceive a child.

Even if these godly deserters had fornicated all over the place, their spouses were basically regular humans. With each passing generation of descendants, these 50% had been diluted to the point where most of the inhabitants of their world were ordinary.

Individuals like Gerulf and Lucia were rare and often the result of inbreeding. As a result, it was theoretically possible to meet Myrmidians, Kintharians and Eltarians with different skills than his own, as he had already experienced.

Asfrid's Soul Steal was one example, but according to Ulfar, the Luck Steal Skill also existed. What Will was after in hiring these Eltarians was their foresight and ability to perceive the intentions of others. It was indeed extremely difficult to lie or fake in front of certain Eltarians.

A middle-aged Beskyrian woman named Wyne, whom Will had gotten hold of, even had an exclusive ability that Ulfar envied. That is, the ability to harness, channel and control the luck of others. Among the 42 Beskyrians, only 3 others boasted this ability and they were all from noble clans.

"I'm warning you shady merchant... If anything happens to Wyne, you're dead." Jake surreptitiously heard Ulfar threaten Will in a low voice as they were about to go to Thelma on business.

Noticing Jake strolling by, Ulfar released the businessman's collar and sheepishly patted his cheek with a scowl before whistling away.

"What a pesky king..." Will complained as he put his tie back together. "Ah, Jake, what are you doing here? Are you coming with us?"

"Not this time. Now that the Kintharians' dedicated area has been completed, I can finally resume my training."

"Haha, I hear you." Will chuckled as he remembered those hundreds of brutes all crammed together in a narrow lava pool. He was about to use the Yellow Cube when he remembered something,

"Ah, now that I think of it, speaking of training, I've written up the rules for the contribution point and reward system I was thinking of implementing. I just need your approval, after tweaking a few things."

The businessman fiddled with his wristband interface and Jake received a notification for a file transfer, which he accepted.

He was puzzled at first, but became increasingly impressed by the meticulousness of his comrade, who had thought of absolutely everything. Contribution points could be earned by contributing in many different ways to the Myrtharian Nerds.

It could be by recruiting, offering loot, defending and fighting for the faction, or simply by keeping it running smoothly. Not everyone would ultimately be destined to fight.

The easiest way to earn those contribution points was to donate Aether. Exactly what the faction needed to keep thriving.

But in order to motivate members to work hard for these contribution points, they had to have real value over the Aether they already had.

Jake of course had many ideas inspired by New Earth, but Will had completed this tedious task for him.

In summary, those who had special or higher grade Aether Encodings like Will and Tim with their Grade 2 Charisma and Luck Aether Encodings, would offer their services at an unbeatable rate.

Although their prices per unit depended on their rarity and the supply and demand of the market, buying Grade 2 Aether Crystals generally cost 100 to 1000 times more than their Grade 1 counterpart. This logic remained true until Grade 3, after which it became increasingly difficult to obtain the higher grades without resorting to the Oracle Store.

The Oracle Store was a no-no for anyone with a functioning brain. The prices were just outrageous and it was even more so for those who had completed their first four Ordeals, and therefore no longer had the beginner's discount.

In order not to be unfair to Will, Tim and other members with these Aether Encodings, they would still be compensated generously by their customers either in Aether or Contribution points at the actual cost of conversion.

For example, in the case of Grade 2 Strength Aether, where one point cost 100 regular Aether points, the customer would pay double the amount, thus ensuring that 100 points would also go into the supplier's pocket.

It may seem like robbery, but it pales in comparison to the prices charged by other major factions like New Earth or the Oracle Store. Freelance Aetherists like Cekt were even scarcer and were far too busy to be converting some low grade Aether.

Taking a cue from the market and what he had observed on Thelma, transactions would be done with Aether Crystals as well as bracelets.

With the exception of Aether Encodings holders who could sell Grade 2 Aether at will, other members could only buy Grade 2 Aether from them at a reduced price if they needed to max out their Aether stats. In the case of Grade 2, this maximum was 1000 points.

This was to prevent the trafficking of Grade 2 Aether to other factions. Indeed, by buying Grade 2 Aether at low price, it was very easy to get rich unfairly by reselling it at its proper price outside.

The contribution points would also be the only currency accepted in the Myrtharian Scavenger's first shopping mall, which was still under construction. The building with a half Roman, half modern architecture looked like a mix between a palace and a skyscraper and would occupy a good part of Will' s island territory.

It was the first step towards the realization of Will's dream of a multiversal trading company. He planned to sell other rare products, which their faction could not necessarily produce, at a lower price than the competition. The faction might be slightly in the red in some cases, but that would only make the contribution point system more appealing.

One contribution point would be equivalent to 1000 Aether points. But these points did have an added benefit: They would allow people to move up the ranks in the faction.

This was Will's grand plan.

Those who contributed enough would move up the ranks, from recruits to official members, then non-commissioned officers, officers and senior officers. These rank names were not very inspiring, but each position would confer invaluable benefits.

In addition to authority, the right to issue missions, and first dibs on certain weapons and materials, they would be able to activate the Faction and Sub-faction Skills by drawing directly from the Faction Aether Storage under certain conditions.

This was not very attractive at the moment, but that would soon change as the Faction obtained Active Faction Skills that were more offensive in nature and required an astronomical amount of Aether for their use.

Of course, to be promoted, contribution points alone were not enough. The leader or one of the vice-leaders had to validate the promotion. For now, that came down to Jake and Will. The other trusted comrades were only senior officers.

Jake pointed out that it might create tension in the long run and he didn't want to offend his friends, but Will assured him that he had talked about it with everyone else before and no one had complained.

"So be it..." Jake grumbled unconvinced.

As he reached the bottom of the report, Jake finally understood why Will wanted to work out some details with him. One of the suggested rewards costing 1M contribution points would be to enter the Purgatory Dream to train and receive a Soul Glyph.

Jake had already told him about the workings of his Bronze Artifact and the businessman knew that the number of Glyphs waiting to be earned were non-renewable. A limited edition Glyph for 1M contribution points might sound expensive, but maybe it wasn't expensive enough.

"Let me think about it." Jake promised nothing.

He did, however, agree to all other requests. This included all the missions and requests paid in contribution points to expand and strengthen the faction. Among these requests, Grade 3 and 4 Aether Encodings were at the top of the list along with high grade Bloodline samples.

Jake said his goodbyes to Will, chatted briefly with Lucia and Gerulf, played with the felines, and then returned to the island's center to begin a long and ruthless training session.

For privacy, the Kintharians had built walls around the force field because of the exasperated complaints of other members who were tired of seeing them walking around with their wienies dangling free. Now that they had their own place, Jake became the sole beneficiary of their efforts.

Jake then set the temperature and gravity of the room, then stepped through the energy barrier to find himself directly exposed to a temperature of several thousand degrees. His legs sank into the lava under his increased weight and he let himself sink without struggling.

The rustling of Melkree' tree foliage might have accompanied him in his seclusion, but that sound also faded with everything else as he called forth the Purgatory Dream. Not wanting to affect the other inhabitants of the island, he would go there with only his mind.