The Oracle Paths

In the blinding brilliance of superheated plasma, his only company, Jake dedicated the following year and a half to cultivating his energy sources and reserves. This epiphany stemmed from realizing that a simple shortage of Aether could paralyze a machine as finely tuned as the Oracle System.

Without Aether, almost nothing was possible. Long-distance teleportation ceased, no more purchases through the Oracle Store, no more Oracle Shields- nothing. Even making a call to the other end of the galaxy became a Herculean task.

Jake knew one thing: he loathed feeling powerless and destitute. He refused to find himself in a pitiful predicament due to an Aether shortage, unable to afford the solutions to pull him out of it.

Even a Rank 3 Aetherist like his master could only endure the collapse of the Aether Network, showing that wealth alone wasn't enough to withstand an energy crisis of this magnitude.

For now, the only one who demonstrated resilience amidst these harsh times was Aas, the Cube Ancient Designer. Having a model to follow, Jake now had a glimmer of what he needed to do to escape the widespread "poverty" that plagued their Mirror Universe.

Though he knew little about Aas, he had indirectly acquired Vexa's powers by devouring Digestor Ruby. If he wished, he could easily alter his cells to mimic the physiology of the Cubic Race and, with this, had enough clues to understand how the Ancient Designer coped with the Ordeals' costs of the entire Mirror Universe.

Initially, he hadn't realized it, but Vexa's cubic cells functioned in many ways like his Energy Body. Upon opening one of these Cubes, no matter how hard one looked, no Aether Core would be found inside per se. Yet, they had a Grade assigned based on their size and the maximum Aether output they could deliver. The source of this Aether had no precise location, but the Aether continuously produced by these Cubes was undeniable evidence. The material composing these Cubes also served as a remarkable Aether accumulator, storing the produced Aether non-stop up to a storage ceiling determined mainly by the Cube's quality and size.

Of significance, each Cube was connected through a spiritual and Aetheric link spanning distances. This implied that if each Oracle Cube was indeed part of Aas, the Ancient Designer had his own alternative Aether Network.

Jake had initially believed that the awakening of his Energy Body was due to his consumption of the Grade 10 Aether Core. He had changed his mind. It was probably Vexa's Cubic Race Bloodline that originated this ability, the Aether Core merely providing the energy required for its evolution.

Therefore, Jake had multiple goals during this year and a half to accomplish this objective: maintaining the Magnetic Field Disruptor and the Conversion Chamber at full capacity during this period to support both the temporal distortion and his Aether production.

At first, he was afraid that the Conversion Chamber wouldn't produce enough Aether to sustain the temporal distortion or that it wouldn't be part of the affected zone. But he was quickly reassured when he discovered that the energy produced by these electromagnetic clashes between the Magnetic Resonator and the black hole's event horizon was absolutely fantastic.

Better still, the Dungeon Digestor could indeed extend the time distortion's influence to the Conversion Chamber and its Magnetic Field Disruptor. If it hadn't done so before, it was to better deceive them.

From the surface unaffected by temporal distortion where Lucia and the others were, they saw a few minutes after Jake bid them farewell the Magnetic Resonator make a violent veer towards the black рole, its speed accelerating to its maximum limit, the giant thrusters on the other side of the structure igniting for the first time since they had landed here.

In the hours that followed, the Magnetic Resonator continued to speed up rapidly until it reached a celerity infinitesimally close to that of light. During the same period, the Magnetic Field Disruptor began emitting under the effect of time acceleration, a magnetic field of power and flow rate inconceivable to the human mind.

Orbiting this quickly against the black hole's natural magnetic field, the resulting clash of the opposing magnetic fields multiplied the Magnetic Resonator's energy production, putting its Voidsteel infrastructure and the barrier surrounding the funnel to a severe test.

Such a machine overclocking could only be maintained for a few days, but for Jake, who was benefiting from the time distortion, he now had the perfect conditions to become a real Aether Core factory.

Every second, thousands of Aether Cores would join the plasma storm, but Jake soon realized that it wasn't even necessary. Right under the Conversion Chamber was an exquisite Conversion Aether Array of gigantic diameter, converting all the produced energy into pure Aether in a form he had never seen before. Once generated, it would be immediately compressed before flowing down in liquid form into a cylindrical pool equipped with its own Aether Array.

The trickle didn't end there. Having been reconfigured by a second Aether Array an even purer fraction of liquid flowed down into a considerably smaller, lower pool. Its metallic walls shimmered with an otherworldly light.

The cycle repeated multiple times until the end product dripped, microscopic and precious, into a vessel no larger than a bottle cap, hewn from pure Horizon Hardstone. The container was two-thirds empty, hardly enough to moisten one's lips, but the aura of Aether emanating from it was simply staggering.

As for the liquid itself, a single microscopic droplet of this highly compressed and purified liquified Aether held phenomenal energy, perhaps almost as much as a Grade 8 or 9 Aether Core.

However, their value lay not in the amount of Aether they held, but the quality. When only considering the grade of Aether produced, it far surpassed Grade 10. When Jake scanned one of these droplets, brighter than a star and more syrupy and creamy than the most luxurious of hydrating milks, he was left awestruck. Grade 16 Aether!

Cekt had once told him the highest recorded bloodline grade in their Mirror Universe was 17. Even though the grade of a bloodline and that of Aether weren't the same thing, it was clear these droplets of Aether represented the pinnacle of Aetheric technology their Mirror Universe could master.

And these Grade 16 Aether droplets were solely for his use! Even though he could do nothing with them at his level, not even manipulate them without harming his consciousness and Spirit Body, his Energy Core training and production were considerably eased.

Merely sitting cross-legged nearby, Jake could feel his Energy Body, Spirit, and Soul racing, the speed at which his cells siphoned the ambient Aether increasing exponentially.

"Approximately three Grade 9 energy Cores per second," Jake swiftly estimated after submerging several freshly condensed Aether Cores in one of the droplets.

To produce a Grade 10 Aether Point of a given encoding, one needed about 100 Grade 9 Aether points. However, to condense a Grade 10 Aether Core, one needed far more than 100 Grade 9 Aether Cores.

That was because the Grade referred to the quality of the usable Aether and to achieve that required an immense amount of Aether, just as forcing two liters of water into a one-liter bottle needed far more strength than one might think.

Nevertheless, Jake soon found himself flabbergasted when a Grade 10 energy Core, which had required the assimilation of an entire giant sun, appeared before him, rapidly siphoning the contents of the container. He stashed it away in a separate space before disaster ensued. The stifling and deadly void of a zero Aether zone was still fresh in his memory.

Jake quickly realized he couldn't allow the tiny pool to empty as it also represented the Dungeon Digestor's energy reserves. Once depleted, the temporal distortion would instantly end.

For this reason, and to limit danger, he first focused on producing Grade 9 Aether Cores in bulk, then swiftly began experimenting with encoding them in a myriad of different ways.

Jake couldn't create Grade 6 Aether Encodings himself, but he could easily create a lower encoding and use that encoded Aether to condense a lesser quality Aether Core.

Often, the encoding, or energy Code, would be destroyed by the compression of the Energy Core as it gained density. But rarely, the encoded Aether would survive, becoming a more highly compressed version of its original Aether Code. Statistically, this was an occurrence out of 10,000, but for Jake, with virtually infinite energy at his disposal, these fortunate occurrences could be considered frequent.

When he grew bored after several days, he began to experiment with his Cube Magic ability, producing different colored Cubes instead of energy Cores, and acquainting himself with their properties and differences. He soon realized that, unless he intentionally severed the connection, each of his Cubes was a part of him, just like his cells. If he desired, he could even redirect their energy through the connecting link, a phenomenon that worked almost instantaneously over short distances with his current understanding of the Aetherdream.

His plan to develop his own energy Network and become an invincible pay-to-win player was already on track.