The Oracle Paths

"Anyway, I gotta go," Meribelle suddenly announced, giving Thonzo and Jashuzen's sturdy shoulders a hearty pat, causing them to hiss in pain upon impact. "Have fun~"

Jake, Hephais, and Sank-Uk exchanged knowing glances as she sauntered away, her sultry sway and unapproachable icy beauty attracting a lot of stares. She knew what she was doing.

'Info?' Jake mentally inquired, not altering his facial expression.

'Exactly. I need to catch up with Giso, Emlet, and the others to get the lowdown,' Meribelle tersely clarified as she slammed the building door shut.

Giso was the hooded Soulmancer who'd cast a zone of darkness to create sound isolation from the outside. Emlet was the nearly bald Soulmancer responsible for creating visual illusions through his 'Lucas' mirror-carpet.

In other words, she needed to find them to figure out what they'd been up to since they'd split. According to their initial plan, they should've reunited much earlier. Deep down, she was slightly concerned.

As for Jake and the other newbies... they couldn't care less. They were too engrossed in listening to the speech from the novice Spirit Enchanter, who turned out to be surprisingly likable despite the dumb questions these yokels were pelting him with.

"...No, the military gear provided here isn't standardized," the young man clarified bitterly, puzzled why these two unknowns—Jake and Hephais—were harping on this point. "Each Spirit Enchanter has their own style, although we do bulk order from blacksmiths too."

"In short, no wonder even the pro soldiers we've seen sport completely different armors and weapons," Hephais sarcastically quipped. "No wonder our army gets its ass kicked."

The novice frowned in disapproval upon hearing this newbie openly mock their craft. They didn't get the art, let alone the passion and heart a Spirit Enchanter invested in the artifacts they created. Yet, being open-minded—and especially since they seemed chummy with a full-fledged Soulmancer—he politely countered,

"And why is non-uniform gear an issue? A sword's a sword, just like a bow's a bow. Performance and appearance may vary from artifact to artifact depending on its quality or forging method, but the fact remains that it's precisely because of our superior enchanted artifacts that we can hold our own against the Light Warriors of the Lustra Plains and their insane innate strength. Without them, we'd be royally screwed. Also, the army's contribution system motivating and promoting our troops is exactly what drives them to continually upgrade their equipment. It's also a business."

"Contribution system?" Jake picked up, thinking it sounded similar to his own faction's system.

This didn't surprise him much, although it was a bit sad that the quality of the gear wasn't intrinsically guaranteed for each soldier. What bugged him was how they measured these 'contributions.'

"You didn't tell them?" The novice Spirit Enchanter shot Sank-Uk a puzzled look.

A former commander should've known all this. Maybe they weren't as close as he'd pondered and were just rolling together by chance?

"Totally slipped my mind," the barbarian muttered with an apologetic shrug.

The novice stared at him speechlessly, hands on hips and a patronizing pout on his lips, then sighed,

"Alright, then follow me." Shooting a haughty, slightly peeved look at Hephais, he added, "What I'm about to hand out is probably the only artifact you'll receive from this Armory that can be considered 'standardized.' But don't worry, it doesn't count against your enchanted equipment quota you're entitled to claim."

"As if I give a flying fuck," Hephais grumbled, striding behind the receptionist who gestured for them to follow. His hands were jammed in his pockets, a perfect picture of devil-may-care attitude.

"By the way, you're quick to criticize, but you still haven't told me why non-standardized equipment is a problem." The apprentice, still clinging to the argument, retorted with a resentful tone, hell-bent on winning the debate.

"Just step onto a battlefield and you'll see," Thonzo tossed in matter-of-factly, filling in for Hephais. "An army can't use certain defensive formations if, say, their shields aren't perfectly identical. The formation would be full of gaps. There were no gaps in the wall erected by the shield-bearers of the Lustra Plains..."

The faces of the other recruits noticeably darkened, remembering this unpleasant fact. The apprentice felt stumped, witnessing the sudden dip in their mood.

"As you can see, our enemies have caught on to the advantage of standardized equipment. Maybe that's why you're called Underworld Barbarians while they're known as Light Warriors," Hephais concluded, stabbing the apprentice metaphorically in the heart.

"..." The young Spirit Enchanter was momentarily speechless. Still, after a few seconds of silence, he muttered under his breath, "Well, at least our gear doesn't break after a few hits."

"Fair enough," Claire smiled softly, opting not to twist the knife further.

Minutes later, they stopped in front of a steel door with no lock, blocking access to one of the numerous storage units behind the annex. As they contemplated how the apprentice planned to open it, he pressed the locket stitched onto his belt against a matching indentation on the wall.

For a second, from behind, it gazed like he was going to fuck the wall. Fortunately, the sound of gears and cogs turning soon filled the air.

"It's open," he declared flatly, oblivious to his embarrassing moment.

Upon entering, they found a forest of shelves, safes, and weapon racks taking up all available space, each item clearly labeled and numbered.

"This is where I store my enchanted creations or the gear awaiting enchantment," the Spirit Enchanter said, unable to hide his pride. "You can pick any artifact of your choice for free as long as it's in bin number one. For anything else, you'll have to pay with Contribution Points, privileges, or another agreed-upon currency."

"Good thing, too... We haven't even received the artifact meant to track our deeds," Scelacabe muttered tersely, examining a heavy war hammer that seemed ill-suited for a woman of her build, barbaric or not.

As Jake and the others also began to inspect the stored artifacts, the Spirit Enchanter reached into a nondescript jewelry box and tossed each of them an ordinary-looking iron ring.

"This is what we use to count your contributions to the war effort," he summarized briefly. "Don't ask me how they're made. That's above my pay grade."

Jake examined the small ring between his thumb and forefinger, lifting it above his eyes. His laid-back demeanor vanished instantly, as if he'd sobered up.

[Snitch Ring (+35): A ring that appears ordinary but is actually packed with integrated sensors, detectors, and miniature cameras. It's just one tiny cog in a much larger sentient artifact. It reports everything back to its mother artifact, which arbitrarily decides the contribution points to credit or deduct, as well as what they can be exchanged for.]

An artifact enchanted 35 times... He wouldn't have been surprised if its value surpassed that of a Platinum or Diamond Aether Artifact. An artifact capable of creating others and remotely commanding them to monitor the actions of troops across half a continent... He saw tons of uses for such a gadget.

Beyond its capabilities, with a success probability set at 50%, the odds of enchanting an object end-to-end 35 consecutive times without destroying it was only 1 in 34,359,738,368. He could only imagine the colossal waste of resources that led to its creation. Not to mention all the valuable sentient artifacts that ended up destroyed in the process...

'Should I eat it?' Jake was tempted, but he immediately pondered better of it. It was too risky.

[At this level of enchantment, the computational power of this artifact's spirit must be comparable to a mini Oracle System. Not to mention the ridiculous number of Attributes and Graces it must possess.] Xi commented with some solemnity.

"Put it on your finger, authenticate, and you can start racking up your contribution points. Just think about it in your head if you want to know how many you have left," the Spirit Enchanter instructed them, showing his own finger.

Jake had already proceeded to bind the artifact. At its core, it was kind of like his Oracle Device, but with far fewer functions. Vaguely curious, he glanced at his status and froze.

[Contribution Points: 6,324,133,640 points.]

'What the fuck?!' Jake's eyes almost popped out of his head when he read the big number.

Somehow, his crucial contribution to the retaking of Havocspire had been recorded.