The Oracle Paths

These three guards did not seem to be on good terms with each other. The gray armored werewolf never showed his back to the two Undeads and they refused to budge when he ordered them to retrieve their ID cards. Only after an ominous throaty growl did the Draugh stumble heavily toward them to do his job.

"Paaapeeers." The humanoid creature articulated with difficulty in a sluggish voice.

This one was clearly a tile short of a roof but his temper was atrocious. Whoever had the awful idea of posting it here was either a genius or a terminal moron.

According to the Oracle System, the primeval Draughs were corpses of warriors who had come back to life to defend their graves. Their decomposition was advanced, but they had mutated to be larger and more massive than their original bodies. They were most often created by someone else or a special energy and could only be killed by scattering their ashes to the four winds. This type of Undead was cursed and could usually be exorcised by forcing them back to sleep in their graves.

'Ugh, I feel like these buggers are going to be a pain to deal with...' Jake cringed inwardly as he handed over his identity and adventurer's card.

With a unnerving slowness and clumsiness, the Draugh guard retrieved their ID cards one by one, then with an awkward gait he lumbered back to his fellow Wight and entrusted the cards to him in lieu of the gray werewolf, who was supposed to be their superior.

The werewolf captain let out a disgruntled snort, but the Wight had already collected the ID cards and started swiping them against the magic device that looked like a large prismatic brick.

The Wight was much sharper and more deft than the other Undead, but his appearance was just as hideous. When he was alive, he had been a dark-haired man of about 185 cm, but his decomposition was already well advanced and his skin was so shriveled, that one could see his empty eye sockets and the yellow skeleton beneath.

A Wight was also an Undead crawling out of graves or cemeteries, but they had a territorial nature and were able to wake up other dead monsters, beasts or humans to form their own small army. Some people referred to them as special ghosts even though they had physical bodies. In terms of threat, these Undeads were a calamity ten times worse than the Draughs, but were vulnerable to silver.

Knowing all this, Jake calmly watched the movements of these two Undeads. Sniffing the air, he didn't smell any rot. Despite their repulsive appearance, these two Undeads were clean.

The Wight swiped the ID cards one by one with his gaunt fingers while clicking his jaws non-stop until he froze reading Ruby's data. The Undead shuddered involuntarily, reluctant to share the result with his superior.

Bad luck for him, the werewolf was already in a foul mood and with a shove sent him sprawling on the floor, not forgetting of course to retrieve the device and the ID cards.

" Get lost!" He barked as he jostled the other Draugh, who was poised to attack, with a shoulder bump.

The Wight leapt to his feet with amazing agility and drew a cutlass, eager to do battle, but when the predatory orange eyes locked on him he relented.

"That's better." The werewolf sneered as he checked out the contents of the ID cards in turn.

Like the Wight, he stiffened momentarily as he read Ruby and Jake's information, especially Jake's, but his self-control was much better than the Undead and he then handed them back their papers as if nothing had happened.

"My lord, milady, may I ask what is the reason for your stay here?" The werewolf asked humbly, with a deference the opposite of the one he had just shown to his two recalcitrant subordinates.

Jake squinted his eyes slightly.

"Does it matter?" He countered.

"It does." The captain replied composedly. "If you are here on business, you will be under the care of the Human Faction, who will assist you in your transactions. Once you reach your objective you will be escorted out of the city at once."

Bhammod nodded. This was how his previous missions had gone. Once the deal was done, his clients were escorted with their empty carts back to the entrance of Laudarkvik. He had never spent more than three consecutive nights in this town.

"We're here to stay." Jake explained earnestly.

"In that case, you absolutely must join one of the nine factions in Laudarkvik. To do that, you'll have to visit the corresponding fortress that serves as their headquarters. They're pretty easy to find, since each one has its own block as well. I don't care if your IDs have been forged or not, but no one here cares. As long as you don't threaten law and order or the interests of Laudarkvik and its 9 factions, you can do whatever you want.

"Nevertheless, based on your information, the two most obvious choices are the Human or Mutant faction. However, if you wish to join my Werebeings faction, I can promise you that you will not be mistreated and will even be paid handsomely. The benefits will not be inferior to those of other factions."

Seeing that the werewolf captain had already begun persuading them to recruit, the Wight also gritted his teeth to list the many perks of joining the Undeads, but the ultimate benefit was apparently "eternal life".

It certainly would have been tempting if it didn't involve "immediate death" first. Jake and the others unhesitatingly crossed that option off their list. Staring at the downcast face of the Wight and his Draugh friend, the group listened politely to the werewolf captain's arguments before temporarily refusing with an apologetic smile.

"My mind is not made up at the moment, but I need to know a little more before I make my decision." Jake tactfully soothed the three guards. "If the opportunity arises, we'll meet again.

The three guards were disappointed that their recruitment had failed, but they maintained their respectful facade until they left. At their signal, the portcullis was lifted and Jake and his group mingled with the crowd in the dark streets of the city.

As soon as they left, the werewolf and the Wight immediately contacted their superiors using a sort of magical walkie-talkie hanging from their belts. Then, as if nothing had happened, they went back to guarding the door, bickering and calling each other names.

A few hours later in Laudarkvik, Jake and the others finally reached an intersection. What they had seen on the way was an eye-opener. If the misery and darkness of the previous village was sickening, then Laudarkvik was practically the artistic embodiment of hell on earth.

Laudarkvik was built like a wedding cake with the poor, serving as a food supply, clustered together in the slums of the outer city. The poorest neighborhoods were literally shrouded in black miasma that the citizens living in them were unable to perceive. Just by listening, Jake had already picked up seven murders, twenty-seven burglaries and other assaults of an even more vile nature.

The main road on which Jake and his companions were walking was the only one properly paved and cleaned, and was wide enough to accommodate three or four stagecoaches side by side. The roadsides were salted to stop evil spirits and many enigmatic runes had been carved on each stone for some mysterious purpose.

It was precisely because of these runes that it took them almost 3 hours to reach the first intersection, which was only 800m from the portcullis. Indeed, the culprit was Jake.

The side effect of his Soul Class had been triggered as soon as his eyes had caught sight of the first engraving and his compulsive obsession had forced him to memorize them all, then try to interpret them and crack all their secrets. One would assume that Elduin and the others would think he was crazy, but except for Ruby who showed obvious signs of impatience, the others found his behavior quite normal.

On Quanoth, personality and behavioral disorders related to Soul Classes were widely documented, and all but the most ignorant natives had learned not to overreact to sudden behavior changes.

Ultimately, Jake did memorize all the runes and understand the basics with Jeanie's assistance, but without Mana he couldn't do much with the knowledge. Using Aether as an energy source didn't work either. It was like using pure uranium in a gasoline car engine. It wasn't meant to be used that way, even though there were some parallels.

Nonetheless, understanding these runes had broadened his horizons and he had gained some inspiration. He had great ideas for his future training.

"Speak frankly, what is your Soul Class?" Ruby asked curiously. "Highway Inspector?"

Jake ignored the taunt and apathetically retorted,

"What about you? Cosmic Bitch?"

"No. Fallen Angel." She replied calmly.

Jake briefly thought it was a joke, but as he met her cold, clear eyes, he realized it was the bare truth.

"You're not kidding...that Soul Class fits you like a glove." He decisively brought the exchange of digs to a close and then focused on the signpost.

"Where are we going?" Elduin asked tensely clutching the hilt of his scimitars.

Over the course of these few hours, they had felt spied upon by hundreds of hostile gazes and had even caught sight of several of these creatures. Raving vampires, Ghouls, Zombies, Poltergeists, Were-beings unable to take human form and other abominations...

One step off the main road and the city would turn into a veritable cut-throat.

"We're following the plan." Jake replied with determination. "Head for Mutant HQ."