The Oracle Paths

Being able to think through pain changed everything. His Myrtharian Spirit was already inherently capable of multitasking.

As soon as he was able to concentrate again, he split his attention into several parts. One of them began to study his Novice Aether Manual, the second continued to draw energy from the Soul Stone to sustain his strained Spirit Body, while the last one began to study in earnest the enormous mass of data contained within the Soul Stone itself.

Simply assimilating the Stone's Soul Energy was enough to grant him some of Xion Zolvhur's innate mental abilities and knowledge, but he was still limited by his lack of proficiency in the Aether language.

Jake had long ago developed a photographic memory and had easily memorized the elementary Aether Runes contained in his manual. The problem was performing them instantly. An architect might know how to draft a house, but he couldn't draw the blueprints with a snap of his finger.

Each Aether Rune was thousands of times more complex. When their structure was simple, such as the Point used to create Aether Cores, then they often required prodigious mental strength to exert the required pressure. No matter what Aether Spell an Aetherist was trying to formulate, such an Aether-saturated Point was always needed to trigger physical phenomena.

Other, more sophisticated Aether Runes were often a mixture of Aether Points and complex patterns forcing the Aether to flow in a certain way. By forcing it to take certain routes and form certain patterns, these Aether streams would eventually converge, creating new, highly compressed Aether Points that did not require the spellcaster's mental assistance.

Following this logic, an infinite number of effects could be generated and it was this underlying principle that governed the operation of all Aether Spells, including Soul Spells. Soul Glyphs and Soul Classes did the same thing, but by weaving these Runes directly into the Spirit Body and Soul of their host.

To fulfill the requirement set by his master Cekt Mogusar and finally become a true Aetherist apprentice, Jake had to be able to instantly perform an Aether Spell. In more professional terms, this meant being able to produce an Aether Symbol on demand, which itself was formed from a number of Aether Runes. At least several thousand.

Thankfully, Jake wasn't starting completely from scratch. 90% of his novice manual was devoted to cataloguing the thousands of primordial Aether Spells that served as the basis for all the others and how to replicate them in reality. It was an invaluable bank of information that he would not part with for anything in the world.

The Light Aether Symbol he had used to create his Aether Sun Core was one of those easy Aether Spells, but at the time he had spent nearly a month refining that Symbol. Since it was a permanent Aether Spell, he had to learn to peel off a small piece of his Spirit Body in order to anchor the Symbol, while keeping it mentally connected to him.

Now, with his increased mental faculties, Jake was confident he could reproduce such a rune in a few dozen minutes, but it was still far from enough to create a proper Aether Spell instantly.

If Jake had to rely on his natural talent and enhanced mental stats to accomplish this feat, he probably would have had to reach the standard of a Sixth or Seventh Ordeal Player, but he would still have been limited to simple spells. In other words, still a far cry from a Rank 3 Aetherist like his master.

The Rune Engraver Soul Class was a game changer.

With the Rune Engraving skill, Jake could, in addition to his greatly facilitated comprehension, instinctively reproduce any Runes, of any language, that he had successfully created at least once. As long as he produced them at least once, these Runes would forever be part of his arsenal, able to be produced on demand without having to make any conscious effort.

In addition to this first asset, thanks to the Deciphering/Coding skill, Jake now also had a prodigious talent for understanding, interpreting and deciphering any language and of course using it as he pleased. In other words, where a typical Evolver would have to run numerous tests to develop a new Aether Spell, Jake would be able to improvise them seamlessly once he understood all the underlying mechanisms.

And there was no better way to accomplish this than to start with the basics!

Jake had specific goals for this training and he was determined to achieve them.

First of all, perform all the basic Aether Runes.

Contrary to what one might think, he didn't simply try to imitate an Aether Rune from his manual. Even a basic Aether Rune had a certain degree of complexity to it, except for the simplest ones. But what about once you break it down into much simpler substeps?

In the end, all that was left were lines, dots and curves. That's exactly what Jake started to draw. A straight line, a round, an oval, a triangle, a square, and then all sorts of simple patterns that were common in all Runes. From 2D, he moved to 3D to form a sphere, a cube and so on.

It was more difficult than one might think at first. Making a perfectly straight Aether line, or a perfect circle, these were simple geometric concepts, but they required impeccable precision. When Jake had created the Light Aether Spell for his Aether Sun Core, it didn't look anything like the one shown in his manual.

This was a problem that could have been solved as his Agility, Intelligence and Perception grew, but his Soul Class solved it for good. He took his time in making these basic figures, reproducing as many variations of these strokes and curves as he could, playing with the angles and curves.

After a while,

"This is my limit. I can't make them any smaller." Jake exhaled with slight disappointment.

[Your accuracy is close to the micron.] Xi congratulated him, struggling to contain her admiration. [A little more and you would have reached the standard of a Grade 1 Bloodline. To cast your Aether Spells is more than enough, and the smaller size of the Runes will allow you to perform them in no time at a lower cost.]

"In the end, I'm still restricted by my stats and mental strength." Jake quipped cheerlessly. "But you're right about one thing. To cast spells and accomplish my goals is more than enough. Let's continue."

Jake then moved on to the next phase: Combinations. Using his manual as a guide, he began to connect simple patterns together, like a musician would connect notes to form chords.

Six weeks later, he found no more "chords" to create and moved on to "melodies". He had finally reached the stage where he could begin to tackle the Aether Runes. With a specific goal in mind, he chose the first Rune of a specific Aether Symbol, which was far from being the easiest, and got to work.

Ironically, drawing his first Aether Rune was ridiculously easy. After doing all that work up front, he just had to put the chords together to form the requested melody. With the first Rune completed, he immediately moved on to the second, and then the third.

A few hours later, a micron-sized Aether Symbol blazed brightly before him. Jake released his grip and it scattered, returning to the Aether. He focused again and in a split second, the Aether Symbol reformed once more.

"I did it." Jake rejoiced with elation. If he had not been a mere spirit, he probably would have jumped for joy.

This Aether Symbol wasn't just any Aether Symbol. It allowed him to perform the Aether Spell: Spirit Link. By inscribing two identical Aether Symbols, one in the Caster's Spirit Body, the other in a piece of Spirit Body previously severed from the main body, the Caster's consciousness could continue to move from one part to the other, as if the two pieces of Spirit Body had never been separated.

It was a connection transcending time and space. A process extremely similar to what the Oracle System used to communicate instantly across the Mirror Universe.

This Aether Spell opened the door to a myriad of other applications and spells that were far more complex and miraculous. The first category of applications allowed for the creation and remote control of Clones, Machines and weapons. The second category was communication, intelligence and exploration spells. Lastly, the third category was directly combat oriented: Teleportation and remote spell activation.

However, that wasn't what Jake was interested in right now. The reason he had done all this was to become able to train his body and mind simultaneously. Without wasting any time, he produced two identical Aether Symbols, tore off a piece of his Spirit Body without flinching despite the excruciating pain, then placed the second Symbol into the Aether Soul Core placed under the glabella of his physical body.

As if by magic, the connection with his original body was re-established, and when the Spirit Body's piece occupied the space of his body, he regained the familiar sensations he had missed so much over the past two months.

With his multitasking ability, controlling his body and mind at the same time was a breeze. Jake's body, which had been asleep for two months, suddenly began to move.

In one leap, he flew as close as he could to his Aether Sun Core, easily surpassing the height record previously set by his Spirit Body. The Body Tempering could resume.

At the same time, Jake began to study the next Aether Symbols, but this time he applied them directly to his physical body.

Soon, a new Core, very different from his Aether Core and Aether Soul Core, began to take shape.