After a long day of watching my every step, it was hard to relax.
Even though I knew the streets were much safer than the corridors of the Dungeon, I found myself staring at each corner like a madman, all the way until I reached my home.
Even then, I still checked every room. Just to be sure.
Having found no threats inside, I finally collapsed onto the sofa.
Almost immediately, I felt the tension in my body release.
After a few minutes of rest, having cleared my mind, I was ready to use my Gift again.
Not the fake one I told Sam and Roy about, [Godspeed].
The real [Gacha Kingdom Building], in all of its gacha glory.
I was excited to see what changed, if anything, from yesterday, but all of the menus and descriptions were still the same.
Since my Gift was already complex and vast, I actually let out a sigh of relief.
Any potential disappointment inside me disappeared the moment I saw that my bet had paid off.
Earlier today, I had deliberately held off on claiming my daily [Gacha Ticket]. My logic was simple: if I got into trouble, I could claim and use it inside the Dungeon as a panic button.
But, being a little greedy, I was also hoping that if I managed to level up, the number of tickets I could claim might increase.
Sure enough...
[Amount of Owned Tickets: 2]
The [Skills Banner] didn't disappoint last time, so I decided to dedicate the first ticket to it.
Just like yesterday, my mind went blank for an instant.
Maybe I only imagined it, but the disorientation seemed to fade a second faster this time.
In any case, when my senses returned, I checked the new skill...
[Enhanced Drop Chance
An area around the user increases the odds of item drops.
Every sort of item that can be dropped is affected, from every source.
This is a passive skill with no activation or upkeep cost.
The skill may be freely activated or deactivated by the user.]
I shouldn't have been surprised.
Considering the number of different skills for me to draw, hoping for two direct combat skills in a row was asking for too much.
Yet, while not exactly what I wanted, it was still an amazing skill to have.
Any party would want a passive boost like this, especially deeper inside the Dungeon, on the floors where a single Monster Core could be sold for hundreds if not thousands.
Not to mention the rare drops...
The worst I could say about this skill was that the timing was bad. It was only worth as much as the drops we were already getting. So, around a couple of dollars.
It also left me with a bit of a dilemma.
I had planned to use one ticket in the [Skills Banner] and one in the [Weapons Banner] to test the differences between the [Tickets Gacha] and the [Mana Gacha], but...
With such good results, it was hard not to give it another ticket.
After all, the dagger I had was already working plenty.
So, once again, I bet a ticket on the [Skills Banner].
[Physical Prowess
This skill can only be activated if the user has at least 1 mana point.
While active, this skill consumes 1 mana point every 5 seconds.
During activation, the user's strength, speed, and defense are increased.
The amount increased is equal to this skill's level.
The user may freely deactivate this skill at any time, without recovering the mana already spent.
If the user's mana is depleted, the skill will automatically deactivate at the end of the current 5-second cycle.]
Another great skill from the [Skills Banner].
I wasn't sure if it belonged in the same tier as the other two, due to their universality.
However, as a trump card, it was perfect, and something I sorely lacked.
Its only downside was that, realistically, I'd only have five seconds to deal with whatever situation forced my hand into this skill before suffering from the effects of mana depletion.
With my current mana, the skill only granted me one shot.
Although I could always increase my mana with level-up points, I was planning to increase my strength with the 3 points from reaching level 3, and then split the next 4 into speed and defense.
With [Movement Speed Up], I'd reach level four with a strength and speed of 3, and a defense of 2.
A balanced, yet powerful physical frontliner, capable of dealing and taking damage.
Considering the random nature of my Gift, keeping my stats balanced felt like the best choice to ensure I could make the most of whatever I got from it.
But [Physical Prowess] was such a good skill...
And having more mana would let me roll more on the [Mana Gacha]. It might even unlock new banners.
Then again, mana was easy to increase naturally.
It worked like a muscle.
It grew from being used.
Preferably, exhausted.
The biggest difference was that with more mana, I could spend more, and so the reserves would grow faster.
But investing early could snowball that growth...
Hah...
I sighed, hands on my forehead.
I was going in circles.
The more I thought about it, the more arguments I found for both plans.
In the end, since I didn't have any level-up points to spend right now, I decided to wait. The decision might be easier depending on what the Gacha gave me next.
Or maybe my mana reserve would increase on its own before I even had to choose.
Before leaving the [Skills] menu, I checked the [Available Skills].
I was curious to see if a level-up or my experiences in the Dungeon had changed anything there.
It ended up being wishful thinking.
And I felt even more suspicious than before about it, since I was sure that a Dungeon raid should've amounted to something...
Regardless, rather than staring at the blank menu, I moved on to the [Kingdom].
Just like before, there was nothing but plain grassfields and scary grey fog as far as the eye could see.
The items were still too expensive for me to claim, too.
Still, I claimed the 2 [Kingdom Points] owed to me.
While inside the Kingdom, a cool evening breeze cooled down my head.
In that moment of peace, I smiled at the impact of the single level-up I had.
The [Skills Banner] this time wasn't the best for my current situation, but it was far from bad.
The [Kingdom Points] were a little meaningless so far, but maybe with enough of them, that would change.
And I could only giggle at the thought of one day getting a ton of skills and weapons at once through the gacha.
[Gacha Kingdom Building] was a confusing, overly complicated ability, but...
It was slowly shaping up into something great.
After returning to Earth, I decided to explore the [Mana Gacha] more, since the list was more manageable.
Thanks to this, I found an interesting banner called [Armor Banner].
Since I was doing fine with the dagger I already had, having something to help me defend myself better felt like a safer choice.
First came the blank mind.
Then, the mana depletion started to kick in.
Before I'd become unable to move my body, I looked around, searching for the armor I was supposed to get.
Then, it dawned on me.
On the floor, there was a silver ring.
Or maybe an iron ring, since it didn't glow.
There was no particular design to it, no gem...
Neither cursed nor blessed.
Nothing.
It was a simple, modest-looking ring.
If I had to guess, technically, a ring protects the finger, so... It counted as an armor piece?
That was a bit of a stretch, though.
It felt like a joke, and it was by far the most disappointing result I had in any of the gachas so far.
Still, before crawling into bed, I tried it on my finger.
I expected nothing, and nothing happened.
I then tapped out for the night, exhausted by the mana depletion.