Chapter 6

Summoning the Holy Grail that had been sleeping in the apocalypse, I placed it on the ground and started filling it with the divine stones Arc had scattered, clinking and clanking.

Yo-Hena sneakily glanced at Arc’s face.

‘Celestia’ is a city where chosen heroes gather.

Of course, there were original residents too.

Arc, the ‘Shop Owner,’ appeared in the city at some point, just like the heroes.

Buying things that make you wonder, “Why would anyone buy this?”

Selling things that make you think, “Did I really need this?”

All while keeping his hood pulled deep, never showing his face to anyone.

Sometimes, when other heroes visited the sanctuary and chatted, they would jokingly talk about him.

From any angle, you couldn’t see his face properly, so they wondered if it was some kind of perception-blocking robe.

“I even teased him, asking why he needed something like that.”

But seeing the face under the hood today.

Wow, damn, amazing.

It seemed necessary.

Among the heroes, there were quite a few who were into guys, and if they saw him, they’d probably go crazy and cling to him immediately.

And such a guy.

With eyes that sparkled, still holding onto the innocence of his childhood, he was staring at his fingertips.

Completely opposite to the emotionless, dead-eyed expression of the other-dimensional seer I saw earlier.

‘Sigh…’

Thinking about that, Yo-Hena suddenly felt a tightness in her chest.

“Yo-Hena? Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. Shall we start?”

As if he had precisely noticed the negative thoughts dominating her mind.

A kind and pleasant voice reached Yo-Hena’s ears.

I wish Arc was the real seer.

……Yo-Hena, startled by the fact that she had thoughts she shouldn’t have as a saint, shook her head vigorously.

No distractions during the revelation.

Focus, focus.

* * *

For a free-to-play user, gacha is a major event.

Watching the story, clearing stages, and doing this and that to collect divine stones is called ‘mining.’

When you’ve collected all the divine stones available in the game, it’s called ‘depletion.’

The core of being free-to-play.

Is how much you can complete your deck before depletion.

The long-awaited first opportunity was about to unfold before my eyes.

‘……It’s not the first time.’

I spun the tutorial gacha before the protagonist could run away in his underwear.

But it’s my first time.

“Beloved Sweetie Goddess, this humble servant now offers a prayer to you…….”

Yo-Hena began muttering a prayer.

Suddenly, the sky darkened, and white flames burst from the Holy Grail placed on the ground!

“Oh, gacha animation.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Ari, will you pray with me?”

“Sure!”

I couldn’t help but talk to myself.

I’ve seen this scene countless times on my smartphone screen, on the monitor through an app player.

But seeing it in real life, wow, the sparks flying around, the animation was no joke.

The flames grew stronger.

And soon turned into a golden light.

A very intuitive system.

If the result is up to 3 stars, it’s white.

4 stars, gold.

5 stars, a dazzling rainbow.

……Since a 10-pull guarantees a 4-star, it’s gold for now.

But if a 5-star appears in the middle, the flame color changes to rainbow.

‘Not easy.’

Right.

Thinking about the probability, getting a 5-star in just 10 pulls is greedy.

Finally, a huge beam of light shot up vertically from the Holy Grail.

Whoosh──!

Following the trajectory of the beam, a white shooting star.

A 3-star. That’s possible.

And then, shooting stars started falling one after another.

White.

White.

White.

White…….

No. But this is too much.

When I saw the sixth white.

“Rainbow!”

I couldn’t help but shout.

But cruelly, another white.

“Rainbow!!!!”

“Rainbow~?”

Ari chimed in from the side.

Right, let’s pray.

Let’s pray.

Beloved Sweetie? The goddess’s name is a bit…….

“Gasp, what am I thinking! Rainbow!!!!!”

But.

The eighth, ninth were also naturally white stars.

Finally.

As if forgiving even the blasphemous, a golden star plopped into the fire.

“Phew…….”

A sight you often see when rerolling, but.

Seeing it in real life was five hundred times more frustrating.

But still.

“Too bad. Yo-Hena, you worked hard.”

The stack of blasphemy I accumulated earlier.

I need to soothe the saint to resolve it.

“Uh, uh……? Yes, yes. Thank you, Arc…….”

Whether my faith reached the saint.

Yo-Hena’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s again.

Karma cleared.

I won’t doubt.

Next time, you’ll give me a rainbow, right?

With that earnest wish, I forced a smile, untwisting my twisted lips.

Yo-Hena reached into the fire, now completely gone, and rummaged around.

Pulling out nine white papers and one gold paper.

It stung a bit.

“Wow, it’s gold……!”

It’s guaranteed.

Saint, you wouldn’t do that like an amateur, would you?

Taking the paper Yo-Hena shyly handed over, I flicked through it like counting bills.

Still, it felt good.

[3-star Common Hero Contract x9]

[A contract that allows you to form a pact with heroes gathered from all over to resolve the anomaly in the Tower. Can be used to form a pact with a 3-star hero.]

This is expected.

Let’s see.

Who is it?

Who made the golden sound?

[4-star Hero ‘Setis’ Contract x1]

[A contract with Setis, a mage from the city of flames. Her neat personality is felt in her signature.]

[※ Setis will only appear in the field after clearing Tower Floor 3.]

“…….”

Even for me.

Faced with such a pitiful scrap in this fiery hell, my expression couldn’t help but harden.

Like most gacha games.

While there are 3-stars with better performance than 5-stars.

There are also 4-stars with worse performance than 3-stars.

A master of free-to-play flame decks.

Even I, who can send guides to the top of forums.

Couldn’t find a use for this trash, leaving it in the alchemy workshop.

Even with the restriction that it can’t be used right now.

Truly a dud.

A big dud!

For now, there’s nothing I can do.

So I stuffed the contracts into my inventory.

“Yo-Hena, and Ari? Are you tired by any chance?”

I asked out of courtesy.

“A little……?”

“I’m fine.”

Ari looked a bit tired but.

Clink──

“No, no, I’m fine! I’m too energized right now!”

Shaking the experience potion bottle I kept as a reserve, Ari immediately perked up.

Is this how a child feels seeing Santa’s gift bag?

How happy she must be.

I’ll make sure to give her plenty of REWARD later.

* * *

Area 5 is the first to feature long-range attacks.

A place where monsters appear.

As you go higher up, it’s not just the front-line tanks they target. Monsters start sniping the back-line damage dealers first, and the patterns gradually get dirtier.

But now, it’s all about one arrow.

If it were a battle left to the AI like in the original, it would have gone after the close-range slime first.

“Ari, over there. Can you attack that slime with the horn thing first?”

“Leave it to me!”

When given specific instructions, she executes them precisely.

It felt like healing the unfortunate pain of almost throwing my phone countless times in the past.

“…Yo-Hena? Why are you healing me?”

“Ah, just… bored.”

I was really being healed.

It makes sense to be bored.

“There’s a bit of potion left. If you drink this, you should be able to beat slimes with that book. Want some?”

“Ahhh, no. I’m fine.”

Shaking my head violently, it was almost at headbanging levels.

As expected of the Saint. She must have understood with her brilliant mind that the party’s main damage dealer needs to get stronger first.

While I was thinking that…

Squeeeeak──! Pop!

The impact feels good. If the original had this level of impact, it would have been a god-tier game.

[Tower of Wishes 1st Floor – Verdant Land Area 5 Clear!]

Remaining stamina: 80. From Area 6 to 9, it’s 40. Area 10, where the boss appears, is 20.

Should we push through to Area 2 on the 2nd floor? Nah, pushing too hard from the first day might lead to a rebellion.

I’m not the Revelator, I’m the shop owner. So let’s take it easy.

“Let’s just go to the end of the 1st floor. Aren’t you curious what kind of monster is waiting there?”

“…”

“Arc…?”

Splash splash.

“Let’s go.”

Motivation!

Passing through various slimes with bland colors but different shapes.

Area 8.

“The slime’s color is different!”

“Let’s see. According to the scriptures, monsters have attributes. If you draw out the power of the attribute that matches their weakness…”

While the tutorial Saint was doing her duty.

“Ari. Just shoot.”

I gave the order silently.

Matching attributes deal 1.5x damage. Opposite attributes deal 0.75x damage. But in the face of overwhelming power?

Pop!

“Good job, Ari.”

Attributes don’t matter. The earth-attribute slime, weak against wind, was also taken down in one arrow.

Jingle jangle.

The divine stone I deliberately put in my pocket instead of the inventory made a pleasant clinking sound.

Before I knew it, Area 10.

“It’s really big…”

King Slime. Level 10. The boss has appeared.

“Hey, Arc. Are you sure I can handle that alone…? I’m really bad at close combat…”

Courage was draining from Ari again.

“Ari can do it.”

“Ari can do it…!”

Courage fully charged.

Ari pursed her lips. From what I’ve observed, it’s a kind of habit… no, a quirk.

It’s the silly face she makes when she’s highly focused, so I watched her comfortably with my hands behind my back.

A light breeze swirled around Ari’s feet, and the blue energy on the arrow became clearer.

After the vibrating bow found stability, she fired!

“Kyu───!”

The arrow pierced right through the slime’s chubby belly, making a hole.

“Uh, uh, uh? Ah, it’s not dead…!”

“Shoot one more. Yo-Hena?”

“Blessing of the stars.”

It’s holding up well for a boss. Maybe it’s because the Saint’s buff includes a psychological stability effect, but Ari, who was about to lose her sanity, quickly regained her composure.

One more shot.

“Kyuwaaang!”

A singular strike! With a dazzling effect that looked like a critical hit, the King Slime exploded, scattering sticky fluid everywhere.

“Ah.”

That’s all materials. Gotta pick them up.

Quickly moving around, I picked them up and stuffed them into the inventory.

[Tower of Wishes 1st Floor – Verdant Land Area 10 Clear!]

[You can now enter the 2nd floor of the Tower of Wishes.]

[New Feature Unlocked: Guild House]

[New Feature Unlocked: Hero Dispatch]

A status window celebrating the clear popped up a beat late, and new features were unlocked in a flurry.

But that wasn’t the important part.

“No way, no way…!”

My whole body trembled with excitement.

Where the King Slime rolled around with an ‘X_X’ face before disappearing, a card had fallen.

Carefully picking it up…

[King Slime Card]

[A card depicting the boss ‘King Slime’ of the Verdant Land. Its cute expression is a highlight.]

[When equipped to a weapon, increases the hero’s critical hit rate by 5%.]

A loot that drops at a low probability of 0.5%, derived from user big data!

As you go higher, critical hits greatly affect clearing, so some pour hundreds, even thousands of stamina into farming for this.

Even though the gacha failed, maybe the prayer earlier worked.

With a refreshed feeling, I smiled brightly.

Today…

“Luck is on my side.”

* * *

“…Arc? Sleeping here?”

“Ugh… I’ll head back to the sanctuary. I’ll visit the shop in the morning.”

Luck was on my side, but the world is screwing me over.

The ‘Guild House’, which should have been somewhat repaired through the normal tutorial, is the lodging for the heroes in my party.

It was utterly desolate! It looked exactly like the abandoned houses YouTubers explore.

[Guild House]

[Provide a comfortable home for recruited heroes to increase efficiency.]

– Current Capacity: 1 / 8

– Current Comfort: 0

– Current Coziness: 0

– Current Splendor: 0

The cowardly traitor, Yo-Hena, quickly fled, saying she had a place to sleep.

“Hey, Arc… No, right?”

Ari’s trembling voice came from behind.

I quietly turned around and gently held Ari’s face.

“Ari is the best. Ari can do it.”

“Ari is the best… No, this is too much!!!”

Tch. Didn’t work.

Looks like tonight’s gonna be a bit longer.