NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 37
“Then, you spent all your gold.”
“Ugh.”
“Furthermore, you’ve even touched the divine stones.”
“But…”
“So now you’re completely broke.”
“Ugh.”
The undeniable facts were poking my chest like needles.
How did it turn out like this? I was just trying to get a taste…
Let’s rewind time a bit.
To the moment when I first used the gacha.
“Let’s just roll three times.”
It was a firm resolution.
Thirty thousand gold isn’t just someone’s dog’s name.
Considering that our shop’s daily profit barely exceeds ten thousand gold, that’s three days’ worth!
Even in the highest level daily dungeon I can clear, I only get about three thousand gold.
Will I really gain that much?
Creak, creak.
Click.
A capsule rolled out effortlessly and lightly.
As I thought, the effects are dull, and just as I was about to twist it open,
Pop!
“Wow, that’s surprising.”
A quite impressive effect erupted from inside the capsule, accompanied by a loud fanfare.
And then.
[Divine Stone Exchange Ticket for 300 pieces]
“?”
What’s this?
What is this?
I doubted my eyes.
What’s going on?
A divine stone duplication bug?
Is this really the power of a special gacha?
With slightly trembling hands, I picked up the exchange ticket, and as I tore it…
Shh—
With a delightful sound, divine stones poured out into the air.
At that moment, I lost my rationality.
Click.
[Divine Stone Exchange Ticket for 200 pieces]
Wealth!
Wealth is duplicating!
This is definitely a bug! I need to take advantage of it while I can!
Click.
[Stamina Charge Ticket for 100]
Click.
[Free 10-Draw Ticket]
Click.
[Stamina Charge Ticket for 100]
…There were times I believed that.
“Huh.”
When I came to my senses,
Before I knew it, my modest yet not lacking wealth had melted away.
“Still, I got quite a bit of useful stuff──”
“Master? You don’t have any gold coins to use tomorrow…”
“Kuhk.”
It was a harsh reality.
* * *
After a brief moment of reflection,
My hero and I began discussing how to use the items we obtained from this trash-gacha machine.
First.
[7 Stamina Charge Tickets for 100]
“Considering physical and mental fatigue, using one a day for about a week should be fine.”
“Bark!”
Wow! Double the tower!
[3 Free 10-Draw Tickets]
“Since the only place to use divine stones is the hero contract anyway, I don’t think this is a bad outcome.”
“At least Arc was lucky in that regard!”
Ari.
Please don’t hit me with your words while smiling.
[2 Hero Enhancement Packages (A TYPE)]
“Hmm, isn’t everything here easily obtainable by Arc?”
“That’s right! Tynia saw them, and they’re all just lying around!”
…That was the biggest trap card.
If I were a typical clairvoyant, I would have been struggling with a lack of growth materials and cheering.
But for me, they were leftovers…
Still.
“I’d say getting those two is a sufficient harvest…!”
If I had been completely empty-handed, my rationality wouldn’t have melted away so quickly.
As expected of a trash-gacha, or rather, as a special-gacha, there were special items that I couldn’t obtain through normal channels!
[Special Building: Hot Spring Construction Permit]
[With this permit, you can build a hot spring on land within the city. A special buff will be granted to heroes using the hot spring.]
“How about that! Isn’t it cool? Don’t you want to use it?”
I proclaimed proudly, but.
“Hmmm…”
“Bark?”
“What is a hot spring, Master?”
It seemed the heroes had no interest at all.
I immediately preached the effects of hot springs.
“Just like eating food gives you strength, using a hot spring grants buffs like increased attack and defense!”
But their reactions were still lackluster.
It seemed our heroes couldn’t fully grasp what a hot spring was from my description.
So.
“It’s good for skin beauty, great for your hair, and it relaxes all the fatigue of the day.”
Then finally, the heroes──
“What a wonderful place!”
“Bark bark!”
──yelled with excitement.
Are you guys adults from The Little Prince?
The future of the hero party looks bleak…
Originally, this facility would appear only after clearing a side story quest, but it seems it was built in this way.
Of course, the materials required are not cheap, so I kept the fact that we can’t build it right now a secret from the heroes.
“And also!”
[Dedicated Equipment Random Summoning Ticket]
[A ticket that can randomly summon one of the dedicated equipment for contracted heroes.]
“Oh my, Arc. This looks pretty good!”
Hmm, a positive reaction.
10 points for Griffin-dor, or rather, Yo-hena!
Typically, dedicated equipment has to be created by gathering three soul stones of 5-star heroes or two unique soul stones after going through a pick-and-roll.
But with this ticket, I can get it for free!
Just this alone made me feel like I didn’t waste my divine stones, and I was convincing myself of that.
“Then, let’s check it right away.”
Since it’s among the equipment for ‘contracted’ heroes, the more heroes we have, the harder it will be to draw effective dedicated equipment.
So I figured it would be best to use this right away without hesitation.
I tore the ticket.
Bright light sparkled from my hand──
“Hey? It’s me!”
“Bark!”
“Is it Tynia?”
It is indeed Tynia.
…Not bad.
At least, being dedicated equipment of an attack type passes my standard.
Honestly, just by design, I feel like it’s better described as glistening or a blade rather than dedicated equipment.
Anyway.
This extended Tynia’s shelf life a bit.
Tynia’s enhancement skill ‘He~re!♡’ will apply to more targets, and the skill itself will deal more damage.
Moreover, Tynia’s ultimate skill ‘Total♡ Shining He~re!♡’ will also have a reduced cooldown.
This is dedicated equipment perfectly suited to fill the void of area damage we were lacking.
…Of course, had it been Yo-hena or Saha, the performance would have changed dramatically again.
To be completely honest.
I was just relieved it wasn’t Lumi’s dedicated equipment.
* * *
Thanks to the stamina reset tickets,
We conquered the 14th floor in just one day.
Today finally.
“15th floor, huh.”
“Let’s go teach them a lesson!”
It’s time to escape the dreadful labyrinth and the spider hell.
After clearing twice, my brain felt like it might melt.
Though at least the 13th and 14th floors were manageable without any particular gimmicks.
“Arc! You need to be careful. The 15th floor might be a bit tougher.”
Just as the replacement card SD Elise floated above warning us.
The 15th floor was likely to be a lot more challenging.
It seems that the guardians of each floor of the tower have the authority to control various elements like monsters, traps, and rewards.
The relatively high difficulty and delicious rewards we encountered on the 12th floor were probably because of that.
And since we didn’t face any significant crises on the 13th and 14th floors and only received positive rewards,
We had anticipated that all the resources we saved would pour into the 15th floor and block our path.
[Tower of Wishes 15th Floor – Araklene’s Area 1]
[★☆☆: Escape the area within 2 hours.]
[★★☆: Escape the area within 1 hour.]
[★★★: Defeat Araklene’s clone.]
And.
That prediction was spot on.
“Hmmm… It seems forcing our way through will be difficult.”
The sticky spiderweb that welcomed us was too tough to cut through, even with Saha (hellfire chainsaw mode) bravely shaking her weapons.
Moreover, while the previous floors had a cave-like feel,
this one was more complex, a vast and grand shrine that seemed to be filled with malice, determined not to let us through quickly.
Besides, the clearing condition wasn’t just finding the way out; we had to face the boss’s clone.
It was rather malicious.
They seemed to be trying to delay us as much as possible.
“Tynia?”
“Fuhuh?”
Don’t add silly comments.
We have a perfectly functional tracking machine with a zero percent accuracy rate.
“Now, let’s start looking for Araklene’s clone.”
“Right! And upwards!”
We began advancing in the classic tower-mid-bottom formation.
“Grrooooow──!”
“Oh, Minotaurus.”
It seemed the monster placements had also become quite serious, as a bunch of level 50 half-human half-beast friends popped out one after another.
Clang──!
As Saha’s hammer collided with the Minotaurus’s hammer,
the Minotaurus staggered back.
Whose dog really works better?
Of course, it’s our house cow, no, Saha.
“Tonight’s potluck will be beef. Just in time as we were running low on ingredients.”
“…Isn’t Minotaurus meat different from beef?”
What does that even mean, Ari?
A cow is a cow.
“Let’s thoroughly butcher, no, eliminate them as we pass.”
I also contributed to the breakthrough by shooting my zero-damage-zero-waste revolver.
As we followed Tynia’s lead,
“How do we…?”
We finally came face to face with Araklene’s clone, who had a look of disbelief in her eyes.