Joshua shouted as he watched a rainbow envelope flash into the screen, complete with matching fireworks.
I've got the IUR!
IUR as the gaming community shorthand for "Impossibly Ultra Rare". Gacha games already have low rates but IUR takes it to ridiculous degrees. According to the game website, the game's one and only IUR have a 0.000001% chance meaning 1 in a million.
This IUR was offered in the game's anniversary paid banner as the grand prize and advertised as unique meaning only one person would ever get it. But, the community's reaction to the banner is lukewarm at best; besides the grand prize, the rest of the reward is trash compared to the other banners introduced in the anniversary event. Thus, the gaming community consensus was to ignore it and focus on the more rewarding banners.
Joshua would have followed the crowd normally but he received the result of his last medical test and he knew that his time is running out.
Even if it was just once in his life, he wants to say that luck smiled upon him!
Joshua has always been unlucky. His parents passed away before he was even born. Even though they left him an inheritance lo live comfortably, his uncle and aunt coveted it and only gave him a pittance from the child support he was supposed to be receiving. Thus, he worked part-time to support himself and tried to do well in school content in the knowledge that he would get the rest of his inheritance and out of his guardian's care once he was of legal age.
Unfortunately, just when everything was looking up, Joshua was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.
At that time, he gave up completely.
That is when Joshua found Gacha games!
Here, with enough money, he can control his fate.
Unlucky with a roll?
You only need to pay a bit and you can try again.
And thus, Joshua slowly got addicted to gacha -trying out different games and whaling in a lot of them. In his journey to try different gacha, he met Fantasia online a popular gacha game for a century-old franchise, which has become his main gacha game.
After three years of playing Fantasia in which his cancer steadily got worst, this banner appeared. According to the game website whoever is lucky enough to get the IUR will have a miracle. There was a various discussion online on what that meant and most lean on some superpowered character or item.
But, Joshua didn't care about that.
He cared more for the fact that the item is unique meaning only one can get it.
With his time running out, it could be a way to show that he lived on this Earth.
With nothing to lose, Joshua mortgaged everything he owned and used it to roll like crazy.
it's better to use it this way than have the money falling to his relatives with his death.
And finally, Joshua succeeded!
He looked at the screen wherein the item animation is unfolding.
Golden gates slowly open to show the Goddess Fortuna on her throne. Her hand is raised toward the front as if inviting the player in.
A notice box popped out.
notice
The Goddess of Luck smiles upon you!
Would you like to receive her favor?
And below that a simple yes or no option
Joshua, of course, pressed yes.
After he did that, black spots began swimming around his vision. And the pain that habitually wrecked his body seemed to intensify.
The notice box is now replaced by a loading bar.
12%...
Am I going to die?
30%..
I didn't even know what I got yet…
55%...
At least, I made it.
78%...
Joshua focused his gaze on the smiling goddess above the loading bar Luck, huh?
99%
If I'm reborn in the next life, I want you to smile smile at me at the beginning …
That was his last thought before he lost consciousness.
X.x.X
When Joshua opened his eyes, he was no longer lying on his hospital bed but on a dirt floor. Looking around, he noticed that he seemed to be in a wooden shack with a wooden table and a small hay bed next to it. There was an abandoned bottle beneath his feet labeled Adventurer's Awakening Potion, Exp. Batch #1 Z.V. and Use before: 3rd week of Kore. the year 1030.
He would like to look more but a message box popped into thin air before.
message
Congratulations you just died!
But, through the grace of the Goddess Fortuna, you are reborn in another world!
Wait, what?
message
You received the ability Gacha World!
The ability to draw items, abilities from various worlds.
Currently, ability is at C-rank.
10 gacha points = 1 item draw
100 gacha points = 1 skill/ability draw
Gacha points are gotten by completing the quests issued by the system and devotions to the Goddess.
Dismissing that message, another one replaced it.
message
The Goddess Fortuna has gifted you a 1 x skill ticket to help your transition.
Good luck!
After that, it was replaced with a wheel of fortune and a special event banner - Midgard World.
Joshua blinked at the familiar skill list. He played this game before!
[ ] Swordsman
Rank E Sword Mastery (1-60);
Rank D Skill Bash (61-90)
Rank C:Health Recovery (91-100)
[ ] Archer
Rank E Bow Mastery (1-60)
Rank D Charge Arrow (61-90)
Rank C Owl's Eye (91-100)
[ ] Thief
Rank E - Dodging Mastery (1-60)
Rank D - Steal ( 61-90)
Rank C - Envenom (91-100)
First, I'm going to roll a 1d100 dice. The roll itself will be appended in the tally sheet or in the post itself for transparency... and for our first roll ... 97!!! .... You guys got the best prize.... quite an auspicious roll for a gacha quest. lol
So, once I've rolled, we will now check it to the player pick. I usually will provide the gacha roll result on the choices itself. In this case, a 97 roll for Swordsman is Increase Health Recovery while for Thief is Envenom. Note that the skill, you'll be getting is at level 1 and can level on their own through the gacha or training. Note 2: Picking Swordsman and Thief will not lock you in a path. Just think of it as skill categories, you can invest your gacha points in.
Now, at this stage, if there is a tie, I will roll another dice and decide that. But, since this is the first roll, I will allow you guys to pick the first skill with their corresponding description!
[ ] Increase Health Recovery
Works by stimulating the body's life energy to heal any physical injury.
At Level 1, it will regenerate superficial damage (minor scapes and wounds) almost instantly as long as the user can concentrate. ( Its feasible to use the level 1 version in battle but you need at least a 5-minute break to at least heal yourself. ) Since this is using the body's life energy, at level1 it can only be used thrice a day. (And yes, level 2 will either upgrade it to be usable in battle without break or increase the daily usage)
[ ] Envenom
Works by visualizing the target and invoking the poison law into a weapon that one was holding.
At level 1, the weapon will cause weak corrosion damage whenever it hit the target. (That means cause superficial acid burns beside being stabbed). At this level, it can only work when the weapon is being directly touched and each application only last 5 minutes. (As always, the upgrade can extend the poison duration). At level 1, can only be invoked 3 times.
Swordsman, Mage, Archer, Merchant, Thief. The only thing missing is Acolyte and then all the initial classes of Midgard Online, the famous Korean MMO that is said to have started the MMO boom, would be present. Even the skills present in the gacha are the same!
Studying the gacha interface, Joshua came to several conclusions. To use gacha world, Joshua has to pick a class and then the gacha would roll what skill from that class would be given to him. Besides that, the skills appear to be segregated into different ranks from rank E to rank C. Rank E skills have 60% chance, Rank D skills have 30% chance and Rank C skills have only 10% chance.
Joshua immediately eliminated the merchant class from his options. The merchant skill names sound like it has something to do with business. While it might be helpful in the future, judging from the worn clothes Joshua was wearing and the run-down shack where he woke up from he doesn't have much in way of resource.
Selling items from the gacha would be the way to go but Joshua doesn't know how to get gacha points yet or how stingy the system is. In most gacha, the system is very sparing with its free currency.
After that, Joshua examined the mage class.
I can learn magic!
Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
The mage class was either a trap or a huge gamble. It consisted of Rank E: Fire Elemental Knowledge, Rank D: Magelight and Rank C: Firebolt. From what Joshua remembered, Fire Elemental Knowledge was a passive buff toward fire spells while Magelight was a glorified magic flashlight in the game. Firebolt would be awesome to have but that has only 10% chance of happening.
Only three choices left.
Swordsman - Rank E - Sword Mastery, Rank D - Skill Bash, Rank C - Increase Health Recovery
Archer - Rank E - Bow Mastery, Rank D - Charge Arrow, Rank C - Owl's Eye
Thief - Rank E -Dodging Mastery, Rank D - Steal, Rank C - Envenom
From those three, Joshua was torn between Swordsman and Thief. While being able to Attack at Range was good, he coveted the Thief's Steal ability and the Swordman's Increase Health Recovery.
his stomach is rumbling, there's not enough money …
Hey, Joshua, when are you going to pay your share for the class project?
Every part of his body ached, He doesn't remember a time when he wasn't in pain. The chemotherapy was supposed to cure him but tit feels more like taking a slow-acting poison.
He felt that he was dying bit by bit... day by day...
No.
Joshua decided.
Money was important. But, his health, his life was worth more than any amount of money. Resolutely, Joshua picked the swordsman option.
The wheel started to spin, the choices blurring before his eyes.
Great Goddess Fortuna, I don't know if you can hear me but please let me have a good start!
And as if the Goddess answered his wish, when the wheel began to slow, the marker ticked toward the grand prize area, finally stopping at Increase Health Recovery.
YES!
Joshua shouted.
I don't know if you did anything, but thank you, Goddess!
As soon as Joshua thought that, knowledge regarding the skill - Increase Health Recovery - filled his mind giving him a huge headache. He became aware of an energy that was circulating in his body. An energy that was born from each and every one of his cells. Like a gentle river, it flowed throughout his body, nourishing and allowing him to live.
Joshua instinctively diverted a few extraneous energy currents toward his brain, increasing the circulation that normally flowed there. The moment he did that the headache began to abate as Joshua sensed his brain consume the extra energy to fuel its repair.
After a few moments, the headache was gone and Joshua was left feeling a bit hungry.
"Amazing," Joshua thought.
After that, he noticed the transparent wheel of fortune didn't fade away and was still in front of him.
Wait, Is this a permanent feature in my user interface?
The second Joshua thought that; the wheel of fortune broke into tiny multicolored pieces and flew toward the back of his right hand.
An eight-spoke wheel with an asterisk above it was branded with bold black ink.
message
Mark of Goddess Fortuna given!
The Mark that Goddess Fortuna gives to those who won her favor. It is said to luck will come to those marked with it!
Its a bit conspicuous but considering what the Goddess has done for him, Joshua won't look a gift horse from the mouth.
Thank you, Goddess.
I think.
With that done, he began to examine the familiar -mine- wooden shack.
Instinctively, he opened the box at the corner of the room.
A half-eaten loaf of bread there with an apple. Besides that, there are three worn-out shirts and a trouser neatly folded at the bottom of the box.
Nice. Extra clothes.
Taking a closer look at the loaf of bread to make sure it doesn't have any mold, Joshua bit it. A bit harder and courser than what Joshua was used to, but beggars can't be choosers. On the other hand, the apple tasted quite sweet so there's that.
After that, he noticed a scroll lying innocently on the wooden table. Unfurling it, he found that it was some sort of mission scroll.
X.x.X
Request: Potion Testers Needed! Rank: No requirement Times Issued: #22 Issuer: Voshkiny Family Reward: 1 x Experimental Adventurer's Awakening Potion
1 silver coin for providing additional information Danger: Possible Death or any manner of side-effect due to the potion
The Voshkiny family needs persons to test a new product of their family - an improved Adventurer's Awakening Potion. On the market, the cheapest Adventurer's Awakening Potion cost 10 gold coins and our improved formula is surely worth more than that. We will be giving it for free.
If you can provide additional information about the potion effects to the guild we will pay you an additional silver coin.
By Sancus name, I, the undersigned, have stated the reward and risk of the task.
Rino Voshkiny
By Sancus name, I, the undersigned, know the reward and risk and will do my utmost best to complete the task.
TRECE
X.x.X.
"Tre-ce," Joshua pronounced slowly, tasting the name, finding it comfortable to say.
Is that your name?
Looking at the innocent bottle lying on the dirt floor, Joshua has his own conjecture. Trece must have taken this request and drank the potion resulting in my situation today.
Joshua wondered what has driven Trece to do that. Even from just reading the mission request, he knew that what Trece did was risky.
-an urgent trepidation and curiosity -
"It might be worth it to check this request out," Joshua thought. "The silver coin reward could be nice as well. I don't have any --"
-Coins glinting along with a leather pouch -
Without thinking, he stood on the corner opposite of the wooden box and dusted the dirt tile.
Joshua blinked.
There cleverly hidden in a shallow hole is a leather pouch. He opened it counting 4 silver coins and 75 bronze coins.
How did I know that?
Is it some sort of side-effect of reincarnation? A residual memory of the body?
"Trece, are you still here?"Joshua asked the thin air.
Of course, no one answered.
Exasperated, Joshua looked at the symbol on his right hand.
I hope you know what you are doing, great goddess.
Come to think of it, what am I going to do with this thing.
How common are these marks? I'm not going to hailed as a Goddess Fortuna's chosen one, will I?
X.x.X.
What to do with the goddess mark?
[ ] Hide it before venturing out
[ ] Show it in the open.
[ ] Write in
Joshua planned to go to collect the silver coin to supplement his income? Pick whatever option you want.
[ ] Amnesia
Say that you have amnesia as a side effect of the potion but hide your skill from the guild.
[ ] Increase Health Recovery
Say that you gained Increase Health Recovery but hide that you have amnesia. Blend in as much as possible.
[ ] Claim Amnesia and the Skill Increase Health Recovery
Say that you've got amnesia and gained the skill Increase Health Recovery.
[ ] Write in
X.x.X.
Note:
Yes, Midgard Online is based on Ragnarok Online. ^^
Thank you for voting guys! "Hiding it" won by a landslide with everyone picking it. The other vote seemed to be a bit more contentious,. The winning vote is for both Claim Amnesia and the Skill - Increase Health Recovery. But, since everyone picked the amnesia option unanimously I'll make it the primary claim with the skill as secondary.
It also will help sell it IC-wise, I meant if I got no memories that would be my first worry. ^^
PS. Sorry for the mistake in the last voting tally in the username. Anyway. I retroactively fixed it for better record keeping.
