The now familiar translucent blue slot machine materialized in the air in front of him, its five reels already spinning in anticipation of the draw.
He stood alone in the clearing with the skinned lioness at his feet and watched the reels blur.
No matter how many tis he did it, he still couldn’t shake that feeling of excitent.
Then sothing occurred to him. ’Is it possible to get zero stars in a draw?’
He had no idea, but now that he was watching the reels spin, a part of him told him it was possible. And do you know what was better than zero stars? One star.
The first reel slowed and stopped. It has landed on a golden star.
He exhaled in relief. It was a good start, but it was not enough on its own.
The second reel slowed. He watched it tick through its final rotations, moving as if it had all the ti in the world before stopping on another golden star.
"Fuck yeah!" He whispered, pumping his fist.
But he clenched his jaw as he watched the third reel spin like it had no intention of stopping.
He stared, starting to feel as if the system was toying with him by deliberately dragging things out, when the third reel began to slow.
His heart was doing sothing uncomfortable in his chest. He stood frozen in place, not even daring to breathe as he way he’d the symbols pass.
Then it stopped. On another golden star.
The sound that ca out of him was not dignified. It was short and involuntary and he was alone in the forest so it didn’t matter.
Three stars. Just like [Blood Armor]! He’d lucked out again! But was he about to go even beyond?
He stared at the two remaining spinning reels, eyes fixed on the fourth reel.
It slowed... then ca to a stop. It was empty.
"Fuck!" He cursed. Even though he knew the draw all depended on his luck, sohow, it felt like he’d been cheated.
The fifth reel finally stopped, also empty.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have pulled a Three-Star (Rare) Skill!]
[Smite: You can call down a concentrated beam of divine light from above onto a single target, dealing massive damage that scales higher against evil, corrupted, or demonic enemies.]
Lukas’ jaw dropped as he read it. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes, so he read it again.
No matter how long he stared at the notification before him, it didn’t feel real.
Of course, he knew what this skill was. It was an Adept-level ability, the sa tier as [Blood Armor], which was sitting in his skill list alongside it.
But he also knew which class the skill had co from and what it ant.
This was an Adept ranked skill from the [Angel] class. So would even say it was an Elite ranked skill.
A skill granted that was either granted at Adept to a few lucky ones, or granted to those who upgraded their class to [Archangel] when they beca Elites.
The best part was, this was a one-hit kill skill. It a lot of mana to destroy enemies with a single use of the skill.
And it also made sure that any opponent that survived it would definitely not be in any state to continue the fight.
His eyes moved to the description, eyeing the damage scaling clause.
The damage was higher against evil, corrupted, or demonic enemies.
He thought about the kinds of things that lived in the upper floors of the Tower, then thought about how useful this skill was going to beco before very long.
His grin spread slowly and didn’t stop.
He was still reading the skill description when a new notification appeared, overlapping the first.
[Requirents t!]
[10 quests completed, 2 wives summoned, and 2 skills drawn.]
[Training Wheels Deactivated.]
Lukas stared at it. "Training wheels?"
[The Training Wheels is a stop gap designed to prevent Hosts from ignoring their systems. This takes the form of penalties attached to quests, ensuring Hosts remain engaged with the system’s functions.]
He read that twice. "Are there actually Hosts who ignore their systems?"
Why would anyone throw away a perfectly good golden finger? Even if you were already powerful, there was nothing wrong with even more power.
[There are many. So reject the system outright upon awakening it. Others acknowledge it and never engage with it again. The penalties exist to discourage inaction in the early stages.]
Lukas tried to imagine receiving a system and simply deciding not to use it. He couldn’t.
"So what changes now that the training wheels are off?"
[The Host has demonstrated consistent and capable use of the system. Penalties will no longer be attached to quests. Completion remains rewarded. Failure carries no consequence beyond the absence of reward.]
He exhaled. That was actually a aningful change.
Now, there would be no more penalties that if he failed, he’d lose stats for three days or sothing.
Or the ones that sounded normal but were quite scary. Like losing his mana, or losing his libido for twenty four hours.
Now, all he had to look forward to was just rewards for success and nothing for failure.
[The system is preparing to upgrade. This process will take ti. The system will return.]
Then the interface simply vanished.
Lukas blinked, surprised by the abrupt change. "What the..."
"System?" He called out. Nothing happened. "System?"
This ti, his voice was more urgent.
Then a single line of text appeared in the corner of his vision.
[Upgrading...]
That was all.
He stood in the clearing for a mont, staring at the translucent blue box.
Then he turned away. Let the system upgrade. As long as it ant good things for him.
He stored the remaining lioness at in his spatial ring, tucked [Temptation] carefully under his arm, and turned back through the trees towards where Akira and lody were setting up lunch.
The system would return when it was ready.
Until then, there was Nean Lion to eat.
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