Konrad Woke up sluggishly to a massive headache. He was lying on the floor or whatever you call a ground made from solid light.
"Ugh...I'd say 'an unfamiliar sealing' but there is not one such here as far as I can tell...wait it was not a dream!" He sat up shocked.
Indeed. Konrad looked around and just like it was when he fall asleep, the gacha Machine stop there unmoving. Then he remembered why he even fall asleep in the first place and a new wave of nausea and headaches attacked him.
After managing to stop the impulse to puke and massaging his head for a while, Konrad finally regained enough clarity to assess the situation.
' Seems like even with the potion i still lost consciousness. well... judging by how i feel and how i look, the part 'lesser' was there for a reason ehehe...' Konrad thought while he examined himself.
Shortly speaking, he felt awful. his body was weak and his skin was white like paper. Well, that's what happens when you bleed out 40% of your blood. It's good that he's even still alive now...
'That was stupid...but...' He glanced at the tank that was now filled enough to guarantee him three rewards from the machine. '...At least it worked. I wonder what will I get!' He thought, getting back into the previous excitement.
After making sure he wouldn't puke Konrad finally stood up and looked at the machine. Inside the big glass sphere that was bigger than him he could see multiple balls of many different colours. There were black balls like the one he took out, similar black balls but with a silver stripe around them. Then there were golden balls and their red striped cousins. And lastly A kind of opalesque balls with a few of them being striped with a black line and silver stars engraved onto it. Konrad noted that there was roughly three times more black coloured balls than the golden ones and just a small percentage of the whole consisted of the rainbow coloured. The amount of balls without a stripe and with one was around 3 to 1 respectively.
'Seems like the black balls are the most common, then there are the gold ones and the rainbow coloured are the rarest and the striped ones are some kind of special variants. I wonder what they do..."
Konrad thought.
He decided to classify them as:
Black ball - Common / Striped common
Golden ball - Rare / Striped Rare
Rainbow ball - Legendary / Striped legendary
"Alright, give me something good!" Konrad finally said and pulled on the lever, while avoiding the top of the knob that sucks the blood ,with great excitement.
The clicking sound, once again resounded in the endless white space as the Blood in the tank decreased by a single liter. Then from the prize hole rolled out a single black ball that didn't look any different from Konrad's first prize. It was the most common one but Konrad didn't allow this fact do dissuade him and grabbed the ball to check what it was.
As soon as he focused on the glossy surface, a bunch of letters materialized, allowing Konrad to read it.
[} Steel weapon (user preferred) {]
"A weapon? cool, but what does it mean 'user preferred'? Can I chose what weapon or does it take the most suitable for the person opening the prize ball?" Konrad muttered.
'Should i open it now?...Nah, i won't be able to get back home through the town if the weapon is too conspicuous.' With that thought Konrad stored the ball in his back pocket and turned back to the machine.
"Alright, Let's try this again..."
Another clicking sound and depletion of blood later, and now Konrad stared with round eyes at a beautiful golden ball.
"Jackpot! It a Rare prize!...Well maybe not jackpot, but it's still better than the black ball, right?"Konrad said with sparkles in his eyes.
His gaze fell onto the surface of the ball. He wished to see the function of the ball. he didn't have to wait for long before the surface of the ball shined with red letters.
[} Chosen language comprehension {]
'...uhh a what? I don't understand. Should I chose a language and I would learn it instantly? Like if I chose...i don't know... Japanese then-' His thoughts were interrupted by the words on the ball, changing suddenly. The inscription said now:
[} Chosen language comprehension (Japanese) {]
'What?! no no I don't want Japanese-' He thought startled but he was surprised once again when the words reverted back to their previous state.
[} Chosen language comprehension {]
"'fewww... it's good that it didn't became permanent. I wanted to think about my options before making the choice. At least now I know how it works... Well, It's not a reward i hoped or expected to get from a rare prize, but as they say 'gifted horses killed the cat' or something like that.'" Hu muttered, while snorting slightly.
" alrighty then! It's the last chance for me to get something overpowered from here please Machine, Don't disappoint me!" Konrad said pleadingly.
His heart was beating faster and faster as he felt the cold sensation of the lever inside his palm.
"Here goes nothing..."
Another click and emptying of almost all the blood in the tank, was followed by the sound of yet another prize ball, rolling out of the hole in the bottom of the machine.
But Konrad became downhearted. It was another black ball. and not even the striped one. He still couldn't tell what was the function of those stripes.
With a heavy heart Konrad picked the ball and examined it, but then his face became surprised and he had to read the words again to confirm what he just read.
[} +1 Mana capacity (Permanent) {]
This! This was something Konrad was looking for! Something potentially amazing. Something that could make him stronger! It might have been only +1 capacity but for a person like him who wasn't sure if he had even 1 to begin with it was a kind of great start. With this he might try to feel said energy when it increases. Who knows, maybe he already had some before but he didn't know about it. and even if he was completely devoid of Mana until now...If it suddenly appeared in his body he should be able to fell it's sudden appearance. Right?
With those expectations Konrad quickly sat on the ground with the intention of using his last prize. He didn't know how he should do that so he decided to follow the Chinese novel example and sit in the closest imitation of a lotos position as he could. He was not a person extremely flexible though, so he sat basically like most people with their legs crossed. As he tried to put the prize in between his hands and wished to absorb it, he expected some kind of light shows and energy entering his body, but to his great embarrassment nothing happened. He decided at that moment that his attempt at becoming a cultivator has never happened and he would never admit it to anyone.
Konrad looked at the ball and thought what should he do to use it. The potion reward simply opened by transforming in his hand after Konrad willed it to, but it didn't seem like he could do the same with this prize ball.
In the end after a bunch of failed ideas Konrad got frustrated and tried to put the Ball (which FYI was the size somewhere between a ping pong and a baseball) into his mouth. To his surprise and delight the ball actually started to decrease in size and changing color into a blue glowing sphere smaller than a ping pong, as soon as it approached his mouth.
"Ha! So it IS a cultivation pill! See I knew it!" Konrad said it loudly, mostly to himself as there was no one here who could listen to Konrad's cringey antiques.
As Soon as the orb entered his mouth, there was a sensation as if something missing fell into place. the orb disappeared leaving only some kind of energy that spread around his body. But as soon as the feeling appeared, it quickly started to dim. Konrad tried to remember the feeling with all he had but it was already gone.
"Huff...that was fast...But at least i think it worked...maybe...If have to try meditation at home or something. Maybe I'd be able to feel the mana inside me?" Konrad tried to reassure himself.
Suddenly He remembered something that startled him.
"Wait a minute! How long have i been in here anyway?!" He exclaimed, and quickly took out his phone to check the time. He sighed in relief that it wasn't long after noon. 'He must have lost consciousness only for a littl-Wait but just a second more! It's already tommorow?! I slept for an entire day?!' Konrad thought shocked.
"Maybe that's the other reason why my stomach hurts so much...Oh God oh God mom is gonna kill me! I need to start moving!" Konrad muttered and quickly stood up only to sit back down again, because of how weak he was at the moment.
"Ugh...maybe not too fast though"
After looking for the last time at the machine, Konrad sighed in regret that he can't do anything more with it, and went 'slowly' to the formation he entered through.
His eyes fell on the glowing markings on the 'ground'. "Uhh...should I bleed on it once again?" He said with a little hesitation. There wasn't much blood he could give right now or he risked fainting again with a danger of further health problems.
He examined the formation all over with great curiosity.
"An actual magic formation...It's still so hard to imagine...I wonder what those writing actually...Wait! isn't this also a kind of language?!" Konrad Said with a rising excitement.
His hand dived into his pocket and took out a golden ball with a grin.
"If it works then it's a Rare reward alright, hahaha!"