Once we returned to the true throne room, I had Nell blow another sixty thousand DP on the gacha. The rewards list was as follows:
Equipment Synthesis Skill Scroll
Attention Redirection Skill Scroll
Infinity Halberd
Glacial Prisonblade
Sovereign Poison Fang
Pan Lid
Alright, so first thing's first… Why the hell are pan lids still in the 10k prize pool…? Ten thousand DP was a steep hefty price for something so worthless. The weakest monsters in the Wicked Forest, the ones that inhabited its southernmost area, only netted about two hundred DP per kill. Moving east, however, led to encounters with monsters that averaged a hefty five hundred DP each. Heading west, however, threw all estimates for a loop. The monsters that inhabited the forest's most threatening subregion were far too varied in strength for me to really come up with any decent approximations. Not that they mean much anyway. The numbers are just averages, and they can differ a bunch depending on the species and the individual, so yeah.
A more accurate way to substantialize the value of ten thousand DP was to look at how long it could sustain us. The answer to that was just over a week. Our living expenses averaged out to something along the lines of a thousand DP a day. A pan lid worth a whole 10k has gotta be one fancy ass pan lid. Thanks, RNGesus. I love you too.
While I was by no means not bitter over the less-than-impressive result, a part of me was relieved to find that even someone with Nell's luck could wind up rolling a pan lid. It proved that luck wasn't absolute, and that there were still chances for me to overcome my lackluster numbers. Fortunately, everything else she'd gotten out of the random number generator was at least somewhat impressive.
The biggest boon out of this second batch was the scroll for Equipment Synthesis, as it was classified as a unique skill. As could be implied from its name, its function was similar to that of Weapon Transmutation in that it was capable of item creation. And, like the other skill, it was prone to failing if the image the caster had in mind lacked clarity. That, however, was where the similarities ended. Equipment Synthesis' differentiated itself in terms of intended use through a mix of two properties. The first was expiry. Items created through Equipment Synthesis spawned on a timer and would vanish the moment it finished ticking down. And while that was, by all means, fascinating, it was nowhere near as attention-grabbing as the skill's second property, its flexibility. Equipment Synthesis capable of making literally anything, regardless of whether it was a weapon or a piece of armour, so long as the user possessed enough mana to bring the object they imagined to life. In other words, it was capable of providing its wielder with the best possible solution for any given scenario so long as they were capable of determining their needs on the fly.
Though it was sure to be tough to master, the skill was undoubtedly one that had incredible potential, as was to be assumed given that it was marked as unique. Just about every last unique skill was completely overtuned. Naturally, they weren't exactly what one could call easily obtainable. An inhuman amount of time and effort had to be put into their acquisition. This was reflected even the catalog's prices; even the cheapest of unique skills was worth at least thirty thousand DP. I'm pretty sure Equipment Synthesis pretty much pays off all six rolls by itself. Worth.
That said, it was worth nothing in my hands. My "extreme proficiency" with weapons made it more or less impossible for me to get any value out of a skill based around using them. Welp. Might as well give it to Nell.
The other skill scroll she'd rolled, Attention Redirection, was unfortunately far less valuable. Unlike Equipment Synthesis, it was just a regular skill, and all it was really capable of was redirecting someone's attention to a specified point or location. Hmmm… How are you even supposed to use this?
…
Wait a second… Isn't this just what magicians do? All they really do is misdirect your attention while they pull some sort of fancy trick with the free hand or whatever, right? Yeah, you know what? I could totally make this work, even in battle. All I'd have to do is basically distract someone and them bop 'em with an attack from a fresh blind spot or something. That actually sounds pretty amazing. I should grab Rir and go test it out later.
All three remaining non-pan lid prizes were weapons that did more or less exactly what their names implied. Infinity Halberd's magic circuits allowed it to change the length of its shaft and the size of its head. Glacial Prisonblade was a sword whose magic circuit was much like the ice-based version of Enne's Crimson Blaze. It could chill anything that it cut in order to severely inhibit its target's mobility. Sovereign Poison Fang was probably the most valuable of the three. It had the ability to apply a deadly mix of toxins to anything it cut, and more or less guided its victim straight to death's door.
They were all valuable—as evidenced from their A+ to S- quality ratings—but none stood out as particularly impressive. I was able to make equally powerful weapons without the dungeon's assistance, and they still paled in comparison when put next to Enne and Durandal, Nell's sword. That wasn't to say that they were bad rolls. They were still well worth the amount of DP they'd been exchanged for. They were just, in my opinion, less interesting than our other rewards.
Evidently, our resident weapon-obsessed hero felt differently. Unlike me, she'd started freaking out excitedly the moment she learned that we had netted ourselves a few fancy pieces of equipment.
"Gachas are amazing," she squealed. "I can't believe it can make weapons like these! Just look at how sharp and shiny their blades are!"
"Y-yeah, I'm pretty sure the gacha can spit out just about anything," I said, a bit taken aback. "You mind if I keep the Attention Redirection skill scroll?"
"Huh?" She blinked at me. "I thought you were going to keep everything."
"Nah, this is the only thing I wanted. The rest is all yours."
"Can I really have all of it?" she asked, timidly. "I'm not really sure I should, since you paid for it, and I already have both my sword and Lunar Blossom." The hero fidgeted about as she tried her best to act modest. "And I'm not even all that sure where I would keep them."
"Well, I'm probably never even going to touch 'em, so you can have 'em if you want 'em," I said. "Do you really have nowhere to put them? Where'd you keep all the other weapons I gave you?"
"They're all in my room in the castle."
"I doubt you're out of space, so you might as well just stash these there too."
"C-can I really have all of it? I won't give any of it back, even if you change your mind, okay!?" She got right up in my face and started speaking twice as quickly as usual. "I wouldn't be able to give the skill scroll back even if I wanted to. It'll be gone as soon as I use it. Is that really okay!?"
"Y-yeah, it's fine," I said, as I reeled back. I doubt anyone's even capable of saying no to you with how happy and excited you look right now.
"Thank you so much, Yuki! I'll gladly take them!" she skipped over to where I'd set down the weapons and picked up the sword. "Wow, I just noticed that this one's curved and only has an edge on one side. It looks like the same type of sword as Enne."
"Yup." I smiled wryly as I nodded along.
God damn weapon nerd. I swear, this isn't even the first goddamn time this has happened. Nell often took a near excessive amount of interest in the weapons I made, and several of them had already ended up in her care.
In the end, most of the stuff we rolled from the ten thousand DP gacha ended up under Nell's name. I didn't mind, of course, as I'd gotten a pretty decent skill scroll out of it. My only gripe was that we hadn't been able to get anything as valuable as Rir—not that I'd actually expected to hit the jackpot in the first place. Moreover, the one hundred thousand DP gacha had already given us the waterfall hot spring, which was incredibly valuable and effectively made the whole endeavour a win.
"Man… heroes are crazy. I almost can't believe that you only got one piece of junk out of a whole 7 rolls."
Her luck was so good that it was frightening. Hell, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the only reason we got so many weapon-related drops was because she likes weapons, and the scales were tilting themselves according to her preferences. Your luck's gotta be totally batshit insane if it's good enough to basically revamp the rates. Holy shit.
"I was a bit worried the first few times, I'm starting to think that the gacha is a lot of fun," she said, before picking up the least valuable prize she'd won. "I'm starting to think that this pan lid has to be really special if it's coming out of something capable of producing so many amazing prizes."
"You know what? I'm willing to bet it's actually probably one of the rarer drops, especially considering the amount a roll costs."
We'd basically finished going over all the rewards, so I raised my arms and stretched. The door leading outside creaked open right as I was about to get up to reveal Lyuu with a laundry basket in hand.
"Whew," she breathed a sigh of relief as she plopped the container down in the true throne room. "Huh? What're those, Master? More of your creations?" she asked, as she spotted the weapons being looked over by the second of my three wives.
"Oh, hey Lyuu. Perfect timing, get over here and roll the gacha."
My thought process was that Lyuu would serve as a decent test case. Unlike Nell, she was only about as lucky as the average person, which meant her rolls were far less likely to be filled with nothing but soul-crushing bullshit.
"H-huh? The what?"
"Don't worry about it." I pointed at the menu as she walked over. "Here, you see this? Just press the second button from the right."
"M-mmkay…?"
She wasn't really sure what I was trying to get her to do, but followed my instructions and gave the good old ten thousand DP gacha a roll regardless.
"I-It looks like somethin' real weird's happenin'," she said, as she watched the light particles come together to form her reward. Once the light vanished, she picked up and gave it a curious once-over. "What's this thing?"
"I'm… not sure," said Nell.
The two exchanged glances, but neither was able to help the other discern the item's identity.
While I was pretty much perfectly aware of what it was, I decided to use Analyze on it regardless.
***
High Grade Kombu
Quality: A+
Description: A high quality kelp that can be used to make a delicious stock.
***
"It's uh… kelp," I said.
I blinked a few times as I stared down the product. It was literally exactly what I thought it was, an ingredient commonly used in Japanese cooking. Apparently, it was of the fancier variety, but that didn't mean it was worth anywhere near as much as any of the other items we'd won, pan lid aside. I mean… in all fairness, it does look pretty expensive, for kelp. It's got a really nice colour and lustre to it.
"Lyuu…" I plopped a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.
"W-what is it, Master? Why're you givin' me such a warm gaze all of a sudden?"
"I knew you were just like me."
"W-what's that supposed to mean? And why do I feel like it wasn't meant to be a compliment!?"
Lyuu's roll was, frankly, so perfect and awful at the same time that I had needed a few seconds to wrap my head around it and figure out how to react.
"What's kelp?" asked Nell.
"I can answer that," said Lyuu. "I remember what it's used for now. It's real good for makin' stock. All you gotta do is put in a pot with some boilin' water and let it cook. There was this one time Leila and Master used it to make a real tasty hot pot."
"Wow… I had no idea. I kind of want to try it."
"Then whaddya say we cook up some hot pot for dinner tonight? I don't think Leila's figured out what we're havin' yet, so she probably hasn't started gettin' anythin' ready yet either. I'm sure she wouldn't mind the suggestion."
"That's a pretty good idea," I said. "Alright, that's that. We're having hot pot tonight," I said. "I wanted to do a few more rolls, but it looks like it's about time to start getting dinner ready anyway, so we might as well call it a day as far as gacha stuff goes and get to work."
"Okay, I'll help," said Nell.
"Me too! You can count on me, Master!" said Lyuu.
With our forces rallied, the three of us headed straight for the kitchen and began to get everything ready for dinner.
Lefi ended up missing out on the gacha event entirely due to an afternoon nap, but I got her up to speed later on by having her give the ten thousand DP gacha a spin.
The result?
A scrub sponge.
"You know, Lefi, you never fail to disappoint," I said. "I always knew you'd end up as nothing but comic relief."
"What!? I am not comic relief!"
She'd denied the claim, but it clearly hit home nonetheless, as the dragon ended up spending the rest of the day sulking off in a corner.