Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 2

 Chapter 2: What Came Out Was a Fairy

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[Name] Suzukaze Touya

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[Lv] 1

[HP] 26/26

[MP] 23/23

[STR] 10

[VIT] 8

[AGI] 10

[DEX] 8

[INT] 11

[MND] 12

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[SP] 0

[Skills Possessed]

[Unique Skill]

・Gacha

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...Alright, let's calm down for a second.

First, let's go through my Status in order.

Lv 1 — fine, that makes sense.

Level rises by defeating monsters.

Of course my first dungeon run would leave me at the starting value. This is obvious.

Apparently, when your Level rises, your stats go up by a set amount too, though it varies a bit person to person. The range was one to three, with two being the most common.

Next, HP.

I assumed it stood for Hit Points, but inside the dungeon it apparently meant something a bit different.

In a word, it's a barrier. A monster's attack would chip away at it, but until it hit zero, you wouldn't feel pain or take any real damage.

I could just think of it as a system-level barrier value.

Next, MP. Magic Points, I guess?

It's the value consumed when activating a Skill. The more you had, the more Active Skills you could use.

STR: Affects physical attack power.

VIT: Affects physical defense and resistance to physical status ailments.

AGI: Affects speed and evasion rate.

DEX: Affects dexterity and accuracy.

INT: Affects magic attack power.

MND: Affects magic defense and resistance to mental status ailments.

Apparently the average for all of them at Lv 1 was 10.

My total came to 59. Just a bit short.

Next, SP.

Short for Skill Points, granted one point every time your Level rose. Spending them let you acquire Skills or rank them up.

Skills Possessed.

You could freely pick these up from a list of available Skills by spending SP. Right now I was Level 1, so my SP was 0. No Skills Possessed, either.

And finally, the Unique Skill.

Among Explorers, a rare few started out already possessing a Skill. Those Skills were called "Unique Skills," and apparently most of them were more powerful than ordinary ones.

Explorers like that tended to go on to great things. After all, they got a head start most people didn't.

I'd been hoping I might have a Unique Skill myself. But the words written there were the problem.

"Gacha."

That thing — the one that came standard with every free mobile game. The same wicked institution that had turned countless people into addicts.

For the record, I hate gacha. Actually, I hate mobile games in general. The daily login stuff is a pain, and half the time the story's still unfinished by the time the game actually launches.

Anyway, back on topic.

Whatever the case, it was gacha. I had absolutely no idea what kind of Skill this actually was.

...No, that's a lie.

I had no shortage of ideas for how I'd want it to work, if I got to pick something convenient for myself. Deep down, I was probably just excited to have a Unique Skill at all.

Reining in my impatience, I tapped "Gacha" on the Status screen. Same as the other entries, it should have just pulled up the Skill's details.

—As if to betray that expectation, a flood of light came pouring out of the Status board.

* * *

"Congratulations! The door of destiny has opened before you!!"

After the light flashed wildly for a moment—

What appeared, along with that theatrical line, was a tiny fairy.

Or rather, standing before me was a creature I couldn't describe as anything else.

It stood about twenty centimeters tall, its shape almost identical to a human's. Long blonde hair, blue eyes and white clothing that looked like some kind of traditional dress. And lastly the fairy's trademark feature, the wings on its back.

It fluttered right there in front of my eyes.

"I tapped the Gacha Skill, and a fairy came out."

That was, in short, exactly what had happened. My head was working fine. At least I wanted to believe that, anyway.

While I stood there questioning my own sanity, the fairy kept right on talking.

"My name is Lapis! I'm the navigator for your Unique Skill, Gacha! I can be your companion on adventures too, so feel free to rely on me!!"

The self-proclaimed navigator clenched both fists, puffing up with enthusiasm.

Ah, right, this. The character that stands next to the gacha screen. I see. So this thing was...

"Just some hype character who announces the gacha odds and the prizes you win, right?"

"That's way too harsh for a first meeting!?"

Lapis, the fairy, cried out, visibly shocked.

Well, how else was I supposed to put it?

"Anyway, there are a few things I want to ask you..."

"No, no, you've got to have something else to say!? Shouldn't you be reacting more than that!? Why are you just moving right along like it's nothing!?"

"Uh... fine. Nice to meet you, Lapis."

"Ah, yes. Nice to meet you too, Touya-san!"

This thing just said my name like it was nothing. I never introduced myself. I guess system-level stuff gets shared too, huh. Creepy.

"Anyway, there are a few things I want to ask you..."

"Déjà vu!? Aren't you being a little too full of yourself here!?"

God, this thing's noisy. Why are navigator characters always like this?

If I actually humored her properly, we'd never get anywhere. I just wanted to get the information I needed and move on to figuring out what came next.

"For starters, tell me how to turn you off."

"You're denying my very existence!?"

Lapis reeled, shocked all over again.

I'll keep it a secret that this is starting to get a little fun.

* * *

After a while of teasing Lapis for fun, my nerves had finally settled down.

So this is what animal therapy feels like.

"First, tell me everything you know about this Skill."

At my words, she nodded like she'd been waiting for exactly that.

You do realize you're the one who kept interrupting, right?

"Leave it to me! This Skill lets you spend your Level to pull the gacha. One Level for one pull. Spend ten Levels for a ten-pull. Every ten-pull comes with a guaranteed minimum of one confirmed SR slot!"

Level instead of money, huh. That's a heavy cost...

Other than that, it was the same system you'd find in any mobile gacha game.

"Wait, my Level actually goes down? In that case, what happens to the stats I'd already gained?"

"Yes! They drop by exactly however much they rose when you leveled up!"

The creature declared this with a bright, beaming smile.

It's not something to smile about.

"So if I did a ten-pull from Lv 11 and dropped back to Lv 1, my stats would fall all the way back down to my current values?"

"Yes!"

...So there's no way to just farm cheap experience, level up and down over and over, and endlessly stack stats that way.

In that case, what actually came out of the gacha was the real crux of it. Well, it's a Skill called "Gacha," so I guess that makes sense — that's the whole point of it.

"No..."

Not yet. There was still hope.

Pinning my last thread of hope on it, I asked Lapis, who still wore that carefree smile.

"What about Skills Possessed? What happens to the SP I earn from leveling up, and the Skills I get with it?"

"Ah, those stay as they are. Any leftover SP remains, and any Skills you've acquired stay usable even if your Level goes back down."

Ah, this is a win.

Time to take a bath.