[Congratulations! For defeating Coco Adel (and Fox Alistair) while being heavily suppressed, you have earned two (four) Unique Gacha Coins!]
[Congratulations! For fighting Yatsuhashi Daichi to a standstill while being heavily suppressed, you have earned a Unique Set | 1,702 Gacha Coin!]
I wrapped up my training day routine at Beacon's gym before leaving for another suppressed trip back on foot after I visited Ozpin. With his help, I learned more about how my Semblance worked.
Apparently, whenever someone used their Semblance within the range of mine I would be stealing the "light of their soul." Aside from not being able to use their Semblance, this did nothing to other people. To myself, however, it constantly added to the attracting lure of emotions that affected Grimm. By Ozpin's estimates, it would take about a day for the light of my soul to go back to normal.
This made my return journey home a lot more action-packed than normal. It made for a great opportunity to try out one of the Chakra techniques I'd been neglecting. Water Colliding Wave was good for making large quantities of water, which would fuel other water-based techniques so that was useless. The Shadow Clone Technique, however, was anything but.
Shadow Clones were autonomous perfect copies of myself that had all the energy I used to make them split the amount of strength each had. How it worked was a bit wonky since I didn't use Chakra to make them, but my clones were tough enough that with three I could mow down the hundreds of Grimm I came across. Individually, they probably wouldn't survive longer than a minute against anyone from Team CFVY, but together they could handle common Grimm with impunity.
It worked out perfectly for me — the original — because there were enough Alpha Grimm in my way that with the eyepatch I'd be at risk of being overrun.
When I got close to Vale's walls, I dispelled the clones and their memories came to me. That right there was an exploit just waiting to be abused when combined with my maxed Learning Skill. It was the next best thing after eidetic memory to quickly comprehend and retain anything I experienced.
Unfortunately, Shadow Clones became more fragile the more of them that I made. Moreover, they increased the risk of giving myself brain damage the more of them I dispelled at once. I'd have to do some testing, but I was confident I could make up to five worthwhile clones and dispel them at the same time if I needed to.
When I got home I made five new Shadow Clones and accepted the Novice Alchemy Kit I'd been sitting on for the last couple of days. The Kit only came with enough materials to make just twelve potions, so I also accepted a good chunk of the Uncommon and Rare Item-class rewards that had previously been set aside and filed away as "Worthless Junk."
The Kit only came with one brewing station, so only one batch of a single type of potion could be brewed at a time, but Alchemy was much more involved than just boiling shit in a pot and calling it a day. My Shadow Clones would come in to cut through a lot of the prep time required while I oversaw the final part of the process.
I started with a classic, Invisibility Potions. Under the right circumstances that could make for a devastating combo with my Ghost of Zhongtian Perk. It took an hour to make a batch of 37 doses that would last for five minutes each. After that, I made 25 Night Vision Potions followed by 40 Flashbangs and 14 Firebombs.
I only had four Inventory Slots, so that was all I could hold for now. Furthermore, one of my Inventory Slots was currently holding on to the nuclear core of the bomb I diffused during the Terrorist Takeover Scenario. So, after replacing it with my Firebombs and filling up the rest of my Inventory Slots, I spent the rest of the night completely deconstructing the nuclear core with the insights provided to me by Demolitionist before going to bed.
I would make more Potions to keep in storage outside of my Inventory Slots some other time. For now, it was time to roll my daily Gacha earnings before I engaged in my nightly scrap with Katayoki.
[Results: Rarity — Unique -2,222 | Annoyance of the Gacha Gods! (Curse)]
[Results: Rarity — Unique 1,702 | Mental Resistance (Skill)]
[Results: Rarity — Unique 3,210 | Mission Scenarios! (Perk)]
[Results: Rarity — Rare 786 | Ultra-Slide (Ability)]
[Results: Rarity — Rare 739 | Add Mana Modifier (Ability)]
Ok… I've just become concerned that I've grown the slightest bit too addicted to Gacha by how long it took me to accept the lesser of two evils presented by the Annoyance of the Gacha Gods! Curse. Thank the Gacha Gods for their mercy in making the Curse not a permanent fixture in my life, but a simple lose-lose less decision. Either, I could decide to give up one of my Perks, Abilities, or even just a single Level of any one of my Skills. Or I would have to bear a life without Gacha for three measly days.
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Perks and Abilities, I would not risk. But even at the cost of one Level of Cooking, it would have been too desperate to accept that over just waiting three days. Sure, I probably would get Cooking right back up to Level 10 if I took the deal since it was so low Rarity and only at the Uncommon tier which I literally rolled thousands of on a daily basis, but it was the principal of the matter that made me hold back.
Was I really so far gone already to not be able to wait three days for more Gacha?
Damn it, I totally was…
After a simple cost-benefit analysis, I couldn't resist. Not when all it cost was a single Skill Level of which I had plenty maxed out that I never used; like Firearms or Sailing. Addict or not, I wasn't stupid enough to be unable to rationalize a way towards feeding my addiction. Maybe if the costs had been a little more steep, I'd have reconsidered, but as it was… Yeah, I accepted the loss of a Sailing Level. So what? I was still competent enough to chart a course around the world on a small sailboat. Not that I'd probably ever need to, I could fly, after all.
Moving on, fighting Yatsuhashi to a draw while restrained by the eyepatch had given me that Mental Resistance Skill. Very fitting, very comforting to know I'd made that a much more likely drop from the pool of Unique rewards. Mental Resistance was generic, but it would go a long way in keeping annoyances like the Semblances of Neo or that green-haired woman from Team CEM from bothering me too much. Not to mention however many horrifying people or beings I didn't know about with abilities like Yatsuhashi's Semblance. Memory Wiping? That'd be nightmare to figure out and counter if I didn't know someone could use it beforehand.
Mission Scenarios were yet another addition to the mechanics of my Gacha powers. They were Scenarios for the world I found myself in; Remnant. Although, going by the loose wording I received, that didn't necessarily have to be the case. Meaning that, potentially, if I one day left Remant for another world or universe, the Mission Scenarios would take place there if I earned the reward there.
Ultra-Sliding was a simple yet nonsensical ability. Basically, it let me slide on the ground endlessly — making a total mockery of the concept of friction and ignoring almost all terrain that wasn't completely vertical — at my maximum velocity. How did it work and why? I had no idea, but it was a nifty trick to have.
Add Mana Modifier on the other hand was completely useless to me. It needed a Wand and a projectile or a different effect modifier to be used. Conceptually, it was a modifier itself that lowered the Mana cost of using a Spell by adding to the natural mana of a Wand.
Moving on, I entered the battlefield that was my Inner World and proceeded to spam Ultra-Sliding along with Katayoki the entire time whenever there was even the slightest opportunity. It made for a truly annoying and jarring experience, having to get used to the rapid acceleration of the sliding effect and the sudden stop once I prempted it.
After another night, another two Unique coins for my troubles, I followed my cooking day routine without anything of note happening until the very end of the day. After the morning workout, which saw much less but still elevated levels of action when compared to my return journey from Beacon the day prior, and a whole day of cooking, I found Velvet waiting for me outside the restaurant once I'd clocked out and was going to head home.
"We're still on for tomorrow, right?" She asked as she fiddled with her hands and nails,
"Right. On or after six like asked for is fine by me," I said.
"So… It'll be at your place, huh?" She sounded so nervous and embarrassed, it was a struggle to contain my amusement.
"It can be any place you want. My apartment would just be the most convenient for me, but I wouldn't mind going somewhere else as long as there aren't any distractions around. I would suggest your dorm, but I doubt I'd get to teach you much of anything with your three teammates around. They'd probably make a show out of watching us as I try to teach you."
"That's… Probably true. They can be a little mean-spirited for the sake of entertainment," Velvet's tall bunny ears sagged depressedly at the realization. They perked right up as she smiled and said, "Your apartment works fine for me. Just—" she was growing restless again, "let me trade scroll contact info with you so that you can tell me where that is."
Right. Certified genius is what I am, forgetting she can't possibly show up without knowing where my apartment is.
We traded Scrolls to put in each other's contact info before I got my Scroll back and sent her a text with my apartment's address. As she left, I couldn't help but consider something else that was important that I'd been neglecting. As I looked at Velvet's shrinking figure a spark of recollection formed as I took in the way her respectable uniform shirt and pencil skirt tightly wrapped around her body.
I needed to move out of my apartment.
I had way too much money to not be living in the highest luxury apartment that accepted my horrifically sourced drug and terrorist-converted lien. It would be awkward if Velvet decided she wanted to keep taking bartending lessons from me and went from my modest dwelling tomorrow, to whatever penthouse suite I relocated to next.
Oh well, you live and you learn.
As I made my way back home, I felt a terrible chill go down my spine and could have sworn I heard the dying wails of a few thousand ghosts. The impression they gave was that they were laughing at me, but angrily at the same time.
Of course, there were no ghosts. I know because with my Spiritual Power, I definitely would have seen them; in theory, anyway. With my Shinigami powers — Katayoki himself — I should have been able to see ghosts and send them to heaven or something to that effect. But so far I hadn't seen any. Or maybe I had and just not realized it?
"You definitely haven't seen a ghost yet," Katayoki said. He'd grown very reserved after I got the upgrade to his knife. "Trust me, you'd know right away by the chain that's attached to their chest."
"So what the hell was that, I just felt, then?" I asked, hoping he'd know the answer.
"What are you talking about? Nothing has changed," he sounded like he was suspicious of me.
"Did you really not feel that in there?"
"Hmm… It doesn't feel like you're trying to punk me, so I'll bite. No, I did not feel whatever it is you're talking about," he cautiously said.
If anything, now I was suspicious of him and maybe a little scared. Was he messing around or was I going schizo? The sound of the ghosts returned for a split second and all they did this time was laugh at my misfortune.
I walked back home with a bit of extra tension in my body as I strained my Ki Sense and prepared for the worst, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. I only relaxed once it was time to roll my daily Gacha earnings and go to sleep.
Nothing worth specifically mentioning, except for the fact that I got my Sailing back to Level 10 as I'd expected, occurred during the event. The only thing else I could think of before my consciousness slipped into my Inner World was that perhaps the eerie feelings I'd felt were due to the Gacha Gods' Annoyance Curse.
Maybe they were unhappy with my addiction and loose willpower? That would explain the lack of New Skills and statistically unlikely Common and Negative Rarity drops.
I didn't get another ghastly feeling, but I still couldn't help but feel like that was the wrong conclusion to make.