20. Dungeon Locator

“...”

“...”

“That's it?” Ardan burst out.

A flash of light emerged from the screen and true to its word, a large, bronze key fell onto the grass. Ardan didn’t move for a while.

Halcyon scoffed loudly. “Nice luck you got there, buddy.”

Surely this key must be special, Ardan thought, desperately staring intently at it, as if expecting it to transform. It’s like in every fantasy story ever, right? The identification window opened, and he read through the item’s description.

Item Profile

Rusted Key

(Junk)

Quality: F

Used to unlock something important, but whatever that might be is impossible to find.

Effects: Cursed

Requirements: ???

“Are you serious? Junk?” That was Ardan’s second outburst of the day. By this time, Halcyon had broken out laughing hysterically and sounded like he was crying.

“Serves you right.”

“Used to unlock something important, but impossible to find.” Ardan read out slowly. “What kind of information is that? It’s almost as useless as you!” At this, he pointed to Halcyon, who had gone quiet.

“That was a low blow. Hey, at least you got some money.” Halcyon consoled.

“Yeah, but I got this! This!” Ardan held out the key to the sky, like it had forsaken some sort of god or something. “Store rusted key.” He said dejectedly, bending down to pick Halcyon up.

“Why don’t you use your skill token now? It might lift your spirits back up.” Halcyon proposed.

Reluctantly, Ardan agreed. “Yeah. I might as well, it's not like my spirits can sink any further, I guess. Where do I go to use it?”

“The shop section. Skill tokens are basically the currency for a gacha game. It’ll give you random skill, depending on your luck. There are three categories. Common, rare and epic. As you can tell, each tier has better skills. Common spins basically give you less of a chance to get higher tier skills… etc.”

Ardan nodded. “A gacha system, huh. Sounds interesting. I think I remember seeing a tab on that in the shop section last time when I bought the health potion. Menu. Shop.”

1 Skill Token/s Shop

Currency: 180§ Consumables

Items

Skills (Gacha)

Health Potions

Mana Potions

Fatigue Relievers

Minor 10§ Minor 10§ Minor 10§ Medium 50§ Medium 50§ Medium 50§ Major 200§ Major 200§ Major 200§ Attack Potions Defense Potions Minor 20§ Minor 20§ Minor Medium

100§ Medium 100§ Medium Major 275§ Major 275§ Major

“Skills.”

1 Skill Token/s Shop

Currency: 180§ Consumables

Items

Skills (Gacha) Available Spins

Common Spin

1

Rare Spin

0

Epic Spin

0

100§

250§

500§

“Common spin?” Ardan said hesitantly, wondering what would happen.

In an instant, the screen flashed then disappeared, only to reappear in the form of a notification.

- Alert! -

You have acquired the skill [Dungeon Locator].

“Dungeon locator…” He read aloud, then stopped. “Don’t tell me this is real.”

“Serves you right for not believing me. Why don’t you check out the skill now, eh?” Halcyon asked proudly, cocky now that he’d been proven right.

Ignoring him, Ardan brought up his skills page.

9 SKP Skills

Spells Techniques Passives Abilities Name Tier Level [Element Sense] Tier 1 Level 2 [Elemental Magic] Tier 1 Level 1 [Water Manipulation] Tier 1 Level 2 [Air Manipulation Tier 1 Level 1 [Fire Manipulation] Tier 1 Level 1 [Earth Manipulation] Tier 1 Level 1

He smiled a little at the growing list of skills in front of him. It showed his progress over the last few days, although most of them were at level one. However, the new skill he’d acquired didn’t appear in the list.

“You should try checking in your passives or abilities tabs.” Halcyon suggested, still being used as a support for Ardan to lean on.

Murmuring a word of thanks, Ardan followed his instructions. “Passives.”

9 SKP Skills

Spells Techniques Passives Abilities Name Tier Level [Dungeon Locator] Tier 2 Level 2

There it was, the skill he’d gotten from the common spin. His first tier two skill.

“Hey! That’s actually pretty good! A tier two skill from a common spin is about a twenty percent chance, I think.” Halcyon called out. “Can we go back in now? I’m getting cold. Wait, I didn’t even know I could get cold…”

“Can you just shut up for a moment?” Ardan asked as politely as he could, opening the skill information window.

9 SKP Skills

Dungeon Locator Passive Tier 2 Level 1 Passive Effect: +5 Sense 0/5 SKP Able to detect dungeons from a specific radius around the player. Activation Cost N/A Cooldown N/A Stamina Drain (Fatigue) N/A Requirements N/A

Dungeon Locator locates dungeons in a specific radius around the player. A notification will appear if a dungeon has spawned or if the player walks into the detection radius of the dungeon. No other information apart from distance away will be provided. As the skill levels up, radius may increase.

This time, it was Ardan’s turn to scoff. “This is such a useless skill. Where the hell am I going to go to find a dungeon? Also, what’s this up in the top right? Am I supposed to spend my skill points for this skill? Why can’t I spend it on something more useful like elemental magic or something?”

Halcyon let out a sigh. “Think of it this way. Skills that you earn through the gacha system are the game’s skills, not yours. The game lets you borrow them to use. Skills that you learn are your own skills, which you have to practice yourself to improve. System skills like this one can be improved by spending your skill points in them. Also, another thing. The ‘tiers’ in this game are quite unique. For example, your skill ‘dungeon locator’. It’s tier two due to its perks being particularly good. When it gets to level ten, it will become a tier three skill and increase significantly.”

“Yeah, and?” Ardan didn’t understand what Halcyon meant.

“So I’m saying it’s possible to increase a skill’s tier, but it’s incredibly hard to do so. So don’t get mad that all your skills are lower tier.” He concluded.

“Alright. I get it. But what use are these skill points if I can’t even spend them on my useful skills?” Ardan asked. “I might as well spend them on this to see what happens-”

“Don’t!” Halcyon shouted for the first time.

But it was too late.

- Alert! -

Skill: [Dungeon Locator] has leveled up!

[Dungeon Locator] has increased in range by 250 metres.

[Dungeon Locator] now has arange of 1.25 kilometres.

“What is it now?” Ardan asked lazily. “Oh look, the range increased by a bit.”

“Don’t just waste your skill points like that. There are tons of better skills the game has to offer.” Halcyon said, exasperated.

But Ardan didn’t reply. Because just as that notification faded away, another took its place.

- Alert! -

Dungeon spotted nearby!

1172 metres

“No. Bloody. Way.” He whispered under his breath.