I knew the odds of any changes regarding the [Available Skills] or my Gift's systems were low due to not having leveled up, however, checking was never a bad thing.
Even though I tempered my expectations before taking a look, I still felt a little bothered by it.
However, this wasn't enough to make me dissatisfied with [Gacha Kingdom Building]. No matter how much the lack of a clear path to plan towards was, I felt like this Gift had enough potential to make up for it.
Proof of that was the two tickets I could claim.
While many Gifts grow together with the user, level-by-level, or at certain goal posts, there was a fundamental difference between them and [Gacha Kingdom Building].
And that's not even the indirect method of making it more powerful through mana, since a few Gifts also have similar indirect increases in power depending on actions from the user.
No... The thing that was stuck in my mind was how I'd always have a rate of growth from my Gift, and my level-ups would only increase that rate.
This was quite different from almost any other Gift.
It made me wonder if there was a limit.
But... It didn't seem so.
This made [Gacha Kingdom Building] unique, but also a little scary...
I had a strange feeling about it.
As if I was missing something.
However, I could never tell it exactly.
In many aspects, it worked like any other Gift, but at the same time, there were such crucial differences.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't reach a conclusion.
The best I could do was accept it.
At the very least, strange as this power was, it worked in my favor, so...
As long as this didn't change, I'd be happy.
And so, with such thoughts in mind, I took a quick look at the list of banners before rolling in the gacha.
As always, the list was insanely long.
It's impossible to even register how many things there are, so I can only look at them for a second, and if it doesn't seem interesting, jump to the next.
And yes, there are quite a few that are... less than ideal.
Frankly, I wouldn't be mad if anyone called them useless.
Things like toys, chairs, doors, and empty cans...
I know that you can never tell when you might want something, and in that regard, having almost anything so easily available to me is good by itself, but...
It's hard to see myself ever using a ticket on these banners when, for most things, I can just go to a store or order online.
This gave me an idea though...
Since finding good things by looking at the banners in the list one by one was so incredibly hard, I decided to search for a few things that would be expensive or hard to buy.
I needed to find the right words, so it didn't always work, but I did find things that could be useful.
One of them is the [Potions Banner]. Depending on random potions is less than ideal, but if I could create a stockpile once I received more tickets daily, I could definitely prepare myself for a few different situations.
Still, I decided it wasn't the time yet.
It was better to focus on things that permanently made me powerful, instead of clutches.
After all, it's better not to have to rely on a clutch in the first place...
So I focused more on the small selection of banners I already had. The ones I knew would be immediately useful.
And out of them, the [Armor Banner] was the first one I had to cross out.
I had high hopes for it, but the result from last time made me anxious about investing a ticket in it since the competition is tougher.
Sure, I had only put a single mana point on it last time, so I couldn't expect an incredible result, but... The same was true for the [Weapons Banner], and yet, the difference was like night and day.
For now, I decided to try focusing mana points on it instead. After I get something nice, that confirms my theory of this being a good banner, then I'd be fine using tickets on it.
As such, I decided to keep using the [Skills Banner] for now.
Last time, they disappointed me a little, but that was mostly because I expected a specific result.
Something like [Movement Speed Up]...
The skills I obtained were quite different from it, but at the same time, they were strong in their own manner.
[Increased Drop Chance] made me more valuable as a party member for almost any party, and [Physical Prowess], while quite situational, could definitely be used. Especially in the future, after I increase my mana.
With the limited number of tickets I received every day, I decided it would be good to prioritize a banner that was working well and had only provided me with good results, even if they weren't necessarily what I wanted.
And so, that strange side effect that makes my mind go blank happens again.
The seemingly unending, purposeless white takes over all my thoughts, and in the next second, I return to my senses, ready to check the results of my gacha rolls.
[Appraisal
This skill charges the user one mana point for every 10 uses.
Certain things cannot be appraised, however, at higher levels, this might change.
Even for things that can be appraised, the amount and value of the information might change according to the skill level.
This is an active skill, and it requires a target to be used.
Thus, this skill can fail, be noticed, or blocked by the target.]
[Reading Speed Up
The holder of this skill receives a passive boost to their reading speed.
This effect only works with texts that the user can derive meaning from.
This is a passive skill. It will remain active unless the user deactivates it.]
...
I was way more disappointed this time.
These two skills... Well...
The most useful was definitely [Appraisal]. In a situation like today's, I could use it to prevent myself and the party from being surprised.
That is... If it works.
The problem is that as I am right now, I'd have only 9 uses before it puts me to sleep.
And that was now another thing to worry about.
The system only registers integers, and it always rounds down, which is why even athletes often only get a single starting point in their stats, like the rest of us.
This doesn't mean the difference doesn't exist. Just that the system will only count it if it's an integer.
In other words... Since [Physical Prowess] requires 1 mana point for every 5 seconds of activations, even though the system won't show it to me, every second I would be losing 0.20 mana points, until the system registered it as zero.
Assuming [Appraisal] works the same way, every use of it would diminish the time I can use [Physical Prowess].
With enough mana, this wouldn't be a problem, but for someone starting out like me...
They were working against each other, and now, I had more decisions to make in every battle.
Still, it was a good skill to have... At least, it was way better than [Reading Speed Up], which was, for my purposes, basically useless.
Since neither [Appraisal] nor [Reading Speed Up] were combat-related either, this time... I couldn't help feeling frustrated.
It felt like I had wasted both tickets, and in a way, the entire day...
It made me seriously start considering trying a new banner.
Feeling down, I went and claimed the [Kingdom Points] for today.
After three days, the total amount of points I had was 5.
They were finally enough to waste at something.
Like a well for the kingdom. Or I could use the sink in my kitchen.
I'd be safe in case of a water shortage, though.
But of course, I could also buy a change of clothes for my citizens. Except that I am the only citizen, and I don't really need new ones? And even if I did, I'd rather use money since it still isn't clear to me what I'm supposed to do with these [Kingdom Points].
Obviously, there was a chance that I had to use them to unlock something, but... Even then, I decided it would be better to save a little more.
So yeah, maybe I was a little tired, or the gacha results made me a little irritated, but I decided to just go on with the last step of my daily routine, the [Mana Banners].
I wasn't expecting anything, but being pleasantly surprised by the [Armor Banner] would've been nice.
As always, before doing it, I waited until bedtime, doing my chores before getting knocked out by mana depletion.
When I used it, the result was...
Miwen: "...Great."
The same as yesterday.
Perhaps not exactly the same ring, but... Equally useless.
I was done with it already, and I didn't even have the energy to be mad about it.