kscans

Chapter 855 - Reward Time

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◇Status / Trance / Restarted◇
Title：Acrobat
Name：Haru
Lv：10⇒11
STR: 30⇒40
AGI: 30
DEX: 10
VIT: 0
MID: 30
LUC: 0

◇Skill◇
・All-Accomplishing Arms (Naraka Gandharva)

・Active
──None Skill──

・Passive
《Trickster of Zenith》
《Reject Sentence》

◇Arts◇
【Kesshiki Ittoryu】
──────……
────……
──……
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Conquering ten layers in the Key Tree Maze is a milestone in many respects.

What awaits there is the exceptional strength of the boss enemy lurking in the deepest part of the layer. And the rewards for victory, such as items to unseal equipment and a partial release of skill restrictions—it's not just about the intense trials prepared every ten layers and the prizes that lie beyond them.

Being forced to overcome difficulties with your inherent powers restricted is, frankly, the kind of content that many players, aside from a dedicated few, tend to avoid.

I'm not one for self-imposed challenges, but I can enjoy officially proposed restriction-based play as part of the 'rules.' Yet even someone like me would likely be seen as a hardcore, stoic player by true casual users. Gamers and non-gamers are fundamentally different species.

So, what kind of design is necessary to completely blow away such complaints?

The answer is simple: just provide positive, immense fun and rewards that far outweigh the stress and negatives arising from the inconvenience.

"Now then…"

After a break of just over ten minutes, I stood up and headed toward my destination. Upon defeating the boss, three anomalies had appeared in the center of the great hall.

One was physical: a smaller version of the 'monolith' I'd seen somewhere recently.

It was a vertically long rectangle made of some strange material that was neither wood, stone, nor metal, covered in dense Arcadia script. It stood about a meter tall.

The other two were intangible: teleportation gates glowing blue and green, respectively, on either side of the monolith. To put it simply, they were the choice to advance or retreat.

Jumping into the blue light would lead to the next level, the eleventh layer. That was a natural design, so it was fine. The problem was the green one. If I jumped into that, it wouldn't take me back to the first layer for a fresh start, but…

To the ninth layer, with a message of, Find your own way back.

That's right. Once you start climbing this Key Tree Maze, there's no easy reset.

You can leave at any time, whether in a safe zone or not, by 'discarding your progress on the current layer,' but there's no convenient feature common in games of this type that allows you to freely move between already cleared floors.

If you want to go from the tenth floor to the first, you have to fight your way back down from the ninth layer in reverse. Of course, the boss and all the mobs along the way will have respawned, but since this does have its merits, I can't say it's just a punishing feature.

It seems to be a trend for players who aren't super hardcore to farm by repeatedly going back and forth between the first and tenth layers. Anyway…

"At last, I am granted an audience with one of humanity's greatest evils, the very incarnation of desire…"

For now, the choice between the two portals is simple: I'm diving into the blue one. So, what I must now steel myself for is the object in the center.

It's a wicked piece of civilization that showers players with both 'ecstasy' and 'despair,' continuing to claim countless victims among modern humanity even now… Its name is the 'Dream-Selling Concept Device,' also known as a gacha machine.

Well then, time for a formal greeting.

◇ Tree Road progress confirmed ◇

◇ A random skill will be unlocked ◇

The moment I touched the surface of the monolith, which had an indescribable texture, green light overflowed and enveloped my avatar as a system message appeared.

Then, after a series of flashes illuminated the hall—

◇ Skill 《Volcanate》 has been activated ◇
◇ Skill 《Water Magic Aptitude》 has been activated ◇
◇ Skill 《Aqua》 has been activated ◇
◇ Skill 《Reflect Explode》 has been activated ◇
◇ Skill 《Dias Lunaria, Star Moon Guardian Hand》 has been activated ◇
◇ Skill 《Kage-Shin-Etsu-Hei》 has been activated ◇

"All riiiiiight—YES! A god-tier pull!"

A cheer born of pure triumph erupted from my throat.

The number of skills unlocked matched my pre-informed deductions, so I didn't need to think twice about it. And the fact that three of them would be almost useless for a while? I could let that slide for now.

That's how divinely lucky the remaining three pulls were.

"Oh my, you seem terribly pleased…"

"Yeah, I've already won, Kendy-dono. You can look forward to my performance from here on out."

"Sir Paragon. If I may, shouldn't that be that I can look forward to your performance from here on out, as well?"

Considering its absurdly high usage rate, it was only natural. My former [Frezon Revolver] had smoothly evolved for a second time into [Volcanate]—a super-broken skill that transcended even god-tier skills. With its addition, any concerns about my damage output vanished in an instant.

Even more valuable than anything else was [Dias Lunaria, Star Moon Guardian Hand], which had also evolved from [Luna Nobody, Guardian of the Shimmering Moon] after the Green Connect raid.

With the power of this extremely unique skill, which had leapt forward from being a mere 'person-transporting skill,' I could count on a guaranteed increase in my tree-climbing pace from here on.

I had no complaints about the bonus [Kage-Shin-Etsu-Hei (I have no idea how to read this)] either.

It was a rather straightforwardly powerful special skill that provided effects like 'increased attack power' and 'reduced MP consumption & increased auto-recovery rate' when facing opponents stronger than myself. It was a perfect match for the Key Tree Maze, where bosses are automatically higher-level due to the stat restrictions.

All in all, my power had increased by more than double. It was, without a doubt, the luck of the draw at its finest.

As for [Aqua], which was neutered by my low MID, and [Reflect Explode], which couldn't even be activated without gauntlets or a shield equipped… well, they were unfortunately duds. They could sit on the bench until their time to shine arrived.

—Alright, on to the next one.

Many would probably make a clean retreat after a god-tier pull, worried about their remaining luck, but I'm in the camp that thinks of luck not as a 'quantity' but as a 'flow.' Which means…

"Alright, let's get to the main event. Bring it on, you gamble…!"

There is no retreat.

Alright, let's do this. Who cares if my LUC is zero? I'm going to win.

---

────────────────
◇Status / Trance / Restarted◇
Title：Acrobat
Name：Haru
Lv：11
STR: 40
AGI: 30
DEX: 10
VIT: 0
MID: 30
LUC: 0

◇Skill◇
・All-Accomplishing Arms (Naraka Gandharva)
《Volcanate》

・Water Magic Aptitude
《Aqua》

・Active
《Reflect Explode》

・Passive
《Trickster of Zenith》
《Dias Lunaria, Star Moon Guardian Hand》
《Reject Sentence》
《Kage-Shin-Etsu-Hei》

◇Arts◇
【Kesshiki Ittoryu】
──────……
────……
──……
────────────────

More on the positive, immense rewards next chapter.
Should I write it today, I wonder.

Please, send help to those of us who are physically weak and can't use air conditioning. It's suddenly so hot my motivation is evaporating.