“Ugh...”
“Ah, this is making me insanely nervous.”
I was even more on edge than I had been right before fighting Cross Eye Gamma. Ah, back then I’d just gone and smashed him with a Heaven Sword without warning.
“Hey, Caster?”
“What is it?”
“Can you make me something like a runestone? Specifically, a luck rune.”
“Hm? Well, I don’t mind... but I doubt it’ll mean much.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“My luck is already absurdly low to begin with. It’s better than the E-rank I had when I was summoned as Lancer, but even now it’s only D-rank. Even if I make one, my luck will just cancel it out.”
“...Damn it!”
Gah! So that’s why gacha rates stayed the same even when I used magecraft related to luck! Come to think of it, this guy, Cú Chulainn, was also famous for “Lancer dies!”
“Well, if you were as skilled as my master, you might be able to ignore that sort of influence... but while I’m decent at magecraft, I’m not exactly first-rate. Not even enough to call myself top-class, really.”
“Tch... I can feel the malice...”
It felt like a line the author had made up just to defend against this kind of nitpicking. No, wait, what’s with this weird interference?
“How many are you throwing? Oh, and it takes three per summon. So that’s ten rolls total.”
“Grrrr...”
“What are you hesitating over? Just split them fifty-fifty and throw five each.”
“Ah.”
Clean and simple.
“Okay. Ritsuka, you go first?”
“Yes...”
[Looks like the fate system is going to boot up~]
“The chant... no, I guess you don’t really need one. Just toss them and call out whatever feels right... no, I’ll go first. Watch and follow along.”
“Ah, yes!”
Ritsuka’s expression brightened a little. Well, whatever.
[We can start now!]
“All right then... spin, star of gacha!”
We’re going in! Five-star! Give me a five-star! I threw three Saint Quartz onto the summoning circle with the shield on top and began the summon. Light burst up from the circle, forming a sphere of radiance.
“Ugh... God, Buddha, Allah, FSM... please, I’m begging you...”
[...Didn’t something weird get mixed in just now? FSM? That’s... ]
“Hey! Don’t be disrespectful, Romani!”
In the middle of our little exchange, the three Saint Quartz melted away and a beam of light spilled out from the sphere.
“Ugh...”
Ping! What? Something flew at me reflexively, so I caught it, but...
“...A Black Key?”
Good thing I wrapped it in wave energy before grabbing it. If I’d caught the blade barehanded, I might have lost a finger.
“...Da Vinci, care to explain?”
[...It seems the fate system is damaged, so the summon is unstable!]
“Even so, why the hell did it give me a Black Key!!”
Ah, damn it! My trauma came flooding back! In my previous life, I rolled gacha for a Holy Grail event and got nothing but Black Keys!
“Uh, bro? It turned into a card...”
“...What is this now?”
How am I supposed to use this? I held the Conceptual Weapon Black Key in my hand and poured mana into it.
“Oh, so it materializes... or something like that? Anyway, I can pull it out again.”
[That’s at least a relief~.]
“...I guess I’ll just roll the rest all at once.”
Throwing the remaining twelve Saint Quartz into the circle, I shouted, “Spin, star of gacha!”
Servant! Servant!
The Saint Quartz melted away, and a sphere of light rose up.
“....Mapo tofu?”
“No, why is this...”
“Eek!”
“Uh... Caster? Is something wrong?”
“Ughhh... mapo tofu...”
“Ah, could this be...”
For some reason, the steaming mapo tofu was floating there, so I poked it with a finger and tasted it. Mm! Spicy!
“Krr... this is the stuff!”
“...Are you human?! You ate that and you’re fine?!”
“Ah, Caster, have you tried mapo tofu here too?”
At this level of spiciness, it’s Hongjuyeon Seogwan Taesan.
“Tch...”
“Caster? Is something wrong...”
“N-no. Don’t mind it...”
...This is feeling a little ominous. Come on, at least one Servant should show up, right?
++++
...Every roll after that was a total bust. Damn it!
“Da Vinci, are you sure you fixed it properly?”
[...I’m sure I repaired it correctly...]
“Ahaha... I didn’t expect all ten rolls to be Craft Essences...”
“Haa...”
I looked down at the Craft Essences laid out on the ground. Three Black Keys, one mapo tofu, two Fragarachs, two Leylines, one Red Sea, and finally an Azoth Sword.
“No, why the hell did mapo tofu show up when it isn’t even a Craft Essence!”
[If you’re going to say that, Black Key isn’t a Craft Essence either, is it?]
“Strictly speaking, this is a Conceptual Weapon too.”
I let out a long sigh. I mean, if this is the tutorial’s first gacha, shouldn’t it at least give us one Servant?
“Fine, whatever. Let’s divide them up.”
“Yes...”
First, the mapo tofu... it looked useless, so without any particular objections I just stuffed it into my pocket. One Black Key for me, one for Ritsuka. I gave him the last one as a final self-defense measure, but... well, better than nothing, I guess. Hm? You’re asking where the last one went?
“If you bury it in your Spirit Origin for now, it should be useful enough.”
“Oh, yeah, I can feel my Spirit Origin expanding a little. Not bad.”
...That’s how it went. For the record, it was a blue Black Key. In-game, Cú Chulainn was Arts... maybe? Whatever. For the record, the one I got was red, and the one Ritsuka got was green.
We split the Leylines one each. The Red Sea went to Ritsuka. Honestly, I felt like the Red Sea would be a lot more useful to Ritsuka than the Black Key. A guaranteed one-time dodge is basically an extra life.
Besides, the Black Key is hard to use in the first place. I may have enough martial arts experience to make it work somehow, but the Black Key itself isn’t exactly a user-friendly weapon.
If it were just a sword, I could at least cram in some ultra-short crash course, but this thing has a ridiculous entry barrier. Basically, it’s used like a claw, wedged between your fingers. Unlike a claw attached to a chunk of metal you can hold in your hand, this thing has to be gripped purely with finger strength.
Don’t get what the problem is? Think about it. Three blades, each weighing maybe two or three kilos at minimum, with absurdly long edges, all wedged between your fingers and held up by nothing but hand strength. How easy do you think that is?
Well, since it’s originally a weapon used by Executors with superhuman physical ability, that sort of thing usually doesn’t matter at all. The problem is that Ritsuka is an ordinary human. Honestly, even a normal magus could use it just fine by reinforcing their strength with enhancement magecraft, setting aside skill level, but Ritsuka’s talent for magecraft is rock bottom.
On top of that, the Black Key’s hilt is ridiculously short, so it’s hard to swing like a normal sword. In other words, it’s truly a last resort.
...So I told Ritsuka to use the Red Sea first if a Servant got close. He nodded that he understood.
“Anyway, what are we doing next?”
“First, information sharing. Tell me everything you know about the Servants’ true names, appearances, Noble Phantasms, and so on.”
“No problem. Hm. I don’t know their true names, but I do know their abilities and appearances.”
As if searching his memory, Cú Chulainn thought for a moment.
“First, the Lancer. I don’t know his true name, but he’s a man. His strength was pretty impressive. He was using a guandao. And... judging from his appearance, he’s a Heroic Spirit from the East. Probably some kind of monk. Ah, I’m not sure it’s his true name, but he called himself Musashinoben... something.”
“That’s probably Musashibou Benkei...”
“Hm? Was there such a person?”
“...He was insanely famous! Wait, are you Japanese, Ren?”
“...I was stuck in my workshop researching day after day, so... I barely ever actually went to school. I usually just made a homunculus and used it as a stand-in.”
“...Wow...”
No, but it was insanely boring. Back then, my mental age was already over fifty, so studying with kids who were barely a tenth of my age felt kind of awkward. I did attend high school a little once I got there, though.
“I’m not sure if it was really him, though.”
“Well, using an alias is certainly possible.”
“True. And as for Rider...”
“I know who Rider is. Almost certainly Medusa. She even used her Mystic Eye of petrification, so that’s basically confirmed.”
“Hm. Wait, didn’t you say you fought her and took her out?”
“She ambushed me with her Noble Phantasm, so I countered, and when she charged again I got in close and beat her down. I stayed on top of her and kept hitting her before she could recover, so she should’ve been forced out. Da Vinci said her Spirit Origin reaction was almost gone too.”
“That’s good news. Then I should tell you about Berserker. I’m not certain, but his true name is probably Heracles.”
“What, what did you say?! Heracles as a Berserker?!”
“Oh, nice voice. If you were in front of me, I might’ve tried to seduce you. What a shame.”
“Ghk...! No, that’s not the important part!... sir!”
“No need to worry about it. For some reason, he’s holed up in that castle outside and isn’t moving. Still, I should tell you his abilities. Basically, he’s ridiculously strong. His spear techniques are definitely first-rate too. He’s good enough to put most Sabers to shame. He’s huge and massively muscular. Ah, and as for his Noble Phantasm... I can’t say for sure, but I’ll mention it anyway. If I had to guess, it’s a resurrection type. Considering the legend, maybe he has twelve lives. And Archer... I don’t know his true name, but his fighting style was unusual. He kept firing off Noble Phantasms and turning them into Broken Phantasms.”
“...Maybe his Noble Phantasms are mass-produced weapons, or maybe Archer has that kind of ability.”
“Probably. Then I suppose it’s time to talk about Assassin. He called himself ‘Sasaki Kojiro.’ I don’t know if that’s his real name, though. He was an Assassin, but he ran around with a sword like a Saber. I don’t know about anything else, but his swordsmanship is the real deal. I can’t say for sure whether I could beat him even if I used a spear.”
Tch. Well, that figures. I don’t remember it clearly, but he was some insane talent who could use a single sword to unleash Tsubame Gaeshi and distort space.
...Well, I can manage spatial regression or dimensional interference too. Damn talent freak. Even after learning mountain-hunting techniques, I spent months struggling just to get a feel for Three-Stage Thrust.
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