Gacha Harem System

Melody held [Temptation] for a moment longer than necessary, caressing it in her arms like it was a baby before placing it in Lukas’s outstretched hand.

Akira watched it all with amusement. "Letting go of it already feels personal, doesn’t it."

"Quiet," Melody said, without heat. "Just let me grieve my loss."

Lukas closed his fingers around the hilt and was immediately surprised.

As he lifted it up, he realized that the sword was lighter than he’d expected. Most importantly, it was considerably lighter than its size suggested it should be.

However, he wasn’t sure whether this was a feature of the sword itself or simply the result of his increased strength making everything feel different.

But either way the sword was perfectly balanced in his grip and it felt less like gripping a weapon and more like an extension of his arm.

He swung it once, slowly.

The sword sliced through the air silently, goosebumps forming on his arms at the sensation.

It could be described in one word. Perfect.

He looked down at the lion Akira had killed, then up Akira. How had she done it by herself and without a visible weapon?

She was already grinning. "Don’t be too impressed," she said. "It was just light work for me."

She tried to sound nonchalant but even her posture and the way her eyes gleamed said otherwise. She was proud of her accomplishment.

Lukas smiled and said nothing, deciding not to point out what he saw.

He knelt beside the lion and began skinning.

[Temptation] parted the hide with an ease that was almost unsettling.

The first time he and Melody had skinned a Nemean Lion, it had been a slow and tedious process.

Melody’s sword had struggled against the dense, reinforced hide, and every cut had required strong force to complete.

But now, the sword sliced through it like a knife through butter. There was no resistance at all, as if the hide didn’t even exist.

This truly was the power of an Adept ranked [Item]. No wonder the City Lord had been wary of it.

He worked carefully, making sure to cut slowly. Because while the sword made his work easier, it also made it harder.

The quest had been quite specific in what it wanted. The hides in perfect condition. So, he couldn’t afford any mistakes, which would be easy to make with a blade like this.

He took his time, tuning out the conversation between Akira and Melody beside him.

When he finally stood, finishing the skinning and storing the hide in his spatial ring, his knees ached slightly from the sustained crouch.

Fortunately, the hide was intact and unmarked.

That was the moment Akira’s stomach picked to growl loudly.

He looked up, all of them staring at Akira’s stomach.

Silence filled the air for two seconds before Melody snorted, unable to control herself.

She burst into laughter, the remaining two chuckling along with her.

"What time is it?" Akira asked, with great dignity.

Melody looked at the sky. "Around midday, I think."

"Then it’s time for lunch." Akira reached into her spatial ring and retrieved a short, heavy knife.

She looked between the two of them, her brows raised and a grin on her face. "Who wants Nemean Lion?"

"Me." Lukas and Melody said, simultaneously.

Akira crouched beside the skinned carcass and began cutting the meat.

From her movements, it was clear she knew what she was doing. This was to be expected from someone who’d spent years in the field, eating whatever they could kill.

"I’ll take care of roasting it," she said. "All you guys need to do is just bring an empty stomach."

"Will do," Lukas grinned, turning to stare in the direction of the second lion, which he still had to skin.

"I’ll be back," he said, moving towards it. "I’ve got one more hide to pull."

He reached the clearing to see the lioness corpse still where Melody had killed her, undisturbed and ready to be skinned.

Lukas was three steps away from it when he saw the movement.

A familiar shape was slithering through the undergrowth towards the carcass, moving low to the ground.

It was obvious that the beast had been drawn by the smell of fresh meat.

It was a B-rank Acidic Anaconda.

Lukas looked down at [Temptation] in his hand.

A thread of excitement moved through him before he could stop it.

Now, he could test the sword in combat!

He dashed forward.

The snake reacted immediately, its head coming up and releasing a pressurized stream of acid directly at him.

He leapt into the air, the stream passing beneath his feet as he cleared it. He was still descending when the snake spat again, angling the second stream up at him.

He swung [Temptation].

The flat of the blade connected with the stream and redirected it, the acid splashing back across the snake’s own scales.

He watched it expectantly. The acid simply ran off without effect. The snake’s own acid was harmless against its own skin, but deadly against others of its own kind.

But that didn’t matter as Lukas had already landed, and the sword was already moving.

He slashed the beast’s neck, and the anaconda dropped.

[You have killed a B-rank Acidic Anaconda.]

He straightened and looked at the sword.

All it took was one swing, and the beast was dead. He had to admit to feeling a bit of disappointment. He’d expected a cool, prolonged battle, but he should have expected this.

He chuckled at himself.

The sword was extraordinary. That much was beyond argument. But extraordinary, in this case, also meant that fighting with it felt less like a fight and more like sentencing beasts to death.

He sighed and turned to the dead lioness.

Time to get back to work.

Lukas bent down and began working, [Temptation] making the second skinning faster than the first now that he had a feel for how the blade moved through the hide.

When he finally stood and stored the second pelt, the cuts were clean and the hide was unmarked.

A notification appeared immediately.

[Congratulations! You have cleared the quest.]

[Reward: +100 Gacha Points.]

He grinned, then pulled up his system interface. He finally had enough points for another draw!

[Gacha Harem System]

[Gacha Points: 500]

[Banners:]

[Wife (2000 Gacha Points)]

[Skills (500 Gacha Points)]

[Item (500 Gacha Points)]

[Mystery box (1000 Gacha Points)]

"Draw skill," he said.