Chapter 66: One More Hundred Pulls?
The next morning, Lex stood in the middle of the mansion with everyone gathered around him, and for once, he was the center of attention for something other than being the most dashing person in the room. Sharon and Donna had already witnessed him use his strange Gacha ability before, so neither of them looked particularly surprised by what was about to happen, but for Kara, Gwen, Regina, Grayfia, Nanami, and Derek, this would be their first time seeing the ability that had effectively shaped Lex's entire life. It was the same power responsible for bringing most of them into this world, and although they had all heard Lex explain how it worked, hearing about something and actually watching it happen were two very different experiences.
Lex looked around at the assembled group, taking a moment to enjoy the anticipation on their faces.
“Wish me luck, everyone.”
He focused on the Gacha and selected the option for one hundred normal pulls.
The moment he confirmed it, his available Gacha Points dropped from 912 to 612.
Then the cards appeared.
One hundred dazzling cards manifested before Lex's perception, each one carrying its own information and possibilities. To someone else, the sheer number would have been overwhelming, but Lex had Raphael, and having an intelligence capable of rapidly processing and organizing the results made looking through a hundred cards considerably easier.
<I have categorised the cards according to the arrangement you prefer.>
Raphael's assistance wasn't something visible to the others, but Lex could feel her working alongside his thoughts as the hundred results were separated into manageable groups. Rather than trying to examine everything at once, Lex decided to start with the General cards.
The first results immediately began appearing in an organized sequence.
---
[Background Creation Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Modification
World: General
Description: Create a background for yourself or any summon when entering a world.]
× 9
[Gacha Storage
Rank: ★★★
Type: Storage
World: General
Description: A 10 × 10 × 10 meter storage space for items gained from Gacha Cards. Does not include summons.]
[Native Power System Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: By using it with another card, you can convert that card to the local power system. Can only be used on cards up to 3★. Using it on a 3★ card may lead to a slight decrease in its power.]
[Character - Template Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: Convert a card between Template and Character.]
× 2
[Native World Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: Using it with any two cards up to 3★ can flip the power system of the cards. The cards may be weakened or strengthened.]
[Reroll Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: Reroll any card into another card from the same world. This will not change the rank.]
× 2
[Theme Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Visual
World: General
Description: Allows you to change the visual effects of any ability or power you possess. This has no effect on the power, its effects, or its consequences.
[That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - 90 Day World Travel Card
Rank: ★★★
Type: Travel
World: General
Description: You may travel to the <That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime> World for 90 days. The Tensura world is a world of magic and skills where Heroes and Demon Lords fight and Dragons rule.]
[Game of Thrones - Portal
Rank: ★★★
Type: Travel
World: General
Description: A portal to the <Game of Thrones> world will randomly appear in your world. The portal will close once you have traveled back and forth once. The Game of Thrones world is a world of kingdoms and politics where magic hides and dragons rise as winter approaches.]
[Final Resort
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Sacrifice
World: General
Description: Use all remaining Gacha Points for a single pull. This pull will be greater than the greatest combined pull that could be obtained from the remaining Gacha Points. Upon activation of this card, all methods of acquiring Gacha Points will be stopped for six months.]
[Template Extraction Card
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Conversion
World: General
Description: To be used on anyone who has died within the last seventy-two hours to extract a Template from them. If the individual is above 4★, the Template Extraction will fail.]
---
Lex looked over the collection of General cards, his expression becoming increasingly thoughtful as he considered what each one could actually do. There were quite a few cards he had either seen before or already had sitting around somewhere in his Deck, but that didn't necessarily make them useless. Some cards were simply useful enough to have more than once, particularly the Background Creation Cards, which were probably one of the most convenient tools he had for entering a new world without immediately having to explain where he came from.
Nine of them was actually a pretty good haul.
They weren't something he needed right now, especially since he had already conquered one world and could establish identities there through the government he controlled, but future worlds were another matter. Most importantly, they were frequently useful with Character Summon Cards, allowing the summoned person to have an appropriate history and identity waiting for them when they arrived in a new world.
“Not bad,” Lex murmured as he moved on.
The Gacha Storage card, on the other hand, was considerably less exciting.
He already had the Pocket Space from the Player's Handbook, which was effectively an entirely different level of storage compared to a ten-meter cube. There wasn't any reason to spend time thinking about it now, so he simply left the card sitting in his Deck. It wasn't something he could discard, after all, and unless he eventually found some use for it through another card, there was little point worrying about it.
The Native Power System Card was also decent but he hadn't used it yet and didn't know if he'll use it anytime soon.
The two Character - Template Cards were similarly useful, especially considering how Lex's Gacha worked. Being able to choose whether a card became a Character or Template gave him another degree of control over his summons and abilities, although he would need to check out the Summons and Template Cards to see if it's useful today.
The Native World Card was harder to judge. Its wording was simple enough, but the possibility of either strengthening or weakening the cards meant that Lex would have to be careful about how he used it. It wasn't something he wanted to experiment with casually when he could potentially ruin a perfectly good card.
The two Reroll Cards, however, were straightforward. If Lex ever pulled something from a particular world that he absolutely didn't want, he could use one to try again without changing the card's rank. He wasn't sure when he'd need them, but having a second chance was never a bad thing.
Then there was the new card that immediately caught his attention.
The Theme Card.
Lex read the description again.
“So I can change how my powers look?”
That was actually pretty cool.
He had accumulated abilities from enough different sources by now that his powers could sometimes look wildly different from one another. Being able to alter their visual presentation without changing what they actually did could be useful, and even when it wasn't useful, Lex had to admit that making his powers look cooler was reason enough to consider using the card.
He had no particular idea what he would use it on yet, however.
That was something he could think about later.
The two World Travel cards were considerably more interesting.
One was familiar in concept, but the other worked very differently from the World Travel Cards Lex had used before.
The That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - 90 Day World Travel Card was exactly what its name suggested. He could travel to that world for ninety days, giving him considerably more time than the seven-day trip he had taken to The Boys universe.
Lex's attention lingered on it for a moment.
Raphael's own Gacha Card had identified her World as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, which meant that there was presumably something in that world worth seeing. Neither Lex nor Raphael actually knew where Raphael truly came from or what her actual origins were, but the information attached to her card was the closest thing they had to a clue.
A ninety-day stay was certainly tempting.
The Game of Thrones - Portal, however, worked differently.
Instead of simply allowing him to travel to the world at his convenience, the card would cause a portal to appear randomly in his current world. The portal would then disappear after he traveled through it and returned once.
Lex considered that for a moment.
The obvious disadvantage was that he couldn't choose exactly when or where the portal would appear. It also meant that the trip wasn't as convenient as the normal World Travel Cards. On the other hand, there was no stated limit on how long he could remain on the other side before returning.
That was interesting.
Lex had already seen the Game of Thrones world in the Gacha before, although the Template he had received from it had been almost laughably useless. Gregor Clegane had given him some physical advantages and a bit of fighting experience, but compared to the other Templates and abilities he had acquired, the result had been thoroughly underwhelming.
Still, if there really were dragons there, the world couldn't be completely useless.
At the very least, it might be worth exploring eventually.
Lex moved on to the next card, and his expression became considerably more interested.
Final Resort.
Now that was a card worth thinking about.
It was a four-star card, and its effect was unusual even by the standards of the Gacha. Rather than giving him another ordinary pull, it would consume every Gacha Point he had remaining and turn them into one single pull that would apparently exceed what he could have obtained by using those points normally.
Lex frowned slightly as he considered the wording.
That was a hell of an effect.
It also came with a very significant price.
If he activated the card, both of his normal sources of Gacha Points would stop working for six months. His daily Gacha Point would disappear, and so would the one hundred points he received at the beginning of every month.
Six months without either of those sources would mean a significant amount of lost Gacha Points.
Still...
Lex couldn't help wondering just how far the card could push a pull.
If the wording was taken literally, then it wasn't merely combining the results of his remaining points into one card. It was creating something greater than what those points could normally provide. Considering how the Gacha's rarity system worked, Lex couldn't completely rule out the possibility of receiving something as high as a six-star card if he had enough points remaining.
He wasn't certain.
It was just his interpretation of the wording.
But it was certainly something he wanted to keep in mind.
He wasn't going to burn it immediately just because he was curious. Six months without gaining Gacha Points was a serious price, and there was no telling what kind of situation might arise during that period where having a steady supply of points would be more valuable than gambling everything on one extraordinary pull.
Still, if something truly catastrophic happened...
Final Resort.
The name suddenly made a lot more sense.
Finally, Lex examined the Template Extraction Card.
His eyebrows rose slightly as he read the description.
This one was potentially extremely useful.
If someone had died within the last seventy-two hours, he could apparently extract a Template from them. The requirement was that the person couldn't be above four stars, meaning five- and six-star individuals were excluded, but four stars and below were fair game.
Lex considered the possibilities.
He didn't need to kill someone simply to use it. That wasn't really how he operated, and there was no reason to murder someone just because their Template might be useful. But if someone had already died for some legitimate reason—or if Lex himself had already been forced to kill someone because they were a genuine threat—then being able to extract their Template afterward could turn an otherwise useless corpse into something valuable.
And the card had an interesting flexibility to it, it wasn't written but he could simply tell by touching the card.
It didn't necessarily require a corpse. If there were no physical remains, he could use it on the person's soul. If there wasn't even a soul available, he only needed to be at the location where the person had died.
That made the seventy-two-hour window considerably easier to work with than it initially sounded.
Lex finished reviewing the General cards and mentally filed away the ones that caught his attention. There were several he would probably find uses for eventually, a couple that were mostly redundant with abilities he already possessed, and one or two that could potentially become extremely valuable under the right circumstances.
And this was only the General category.
There were still quite a lot of cards waiting for him to examine.
Lex next turned his attention toward the Items, Abilities, Skills, and other miscellaneous rewards that had appeared among the hundred pulls. The General cards had mostly been things that affected how he could use the Gacha itself, but these were different; these were things that could actually change what he or the people around him could do. Naturally, that made everyone considerably more interested, and Lex could feel several pairs of eyes following him as he began going through the results.
[Palisman Creation
Rank: ★★★
Type: Skill
World: The Owl House
Description: Allows the user to carve magical Palismen from palistrom wood, creating wooden familiars capable of independent thought and forming a powerful bond with their creator. Each Palisman possesses a unique animal form and may serve as a companion, magical focus, and source of transportation depending on its nature and the abilities of its bonded witch.]
[Transparent World
Rank: ★★★
Type: Skill
World: Demon Slayer
Description: Allows the user to perceive the bodies of living beings as though they were transparent, revealing their muscles, blood flow, organs, breathing, and movements in extraordinary detail. This heightened perception allows the user to predict attacks, identify weaknesses, and greatly improve their combat precision and reaction speed. However, maintaining the Transparent World places considerable strain on the mind and body, making prolonged use difficult.]
[Elder Wand
Rank: ★★★
Type: Artifact
World: Harry Potter
Description: A legendary wand renowned as the most powerful wand in the wizarding world, greatly amplifying the potency, precision, and reliability of the magic cast through it. The Elder Wand can perform exceptionally powerful spells with greater ease than ordinary wands and possesses the unique ability to repair other wands that would otherwise be considered beyond repair. However, its true potential still depends upon the magical ability of its wielder.]
[Enchanted Turkish Delight
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: The Chronicles of Narnia
Description: Turkish Delight personally enchanted by the White Witch to be so ridiculously addictive that a child who eats it will happily betray their own siblings for another box. The effect only works on children, however, as adults who eat it will instead find it absolutely disgusting and respond by questioning your life choices before attempting to punch you in the face.]
[Witcher Signs
Rank: ★★★
Type: Skill
World: The Witcher
Description: Grants the user access to the five basic Witcher Signs: Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, and Axii. These simple yet versatile spells can unleash telekinetic force, produce flames, create magical traps, form protective barriers, or influence the minds of others, making them useful in almost any situation. Their effectiveness depends on the user's magical strength and stamina, but unlike full-fledged sorcery, Signs are designed to be quick, practical, and easy to use in the middle of a fight.]
[Aphrodite's Forbidden Recordings
Rank: ★★★
Type: Artifact
World: Percy Jackson
Description: A collection of magically preserved personal recordings belonging to Aphrodite and her lesbian partners, created with the full consent of everyone involved and absolutely not something one should be watching without permission. Women who view the recordings are struck by an overwhelming sexual desires, while men who watch them without permission immediately attract the goddess's wrath and receive a humiliating curse that makes them unable to perform in bed.]
[Gate Out
Rank: ★★★
Type: Skill
World: Medaka Box
Description: A troublesome ability that causes the secrets of anyone designated as its target to be exposed, regardless of how carefully they have been hidden. The information may surface through rumors, documents, accidental revelations, or simply someone suddenly deciding that they should probably tell everyone what they know. The user doesn't personally receive the secrets, making this less of an intelligence-gathering ability and more of a supernatural disaster for anyone with something to hide.]
[Golden Razz Berry
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: Pokémon
Description: A rare golden berry that drastically increases the chances of successfully taming a wild beast when willingly offered to it. If the beast accepts and eats the berry, its resistance to forming a bond with the user is greatly reduced, making even powerful and normally untamable creatures far easier to befriend. However, the berry cannot force a creature to eat it, meaning the user still has to convince the beast that the suspiciously shiny snack is worth trying.]
[Call of Duty Loot Box
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: Call of Duty
Description: A mysterious loot box containing a completely random piece of equipment from the world of Call of Duty. Its contents could range from weapons and attachments to equipment, cosmetics, or other assorted military gear, with absolutely no guarantee that the user will get anything particularly useful. Essentially, it is a gacha within a gacha, because apparently gacha be gacha.]
[Ophis Snake
Rank: ★★★
Type: Consumable
World: High School DxD
Description: A small snake containing a fragment of Ophis's power. Eating it greatly increases the eater's Supernatural Ability power, providing a permanent boost to their overall supernatural strength. Despite its rather harmless appearance, this is one snake that is considerably more useful as lunch than as a pet.]
[Cultivator's Storage Stash
Rank: ★★★
Type: Artifact
World: Generic Xianxia
Description: A ridiculous collection of storage treasures containing 1,000 Storage Pouches with 1 m³ of space each that reduce the weight of everything inside by 90% and can be used by anyone, 100 Storage Bags with 100 m³ of space each that reduce weight by 99% and require some form of supernatural energy, 10 Storage Rings with 1,000 m³ of space each that completely eliminate the weight of their contents and can only be used with Qi, and one Storage Bangle containing a whopping 10 km³ of space with completely weightless storage that requires Immortal Qi to operate. In short, it is enough storage space to make carrying around an entire warehouse sound like a reasonable idea unless you're not a Cultivator.]
[Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Skill
World: Pokémon
Description: A devastating lunar attack that can only be unleashed at night beneath a full moon, channeling the power of the moon into a single overwhelming strike. Rather than relying on conventional destructive force, the attack inflicts flat spiritual damage capable of extinguishing stars, allowing it to bypass the usual nonsense of durability and defensive power. Unfortunately, the moon is very important so using it in space can be pretty hard, don't try to use it on the moon, just don't.]
[Riordanverse Bloodline Selection Card
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Selection
World: Riordanverse
Description: A mysterious card containing the bloodlines of the Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian gods, Titans, and other celestial beings found throughout the Riordanverse. The user may select exactly one bloodline from the card, permanently gaining the supernatural heritage and potential associated with that divine lineage. With an absolutely ridiculous selection ranging from minor divine ancestry to bloodlines descended from some of the most powerful beings in mythology, choosing just one might be the hardest part of the whole reward, which is why Gacha is Superior.]
[Umbrakinesis
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Skill
World: Solo Leveling
Description: Grants the user the ability to manipulate shadows on a massive scale, allowing them to freely control, shape, and weaponize darkness while using it for movement, concealment, and other supernatural purposes. With sufficient power, shadows can be transformed into weapons, restraints, constructs, and other manifestations, while the user can also interact with and travel through shadows.]
[World's End Flower Garden
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Reality Marble
World: Fate
Description: A mysterious garden where every flower in the world is said to bloom, granted to the goddess Flora at her birth and capable of being manifested as a Reality Marble. The garden contains not only ordinary flowers, but magical flowers and flowers born from myths, including those associated with people who were transformed into flowers, allowing the garden's caretaker to draw out their supernatural and mythological properties. The size of the garden can also be adjusted depending on available resources, making this less of a flower garden and more of a gigantic supernatural toolbox that happens to be covered in petals.]
[Domain Creation Card
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Artifact
World: Jujutsu Kaisen
Description: A special card that allows the user to select up to five ★★★ abilities and one ★★★★ ability they already possess and fuse them together into a unique Domain. The resulting Domain combines the selected abilities into a single powerful supernatural space, allowing their effects to be unleashed through it as though they were one cohesive technique. However, the abilities used to create the Domain are considered to be actively in use whenever the Domain is activated, meaning the user cannot simultaneously use those abilities separately. Unless the user can already use same abilities twice at the same time.]
[Mocking Truth
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Ability
World: The World After the Fall
Description: An ability that allows the user to copy a power or ability after witnessing it being used, reproducing it at roughly 50% of its original power or effectiveness. The user can potentially imitate an absurd variety of abilities, but Mocking Truth cannot copy something the user cannot actually perceive being performed, nor can it reproduce abilities that are simply too far beyond its own level to imitate.]
---
Lex stared at the collection for a few moments.
There was definitely some good stuff here.
The very first card, however, immediately made him think of Gwen.
“Gwen, you want this?”
He tossed the Palisman Creation Card toward her.
Gwen caught it and looked down at the card, reading its description before looking back toward Lex.
“Sure, why not?” she said, accepting it without much hesitation. “Though I don't think I'd have time to use it anytime soon.”
Lex nodded. That was fair. Gwen already had plenty on her plate, especially with her research, magic studies, and everything else that had accumulated while he was gone. The fact that he could simply create Palistrom Wood whenever she wanted it meant there wasn't even any logistical reason to delay it; if she wanted to make a Palisman later, the material wouldn't be a problem.
He moved on to the next card.
Transparent World.
Lex immediately considered who could make the best use of it. It wasn't something he particularly needed himself, considering how ridiculous his existing perception and combat abilities already were, but for someone whose fighting style relied heavily on physical precision, the ability could be extremely valuable.
Ava immediately came to mind.
Her fighting style was heavily based around the movements and instincts of a tiger, and giving someone like her the ability to see muscle movements, blood flow, breathing patterns, and subtle shifts in the body could make her already dangerous close-quarters combat considerably more precise. Derek could potentially benefit from it as well, but his own fighting style was much more animalistic and instinct-driven, making the ability somewhat less naturally suited to him.
Unfortunately, Ava was not here to receive it.
Lex decided he would hold onto the card for now and give it to Ava when he next had the opportunity.
Then he reached the Elder Wand.
It was another item that would have suited Gwen perfectly, especially considering that it amplified magic regardless of the specific type of magic being used, but Lex had already given Gwen the Palisman Creation card. Giving her both when there was someone else who could benefit from it felt a little unfair.
His eyes moved toward Grayfia.
“Grayfia, catch.”
He tossed the card toward her.
Grayfia caught it elegantly, barely needing to look at the card before smiling.
“Thank you, Master.”
The response came with absolute trust. She hadn't even read what the card did yet; Lex had handed it to her, therefore she already assumed it would be useful.
Lex couldn't help smiling at that.
The next card made him stare.
Enchanted Turkish Delight.
Lex slowly looked toward the ceiling.
“Do I look like someone who goes around luring children out or something?”
Lex sighed and tossed the card into his Deck, where it could remain forgotten for the foreseeable future. It was effectively dead storage, and there wasn't really anything he could imagine doing with it. The Gacha apparently had a sense of humor.
Witcher Signs were considerably more practical.
The five Signs were simple, versatile, and useful in combat, and their straightforward nature reminded Lex somewhat of the way Cursed Energy techniques could be applied in practical situations.
His gaze moved toward Nanami.
“Nanami, this one should work for you.”
He handed the card over.
Nanami examined it with the same calm expression he seemed to wear for almost everything.
“Hmmm...” He looked at the description. “I won't be working overtime even if I take it, right?”
Lex chuckled.
“No promises.”
Nanami sighed as though Lex had personally added another item to his workload.
The Aphrodite's Forbidden Recordings were another matter entirely.
Lex carefully put the card away.
He had no intention of using them in front of everyone else, especially considering the rather bizarre effects attached to them. He was certainly curious enough to look at them eventually, but there was no reason to turn it into a household viewing session.
As for the curse?
Lex wasn't particularly concerned.
He was immune to curses like that already, and his resistance wasn't exactly the sort of resistance where particularly nasty curses could occasionally slip through. With Transcend Self and the other absurdities incorporated into his existence, Lex was confident that Aphrodite's bedroom-related curse was about as threatening to him as someone telling him to sit in the corner and think about what he'd done.
He moved on.
Gate Out.
Lex read the description twice.
“That's... kind of funny.”
The ability itself didn't tell him secrets. Instead, it simply ensured that secrets belonging to whoever he designated would eventually come to light through one means or another. Without control over what information emerged or how it emerged, it seemed somewhat mediocre at first glance.
<It is extremely useful for dealing with corrupt villains and rulers. It would be particularly effective at ruining someone's political career.>
Lex paused.
“Damn.”
He looked at the card again.
“I didn't even think of it in that direction.”
Raphael had, unsurprisingly, managed to find the practical application that had escaped him.
A supernatural ability that forced hidden corruption into the public eye could be devastating in the hands of someone trying to dismantle a government, expose a criminal organization, or destroy the reputation of someone who had carefully hidden their crimes. Lex didn't necessarily need it himself, but he suddenly understood why Raphael considered it valuable.
The Golden Razz Berry was considerably simpler.
Lex looked at the tiny golden berry.
Could probably tame a dragon with this.
The thought immediately brought a grin to his face.
That would be cool as fuck.
He wasn't going to waste it on some random animal, though. If he ever encountered a beast that he genuinely wanted as a companion, especially something powerful enough that ordinary methods of taming it would be difficult, this little berry could be worth considerably more than its three-star rating suggested.
He carefully put it aside.
The Call of Duty Loot Box was another oddity.
“A Gacha inside a Gacha,” Lex muttered. “Of course.”
He decided to open it later. Depending on what it contained, he could potentially use the Player's Handbook's Crafting function to learn useful recipes or blueprints from the equipment, assuming the function worked on the item properly. Tony would probably be interested in some of the more advanced weapons or technology, too.
Not that Lex needed money for any of this.
Who wanted money when he had an infinite amount of it already?
The Ophis Snake was the next item, and Lex's attention immediately shifted toward Grayfia.
“Grayfia, do you know anyone named Ophis?”
Grayfia looked toward him, and this time her expression showed genuine surprise at the question.
“Of course. She is the Infinite Dragon, and one of the most powerful beings in my world.”
Lex's eyes widened slightly.
“Ohhh.”
He looked down at the card.
“I've got a snake of hers here. Let's cook it tonight.”
Grayfia looked at the card and then at Lex.
“It is rather small, Master. Hardly bite-sized.”
Lex stared at the tiny snake.
“What a disappointment.”
Grayfia's lips twitched.
The next card was the Cultivator's Storage Stash, and this one was something Lex would have been extremely happy to receive before obtaining the Player's Handbook. Even now, however, it had considerable practical value.
He activated the card.
A massive collection of storage treasures immediately appeared in front of him, forming an almost comically large pile of pouches, bags, rings, and a bangle storage artefact.
Lex began distributing them.
He handed Storage Pouches to Sharon, Donna, Kara, and Derek, giving each of them an additional convenient method of carrying things around. Then he gave Storage Bags to Gwen, Regina, Grayfia, and Nanami.
The Storage Rings were considerably more interesting.
Regina's eyes immediately focused on them.
“Actually, I'm more interested in the ring.”
Her tone was just flirtatious enough to make Donna glance toward her.
“Aren't we all?” Donna added.
Gwen immediately raised a hand.
“Not me. Don't include me in you all.”
Regina turned toward her with an innocent expression.
“You perverts. I'm asking for the ring so I can research it and see if I can make one that works on magic instead of Qi.”
The sudden change in her explanation was so blatant that Lex couldn't help laughing.
“Sure.”
He tossed her a Storage Ring.
Regina caught it immediately, looking far more interested in the artifact itself than in the joke everyone had just made.
The Storage Bangle was another matter. Its enormous capacity was impressive on paper, but requiring Immortal Qi made it completely useless to everyone present for now. Lex therefore simply stored it, along with the remaining pouches, bags, and rings, inside the infinite storage of his Player's Handbook.
There was no reason to carry around a warehouse's worth of storage items when he could simply keep them somewhere they took up no practical space.
Lex then reached the next card.
His expression changed.
“Okay... Pokémon has some surprisingly dangerous stuff.”
He had already obtained Nihil Light, and now the Gacha had given him another four-star Pokémon move: Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom.
The attack itself was extremely powerful, capable of dealing flat spiritual damage at around the level of an average star, meaning ordinary durability wasn't necessarily enough to protect someone from it. That made it considerably more dangerous than an ordinary attack of similar destructive scale.
Unfortunately, its restrictions were severe.
It required nighttime.
It required a full moon.
And, more importantly, the moonlight actually had to reach the user.
Even reflected moonlight would work, apparently, but without that full moon's light reaching him, the ability simply wouldn't activate.
Compared to something as unrestricted as Nihil Light, it felt considerably less impressive despite its raw destructive potential.
Lex looked at the final warning attached to it.
Don't use it on the moon.
He stared at that sentence for a moment.
“...That's probably a joke.”
Probably.
He decided not to test it.
The Riordanverse Bloodline Selection Card, however, immediately made him forget about the lunar attack.
Lex activated it.
His perception suddenly filled with an enormous selection of possible bloodlines.
Hundreds.
The sheer variety made Lex's expression gradually become more serious as he realized just how much potential was contained within the card. Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Titans, and other celestial beings from the Riordanverse were represented within the selection, and choosing exactly one bloodline from all of them was going to require considerably more thought than simply picking whichever one sounded strongest.
Lex eventually closed the selection without choosing.
He would decide later.
There was no reason to rush a permanent choice like this.
The next card was Umbrakinesis.
Lex read through its abilities carefully.
It was quite good. Large-scale shadow manipulation, constructs, restraints, movement, concealment, and even travel through shadows gave it plenty of utility, and he could immediately think of someone who might make excellent use of it.
Kom.
The powers would fit her rather well, especially considering the way she operated.
On the other hand, Lex could use it himself just as easily, and there was no reason to hand it away immediately when he hadn't yet finished examining the rest of his rewards.
“I'll keep this for now.”
He wasn't committing to using it yet.
If the remaining cards failed to impress him, he could simply take it himself. If something better came along, then perhaps Kom would get it.
Then he reached World's End Flower Garden.
Lex didn't even hesitate.
“Oh, I'm taking this.”
The moment he activated the card, something strange happened.
For an instant, the world around him seemed to become quieter.
There was no dramatic explosion of energy, no violent transformation, but Lex suddenly felt as though something enormous had opened behind him. A faint shadow resembling the branches of an impossibly massive tree seemed to stretch across his perception for the briefest moment, reaching beyond the boundaries of the room before vanishing again. For a fraction of a second, he thought he sensed something resembling an enormous tree standing somewhere impossibly distant, its presence ancient and almost impossible to comprehend.
Then it was gone.
What remained was the unmistakable sense that something had been added to him.
A place.
A garden.
His Reality Marble.
Lex could already feel the connection to it, and when he focused on that sensation, he could perceive the garden waiting within him. At present, it contained ordinary flowers and plants, nothing particularly miraculous, but the Reality Marble itself was not static. With enough time, effort, and cultivation, it could grow into something far more extraordinary, eventually containing magical and mythological flowers whose properties could be drawn upon.
Lex smiled.
Now this was a useful reward.
He had no idea what kinds of plants he might eventually cultivate there, but the potential alone made the four-star card worth taking immediately.
Then came the Domain Creation Card.
Lex read the description once.
Then again.
Then a third time.
“You can combine powers?”
His interest was immediate.
Five three-star abilities and one four-star ability could be fused into a unique Domain, creating a supernatural space where all of their effects could work together as one cohesive technique. That was exactly the kind of absurd combination that appealed to Lex.
He immediately started thinking of possible combinations.
There were already more than a few abilities in his possession that could potentially work together, and now that he knew something like this was possible, he wanted more cards of the same type. The limitation that the component abilities would count as being actively used whenever the Domain was active was significant, but considering the sheer number of abilities Lex possessed, it wasn't enough to discourage him.
“I definitely want more of these.”
He set the card aside for later.
Finally, Lex reached the last ability in this group.
Mocking Truth.
He read the description.
Then his grin slowly grew.
Now this was ridiculous.
The ability allowed him to reproduce another person's power simply by witnessing it being used, albeit at roughly fifty percent of the original effectiveness. It had limitations, of course. If he couldn't actually perceive the ability being performed, he couldn't copy it, and something overwhelmingly beyond the ability's own level couldn't simply be imitated because Lex happened to look at it.
But even with those restrictions, the versatility was absurd.
Lex had already met countless mutants, many of whom possessed abilities that could be extraordinarily useful. If he could simply watch someone demonstrate their power and reproduce it at half strength, the number of abilities available to him could increase dramatically.
“Okay,” Lex muttered, looking at the card with genuine amusement. “At this point, nobody's going to be able to say they have more versatility than me.”
There were limitations to the ability, certainly, but they weren't enough to change his conclusion.
He could probably copy half the mutant abilities in existence.
At least, the ones he could actually see being used.
And considering how many mutant abilities had no obvious visual manifestation at all, even Mocking Truth couldn't simply hand him every power in existence. Still, the fact that he had even gained the possibility of doing so was ridiculous enough.
Lex leaned back slightly.
And this was only another category of the hundred pulls.
There were still character cards waiting.