Chapter 2: Gacha Kingdom Building

If someone was told that everything that happened twenty years ago would only amount to the preamble to another story, they would probably laugh at the idea.

Yet, there are no lies in this statement.

I'm a man born eighteen years ago. Unbeknownst to me, the fate of the world and mine were deeply connected.

In a short time, I would find myself in the center of events that would change everything forever.

But this is a long story. And while it would normally be better to start from the beginning, I can assure you that my early years weren't at all remarkable.

The name I was given, Miwen, wasn't particularly known even locally.

And to be frank, there was no reason for it to be known either. I wasn't athletic or smart, I didn't have the drive for most things people considered important and when it came to looks... well, at least I wasn't that ugly.

As such, I think it's better we skip this time and start from somewhere else. A more pivotal point in this story.

One I would call my second beginning. Or perhaps, my true one.

I could also simply call it my eighteenth birthday.

See, I was always fond of the stories that happened before and during my infancy. The ones about those who acquired their Gifts during the First Contact.

However, I was also a little envious of the people who protagonized them.

And I believe it was a reasonable feeling. It was like anger toward the world, as it had denied me.

Because... I was born after the First Contact and as such... I didn't have a Gift.

I, alongside an entire generation, ended up being on the sideline of new myths that unfolded every day right before our eyes.

Stories we could never participate in.

Even though it was a chaotic era, it was a hard pill to swallow.

As time went on, most people gave up on the idea. It didn't seem like anything was going to change even a decade later.

There were those who were lucky enough to be alive during the First Contact, and then there were those who were born even a minute later, and that was all.

Even I started prioritizing other things in my life as time went on.

And yet... I would be lying if I said I had suppressed the desire to carve an epic of my own completely.

Which brings us to the day I reached 18 years old.

That day was special in multiple ways.

It was 20 years after the First Impact, and humanity had made a new discovery,

As it turns out, even those who were born after the First Contact could obtain a Gift.

All they had to do was reach their eighteenth birthday.

This was a big relief to everyone, as there were concerns about the future of the world in case acquiring Gifts was impossible for the next generations.

This was... a lot. A gigantic list appeared in front of my eyes, and no matter how much I looked through it, it seemed like there was always something different to find.

A few names caught my attention, but thankfully, there was a search function too, so I tried searching for a few things, such as Weapons and Skills.

Both results appeared as banners of their own, but I also found an interesting banner called [Companions Banner].

Since I was very eager to test my Gift, I went ahead and did a roll.

I thought that while weapons are generally useful, there was always a chance of relying on them too much or grabbing the attention of someone strong.

The one that dealt with companions was immediately intriguing to me, but I felt like it could be troublesome since I had no way of checking their loyalty.

Instead of gaining power through a weapon or another being, I thought it would be nice to just... gain power directly.

At least at the start, it seemed like the better option.

Thus, I decided on the [Skills Banner] for my first roll, hoping that the random aspect of my Gift wasn't going to fuck me over with something horrible.

And so, my head got dizzy for a moment. It was like my mind had left my body completely.

It was a little disturbing, but as fast as it came, it went away.

It wasn't even long enough for me to worry too much about it. If anything, I took it as confirmation that something had happened and decided to check my skills

To do that, I went back to the main menu where my Gift's name appeared. For everyone, a [Skills] menu will be present there as well.

My case wasn't different, and inside that, I could check [Current Skills] and [Available Skills].

The [Available Skills] allows someone to buy new skills using the points they gain after leveling up. It's also possible to acquire the skills that appear there by training too since they are usually abilities a person has a talent or affinity to.

The available skills for everyone are different, some people can learn fire magic, some people can learn protective skills, and so on.

Everyone should be able to learn at least something though.

But I decided to check this out later. The most important thing for me was the [Current Skills].

As the name indicates, it showed the skills I already had.

In my case, as I had just acquired my Gift, there was only one skill, the result of rolling on the Gacha for the first time.

[Movement Speed Up

The holder of this skill has a bonus to his movement speed, allowing him to be faster and have better control over his movement speed.]

Although a simple ability, it was quite convenient and pretty useful for combat.

With that, I knew I could try my luck at the Dungeon.

Since I was already checking everything, I also went ahead and gave the [Available SKills].

But... I instantly regretted this decision.

Looking at it, I could only think that there was something wrong with my Gift.