In the Richie family's room, in their shared cabin, Ger approached and sat next to Ellie who had her head held down and was staring at the floor.

"Ellie, what's wrong? You've been sulking here all morning. Shouldn't you be happy now that Daz is awake again?" Ger asked as he put a hand on his upset daughter's back.

"Mmm," Ellie weakly replied with little-to-no enthusiasm in her voice.

Ger rubbed his temple and sighed. "This is about Madison, isn't it? Or is it about your skill that you haven't told Daz about yet?"

"... Both," Ellie replied in a weak voice.

Ger had little advice to give in regards to Madison. He had obviously seen the signs and knew that his daughter held feelings for Daz, but he was a divorced man, so he was under the assumption that any help he offered in that regard would be flawed. However, he could help with the other matter.

"I don't think Daz will think any less of you for hiding it," Ger claimed with a reassuring smile.

Ellie slowly raised her head and showed her red and puffy eyes to her stepfather. "Really?" There was desperation in the young woman's voice and it clearly tugged at Ger's heartstrings.

"Of course," Ger replied as he put a hand on Ellie's head. "Do you think Daz doesn't have a secret or five that he's keeping from everyone? Just tell him about your skill if you think he's concerned about it."

Ellie's face visibly brightened upon hearing this. "That... that makes sense... but... but what do I do about his girlfriend?!"

Ger started to sweat. 'How am I supposed to know?!'

"Er... maybe ask Sarah? She's got more experience with relationships than I do anyway. You know that I was always too busy with work to focus on your mother before she left us," Ger said as he scratched his bald head with embarrassment.

Ellie frowned and gripped her skirt with frustration. She closed her eyes and calmed herself down. "I'm going to go talk to Daz. Thanks, Dad, I'm glad you talked to me."

Ellie jumped up from the sofa she was sat on and kissed Ger on the cheek before she left the room. Ger sat in silence for a while. Memories from the other day flooded his mind and he couldn't help but focus on how brave Ellie had been compared to himself who had wanted to leave Daz and Crusher to die. He clenched his fists and laughed self-mockingly. "Ellie sure has grown up a lot in the past week, hasn't she? Hahaha..."

"So this is the magic tower?" Daz asked no one in particular as he looked at the tall and sturdy structure that had appeared and attached itself to the inner wall of Fort Skip.

It was roughly twenty meters tall and had no clear entrances. The tip was a spire that pointed straight to the sky and it was made from a pitch black metal of some sort. Daz marvelled at the sight before he decided to identify it one more time.

Magical Base Upgrade [Little] Lightning Defensive Tower Description A tower generally used by magical academies, but it had been known to serve as a weapon for castles and keeps of wealthy kingdoms before. Upgrade Charges power up to a limit of 100 lightning bolts worth. A single lightning bolt with the power to destroy a small building may be summoned with a single thought of the base's lord. All power may be used to summon all possible lightning bolts at once, but this is not advised unless absolutely necessary due to the destructive power. The tower will passively target any survivors or monsters with hostile intentions towards the base, its lord or its citizens with a maximum range of 500 meters.

"Yup, definitely worth the fifty-thousand merit points and five-thousand base points. Shame that used up all of the taxes though, so now I have to fund the base from my own pockets. I definitely need to expand and get more citizens. It'd be great if this place could pay for itself," Daz mumbled as he held his chin and continued to stare at his latest toy.

"Daz!" A high-pitched and girly voice shouted towards the young reaper, drawing his attention away from the tower.

Daz turned around and could see Ellie running towards him across the wall. He wasn't sure why, but she looked like she was in a rush. Naturally, unlike her twin, Sarah, Ellie wasn't the fittest girl around, so as soon as she reached Daz, she almost collapsed from all of the running and from climbing the stairs to the ramparts.

"Are you okay?" Daz asked calmly. 'There can't be an emergency, right? If there was an attack, I'd know since I'm on the walls and if it was an internal issue, Lyle would have grabbed me. Hmm, personal problems?' As usual, Daz's intuition was spot on.

"D-Daz!" Ellie shouted amongst her rapid breathing. Were anyone else here, they might have misunderstood the situation as being less innocent than it actually was. "I... I need to tell you something!"

'It's gotta be about 'that', right? Well, at least I don't need to ask her now,' Daz thought before he looked straight into Ellie's eyes and patiently waited for her to continue.

"I was..." Ellie struggled to find the words. Should she really tell Daz? Did it really matter that much? Maybe everything she was worrying about would mean nothing to Daz? Ellie's head was full of doubts.

Her father's words rang through her head once more. 'Do you think Daz doesn't have a secret or five that he's keeping from everyone? Just tell him about your skill if you think he's concerned about it.'

'Gah, I just need to tell him! Even if he makes fun of me or doesn't care... I need to let him know!' Ellie's pure heart and her father's words finally gave her the courage she lacked.

"Daz," Ellie called as she held her hands to her chest and looked at her lord and love interest with calm and clear eyes, "I ranked first in a ranking list for lucky people. I actually have the luck stat and it rewarded me with a skill too... you can see skills and stats, can't you? Y-You can look at them if you want to," Ellie said with a sheepish look on her face. She felt ashamed that she'd hid this information from Daz when it could have been critical in a time of need.

'Ellie, of all people, was ranked number one for luck? How the hell does that make any sense? Besides finding me to cure her deafness, how has she been lucky at all? Hmm... was it random? Does it factor in how lucky the person feels? I don't know enough to come to a conclusion. For now, I'll just see what the skill does and how much luck she has,' Daz concluded rationally in thought before he used Higher Identification.

Ellie Richie's Status Basic Information Name: Ellie Richie Species: Human (Beginning stages of evolving) Age: 23 Sex: Female Class: Sorceress of Machinery Affinity: Good Description A simple college student who was majoring in Machine Tool Technology. She takes after her role model, her stepfather, a lot. She also loves her twin sister greatly. Her hearing was returned to her by the man she cherishes the most and he is slowly changing her without her even realising it. Whether this is for the better or not, only time may tell. Energies Lifeforce: 1,000/1,000 Stamina: 1,000/1,000 Worldforce: 200/200 Stats Intelligence: 10(12) World Affinity: 10(12) Wisdom: 10(12) Luck: 500

'So her affinity dropped from lawful good to just good? I guess I'm to blame for that, but yeah, she wasn't kidding. Five-hundred luck, huh? That's an insane number,' Daz thought upon viewing the changes on Ellie's status.

Only If You Need Me [God-Rank] Description Created by the Higher God, the Goddess of Dreams, after consulting with her subordinates, the God of Fate and the Goddess of Luck. it grants the host new skills or boosts existing skills to match the host's current needs. Level 3 Abilities If a new skill is created to match the host's needs, it will only last 10 minutes and will consume all stamina and worldforce if the skill exceeds the host's abilities. If an existing skill is boosted, it will last 20 minutes and will consume all stamina and worldforce if the boosted skill exceeds the host's abilities. There is no limit to what skill can be created or to how much a skill can be boosted, however, the host can die if their total energy is not deemed as sufficient by the Goddess of Dreams to justify the level of created or boosted skill. Can only be used twice per day.

"Well, that's certainly interesting. It would have been nice to know about such a skill, but honestly, it sounds a bit unreliable, so don't stress over not telling me about it," Daz smiled reassuringly.

Ellie simply stood there silently. She was stumped and stayed like that for a while before she finally opened her mouth. "You're not mad? If you knew about this skill... Maybe your arm and leg..."

Daz threw his ghostly hand up to stop Ellie's mumbling. "It's fine. I learned a valuable lesson from these injuries," he said as he moved his arm and gently held his burnt and leathery face. "I don't blame you at all, so let's leave it at that, okay? Why don't you come with me? I'm in the middle of buying upgrades for Fort Skip right now," he added in a relaxed tone.

"I... I'd like that," Ellie nodded lightly.