4

“What in the...What happened? Why does this place look so much like the starting area in Ultima?” Cryo looked upon the emerald hills and the divine brilliant radiance of the sun as he pondered the question in his head over and over again.

Looking every direction, trying to take everything in, he almost missed a character that was in the middle of a large group of villagers. The character was a tall, slender woman that seemed to wear the garbs of a witch. Cryo could not see her face correctly, but she certainly stood out from the rag-tag villagers she was in company of.

“Well, might as well see what she’s up to.”

Walking cautiously over to the woman, he noticed many of the villagers were staring at him. Cryo was not the most socially-adept, so the gaze of the villagers caused him to look down at his feet. As his gaze pointed downward, he realized he wasn’t wearing shoes...or socks...or pants, or any clothes for that matter. It quickly became obvious why the villagers were staring at him, and he noticed many parents were covering their children’s eyes and giving him a look of disgust.

“AAAH, I’M SO SORRY” Cryo stammered as he ran to a nearby wagon that appeared to be devoid of villagers.

Hearing the scream of fright, Desna turned to try to find the source, a naked man running through the village. Ever since she travelled to this new land from her home to pursue her dreams of becoming a top-ranked witch, there hadn’t been a boring day in her life. Yesterday, the town’s adventurers had fended off a goblin raid that had sprung by some dumb rogue that tried to stealth his way to a chest in the dungeon. Today, an exhibisionist streaked through the village. At this point, Desna wasn’t phased by the sight and continued doing what she was in a mosh pit of villagers for, rolling the gacha. Rolling the gacha was something any adventurer had to do if they wanted to make it anywhere in the rankings, because rolling the gacha meant you could build up a powerful party. Obviously, luck was involved and up until this day Desna had only rolled coupons for the nearby “Pork n’ Orc.” Desna, however, was sick and tired of bacon-wrapped hot dogs, so she was ready to roll the gacha and get a new party member. The reason there was such a large crowd today was because a special summonable party member was available to receive from the gacha, and Desna wasn’t walking away empty-handed. The streaker had ducked behind a transport wagon, so she wasn’t too concerned.

“Man, that was super embarrassing” Cryo’s face was bright-red as he knelt in the hidden safety of the wagon.

Peering into his “savior” wagon, Cryo found some beat-up clothes that he could wear.

“Wow, what great...LUCK! HA! TAKE THAT YOU STUPID GODDESS!” Cryo donned the garments and pumped his fists, shouting the insult to the skies, as if the goddess he met earlier could hear him.

Cryo left the safety of the wagon and decided to see what the commotion was about and try to figure out who the witch was. Walking over to the group of people, many of whom still stared daggers at the once-naked Cryo, he spotted the black and green robes he had seen earlier on the witch. Cryo tapped the witch on the shoulder.

“What do you wa- oh, you’re that exhibitionist pervert from earlier” Desna sighed as she greeted this new person

“No! I’m not some exhibitionist, I don’t know how I got naked.” Cryo replied, knowing, based on anime he had seen, that revealing the reason he was here in the first place was probably a bad move.

“Yeah, whatever, that’s what they all say, anyway, what can I do for you?” Desna asked.

“Well firstly, who are you, and what’s all this commotion about?” Cryo asked

“The name’s Desna, I’m a witch and I’m trying to be the best witch in the world. I came here from a small village called Kallio. This big group of people is here because the new gacha game is being revealed-” Before she could finish, Cryo’s eyes lit up with excitement

“Did you just say gacha!?” Cryo interrupted.

“Er-Yeah, gacha. Like where you-” Desna tried to get the sentence out

“Yeah I know, where you spend currency to roll for a certain outcome.” Cryo said with pride.

“Yeah, that’s a gacha. This one has a really powerful tank party member involved, so it’s exciting, but as with any powerful character, there’s a low chance of obtaining it” Desna said.

“Well my luck stat is maxed out, so I’ll get it first try!” Cryo said with a sense of triumph

“Your luck-what?” Desna said with confusion

“Oh right, different world thing, uhh, I’m really lucky I mean!” Cryo translated

“That’s what every gacha player says, I doubt it kid. I’ll bet my own spin that you don’t roll this super-powerful party member.” Desna laughed

“Okay, you’re on. I bet my roll outcome on it” Cryo challenged the witch

“Well, looks like they’re about to open up the rolls, don’t worry about these people, our bet is more important.” Desna said, a smirk curling onto her face

“What are you saying?” Cryo questioned

“You’ll see.” Desna replied, the smirk growing

As the doors began to open, Desna raised the wooden staff she was carrying and uttered an incantation which caused the purple orb on the staff to glow with a blinding blue light.

“Frost lords, I call upon thee, chill my foes to their bones and make them quiver in fear at your might!

FROST,

NOVAAAA!” Desna uttered the incantation

With a glimmer of blue light, Cryo watched in anticipation as a magical circle formed above Desna, but his anticipation would be left un-sated as the circled fizzled out and nothing happened.

“Crap, I forgot we’re in a safe zone so my magic doesn’t work” Desna said with defeat

“Safe zone, like a game mechanic?” Cryo asked

“What’s a game? No, safe zone as in I can’t fight anyone, there are resident wizard guards that dispel anyone that tries to use magic, and regular guards that step in if a fight breaks loose.” Desna answered

Oh, of course, this is a realm, not my gacha game. Cryo thought

“Well good try, but now we have to wait for these people ahead of us to roll the gacha. At least it says we get one free roll as celebration” Cryo said

“Hello sir! Here is your free ticket, thank you for using our game!” A cute young girl in a maid outfit handed Cryo the ticket, and then handed Desna one too.

“Enjoy!” The girl said with glee

Wow, cute lolis, I love this world already. Cryo thought

“Hey, shorty kid, give us your ticket” A group of thugs pushed Cryo and the villagers quickly dispersed knowing a fight was going to break out.

“Ugh, some stupid ticket thieves, these people don’t play fair” Desna said

Each drawing a knife, the thieves threatened once more.

“I said give us the ticket, kid, you don’t want the consequence.” The thieves said again

“No! I have to get this special party member!” Cryo stood his ground

“Haha, well guess you want it the hard way.” The thieves approached Cryo.

Seeing the knife stab towards him, almost in slow motion, Cryo ducked quickly. Because the thief had approached so closely to Cryo, ducking sent Cryo’s head straight into the thief’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him and pushing the thief back into his friend, the thief lost his grip on the knife and it flung into the air, coming back down and stabbing the fallen thief in the eye. With two thieves down, the guards stepped in and apprehended the group

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of us.” They said

My luck is so amazing, and to think this stupid goddess thought it was a dumb choice to max my luck out! Cryo laughed in his head

“Those were some crazy moves kid, look, because those cowardly villagers ran away the gacha is all ours!” Desna said with glee.

Cryo stepped up to the game, two cute maids stood on either side of what appeared as a regular gambling machine

“Welcome, good morning, good luck on your spin, please insert your ticket into the slot!” The maids said in unison.

Cryo did as he was told and pulled the lever downward. Desna watched as the spinning wheel rotated at what seemed like a million miles an hour.

What a powerful spin! This kid is interesting. Desna thought

As the spinner slowed down, Desna saw what she thought was impossible, a purple square containing the ultra-rare special tank unit descended on the spinner’s indicator arrow. He did it, he somehow pulled it off…

Cryo got the special tank party unit.

End of Chapter///