Jackpot!

Haru was speechless by the information of the seed that he obtained from his second try of Mysterious Lottery.

After cutting off his access to Item Box, Haru saw a pop-up notification in his field of vision.

—————

Would you like to activate [Longinus: Innovate Clear]?

Yes ←

No

—————

'Longinus, Innovate Clear!' Haru exclaimed in his head and then recalled what he knew about it.

It was one of the original thirteen Longinus Sacred Gears from the High School DxD series.

What are Sacred Gears? They, also known as the God's Artifacts, are items with powerful abilities bestowed upon humans by God of the Bible in the Universe of High School DxD. They are one of the main points of interest in the High School DxD series.

In that Universe, the original God of the Bible created the Sacred Gears as part of his heavenly system to enact miracles on Earth. It has been stated in the series that specific individuals with Sacred Gears have grown to become very powerful and influential and that a large number of the people who have had their names etched into history, were most likely Sacred Gear possessors.

Only humans or human hybrids can be born with Sacred Gears. Angels and Devils can obtain them by resurrecting someone from the human race or the human-hybrid as one of their own. The Fallen Angels have devised a ceremony to extract and possess a Sacred Gear from the original user. As to why Angels and Devils are never born with them, yet keep them when transformed from humans, is another mystery. One theory is that God never foresaw the new systems of reincarnating Devils and Angels, which arose after His death. Granted, God of the Bible in the DxD universe was quite underwhelming.

There can be more than one Sacred Gear of the same type, with the only exception being the Longinus, which are all unique in their own way. If a Sacred Gear gets removed from the owner, the said owner will die. It is possible for an individual to own more than one Sacred Gear at a time.

Sacred Gears can have a variety of effects, such as Twilight Healing that grants near-instantaneous healing power and Twice Critical that doubles the power of the user. The Sword Birth, for example, can create Demon Swords imbued with different attributes, examples include creating a sword that absorbs holy energy, a sword that devours flame, and a sword that absorbs wind. Sacred Gears can also adapt and evolve based on their wielder's thoughts, needs, and feelings, gaining abilities or qualities as time passes.

Meanwhile, the Longinus, also known as "Tools that Destroy God," are the thirteen original top-tier Sacred Gears with enough power to kill Gods, as well as five additional Sacred Gears that evolved to the same level later in the series.

This class of Sacred Gears named after True Longinus, which is the first as well as the most potent Sacred Gear, which pierced Jesus Christ in the legend, and unlike other Sacred Gear that has more than one of the same type, the Longinus Sacred Gears are unique, and only one of each may exist at a time.

In the series, all Longinus is just a combination of one ability with another. Essentially, they combine the powers of other Sacred Gears, which shouldn't have gotten mixed in the first place! Because of this trait, all of the Longinus is considered the most potent Sacred Gears in their respective categories!

Innovate Clear is one of the original thirteen Longinus in "High School DxD." Also known as the "Miniature Garden of the Green Tree of Innovation," it has the ability to create an ideal world in another dimension with nearly-perfect imitations of living beings inside that world. However, anything made inside this world can only exist there. It's basically the mix of high-ranked Longinus Dimension Lost, which can create a replica of a world in another dimension, and Annihilation Maker that can create nearly-perfect imitations of living beings, with only one downside. Granted, it seemed to have a severe restriction.

'I suppose it is ranked low because of its only restriction, but in the right hand, this item can become extremely overpowered!'

Haru was so happy because of obtaining this powerful artifact. He didn't know how the Mystery Lottery got it for him, nor he actually planned to figure it out; he was satisfied with merely obtaining it.

With Innovate Clear, Haru could create something like "Instant Dungeon" from "The Gamer" story and fanfiction to grind his level.

Speaking of his Level, Haru only accumulated less than three points of EXP; he'd discovered that completing chores and other menial tasks rewarded him with 0.1 EXP. At this time, Haru had accumulated 2.7 out of 50 EXP required to level-up.

'This surely is because of my Plot Armor! Without Plot Armor, I wouldn't be this lucky! Anyway, let's activate it! I hope it won't be a painful process!'

After gathering his courage and resolve, Haru picked the "Yes" option on the screen. Then, he felt something clicked inside him, after which he received the information on how to use Innovate Clear. As usual, there was a headache accompanying the transferral of the knowledge, but he endured it silently.

After his headache subsided, Haru wasted no time to play with Innovate Clear and tested its limits; he spent a few dozens of minutes doing this.

In the end, he discovered that he started with a circular barren island with a total width of 78.53 square meters; the island was floating in colorful space that reminded him of his Item Box.

Other than that, the green seed had sprouted into a small green tree. Regarding the creation of near-perfect imitations of living beings, Haru could only create small and harmless animals for the time being, and the numbers were also limited; he could only create 200 mice, or 100 rabbits, or 40 dogs, or 20 cows, or ten bears, or five elephants. He hadn't tried creating humans or humanoid beings because he had yet to resolve himself to do it.

Haru wasn't discouraged by this result because he knew that Innovate Clear's power and quality would grow with him.

Still, Haru felt physical exhaustion and mental strain from using Innovate Clear; he discovered that it consumed his stamina and mental energy. Of course, he could magic energy in exchange, but he had yet to unlock his MAG attribute.

'I need more stamina and mental fortitude, meaning higher VIT and INT!' Haru thought in realization before taking a short break.

When Haru checked the time, he was surprised because he was almost late to pick Suzuka up. He then forced his tired body to move and go to the Hakuo Academy.

***

"Suzuka, sorry that I am late," Haru sincerely apologized to Suzuka.

Haru had arrived at the gate of the junior high division of the Hakuo Academy. As expected, he was late; Suzuka had been waiting for him next to the security post. Haru arrived there at 4.21 PM, and it looked like Suzuka had waited a dozen minutes or so.

"Ah, don't worry about it Onii-chan, I am not angry, really!"

"Really?" Haru looked at Suzuka with a skeptical gaze. He tempted to use his Appraisal ability on her but decided against it at the last second.

Although using Appraisal would surely tell him about Suzuka's real feelings, Haru felt like it was kind of cheap. He didn't mind using it if the situation demanded, though.

"Really!" Suzuka firmly nodded her head and answered.

After they had a sleepover every night, Suzuka had mellowed out and acted less strict with him. It helped Haru with his plan to mend up their strained relationship. Haru decided not to question the horse's gift in the mouth and accepted Suzuka's change with open arms.

Haru decided to conclude this matter and changed the topic. "So, do you want to stop somewhere before we return home?"

"Let's return home immediately."

"All right."

After saying goodbye to Rika Minami, who had watched their interaction from the sideline, Haru escorted Suzuka to the bus stop. As they waited for their bus to come, they had a casual chat.

"So, what were you doing today, Onii-chan?"

"Well, I have finished my novel and sent it to the publishing house."

"Really?" Suzuka seemed surprised by that; she knew that Haru wanted to become a novelist to support their lives, but she didn't think that he would finish it this fast.

"Yup. Do you want to read the draft? I have prepared a copy for you."

"Then, please," Suzuka replied with a firm nod and a faint smile before perking up all of a sudden. "Oh! Look! Our bus is coming!"

Haru turned his head around and saw their bus. He turned his head to Suzuka and nodded at her. After the bus stopped, they climbed it up and picked an empty bench to sit. Since the bus wasn't filled to the brim by passengers, they found a place to sit side by side in the middle of the bus with no problem.

After that, Haru and Suzuka talked about Haru's (plagiarized) novel while waiting until their bus arrived at their destination.