Reward Time
Familiar Name: Platiknight
Attribute: Metal/Light
Description: A shining knight from beyond time and space, they're considered the perfect picture of a proper paragon.
Stats:
Note: Familiar scaling is impossible to calculate by mortal standards, so a ranking system is used instead.
Strength: A
Endurance: A
Intellect: B
Agility: B
Charisma: A
Connection Cost: 5
Equipment: Platinum Armor of the Goddess of Justice, Divine Platinum Aegis.
Skills: Platinum Attack Collection
Ultimate Skill: PLATINUM COMET CRUSH!
...
"Okay, so the ultimate ability is just written in bold font by default. Good to know," SK commented while looking over Platiknight's status screen.
"Wait, I wonder if I can actually..." SK trailed off before sticking his hand into the status screen and pulling out Platiknight's card.
"So that's where he went."
Last night, SK had learned that familiars like Platiknight didn't stay permanently summoned on his level of reality.
Instead, they would transform into cards after their tasks were done and could be stored in the System Space if needed.
SK had initially believed them to be stored in the inventory or some menu option labeled "Familiars," but was thoroughly disappointed when he couldn't find him in the former or an option named the latter. Evidently, it did sort of make sense for the card to be stored in the status screen, though.
"Wait...why can't I just summon Platiknight directly through the System?"
[There will be moments where certain features of the System, or the System itself, will become disabled. As such, any familiars that the User contract with must be summonable in these situations.]
"Okay, that makes sense...wait additional?"
[Your Connection Score determines how many familiars you can have active at any one time, while the Connection Cost determines how much of your Familiar quota can be used.]
"Uh..."
It took SK a minute to wrap his head around what the System was talking about, but a light off when it did.
"Oh! So if I got a Connection Score of 20, that means I can summon Platiknight alongside any other familiars as long as their combined cost doesn't exceed my score...right?"
[Exactly.]
"Cool."
SK was oddly excited over the idea of being able to summon his own superhero team, but he needed to figure out how to raise his Connection stat.
...
Wait a minute.
"Didn't I receive exactly that late last night?" SK asked himself as he remembered his inventory.
After placing Platiknight's card off to the side, SK summoned forth the inventory screen to be placed right next to the Status window.
Staring at his face were three unopened gift boxes, sitting in his inventory, waiting to be opened.
"Sweet...wait, is this an individual box roulette deal or can I mass open them in one go?"
[Loot Box rules; just click them all at once,] a System window explained.
"Sweet."
Sliding his finger across the three boxes, animations of them opening one after the other occurred before their delicious contents populated the inventory.
After each item was added, several notification windows appeared one after the other.
...
[Thermochemistry Skill Crystal (II) has been added to inventory.]
[Ability point ticket: +5 Intellect has been added to inventory.]
[Additional Reward: Bronze Familiar Ticket has been added.]
...
[Rock Body Skill Crystal (II) has been added to inventory.]
[Ability point ticket: +10 Endurance has been added to inventory.]
[Additional Reward: Bronze Familiar Ticket has been added.]
...
[Title: Star Reacher has been bestowed upon the user. Please equip in the status window in order to activate the benefits.]
[Ability Point ticket: +10 Free points has been added to inventory.]
[Additional Reward: Silver Familiar Ticket has been added.]
...
"Okay, the ability point tickets are self-explanatory...speaking of..."
SK quickly reached into the inventory window and pulled out the tickets in order to rip and activate them.
...
[Endurance: 30 -> 40]
[Intelligence: 55 -> 60]
[Ability Pool: 11 -> 21]
...
"Huh...I figured there would be more body tingles involved...and I'm definitely going to need to apply those points later...actually, let's apply them now."
...
Connection: 20-> 41
...
"There, now I have wiggle room in case I end up with familiars that have a high connection cost. Now then, what's up with these crystals and tickets?"
As soon as he asked this question, SK was presented with two more screens.
[Skill Crystals: Can be consumed by the user to bestow them with abilities, or use during Familiar Creation.]
[Familiar Tickets: Can be consumed to condense the energies of the universe to create new familiars. The quality of the ticket will determine the starting potential of created familiars.]
[Note: Using the tickets without the input of skill crystals or other materials will lead to a complete randomization in terms of abilities and skill. Please gamble at your own peril.]
"Huh...sounds a bit like a gacha but with a touch more customizability...but also a little fucked up in the sense I'm making superheroes that have actual rarities and rankings."
[User's phone contain several games where this is the case; as well, pop culture categorizes heroes as being A, B or C-list.]
"I...want to argue against that, but I can't seem to...hmm."
To be completely honest, SK was very tempted at this moment to use all three of his tickets right now to make some new superheroes.
Maybe even use those Skill Crystals to make sure these heroes had some specific powersets.
But ultimately, he decided against it for a very good reason.
"That note mentioned materials, and I get the feeling that I'm definitely going to need whatever constitutes materials before I decide to do anything with these tickets...for now, I might as well check through what else this System can do...oh, wait!"
Before doing anything further, SK pulled up his status screen again and noticed that something additional was added in the space directly above his name. It was just a single textbox that read: "Title".
"Ok, that wasn't there before..." SK mumbled before tapping on the title and determining why he was given one called "Star Reacher".
Evidently, it wasn't entirely absurd, but it was a little... embarrassing, to say the least.
On the plus side, the benefit it gave was quite good.
...
Title: Star Reacher
Description: A title earned by those who are willing to risk their lives to reach above their stations and touch upon the heavens, especially if they were wholly unqualified to do so.
Effect:
10% increase in all ability scores.
Material acquisition luck increased.
Possible miracle effects when confronting enemies that are objectively more powerful than the user.
...
"Okay, so I equip it like this...drop-down menu, nice...and done."
As soon as he locked in his new title, SK visibly shivered.
"Oh, there are the body tingles."
In this moment, SK could literally feel his body getting stronger, faster, tougher, smarter, and just a bit bigger as the effect of his new title ran it's course.
Once the tingling had finished, SK was officially done with all of the pending reward and status stuff he wanted to address before doing anything else.
"Alright, now let's see if there was anything else I should be doing."
With a wave of his hand, SK dismissed the inventory and status windows before summoning the original menu screen he had seen before.
...
Quests(!)
Status
Inventory
Store(!)
Realms(!)
...
"Huh... okay, I'm going to check out the quests first because something in my soul tells me that both the [Store] and [Realms] are going to cost me some form of vague currency that I probably don't have," SK determined as he clicked on the [Quest] option.
Three new windows appeared before his eyes as soon as he clicked on them, of which one had the word [Daily] included.
...
Quest: Practice Makes Perfect [Daily]
Description: A healthy body means a healthy mind. Maintaining regular exercising habits will help you improve.
Objectives:
1. Run for two miles.
2. Do 100 jumping jacks.
3. Do 100 squats.
4. Do either 100 pull-ups or push-ups.
5. Or their equivalents
Reward: 5 ability points added to Strength, Endurance, and Agility. One item box (1-5 stars)
Warning: Failure to complete this goal will lead to a penalty game.
...
"Okay, I've seen enough popular System media to know what that means, so it looks like I'll be exercising after looking through the rest of these quests."
...
Quest: Realm Walk
Description: Reality is less like a uniform sheet and more or like a patchwork quilt of a million things. Exploring these realms will be an eye-opening experience.
Objective:
Explore one realm or world beyond the home world (0/1)
Reward: Realm Exploration Tickets*5, 2000G, Material Boxes*5
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Quest: Heroic Deed
Description: A superhero is someone who can make miracles, not just choices. Go out there and prove it.
Objective:
Perform a heroic deed (0/1)
Reward: Gold Grade Familiar Ticket*5, Hero Training Facility Feature Unlock, Hero Dispatch Feature Unlock, Monetary compensation proportional to the size of the heroic deed performed.
...
"Okay, that has got to be the vaguest fucking quest objective in the history of quests," SK concluded while reading over the final quest in his log.
"What constitutes a heroic deed anyway?"