In Gacha games, usually there were more than three ways to strengthen your characters significantly more than in just being a certain level and having certain broken items in your inventory.
One such method was getting copies of the same character over and over and unlocking new effects. For example, like me a free-to play that spend his limited in game currency to get Ender six different times.
Two, raising their level and ascending them. A boring and otherwise not a very good way to raise them aside from upgrading their talents. Which was as important as equipping your character a weapon.
Or three, the most important one, equipping a set amount of gear for an overwhelming advantage.
This gear was named many things in the gacha space, in some it's called artifacts, others simply knew it as relics or echoes. Anyway, a name closely associated with the gear that made it sound cool and powerful.
Every gacha had it, why?
Because it was a certified addon to their already slot machine. And Ethereal Journey wasn't that different in that concept.
That is exactly what the Holy Pillars were, an edge, a golden finger given to every character that could turn into poop stained finger in an instant.
I had genuinely gone crazy when stabbed with the realization that I had to suffer at the whims of the RNG Gods again in this world.
And worse yet, just like in the game, you can only challenge a specific Holy Pillar Dungeon only a certain amount of times before getting locked down.
But here, it was even more brutal.
After exhausting your tries, you had to throw yourself in the flow of time and wait until your soul, which you needed in order to extract energy from your own body in order to roll for better Holy Pillars, heal up.
So yeah, transmigrating made grinding a fuck ton harder to do.
The chalk in my hand tapped anxiously on the green board.
Seriously, some runs ended prematurely because I only rolled defense pillars for 15 years... not 3 days, not even a week, but 15 years and that crappy joke repeated itself a few more times!!! Do you know what that does to someone? Huh?! What rolling trash consistently without a single good pillar does to innocent people like me? You don't! Because most of you people are some privileged pricks spending money on games!
Having it all!
"Pay to win fucks...." I muttered, so silently in fact that to others, it seemed as if I were muttering an ancient curse to befall on this class.
Crack!
The chalk shattered instantly in my hand, behind me, some children gulped loudly, flinching while others yelped before falling silent shortly after, awaiting me, their history stressed teacher to turn to them with an elementary question.
And turned I did do. Over the class my gaze triangulated, I pondered on who to call on the chopping board. Until... my eyes, feeling deceived fell on a young boy with a wavy, black hairstyle that fell to his shoulders. He was skinny but seemed nonetheless well off...For this school anyways.
"James?" I call out to him, the girl next to him avoided my gaze, leaving him to suffer to history all alone without a shred of dignity telling her to help him.
The girl was Medea Mend, despite her surname, she was quite the demoness in my resets.
She wasn't that important though, just slightly more talented at spiritual taming than others.
But noteworthy enough for even me to remember in the past.
'She survived the most wildest things...'
A breath attack from a dragon expanding its spiritual realm, head on no less.
A flurry of stabs to her heart from an assassin she found that attacked the lord that paid her.
And many, many other crazy things.
Well she died in the last fight though I'm pretty sure...
Noticing my trance, James gulped which snapped me out of it, prosing a question to James.
"James, 56 years ago, after the crowning of Baltan as chief of justice, who was the closest aide to Baltan in the past?"
Textbook questions flowed undisturbed, baring their fangs savagely to James's answer.
*
My mind was a buzz, it felt like a long day had passed by me, striking me relentlessly.
The reason for such a fuzzing feeling to flourish was because of the man walking in pace with me after school.
Ares Pearl. I had gotten him on board, not without giving something equally as valuable as his help.
We agreed on how were doing things going forward.
Anytime I asked for his help, he'd in turn ask me to orient a prophecy for him.
That help, I asked for immediately.
To get a holy pillar, I needed the strength to clear it, but since I didn't have it..
There wasn't much leeway for me to do anything, now was there?
For reference, the holy pillar set I was going for was one named <
I knew every set and their bonuses thanks to past me making summaries of them in memory.
The system also told me, but it was pretty underwhelming since it didn't recommend a set based on my knowledge like most gacha games. It also didn't even have the Holy Pillar section unlocked until you actually gain your first pillar. It was pretty useless aside from skill acquisitions.
Anyways. The Midnight's Nightmare at my level could only be obtained at a measly three stars, or
The set complimented my ability perfectly, however, for my ability to reach its true potential...I had to get very, very lucky with the gacha.
Which just wouldn't cut in this economy. Making me pray to the benevolent attack speed sets even more.
'Still, although
By the way, the ratings and gradings for Holy Pillars, they go as the following ranks:
Just like the number of ranks, I could only equip a paltry 6 pillars to boost my stats.
'Last time, I chose
One of their effects increased my attack speed by 15%, the full set effect made the more damage I dealt in 5 seconds of engagement, the more powerful the creature that would be summoned to aid me would be. Dealing a stupid amount of damage to my enemies while increasing my attack speed by 8% each successful critical hit dealt for 55 seconds.
I whirled, swaying my body to the sides under the addictive feeling of striking over a hundred times in a millisecond.
Ares saw me as a weirdo, but I didn't care as the feeling of striking like a bullet left me at awe in the past run.
To compliment the set further, most of my items and weapons were focused on attack speed and attack power more than anything. Well, I lost crazy fast in the last fight though. The fallen stars were far too strong for lil ol' me to beat alone.
As bad memories flood me, my head shook in the desire to forget them and the pain I endured simply to be left to rot on the floor despite the efforts poured and spilled desperately.
The road of section 15 ended, Ares and I entered a new section, a section where the mayor's house was deemed to be haunted on the internet.
Our destination...Was exactly that mayor's house.
I fix my attire, before turning to Ares.
"Let's go, the Holy Pillar Dungeon that I'm looking for is in section 25."
Pylon's jurisdiction was only a step away.
Ares only nodded at my words, taking the first step toward my either gold goose, or crap producing goose.
I pondered before taking a step with him.
'Just what kind of goose would I get?'