It was hard to believe what I was seeing.
There has never been a case of someone being unable to buy a skill in the [Available Skills] menu. Ever.
Until me, that was.
Even though they say there's a first to everything, to be the one to receive this fantastic hand was incredibly unlucky.
And also... Quite sad.
From what I know from the internet, it's possible to unlock skills in this menu later, depending on what you do and specialize in, how you experience life, the challenges you face, even training or conceptualizing a skill might help make it appear.
Perhaps because of this, everyone starts with at least something.
Often a skill that synergizes with their Gift too, but...
This knowledge only worried me more.
To me, this translated as me being a blank canvas... As if throughout my eighteen years of life I had not put enough effort or had the potential for anything.
At least not enough to manifest a skill.
However, this felt... Wrong.
Maybe it was pride on my part, but even though I never shone, it was not like I had never done anything of value.
Sure, perhaps it wasn't the most unique or eventful, but... I think few people could proudly say this about their life at this age.
In that regard, as average as I was, it should have been fine... I should have acquired the average set... The minimal stuff... Something at least...
This is what troubled me so much.
It felt out of place. Wrong in some way. And yet, maybe because of my feelings, I couldn't reach any conclusion.
All I had was this worry that things, for some reason, were not how they were supposed to be, and that maybe, I'd never see a single skill show up on this menu.
Thanks to the [Skills Banner] that allowed me to roll for skills, this was not the end of the world, but it would be hard not to feel dejected considering I would have to depend entirely on luck for any cohesion.
And considering how many skills there must be in that pool, being dependent on this would make things difficult.
For now, I had no option.
As much as I knew of the importance of carefully considering and planning which skills to acquire and raise by training or spending Level-Up Points, without any skills available to me, there was no point to it.
Still...
One of my hopes was to use skills to compensate for whatever Gift I got, even if it was quite basic.
Even for something like [Gacha Kingdom Building], which looks anything but basic, I thought I could use skills to help me progress while giving me time to understand it and develop a feel for how it works.
And in case I discovered a massive weakness, hopefully I could circumvent or lessen it with one good skill build, but alas, lamenting about it wouldn't do me any good.
Those were the cards I had to play, or... The cards I didn't have to play, but... For now, the least I could do was make the most of what I was given.
The [Skills Banner] had already given me a good start, so I wanted to try it more to see if my expectations were misplaced.
Besides, there were still more things to check about [Gacha Kingdom Building] that could hopefully make up for this setback.
Among them there were the [Mana Banners].
Looking at it, I was a little surprised. Not necessarily in a positive way, but not as bad as the [Available Skills].
This section seemed to work like the previous gacha I saw, except that it didn't use daily tickets and had less variety of banners for me to choose from.
I imagined this was because of my being level 1 and having the smallest mana pool possible. A single mana point was all I could use.
The description also contributed to this interpretation. It said I could unlock more banners and that more mana spent would translate to better results, although luck still played a factor in the final result.
Seeing how mana was crucial for this one, it made sense to me that one of the conditions for unlocking more banners was to have more mana. Sure, there might be more to it than just this, but I felt this was a safe bet.
I looked for the banners that caught my attention previously, but I noticed that the [Companions Banner] was not available in this menu.
Perhaps this was my Gift's way of saying that friends are worth more than a single point, but it made me think that this banner had a higher value than what I was giving it.
I still felt confident in my decision, though, as the [Skills Banner] wasn't present here either, which could indicate that it also had a higher value.
Of the three I had my eyes on previously, only the [Weapons Banner] was available.
This was surprisingly good news, in a way. Again, this reality reduced my options a little, but it also created a clear path. At least for what I had explored so far.
I could use the [Skills Banner] from the normal gacha and the [Weapons Banner] from the mana gacha, but not the opposite, so... What I did earlier wasn't the worst move, even if it was mostly done for experimentation and in the spur of the moment.
Well, this made me a little happier, of course, but since there's a problem in using all of your mana at once, I decided to look at the other things before trying the [Mana Banners].
These two seemed to be the end of the "Gacha" part, so naturally, the next thing to look at was the [Kingdom].
It seemed rather interesting, and I was eager to try it out.
This Gift had already surprised quite a lot, but ironically, because of these surprises, the most predictable outcome also had the same effect.
I was waiting for something strange or outlandish, but what I saw was... Fairly obvious? ...Predictable?
Focusing on the [Kingdom] took me to a plot of land. Its name was.... "Kingdom".
Well, let's be fair for a second.
Calling this a "Kingdom" was a stretch.
The plot of land was small, surrounded by a thick fog I knew instinctively not to approach.
It just had that vibe to it.
That darkness that almost seems comical. The one where you scream to a character "Why the fuck would you even approach that?"
The only other thing apart from the evil "don't touch me" fog was a plain grassfield with a single object in it.
A lone [Hut] standing right in the middle of the field.
I also had a mini-map, like in a game, but it didn't show anything I couldn't see with my own eyes.
Honestly, this was quite boring.
But there was another function I could use, the [Access], and it was pretty good for a change.
It changed my opinion about the [Kingdom] quite a lot.
[Access] allowed me to... Enter the Kingdom. Whenever I wanted.
It was simple, but easily abusable.
Make a mistake? Run to the Kingdom.
It's a "get out of jail free" card.
Whenever in trouble, I could just come to my strangely pleasant second home and my free hut.
Not too shabby considering I had not even started working yet.
A few problems I could see where... The Dungeon not allowing me to escape certain places, like a boss room, or if I got afflicted with some status, but I'd have to see. These interactions are often strange.
In any case, while this place was good, aside from running away, I didn't have much use for it yet.
I saw that I could expand and modify it by using [Kingdom Points], but due to my [Citizens] count of 1 and this citizen (me) being only level 1, there was only 1 Kingdom Point for me to claim, and wasting them on something that wouldn't really change much felt... Well, felt like a waste.
Especially since there were a few things I could buy using these points that seemed a little more useful.
Their prices were a little out of reach, and aside from simply testing, there wasn't much point for them at the moment, so I decided to save the Kingdom Points until they had a chance to become a little more relevant or I had a plan for them.
And so, after checking the [Kingdom] menu, I went back home and looked at my Status.
This is a universal menu, and fortunately, it was normal.
From intelligence to strength, and of course, mana as well, everything displayed there showed a 1, which is the average by a large margin since getting a status to 2 before receiving a Gift seems to be really difficult for humans.
After the [Status], I was done checking menus.
It was a little tiresome, but knowing I was now able to, after so many years, enter and explore dungeons, level up, and experience the things I longed for throughout my life gave me back all the enthusiasm I needed.
The world I grew up watching from afar, never able to enter myself, was now a few steps away.
I wanted to jump right into it, but... I still had to test the [Mana Banners], which was bound to delay me a day.
So, I went on with my usual routine for what might have been the last time.
After finishing dinner, I used the last aspect of my Gift I had yet to see, and used all of my mana in the [Weapons Banner] of the [Mana Banners].
With it being a single mana point, I wasn't sure what to expect, but given that it was a gacha, there was always a chance to be positively surprised.
I had already been lucky today, though, and unfortunately, gachas aren't famous for their generosity.
Like a repeat of last time I used the normal banners, my head went blank for a second. I felt lost, wrapped in something I couldn't comprehend, but in the next second, I was back to my usual self.
If not for how sudden it was, I might've not even been able to notice it had happened.
As for the result, before me appeared a small bladed weapon, a dagger.
It didn't look fancy. There were no ornate details, gems, or anything of the sort.
It wasn't rusty at least, and considering I only had to use a single mana point in it, it wasn't even bad.
To put it bluntly, it was appropriate.
A normal dagger with nothing much to say about it.
Although... In a way, this was a bit lucky.
I wasn't looking forward to having a fancy weapon to attract undesired attention, or to prevent me from learning by making things too easy at the start.
Having it taken in a fight, growing dependent...
Those were things I was a little afraid of.
And looking at it this way, I'd say I got pretty lucky.
Sadly, the effects of spending all of my mana quickly set in.
"Mana Depletion" is a status effect that causes a strong headache and drains the strength from the body until even standing feels like a chore.
It's exhausting and most people try to avoid it by drinking mana potions, but... It's not like I had any choice this time. With a single mana point, even if I were to use a mana potion right after, I'd still suffer for having used all of my mana.
I just quickly put the dagger away to prevent hurting myself, and hoped that a good night's sleep would be enough to get rid of it, as it usually does.