A young boy stared aimlessly as blood trailed down a crack in the road, thundering booms echoed across the decrepit old stone buildings as screams and cries for help were stifled in the breeze. Not too far away, the boy could see a large stone man pummeling a flattened chunk of meat that had recently been a person into the ground, his bloodshot eyes dilated as he murmured incoherently in his drug induced frenzy.
The boy simply sat and watched, his eyes empty and half closed, as the stone man continued to pound the ground for some ten odd minutes before finally seeming to lose interest in the matter.
At some point he realized that his and the stone mans gaze were meeting one another.
The stone man slowly started to stumble his way towards the boy as tears began to fill up in his eyes.
“M-M-M-Martha!!” He screamed, spittle and tears raining off of his face.
“Oh...oh my dear sw-sweet Martha...you were- you were alive...ALIVE~!!”
The stone man was throwing his upper body back and forth with such force that the ground beneath him was cracking, his hands covering his face as he cried and screamed incoherently. His voice was so loud and guttural that his vocal cords were likely permanently damaged.
Suddenly he turned still, silence hung in the air as a faint sobriety seemed to settle in his eyes.
“O-oh Martha, I’m so s-sorry baby...you know I never meant to hurt you...y-you just wouldn’t stop crying about wanting to leave the b-basement and I got so
“...’m...oy....”
“Huh? W-what was that sweetie? I couldn’t h-hear you.”
“...I’m a...boy...”
“...”
Silence hung in the air for a few moments as the stone man stared blankly into space, his pupils spread so far apart it was as if they were trying to split his face. Gradually, his breathing started to become more hurried and erratic as veins started to almost burst on his forehead.
“W-w-
The stone man took a step closer to the boy as he began to punch his own face in anger.
“Why...must you always be so
Suddenly the stone man snatched up the boy by the scruff of his tattered shirt and screamed into his face, his maw opening so wide that he could probably bite the boys head clean off, should he so choose.
The boy simply watched apathetically, as though he were simply a bystander to his own situation.
“I did everything for you!!! I raised you, I fed you, I even threw fucking
As the man screamed, he shook the boy so violently that several bones broke in his thin, emancipated body. Then, perhaps because he heard the boys bones cracking, the man suddenly went quiet again, sobbing into the boys chest as he wrapped his arms around him, rocking back and forth gently.
After some time, the man slowly let go and stood up as he wiped his face, replacing the snot and tears, or at least some of it, with a soft smile.
“Alright. I’m gonna kill you now, and then I’m gonna kill myself. Then we’ll be together forever, sweetie. I love you.”
After he finished speaking, the man slowly raised his massive fist into the air, preparing to bring it down with the force of a meteor.
However, right at the moment when the man was going to bring his fist down into the earth, something changed.
The air became heavy and the sky became dark. The stone man, as well as several others who had been watching the scene in hiding, all let out silent shrieks of horror, as for the first time in over ten years the sky opened its eyes.
Up above, countless black and gold eyes enveloped the horizon as they pierced the earth with their gaze. The stone man instantly regained his sanity as he trembled in fear and dread, dropping to the ground and covering his head in his hands as he whimpered like a beaten dog, the onlookers fairing no better. For when the sky looked down, no man dared look up.
None except the boy.
While every man and woman on the planet buried their heads in fear, the boy alone looked back and met its gaze.
And for the first time in his life, he felt alive.
Had there been any man mad enough to glance at the boys face in that moment, they might would have felt almost as much dread towards him as the sky above, as they saw the pure innocent wonder and ecstasy that brought the boys heart back to life.
And so, this was how the boy first laid eyes on the Scars of Rafael.
Chapter 1: Becoming a Player
[Congratulations! You have been randomly selected to participate in the Gacha Royales!]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes / No]
Shiv stared blankly at the shimmering screen of static that had suddenly appeared before him, the words seemed to arrogantly impose themselves onto the dark and dank sewage canal that he had tentatively made his home.
But of course, he had long decided on what he would do.
[Do you accept?]
[{Yes} / No]
[Participation confirmed! Download commencing.]
Shiv felt a strange groaning in his head and body that felt like gears grinding together. It wasn’t so much painful as it was just incredible uncomfortable, at least for the first fifteen seconds or so.
After about two minutes that felt like an eternity, the grinding finally stopped and a new message popped up.
[Congratulations! You have been officially entered in as a player!]
[Name: Shiv
[Equips: None | Skills: None | Summons: None]
“Wait...I already have a title?”
According to the old man, most people weren’t known to receive a title even after winning the royale itself. The reason being that titles weren’t given based on achievement or merit but simply by catching the eye of the Artificial God, whatever the reason might be. Most people weren’t bothered by it too much though, as title’s weren’t always beneficial.
Shiv looked up toward the gated opening of his filthy abode and through it to the sky above. At the moment it seemed like just a normal cloudy day, but based on the title that had been given to him, he felt he understood why he had received it.
“
[Title: Fool who Stares into The Abyss]
[Title explanation: Burn little moth, burn]
[Title effects: Your eyes see into the Depths - What you look upon will be aware of your sight]
“Huh...that seems...ominous. I’ll have to look into it later.”
Putting the matter of his title aside, Shiv moved onto the next message he had recieved.
[You have free spins available! Would you like to go to the shop?]
[{Yes} / No]
[Welcome to the shop!]
[ACC#2211814914701315208 : 10 : 0
[Free equip roll available!]
[Free skill roll available!]
[Free Summon roll available!]<
[Use free Summon?]
[Yes / No]
Shiv looked at the shimmering screen before his eyes for a moment, it didn’t matter which one he chose first, but from what the old man had told him, the summon was typically the biggest decider between life and death within the Gacha Royale, so he naturally wanted to get it over with.
Based on what he had learned over the last month since becoming convinced that he would soon be selected, the disparity between different summons could be staggering depending on their rarity.
The rarities went in order like so:
C for Common.
R for Rare.
SR for Super Rare .
SSR for Supreme Super Rare.
UR for Ultimate Rare.
EX for EXCEED which was more a legend than an actual rarity.
Most people that were selected in the beginning were extremely lucky if they managed to get a rarity of R in any category, not just the summons, but those who did would have an almost guaranteed advantage over the opposition. Supposedly, in the last five hundred years no one had managed to get a rarity higher than SR within the Lower Grotto.
[Use free Summon?]
[{Yes} - No]
[Dun~ Du-Dun~! Here~ we go! What will be pulled? What will you pull!?]
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
[DING! DING! DING!~ H~ere you go!]
[You have pulled Grigold The Hoarder!]
[Summon: Grigold The Hoarder | Type: Support | Rarity: SSR | Title: Greedy Bastard]
Shiv stared blankly at the text in front of him for a moment before it clicked.
“YES!” Shiv shouted as he hopped up off his makeshift chair, the moment he had seen the rarity nothing else mattered in his mind.
“SSR!? Seriously!?”
Regardless of what type the summon was, with that rarity it should have above average stats.
Or so he had assumed.
”Geh...This is...”
Feeling like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him, Shiv continued reading.
[Summon: Grigold The Hoarder | Type: Support | Alignment: Neutral Evil | Rarity: SSR | Stats: STR ~ E / CON ~ E / DEX ~ E / INT ~ D+ / WIS ~ E- / CHR ~ C / LUK ~ A-]
A drop of sweat rolled down Shiv’s cheek as he looked at the screen, aside from charisma and luck almost every stat was utter garbage. Not to mention an evil alignment which was notorious for being difficult to deal with.
Shiv slumped back down in his makeshift chair feeling deflated as he propped his head up on his palm.
“...As a support type his strengths must lie outside of combat. Regardless of his stats, he’s still of a SSR rarity so there must be more to him. Lets just see what he can do.”
[Equips: Thorny Whip / Exquisite Pipe / Expensive jewelry / Large Money Bag]
[Thorny Whip: An enchanted whip laden with sharp thorns | Stats: ATK ~ D+ DEF ~ E- | Att: Bleed ~ B+ (Causes gradual loss of health) / Fear ~ C+ (Causes the mental acuity of target to drop)]
[Exquisite Pipe: An exquisite pipe for smoking tobacco. Calms the nerves. (+100 to mental acuity)]
[Expensive Jewelry: Luxurious expensive jewelry worth a fortune, they are simply stones and as such have no abilities]
[Large Money Bag: A bag containing 100,000 gold]
Although he had heard the basics from the old man and scrounged up some more info by wheedling it out of some others, Shiv still didn’t have a proper picture of how much gold was considered a lot within the Royale, he was just going off of how the jewelry was described and how big the numbers looked.
“Well, I’ll come back to that later. At least I’ve got something to be optimistic about now.”
[Skills: Intimidate / Haggle / Hired Goons / Greed / Tantrum]
[Intimidate: Inflicts fear on targets. Chance dependent on CHR stat (Current: Moderate ]
[Haggle (Passive): Reduces shop costs while increasing the chance of rolling a higher rarity. Amount dependent on CHR and LUK stats (Current: 15% ~ 35%]
[Hired Goons: Spend 2 gold to temporarily summon a random goon of a C rarity. Max simultaneous summons dependent on CHR stat (Current max: 0/5)]
[Greed (Passive): Gain more gold. Chance dependent on LUK stat (Current: High)
[Tantrum: Throws a temper tantrum when upset. No effect]
That all being said, I can’t help but be a bit apprehensive here.
”...Well, lets just find out. Summon Grigold?”
After saying the words, a magnificent intricate gate with two doors made of gold appeared in front of him with two scrawny goblin like men dressed like butlers standing in front of it. The two goblins bowed, then each grabbed a handle and pulled the doors open as a massive and obese goblin man walked out
The goblin, Grigold, had splotchy yellowish brown skin wrapped in what was clearly an expensive and intricately embroidered suit with a dandy top hat and monocle and had stubby fat arms and legs. Each step caused even the stone of the sewage system to shake and tremble under the emmense weight of his frame.
Grigold grimaced the moment he walked through the gate, waving his stubby hand in front of his face for the smell.
“Quite the err...
“
“Hm?”
Grigold had to strain past the thick girth of his belly and neck, if you could even call that tube of rubber a neck, in order to even see the top of shivs head.
“Why, you’re just a
”...I’m already fourteen
“
“
“Think what you want, if you don’t have respect for me I’ll just earn it.”
“Oh really?
“I never said I wasn’t a child, just that I won’t be for long.” Shiv replied, knowing full well what Grigold was hinting at.
“That you did, I
Shiv looked Grigold in the eye for a moment before stating his intentions.
“Looking at it here, each pull for a summon costs 30 gold or 270 if you do 10 at once. With the amount of money you have, and the bonus’s given by your skills and luck stat, its almost guaranteed that some good pulls would be made before long.”
“So basically, what you want of
The words reverberated across the dank sewer walls as Grigold took a deep, long puff of his pipe while looking Shiv directly in the eye. Ordinarily, a summon can’t go against the wishes of the master, and whatever items and skills the summon has are free to use as though they were the masters own. However...
“Of course I’m not going to do that, you greedy little
[Summon: Grigold The Hoarder | Title: Greedy Bastard]
[Title explanation: Good luck getting anything worthwhile out of this one.]
[Title effect: Whats yours is mine and whats mine is mine.]
Although titles could often come with setbacks, they were also one of the only things able to take priority over the usual systems, which meant if you had the right title with the right effects, you could theoretically break the rules of the game in some absurd ways.
Problem is, that went for summons too.
“I am no hoarder! I don’t care
Shiv groaned inwardly as he watched Grigolds flabs of fat roll like ocean waves in the midst of his minor outburst.
“Greedy bastard.”
“Now