Chapter 117: Luck Without Mercy
A celebration, loud enough to shame the Dead Hands, raged inside the dwarven fortress. No food, no meat, no feast, but Seo-jin didn't mind. He'd already eaten.
He lay on the cot, eyes shut, alone in the stone room. Sleep refused him.
"How long are they gonna drink?"
[Given their customs around death, a week would not be unusual.]
He exhaled through his teeth and sat up. His body felt fine. His mind didn't. Too much had shifted. Too much he still had to plan for.
He pulled up his panel, dragged it down to his inventory, stared at the list of items, thought for a moment, then tapped one.
[S+ Rank Weapon Gacha]
A small tablet materialized in his palm. Cold. Etched with a crossed sword and axe. The S+ sigil in the center glowed like a warning.
[You should have used this earlier.]
"To be honest, I forgot. Hard to keep track of all this shit."
The fight with Lilid had reminded him why he needed it. He'd spent half the duel unable to reach her, Butcher's Wrath thrashing in his hands with nothing to hit. Without his new armor, he would've died. Simple as that.
A new weapon wouldn't fix everything, but it could fix reach.
He knew how gachas worked. Pure chance. Although extremely few were able, some Users built entire careers off luck-based classes, opening cubes and tablets for other people at stupid prices. He didn't have the time or the credits for that.
So he focused, forcing his will into the tablet, doing everything he could to force thought into stone.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
Then he snapped the tablet.
A prismatic sphere burst open in front of him, metal ticks winding hard, slowing, winding again. The smell hit first, sickly sweet and thick enough to choke. He held his breath.
"That's awful—fuck."
He swept the air in front of his face as weapon-shapes flashed inside the light, shifting with each click.
"Come on… be good to me…"
Morning star. Gauntlets. Spear. Rifle—
"Fucker—go back."
Sword. Axe. Halberd. Shotgun—
"You mother—fuck off!"
Mace. Whip. The motion slowed to a crawl. Seo-jin leaned forward on the bed, knuckles whitening on the frame.
"Come on! At least a bow!"
Hammer….....book.....
"You bi—"
Pistols.
"Hell yeah!"
Light blew across the room. Seo-jin shot upright, throwing wild punches, grinning like Panic.
"That's right! Feel my will!"
[You need help.]
"And I'm bout to get it!"
He held out both hands under the collapsing glow. Two solid shapes dropped free with a sharp pop. Cold metal slammed into his palms.
"Inspect!"
His vision flooded.
[Name // Froststorm Twins]
[Type // Ranged Weapon]
[Sub-type // Dual Pistols]
[Rank // S+]
[Evolve // No]
[+20 STR]
[+20 VIT]
[+20 AGI]
[+20 INT]
[+20 WIL]
[Attack // 200–230 / Elemental + Piercing Damage]
[Description]
[Dual SIG SAUER .45 pistols forged from frost-etched demonsteel. Lightning-scar patterns rake the slides. Crystal inlays cage a paired elemental core in each grip. Weight and balance match the base model, but the barrels leak cold mist or static depending on the chosen mode.]
[Weapon Skills]
[Name // Elemental Shift]
[Type // Passive]
[Rank // S+]
[Effect // Freely switch between Lightning Mode and Ice Mode. Generated rounds match the active element.]
[Name // Cryo-Weave Rounds]
[Type // Active]
[Rank // S+]
[Effect // In Ice Mode, bullets may alter size, shape, or trajectory mid-flight. One round may split into multiple shards.]
[Cost // Variable]
[Cooldown // None]
[Name // Volt Break]
[Type // Active]
[Rank // S+]
[Effect // In Lightning Mode, rounds detonate on impact, chaining arcs to up to three nearby targets for 50% Damage.]
[Cost // Variable]
[Cooldown // None]
[Name // Endless Chamber]
[Type // Passive]
[Rank // S+]
[Effect // Ammo manifests directly from the user. Rate of fire scales off AGI and INT.]
[Cost // Variable]
[Cooldown // None]
[Name // Froststorm Collapse]
[Type // Active (Finisher)]
[Rank // S+]
[Effect]
[Lightning Mode // Radial Storm Blast]
[Ice Mode // Absolute Zone]
[Aftermath // Pistols overheat and lock for 5 minutes.]
[Durability // Unbreakable]
[Requirements // S-Rank or Higher]
["Ice shapes the path. Lightning clears it. The rest is recoil."]
They were perfect. They were brutal. They were the strongest weapons he'd ever touched. He had to fight the urge to throw them straight into the ocean.
"Worst moment of my life."
[Had to end eventually. But yeah—that's rough. Lady luck could've waited a bit.]
He almost broke down right there. No scream. No curse. Just raw disappointment hollowing him out. He stared at the pistols like they'd betrayed him by existing. Unusable until S Rank. Worthless.
"Why give them to me only to rip em away..."
He had a feeling. One he did his best to ignore. But impossible now. S+ wouldn't be that easy to step into.
Crimson light shimmered as he stored them in his inventory.
[Could always put them up on auction, then use the money to buy ones you can actually use.]
A heartbeat passed as realization hit like a slap.
"Sometimes, when you have ideas...they're fucking golden."
His grin snapped back into place.
"The DP haul from these has to be insane! I can buy guns, armor...Shatterbay's fucked."
Riding the high, he sent a pulse through the broodlink.
Since their return from wiping out the snake tribe and finishing off the Spider Queen, it had been drinking, retelling the fight, and honoring the dead without pause. And tangled right in the center were his three broodlings. Even Snare...especially Snare. That part caught him off guard.
Snare was the only one who could hold an actual conversation with the dwarves, so he ended up front and center for most of the storytelling. Seo-jin learned quick that his trio had no tolerance for alcohol. Snare went first; loose-tongued and reckless once he got a few swallows in.
Panic had tried to chew half the furniture and those attending, forcing Seo-jin to repeat himself more than once. Still, he ended up learning things about all three just by letting them roam free.
He winced as the memory of Hex vomiting on a crowd of dwarves resurfaced, then a knock at the door cut it off.
"Enter."
He didn't need volume. Pain was close enough to hear through a wall of steel.
His firstborn stepped in. Heat rolled off him. He swayed once as he shut the door.
'Still drinking?'
[They've all taken to booze like fish to water. Might want to keep an eye on that.]
Seo-jin could hear the system's smirk. He rolled his eyes and looked the drunk broodling over.
"Pain has arrived. Tell me—tell me...what's up? Brought some fire for ya."
Pain lifted a leather flask, foam spilling from the lip as it dangled. Probably warm as piss.
Seo-jin sat on the bed a moment, staring...
Then he stood.
Pain blinked through the haze, catching the shift. His arm lowered.
"No?"
Seo-jin said nothing. He dragged the room's only chair across the floor, sat, crossed one leg, leaned back, and kept his gaze locked.
Pain wobbled. His eyes cleared grain by grain under the silence. The Broodfather didn't blink.
Heat rose in the room.
[Quit fucking with him already.]
'Just wait. He needs to sober up.'
Pinned by his father's stare, Pain felt the fire rise from his gut to the base of his skull. It crawled along his spine until it lit every nerve, causing his body to feel like it was burning. A strange feeling for him.
He straightened.
He started to sweat. Beads formed, hissed, then vanished as the heat rolling off his skin burned them to vapor.
'Smells like ale.'
He held back a grimace. The room thickened with the stench of alcohol boiling out of Pain's pores. The broodling's sway tightened into a full-body tremor.
"A-apologies, Broodfather. I overstepped."
Pain began to drop to his knees, until Seo-jin's aura hit. The broodling locked in place.
"Yes. You did."
The pressure vanished just as fast.
"But this is your first time. I'll let it go. Don't let anything cloud your mind like that again. Alcohol's a poison. Pleasant, if you leash it. Deadly if you don't."
"Yes, Broodfather! I won't ever—"
Seo-jin cut him off, panel already rising in front of him.
"The reason I called you is simple. It's time."
He thumbed through the notifications until the one he wanted surfaced. His mouth twitched into a grin.
"You ready?"
Pain quickly answered, not daring to dissapoint further.
"Since birth."
Heat pulsed off the broodling again, sharper this time.
[You should do this on the surface. What if the room detonates?]
'It won't. Unless you think Thragdur lied about the reinforcement.'
[He reinforced the room, not you. The walls might hold—]
'I'm doing it here. Drop it.'
Pain's excitement dimmed as he watched his father argue with the unseen voice. The broodling felt that familiar stab of jealous curiosity at whatever mystery conversed with the Broodfather.
"Broodfather? I'm ready."
Seo-jin cleared his throat, then took a subtle step back. He pulled his chestpiece from his inventory...just in case.
"Let's see what you get."
[Broodling // Pain]
[Requirements for Bloodline Refinement Met]
[Would you like to refine Pain's bloodline?]
[Yes / No]
He pressed [Yes].
Pain didn't even finish his breath.
The instant Seo-jin's touch registered, the broodling's body detonated in heat. Fire roared out of him in a single, violent surge. Flames climbed the walls like they were starving. The ceiling caught in a heartbeat, the stone blackening under a pillar of flame that smashed against it hard enough to crack stone.
Everything else died instantly.
The bed vanished. The chair liquefied. The table folded into ash. His armor plates rang once, then glowed red. The air itself turned into a living furnace.
Pain stood at the center of it...arms shaking, back arched, jaws clenched against the power ripping out of his bones. Fire bled from his pores in sheets, turning the entire room into a pulsing, snarling inferno.
For a moment, Seo-jin saw nothing but flame and the silhouette of his firstborn inside it.
Then Pain's voice cut through the roar.
"Broodfather… it hurts—"
The floor buckled.
And the flames surged harder.