Piltover, Upper City — Affluent District
Colin's Workshop
Duke slipped through the workshop's back door and shut it quietly behind him. Instead of heading straight out to buy materials, he made a beeline for the attic, his personal space.
After all, he was now holding a small fortune. It'd be a crime not to splurge at least once in honor of Mr. Colin's generosity!
As for buying materials?
That could wait. He planned to shop down in Zaun, where prices were low, quantities were generous… and yes, where a little kickback wasn't out of the question.
Sure, a lot of the inventory there might be technically stolen goods, but for someone in his current position, every coin had to be spent with precision.
First things first: absorb the new funds into his Wealth Value and roll the gacha. The materials would be paid for using the pre-absorbed funds, while the absorbed value would fuel the lottery draws. Duke didn't yet know how much his Clockwork Armor project would cost, so it made sense to be cautious.
As for Colin and Orianna?
They were off to a concert. A full one, with a story arc, it would take at least three hours. Probably five.
He had more than enough time.
Back in the attic, Duke opened the windows and tore off his necktie. The thing had been choking him all day.
Next, he dumped Colin's coin pouch out into a drawer and counted the golden coins carefully.
"Jackpot!"
"One hundred Gold Sea coins. With the newbie protection rate of 1:10, I can draw ten times! Sure, it's the lowest-tier lottery, but I refuse to believe my luck's so rotten I won't land a single useful item!"
One by one, he absorbed the coins into his system. Once done, he tossed the now-empty pouch aside. His Wealth Value surged from 25 to 1025.
"System, begin lottery!"
Before him, the gacha pool shimmered like mist over deep water. Duke didn't hesitate.
"One draw per hundred. Let's do a ten-roll!"
At his command, the orbs floating within the pool were cloaked in golden mist. Then,
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Ten white orbs marked with question marks shot up one after another, each bursting with a satisfying pop as they landed.
You obtained: Batarang
You obtained: Web Bomb
You obtained: Harley Quinn's Baseball Bat
You obtained: T-800's Ammo Belt
You obtained: Bumblebee's Discarded Tire
You obtained: Superman's Wisdom Tooth
You obtained: Super Soldier Serum
You obtained: Teen Titans Autographed Poster
You obtained: Archmage's Rune Codex (Fragment)
You obtained: Thread of the Loom of Fate (Fragment)
First-time bonus: 10x10 inventory grid unlocked.
As the last orb burst, Duke's face twisted through an entire performance: clenched teeth one moment, beaming the next.
All ten prizes now rested neatly in his newly unlocked inventory.
"Now that was a rush!"
Reaching into the item space, he pulled out the first item, a giant poster nearly half his height. Spread across it were the members of the Teen Titans, each with their own hand-signed signature.
"Trash."
He rolled it up and tossed it straight into the bin.
Next came Harley Quinn's baseball bat, decorated in chaotic neon doodles.
"Might be Jinx's kind of style. Not mine. I'll hang onto it, though."
"Ammo belt? Trash."
"Bumblebee's discarded tire?" Duke stared at the deformed, beat-up thing with visible distaste. "Useless junk. At least give me his blueprints next time."
"Batarang? One-time use. Not even worth bending down to pick up."
"Web Bomb?"
He examined the red orb, about the size of a baby's fist, embossed with Spider-Man's emblem and laced with fine spider-web etching.
"Maybe I can reverse-engineer the silk composition from this. Recreate synthetic webs. It's mid-tier in value, good for non-lethal weaponry or maybe even worth patenting."
Duke set the Web Bomb aside carefully. Then he took out a gleaming white tooth, no discoloration, fresh like it had just been yanked out of Superman's mouth.
"Superman's wisdom tooth? System, you've got one hell of a sense of humor."
Curious now, he pushed aside everything on his desk and rolled over to his workbench. Rummaging through his tools, he pulled out a few components.
"Maybe if I do this…"
Five minutes later, Duke had cobbled together a makeshift cutting tool, normally, you'd need a diamond tip to slice through glass or brittle metals. But instead, Duke used Superman's tooth as the blade.
He clamped a Batarang onto his workbench, positioned the cutter, and gave it a gentle push.
Shick.
The Batarang sliced clean in half, leaving a smooth arc across the work surface.
"Damn. That's Superman's tooth for you. Could probably cut diamonds like butter. Turning trash into treasure, that's its own kind of craft."
Grinning, Duke tucked the cutter into his inventory. It was too valuable to show off, best kept for personal use.
The tooth likely contained Superman's DNA too, maybe, just maybe, the genetic seed of a Kryptonian, but Duke didn't have the tech to extract that yet.
"Guess it'll stay a cutter for now."
He moved on to the next item: a worn, charred journal, the Archmage's Rune Codex.
Too bad it was only a fragment.
If it had been whole, it probably would've cost ten times more than his current draw.
The cover bore the name of the Supreme Sorcerer, but it looked like it had barely survived a house fire, two-thirds of the pages were missing.
"Still good enough for now. I don't have the bandwidth to dive too deep anyway. The runes in this book are completely different from Piltover's current magical framework. No idea how they work yet."
He flipped through a few pages, and a sharp bitterness rose in his throat.
Eyes watering, he slammed the book shut and stuffed it back in his inventory.
"That thing messed me up worse than the little blond punk…"
Clutching his stomach, Duke ran to the bathroom and threw up violently. When he returned, wiping his mouth dry, he took out the final prize.
Thread of the Loom of Fate (Fragment)
A sliver of silken fabric floated weightlessly into his palm. The moment it touched his skin, a strange clarity filled his mind.
It was a one-use magical artifact, like a living mirror. You could ask it one question.
But only if the question didn't exceed the general knowledge and understanding of the current world.
"Useful? Kind of. But honestly? Meh." Duke traced his fingers across the fabric. "Very limited application. Definitely niche."
"And who's to say what this world's 'general knowledge' even is?"
"…Could it help me find the Original Crystal, "
Before he could finish, the fabric ignited.
"Crap!"
He swore aloud. The fragment burned rapidly, ashes fluttering down onto the table… then rearranged themselves into a line of text:
Ferros Family Mausoleum. Alicia's Sarcophagus. Unlock instructions...
"…It actually answered?!"
"CRAP! That was way too early to use it!"