Capítulo 57: Chapter 57
"Let's go!" - Regular Speech
'Oppai!' - Thoughts
[BOOST!] - Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech
That Night
Issei's Bedroom, Hyōdō Residence
"Gamer's Gear!" he whispered.
[Game On!]
In a flare of blue light, Issei's right arm became the sapphire-coloured limb that signified the appearance of his first Sacred Gear. He flexed and moved his arm, eyes absently taking in the dancing, reflective shine from his bedroom's light, deep in thought.
'I have to go to a set location tomorrow and talk to the Devils. A location they are both aware of and likely familiar with while I've never stepped foot there before.' The Sekiryūtei thought, forcing himself to remain calm. 'If I was watching this happen on an anime, I would be screaming 'It's a Trap!' at the screen at the top of my voice. Probably calling the protagonist an idiot with every other breath too. Still, I don't think Gremory-sempai or Sitri-kaichou would go against their word on a neutral meeting. It just wouldn't match their character…I think.'
That was the crux of the matter. He only knew their public 'human' personas, rather than who they were as Devils. For all he knew, Rias Gremory's actual personality was totally different. Yet…a part of him thought that with her, what you saw was what you got. That the red-haired girl only kept the parts of her that belonged in the supernatural world hidden.
He didn't know where that thought came from, but he had a strange disinclination to mistrust it.
"...hmm?" he noticed a small square outline at the base of his forearm near the elbow. It had an odd shape on it…kinda like a tree-diagram. Being the impulsive sort, he touched it without really thinking about it.
A screen popped up in front of him, with that self-same tree diagram on it.
[Gamer's Gear Evolution Tree]
The Gamer's Gear, unlike most other Sacred Gears, allows the user to choose how it changes and evolves. Using this Dendrogram, you can choose how to evolve the Gamer's Gear and gain special abilities, skills and equipment additions.
In order to evolve the Gamer's Gear, Sacred Gear Points (SGP) are required. You receive 2 SGP when you Level Up, as well as bonus SGP as rewards for using either of your Sacred Gears in combat and for defeating boss monsters.
You currently have 5 SGP stored up. Ordinarily, you would have more from defeating a boss three levels above you, but as you didn't actually fight it, you were penalised for that.
Great. He was being penalised for something out of his control. Wasn't that a familiar situation for him or what?
Moving past his self-derision, Issei examined the lowermost point of the branching options, which had a single option, costing a single SGP. He pressed it to find out more details.
[Revelation] (Cost: 1 SGP)
Only the holders of the two Gamer's Gears can truly understand the unique shift that holding their Sacred Gears have on their world view, but with this skill you can allow those around you to catch a brief glimpse of the world through your eyes. When activated, this ability allows any designated ally within a certain range to see the names, titles and levels of those around them for a set period of time after activation. You can set instructions as to whether they are allowed to see from your own information, and if so, exactly how much of it. You can even set titles that you own but do not have equipped.
Truthfully, it was a fairly useless skill in Issei's opinion. Just about the only thing that it could do was help him to deceive the Devils as to who he was. By switching out his titles, levels and names, he could keep who he was a secret for a little longer. He was certain that it was only a matter of time before the two Heiresses discovered his real identity. Neither of them was stupid, and Sona Sitri especially was no-one's fool. It would only take a certain amount of time and effort to match up when the 'Red Armoured Warrior' showed up and when 'Oppai Baka' Issei Hyōdō disappeared. And that was without the various types of magic and God-only-knows-what-else they had available to them.
Still, that wasn't a major issue, he'd never expected to be able to hide forever after he found out he was going to school with actual Devils. No, it was merely a stop-gap to buy him time to level up to the point that he was strong enough that he could hold his own if things ended in a confrontation with them.
The fact that there were likely Devils far stronger given their respective ages and descriptions was something Issei would have to work out later. For now he needed to focus on his current issue.
Confirming he was going to select the upgrade, he saw a red ring appear around it, indicating it had been purchased. There was a choice of three upgrades in the next level that cost two SGP each, and he could only select one of them, locking the other two out. One would make his Sacred Gear arm elastic like rubber, letting him attack from a distance with it. Another allowed him to enlarge it to the same size as his body, vastly increasing the damage he could deal in close combat.
It was the last, however, that caught Issei's attention. Rather than adding to his combat abilities, this upgrade allowed him to add 20% to the EXP gain for all of his skills and spells, as well as 10% to his regular EXP gain.
The first two were flashy attacks that he recognised from One Piece and Busou Renkin respectively. Monkey D. Luffy's Rubber-Rubber Fruit and the Arms Alchemy Little Gulliver.
Both were abilities that both looked awesome and would immediately add to the [Gamer's Gear]'s combat ability. Both could likely be groomed into a fighting style that relied solely on using the blue gauntlet as their weapon of choice.
However, it was the third choice that caught Issei's attention. While not as impressive looking or as immediately valuable, the short and long-term benefits it would provide would far outweigh the immediate benefits of either combat upgrade.
Added to that he'd already developed several abilities and skills to allow him to fight without his gauntlet active, and neither his developing swordplay nor his magic would mesh well with either of the first two abilities. Choosing either combat ability would merely be adding another weapon where he already had several decent ones, while the third option augmented all of his abilities, allowing him to grow faster in several ways.
You make a very sensible, logical and calculated decision! You earn +1 WIS and +1 SGP!
A vein pulsed on Issei's forehead. That sounded far more like an insult than anything complimentary. "Cheeky bastard…!"
Selecting the upgrade, which was named [Learned Wisdom], Issei inspected the next level.
Each of the four available abilities cost three SPG each and had to select two of them before this tier locked and he could move on. The first, [Sapphire Armour], added additional armour to the [Gamer's Gear], tripling it to 300. The second, [Sapphire Blade], let him reshape the blue gauntlet, and the arm beneath it, into a sword that was not only nearly indestructible, having no durability score to worry about, and could be upgraded and enhanced via an independent screen. Lastly, [Ruby Vision] let him see the names of his enemy's attacks and spells, and [Ruby Sight] let him have some form of combat precognition.
Unlike the last three options, all four of these had about the same level of potential, and in similar ways. The least useful, at least for him anyway, was the [Sapphire Armour]. While it would give the [Gamer's Gear] an impressive shield/armour buff, he relied on moving out of the way of attacks rather than absorbing the hits with armour. Not useless by any means but not fitting with the character design he was building on, a DPS over a Tank. Not to mention he didn't usually fight with either of his Sacred Gears active, saving them for trump cards in case he was overwhelmed.
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