In the small cabin at the bottom of the ship, Silas Frost clutched a fresh stack of Jewels, staring at the game window that kept flashing before his eyes. He sat quietly, waiting.
As expected, since he hadn't recharged in a while, the system immediately popped up with a limited-time promotion offering bonus Spirit Stones if he invested now.
Confirming the event had started, Silas hesitated for a moment. He decided not to dump in all one hundred eighty thousand Jewels, keeping ten thousand aside, and instead threw in one hundred seventy thousand at once.
"1,700 Spirit Stones have been deposited. Bonus: 170 Spirit Stones."
His Spirit Stones jumped from 290 to a total of 2,160. Silas could barely hold himself back.
Rubbing his hands together, his heart racing, he triggered his first high-level ten-pull.
Golden cards burst forth in all directions.
"According to game rules, the first ten-pull should give at least one decent card. Don't let me down… give me something good!" Silas muttered.
The ten cards floated to a stop in mid-air.
When he flipped them, the colors shone brilliantly one red, two gold, one purple, and six blue.
"Jackpot!!!"
Silas's eyes lit up, his whole body trembling with excitement.
But when the dazzling lights faded… his smile froze stiff on his face.
"Skill Node: Da Ren Wolf Fragment (Red) ×10, Zoro Fragment (Gold) ×20, Alchemist Edward (Gold), Sonic Speed (Purple), Safety Belt (Blue), Experience Card (Blue) ×5."
Fragments.
The red card needed sixty pieces, the gold fifty. All he had were scraps.
If not for the full Alchemist Edward card as a consolation prize, Silas really might have cried.
The purple card Sonic Speed was at least a pleasant surprise.
And then there was the equipment card Safety Belt, Misaka Mikoto's exclusive gear. When equipped, it boosted agility by 30% and strength by 10%. Very powerful.
But…
Silas's expression darkened. There was no way he could equip himself with a safety loincloth. The image alone was unbearable.
"Like hell I'm wearing that! No way! …Alright then, again!"
He slammed his hand down for another pull.
The second ten-pull began. As the cards spread out and hovered before him, Silas flipped them over eagerly
his heart went cold.
"Ulquiorra Fragment (Gold) ×20, Senzu Beans (Purple), Experience Card (Purple), Experience Card (Blue) ×7."
Not a single full card.
So much for those "first-time guarantees" he remembered from mountain-village mobile games. This pit of a system had shown its true colors. If he wanted powerful cards, he would have to spend endlessly, carving out Jewels nonstop.
And even then, all that would do was help him maintain the daily summons.
Worse yet, Silas had no other real source of income right now. Aside from throwing more Jewels into the pit, he had no other path forward. It was unbearable.
"No… there's still one desperate method."
A resolute glint flashed in his eyes.
He would join Fairy Tail. Then he would throw himself into guild missions, earning rewards, and use those earnings to draw cards again and again.
For Silas, this was the only realistic solution.
"Fairy Tail I need to join as soon as possible. I can't afford delays. Without enough cards backing me up, my strength will never grow fast enough."
As he spoke, Silas equipped Alchemist Edward and Sonic Speed into his card slots.
He glanced at Iruka's card and gave a bitter smile. "Well… even you add something."
Equipping it increased one more attribute point.
For Sonic Speed, he temporarily strapped on the Safety Belt equipment, though the image of it still made him cringe. The Senzu Beans were life-saving items, so he left them unused for now.
All the Experience Cards he fed into Inuyasha, raising the half-demon card to level 23.
Name: Silas Frost
Level: 1
Body: 1 + (64)
Strength: 1 + (68)
Agility: 1 + (72)
Skill: Magic Absorption
Equipment: Snow
Card Slots: Satan, Inuyasha, Iruka (Bitter), Edward, Sonic Speed (Safety Belt)
Six slots, and already five filled two gold, one purple, two white.
In the normal world, this would already be considered astonishing.
Silas Frost was already invincible compared to ordinary people.
But in the world of Fairy Tail, this strength probably wouldn't even be enough to defeat the fourth guild master, Macao.
"One step at a time," Silas muttered, comforting himself. "If nothing else, I can throw myself into training, strengthen my own body, and build up attributes that way. That's also a path to becoming stronger."
Even so, his thoughts burned with anticipation. If he truly caught up with Natsu and the others the main characters of this world just how strong would they be in the end?
…
Time passed quickly. The cargo ship crossed the seas and finally pulled into Magnolia Harbor. Sailors bustled about unloading crates and barrels, while Silas bid farewell to the uncle and stepped off the ship.
He gazed ahead at the city before him. Magnolia, with its population of over sixty thousand, had been a center of magical culture since ancient times.
From the pier, two grand buildings dominated the skyline.
One was Cardia Cathedral, the city's largest church, standing proudly in the center.
The other flew a flag that made Silas's heart pound the emblem of the Fairy Tail Guild.
"At last… I'm here!"
Staring at the fluttering guild insignia, Silas felt his heart stir. Though he had only transmigrated into this world recently, everything he had experienced so far felt richer and more vivid than his previous twenty-some years of life.
Following the avenue from the pier, Silas soon arrived at the front of Fairy Tail.
Standing before the three-story guild hall, he couldn't shake the surreal feeling.
"This is it… I need to make it work. Otherwise, I'll run out of Jewels fast."
As he reached out, wondering if he should knock, the heavy main doors suddenly swung open with a loud crash as if someone had kicked them from the inside.
Two familiar figures stood in the doorway: the young Wakaba and Macao, side by side.
The strong smell of alcohol hung around them. The two sides had just bumped into each other. Wakaba and Macao froze for a moment, then looked down at Silas Frost.
"Little friend, what are you doing here? Looking for someone?"
"No. I want to join Fairy Tail." Silas shook his head, then glanced at the pair with a hint of doubt.
Without another word, he walked past them and stepped into the Fairy Tail guild.
The moment he entered, a lively, chaotic scene filled his vision.
Calling it a guild was one thing but in reality, it looked more like a bustling tavern.
Mages filled the hall, drinking and laughing loudly. A few beautiful young women bustled through the crowd, carrying trays stacked with plates of food and mugs of ale.
On one side, the request board was crowded with guild members. They squabbled over jobs, weighing the difficulty of each quest before snatching request slips off the board.
But Silas's gaze quickly drifted to a quieter corner of the hall.
There, a black-haired, half-naked boy sat by himself, calmly eating scraps of food. The noisy atmosphere around him didn't seem to touch him at all he was out of place among the chaos.
"Gray?" Silas blinked. "That's right. Gray should've joined Fairy Tail fairly early. If he's here…"
His eyes shifted again, landing on another corner. There sat Cana, quietly reading a book, a drink resting by her side.
These two they were among the youngest of the guild, and some of the earliest to join.
Silas felt a spark of excitement. Once he joined, he'd be among their number too.
And then… he would finally start living as part of Fairy Tail.
If he could spar with Erza and the others for a while, and train alongside them, then his attribute issues would surely be resolved.
With that thought in mind, Silas Frost walked deeper into the guild.
His eyes soon fell on the small old man seated at the counter, sipping from his mug.
Makarov Dreyar.
The master of Fairy Tail.