The penthouse's marble floor was cold beneath Riri's bare feet.
She'd stripped out of the tactical gear the moment the elevator doors closed: jacket, pants, boots, all of it peeled away and dumped in the bathroom sink to soak. Black blood, gray ichor, something iridescent that might have been spinal fluid. Three dungeons in five days left her wardrobe looking like a crime scene.
The hot shower had lasted forty minutes. Long enough for her muscles to unknot, for the phantom sensation of rat claws scraping concrete to fade from her ears.
Now she stood in the living room wearing nothing but an oversized sleep shirt, hair damp against her shoulders, staring at the notification that had appeared the moment she checked her Status.
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 5!][+15 Stat Points Available][Note: Average Level 5 Player has 85 total stat points. Current total: 135.]
Riri dismissed the screen. Something else demanded her attention.
The Luxury Lottery Ticket.
She'd been carrying it for five days, untouched in her inventory. System #2 had been dropping increasingly unsubtle hints since the second dungeon clear.
[You know, statistically speaking, the sooner you use premium items, the more value you extract from them over the Preparation Phase!]
[Just saying! No pressure! But also maybe a little pressure!]
[I've calculated seventeen different scenarios where early access to SSS-Rank gear would optimize your current build and—]
"Fine." Riri pulled up her inventory. "Show me the ticket."
A golden card materialized in her palm, edges shimmering with honey-gold particles. The front read: LUXURY LOTTERY TICKET - GUARANTEED S-RANK OR HIGHER.
Guaranteed S-Rank minimum. In a world where most Players would kill for a single A-Rank drop.
Like a gacha game giving you a free ten-pull with guaranteed SSR. Except the SSR could fundamentally alter your build, and there were no do-overs.
She turned the card over. The back was blank except for a single instruction: TEAR TO ACTIVATE.
Simple. Ominous.
Riri glanced around the penthouse. Floor-to-ceiling windows showing the city at night. Leather sectional. Kitchen island she'd never used. Private. Secure. No witnesses if this went catastrophically wrong.
She tore the ticket in half.
Golden light exploded from the tear, flooding the living room. The card dissolved into thousands of glittering particles that swirled upward, forming a massive wheel in the air above her head.
System #2's interface manifested beside it, practically vibrating.
[LUXURY LOTTERY ACTIVATED!][Calculating possible rewards based on Host compatibility...][Categories available: Weapons, Armor, Skills, Classes, Consumables, Pets, Miscellaneous][Initiating spin in 3... 2... 1...]
The wheel began to rotate. Riri's gaze tracked the blur of text as sections whipped past, legendary weapons, reality-bending skills, titles that granted permanent stat bonuses.
Her pulse kicked up despite herself.
The wheel spun faster, sections blurring into streaks of gold and white. The occasional flash of text as something SSS-Rank passed by.
[DIVINE SWORD - CALIBURN] flickered past.
[SKILL: TIME STOP] blurred by.
[PET: PHOENIX HATCHLING] vanished into the spin.
The rotation began to slow. System #2's particles swirled anxiously around the display.
[Almost there! Almost there!]
The wheel crawled to a stop.
A single section sat at the top, highlighted in pulsing gold light.
[SSS-RANK: BEAST TAMER CLASS - UNIQUE]
Riri stared at the text. Read it twice. Three times.
A class. Not a weapon or skill. An entire class. And not just any class.
Unique.
The golden light coalesced into a tangible form. A leather-bound tome materialized in the air before her, cover etched with intricate patterns of animals in motion: wolves, birds, serpents, creatures she didn't recognize. It fell into her hands. Warm. Solid. Real.
[CONGRATULATIONS! You have obtained: BEAST TAMER CLASS (UNIQUE - SSS-RANK)!]
[OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!]
System #2's interface exploded into confetti and sparkles.
[Do you have ANY idea how rare this is?! Beast Tamer is a HIDDEN class! It's not even in the standard class pool! Beast Tamer specifically has never been pulled before—]
"Explain what it does."
The confetti settled. System #2's tone shifted to something almost professorial.
[Beast Tamer allows you to form permanent bonds with defeated creatures. When a monster's HP drops below 10%, you can attempt to Tame it instead of killing it. Success rate scales primarily with Charisma, with minor bonuses from Intelligence and Luck.]
[Tamed creatures become permanent companions. They gain experience alongside you, level up independently, and can be summoned or dismissed at will. Maximum active companions: 3. Maximum total bonded creatures: 12.]
[Bonded creatures retain their original abilities and can learn new skills as they level. They also provide passive stat bonuses to you when summoned.]
Riri looked down at the tome in her hands.
Twenty Charisma. The stat she'd invested in purely because the System had frontloaded it.
Not decorative. Not a dump stat for social encounters that would never matter in a death game.
Her primary weapon.
She opened her Status screen.
[Riri Lee - Level 5][HP: 186/186 | MP: 600/600 | Stamina: 153/153][Strength: 32 | Agility: 62 | Constitution: 33][Intelligence: 20 | Wisdom: 20 | Luck: 25 | Charisma: 20][Unallocated Stat Points: 135]
Beast Tamer was a commander class. She needed companions, which meant Charisma. But companions were useless if she died acquiring them, which meant Agility. And System #2 had mentioned Beast Tamer skills scaled off Intelligence, which meant faster pattern recognition, quicker reads on environmental hazards.
She allocated without second-guessing.
[Agility: 62 → 100][Charisma: 20 → 70][Intelligence: 20 → 67]
The changes hit like ice water.
Her thoughts sharpened, not louder but cleaner, like interference she hadn't known was there had been cut from the signal. The penthouse registered differently: the depth of shadow near the hallway, the precise distance between her and the window, the way the ambient light had shifted since she'd been standing here.
Her body felt lighter. A hundred Agility made standing still feel like wasted potential.
And the Charisma—
The air shifted. Warmed. Responded to her presence like it recognized something worth acknowledging.
[Charisma threshold reached! New passive unlocked: Presence - Creatures within 30 feet are more likely to perceive you as non-threatening or commanding, depending on context.]
[Major Charisma threshold reached! New passive unlocked: Alpha Aura - Tamed creatures gain +15% to all stats when within 50 feet of Host.]
[Updated Tame Beast success rate: Base 40% + (Charisma × 2%) + (Luck × 1%) = 205% against Level 5 or lower creatures when target is below 10% HP]
Two hundred and five percent on anything her level or below. Overkill. But overkill meant margin for error against higher-level targets.
Riri opened the Beast Tamer tome, fingers steady.
"Show me the starter skill."