Omni-Mastery

[ Evaluating… The designated reward is being discarded… A new reward is being selected… ]

[ Congratulations! The reward has been decided to be a 'Fate' item! ]

As soon as the last notif was sent to my ears, my eyesight wasn't directed at the blue transparent screen as I immediately shifted it to my right hand to a strange sting I perceived to originate from my index finger.

'Huh?'

For some reason a very small hole was punctured in my finger and blood was starting to get out of it, which is supposed to be the normal body's response to injuries, but that didn't explain the cause of the injury… nor did it explain how the blood behaved after it left the small wound…

Instead of simply falling under the effect of gravity and dripping out from my finger, it started moving and even taking shape, making a full circuit just under my spatial ring that is placed on the same finger…

'Is that a… ring?'

Bringing my other index finger to touch the blood, I could tell that it already lost all of its properties, becoming a simple red-colored ring that seemed to be made of solid metal.

[ The 'Fate' item has been bound to User! It shall manifest when 'Fate' allows it! ]

'That's it…?'

Although the whole blood ring thingy coming to being all seemed like quite the feat, the supposedly long-awaited main quest reward ended up being a 'prop' that was followed by an ambiguous message.

'Is this some kind of fortune cookie…?'

"Hey Long, are you also not going to explain this?"

As weird as it seemed to be, the system's rewards have always been proportional to the tasks, so even if part of the reward is considered the stat points, the completion reward shouldn't be useless, there was obviously a high chance that it was another one of the mysteries that the system never bothered to explain…

[Nah, this is probably going to take you long to figure it out on your own. Basically, a so-called 'Fate' item is supposed to bring you the unreachable, something that you severely need but can't get. It can be said to be both a very bad and a very good match with you…]

"Unreachable? Is this supposed to be something like a limited genie's lamp?"

If it was as simple as that, then isn't it basically a cheat item? If wishing for an unreachable needed item was all that's needed, then can't I simply wish for the Lost Realm's ultimate protection item and spend the rest of my life in the game in peace?

[Well, it's surely a very close association, but it's not as simple as just 'limited', it's restricted by various rules… What you really need isn't simply decided by a wish that you easily blabber which could be easily manipulated, it has to be something that your inner self decides…]

"Doesn't seem like a rule that's very hard to fulfill, I just need to concentrate-"

[That's what you might think, but it doesn't really matter, before you can even pass that rule, you first need to go through the main restriction.]

"Hmmm?"

[You see, to most people, the hardest restriction of all is to get the item itself, but you have already passed that, the problem is that the actual main restriction is very easy to bypass for normal people and very hard for you, but then again, like I said, normal people can't even dream of getting their hand on a 'Fate' item…]

Though the elongation of the speech and the mysticism used all-over it obviously proved that Long was still in his playful mode, his tone and eyes also made it obvious that the meaning behind these words.

[The easiest way to point out that restriction is the 'unreachable' part that I spoke about, whatever item you do need or simply wish for if you want to say that, has to be something that's completely out of your reach yet still within this word. Sadly, the unfortunate part is that if you simply want some sort of an item and it happens to exist in the protection of some organization, one that you have the power and capability to reach and extract that item from them, the 'Fate' item doesn't even register that request, even if you managed to satisfy the complete severe need restriction…]

"I see…"

While it wasn't a thoroughly comprehensive explanation, the one example did manage to give me a picture of what Long meant, it seemed like the item did deserve its place as a main quest reward yet still had very troublesome usage conditions, a complicated example of a double-edged sword dilemma…

[Of course, like I said, it's not only very incompatible with you, it can also be very compatible at the same time. If normal people were to come in possession of the item anyhow, the chances they would either be incapable of fulfilling the 'severe need' restriction or end up simply blowing it away on something stupid like money or vain materials are very high. If it's you, however, it would have a much higher meaning!]

"Indeed, we both know I already got your point…"

The reason an item or a situation could be called a double-edged sword is very obvious, it has both high risk and high return, though there is a bad edge, there is still the good edge, as long as you don't rub the wrong side, you won't end up hurt…

In this situation to be exact, the balance was somewhat off, the bad edge was simply the incapability to use such a fascinating item, however, the good edge is basically getting an item that even I wouldn't be able to get using all of my capabilities! The sword had an edge that is double the length of the other one! Something like that would obviously be more than sufficient even for something like a main quest reward.

'At the very least I'm done!'

Even as the strangest item on my to-do list that had most of its items end up strangely, it was good to put it aside for now and start training in order to not waste the little precious time that I had here, but for some reason…

"Wait! Is that what you meant by…"

It didn't seem like it was the end of the day's strange happenings.