Lord of the Karmic Fate

Chapter 3 Artifact Selection

Just how did it feel to be lucky? So fortunate to the point where you could happily walk past your bed during mornings without hitting your pinky toe on its edge?

How did it feel not to stumble on every little thing on the street every single day whenever you were in a rush for different reasons and pray a truck won't hit you in the meantime?

Or better, just how blessed one needed to be not to die against an extremely challenging boss in an extremely hard video game from time to time just because either the electricity in their house disappeared or because the battery in their controller suddenly died just before success?

Well, Raven didn't know the answers to those questions as incidents such as the ones above and many other similar things were happening to him daily, hence the word 'lucky' was a definition that was extremely far away from him.

As a fact, he and luck were so far apart from each other that whenever something good happened to him he broke into tears of joy and thanked the gods above a hundred times over!

And the funny thing was that despite knowing this, that his luck was so bad that it literally turned his life into a living hell, he still failed to avoid the sole thing in existence that required luck whenever it presented itself before him.

Gambling!

For some reason, he couldn't stop being a gambling addict despite losing ninety-nine of his bets out of every hundred whenever he gambled!

Therefore, the moment Raven noticed how luck stood on his side after he took a huge risk 'accidentally', he couldn't help but fall onto his knees and tear up from pure delight and relief!

"T-This... This is beautiful!" Raven stared at the floating panel before him with eyes full of tears.

~~~

° Vitality: 2 [0]

° Mystique: 2 [0]

° Strength: 1 [0]

° Speed: 3 [0]

° Constitution: 1 [0]

° Dexterity: 0 [0]

~~~

Two for his Vitality which meant his health, something which was extremely important for survival. Two for his Mystique, which Raven seemed to assume was something similar to those unique type energies such as Mana and Qi he once read about in novels. And finally, three for his Speed which will give him a huge boost in movement.

Although Raven had no idea at all just what kind of 'game' he will be forced to play, it was pretty much apparent it will be anything but ordinary. Hence, putting more into those three Traits, especially into his Speed was a must.

[You are quite a Drama Queen, aren't you?]

The deity's voice filled with nothing but mockery and also a little bit of awe reached Raven's ear the next second, quickly snapping him out of his daze and making him wipe his tears away from the corner of his eyes.

'Only if you would know...' Raven sighed bitterly in his heart as he stood up and stated, "I have finished allocating my Avatar Points. What now?"

[Ignoring me, huh? Well, whatever. At least we can finally move on to the fun part.]

Whoosh!

A gentle breeze blew Raven's slightly messy hair and coat which also forced him to squint his eyes before several panels, each separated into numerous columns and rows, appeared around him, every little section holding a symbol that looked different from the rest.

There was a small section that held the symbol of a falling star, there was another with a huge tree, and there was even one that represented a skull with two bones crossed behind it! Every symbol seemingly had its own, unique meaning and each gave Raven a completely different feeling just by looking at them!

"Symbols? What are these?" Raven examined carefully each symbol and even wished to press one of them to see what will happen when the deity's voice stopped him just in time.

[If you don't want to acquire some useless and weak Artifact, go and touch one of those symbols randomly. But let me warn you, if you decide to do so, there will be no turning back.]

"Huh?" Raven froze and instantly pulled his hand back in fear. He knew that with him randomly distributing his Avatar Points he has already played all his luck for the day, perhaps even for the following several months too!

Therefore, understanding that if he now chooses randomly it was almost 100% he will end up with something bad considering his insanely bad luck.

[What you can see before and around you, are Artifacts, powerful items that possess unique and different abilities which you can possess too if you have the Artifact.]

[Here, as you can see, I have collected a few for you. You can check which Artifact can do what just by concentrating on one of the symbols. But be careful, if you are not quick enough others will take it away from you.]

Raven raised a brow when he heard that, but soon one of the symbols he wished to check out vanished from the panel in front of him.

Then another.

And another one...

In the end, almost every second at least a hundred symbols vanished, leaving Raven stupified to see how from the previous hundreds of thousands of symbols, perhaps even millions, in a matter of a few seconds more than a thousand disappeared from his sight!

[Ahhhh-Hhhaaa~... I told you... If you are not quick enough others will snatch them away from you.]

'Did she really just...' Raven felt his mouth twitch when he heard the voice yawn so carefree, but in the end, decide to ignore it.

[Oh, I also have forgotten to say this, but while there are almost uncountable Artifacts out there, there are no two identical ones. They can be similar in a few aspects in one way or another, but in the full picture, they are all different. I hope you can understand what that means.]

Sweat formed on Raven's face as he understood clearly what that meant. However, whenever he tried to focus on a symbol to see what kind of Artifact it was they either vanished from his sight or their information popped up before his eyes, just to vanish the next second!

"Oh no... Oh no, no, no, no!" panicking a little, Raven tried his best to see at least one Artifact's description, but unfortunately, he failed every time.

[Just saying, if you wouldn't have asked so many questions at the beginning, this would have not happened.]

Raven's eyes twitched upon hearing the deity's voice, but in truth, he couldn't deny what she just said. Indeed, if he would have not asked so many questions now he would not be in this shitty situation.

'This is unfair!' Raven complained in his heart despite knowing his current suffering was all his fault. And exactly because of this why Raven decided to do something he would have not wished to do and even avoid at all costs.

Leave everything to his luck!

Yes, it was ironic to say such a thing despite knowing just how ballsed up his luck was and how he even sighed a relief a moment ago for not doing what he was about to do now, but what other choices did he have?

He had no time at all to open a single Artifact's description much less read them! Furthermore, he was clearly running out of time as the symbols around him were decreasing in number rapidly, and it seemed that in less than 2 minutes there will be nothing left!

"Crap!" Raven cursed as he saw he was running out of time and quickly swung his left arm to his left to the exact spot where there still remained a bunch of symbols.

Whoosh!

In that instant, a strange sensation swept through Raven's body, one that felt as if he all of a sudden appeared at the very peak of a mountain kissed with snow before he was shoved into a hot spring.

The feeling was equal to pure bliss, one that made both his mind and body feel at ease and comfort!

'So warm...' was what came to Raven's mind the very first moment he felt the warm sensation throughout his body and slowly opened his previously closed eyes.

'I wonder what kind of Artifact I got. Fire? Sun? Maybe ligh-, huh? This is...' Raven wondered in his heart but when his eyes fell on the little object in his hand his line of thought halted abruptly and his eyes widened.

"A... dice?" Raven mumbled stupified, as he stared at the little item in the middle of his palm.

It was a small dice, seemingly crafted out of some high-quality wood. Its shape was perfectly shaped as a square while its width, length, and height were about 19 millimeters, just like any ordinary throwing dice.

The only weird thing about it, however, was its sides. Instead of dots which should have been differing in amounts from one to six, every side of it was filled with a single star that glowed with a gentle white hue.

Raven was dazed for a while but quickly shook his head and thought, 'No, let's not judge so quickly. Maybe it is an extremely powerful Artifact. Let's check out what it can do.'

Though the moment the small magic panel with several rows of texts appeared in front of him and he got the chance to read the words present on it, his face that previously was full of excitement and eagerness now completely vanished and turned into that of agony and distress.