Alex had a gift box in his inventory. It was there from the moment he had awakened the system, and according to Sophie, it was supposed to be like a starter pack.
He had thought of opening it later since he didn't see any use for it at that moment, and he was tired, but now, looking at the situation, where he needed to fight some beings he had never really seen in either of his lives, he could use some boosts.
"Status Window."
So, with his mind made up, he called out for the status window, and glancing at Sophie, who nodded her head, he pushed his hand into the screen, thinking of the inventory, which worked just like Sophie had told him. His hand disappeared into the same system screen that he had never been able to touch.
But as his hand touched something hard—something he couldn't make out just by touching it—a notification flashed in front of his eyes.
[Are you sure you want to open the gift pack?]
His gaze lingered on the notification for a second before he nodded, sending his mental acknowledgment, and as soon as he did it, a bright light flashed from the system's illusionary blue screen before the hard thing, which seemed like some sort of barrier stopping his arms from moving in vanished.
The moment it happened, Alex's had sunk deeper, finally reaching a spherical item with a cold, solid, but smooth surface.
'Hmmm...'
He tried to guess what it could be as he tried to pull it out of the storage.
'Oh?' Its weight, however, surprised him as it weighed around 10 kilograms or close to it.
It was a spherical ball with a 10-centimeter diameter, but it weighed 10 kilograms? How could Alex not get curious about such a thing?
He quickly pulled that thing out, and a void-black—so dark that it seemed to be sucking in the lights in the surroundings—metal ball came into his view.
At first glance, it didn't look like anything special. Yeah, it weighed more than it should, but maybe it was a weight ball. Who knows? This was a fantasy world, even a pin could weigh more than a ton, much less this ball.
But only at first glance did it look like that, because the moment he focused his eyes on it, a new window, showing the information related to the ball popped up in the corner of his eyes.
'Hmm, do I have inspection-type ability?'
Before he looked at the information about the ball, a curious thought flashed in his mind. It was normal for him to have that question as he seemed to be able to see the ball's information, but the problem was that he didn't remember seeing any ability like that when he checked his status window.
His eyes turned to look at Sophie, who, for a while, had a sweet smile plastered on her face, never leaving it. She was just too happy with how good things had been for the past few hours.
"It is not your skill if that's what you're wondering."
The next instant, as if reading his mind, she replied to his unasked question, causing a smile to break on Alex's face as well before he titled his head, and again before he even had to ask the question he had, Sophie's lips moved.
"It is a system function. It will show you information about anything you buy or receive from the system."
Her explanation was short but precise, giving him an idea of what it was, so with a nod of his head, he finally looked at the details of the sphere.
[Verathian (Star Formation—✴) (Growth-type): A shape-changing weapon made of ancient and unknown metal, only one piece to ever exist. This weapon can grow along with the user, evolving as the user reaches a certain limit in power, unlocking abilities as it reads the user's needs.
–> Wind Slash: A straightforward attack—a blade slash made of sharp wind whirling together—gets released when the sword is waved by using mana.]
"Verathian..."
Alex muttered, staring at the sphere for a while before he closed his eyes. As soon as he did, as if it was the most natural thing, every bit of information about the weapon flooded his head, making his body still for a while before he clenched his fist with the all of metal in his hand.
*Woosh*
But unlike one would think, the ball directly turned soft as if it were a dough of flour, morphing into whatever shape Alex wanted into, and he finally opened his eyes, a black flash passing past his electric blue eyes.
"I guess I don't have to tell you what to do with it."
The next moment, Sophie spoke up, still smiling, staring at Alex with some pride in her eyes. She had thought that she would've to explain what to do, but looking at him closing his eyes, she had stopped to observe, only to see him being able to control the weapon.
"It's a good weapon."
Alex, listening to her words, just smiled, still playing with the black-colored dough in his palm, already thinking of things he could accomplish with such a magnificent weapon.
As for its rank, he didn't really think much about it even though it was at the lowest rank right now; it was a growth-type weapon, making it more valuable than any other weapon he had heard of.
"There's still one thing left in your gift pack."
Sophie, on the other hand, seeing him engaged with the weapon, which was a good thing but not something that couldn't be done later, reminded him of the other thing that he had in his gift pack, making him raise a brow.
"Why do I feel like you are more excited about the next item than me, who is supposed to receive it??"
He chuckled as he pushed his hand into the system's storage again, feeling a thin paper-like texture in his palm, pulling it out with an interested look.
"Because this is what the real gift is, but as good as it is, it completely depends on your luck..."
As soon as he brought the golden paper or more like a ticket, Sophie spoke, a hint of nervousness in her eyes, which she tried to hide, but couldn't quite do it.
[Golden Wheel Ticket (Gold): A gold-ranked wheel ticket that would give you no more than one chance to spin the golden wheel which would have ten items, out of which, one would be the best a gold wheel could provide and the 3 would be the worst, the remaining are random items.]
"A lottery ticket, huh?"
Alex, listening to Sophie's words and taking in the information the system provided him, nodded his head thoughtfully.
"How should I use it?"
After contemplating for a bit, he decided to open it right now, asking Sophie how he could use it.
He needed as many variables as he could to ensure his unhindered victory in the battle he had to enter in a while.
"Grrr..."
"Krrr..."
The growls from the cave were still perceivable by him, reaching his ears, reminding him of the creatures that he had never seen—creatures of magical worlds.
"You just need to tear the ticket, and once you do, you will be able to see a golden wheel in front of you. Just command it to spin, and it will start spinning."
Sophie replied to Alex's words, explaining how he had to do it, and as soon as she finished her words, Alex tore the ticket apart, making a wheel with ten divisions, each having a different thing in them, but his eyes got glued to just one of them as he took a deep breath.
"Let's do it."
With his eyes closed, he pulled Sophie closer, holding her in his arms, and the next second...
'Spin.'
He commanded the wheel to spin, and it did just that.