Maximus quickly put on a straight face. he did not want the Merchant to know that he was interested in that stone. If there is anything he learned while living a poor life, then it was bargaining.

He slowly walked forwards and called for the Merchant while pointing at one of the fortune stones,

"How much for this?"

The pot-bellied man's eyes lit up he came forward and praised,

"This little brother has a good eye! This one was specially picked by me, I am sure you will not regret buying this. It will only be 20 bronze coins"

The crowd sucked in a deep breathe 20 bronze coins were enough to buy a decent weapon there was no need to waste it on gambling,

Maximus's expression did not change, he nodded his head and replied

"Hmm... alright it's my first time buying a fortune stone, I just want to gain some experience" Maximus then pointed at the thousand-year fortune stone and said,

"add that small one to this and we have a deal"

The Merchant narrowed his eyes and started calculating,

'That small one? I wasn't able to sense any mana inside that one, but something doesn't feel right...'

Maximus put on an impatient face and asked,

"What? do we have a deal?"

The Merchant quickly put on a smile and replied heartily,

"Since it's little brothers first time here, I will gift it to you"

The Merchant then went and picked up both stones and handed them to Maximus,

"Here you go"

Maximus handed over the 20 bronze and left without looking back.

...

He then entered a cheap inn and booked a room for the night,

'Sigh... there goes all my money.'

Maximus locked the door and closed all the windows, after making sure that he was alone, he looked at the two stones in his hand, the normal fortune stone was the size of a football and the thousand-year fortune stone was the size of an egg.

He kept the thousand-year fortune stone in his pocket and looked at the normal fortune stone with interest. The rock itself was ordinary and did not have any special features. But, he was sure that there was something valuable inside

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Fortune Stone: A stone that is of little value]

even if it was of 'little' value,

The stone itself was only a little harder than a biscuit he could easily break it with his hands, after chipping away carefully, there was a flash of red light and it materialized into a blood-red dagger. The dagger looked a bit evil, but Maximus did not mind he held the dagger and used Inspect.

[Blood Dagger: A decent dagger with 'Bleed' effect attached to it.

Rarity: D

Bleed: The target inflicted with it will lose 1% HP every second. ]

"Woah!"

Maximus could not help but exclaim, this system sure was unreliable how the hell was this of little value?

Although he did not know what 'Rarity: D' was but he really liked the dagger. He played around with the dagger for a bit and then kept it to the side.

Maximus could not help but become excited when he thought about what he would find inside the thousand-year fortune stone which even the system deemed valuable.

He excitedly took out the egg-shaped stone and repeated the process.

This time, a black light shot out from the stone and condensed into a pitch-black ring with complicated silver inscriptions on it,

He quickly held the ring and used Inspect.

[Inheritance Ring: A ring that contains the Inheritance of a Powerful Being

Rarity: S

All stats of wearer permanently increased by 10

Skill 1. - Locked

Skill 2. - Locked

Skill 3. - Locked

Skill 4. - Locked ]

'An Inheritance?' Maximus thought, he then looked at the stat increase 'that's a total of 60 stat points!'

Maximus could hardly contain his excitement, although he was a bit lost that all his skills were locked, with just the stat increment this ring was godly equipment for Maximus.

He quickly wore it on his left hands ring finger but did not feel any difference

He then suddenly thought of something and tried focusing on his mana and send it to the ring. Although he had never tried this before he instinctively knew how to control his Mana.

The silver Inscription lit up and a blue light surrounded him, he suddenly felt a surge in power inside his body, his muscles became more compact but contained explosive power. The sensation was so divine that Maximus almost moaned.

But, the sensation quickly faded away much to Maximus's disappointment, but he did not dwell on it and quickly checked his stats.

[Stats]

Strength: 20

Vitality: 20

Agility: 20

Dexterity: 20

Intelligence: 20

Sense: 20

Free stat points: 0

Maximus could not help but grin when he saw his stats he was probably the only one with such stats at Level 1.

But then he quickly calmed down, he knew that some of the stronger races might have higher stats than his even at birth.

He had to level up quickly otherwise he might just die at any moment.

He looked at the ring and for a while and then remembered something, usually in some fictions he read during his previous life, if you wanted to gain some kind of inheritance then you had to make it recognize you.

Maximus excitedly bit his finger and dropped some blood on the ring, the blood immediately started flowing through the silver inscriptions making it look quite evil,

Suddenly the ring started heating up and smoke started rising from it.

"Shhhh!"

Maximus sucked in a deep breath the pain was slowly increasing but he did his best to not make any sound, else he attracts attention.

The pain soon subsided and he felt and cooling sensation, he looked at his finger and was surprised to see the ring melt and seep into his skin. He was about to freak out but his system Interrupted him

Ding!

[Would you like to fuse with the Inheritance ring?] (Y/N)

Maximus did not even need to think,

"Yes!"

The ring completely seeped into his skin leaving behind a ringlike tattoo on his ring finger.

...

'