'Hoy, you there, girl!' A dignified looking old man wearing a gray robe, gestured at Tinny with a teacup in his right hand.

Tinny looked at the source of the voice, furrowed her eyebrows, and looked around her furtively, before turning to gaze at the man again with a questioning look. The old man has several rings adorning his fingers; magical no doubt. A pair of silver colored bracers glints when the old man gestured. His gray robe cinched by a golden tasseled belt glowed with a magical aura intermittently...

'You, yes you, what are you looking around for, there's nobody else here.'

'Uh, hello' said Tinny timidly.

'Right, why the sad look, girl? What's bothering ya? I've seen you around, in this here neighborhood for a while now. Seen ya walking out in the morning looking bright and shiny, but come evening you be heading back home with the weight of the world on ye lil shoulder. Why the sad face lass?'

Tinny creased her forehead, unsure of how to respond.

'Come come, join me. Take a load off and tell me everything.' The old man tapped at an empty space on the bench he was sitting on, while secretly casting a Calm spell on tinny.

'Un, okay!', replied Tinny, after a slight hesitation.

She sat on the bench and began telling her life story fraught with bad luck while the old man nodded and said 'ooh' and 'aah' from time to time. As soon as she sat on the bench though, the old man had secretly cast a Divination spell and were startled by what he learned. Initially Tinny had average luck. if this was a litRPG, her luck stats will be shown as a 5 (out of maximum 10). When the shaman failed the Felicitate ritual (a ritual spell that increases one's luck), her once average luck fell into an abysmal level (1 out of 10). The side effects of this abysmal-level luck is... not only would Tinny be extremely unlucky, anyone in contact with her for a prolonged period of time will also be affected with the same bad luck. Although, unlike Tinny, this effect is not permanent and their luck would eventually get better and return to normal as time goes by. This is the first time the old man, who is a grand wizard, has seen such an occurence.

'And so, again I was banned, this time from the weather wizards offices as well as the wharf, for a week. I swear I followed the steps when casting the spell during the apprenticeship test, I swear! Who could've guess that instead of summoning wind to speed up sailing ships, I summoned a shark filled tornado,' Tinian lamented.

Then her eyes twinkled as she chuckled and muttered under her breath 'although, it was kinda funny though seeing them sharks flying all over the place and everybody yelling in panic hur hur.'

The old man's heart jolted. 'This little rascal...'

Tinny looked at the old man with a wry smile. The old man sighed, and waved his free hand. a floating teacup materializes in front of Tinny.

'Here, drink some tea, and let me tell you a story'.

Tinny grabbed the teacup and took a sip. She was surprised that the teacup remained full, and took several more sips.

'Amazing! A never emptying teacup!' She thought.

'Right, ahem. Well, once a long time ago there were two brothers, Bro Dragon and Bro Phoenix. Once they were very close to each other, as close as any brother could be, but due to a misunderstanding, they started to quarrel with each other. Although they lived together on a mountain, Bro Dragon felt it was unfair that the task of looking for food and defending their lair were done solely by him. Initially, Bro Dragon was stronger of the two. He has powerful magic, mighty strength and strong constitution, and could fight off any heroic knights or wizards without breaking a sweat...'

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

'Do dragon's sweat? I read somewhere about dragons; they said fire runs in dragon veins because dragons breath fire. If it's like that, does it mean dragons sweat fire?' interrupted Tinny when the old man paused to take a breath.

'Ergh, what? No, dragons don't sweat fire, they only breath fire. At least some do. Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, Bro Dragon was powerful, while Bro Phoenix was weak as can be. Bro Phoenix only skill seems to be to die in an exploding ball of fire and then resurrect after a while. They both stayed at Firetop mountain, and each time an army came, Bro Dragon single-handedly drove them back. Bro Phoenix, being the weaker bro, had to hide behind Bro Dragon every time...'

'Why are they being invaded by armies, did they have treasure? I read somewhere that dragons hoarded treasure, but I didn't know phoenixes also does that. They don't right? Or do they? I've never heard of phoenix treasure.' Tinny interrupted again when the old man paused to take a breath.

'No, they don't, only dragons do... wait, what? Gawdangit, will you let me finish the story?!' The old man sighed.

'Again, where was I? Right, one day, the combined armies of the civilized world came together to challenge Firetop mountain again. Rows of golems crafted and controlled by skillful gnomes, squads of human knights and warriors wearing magical armors and wielding magical weapons, dwarven hammerers as vanguards and elvish archers bringing up the rear; it was a sight to behold. They clashed, and just as Bro Dragon was about to be vanquished, Bro Phoenix came out of the cave, rushed into the combined armies, yelled YOU SHALL NOT PASS, and exploded in a ball of fire that wiped out the entire combined armies. Bro Dragon, elated and surprised, looked at the resurrecting Bro Phoenix and said `Thanks, Bro`,' the old man ended, and took a sip of tea.

'Erm... Sorry, but what is the whole point of the story? Especially in regards with my current situation? And how would a dragon be related to a phoenix, being of different species? That does not make sense,' Tinny interrupted when the old man again paused to take a breath.

'PFFFFFFFTT!'

Agitated by the cheeky little girl, the old man sucked in his breath.

'It's just a story to keep your troubled mind off today's worry. Or it's just a story to remind you to be like the phoenix and not give up easily. Or it's a just a filler story that the writer of this book suddenly came up with because he has no idea what to write for the first few chapters. Or it's all of the above!' huffed the old man exasperatedly.

Tinny cringed.

The old man's expression softened as he sighed, then said 'I've done some divination on your fate. Girl, you have been 'unlucked' when the ritual by the shaman failed back then. Tell ya what, I have here in my possession a lucky charm,' and pulled out a bracelet with colorful beads of different shapes.

The old man smiled while saying 'This bracelet was created by a leprechaun friend of mine a long time ago. It basically raises the wearer's luck. To activate it, just wear it and say `frosted lucky charms, they're magically delicious!`, and your luck will increase until you take it off.'

'But I don't have any money...' said Tinny sadly.

'Hmmm, well then why don't you become my apprentice? Ya can learn and work at the same time, and I'll even give this lucky charm to you in advance. What dya say?'

'I... I accept!'

'Excellent! Now follow me. Oh, by the way, my names Nicola. I'm a grand wizard, and the owner of this here magic shop.'

'Tinian, but everybody calls me Tinny.'

'Right then, Tinny. Come along.'

'Yes, master!'

Nicola gave a slight wave and the teacups disappeared. He stood up and gave the bracelet to Tinny and walked to the door, opening it and said 'come along, come along.'

Tinny stood up and put the bracelet on her left hand, then said 'frosted lucky charms, they're magically delicious!' She gave off a glow of rainbow colors for a few seconds, and walked through the shop door.

And that is how Tinny got hired as an apprentice at a magic item shop. But the event that happened next when Tinny walked through the front door of the shop was so amazing, and she was so shocked by the mind boggling experience that she walked in and out the entrance several times, to finally walked out the door, stare at the shop and exclaimed...

'WOW! IT'S! IT'S...'