Cain picked up the ring, and that alone drew the attention of the staff member who had been watching him from the side.
"I wouldn’t advise taking that."
Cain raised a brow slightly, turning the ring between his fingers as he studied it again, as if expecting to see something he had missed.
"Why?" he asked.
"Well," the staff member began, his tone steady but sincere, "it’s supposed to be a storage ring, but it doesn’t work. It doesn’t respond to mana; it shows no storage space, so it’s basically useless. You’d be better off choosing something that actually benefits you."
There was no mockery in his voice, only genuine conviction, as though he truly believed Cain was about to make a poor decision.
Cain frowned faintly, his gaze settling back on the ring.
Useless?
According to the system, that wasn’t the case.
Which meant the Guild simply didn’t understand what they were looking at.
If this had been evaluated by a high-level appraiser, perhaps its true nature would have been discovered long ago. But for whatever reason, it had slipped through the system, misclassified, and left to gather dust among low-tier equipment.
Fortunately for Cain, none of that mattered.
The item was here, it was available, and that was all he cared about.
Letting out a quiet breath, he shifted his attention to the remaining choices.
Five items were left for him to choose from.
After a brief moment of consideration, he made his selection.
The damaged amulet, the staff, and the ring.
The amulet was cracked, but even in its damaged state, it increased mana, and right now, mana mattered more than anything else.
His abilities weren’t built around brute force; they relied on efficiency, timing, and repeated usage.
More mana meant more room for error, more opportunities to act, and more flexibility in a fight.
As for the staff, Cain hadn’t chosen it out of preference but necessity.
The blades were simply too much of a liability.
He had already tested one, and the result had been clear.
The moment he fed even a small amount of power into it, the weapon strained under the pressure and barely held together. It wasn’t designed to handle anything beyond basic use, which made it unreliable in a situation where failure could easily mean death.
The staff didn’t suffer from the same problem.
Unlike a sword, it didn’t depend on edge durability or withstand repeated impacts. It functioned primarily as a medium for mana, guiding and channeling it rather than resisting it, allowing him to use his abilities without forcing them through a weapon that couldn’t handle the load.
In the end, the decision had nothing to do with what he preferred. It came down to what he could trust when things went wrong, and right now, reliability mattered far more than familiarity.
As for the ring, that choice was much simpler.
Carrying items into a rift was always a risk because every movement mattered.
Speed could mean the difference between life and death, and even a slight burden was enough to slow a Hunter’s reactions at the worst possible moment.
A storage ring removed that problem entirely.
Cain gathered the three items and brought them over, and the staff member led him to a counter, where he logged the selections into a device and linked Cain’s hunter ID to the equipment.
The man shook his head faintly when he saw the ring among the chosen items, but he didn’t comment any further.
He had already made his opinion clear, and in his mind, Cain was making a mistake.
Cain, however, couldn’t have cared less.
Once the process was complete, Cain returned to the receptionist, who forwarded him the location of a nearby rift where a party had already assembled.
A few minutes later, he stepped out of the building and onto the street, pausing briefly as he checked the route before setting off toward his destination.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far away, though that hardly mattered.
Even if it had been on the other side of the city, he didn’t have the money for transport, so walking would have been his only option regardless.
As he moved through the city, a few people glanced his way, their attention briefly drawn to the staff protruding from his bag, but none of them paid him any real mind.
Hunters were a common sight on the streets, some moving toward active rifts in full combat gear while others returned from them carrying weapons and equipment far more impressive than his own.
Compared to that, a young man carrying a few basic supplies barely stood out, and whatever curiosity his presence sparked quickly faded.
After a few minutes of walking, Cain reached into his bag and pulled out the ring the Guild had dismissed as useless. Slipping it onto his finger, he examined it more closely as he walked.
It was plain and dull, its surface worn smooth to the point that it almost looked unfinished, with no visible engravings, gemstones, or identifying marks that might hint at its purpose.
Then the system screen appeared.
Storage Ring (Unknown):
A ring with a suppressed mana signature. Its storage function appears sealed and cannot be accessed through normal mana input.
Activation Condition:
The ring doesn’t react to mana at all. Instead, it responds to recognition, activating only when its true name is spoken.
True Name: Roosevelt
Cain’s lips curved faintly.
Not only had the system revealed what the Guild couldn’t, but it had also shown him exactly how to activate the ring, meaning it had never been useless to begin with.
It had simply been misunderstood.
His fingers flexed slightly around the band. The rank was still unknown, but even an ordinary storage ring was considered a valuable treasure, and this one was clearly something far more unusual.
Taking a slow breath, Cain spoke the words needed to activate it.
"Wake up, Roosevelt."
The reaction was immediate.
A faint ripple spread across the ring’s surface, subtle at first, but within seconds, the dull metal began to change. Thin inscriptions emerged as though an invisible hand was carving them into existence, spreading across the band in intricate patterns that had been hidden from view all this time.
A second later, the suppressed presence within it stabilized, and a steady flow of mana settled into place, controlled and refined, carrying a weight that was far beyond anything he had felt from the equipment in the armory.
Cain’s breath caught as the transformation reached its conclusion, leaving him standing motionless as he watched the last traces of change settle into place.
A moment later, the system updated.
Roosevelt’s Storage Ring (Legend Rank)
A high-grade storage ring with an immense internal space capable of holding a volume comparable to a massive city. Allows instant storage and retrieval through intent, with no noticeable strain on the user.
Cain froze where he stood, the noise of the street fading into the background.
"...Legend Rank?"