"Sister, why did you send me away?"

Skuld complained as soon as she came back.

"Did he leave?" She muttered, noticing the absence of that mortal. While chanting spells to cancel her domain.

"And why did you make a promise to him? I'm not killing anyone."

"Skuld, don't be stubborn."

"Sister…"

"We can't keep hiding forever, Skuld." Urd explained calmly, just like a mother teaching her rebellious daughter. "Gauri won't always be there to protect us. If helping him do these little things now can make him trust us more, then that's fine."

"I still don't understand your obsession with him." Skuld complained. Doubtful about what her sister finds interesting in that human.

"He's…. special."

(And here we go with the usual line.) Skuld thought, obviously having heard this before.

"Anyway, you were right." Skuld said changing the topic, "I told him about the darkness and the phenomenon with fates we saw earlier, he seemed to know what caused it."

"He wasn't surprised?"

"No, not at all." Skuld replied. "If anything, he looked like he already expected it."

"Interesting." Urd muttered, before being lost in thoughts to herself.

Thinking back to the first time she saw this mortal, nearly a decade ago, and the vast amount of buried memories in his past.

And the more she followed his fate backwards, the more surprised she became.

She had never seen something so _'spectacular' _ in all her life.

"I still think we can make a bet on that destined kid, his fate is flourishing with luck." Skuld suggested, thinking about Leon.

"He's still down and out, if we give him a helping hand now, maybe he can save sister Verdandi in the future too."

Urd heard her sister's words, something she's been suggesting for years now, and simply shook her head.

"He's useless. Just a pawn in the bigger game." Urd responded with a sneer, "Betting on him is the same as buying a ticket to hell."

"Trust me, Skuld. Nothing good will ever come out if you become 'his' enemy." Urd said seriously, "So just do as he says."

"Fine." Skuld sighed, giving up on arguing. But she couldn't satiate her curiousity and ask again.

"But I don't know how he knows so much? He doesn't have our fate's blessing. Neither does he ask Cassandra or other gods for their future visions. Yet somehow everything that happens, he knows it already. How?"

"He knows everything, because he's the one who wrote everything." Urd replied in amusement after hearing her question.

Saying something Skuld could never understand.

"Heh?" Skuld asked, but Urd didn't explaian it further. Not that she could, even if she wanted to.

"Our sister's been locked for so long. She must be lonely. Let me think about what to say when we finally talk later."

Urd said, changing the topic, before turning around and going away without looking back. Leaving Skuld still in doubt and suspense as always.

….

Rio, who was sitting in the backseat of his car. Resting with his eyes closed, while Esme sat beside him holding a pad. Reading all that's been trending and being talked about on social media platforms like 'Whisper' and 'Moments'.

When suddenly Rio hissed in pain and opened his eyes with a frown.

He felt a burning sensation on his wrist where threads representing fate's blessing were becoming visible.

[The goddess of fate, Urd, glances at you graciously and gives you her most cherished blessing as a gift.]

[Congratulations on acquiring the divine skill - Remanence.]

[Remanence - To remember all that has happened, even when it's effects are removed. To retain measures even when the moment has passed.]

[ Effect - 1. Passive effect 'Eidetic memory'. (A sharp mind has no edges, cause it's a loop). Photographic memory is for children, truly intelligent ones don't just remember what they see, they remember even what they sense.

2. Active effect 'Deja vu'. (Wait, I've seen it before.) When encountering things or events that had happened before, user will be able to sense them from miles away. 15% chance to enter 'enlightenment' mode.

3. Active effect 'Ghostover' (little me in me) Assign a memory or moment from your past, to act as your 'ghost' which will be your brain's secret bodyguard. Protecting you when you're not you. Always read at the source—*.

4. Active effect 'Pause/Play' (Every moment is a movie.) User can pause and play back the moments that had passed for a brief period. Helping targets remember/understand the scene he starred in. {Curse type magic} ]

[Note - As the grade of skill is too high and it contains the power and understanding of divine 'rules' and 'laws' translated by Urd herself - many other effects of this skill are still locked for now.]

[To unlock this skill's full potential, increase your own potential and proficiency.]

Rio looked at the free skill he received, something which he had never heard of before. And the effects it had and wonderful uses it could bring him with a smile, before glancing at the message attached to it from Urd.

[ "Something special, for someone special." ]

"....." speechless

Rio didn't know what to feel about this goddess, or what to think of her gift. As despite this skill being overpowered in nature, he couldn't help but feel uneasy for some reason.

As if something very wrong would happen if he accepted it.***¹

But just when he was about to ask his own system to look up any related information in his diaries, and analyse this skill for any hidden dangers, Esme's voice broke his thoughts.

"Master, is everything okay?" She asked, after noticing him looking displeased.

"Yes." Rio replied subconsciously to her question, only to frown as he stared at the World Will's system panel which also heard his response, and approved the blessing.

(The fuck?) Rio cursed staring at the additional divine skill added automatically to his library.

'System, my luck is still the same, right?' He asked his own buddy in brain, somehow feeling, he's been getting rather unlucky lately.

Like what are the chances of the greedy him, being hesitant to accept a free expensive gift, only for it to fall on his lap anyway, over some stupid misunderstanding which only happens for a hero in half brain novels.

[Numerically yes.] System replied, as it had locked Rio's luck to it's initial value, which was 6 out of 10. ***²

'Hmmm'

I hope I'm overthinking it.

Rio thought and decided to not dvelve too much into this topic for now. He'll just not use this skill until he had a better understanding of it first.

For now, he had much bigger things to worry about today after all.

First, the party

And second, his prey's downfall.

#####

Author explainstions ---

***1 — Gods can freely give out their blessings to whoever they want without any bonds or boundaries through the world system. Though the choice depends entirely on the mortal's.

They can either accept this gift, or refuse it. In which case, the world system will take it back. Once accepted however, blessings can't be returned or erased.

However the user can freely choose to use/not use them in his life.

This setting was introduced so gods or demons won't just give contradicting skills or curses termed as blessings to harm the awakeners for their own entertainment.

###

***2 — Rio's luck is 6/10 . It is fixed. I've explained it's origins and reasons in ch53 way back then, so you can check it out again.

In short, his own luck is 'locked' as it was supposed to be having a downward trend as plot progressed, but since system appeared and he got his 'villain halo' via transmigration memories, he broke free from that destiny. Not to mention, system charges monthly allowance to monitor that Lucky number and maintain it's continuity.

As for why no increase even after he stole so many of lucky Leon's opportunities - well, that's also explained in chapter 53 too.

Luck for arcadians can only be increased using world points, which gets introduced after world system gets an update once phase 2 of emergence begins.

Till then, everyone is affixed with luck that was initially given to them.

As for why this setting changes after phase 2 -- well that's because after taht period, GODs start participating on ground level themselves. Resulting in massive destruction and death tolls.

So to stop this carnage, and maintain survival of it's natives - world will introduces this world point and luck exchange update.

This way, it motivates mortals to do good for this planet and in return receive luck's blessing, which can help them survive against Gods.

...

This world point and luck update - is also one of the reasons, Rio is doing so many good deeds for normal populace of Arcadia. Like sharing free potions and stuffs.