[ WP ] You are granted each wish in the form of an enemy

Nothing in life is free, not even magic wishes. The key is learning how to game the system. 
 
 `` The strength of your opponent shall be commensurate to the size of the wish. No wish shall be granted without victory over the summoned opponent.'' 
 
 Any and all wishes you could choose to make, so long as you were willing to fight for it. The Dealmaker and Witness seemed surprised I found it, or even read the fine print. Then again, it is n't too surprising most do n't. The Dealmaker chooses his marks well. The desperate and hungry, people who wo n't stop to think. 
 
 They were even more surprised when I signed it anyway. Hey, like I said, he picks his marks well. I was destitute, reduced to nothing, left on the street to die. 
 
 But unlike the others, I went in with open eyes. 
 
 I started small, `` I want to find a quarter on the ground. ``, killed the weird, little gnat thing, then started working my way up. I stopped around the $ 10,000 and surrendered to the little demon dog. Did n't feel right trying to hurt a dog, and it let me know that some of the wishes, the smaller ones, do n't go for a kill. Little guy stuck around afterwards too. People give me weird looks when I take him for walks, but screw them, they never had to take responsibility for a dog they spontaneously created. 
 
 I figured out the pattern and scale pretty quick. The physical objects were fairly easy to gauge, tying into their rarity and value. The abstract things: knowing the future, toying with emotions, forcing peace on a violent world, even momentarily, was Dangerous with a capital D. I stuck to as small as I could managed and still nearly had a four hundred pound, roid-raging, meth head nearly tear me in half. 
 
 But then I had my breakthrough. The cost of the wish for the physical only related to it's physical attributes. A flash drive with a copy classified information on it worth millions only had the opponent of a flash drive. A copy of a hedge fund's internal business plan or quarterly earnings report was just paper. The potential value of what you might do with it does n't come into the equation. 
 
 So, I ground out a few thousand $ 10 wishes, then set up my own investment firm. Things went great. I had the inside line on any company I wanted, any research my competitors bothered to perform, and an endless cash base to cover any losses I did make through bad luck. I made more money that I could have safely wished up in a lifetime. 
 
 Sure, the SEC and jealous rivals made some trouble.'Insider trading' and'unreported cash flows' got thrown around a lot. Funny thing, did you know that if legal paperwork is consistently misfiled or lost, you can get just about any case thrown out of court? And that the cost of that wish is a four inch imp that gives you paper cuts? 
 
 I did n't even need to use a wish to win over the girl of my dreams. Although I did spend one to figure out if she was in love with me or my money. Three cracked ribs and a shattered femur later, I proposed. Still the best wish I ever made. 
 
 Until, possibly, right now. 
 
 See, just like how nothing in life is free, nothing in life is fair, either. You can game a system all you like, but sometimes, things still just do n't go your way. Which is what happened three months ago, and led to my current situation. 
 
 Some things, you ca n't really prepare for. I could n't even risk figuring out a scale for this one with smaller wishes. I'm not as young as I used to be, and I ca n't risk dying before I make this wish. Money can buy you the best guns, body armor, and personal combat training, ( and believe me, it did ), but sometimes you still have to take a deep breath, and roll the dice. 
 
 `` I wish my son did n't have cancer.'' 
 
 Nothing in life is free, but some things are worth any price.
