I look at the menu and all kinds of options are available for purchase.

There are about a dozen food and drink items on the top half of the menu written in green ink.

The middle half of the menu is written in yellow, and there are less than half as many items as the green.

Below this, there's only one item written in red text. It's a meal and drink combo.

Beside every option, [0 Tokens] is printed.

I look up at the woman and do a quick scan of her status to find that she's over level 700, has extreme water magic summoning, and mana control strong enough to face off against a regional director if she wanted.

However, she's just calmly standing behind the counter polishing an unused glass while we read the menu.

I ask her a question.

"What are these color-coded options...? And- What are tokens?"

I scratch my head and look back down at the paper, but she doesn't respond right away.

I turn to Ember and he shrugs.

"I asked the same thing a few times, but got no direct answers out of her. However, I did pick up on a few clues and think I have a feel for what's going on.."

I tighten my gaze at him as he continues.

"Everything about this first stage of the exams is about luck-"

As he says these words, lights flash in the background and a dinging noise sounds out from one of the casino tables with a spinning roulette machine.

A tall man with blond hair stands up with a relieved look on his face and yells out in excitement as the thin worker behind the machine hands him a small black coin.

A man on the other side of the table looks depressed and pale-faced. I can't quite tell what exactly is going on. It's on the far side of the room and I didn't see what the stakes were before their game, but that coin in the winner's hand may have answered one of my questions already.

Ember grins and continues after they calm down.

"Those are tokens. I've seen a few people win them throughout the last hour or so, and a few have even left through those doors."

He points to the back of the room where the [Exit] signs glow with red neon light.

Then I reply, looking down at the color-coded menu.

"So even this is some kind of game."

The woman behind the counter shows a small grin as she continues to polish the crystal-clear glass reflecting her blue hair in the bright lights of the room.

I point to the menu.

"So what? The green options are safer? And the Red Options are risky, does it work something like that?"

I look her in the eyes, and she shrugs.

"I'm not permitted to answer any questions about the exams without proper payment."

I tighten my gaze, understanding that this means it will be possible to get some information out of her.

If proper payment means tokens, then I'll have to play in these games to win some, but maybe there's a way to get the answers without risking anything. I saw the look on that man's face at the table when he lost, but if everything is free, then I'm not sure why he'd be so down...

I ask another question.

"Do we have to participate in these games? Do we even need tokens? Or can we exit right now...?"

"I'm not permitted to answer any questions about the exams without proper payment."

She responds with the same tone, but I can tell she's enjoying herself by the small changes in her facial expression while she watches me think.

I let out a sigh, thinking over my options.

"Well, if I'm going to play, I might as well limit the times I'm going to test my luck. I doubt it's as easy as just picking a green meal and winning a token. High Risk, High Reward. I'll take the meal and drink from your red menu option."

Her grin grows as I push the menu forward, and Ember adds in.

"I'll have what he's having too. If it doesn't look appetizing once it's presented, I just won't indulge."

I nod slowly.

"Same..."

The blue-haired bartender places the overly polished glass back with the other clean glasses and gets to work on preparing a meal before our eyes.

With magic stoves, pre-cut meat and vegetables, and top-shelf drinks lined up ready to pour behind her, it only takes a few minutes before our meals and drinks are served on crimson-tinted plates and glasses.

The drink bubbles and the food steams.

I can sense a large amount of mana radiating off of both of the meals, similar to the dishes I ate back in Valor City. They will instantly re-energize the person that eats them and fill their mana stores to full, even giving minor strength buffs that linger after.

She places them down and takes a step back.

"Please, enjoy your meal."

The woman goes back to polishing the same glass that she put away before, and we stare down at the dishes.

I do a full scan of the food and drinks multiple times and find no odd curses or magical debuffs present. It's just like the glass that the server at the door handed me, nothing is off about it at all, and it feels like I'm just being overly paranoid for no reason.

Ember also looks down at his dish very hesitantly too.

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I come to the conclusion that there is really nothing wrong with these dishes in a magical sense, but that doesn't mean it's safe to eat.

I dip a finger that's covered in the silver armor of my gauntlets into the sauce that's cooked into both the meat and vegetables on my plate and smear a small amount on my inner right wrist against my bare skin.

I look at Ember's dish and don't even ask him first before I do the same on my left.

The bartender presents a sanitary towel for me to clean the sauce off my hands, but I leave the two blotches on my skin for a few minutes and wait.

In the meantime, I do the same thing with our drinks, dabbing a fresh towel into each of the glasses, and putting it onto my wrist below the sauces.

Nothing happens for a few minutes, and we wait in silence. The food stops steaming, and the bubbles in the drink all pop and fizz away. However, it isn't too long before I begin to feel mana from a passive skill being used up while a very strong burning sensation starts to make itself known in my left wrist.

I whisper under my breath while staring down at the plate where the sauce came from.

"Poison... This dish is poisoned..."

None of the drink splotches react, and the sauce from my own dish doesn't burn at all.

I wipe the sauce off both of my wrists, and only one is covered in a very faint rash that is automatically healing from the passive poison resistance perk of my self-regeneration skill.

Before it fully heals, I cover it up with my cloak and put my arm below the table, then switch my plate with Ember's.

I speak up while picking up some of the veggies with a clean fork and crunching down on them knowing that they're packed with poison.

Ember smirks, but the bartender's eyes widen with surprise.

I can tell she wants to say something, but just gulps and steps back while continuing to polish that glass.

Both of us dig in, and I feel the burning feeling in my mouth and throat rise and fall over and over after every bite.

My self-regeneration skill cleanses the entire meal of any harmful substances and even detoxifies the alcohol in my drink before it can reach my bloodstream.

It actually tastes like a unique flavor of hot sauce, slightly sour, and a strong aftertaste.

Whatever poison was in this dish was definitely a strong one, but it'd take far more than this measly dose to actually do any real damage.

We both push our plates and glasses forward when we finish, and the woman behind the counter is almost breaking a sweat at the sight before her eyes.

Despite that, she reaches beneath the counter and pulls out two black coins and slides them toward us.

"Congratulations. You've both earned a token for completing the red menu challenge. Now that you have a balance, you may order from our secret menu if you please."

She slides a new menu toward us while taking our dishes away.

______________

[1 Token] Ask Me Any Question

[2 Tokens] Choose a Magic Item you Desire

[3 Tokens][Exit Card] Basic Room

[5 Tokens][Exit Card] Designer Suite

[10 Tokens][Exit Card] All Inclusive Lounge

______________

I look up to the exit, then back to her and ask a question immediately.

"What does all this mean? An exit card? Does that mean we fail or pass? Is exiting a good thing? Or-"

"I'm not permitted to answer any questions about the exams without proper payment."

I let out a sigh when I hear her speak these words again, but think carefully about what comes out of my mouth next, because it seems like I actually do have the proper payment to get what I need now.

Although I am interested in this game and how it's really played, looking at this entire room on its macro scale is more worth my time.

I pause for a moment, then slide the black token I just won forward.

"My question is, how do we pass this first portion of the exam safely and efficiently?"

She smiles and takes the token from me, finally responding with a straight answer.

"Every vendor in this space has the same secret menu. To move on from this stage of the exam, you must collect at least 3 tokens and buy an exit card. You must move to the next room by morning and rest up with the remaining applicants before the real exam begins."

Her gaze moves over to the exit doors, then back to me.

"As I said before, luck and skill are very similar. One by itself will not make you a strong hunter. You're not only going to be tested by your physical capabilities during these trials."

I nod to myself, then speak up again.

"Well, in that case, if it's that easy, I'll have another course! One option from the red menu please."

Ember is deep in thought too, but adds in.

"Make that two."

The woman smiles and places her polished glass down to begin making two identical meals just like before.

They come out steaming hot, and drinks bubbling.

I do the same test I did before, but for some reason, this time neither of the dishes are poisoned. I'm unsure if that was a one-time thing, or we just got lucky this time around... Not questioning it much, we just dig in, and right after, two more black tokens are presented to us.

"Another round!" We both reply.

Without missing a beat, she cooks up a third round of dishes and when I do the poison test, they both come back positive...

The bartender catches onto this phenomenon but doesn't say anything.

I share my mythic grade self-regeneration skill with Ember and give him the heads up through telepathy once I do.

We both eat our third meal, and the bartender can't believe her eyes once she gives us our third coin each.

I used one up from before, so I just need one more before we can both afford the lowest exit card option on the secret menu, so I speak up the moment she starts to bring our dishes away.

"Let's do one last round, just for me this time."

She turns back with a smile on her face.

"Oh- I'm sorry, we're all out of that menu option."

This isn't the reaction I expected...

She turns back to me and begins polishing her glass again.

I reply.

"What do you mean? You're already out of food? Is there a limit per item or something? Or-"

"I'm not permitted to answer any questions about the exams without proper payment."

That same exact response comes back and I drop my face into my palm.

"Well, how about the yellow menu, or even the green menu, are any of those available?"

She shakes her head.

"No, it seems we're all out."

She doesn't change her expression and just stares ahead like we're not even here anymore.

Ember looks very confused too.

He turns to me.

"It must be some kind of limit per table, or maybe someone cut us off because we were winning too much."

He jingles the three black coins in his hand, then shrugs and places one down on the counter.

"We're either going to figure out how this is done here, or at least figure out why we can't order anymore. You don't have 3 coins, so we're going to have to play somewhere else anyway, I might as well ask."

He pushes his coin forward.

"My question is, what is the reason we've reached the limit on this table and how can we make sure this doesn't happen again today?"

She accepts the coin but doesn't respond immediately.

It looks like she's listening to someone talk in her ear for a few seconds before replying.

"That is two questions, but I've been permitted to answer in a long-form explanation."

She points to the basic menu of this shop.

"Every bar, table, or game in this room has its own set of rules and odds of winning. Here, if you choose green, you have a 1 in 10 chance of losing, however, you must consume 3 full meals to win. The yellow is a 1 in 5 chance of losing, but it only takes 2 meals to win. Red is a 1 in 2 chance of losing, but only 1 meal to win."

I think about these odds, and what she means by losing is picking the poison... Because the odds of eating deadly poison are 50%, anyone who completes a meal with the red label wins a token.

The green and yellow options have better odds not to die, but the person has to eat much more food and will most likely be very drunk by the end of it.

Even though the odds are lower to eat the poison, there is still far more opportunity to be unlucky each time.

The green option would have been the smartest choice, but using my self-regeneration perk, I've created my own luck.

The bartender continues.

"However, there is one rule that applies to every game in this room. You're only allowed to play three times."

I raise an eyebrow, and this makes me rethink my thoughts about the odds before.

If you're only allowed to play 3 times, that means the maximum amount a person could win on green would be 1 token. So, depending on how hard the games at the other tables are, maybe this was the best option after all...

I nod and she finishes her thought.

"You have tokens to use. If you'd like to successfully win 3 and move on to the next stage, it will be best to ask other vendors the proper question before you play. You have reached your limit on this table today, I wish you the best of luck."

She smiles and takes the menus away, then goes back to polishing the clean glass like none of this ever happened.

I want to ask her more, but I'm sure she'll give that same basic response unless I hand over a token, so I let out a sigh and decide that we've gotten all we can from this woman.

"Well, I guess, thanks for the meals."

Music, dinging, flashing lights, and dozens of ongoing games fill my senses as I bring my attention away from the bar we were just sitting at and back toward the rest of the games.

Over a dozen more applicants have wandered in from outside while we were playing.

Ember and I get up from our stools, both with 2 tokens jingling in our hands, and slowly walk further inside to look for another game worth playing.