Norbert looked up at the building, massive glass windows going all the way to the floor, allowing someone to see the three floors and the people inside in constant motion. Winding through each floor was a staircase, one placed on each of the four corners of the rectangular complex. The stairs themselves seeming almost invisible as they to, where made from glass. Throughout the glass blue lights seemed to dance around inside.
His group of Norbert, Martitia, Dobert and Flanch made their way forwards. Entering the doors, Norbert followed Martitia to the centre on his way seeing tables of people playing games around him. Chips exchanging hands and being placed, cries of joy and despair bounced around the room. Staff going this way and that with holding drinks and other peculiar items Norbert was unable to recognise.
Standing at the centre of the room a sectioned off kiosk desk stood one of the staff sitting spaced evenly a magic barrier seen previously in the armoury once more up, a barrier between the staff behind and the guests. To the side, Norbert saw coins go under and chips be returned; few people at this time exchanged them back for coins.
Martitia standing at the front, placed a pouch of coins on the counter, hearing them clink together. “Exchange for a hundred and thirty-two coppers, please”, she added, the clerk nodding their head as they swiped the bag, placing it on a piece of metal. Norbert craned his neck around the others and saw the number on the metal in blue light, reflecting the amounts given.
The clerk nods their head, asking, “And what divisions would you like this as?”
Martitia replied, “Ten, ten, the rest ones, please” The clerk nodded, reaching under the desk; Norbert heard the jingling of something coming together. The staff returned with the chips and saw the round chips with different colours, each glowing slightly with a sigil.
Martitia scooping them up went off, heading to the closest table. Norbert followed as she sat down at an empty seat at the table. Placing the chips on the table, Dobert came forward, taking half of them and heading away, Flanch following him, already somehow having a drink in his hand.
Norbert just watched Martitia, trying to understand the rules of the game. Seeing the pot in centre go to someone, another leaving taking the chips he had with them, Norbert watched, seeing the dealer place the cards in front of each person. Flipping three in the centre, Norbert realised he was looking at poker, just with different cards.
With the understanding of wondering how poker made its way over here, distracted Norbert looked back to the game, seeing more cards revealed.
***
As the game went on, Norbert stayed with Martitia at the table, their size of chips not slightly more significant than when they started; Martitia began getting up, pooling the chips together and looking for the next table to play at. Norbert followed, seeing her go to a roulette table. Martitia walked up, placing the chips on the table, Norbert standing behind her.
Martitia stepped back; placing a hand on Norbert’s back, pushing him forward. Standing up at the front, Martitia explained the rules “The point of the game is to guess which one it lands on. Guess the specific number gives you a higher payout, thirty-five times what you put in, guess on colours, evens, or odds, and it only doubles.”
Norbert nodded in response, familiar with the system. “Which section is for odds, evens, and colours?” Norbert asked, unsure of the writing shining on the mat. Martitia pointed them out, Norbert nodding in return.
Looking at the roulette wheel as it stopped spinning; Norbert saw four blank zones, pure white, on the colourful wheel. “What happens if it lands in the blank?” Norbert asked, knowing the answer.
“No win for everyone,” Martitia said in response.
As the game runner began calling out, others around him placing them on the places, Norbert whipped out his coin. “Can you give me a second?” he asked, the staff about to spin. Sighing in annoyance, he replied, “Only this once, greenery, normally when it’s called, its spinning.”
Norbert just nodded, flicking the coin into the air. “Heads blue, tails purple”, Norbert whispered under his breath. Catching the coin in his hand, he placed it on the other. Blowing on it, he showed the tails up to the world.
Gulping, unsure if he should do what he was about to do, Norbert placed all eighty coins worth of chips on purple.
Everyone around him looked towards him, the insanity of placing a gamble on chance on chance, feeling Martitia’s fingers dig into his arm. Reaching forward to take some chips away, she stopped, hearing the ball start rolling around, and the loudest thing to Norbert other than his heart.
Staring at the ball, willing it to work with the payout, Norbert willed and hoped it to land correctly, that he had not just made a fool of himself. Watching it as it spun, rattling around on top before sinking.
The ball slowly spun until the wheel finally stopped, presenting the winnings. Seeing it land on the winning purple, not caring what number it showed, Norbert took the chips given to him and the extra from his winnings.
Martitia released her grip on his arm as Norbert counted the chips, seeing twice as much as before, not believing he had won. Looking around the table, Norbert saw others not so lucky, some walking away at that significant move. As he looked up at the winnings, now seeing the worth of a hundred and sixty, not believing this was the most money he had made since coming him, it would take him two weeks of running double shifts to make nearly the same amount as he did in barely a minute.
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Picking the coin up again, feeling a hand on his. Looking down and seeing Martitia’s hand over his looking up at him, unsure. Leaning down and whispering in her ear, “Well, you asked if I was lucky.”
Her arm limped around his as she bit her lip, knowing what would happen soon. Norbert flicked it into the air, same options as before. Catching it and placing it on the outside of his other hand, Norbert once more presented it, seeing tails again showing up.
Placing all the chips he received onto purple once more, Norbert saw the ball spinning around the wheel. The sounds of before and conversations dialled down, Norbert only focusing on the ball as it spun around.
Around and around it went; where it stopped, nobody would know. Hearing the rattling stop, Norbert gazed again at the ball as the wheel stopped spinning, nodding in return, and saw it on purple again.
Taking his three hundred and twenty winnings, Norbert split it into two piles, holding one back while he prepared the coin again. Turning around, Norbert asked Martitia, “How much do we need to get to?”
Martitia just looked, gulping as she knew this madness would continue. “A thousand would be nice.”
Norbert nodded, flicking the coin into the air, catching it and seeing it on heads. Norbert placed one of the piles on blue, the roulette ball rolling around again.
“Just wondering, what is the conversation between copper and silver?” Norbert asked
Martitia just shook her head. “You are a country bumpkin. The conversion is a hundred coppers to one silver.”
Norbert just nodded, the next question coming to mind remembering what Dobert once said about gold. “And what about other coins above silver?”
Martitia, realising she was now in for a long trip, responded, “Then there is gold; it’s a hundred silver for one gold, and the ratio continues for the gap between gold and platinum.” Norbert whistled in response, hearing the roulette wheel quiet once more, looking, seeing it was blue.
Nodding in approval, Norbert took his winnings, forming them into one pile before splitting it off again into two piles worth two hundred and forty bronze. Picking up the coin and flicking it, watching as he caught it, flipped the coin onto his other palm, it landing on tails Norbert once more placed on purple.
Turning around, not even looking at the wheel anymore, trusting that his luck would hold, Norbert had to ask the question, hoping his gut was right. “And is there anything higher than platinum?”
Martitia laughed at his response. “You sound like a kid, wanting to believe in the magic coins. A single magic copper coin worth a hundred platinum allows you to buy a kingdom they say. Don’t become a tomb raider on me searching for the prized magic platinum coin.”
Norbert just shook his head, “No, I don’t think I’d go tomb raiding; to stuffy for me down there” he did the calculations of their worth. Remembering the handful of coppers used for a drink and scaling up with the conversion of a beer being roughly $15 on Earth, a copper would be worth $3, a silver $300, a gold $30,000, a platinum $3 million. Going up higher, the magic coins for copper were $300 million, $30 billion for the magic gold, and the fabled magic platinum was $3 trillion; no wonder it was so fabled.
Shaking his head, Norbert brought back Norbert saw him getting his winnings again, seeing the pile doubled once more. With his worth of seven hundred and twenty copper, Norbert picked up the coin again, fumbling the throw. Norbert placed it back down, letting the others go without him.
As the ball spun around, Norbert saw it land on a blank tile, everyone losing something except him. With luck well and truly on his side Norbert flipped the coin again, landing on heads; moving 360 of copper in chips onto blue, Norbert saw it spin again.
***
As the sun went down, blue lights came on in the building Norbert not knowing were exactly the light sources were from. It just seemed lighter in the room than before. Norbert had a pile of chips in front of him. They had sent Martitia multiple times to cash in the thousand copper chips worth and now had bags tied around her as it was converted to silver for keeping. A crowd around him, and a table to himself, all others being kicked off from using it, or else they could as well copy him.
Though he was lucky, sadly, he wasn’t infallible; sometimes losing a couple in a row, but his winning streak always went on stronger. People around him drank and talked, celebrating his achievement each time. Just nodding his head, repeating the pattern, Norbert threw it into the air, seeing it land again on tails.
Moving to the purple, Norbert placed the cut pile of a thousand copper chips worth, all ten chips standing next to each other. As the ball rattled around the wheel, Norbert saw it land on purple once more; with the winning of his last thousand copper chips worth, Norbert grabbed it, heading towards the kiosk again.
The crowd parted around him as Norbert stepped up to the kiosk, the teller on the other side already hearing the word and preparing the coins in advance.
Having it all together, Norbert placed all of it on the table, the chips rattling off. The number showing the two thousand four hundred he had made in the end sectioned off into their silver and copper pieces. Norbert gave the last thousand copper to Martitia.
Bagging the rest, Norbert left the establishment, feeling the eyes on the back of his head as he left. Going down the steps, Norbert looked both ways, waiting for the others to get down with him.
Breathing in the cold night air Norbert shivered, the nerves building up each time he came through. “Surprised we made it out of there with this much coin,” Norbert said to the group as they returned to the pub.
“You made it out just in time. You would have been escorted out with only the clothes on your back any longer.” Dobert said, scanning everything as they walked, knowing the amount of coin they had on them.
Norbert spun around, walking backwards. “Oh yeah, and how do you know that?”
“Too many people, too many staff just standing there, waiting to pounce if needed. Be happy we made it out with this much.”
Flanch punched Dobert in the arm. “Stop being such a downer; we shouldn’t just be happy but ecstatic. That’s the biggest haul we have ever gotten.”
The group chuckled at that, possibly remembering times spent together trying to win more. As they walked, Norbert, now with more coin than ever, wondered about elixirs and their cost. Having drunk many more than usual, he assumed. “Hey, Dobert, how much does an elixir normally cost?”
Dobert looked at him, laughing. “You still don’t have enough for a proper one. I need a couple of gold for an average. A dodge you could get for half a gold in silver. And the upper limit, who knows? Some of them have been said to be legendary.”
As they walked back, Norbert calculated that he had already drunk a handful of gold, which converted over an eye-watering amount.
As they entered, everyone headed upstairs for the night; Norbert sat, watching the flames as a plan formed in his mind. As Dobert descended the stairs, Norbert called, “Is there a side effect of having elixirs?”
Everyone stopped and turned as they looked at Martitia; giving in, she waved the other two forward, walking back down and sitting at the table by the fire next to Norbert.