“Care to make that wager?”  said the old man.  The other guys at the table that had been paying attention were now interested, but there were two girls of the retiree group that were glaring at them.  Well one was glaring, one was smiling like a pissed off cheshire cat.

But Micky wasn’t stupid enough to get into a wager without at least knowing what he was getting into… “And what would that wager be?”  Micky said with too much interest.  Ok he wasn’t stupid enough to not show that he was excited about gambling.  But who could blame him? He had never been old enough to bet anything with the old guys back home, and the kids only beat each other up and took stuff.

“A duel, not with you obviously.  But instead, you would be supporting one of your girls against one of mine! I’ve got a disciple that’s about their age, just got divined themselves!”  Said an old man.  Well considering that they actually weren’t all ten, Micky guessed that meant they were older, but he wasn’t going to correct the old man.

Instead, Micky upped the anti “Ahh, I’m not interested.”  Or well, played it cool, despite his obvious interest.  Good thing they didn’t cheat him into playing poker, he’s got no face.

“Oh come on kid!  I’ve got a disciple too!  It’s just a friendly wager, what’s wrong with that?”  Said the other old man.

What’s wrong is they weren’t wagering enough!  “I have three girls that just got divined.  How can I be unfair and only reward one of them?  Not interested.”  Said Micky.

“Oh come on, tell you what, we can each wager somethin’ and you can do your girls one on one.”  said the first old man.

“Alright, but It’s three on three.  I can support them all at once no problem.  But I don’t even really have anything to wager.”  Said Micky.

“You got that staff don’cha? And you’ve probably picked up a few legacy’s yourself here and there?  Just put em’ all in the pot.  We can cover it, it’s just a friendly wager!”  Said the old man.

“Then I’m going to put put too!  I’m not going to let you stinky old men have your way with this poor defenseless young boy!  I will also anti up this ponderous pouch!”  Said Asneldean.

“Woah, woah, the boy can’t afford that!”  Said one of the old men.  Micky wasn’t sure what they were talking about.

“I’m not anteing against Micky, I’m anteing up against you two!  How can we decide who’s better if we just gang up on one little boy?  I bet I can take him on and then you two at once, dare to do the same?”  Said Asneldean.

“Oh, you’re on little lady!  We can cough up a few things, but can you? He said it’s three on three.  We need three kids and three items!  He can support them but we can’t, fair?  Kid needs at least a little handicap.”  Said the other old man, they all agreed.

Mickey almost chuckled to himself.  Three on three?  He was a support, now that he wasn’t just buffing out one person he could truly bring out what he had to bear.  Now it was truly four on three.

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Yolanda pulled him to the side and whispered into his ear.  “You know their shafting you right?  Those girls just classed, while their disciples will have at least reached level 5 by now.”  Well shit, maybe Micky did need all the help he could get…

“Alright, alright! Enough of this! Time to get back to drinking!  This is a party after all, right?”  said Asneldean.

“Way to ruin the mood Ass!”  Said one old man.

“Oh shut up Steve, and don’t call me Ass, it sounds too much like ass if you don’t put the zee into it.  And I don’t like it.”  Said Ass, the ass.

“Oh, don’t be talkin’ like that Ass.  You were always an ass.”  Said the other old man.

“Patric you old decrepit hifofer!  I’ll skin you!”  said Asneldean.

“You better get going no Micky.  I think this isn’t a place for you.  We’ll talk later about this.”  Said Yolanda motherly.

Micky went off to meet more of his neighbors.  That being the excitement of the day.  Well, not for the his girls.  For his girls it was the presents.

They all got excited and started jumping around seeing things covered up and presented to them.  It was the first time they had ever gotten a present and they literally were knew to the whole gift giving thing.  Oh, they knew of the concept, but they had never participated or known about it.  At least most of them anyway, some of the girls had had families when they were younger and had received little things.  None of this dampened their excitement of getting presents.  If anything it only magnified it.

Prin brought over hers first.  She gave each girl a passable dagger.  Micky himself had actually forged them with the help of his tutor.  They weren’t much, and not even something an apprentice would make.  But Micky had gotten them relatively cheap since he was his own labor.  Relative being the optimal term if you discount the fact he had his tutor standing over him the entire time instructing him the whole way.

Next Mrs. Doderson gave them each a good sturdy pack and belt.  These would serve them well later in life and would be something they could even pass down to their own children should it come to it.

Finally, Micky gave them good battle dress.  These were all enchanted mage gear woven with coppersilk thread.  Most of which were again, things Micky did himself under the eyes of his tutor.  As one would expect they were all part of a set discussed beforehand.  Mrs. Doderson felt that she should at least give the girls something while Prin felt near maternally responsible for them.  Finally, Micky was their liege, but also their guardian.  He felt that it was his duty to make sure they were properly outfitted.  

They were all magic classes so they should be better fitted with a dagger and cloth armor.  However no mage is going to go off into battle without proper protection, he didn’t care what class descriptions said.  Micky himself wished he could use the thickest copper plate armor the dwarves could make.  Thick sheets of metal that buried the user in metal two fingers thick.  Unfortunately he One, couldn’t dodge like that and Two, couldn’t use his class skills, that would be if Three, he could even move in enchanted plate.

Then Yolanda walked up and presented the three with two boxes each.  Micky looked at her questioningly.  Yolanda looked back at him with an impish smile.  Micky just shrugged his shoulders.  She was their grandmother in a way, it was no wonder she would give them something when she heard.

The girls were amazed by the colored paper.  Paper had been such a rare and expensive thing in the orphanage.  Most kids weren’t even worth having their statistics written on it and were just a name or a number.  Yet these each had their names as well as ribbons and other things.  They didn’t want to damage the precious.  So they thanked Yolanda for the gift.  That’s when she told them to open them.  They stared at her like she just asked them to kill a puppy.  She laughed and told them that the inside was the present.

So the girls delicately opened the gifts.  They would be saving the wrappings latter to look at.  Inside were some nicely crafted wooden boxes.  Micky was amazed, the craftsmen had managed to show off the grain very nicely giving even these small unimportant pieces a very high end look.  Opening them up there was a [System] tag over the items laying on the delicate velvet of all things.

The tags read [Re-roll] and [Extra Option] on them.  Micky’s eyes almost bugged out.  He hadn’t gotten those things in spite of dreaming about them for years.  And yet, here they were, right before him.  He was almost tempted to run up to the girls and take them then and there.  But he wasn’t so depraved as to steal from children in spite of his naked greed.  Instead he turned his burning gaze to Yolanda.  She gave him a cheeky grin, a winning smile.  Her present was better.  She was slightly apologetic and one upping him but she was also satisfied that she pulled a win in such short notice.

Micky just looked at her in betrayed hurt.  She was flaunting his inadequacy before him.