Increased odds. I knew this was going to happen eventually, but I guess ‘eventually’ means now. Two to one odds means a thirty-three percent chance of winning whatever you’re doing, and if there’s proportional payouts, it means I’ll get a profit of two Worth from putting in one for a grand total of three Worth. Problem is, I don’t know a way to cheat two to one odds like I do one to one odds.
A coin appears in my palm, and I start flipping it through my fingers as I think. First thing’s first, though; I need to make sure I can still make bets that are lower than this new maximum. I split it into two ghost quarters, palm one of them, and flick the other into my other hand. A flick of my thumb sends it tumbling through the air, and I snatch it right after it hits its apex.
“Heads.”
I curl open my fingers, and the smallest whisper of magic doubles the coin’s value. A sigh of relief escapes my lips; as long as there’s a guaranteed way to get more out of my Worth, then I can safely keep doing things. But a two to one… that’s a little harder.
“Pearl, do you know any way I can cheat this?” I shamelessly ask.
She shakes her head without a moment’s hesitation. “I never had to do anything like this before. Can’t you just make up a game that you have a thirty-three percent chance of winning and, well, win?”
“Sure. At a thirty-three percent chance to win. But if I actually want to get more out of this increase, I need to find a way to make it a sure bet. Something like how I rig the coin tosses so I can never lose.” I turn to the center of the clearing and scan the rooms. “Let’s find my room, then we’ll shelve this until we don’t have anything else to check.”
I walk across a stone, and light shoots up from it in a blinding haze. Magic spills from the sun in the center and slithers along the ground, lighting stones for a split second as it rolls over them. It settles in a path of stones, one by one, that leads me directly to a specific room with a rectangular outline etched on the glass.
It couldn’t be any clearer what that meant if it put up a neon sign. Even if Miss S said I could take whatever room I wanted, it’s kind of hard to ignore an invitation like that. So I don’t. Stones click under my feet and dim to a manageable glow as I follow the path to the rectangle on the glass, and when the last one dims, another handprint flashes bright on the glass. Part of me doesn’t want to get my fingerprints all up and on the clean panes, but if that’s the only way in, I guess I have to do it.
Warmth hits my fingers as I spread them out before the handprint. Compared to the other stone door, it’s… strangely different. Like standing outside of a shitty greenhouse and feeling radiant heat seep through uninsulated glass. I press my fingers to the warm glass, feel the magic work itself into my palm, and step back as the glass starts to shake.
It shatters into dozens of shards that all push back barely an inch, hovering perfectly in place, and float out of the way to let me in. I lean into the room halfway, just to make sure it isn’t boiling hot inside, and much to my surprise it’s pleasantly cool.
“Illumisia, we’re going inside!” I call out without turning around. “Yell when you want in!”
A pinched howl is her response, and I step fully into the room. The glass shards wait until I’m fully inside to move again, float back to the opening, and fit together like a perfect puzzle. Warm magic shoots through all the cracks, and with a low flash, the glass seals me in. I look up at the ceiling to make sure there’s still air getting in somehow, but I can’t really see anything.
There is a little breeze, though, so that probably means it’s fine. I beeline for a couch and flop down on it, call my Class Card once more, and swipe to the last two things I want to check.
Twist Fate
Can be activated twice in quick succession. If the second use is not consumed within 30 seconds, the skill goes on cooldown and the second activation is lost.
“A small change, but I can see it being useful.” Pearl notes. “You’ll probably have to be a little more careful with when you use it if you want to get the most out of it, but you can still use it just like before too.”
I nod in agreement. “Kind of like how High Stakes evolved, actually.”
“Right. Probably because they’re both Gambler class skills.”
“Good point.” I chuckle and swipe away from the skill. “Now I want to know why Relocation didn’t evolve with Projectile and Shield when Noland hijacked it.”
My Class Card flickers, and the description of Relocation appears before my eyes. There’s no Halsia Deity effect for it, which is kind of weird, and the actual spell’s description hasn’t changed at all. But what used to be a bunch of question marks is now a complete sentence. One that definitely couldn’t be achieved with just dumping Worth into it.
Coinbound Relocation
Evolution Requirements: Understand how the system teleports immeasurable distances.
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So, yeah. That’s not happening any time soon. Pearl hums in annoyance as I swipe away from it, but she doesn’t seem to have anything to say. The only way I’m going to achieve that is with the system actually telling me–and that’s about as likely as a volcano spewing out strawberry flavoured confetti.
“Shit, I think knowing what I need to do actually demotivates me on this one.” I swipe away from the window and go right back to High Stakes’ description. “So let’s not even bother with that shit–relocation’s pretty overpowered on its own anyway. Instead; two to one odds. Got any ideas that I can do on the fly and guarantee a win?”
Pearl blows a raspberry and shrugs. “Nothing new since two minutes ago, sorry. Um, does it have to be three equal chances? Or can you bet on one outcome that’s one-third likey against another outcome that’s two-thirds likely?”
“Either one works, as long as I’m betting on the one that happens one-third of the time.” I say as I look around the room for anything to use. My eyes settle on a small pile of colourful cork coasters. “Here, let’s just test this out.”
I lean forward and grab three differently coloured coasters from the pile. They’re all exactly the same size, without any markings or scents or whatever that I could use to tell them apart. Nothing that’s common knowledge, at least, which seems to be how the system determines if I’m cheating or not. I put them behind my back, shuffle them together, and pick one of them at random without showing it to anyone.
Then I focus on the one ghost quarter I still have in my palm. “Blue.”
Nothing happens right away. I slowly move the one coaster in my right hand out from behind my back, and before I can see anything, Pearl lets out a quiet ‘aww’. Instantly, the coin in my palm turns to dust and dissipates before any of the grains can touch the sofa. All before I could actually check what the colour I picked was–but I guess I don’t have to. It’s when anyone sees the results–not just me.
“Damn.” I sigh as the red coaster enters my field of view. “Good confirmation that I can bet a coin and it’ll still work even if it’s not the one I flip, and that anyone can confirm the results, but it still hurts to lose a Worth. Now… what the hell can I do to cheat this?”
There’s the obvious: marked cards. Take a deck, remove all the cards of one suit, then slightly mark one card. Then every time I want to wager my coins, I can just pull out the deck and make the call. But… that feels dangerous. Always pulling the same card–or even the same suit–would be really risky. The system might crack down on that as cheating, since I’m actually using a marked thing, not its own coins.
So that’s out. And by my own admission, I need to find something that doesn’t require me to mark or alter anything at all. It needs to be a trick I can do with anything that anyone hands me, just like my coin toss calls. Preferably something the system makes by itself. I wrack my brain, feeling like I’m missing something kind of obvious, but absolutely nothing comes to mind. If I’m not going to cheat so blatantly that I risk the skill’s use, I don’t know what I can do.
“Well… might as well try.” I put the coasters behind my back once more, scratch a line into the blue one with my fingernail, and split another one Worth coin in two. After a few moments of shuffling the coasters, I feel the scratch with my palm and stop. “Blue.”
Pressure mounts behind my eyes, and a flash of magic builds atop my coin. Before I can say anything, the thing bursts like an overfilled balloon and I feel my connection to it sever. Pearl and I both stare at it in disbelief, and I can’t help but think how lucky I was that the system couldn’t count my coin trick as cheating.
“So not that.” Pearl eventually says. “Now what happens if I shuffle them, and with your eyes closed, you pick one but use the scratch to find the right one? …Actually, nevermind–that’s just what you did with an extra step.”
“It is.” I confirm with a frown. “But I’m sure I’ll think of something eventually. Worst case scenario, I can just use Twist Fate to get the outcome I want on a long cooldown. As long as thirty-three percent counts as ‘likely’, which I damn sure hope it does.”
A loud crash accompanies a spray of glass plinking off my skin. I turn and shoot Illumisia an unamused look as she shakes the shards free from her fur, not a line of blood in sight. Not on her, nor on me.
“I could’ve opened the door for you.”
She walks right up to the couch, shrinks down to the size of a great dane, and hops up right next to me.
“Yes, you could have. However, this was much more amusing for me.” She licks her lips and smiles. “The glass is enchanted to have no sharp edges, and to perfectly reconstruct itself after it is broken. There was never any danger to you or the Ogean’s property.”
I roll my eyes. “Like that would've stopped you.”
“No, it would not have.” Illumisia agrees. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Nope. But that’s not going to change any time soon.” I watch the glass knit itself back together and push myself off the couch. “Instead, we should focus on what Clutter found, Nib’s research, and what happened to your messenger. Is it possible something found them?”
Illumisia doesn’t leave the couch as I walk to the partition in the room and push it aside, revealing a comfortable-looking bed. Beyond the bed is a single shower stall, a toilet, and a sink. All surrounded by nothing but glass, which isn’t great for privacy.
“There is a great possibility they were killed or kidnapped. There is also an equally great possibility that they simply took the payment and ran. It is a risk you take when you hire those of ill repute.” Illumisia says into my mind from across the room. “Tomorrow, before we meet with Clutter, we should return to where I found and hired them. Perhaps we will find some insight into their disappearance there.”
I pat a pillow with my palm, and it puffs right back up like rubber. Not quite my style, but probably high quality. “What about the place you rented? Should we look there?”
“Of course. But I do not know if we will have enough time to do that between investigating the disappearing messenger and meeting with Clutter. Perhaps we should look into it after our meeting.”
“And we have to get you more pills.” Pearl chimes in. “You need to torture yourself for four hours a day so you can get stronger!”
I groan and flop down onto the bed. “Maybe we can do that in a few days.”
“We can do it over supper.” Illumisia says helpfully.
“Great.”