High Stakes: Outward.
Create a situation with a non-determinative outcome that can be played by more than one person.
Any coin with Worth wagered on that situation will be paid out based on the situation’s odds by increasing the raw value of the coins wagered.
If a participant is caught cheating, they instantly lose. If The Gambler is a part of the game, this responsibility must be given to an outside source.
Worth with its value increased in this way cannot be wagered again.
The same person cannot participate in this skill more than once every two hours, save for The Gambler.
Current maximum odds: 1/1.
Upgrades alongside High Stakes.
Pretty much the same skill as High Stakes, but with a few simple additions to make it work in a multiplayer environment. Except for one little thing; the cooldown for me using the skill on a non Worth coin. I wonder if that means I can wager a bunch of skill coins on a game and upgrade all of them at once. …Or if I could’ve wagered all of my Worth on a single coinflip instead of going one by one all this time.
God, I hope not. That’d make me one of the biggest idiots to ever set foot on two worlds.
With that happy thought in mind, I gesture at the screen to project the new used-on-other-people version of my skill instead of my personal one. Nobody turns around to notice, since they’re still too busy fawning over Ursula’s coins, so I take a second to sit back down and fiddle with Noland’s bank.
“I didn’t even know the system could do this.” Noland flicks a coin into the air, then snatches it from its apex with one hand and a winning smile. “This could change everything. If we put a spell into a coin before we used it, we might be able to bypass the Worth requirement. Even with diminishing returns, that could be a twenty or thirty percent upgrade to coin-based spells for literally no investment.”
“Not no investment–someone else’s investment. Someone has to lose for someone else to win.” March points out excitedly. “But for little investments, we can easily lose on purpose to help each other.”
Noland nods vigorously in agreement. “We’ll try that next time. Shelby, what’s the cooldown on your skill for me?”
I look up from my Class Card and raise an eyebrow at him. “You still haven’t turned around? Maybe try doing that.”
He raises both of his eyebrows in response and nearly snaps his neck from turning so fast. “How long has that been there?”
“Fifteen minutes.” I state with the smallest sprinkling of sarcasm. “You were just too enraptured with sparkling coins to notice.”
“Um, no. I was… uh…” Noland trails off as he looks around the room for something to blame. “Ursula! It’s your turn to trade a contract with Shelby.”
Ursula shoots Noland a nonplussed look. “Wow. Wonderful job deflecting there. None of us could figure out what you were doing.” She sighs and gestures at the screen. “My skill’s not quite as Worth generating as either of yours, but it’s a hell of a lot more combat applicable. Which we’ve learned is apparently a rarity among Worth classes.”
Both my and Noland’s skills disappear to make room for Ursula’s. It’s an extremely long one, but before I even get halfway through reading it, my brain turns the words into squirming masses of unreadable garbage. I don’t have to say anything at all before the censored words disappear completely. Ursula must’ve been watching my expression for this exact thing.
I offer her a small smile of thanks. She returns one of her own.
Hired Muscle
You can accept Worth in exchange for any combat-related task.
By accepting Worth, you are put into a ‘Hired’ state. There is no limit to the number of jobs you can accept at once, but if they are not completed by their individual deadlines, you will be put in Debt to whoever you took it from.
While ‘Hired’, you gain bonuses based on the job you were hired to do. In addition, the class item ‘Uncertainty’ will contain different things based on your accepted jobs.
If you are ‘Hired’ to complete a quest, you are automatically given that quest as well.
“That’s a lot of words to say I can pay you to fight for me.” I glance over at Ursula and tilt my chin upwards. “What’s ‘Uncertainty’? Is it that briefcase that keeps disappearing?”
She reaches under the table for the briefcase, which she gently places next to her pile of Worth. “Good memory. Yeah, this is it; an item that’s as much a part of my class as my skills are. I get a stat buff when someone hires me to do something, and Uncertainty here gets filled with something that’ll help me do the job. When I’m not hired for anything, this is what happens when I open it.”
Both of the latches flip open and the lid swings upwards, revealing a simple electronic device the size of an e-reader. Ursula scoops it out of the briefcase with one hand and presses all five of her other fingertips to the screen, then twists them in a counterclockwise motion. It beeps three times, then reveals a bunch of arrows and a top-down view of the resort.
“This shows me everyone with Worth in my immediate vicinity. If there’s nobody around here, or they’re close enough to register on the outskirts, it’ll give me an arrow pointing off-screen.” She explains, then pinches her fingers on the map. It zooms out so instead of the resort taking up the entire screen, it takes up less than a quarter of it. “It’s supposed to be for helping me find people to hire me, but it’s also amazing for keeping track of people. I haven’t met anyone who could conceal themselves from it so far.”
I lean in to get a better look, but it doesn’t come into focus any more than it already is. Not sure if that’s the tablet being magical or my eyes being too good now. “Is that where the turret came from back in the car?”
Ursula crosses her arms and inhales. “Not technically. That’s another one of my skills, but it works into Uncertainty, so… I guess? It’s pointlessly complicated and will probably get censored. So I’m going to retcon my answer to ‘yes’ and leave it at that until you’re higher clearance.”
“Gotta love the system’s arbitrary bullshit.” I sigh and lean back into my spot. “So you can only be hired for combat things. How strict is the definition of ‘combat’?”
“Loose as hell. I’ve been hired as a bodyguard, a guide, a scout; it counts as long as there’s the chance I’ll have to fight something.” Ursula holds out two fingers at me as a simple business card manifests between them. “That has my system contact information on it, and if you don’t already have the communication function installed, it’ll install it for you. Send me a message with a job, and as long as the system lets me, I’ll try to do it. In exchange for games, of course.”
“Of course.” I say and take the card. It melts into my hand, and my system notifies me that I have another contact. “I guess that’s that. How about you, March? Do you still want to make a contract after watching the rounds of blackjack?”
March nods a little. “Yes, please. Should I bring up my skill now? I’m going to bring up my skill.”
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She swivels her chair to face the wall of screens, opens both of her hands wide, and shoves them towards it. Her skill appears in a fireworks display of different shades of pink, though it’s a lot shorter than I was expecting.
The Blues
Spend Worth to create a building or fixture from owned blueprints. For each material you have on-hand, reduce this cost.
Creations have their own unique effects.
You can set prices to use your creations or charge others to create them.
“The blues? Like… blueprints?”
“Yes! Blueprints!” March exclaims excitedly. “I make magical buildings and modify regular buildings to be made with magical stuff. All I need is a blueprint, which I can either get from the system or make myself, and a bunch of Worth.”
Noland snorts out a quick laugh. “Calling it ‘a bunch’ greatly undersells how much her skill actually costs. Unless we’ve got the materials on hand, we’re talking five-figure investments for one little hut. You don’t even want to know how much this place cost before we found all the materials to get the price to something even close to reasonable.”
“But the real killer is trying to make some of her better blueprints. The only one we’ve managed to make was the clearwater tower, and that’s because Gil got super lucky with a customer coming in to sell stuff.” Ursula adds with a sigh. “You should see the collection she’s amassed. And you should get her to make you a few statues for things like helping you sleep, training your Body, keeping you healthy, and… whatever else you think is important.”
“I was going to say that.” March grumbles and hugs her legs tightly. “So many blueprints need things that barely exist. Like everdriftwood and radiosteel.”
My ears perk right up at the mention of everdriftwood. “I’ve got, like, seven everdriftwood saplings. Not, uh, available at the moment, but they’re in my inventory.”
March’s eyes widen so much that her mascara starts to rub off. She looks at Noland and Ursula, as if they’d be able to tell if I was lying, but… they’ve got very similar expressions to hers.
“What? I mean, I found it when I was still clearance one. It can’t be that valuable.” I say awkwardly as the silence stretches on. “You guys know Gil; he stopped me from selling them to him. Ask him about it if you don’t trust me.”
“It… isn’t that we don’t… trust you. It’s that it’s really hard to… believe you.” Ursula’s eyes wander to meet Noland’s, then to me. “There’s never been a report of an everdrift tree before. Always just scrap from old shellraiser things washing up on the shore, or from dismantling said shellraiser things. An intact sapling wouldn’t be valuable… it… hell, I don’t think it’d have a value at all. Since there’s nothing for the system to go off of.”
I hold up one finger, pull open my Class Card, and tab over to my inventory. Everything I’d had in my backpack looks like it got transferred to my inventory, including the saplings and all those stat coins. I lean close to Ursula and gesture at all my inventory slots filled with saplings.
“There they are; all of ‘em. I can’t get them out of here right now, obviously, but there’s proof that they exist.”
Ursula’s expression somehow flips between disbelief and childlike excitement. She reaches out to tap the inventory slot, but stops herself just before her finger touches my screen. “Can I touch your screen?”
“Not like you’re going to activate it, but sure.” I shrug. “Does that let you confirm it somehow?”
“Oh-ho-ho, yeah.” Ursula murmurs excitedly. “March, Noland, you need to see this shit. She isn’t bluffing.”
Noland’s chair goes skittering across the floor as he rushes to look over Ursula’s shoulder. March winces at the noise as she gets to her feet, walks around the other two, and stands right next to me. She gets a little too close–again–and leans in to get a look without so much as asking. Her breath comes quickly, and her eyes shine with hope, so I don’t have the heart to tell her she’s crushing my arm against my side.
“It’s real.” She whispers in disbelief. “They’re actually real. I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah, neither can I.” Noland agrees with a hearty laugh. He crosses his arms and rests them on Ursula’s shoulders, but she’s too engrossed with her own screen to care. “Eight living everdriftwood saplings. My system can’t even give them a value they’re so rare. Which is extremely good for us, and pretty damn horrible for you, Shelby.”
I cock my head to the side which presses my neck against March’s spine. “I don’t get why it’d suck for me. I can just wait until I’m way higher level and sell all of them to Gil for an obscene profit. Then you can buy them from him after that. We all win.”
“Except for the fact that you’ll be waiting a very, very, very, very, very, very, very…” Noland trails off as he ticks up a finger for each ‘very’ he says. “Well, you get the point. It’ll be years before you’re high enough clearance to get what they’re actually worth. That’s why it’s great for us–we get the chance to convince you to part with them before you get the true value. If you can’t extrapolate how that’s bad for you, then that’s your problem.”
“Cool, but I’m not getting rid of something out of the goodness of my heart.” I take a step to the side to free my trapped arm, then drape it over March’s back as she closes the distance. “The only reason I’d give these to you is so you could grow them. Even then, I’d still own every single chunk of bark, piece of root, and seed that comes off of them. All you’d get is a guaranteed constant supply of everdriftwood that you still have to buy.”
“We’ll do it.” March says instantly and looks up at me with eyes that shine with possibility. “I’ll make a greenhouse that can grow them properly and set it up with magic that’ll adapt to its best growing conditions. Do you really promise you’ll sell us all the everdriftwood we want?”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting something more like a… long negotiation where they talk me down from my selfishness to a compromise we can both agree on. Like a fifty-fifty split of all the everdriftwood they produce. Not eager acceptance of what I thought were pretty awful conditions. I quickly check Noland and Ursula to see if they’re annoyed with March for jumping the gun, but nope. They’re just as ready to jump at my offer as she is.
Aw, hell. Did I just make a huge mistake? Is this going to bite me in the ass a few months down the line?
I set my jaw and inhale through my nose. “Is the greenhouse going to be fully automated, or will people have to work in it?”
“I have a skill that takes care of all that. It costs a whole lot, but it’s worth it.” March traces her fingertip along the table in wide circles. “I’ll set it up to take the seeds and replant them right after. That way we’ll never run out. Can we get started soon? I can get the blueprint ready in a few days.”
Ursula shakes her head. “We can’t use just any blueprint. How long until the other world calls you back?”
“Sometime next month.” March replies. “Should I look for a more magical blueprint there?”
“One-hundred percent yes. And go do some research on how the shellraisers used fresh everdriftwood lumber. We don’t want to waste any of this.” Ursula continues and finally leans back from my screen, sending Noland staggering with a yelp. “If it comes to it, wait until I get there and hire me for some ruin diving. I’ve got my callback between three and four months from now.”
“We haven’t worked together in a while. It’ll be fun!” March says excitedly. “Hopefully you won’t have to shoot as many people this time.”
Noland snorts out a quick laugh as he bends down to pick up his chair. “Every outing with Ursula ends with her shooting people. It’s pretty much the only thing that’s guaranteed about this planet anymore.”
Pearl giggles at that for some reason. It scares the hell out of me, though, since it means everything they do on Earth is dangerous or contentious enough to get someone pissed off at them. Definitely doesn’t help that the non-magical part of the world sees the preservation as pristine heroes, so we’d be painted as the villains if anything we do goes against what the preservation wants. Including trying to stay alive.
“So now I know all your skills, what you’re trying to do here at the resort, and… that’s about it.” I cross my arms and lean a little harder against March’s back. She doesn’t care. “Now I want to know what I’m supposed to do for however long it is until I get to go back to the other world, how you know when you’re going back, and why we’re even ping-ponging between words in the first place.”
My words hang in the air like breaths on a cold day. I can’t tell if everyone’s a little put off with my questions, or if they’re trying to come up with answers that can get through the censorship. Ursula breaks the silence by clearing her throat, then gestures at the wall of screens to clear all our skills from it.
Math takes its place. Not that I have anything against math, but having an answer to one of my questions being a pretty complex equation–at least for my standards–definitely doesn’t spark any joy.
“Alright, you see that ‘T’ there?” Ursula taps her fingers against the table. “That stands for time. It means how long you’ve been there in the other world. And the lowercase ‘t’, that also stands for time, but that one is the amount of time you were on Earth before you got summoned. For you it’s zero right now, but next time you come back, it’ll be based on how long you were here now. Got all that? Good. Now, ‘MB’ is based on your Body and Mind stats…”
I glance back over at the equation for a split second. Based on the amount of letters in it, this is going to take a while.