"No! How could I lose?!" a young Asian man in his early twenties shouted as he grasped at his hair in frustration. "You... You cheated!"

The handsome 30-or-so-year-old man with dyed-blonde hair wearing a silky purple shirt that was tucked into his pure white pants sneered at the man. He tightened his grip on the breast that was cupped in his hand, resulting in the woman sat on his lap moaning lightly. "As if I'd ever need to cheat against you. Accept your loss, or keep screaming and see what happens to that liberal tongue of yours."

The young man flinched. He wore an awkward smile and bowed while cupping his hands apologetically. "S-Sorry, Mr Tucker."

Nodding arrogantly, the blonde man replied, "So long as you know. Now, leave my sight."

As the young man scrambled out of the room a tall and busty lady in a tight-fitting formal dress strolled in and said, "Jim, the boss needs you."

The blonde-haired man frowned. "What? Is that two-bit gangster Alek trying to muscle in on our casinos again? I keep telling the boss that I can only absorb so much luck. It's almost to the point that I'd be taking in their misfortune instead of actually fucking them over."

The lady shook her head. "No, it's a bit more serious than that."

"Oh?" Jim was interested.

"Daz has shown up with the city's key and he's claiming that he's its rightful owner," she explained a bit mysteriously.

An intrigued look entered the man's eyes. "Oh... Now that, that is interesting. So, what does the boss want me to do about it? Suck all of his luck out?"

The woman smiled seductively. "Daz has foolishly made the choice to gamble away his flying city in exchange for a non-resistant approach to his takeover. You know, the one he used to fix the sinkhole. All you have to do is win a few dice rolls. It's as simple as that."

"Sheesh," Jim stifled a laugh. "Is that guy an idiot? I guess he is since he was prattling on about equality during the champion auction. I'll be over there in a minute."

----------------------------------------

Daz had held back when it came to using Master Identification on Mayor Rickley since he genuinely didn't care what or who the man was. He knew he was strong, but not enough for Daz to worry too much about him. If they became enemies, then he'd identify him.

He did, however, pull up the man's crime list and his random secret. In Daz's opinion, those were both far more important than the man's stats and his basic information.

Aston Rickley's Crime List 14 cases of unwarranted physical assault. 7 cases of unjustified murder. 31 cases of illegal blackmailing. 19 cases of setting up and owned illegal gambling rings. 7,320 cases of rigging gambling machines/matches. 902 cases of illegal bribery.

'Well, he's screwed if we fight then. With that many crimes, I wonder if he can even injure me?' Daz thought.

Randomly selected [Aston Rickley] secret: He is incredibly insecure about his weight despite how unaffected he seems by insults. He is even known to kill those that push his buttons too much.

'Huh... His crimes are as expected for the ruler of the country's capital for gambling and debauchery, his secret though... So he's self-conscious about being fat? Can't he just fix that with merit points? Unless I guess if he's a point hoarder and refuses to spend them on himself, but then where'd he get his power? Quest rewards, maybe...' As Daz was thinking, the main door to the VIP room opened.

A gaudy man with dashing blonde hair walked in as he held a woman in either arm. His silky purple shirt spoke volumes about his personality. At least, it did to Daz.

"So, what's the game?" the man asked Mayor Rickley.

"Ah, Jim. I'm so glad you accepted. I was afraid that I'd have to play in your place, and we both know that I'm not the best at throwing dice, ahahaha," the portly man bellowed. 'I also can't afford to lose that flying city. The things I could do with that...'

"Yeah, but like I asked, what's the game, specifically?" Jim asked once again.

As the mayor began explaining the chosen dice-based game, Rose leaned over to Daz and whispered in his ear, "Your instincts are probably warning you, right?"

Daz silently nodded.

"That's Harriot's brother." Daz's eyes opened wide a bit. The two looked nothing alike, after all. "He was adopted, so, yeah, justifiable confusion. Anyway, you're pretty sly, right? Think up some way to work around his power. I bet you can make something work with those dice of yours."

Daz wore a momentary look of contemplation on his face before he smiled slightly. "I was already planning to use them. Like I'd rely solely on my good luck, even if it's at a fairly high number."

Rose shrugged. "Good." She then returned to typing away on her laptop as if that conversation had never happened.

Before long, the table had been rearranged from a blackjack one to a high-class casino one specialised for rolling dice. It was clearly an alien item considering how it had almost magically changed entirely to suit a different game type.

Jim Tucker was stood at one end of the table while Daz was at the other. The well-dressed and busty woman who had collected Jim was actually the manager of this establishment, so she had been tasked by the mayor to be the game's arbiter and its host.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"As per King Daz's request, the wager will be decided by a very simple game where the goal is to rack up the highest combined roll from a total of ten individual dice rolls. Both contestants are free to use their own dice if they own any, and if not, then I'm more than happy to lend you a set and bless them with a kiss," she said as she winked at Daz teasingly.

Daz smiled and shook his head. "That's fine. I have my own set."

"C'mon, Lizzy," Jim complained as he rolled his eyes and pulled a box of gold out from the rear pocket of his white pants. "You already know I have a set, though I'd have used yours if you were offering me a blessed kiss as well."

"The offer was for the dice, not the player. If you both have your own sets, please, go ahead and take out one each," she requested as she gestured with her hands elegantly.

Jim's dice were all unique and each one had a special pattern in place of its ones and sixes. He picked up a clear white one which had a wax seal for its one and a fountain pen instead of a six.

Daz, on the other hand, took out Altros' Unlucky Dice Set.

"Ha. That shabby wooden box is where you keep your dice? That isn't even worth identifying," Jim mocked.

'Well, that kinda wastes the effort I put into the false description then, now doesn't it?' Daz thought.

He had recently used his Secret Override on all of his skills, and as it so happened, the secret of The Crystal Digger's Master Identification was that Daz could, at will and at no cost, create a false description for all of his items, his skills, and his status if he wished to.

Of course, he'd done so for almost everything that he owned. He edited the dice set to display an increase of 10,000 points of Luck once a dice was rolled, not the decrease of 10,000 points that it actually applied.

For his other items, he'd just made minor adjustments mostly. As an example, he left his travelling gear completely unchanged except he had edited out Altros' name.

Daz had even left Hamson's description free of alterations. It made no difference to him if people coveted the shovel since it would only allow him to wield it, making it useless to all others and it helped to show his power to those with curious minds.

'Now, how to beat this shmuck... Will he try to take my luck? If so, it'd probably be a good idea for me to apply the debuff preemptively...' Without waiting for the host, Lizzy, to announce the first round, Daz casually rolled his ordinary and beaten-up-looking dice.

Since he had no particular thoughts or desires in mind, the dice just rolled a natural four, though the serving girl who had come to give Daz and Jim some alcohol tripped on seemingly nothing and ended up covering Daz from head-to-toe in some sort of very fragrant wine.

She gasped and hurriedly began wiping at Daz's pants and his jacket in an attempt to diffuse his anger, though surprisingly, the reaper seemed to be completely unphased. He simply stood to the side to get the woman off of him then he gestured with his hands for her to leave.

Mayor Rickley was hiding a grin under his concerned frown as he said, "Are you alright? You, clean young Daz here for me, would you?"

"Yes, Sir," one of the armed men said before he paid the system to thoroughly rid Daz's body of the spilt alcohol.

A few moments later, Daz was back in perfect condition. "Thanks."

"Oi, that roll doesn't count towards your ten," Jim said in an annoyed tone. 'Bastard rolled before I could do anything... I'd better start sapping his luck now before he actually gets a decent roll. I want him to be getting ones across the board, after all.'

Daz shrugged uncaringly. "Sure. I was just testing my dice anyway. I'm good to start whenever."

"As am I," Jim said as he plastered his arrogant smile back on his face.

Lizzy nodded and smiled charmingly. "Well, in that case, please, gentlemen, roll your dice."

----------------------------------------

Sandy frowned as he puffed away on his pipe. He was sitting in the backroom of Bobby's Trashy Cookhouse with Bobby himself, Ellie, Idris, and of course, his prospective disciple Carl.

Bobby's eyebrow rose as he asked, "Why does your face look uglier than usual all of a sudden? It's not uncommon for you to sulk, but this is a bit..."

Carl nodded as he scratched his cheek. "It looks like your face is about to fall off, Mr Cliff."

"Something feels wrong," the grumpy old man claimed.

Idris wore a confused expression. "Wrong? We build bad?"

"No, Kid. There ain't nutin' wrong with our construction," Sandy claimed and then took another big puff of his pipe. "Something just feels... off."

Ellie cocked her head to the side as she thought on the matter.

"That!" Sandy yelled as he suddenly pointed at Ellie's face.

"Pardon?" she asked in befuddlement.

"Madison always does that!" Sandy slapped his thigh and condemned himself for not noticing sooner. "I must be tired from all of the extra work this week or somethin'."

Bobby's forehead wrinkled up while his face soured. "Start making some sense, would ya?"

"Yeah, yeah, ya idiot. Of course ya wouldn't realise it when ya're always coop'd up in this place's kitchen like a damn'd housewife," Sandy spat out. "Everyday that Daz is away, the daft girl stands on top of the outer wall an' just stares out into nutin' for a few hours. She's always there during our lunch break, but she wasn't up there today, now was she?"

"Ah, now that you mention, you're right, Mr Cliff," Carl said.

Idris smiled wryly. "I try not think Madison. I no notice. This important?"

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, why does this matter?"

"I've no clue," Sandy admitted. "I've just got a bad feelin'."

Bobby held his chin. "Maybe I undercooked your steak? Be careful of explosive diarrhea, Buddy."

"Ah, fuck ya. My Constitution makes the runs basically impossible," Sandy said as he got up and headed for the door. "I'm gonna go check on Madison. I could be worryin' over nutin', but it's feelin's like this that kept me alive when I was in the military."

----------------------------------------

"Whaddya mean she's not in the castle?" Sandy asked with some anger in his voice as he spoke to Crosius in the throne room.

"Keep, not castle. Not yet, at least, and like I already said, Alistair Cliff, Young Lady McArthur didn't return after she left to play with the children at the school. Now that school, that's a castle. I've actually served as the head advisor for quite a few castles in my days-"

"Ack! I don't care about yer nonsense. Thanks for the info regardless," Sandy bluntly responded before he walked away from the man that made even him look young and spry. 'If she's not here, then is she even in the fort anymore? Maybe she was kidnapped?... Nah, who'd ever be that stupi-'

You have discovered a conspiracy attempt against your ruler, King Daz! Quest [Protect Fort Skip] earned.

"The fuck?" Sandy was beyond confused. "Discovered? That's a bit of a fuckin' stretch, Pal."

Quest Title: Protect Fort Skip Quest Type: Main/Emergency Quest Difficulty: S Quest Goal Protect Fort Skip from the impending diversion of attention attack. Quest Rewards +200 to all mind-based stats. An A-ranked hoe. The title upgrade for the system + the title 'Hero of Fort Skip'. Consequences of Failure 42-214 citizen deaths.

Sandy took in a deep breath then muttered through gritted teeth, "Fuck."