“Ah, the lucky one returns! I knew you would... the lucky ones always do.” the gambler said with no small amount of excitement as he caught sight of her approach. “Sit, please, and tell me what game you fancy! I have primarily card and dice games, but I also have some experience reading fortunes with these tokens if you’re interested?”
She shook her head at his offer for a dubious divination ritual, but briefly debated between the other options. Dice games were often purely luck based, so those weren’t very appealing for her purposes. Card games would be better, since they could involve a bit of skill, such as bluffing, reading body language, deductive reasoning, or memorization.
“What card games do you know?” she inquired.
“A fine choice!” he boisterously exclaimed, swiping the tabletop clear of clutter with a flourish and scooping up the deck of cards in the same motion. The dice and tiles neatly landed into a box to the side of his table as he shuffled the stack with expert precision. “I know Lion’s Gambit, Golden Lily, Crossed Blades… but if you’re in for something quick, I always recommend Chimera’s Fate.”
“How do you play Chimera’s Fate?” Samantha asked, interested.
“Simple. First, I’ll place three cards face up on this table, two spirit beasts and one cultivator suit. I’ll then flip them over, mix them up in front of you, and all you need to do is pick the cultivator card! Since the game lacks complexity, it’s a 1:1 bet. So, you bet 10 coppers and win? You get your bet back plus 10 coppers from me, and so on. What do you say?”
Samantha had never seen or heard of Chimera’s Fate before, but a not-small part of her doubted it could be legitimate. If it was really so simple, there was no way that this man could turn a profit.
Seeing her hesitation to play, the man gave her a small smile and offered, “How about this… one practice round with no bets? You can see exactly how the game is run for yourself, then make your decision.”
Not seeing how a free round could cause any harm, Samantha agreed.
As he had described, he started with three cards face up and towards her. The thick cardstock laid flat against the wood surface of the table, and the three faces were beautifully hand-painted. The center card depicted a woman cultivator with glowing white eyes, surrounded by misty blue light. The cards to either side of her were a ravenous looking Firestorm Bear and the fearsome countenance of the familiar Iron Boar, both painted with such detail that they looked as if they could jump out into real life onto the table.
She wanted more time to appreciate the cards, but they were soon flipped over and the man asked if she were ready to play. Giving him a nod and looking intently at the cultivator card, Samantha observed as he rapidly switched the cards around on the table for a few seconds. The movements were quick, but it was not overly difficult to track where the cultivator card had ended up.
When he motioned for her to pick a card, she pointed to the one to the left. Picking up one of the two cards she didn’t select, the gambler used the edge of that card to flip over the one she selected without physically touching it, presumably to show her that he wasn’t swapping it with something hidden in his palm or sleeves. Sure enough, the card face was that of the cultivator. He then took a moment to flip over the card in his hand and the one he left on the table, showing that the three cards he had originally placed down were still there and untampered with.
“Wonderful! You’re truly a natural. Are you certain you needed this practice round at all?” he said with a teasing, exaggerated wink. “Do you wish to play with bets now, or shall we play a different game?”
Samantha was still uncertain that this game could really be so straightforward, but put 10 coppers down on the table and gestured for him to reset the cards. His mask covered the entirety of his face except for holes to see through, but the crinkle in his eyes at the sight of the coin let her know that he was grinning.
The man placed his own set of 10 coppers on the table to match her bet and proceeded to start the game again, though this time he used a more complex mixing technique. However, it was still not overly difficult for her to choose the cultivator card from the set.
“Ah! You’ve won again!” he said with some disappointment, pushing his stack of 10 coppers over to her side while he hung his head. “I was certain that my advanced scrambling technique would get you that time. Would you be interested in playing again? Double or nothing! You can keep that same bet plus the 10 I’ve given you, and I’ll bet another 20 copper to match it.” As he finished speaking, he placed two stacks of 10 coppers on his side of the table and set up the cards for another round.
She agreed to the bet, watching intently as he mixed with even greater fervor than before. When the shuffle was completed, she pointed to the card in the center.
Shockingly, once he flipped the center card with one of the unpicked ones, it was not the cultivator suit. It was the Iron Boar card.
She watched as he slid all the money onto his side of the table as he gave a small sigh, “Oh! Shame, that. Unlucky guess. But, you got two out of three correct so far, so I’d bet it was a fluke. What do you say we make it a little more interesting? 10 or 20 coppers at a time is hardly much fun. You can earn your coin back and then some. How about 50?”
She was almost certain that the man had cheated, but she didn’t know how. She also wasn’t interested in losing anymore copper trying to find out.
“If you aren’t going to play, I’ll give it a go.” a young male voice said from behind her.
She nodded and stood, “I’ll take a short break. I’ll try again after he plays a bit though.”
The gambler seemed happy enough to oblige her, and continued the simple game with the newcomer. The young man had a similar experience to herself. He won the first round, lost the second round, and was now in the process of making a much larger bet for the third round.
As the gambler shuffled the three cards, Samantha activated [Inspect] and tried to determine if he was cheating somehow. There was no deception in his scramble that she could discern, but as the young man selected his card [Inspect] drew her eye to something unusual.
As the gambler began to flip the newcomer’s choice with one of the unpicked cards, the ‘flipping’ card he held between his index finger and thumb became obscured as it slid completely beneath the chosen card. Then, he adjusted his grip to hold the chosen card instead. With a sleight of hand so quick and smooth that if she had not been using [Inspect] she probably would have missed it, he turned over the original ‘flipping’ card as if it were the chosen one. The Firestorm Bear faced upwards, and the newcomer let out a groan of disappointment.
Unlike Samantha, the young man gambling was less level-headed. Frustrated by the second loss in a row, he continued to bet more and more money to try and win everything back until he left the table with an empty coin purse. On one of the losses, the gambler didn’t even cheat. The newcomer just got so flustered that he lost track of the correct card.
Now that she knew what to look out for, she took a seat at the table again and placed down her silver coin, “I see you’ve had a good run. I’m interested in winning some of that as well! How about we bet a whole silver?”
Gleefully, the gambler complied and placed a silver piece down. “Certainly! Certainly. A woman after my own heart.” He set up the game once more and mixed the cards, but she tracked the cultivator card again without issue.
This time, instead of pointing to the card from across the table as she had been doing, she firmly placed her finger down upon its back and pinned it to the table so that it couldn’t be lifted. A simple, yet quite unbreakable strategy. “How about you flip the other two cards on the table, and we’ll flip my chosen card last?” she said with no small amount of predatory satisfaction.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“That-That’s not how this game is played! Besides, don’t you know it’s rude to touch another man’s cards without permission? They are high quality and very expensive, so remove your filthy hands at once!” he stammered, doing his best to sound indignant.
“The faster you flip, the faster I get my hand off the card. Or, is there some specific reason why you’re stalling revealing the results?” she asked coyly.
“I won’t stand for being bullied at my own table. Take your silver piece and leave at once!” he said, gaining an edge to his voice and signaling to a large man that emerged from the crowd beside her.
For a large man, he moved oddly silently. He had the kind of presence that shifted people out of his way as he walked without him needing to say or do anything specific. As he neared her, his bulging muscles tensed to grab her and haul her away.
Remembering the fight she saw earlier and how the black market guards had not intervened, she knew what had to be done. Without even breaking eye contact with the gambler or removing her finger from the back of her card, Samantha stood up and extended her left leg towards the signaled man’s chin. She held back her strength so that she wouldn’t break his jaw--seeing as he was still a mortal--but he still went down immediately like a puppet with cut strings. He wouldn’t be getting back up anytime soon.
She leaned in closer to the now visibly nervous gambler. “Flip. The. Cards.” she ordered, in as low and menacing a tone as she could manage.
Slowly, the gambler flipped the two cards she wasn’t touching. Sure enough, two spirit beast cards were displayed on the table and her card was confirmed to be the cultivator. “That’s what I thought.” she said smugly, as she swiped the two silver pieces from the tabletop and added them to her purse.
As she got up to walk away, the man balled up his fists and slammed them down on the tabletop. She thought that would be the end of it, until he pointed directly at her and cried out “thief!”
A nearby market guard honed in on their location, and Samantha felt her irritation bubble to the surface. She should’ve known this man was a poor loser. Turning back towards her accuser, she held her tongue and waited for the guard to reach them. Running would only make her look guilty and lend credence to his claims.
“Stop her–she’s robbed me of two silver. Look in her hand! She’s still holding them!” the man wailed shamelessly as the guard arrived, not allowing her to get a word in edgewise.
“Is this true?” the guard asked her, his voice monotone and dry.
Just as she was about to respond, the gambler cut in again, “Of course it’s true! This worthless vagabond cheated me during our bet. She blatantly stole from me, then dishonorably attacked my right hand man as soon as I confronted her!”
Samantha could not believe the bald-faced lies that were spewing out of this man’s mouth.
“I knew I should’ve been more careful, with this filthy beggar flouncing about. I gave her a chance because I felt bad for the wretch but…” and he kept going, and going. Samantha felt her mild irritation become outrage as he simply yelled over her whenever she tried to speak up and defend herself.
Perhaps it was her heightened emotional state that caused her to lose control, or perhaps the anonymity of the masks gave her a touch of fearlessness. Either way, the result was the same. Her aura began to leak out as her anger grew.
The guard immediately stepped back to a respectful distance, clasping his hands and lowering his head slightly towards her. The liar hadn’t realized yet, though. He was too busy accusing her of stealing more and more ridiculous sums of money.
Sensing things could go very wrong for a mortal being so blatantly disrespectful towards a cultivator, the guard jumped forward and cuffed the gambler on the back of the head, “Shut yer yap! You’ve had your say.” The guard turned towards her and nodded, “Would you tell your side? I apologize I didn’t recognize your status as a cultivator sooner, else I would’ve put a stop to this farce earlier.”
Realization suddenly dawning on the gambler, he took a shaky step away from her. All bravado drained from his body in an instant as he squeaked out, “Oh. You--You’re… I didn’t--”
Insulting a cultivator could have grave consequences. Cultivators could leverage their (usually) greater resources to hamper businesses, demand pricey reparations, or in some cases physically beat mortals with few repercussions. As such, showing appropriate respect to cultivators was ingrained in every mortal’s mind from youth, because it was hard to tell if the one offended would be the forgiving or vicious sort.
Before she even had a chance to answer the guard, the gambler frantically fetched his purse and practically shoved it into her hands.
As she looked down dumbfounded into the bag full of coins, the gambler skittered back and lowered himself to the ground in a kowtow, “Forget what I said earlier–it was all a little misunderstanding! I didn’t mean any of it. Here’s my earnings from tonight to show how sincerely I apologize for this terrible mistake.”
Samantha was truly at a loss for words. Plenty of times throughout her childhood she had seen similar scenes play out between mortals and offended cultivators, but she never expected to be in this position herself. She still hadn’t gotten used to her significantly higher social standing and authority yet.
“It looks like you’ve tried to con the wrong mark this time, Suthan.” the guard said seriously, “You know the rule about getting caught cheating. You’re banned for a month.”
Suthan looked up at Samantha to see her reaction.
Uncertain on what exactly to say in this situation, she just nodded her head.
A great sigh of relief escaped the man as he pulled himself up and packed away his table. In minutes, he had been escorted out of the black market and business in the immediate vicinity had resumed as normal. The only difference was that with her no longer stealthing, mortals gave her a much wider berth. She relaxed her aura control, now seeing how being perceived as a cultivator might actually cause less problems for her.
She opened her new pouch of money and saw it was mostly filled with coppers, but a few silvers were also sprinkled throughout. This hadn’t been how she had planned on increasing her wealth, but she couldn’t complain about the results. She might even be able to buy a few extra things that she couldn’t have afforded before. However, she was still slightly shaken from the incident and not in the right mindset to effectively haggle, so she decided to view some entertainment before getting back to shopping.
Samantha found herself drawn back to the center of the market due to the sounds of cheering and clapping. As she approached the ring of wooden bleachers, she noted there was one moderately sized gap that served as an entrance point. Blocking free entrance was a man at some sort of ticketing booth. His aura pegged him to be a Low-Copper cultivator, and as she walked up they exchanged slight bows--his a touch lower than hers since she outranked him.
“Wonderful! Marvelous! You have come at the perfect time!” he said, and Samantha did a double take around her to make sure that he truly was speaking to her.
“One of our scheduled fighters has dropped out of the tournament tonight. He was a Mid-Copper, same as you, and his absence has put us in quite a bind for the brackets. You must be sent from the heavens with this timing, truly!”
When Samantha didn’t answer right away, he dramatically slapped a palm lightly to his forehead, “Goodness, where are my manners? You may call me Aegis. I am the co-proprietor for this arena tonight, and if you would be interested in earning some quick silver and getting in to see a bunch of other fights for free, I’d love to offer you a spot in our tournament.”
“I’m not much in the mood for fighting right now.” she replied.
“Are you certain? You’ll get a silver just for the trouble of participating and putting on a good show, and a percentage of the bets against you if you manage to win any fights. This tournament is non-lethal, and you can yield at any time during the fight--though admittedly you’ll get booed out of the stadium for it.”
When she still didn’t accept, he tried to sweeten the deal further, “Plus, the best medical treatment the black market can offer for any injuries sustained, free of charge. It’s a gold piece if you make it to the finals and five if you win.”
Samantha’s eyes widened slightly at those numbers, and the man’s eyes crinkled in delight at her change in demeanor. It took 10 silver–or 1000 coppers–to equal a gold piece, and she could do a lot better than some sketchy, cheap cultivation materials with five gold. She could probably even buy a technique book or two with that kind of money.
“...What’s the range of competitors for this tournament? Does it go up to Bronze?” she asked tentatively.
“Ha! Having two Bronze’s fight in an enclosed space like this? We aren’t looking to kill members of our audience, you know. Coppers only, though we do have a Peak Copper participating tonight. As I said though, if it looks dicey you can tap out. So, will you join, or no?” he asked, flipping a shiny silver coin in the air as he spoke.
“Do you have a change of clothes and a different mask I can use? This one isn’t suited for battle.” she said, pointing to her light headgear.
He flipped the silver in her direction and she caught it midair. “Of course! We have a uniform for all our fighters so you don’t ruin your personal clothes. Right this way, miss…?”
After having the nickname ‘Cheese’ thrust upon her and accidentally introducing herself as such when she was unprepared, she had done some thinking to prevent it from happening again. She had thought of several alternative aliases she could use and had at the ready, so she chose one she liked at random from her brain.
“You can call me Lunara.”