Nyx pulls me all the way past the gates until we reach the nearest place that isn’t part of Medias’s place.

“You are really itching to get out, aren’t you?” I say to her.

“My uncle is boring. He doesn’t let me go out normally.”

“How old are you?”

“16.”

This girl looks younger than that.

“I can see why.”

“I am an adult now, I should be able to do what I want.”

“Then go and do it. As long as I get the message I really don’t care.”

“Speaking of you. Who are you? I am never called unless some spoiled rich kid needs company. Who are you?”

“I am Lucia.”

“That's not what I asked. What do you do that they called me? Was it because of parents?”

“I just have money.”

“How old are you anyway? You have a nice body but your face is a little too young for it.”

“I am 14.”

She gives me a look of defeat for a few seconds.

“What did you do to get like that?”

“Suffer.” This is somewhat true.

“... I guess I will be happy for now. Now let’s have fun. It is still day but pretty much anything is open. What do you wanna do? Sex, drink or gamble?”

“I feel like two of those options are not something we should be doing.” Fuck drinking, I never liked alcohol drinks and drunks are one of the types of people I hate the most and Sex is just done on the base of necessecity. I will not become a deviant.

“Just throw yourself out there. It's not like you will be able to have fun once you are married anyway. There is no way someone isn’t trying to get between your legs.”

“Let’s just say I would prefer if this person in question wouldn’t. And I am more a fan of getting into people's legs” I say somewhat suggestively.

“See, now that is better. Anyway, you call the shots, I am just company.”

“Then show me a good place to play cards. If I am going to gamble I want to have some degree of autonomy. My luck is shit as far as I know.”

“Then follow me.”

We walk for 10 minutes until we reach a giant barrel, the size of a house, that is also a bar.

“Below this is the best casino in the city.”

“Show me the way.”

We enter the place. It's mostly empty. There is one person in the kitchen and another in the bar, both cleaning the place, and a dude enjoying a book on one of the tables while drinking coffee.

“Hey, we are going down.” Nyx says to the man in the bar. He just nods.

We go behind a wall near the bathrooms and there is a stair there. As we walk these small stairs we start to hear a guitar.

We pass through a black door and on the other side is a very lively casino. A big place, as big as a soccer field with a bar in the middle, a stage to the left of it where it looks like there will be people on it all day, an area for strippers to the right and tables for various games in the rest of the place.

Looking around I see that there are various private rooms and bathrooms on the walls that you can only see if you look for it as well as other staircases that go up.

“Here we are, the Underground Den of Pleasure, every pleasure you would want you can get here.”

“Pretty sure I can’t get the candy I want here.”

“Tell me the name of it.”

“Chocolate.”

“What is that?”

“Mixture of milk, sugar and a really bad fruit.”

“Why would anyone want that?”

“Because it is delicious.”

“If it’s not here, probably isn’t.”

“Anyway, what can I play here?”

“Let’s take a look around. They change the tables every so often.”

We walk around looking at the tables and Nyx is way too familiar with the people who work here. The tables here work somewhat like they would in my old world. You use chips to gamble. You can buy chips directly from the dealer of the table.

There are poker tables, domino tables, solitaire tables where you can gamble against the casino to see if you finish it in a limited time, roulette, dice games that I never saw and of course my favorite card game, rummy.

All the dealers use a mask and generic tuxedos so we can’t see if they are man or woman. Also there is some spell in the mask that makes their voice the same.

I sit on the table, Nyx sits along.

“Hello girls, here for a round?”

“Give 50 to each of us on the house. The big boss himself sent us here for some fun.”

“So you are Nyx. This will be a short game then.”

“Hey, I am here to have fun, not to win.”

“So how exactly does this work? I only saw rummy on the table, I have no idea how I play here.” I ask.

“If there are enough players you play against each other and I get 20% of the bettings of the losers. If not I play against whoever is on the table matching your bets. You need to place a bet after seeing your starting hand but if you don’t bet after surrendering 3 times you must bet half of your chips or be banned from gambling for a few days.”

“Fair enough, let’s play.”

“Oh yeah.” Nyx says excited.

We begin our game. I take a look at my cards. Ace, 2, 3, 7, 8,9,10, Jack, Queen and King of all suits.

“I bet 10 Chips.” Nyx says.

“I bet 50 Chips.”

“Then I will bet 10 chips” The dealer says.

“Ok, I win.” I say showing the cards on my hand.

The dealer is shocked, Nyx is surprised.

“You are a very lucky woman.” the dealer says to me.

“Only in this game. Next hand.”

We play a few games, some take more time than others but in the end I win every game. The dealer is not very good at reading the table, we are only playing with two decks, including jokers, so it is easy to pinpoint what is a live card or what isn’t. I made 1565 Coins. I would have more but I keep giving some to Nyx so she can play. She also uses some of those chips to buy drinks. She is not being affected by them so I am letting things slide.

“Miss, I would like it if you could wait a few minutes.” The dealer says to me.

“Sure, it’s not like I have anything to do.”

He then leaves the table.

“Oooh, they are going to bring the professionals.” Nyx says to me with a happy expression.

“What do you mean?”

“This place is for fun, if you try to make money here they will try to win it back. They have lots of players ready to play any game for the place.”

“Playing with more people would be more fun. Also, since you are going to get drinks anyway, can you get me some juice, actual juice, not a beer, not whiskey, a fruit juice, no alcohol.”

“Ok, ok, you paid for everything so far, let me give you what you want at least this time.” She was trying to make me drink this entire time. I think she can’t get drunk.

After a few minutes she comes back with a pink juice, strawberries with something else I don’t know. It is very tasty. I am not really a fan of strawberries but this is good.

Not much time after that a dealer comes back with 4 people.

A black man in a white suit, he is bald, just a little taller than me and skinny.

A blonde woman in a red dress just a little shorter than me. She is at least 40 years old going by her face.

A beastman, half-cat. He is pretty much a humanoid cat, there is nothing human about him besides his body, two legs, two arms and a head. His fur is blue and he is using a red suit.

Last one is an elf man. He has white hair, is pretty slim and is using a greenish tunic.

“These will be your opponents.” The dealer says to me.

“Hello, thanks for coming, it was getting boring to play just the three of us.”

“Hello.” They all say back.

“Since it looks like you are such a good player why not put the challenge rules in play?” The black man says to me.

“Care to explain?”

“I will.” The dealer says. “Somewhat like poker you will have to bet a certain amount, from time to time. The bets start as small as the first person bet but increase as we play and you have to enter the game with a finite number of chips. After each turn you can choose to increase your bet and the others have to either match it and let the game continue or stay out of the game. Your hand is shown and that is your hand for the rest of the game if you don’t match a bet. You can still win because if the deck runs out we compare hands. Also if no one matches your bet you still get your turn before the game ends. You can also hold on a winning hand if you so desire, but if you lose your chance to declare win and another play does, you can’t contest it. The table doesn't get any chips from the loser playing like this.”

“Ok, looks fair.” Too much poker on my little game but let's roll.

I put all my chips on the tables, the others do the same. We have more or less the same amount.

He begins to deal. I get two aces, spades and clubs, 3 of hearts, 4 of clubs, two 5, spades and diamonds, 9 of spades, two Jacks, Diamonds and Spades and a Queen of Hearts.

The order is me, black man, woman, elf and cat. Nyx is just watching.

“Ok, I bet 100.”

“Ok, 100.” The black man says.

“Fine.” The Woman says.

The other two just put the chips on the table.

First round comes, I draw an ace of hearts and discard the 5 of spades.

Black man draws and discards the same card, 2 of diamonds.

Woman draws and discards a King of Hearts from her hand.

Elf takes the King of Hearts and discards an Ace of Hearts.

Cat draws and discards a 2 of spades.

“Anyone increasing the bets?” The dealer asks.

“50 more.” The cat says.

The rest of us just put more chips in plays.

I draw again. Another Jack of Spades. I discard my queen.

Black man picks my Queen and discards seven of clubs.

The woman draws a card and discards an ace of hearts.

Elf draws and discards a 5 of hearts.

Cat takes the 5 of Hearts and Discards a Jack of Diamonds.

“Anyone increasing the bets?” Dealer asks.

“Adding 80.” The elf says a very calm voice.

The others match.

“Surrendering?” The dealer asks me when I don’t pick my chips.

“No, I increase my bet to everything.”I say, putting all my chips in play.

The others surrender. I pick the Jack of Diamonds, discard my 9 and show my hand.

“Winner is Lucia.” The dealer says.

I pick my chips.

Everyone at the table is a little angry with my play. But the game continues.

We play like normal for a few rounds. I even lose some games but they never manage to reduce the amount of chips I have. At least I discovered their names. The black man is called Hesses. The woman is Magnalia, the Elf actually likes to be called just Elf and the catman is named Azurir.

These people bet too little for people being paid to take my money. They don’t even talk.

“Hey Lucia, look at this.” Nyx says to me.

I turn my head and there is a half-naked muscular man near us. She is hugging him and enjoying the muscles he provides.

“Good for you. You look very healthy and strong.” I say to the man.

“... Thanks I guess.” He says back to me.

“Don’t you tingle, girl?” Nyx asks me a little offended.

“You will have better luck getting naked yourself.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

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“Then let’s continue with the game.”

Cards are dealt but I blackout the second I am looking at all my cards.

I see myself floating in a dark space with Magnalia in front of me.

“Now, what cards do you have?” She asks me.

“Like I am going to tell you.”

“But you will, or I will mess with your head.”

“Wait, are we inside of my head?”

“Not that it matters, I command you here.”

I then think about a lance coming from above me piercing her. And it happens. A red lance comes as if falling from the sky and impales her in front of me. There is no blood or anything but she got impaled.

“What is the meaning of this?” She asks panting.

“Pretty sure I am in command inside my head.”

“You little. You win this round.” She says as I see her floating away.

“Nononono. Get your ass back here.” I say and she is back in front of me.

“What?” She asks nervously.

“I am ok with losing, none of this money is mine, but you shouldn’t have tried to cheat.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Lets see if you feel pain.” I think of various arrows hitting her and she feeling all the pain from them.

“AAAAHHHH” She screams in pain.

“Good, you do feel pain. I don’t want to stay here for too long so let’s do the rapid fire torture.”

I imagine her being constantly cut in half by the most broken sword I could imagine, various ways and being glued together non-stop.

I have no idea how time works but after she stops responding I imagine myself leaving that place and I am back at the table the exact moment I was looking at my cards.

The woman falls on her back.

The others try to help her.

“She is dead.” The Elf says after checking her.

“What did you do?” Hesses asks me.

“Hey, she started it. If she wanted to cheat, She should have tried in a way that doesn’t involve going inside my head. I don’t like to go there, I don’t think other people would appreciate it any more than me.”

“I am out.” Azurir says.

“Yeah, we are not paid for this.” Hesses says.

“I like my life, I will also retire.” The elf says.

The dealer just accepts as he calls someone to get the corpse.

“I guess it is just us again.” I say.

“Please don’t kill me.” The dealer says, clearly afraid.

“Don’t worry, I am not a monster. On that note, since all of them surrendered I will get all their chips.” I say picking all the chips on the table.

The dealer just accepts. In one way or another I just won.

“Alright, let’s cash this. I don’t think I will play anything else.”

“Sure.” Nyx says as she points me to the bar where it looks like you can get money for your chips.

In total I get 4785 Kir from the chips. With that me and Nyx sit on the bar enjoying the music.

“So Nyx, what is your story?”

“Which one?”

“How did you become like this?”

“Party in my blood, literally. I can’t get drunk, high or experience pleasure if it's not something extremely strong.”

“I don’t know if I should feel sorry or glad for you.”

“Do both. Being able to drink beer when you are 10 years old has it’s advantages.”

“Is it a curse, a blessing, a spell?”

“I have no idea. Mom never told me, it’s from her side of the family and there aren’t any churches here.”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“Because she probably has too many dicks in her mouth right now.”

“You speak of that in too much of a normal tone.”

“Mom and dad are called the orgy king and queen around this city. If I didn’t start to live with my uncle that probably would be my life.”

“You act like you want that to be your life.”

“Hey, I just like to party as there is literally nothing else that is fun to do in this city, at least for me. I am pretty sure you have your fun slashing people and monsters away with those swords on your back.”

“Not going to deny that.” I like to fight.

“So, how did you cheat?”

“I didn’t.”

“There is no way you weren’t cheating.”

“There is a reason why I only play rummy if possible. I suck at any other card game.”

“Ok. Hey, what you said before was true?”

“What?”

“About me getting naked.”

“Look I am not attracted to men.”

“That's probably going to change when you get married.”

“I don’t think any men will have my requirements.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have enough power to destroy this city. I was ready to bust this place open and get what I wanted if doing things the nice way didn’t work. If any man hope to have me by my side he must be at least as strong as me and not dumb.”

“You are kidding, right?”

“No.”

“Barman, give me the strongest thing you have.”

“As you wish.”

The barman gives her a spoon filled with something and she drinks it.

“Ok, that is better. I am calm now.”

“I think I shouldn’t ask what that was.”

“Better not, you really don’t want to know if you don’t drink.”

I spend around two hours hearing the music, appreciating the female body of the girls dancing there and watching Nyx have fun with the people there. I really don’t like this kind of place so I am just chilling.

Nyx comes back with a man and a woman, probably in their twenties.

“These two want to party with us.” She says suggestively.

“Yeah, I will pass.” I really don’t want to have sex with random people. I don’t think I had sex with a single person I wanted to since I don’t want to have it with anyone. This is probably my feelings from my old life but I think you should only have one person in your life that you go to bed with. At max two if you both agree and it doesn’t disrupt your relationship.

If I discover a way so that I don’t have to have sex everyday from that book my mind will be in a better place at night. My body is not ready for the things I am doing.

“You killjoy.” Nyx says to me.

“Look, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. In my case I have to do things I don’t even want to from time to time so let me choose the things I can.”

“Ok, ok. Sorry but you two go have fun alone.” She says as she sits next to me again.”You act older than me. Are you sure you are younger?”

“Yes.” Technically I am older than her.

“Ok, all you did was sit down here and do nothing ever since you stopped playing. What do you do for fun.”

“If I have to choose the thing I like the most, it would be fighting.”

“Fight what?”

“I don’t know. Anything that won’t die in a single hit.”

“Ok, let me see what I can find.” She says as she leaves the chair again.

I order some meat and by the time I finish she is back.

“Ok, I found somewhere where you can fight.”

“Before we go, are you sure about this? I fight to kill, not to fight.” Nothing makes you feel more alive than ending the life of another thing. Well, except for surviving certain death in my experience.

“I don’t think it will be a problem.”

“If you say so. Show me the way.”

I follow her out of the casino with more money than I entered. We go towards the residential areas where all the mansions for rich people are. After an hour walking we reach a big square warehouse taking the entire lot.

Nyx talks to the guards in a way I can’t hear and they let us enter.

As we enter the place I see various cages and rings. Different sizes and shapes as well as materials. There aren't really any customers here, only people training or fighting against monsters. This could be just a really, really ,really big fighting gym.

“Identify yourselves” A fully armored man asks.

“I Am Nyx the niece of the governor and this is Lucia a guest of honor.”

“Hello.” I say.

“Oh! Uhm… What can I do for you?” He asks.

“Where is the one in charge?” She asks.

“Give me a minute.” He says as he goes around asking people.

In less than a minute a very muscular white man, not that much taller than me, bald and with red eyes approaches us.

“Hello, I am Marcos, I am in charge of this place when the owner is away. We usually don’t expect people coming here if no event is taking place.” He says to us.

“Hello, I would like to ask if you have something for the girl here to fight.”

He takes a look at me.

“How strong does it need to be?” He asks me.

“What is the strongest thing I can fight against that you won’t care if it dies?”

“You seem awfully confident.”

“Well, this place doesn’t really invite confidence.” This place is not exactly clean or appealing. It's just a big iron warehouse with rings and cages on it. Not the place where you would expect to find really powerful people training.

“Alright. Follow me.” He says as he walks.

We follow him passing through the various rings. Until we reach what I think is the main ring as there are seats around it. It is a 10x10 meters stone ring without anything around it.

“There really isn’t anyone here.” I say looking at the empty seats.

“Hey, someone go get Tasha.”

“Who is Tasha?” Nyx asks.

“The one the girl here will fight.”

I start to stretch and warm up. A few minutes later a woman in light armor, with her face covered by a helmet comes.

“What is this?” She asks.

“The girl wants to fight, just do it.” Marcos says.

I jump on the ring.

“Hey, before we start, are there any rules?”

“The only thing you have to know is that if you surrender the opponent can’t kill you.” Tasha says arrogantly.

“Ok.”

A man throws a spear similar to those that knights use in jousts, just a little smaller. I pick Mira.

“You have a big sword, I hope you know how to use it.” She says, taunting me.

“Begin!” Marcos shouts.

She starts running straight to me.

“Razor Flame!” I shout cutting the air in front of me twice making a X out of flames that cuts through the air.

It hits Tasha straight. The spear is cut and melted and Tasha is now divided by four.

“Hey, I think she is dead.” I say to Marcos.

“Really? I didn’t see.” he says sarcastically.

A lot of people saw that and began to come to the ring.

I give some space for the cleaning crew to get the body. Marcos came back to me after checking everything.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could use magic?” he asks me.

“Hey, I asked about the rules.”

“She is right, if she wasn’t supposed to melt that poor woman you should have said before.” Nyx adds

“Anyway, I don’t know what you did, but do you still want to fight? That spell must have taken a lot of mana.”

“Not really. I can make way stronger stuff than that.”

“...”

“Try to lie a little. People will not fight you that way Lucia.”

“Anyone is up to the challenge?” Marcos asks everyone there.

One by one people begin to go back to what they were doing.

“Well, I guess that is it.” I say.

“No little girl, I was just waiting for everyone to leave.” I hear a very loud voice say.

I look at the direction of the voice and see a 6 meters tall human. He is really pale, short light brown hair, dark brown eyes and is using farmer clothes. “If you want to fight so bad I will fight you.”

“Hector, no one fights you for a reason, you…”

“Ok, get on the ring.” I say interrupting Marcos

He is surprised and Hector is with a smile on his face of someone who already won.

People begin to surround the ring again, this time everyone comes, not just those that were nearby.

“Let’s make this more interesting. Wanna bet some money?” Hector asks me.

“Ok, how much?”

“How about 1000 Kir and you can’t use any spells?”

“Sure, it’s not really that much money anyway.” I came here with 20000 Kir.

“So you can wage more?”

“Yes.”

“Alright boys and girls, you heard her. Time to gamble.” All of the people there start to go around picking money from what I can see.

“What are they doing?” I ask.

“They are just picking the money. So here is how things will go, you are betting that you will win against me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then when you lose you have to pay the same amount we bet against you.”

“What if I win?”

“Hahaha. We will pay what you bet.”

“Ok, I bet half of my money.”

“And how much is that?”

“Let’s make that a surprise.”

“Hahaha, if you say so. I just expect you to have our money.”

After a few minutes everyone made a big pile of silver, copper and wood coins.

“The total is 7349 Kir.” A woman there says.

“Ok.” I say.

“Remember, no spells.” Hector says to me.

I nod.

“Begin!” Marcos shouts as everyone is cheering for Hector.

Again my opponent charges at me. I think they think I use Mira as some sort of staff for spells.

I charge Mira with mana. This makes my hair go red and fire begin to appear on my body. If I wasn’t awake I would burn my clothes.

As soon as Hector is near me I put all my strength into a horizontal cut into his legs chopping both of them just below the knees and making him fly towards the crowd.

Everyone is just in shock.

“AAHHH, My Legs.” Hector screams.

Lots of people try to help him to no avail.

“Hey, want me to help? I can fix him.” I shout to everyone. Marcos gives an angry look to everyone and they give space.

“Someone pick those feets I will put them back in place.”

Two men quickly pick them and put them on the hector again.

“Healing Fire!” I say as I cast the spell on Hector. I make sure to give it more power so he can reconnect what I cut off.

After that Hector faints.

“Hey, he is at least alive and all of you owe me, uhn...4043 Kir.”

“What do you mean?” Marcos asks me, angry.

“I have over 20000 Kir with me. I bet half of my money, you owe me some money and I can prove it.”

“We can’t pay that, that is all the money we have.”

“It's ok, I am a patient woman. I can come back at a later date or you can give me something else.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Jewelry, good swords, cool pieces of armor. As long as I can take it along with me I really don’t care.”

He takes a look around.

“I guess we will pay you later then.” He says somewhat afraid.

“Ok, put all that money in a sturdy bag. I will take my leave. I don’t think anyone here is strong enough to actually fight me.”

“You used a spell, you cheated.” Someone shouts from the crowd.

“Yeah , there is no way you didn’t cheat.”

They begin to get riled up shouting that I cheated.

I approach Marcos.

“You better tell them to calm down.”

“Why, are you going to take on everyone?” he says with some confidence. I think he thinks that if everyone comes together I can’t fight them.

I go back to Nyx and give her my backpack.

“Go back to the entrance and dont open my bag. If you steal from me you better be able to vanish from existence.”

“I hear that loud and clear.” She says as she runs away.

Everyone begins to pick weapons and go towards me.

“Pay us, you cheater.”

“Get her so she can’t make a rune.”

“Bitch, you will not get my money.”

And many more things were shouted at me.

I fly myself a few meters into the air and pick Yin and Yang.

“Hey, if you stop now no one dies.” I had no intention of actually doing this but these people want to fight, so let’s give them a fight.

“Shut up and get down here.” Someone shotus.

Everyone agrees.

“Remember, you choose that. Razor Flame!” I begin to rapid fire slashs from the air in their direction. I don’t hit everyone but I hit enough people. Soon enough almost everyone left is running away.

I fly for a few seconds looking for something that I can use to pick all the money. Everyone just forgot about the pile of money as soon as fire started to rain on them.

I pick various bags around the place and fill them. Take a total of 3 somewhat big bags to get all the money. I tie all of them into Mira so I can hold on them.

I think they got the message that I will come later so I just leave the place. Not even the guards do anything. Nyx is waiting for me, outside, at the door.

“You are crazy.” She says to me as she gives my bag back.

“Look, if you're going to bet money, pay it. I was going to let them pay me later but they decided to be dumb. I even healed that giant or whatever he is.”

“Let’s just get out of here.”

“Let’s eat, I didn’t have an actual meal today besides breakfast and it is probably lunchtime by now.”

She just walks away and I follow her.