“So does everyone know how to play?” Morgana asked as the chips were separated into equal piles for the four of them.

“I’ve never played before,” Edwin replied, “could you explain the rules to me?”

“Right,” Morgana began, “So first, the dealer deals everyone their hand…”

***

The [stray cat] yawned as I felt the weariness of the cat starting to creep up on me.

“Ok that’s the safe re-locked and the trap door put back in place,” I thought before I looked at the mess I had made, “now, I just need to pick up all of this paper and put it back on the desk.”

I let out a sigh through my stray’s nose before getting back to work.

***

“It’s a little complex, but I think I get it,” Edwin said.

“You’ll pick it up as soon as we start playing,” Morgana said with a grin.

“There’s a sign over here if you forget something,” River said, “although I would try not to stare at the sign if you can help it.”

“Oh look, the sign explains the betting rules,” Morgana said, “we could potentially double our money if we win.”

Odez let out a whistle.

“High risk, high reward. Even the lowest buy in is basically all of our chips. What do you guys want to do?” asked Edwin.

“Well I can always work for Granny again if things don’t work out,” Morgana said.

“I did say I wanted a rematch with the dungeon,” Odez said with a grin.

“I’m in, obviously,” shrugged River, “Edwin, what about you? We can always try for some gear and work together if we don’t manage to get three more kits.”

Edwin was silent as he took a moment to think.

“Yeah screw it, we didn’t sign up to be delvers to take the easy road,” he said before a grin crept onto his face.

“That’s the spirit!” River exclaimed before the four of them sat down at the table, “All right dealer, we’re in. Ante up.”

***

“I wonder if the boss of this place is one of those types of people who remember where everything is without having a system of organization?” I wondered as I continued to put parchment in it’s approximate place from where I had pushed it off the desk.

My [stray cat] was starting to really wear itself out.

“It’ll take a little longer, but I need to swap out my cats if I don’t want this one to get exhausted,” I thought.

***

“That’s seven points and your first gate is broken,” Morgana said cheerfully as she revealed her hand.

The dungeon’s scion nodded before taking up the cards and shuffling the deck with her telekinesis.

“Wow Morgana, you’ve had a lucky streak tonight,” Edwin said.

“I know, I’m not usually this lucky,” Morgana exclaimed as she pet the cat with the golden sheen to it’s fur.

“Maybe next round we can focus on avoiding the traps and try to set it up for Mori next round,” River suggested.

“Yeah, me and Edwin were stumbling over each other that last round,” Odez agreed.

“Sorry Odez, we can’t really tell each other what’s in our hand without getting disqualified and loosing our chips,” Edwin apologized.

“Eh, don’t worry, you technically had the better hand that round,” Odez shrugged.

“Look alive everyone. We’ve got the tower door to get through before we make it to the noble,” River said as the cards were dealt.

***

“Ok, that swap took a few minutes, but I’m back with a fresh stray and I’m making progress again,” I thought as I gingerly picked up a piece of parchment with my cat’s mouth and hopped up to the desk.

I was honestly starting to get tired of the taste of parchment and I had to be sure not to leave any obvious bite marks.

I sighed.

“I wonder how things are going at the casino?” I thought to myself as I did the best to stack the paper without thumbs.

***

“WOOHOO!” River shouted as the final card was flipped over.

Edwin and Odez similarly cheered while Morgana had the biggest grin on her face.

The dungeon’s scion simply grinned as if to say “well done” and telekinetically pushed the pile of chips over to the cadets.

After the celebrations died down, and the chips were distributed, River spoke up, “well Mori, do you want to go first? We wouldn’t have managed it without you.”

“Oh sure,” Morgana replied, “how does this work again?”

“Just put the chips into the chest and close the lid,” River explained, “just be sure you don’t put them in all at once since we’re aiming for the mid tier equipment prize.”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Morgana nodded and put in about a third of her chips into the chest and closed the lid.

***

“Whew almost done- oh what now?” I groaned as a notification popped up in my vision.

! Pressure trap activated, object: Dice Tower engaged !

I must have sighed for the tenth time that night as I reached out to the secret room’s chest and dice tower.

To avoid the need to watch the secret room all night, I had set up a simple system in order to alert me whenever someone used the exchange chest.

It would be bad customer service to leave someone hanging if my attention happened to be elsewhere. Not to mention, those customers were more than likely to be the kinds of people that were specifically trained to fight and possibly kill dungeons.

Granted, there was a reason that room was at the end of a long corridor surrounded by many feet of stone, iron and silver as well as some of the more lethal traps at my disposal, but that was only if my scions or the [stalkers] couldn’t politely escort any troublemakers out of the casino.

I was trying to encourage repeat business after all.

I don’t know if it was because I was in the head of one of my [stray cats] and the cat’s brain didn’t have the bandwidth or something, but my awareness was severely reduced and it took much more focus to “see” anything back in the casino. Not to mention jumping in and out of mob’s heads was always a little disorienting, so I needed to check on things remotely if I wanted to get done any time soon.

“Damn, first try,” I muttered as I took a look at the dice tower before swapping out the chips with an adventurer’s pack and returning to the task of cleaning up the mess I had made.

***

Black smoke escaped the corners of the chest as the four of them held their breath.

“The Mother’s blessing,” Morgana prayed as she lifted the lid on the large ornate chest.

“Wow, someone must be looking out for you,” River said as the four of them peered at a full backpack full of shiny new equipment.

“This gambling stuff is fun,” Morgana said as she hoisted the backpack out with one arm and tried not to disturb the cat that was in the other, “I wonder why Mom and Dad always told me it was so dangerous?”

“Probably because most people don’t have your luck,” Edwin said as he followed suit and put a stack of chips into the chest.

It took him two tries before he was able to get himself a set of gear.

“Well at least it didn’t take all of my chips,” Edwin shrugged as he slung his pack over his shoulders, “Odez, you’re up.”

“Heh, watch this. First try,” Odez grinned before stepping up.

Unlike the other two, it took him four tries and by the time he got a full set of equipment, he only had a handful of chips to his name.

“First try, huh?” River chuckled as everyone else held back grins.

“Eh, at least I managed it in the end,” Odez shrugged with good humor.

“What are you going to do with your chips?” asked Morgana, looking at River.

“I was thinking I’ll hang on to them. Maybe I’ll come back and try for my circlet later,” River said with a bit of a forlorn expression.

There was a quiet pause as Odez, Morgana, and Edwin shared a look between the three of them.

“Hey River, take my chips. You’ll need them more than I will if you want to get your circlet back,” Morgana said softly as she handed over her chips to River.

“Yeah if I never see another one of these weird spin-y dungeon machines with the pictures of fruit, it’ll be too soon,” Edwin said as he similarly gave River his chips, “just try to be more careful with the circlet if you win it back. It makes you invisible, not invincible.”

“Here, it’s not much, but you can have my leftover chips,” Odez said as he handed over his meager stack of chips with a shrug.

“You guys…” River said with a hitch in their voice.

“Here, pet the cat for good luck,” Morgana said as she shoved the cat towards River, now with an annoyed expression from being jostled so suddenly.

“All right, here goes nothing,” River said as they gave the cat a scritch behind the ears and dumping all of the chips into the chest.

***

“Finally! I’m done,” I exclaimed as I shoved the door closed to the office behind me and had my cat climb up into the rafters.

Exchanging the chips out of the chest had added about ten extra minutes to the clean up due to splitting my focus between the two tasks.

“At least that’s finally done,” I sighed contently as I maneuvered my stray out of the busted out window that I had been using.

! Pressure trap activated, object: Dice Tower engaged !

“Or not,” I grumbled as I gave both the [stray cats] the next twenty-four hours off to rest and jumped back to the casino to see who had been gambling in the secret room.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the heaps of mana and experience I got from higher level adventurers compared to regular people, I would have been much more annoyed at the constant interruptions while I was in the middle of something.

Unfortunately, I had something else to be much more annoyed at.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered as I stared, first at the dice tower and then at the familiar group of cadets that had attacked me less than a week ago.

One in one thousand odds. On the second try, someone had won the grand prize.

Of all people, River had won the grand prize.

I sighed, made the swap, and for added effect, set off all of the slot machines to play the jackpot jingle at the same time.

The four cadets jumped before River threw open the chest and let out a cry of joy.

I was pretty sure that they were going to be horse the next day judging from how much the four of them whooped and hollered in celebration.

In the commotion, I noticed a [lucky cat] jump out of Morgana’s arms and slink off somewhere into the casino.

“Carmen,” I said with all of the patience I could muster.

“Yes, Mr. House?” she replied as she looked at the cadets with a smug expression from her perch on the card table.

“How long did Morgana have that [lucky cat] with her?” I asked.

“Oh, right before she hit the jackpot on the slot machine,” Carmen replied with a lazy flick of her tail.

If I had eyes, they would have bulged out of my head.

“That long?” I said more than asked.

“Oh yes, it was amusing watching her get excited about her lucky streak,” Carmen nodded.

“And you didn’t think to let me know about that?” I continued.

“You were busy,” Carmen shrugged as best as a cat could shrug, “should I have interrupted you while you were out?”

I took a moment and counted to ten silently.

“Mr. House?” Carmen said with a note of concern.

“Maybe this could be a good thing,” I said, desperately trying to grasp at a silver lining, “the [lucky cats] have always been a bit skittish. It’s not like they’ll just hop up into anyone’s arms, and when word gets out that people win big when they made a bet or two with a shiny cat, that could be a big draw. We’ll just have to make sure that nobody tries to harass my cats or take one home with them.”

“So you’re not upset about the circlet?” Carmen asked.

“No, I was just expecting it to last longer. Try and make it a big draw so that people would be coming back for a while to try and get it, you know. I just wasn’t expecting someone to win it so soon, but I guess that’s statistics for you,” I explained as I watched the four cadets practically skip out of the casino, circlet in hand.

“Ah, sorry things didn’t work out the way you were expecting,” Carmen said, “although having a big win this early could help the word spread faster among the delvers about the secret room.”

“Yeah, I just hope some high level adventurers decide to trade in some big magic item because they managed to find the legendary sword of whoop ass or something last week and can afford to let go of the lesser sword of giving monsters what for,” I said.

“I’m sure something will work out, Mr. House. It always does,” Carmen reassured me.

“Maybe Hilda has something that she’ll sell me,” I suggested as I watched the cadets and the circlet walk down the street from my patrolling strays.

Man, I was going to miss that circlet.

The rest of the night passed without incident and when the last patron was politely, but firmly asked to leave, I took a moment to brace myself for the inevitable flood of notifications.

“Man I wish this stupid system would just give me a total of all of the mana and experience I earned at the end of the night,” I muttered as began dismissing the dozens of notifications I had racked up before I noticed a pair that stuck out to me.

! Stray Cat: level up 1>2 !

! Stray Cat: new skill Scan Lvl 1 !

>Allows Stray Cats to appraise class and threat level of an individual or group even if the group or individual isn’t hostile to a mob or the structure of the dungeon

“Well at least I didn’t loose that circlet for nothing,” I sighed for the twentieth time that night before continuing to dismiss the notifications.