Poker

Utterly gobsmacking, Shu felt like he was bearing witness to some form of occult ritual, because whatever Edrick was doing right now had to be sorcery of some kind, that was the most sensical explanation, even if the inner disciple couldn't use himself as the basis for 'average', he could still realise that no normal man could just waltz into some random place for the first time and just start to flirt with every woman within a ten meter radius.

At the same time, and it was working somehow? No, Shu was certain that Anoteros was some form of devil from the depths of hell using his powers to get women interested in him, there was no actual way someone could get so many people to be interested in you so easily.

'I should ask him what his secret is…' seeing the special disciple in action, Shu had to admit that he could see his wisdom being valuable in him garnering Yin's interest, or at least her attention.

Both of the sect disciples noticed movement in the corner of their eyes, a man with a rather hefty additional weight upon his stomach area stood up which some difficulty, scratching the top of his bald head with fingers that had seen much manual labour.

"Alright guys… That will be all for tonight, my wife will beat my ass if I come home too late" he said with a yawn.

"Huh? My friend, it's day already, you've been playing all night!" responded another, leading the bald one to look toward a window and notice the undeniable presence of sunlight.

"...Crap… Welp… Don't expect to see me again before at least a week then… She'll be mad as hell" rubbing his creasy forehead, he fixed his clothing and dust his shoulders.

"Ahahah! Don't worry man, and be thankful that your woman still cares enough to get mad when you don't come back home in time!" the table laughed, except for the subject of the discussion of course, it was the third time this month that he had pulled this sort of stunt and was going to pay the consequences.

After he left, a skinny man smoking some sort of cheap-looking cigar, grabbed it out of his mouth, exhaled a copious amount of smoke much to the disdain of people near him, and spoke up :

"Anyone up to take his spot?"

No one seemed very enthusiastic about it, which was natural, the players sitting around the table might not look like it, but they were all fairly wealthy, at least compared to the regular person and they betted high-sums, moreover, the regulars patrons, be it of the bar or the unaffiliated ladies that hung around, they knew that everyone currently sitting around the gambling table was rather experienced as they were often playing here.

The latest addition was the pale guy that really looked like he should stop hoping for a beard to grow and just shave the few lonely hairs wandering his chin.

"I am up" Edrick gulped down his drink in a single go, relatively easy when the cup seemed too small in his hand.

"Excuse me ladies…" he casually slipped away from the conversation he had engaged and took a seat at the gambling table, all of the men around it looking up at the giant that had been sitting just nearby the entire time.

"Dear lord, did your mother get trounced by a troll?"

"Man, you really ought to shut up, you're shaped like a twig, be careful who the hell you are speaking to" another gambler snickered.

"Urgh… The rules are simple, we are playing poker with five cards, the biggest hand wins, there are no wildcards, no jokers… I assume you know the rest?" another with a goatee and snake eyes explained.

"I do" replied Edrick.

"Alright then, let's get started…" the snake-eyed man seemed eager to play another game, probably because he had been absolutely robbed in the previous game, having been certain of his victory with a queen-high straight flush, he had raised the bet higher only to lose to a king-high straight flush, the odds were so awfully thin that he could only direct his vitriol at the clouds for such misfortune.

A pretty woman was in charge of distributing the cards, which she did with much dexterity, Anoteros took one glance at his cards, showed no reaction whatsoever and did not look at them again, making the guy sitting directly to his right eye him with suspicion.

There were five men playing, the one with the cigar, the twig, the snake-eyed fellow, a well-built man with very small tusks protruding from his mouth, and lastly Edrick himself.

Twig was the one to start the betting, and he dropped twenty copper Leyen in.*

"Always a freaking rat, huh? You're the richest here!" Snake hissed, sticking out his forked tongue before raising the bet up to forty copper Leyen.

"I am not a rate, I am just careful, is all…"

"Forty? And you call that a raise?" Tusk strongly exhaled from his nose, and raised up to a hundred copper Leyen.

"You'll end up bankrupt… Make sure to make your loans at my place instead of Gold Teeth's, hey?" Cigar chuckled and continued the trend, raising to one hundred and fifty copper Leyen.

Without a word, Edrick fetched a single coin and threw it into the pot, Cigar choking on his smoke for a moment, Snake's tongue remained out for longer than it should, Twig emitted a 'oof' noise and Tusk exclaimed with a smile :

"Ah! That's how a real man bets, you need some massive balls to do that, which you all lack!"

"Maybe we should have asked who our new friend was before starting the game…" Cigar raised an eyebrow, eyes departing from the silver Leyen and toward Edrick, who looked awfully calm for someone who had just gambled a silver Leyen, the disparity in value between copper and silver was rather large, it was the difference between commoners and nobility.

"Let's leave that for after the game, alright? I need to focus real quick…" Twig asked for one of his cards to be exchanged, Snake for two, Tusk for one and Cigar for three, while Edrick just stayed with his current deck.

The four men not knowing what to think.

Twig breathed out heavily, looked to the left, and then to the right, and added another two hundred to his previous bet, the others followed suit by further increasing, the fervour of gambling making their blood boil, only further ignited by how unbothered Anoteros remained.

"Nah, I am folding" Cigar was not feeling it, at all.

"Cowar- Holy!" Tusk felt like messing around, but saw Edrick drop five silver Leyens into the pot.

"Huh…" Snake and Twig looked at one another, and when the next betting round rolled around, they both folded without question.

But Tusk did not buckle and kept going until the last round, indeed, due to the fact that they played with actual money directly instead of chips, there was no real way to go all-in.

"I am not a coward… I know you're bluffing… Huh…"

"Edrick"

"Nice name- I know you're bluffing, Edrick! I'll show my hand first"

"Always overly dramatic, huh? You really take more after your mother than father…"

"Will you stop with that?! My mom did not get in bed with an orc! It was my great-grandpa who did alright?!"

"A man of fine taste, I see" said Anoteros.

"Taste… His greatest quality was the durability of his hips, clearly…" Snake rolled his eyes.

"Mmh, a full house? That's pretty good" Cigar remarked.

Twig was more focused on Edrick's hand, and as he revealed it, the skinny man heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank god I folded, I almost lost more money…"

"Four of a kind, he did have the best hand"

Tusk slumped in his seat.

"Another game?" he said in a low tone.