Chapter 62 Gambling addict

Time kept on going, and soon enough, another month passed. Each day made me feel like the shoe was about to drop, and someone was going to show up and take this amazing life away from me. That was why I tried so hard, even now that I said I was going to take it easy, I was still stubbornly grinding levels like my life and happiness depended on it. That’s why I hit level fifty again.

Monocrop- Increases the rarity of a single crop by 100% while decreasing rarity by 25% for everything else.

Polycrop- Increases the benefits of planting multiple crops on a single field, 10% per symbiotic crop.

Magical field- Increases the odds of developing a magified crop. Pouring your mana into the field to increase the chances even further.

Magical specialization- Choose a specialization. Offense, Defense, Healing, Support.

Elite golem- Gain knowledge on how to create an elite golem. This golem has 500% of the stats of a normal golem. (Can only create a single elite golem).

Bodyguards- Declare a golem as you or any of your family's bodyguards. That golem will get a 100% boost to stats while protecting that person.

Mini planter golems- Gain knowledge on how to create mini planter golems. Passive golems that will allow you to more easily transport plants.

Eat the vial- You can condense potions down into a solid glass-like container, which will double the effects if the same potion is stored and consumed.

Placebo- Drinking any liquid out of a potion vial has a small chance to provide a small boost to health, stamina, and mana.

Herbdar- Gain an innate feeling when near a wild herb, can somewhat tell which direction it is in.

Accumulated research- Gain a 5% boost to quantity and quality of herbs for every different type of herb you’ve grown.

I had one level twenty-five skill and four level fifty skills left to buy, if I worked really hard this year. I should be able to get them all. I was split between two decisions, magical field and magical specialization. Creating magified crops would give more experience than growing normal crops, but it was a gamble. I could go months, perhaps even years, before I get as lucky as I did with the magified crops I made so far.

Magical specialization was a safety net, though. Our family had a stepmom who could heal, but she definitely wouldn’t be going into dungeons with us. So, having another healer(myself) in dungeons just in case the worst happened was something I was worried about. My wives were getting antsy being cooped up in our home, and all of them wanted to go clear the dungeon again.

Sophia’s party was one of the few that could kill the goblin king. Since they were wiped out, leaving her the sole survivor, it meant it wasn’t being cleared as often. Everyone stronger either moved on or wouldn’t risk it because they were by themselves. It meant that the likelihood of the goblin king breaking with the dungeon was higher until he was killed again. I picked magical specialization and felt my mind suddenly know how to heal from ranged. It would also be easier for me to learn new healing spells, even though it wasn’t the perfect magic for me, it was a hundred percent more useful than the support magic that suited my class more.

I would need to test it, but from what I heard. The odd feeling would be heavily lessened as well, so it wouldn’t feel like I was farting out of my hand to heal… I had checked my stats since sleeping with Olivia, but it was always nice to have a refresher.

Stats

Strength: 6.64

Perception: 6.23

Endurance: 6.52

Charm: 6.83

Intellect: 6.55

Agility: 6.99

Luck: 5.05

My stats were dramatically higher, but I was also getting thirty percent more out of each stat. It meant I was getting almost two bonus stats on top of my actual stats. As if it waited for me to think about her, Sophia came out of the dungeon. She looked happy as she came out with a smile on her face, holding a sack in front of her like she had won a prize. I asked out of curiosity.

“What you got there?” Smiling, she told me. “I found a copper vein with about ten bars worth of material. That’s about ten gold in a single day!” I thought about the similar size chunk of silver my wives pulled out a few weeks ago and could only smile along with her. That silver upgraded my axe to the next rarity, plus got them some well-deserved spending money for everyone else.

I asked. “Oh, so what do you plan on buying?” “I think I got a good chance at winning it big this time!” I got a better look at her. The armor she wore was mostly battered down and on its last legs, the weapon she used wasn’t upgradable and was a normal iron weapon, and she was thinner than the last time I saw her.

She was spiralling without a team to keep her going. Her class was amazing. If she had a good team, the biggest problem she had was her gambling right now, as she would keep squandering all of her gold away until she was penniless instead of snowballing it into better gear to level faster so she could earn more. She would be stuck at the common ranks for far longer than she should be, possibly never evolving her class in her career before a permanent injury retired her, and that’s one of the better outcomes.

No, we’d need to have an intervention for her. She needed to quit gambling if she wanted her life to turn out the way she actually wanted. I sighed as I told her. “Well… Good luck, I guess.” I’d have to talk to my wives about what to do with her. She was too important not to save her from herself. Waiting until dinner that night, we began to brainstorm a solution.

An intervention was brought up by someone else; it wasn’t the only suggestion. Sarah spoke with a mouthful of food as she off-handedly mentioned. “We should bet with her.” Everyone looked confused as she continued. “Do you know what an indentured servant is?” Still not understanding, I answered. “Isn’t it just slavery with extra steps?”

She chuckled before saying. “Well, yes and no. Slaves do exist, but humans can’t be legal slaves in this country. The workaround is indentured servitude. You get a person heavily indebted to you and then work them until they pay it back.” She had a sad smile on her face as she explained. “I’ve seen this play out multiple times before. No matter what we do, she’ll never quit. We can try all we want, but unless there’s a legal contract keeping her from gambling by shocking her, she’ll never stop.”

I didn’t like the idea of owning another person, but it was either that. Or watch her throw her life away. Sighing out of frustration, I asked the big question. “Do you really think we can convince her to go along with this?”