Chapter 63 Beginner’s luck
Sophia looked around skittishly as she sat at our table. She ate the food as she started to realize it wasn’t a trap. “Thanks. I’m a little broke right now, so any meal helps.” She ate like it was her first meal in days, which could have been the case. The money she earned from her trip into the dungeon was already gambled away, and it had only been a day since then.
The food was more delicious and nutritious than anything she could get from the inn or make herself. Cherry and Sarah both had bonuses for cooking better-tasting, higher-quality food. It was delicious, so delicious that people didn’t know how to act when they first started eating it. Sophia had forgone all decorum as she shoveled food as fast as she possibly could into her mouth while still talking.
“God, this is so good. How is this possible?” She spoke with a mouthful of potatoes and gravy. Moving on to a chicken leg that we had to put down because she stopped producing eggs, the meal was fit for nobility, and we ate similar every single day. Everyone ate much slower, but even still, we all finished while Sophia kept eating. I could see her belly distend out from the amount of food she consumed, as it reminded me of how Tems ate when she first arrived in the village.
We waited for her to get back her senses as she breathed out a sigh of contentment. “So, why did you call me here? You gonna try selling my kidneys, or is this some sort of intervention to get me to quit gambling?” She behaved almost the opposite of how I’d imagine a paladin to act. Full of greed, gluttony, and sloth. Sarah acted like the cat that caught the canary when she spoke.
“No, actually the opposite.” She pulled out several platinum coins, and Sarah put them in front of Sophia. Her eyebrow raised as Sarah continued. “We’re willing to loan you money, as long as you pay it back… Or, we can bet. If you win, you can just have the money free and clear, but if you lose, you become our indentured servant tank for a year.” Sophia thought about it as she played with the coins.
“So, you’re saying I lose nothing by betting, only that I’ll have to work as your group's tank for a year if I lose?” She was an addict, and her addiction was gambling. She couldn’t help herself as she put the coins down. “So, what kind of game are we going to play?” Sophia asked as she had a smile forming on her face. Sarah looked to waver slightly at this. “Well, what game do you normally play?”
“We play a lot of card games. But that would be unfair since you all won’t be as experienced as me… How about high card?” She went on to explain that we pick a card, and whoever had the higher card was the winner. It seemed straightforward, but before we started, Sarah pulled out a contract for her to sign. I had never seen a magical contract before, and it didn’t look much different from a normal contract, but it would bind Sophia to the contract if she signed it.
Sophia quickly signed it without reading, as she had a manic gleam in her eye. She expertly shuffled the cards as she placed them down. I looked around at who was going to play her… And all their eyes were on me. “What? I’ve never gambled before. Why should I do it?” All of them looked at me confused, before Silk said. “It has to be you.”
I didn’t know why; the entire plan was more Sarah’s than mine. I shook my head as I didn’t understand why, but still went along with it anyway. “Can we have a practice match first so I can see if it works like I think it does?” She looked at the pile of cards like she was focusing before she pulled off the top one, pulling up a king. “Now you get one.” I pulled the card, revealing a three before she cheered like she just won. “Umm, that was only practice, remember? What if we both pull face cards?”
She looked sheepish as she celebrated too early. “Well, there are two different ways. We could do higher card up the totem pole wins, IE, jack loses to queen, that loses to king, that loses to ace. Or we could do the cards are all equal to each other, and it’s a tie, so we’ll have to pull again.”
“Alright, so now that you know the rules, are you ready?” She looked slightly flustered and frustrated, she didn’t just win, but I didn’t see any way to cheat at the game unless she did-. “Umm, Sarah, can you quickly shuffle the deck?” I didn’t think Sophia would cheat… But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t prevent it if she did. Sarah quickly shuffled the cards with much less skill than Sophia had before sitting them down again. I added another layer of randomness to the pull as well.
“Do you want to pull the first card or should I?” She thought about it for a second before smiling. “Ladies first.” She pulled a six, not the worst, but there were plenty of better cards, and she knew it. I pulled the next card, revealing an eight. It wasn’t the best either, but it was better than what she pulled. I thought we were done, but she doubled down as I went to stand up.
“Wait… Double or nothing!” I thought about it before asking Sarah. “Will that work with the contract?” Sarah smiled at me as she said. “Yes, I thought something like this might happen.” Cherry asked. “So we’re betting that she’ll become Danny’s indentured servant for either zero years or two years now?” I froze as what she said sank in. “Why will she be my indentured servant? I don’t go with the party every time you guys go into the dungeon.”
They just looked at me like I was an idiot before Sarah spoke up. “You own this house, you own this farm, and it’s your money we’re betting with. Of course, she’ll be your indentured servant.” Even Sophia nodded her head at what Sarah just said. We agreed to go again… And Sophia pulled a two-card.
She wanted to do double or nothing again, pulling a four while I pulled a jack. Double or nothing again, she pulled another two while I pulled an ace. Doubled again… Then again… Then again… Then again… Then again… By the time I was sick of beating her, she could only look at the cards, stunned, before screaming out. “YOU CHEATED!”
All my girlfriends began to cackle like she had said the funniest thing in the world. Sarah wiped a tear out of her eye before she asked. “Do you know how lucky a man has to be to have this many wives without any friction between them? The better question is, what’s your luck?” Sophia looked confused before she answered out of instinct(it’s normally best not to reveal your stats to other people). “One point one, why?”
They smiled back at her as they all looked at me, and I asked again. “Should I… Say, my luck?” They just kept looking at me as I pulled up my screen again. “Five point, oh, it went up again. Five point zero eight.” Everyone went silent as the luck sank in. Luck was one of the hardest stats to raise; there were people with a legendary class who didn’t reach the same luck I had.
Everyone looked at Sophia now as her mouth hung open in shock. Her brain couldn’t compute that level of luck, as Sarah teased. “Exactly, and now you can’t gamble for the next two hundred and fifty-six years, unless you find a different way to pay back the debt, so… Good luck.”