Chapter 677 - Intruder detected

Surprisingly enough, it seemed that despite the casino’s games all being heavily stacked against the players, the owner’s promises were not empty words. Though still pretending to be only a manager, he personally took Sofia to the private VIP exchange desk, while sending other skeletons to fetch Kuli and Mornn. 

Sofia followed Pestle’s movements from a distance while she idly chatted with the ghost behind the desk.

“Is the casino even going to survive such a big payout?” she asked, curious about how much could even realistically be won in the event.

“That it will, you needn’t worry about our finances,” the ghost answered, “Though it certainly is a big sum to be withdrawn all at once, and our boss will surely spend the next month cursing your name, the casino will survive nonetheless.”

“Honestly I half-assumed that you would default on the payment and just kick me out.”

“That won’t do. Our treatment of lesser customers may be a bit rough… But for big players it can be said that we are walking on eggshells, we have a reputation to maintain.”

“I suppose that’s reassuring… Can I know what happens to the… Less fortunate of the ‘lesser customers’?”

“You are talking to one of them…” the ghost answered with a sigh.

“That’s about what I expected…”

“Well, no one in the staff here can complain, really, we all knew what we were getting into when we entered a casino run by someone so notorious… Ah, it looks like your money is about ready, give me a second,” the ghose said before turning around and flying through a wall.

Sofia turned around, Kuli and Mornn were just sharing what they did in the little time they’d gotten to actually play while Sofia was making some big bets. It seemed they did not do too bad, Kuli making a good amount playing a regular card game, and Mornn gambling her life away on Roulette. They did not mind stopping now as they all felt that Sofia’s cash-out should be more than enough for a first place with maximum tournament points.

The ghost quickly came back, one small and one large lockboxes appearing on the desk between him and Sofia.

“There. Since your winnings were just above three hundred million tokens, we included an item valued at thirty billion gold, and made up the difference with mithril and gold ingots, in that large box.”

“An item worth thirty billion? In that tiny box? How do I know I am not getting scammed?”

“Check for yourself,” the ghost said with a shrug, “I am certain you will understand the value of the items when you see them, there are two in the box but you may only take one.”

Sofia tried to feel the contents of the box with her mana senses but enchantments inside completely obscured her view. This better not be some kind of mimic waiting to eat my face.

Slowly opening the box, Sofia looked inside. It contained a set of two small mithrium earrings, one with a blue hanging gem and one with a red one, on a bed of white silk.

Oooh, mithrium? It’s not a lot but that should be quite expensive, thirty billion gold for a single one of those, though?

A quick Identify of the red gem earring convinced Sofia that this was probably more than worth the price.

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Master’s Gambler’s Fallacy Earring]: 

Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, this master Earring allows damage you deal to sometimes critically hit, dealing double damage.

Base critical hit chance: 7%.

Whenever you deal non-critical damage, you gain an additional 7% critical hit chance until your next critical hit.

Cannot be destroyed.

Must be primed before use.

Is only available for purchase if won as a prize during the ‘Gambler’s end’ event and safely retrieved.

Price: 777 777 777 TP

Woah. More hidden Master items. I’m not sure of the math here, but the effective double damage chance with this on… Feels like it’s probably around twenty percent? I’m not too sure how I would calculate that. If I could time that well with a big bolt… It’s probably a better item for people like Ezerid who have attack with many projectiles thought. That with the master hydra bow would be incredible, I bet. Not too sure it’s the best for either me or Pareth though, but it does come with a discount compared to the other Master items, which is nice.

Maybe the other one will be better suited for us?

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Master’s ALL-IN Earring]: 

Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, that master Earring give a multiplicative buff of +77% to any one main stat of your choosing and its three related sub-stats.

(Applied after all other modifiers)

Must be primed before use.

Chosen stat cannot be altered after priming.

Becomes a permanent part of your body.

Consumes two skill slots.

Your two other main stats’ base growth per level is set to zero.

(They will now only grow from overcoming the filters) 

Is only available for purchase if won as a prize during the ‘Gambler’s end’ event and safely retrieved.

Price: 777 777 777 TP

Sofia audibly gulped, reading the description several times.

Lord.

I need this. We need this.

Doesn’t even matter who buys it, doesn’t even matter that it consumes two skill slots.

I could get 77% increased mana?

Pareth could get 77% increased health?

Even for Alith, she could get 77% increased stamina?

That…

Well. We can only buy three uniques each. That’s our first spot taken. And if I get the ten gold star pins, it will only be 700 Million TP with the 10% discount. That’s a whole 200 Million cheaper than the regular Master items!

“So? You do understand these items’ value, right?” the ghost asked, as Sofia was silent.

“I- I do. It is certainly not a scam, I have no complaints.”

“Assuredly. Then, which one will you take?”

“The one with the blue gem,” Sofia answered, “Out of curiosity, do you know where these earrings come from? Did Ak’Virad himself make them, perhaps?”

“I do not believe we have any information on who the craftsman is, but if you must know where we procured those, as one of the oldest ‘employees’ here, I can tell you. Someone used them as a wager in a game of cards in the early days of the casino, of course, they lost. And these have been waiting in our coffers ever since.”

“Really? The early days of the casino you say? What did they look like?”

The ghost frown sightly as he tried to remember the details, “It was quite some centuries ago… From what I recall, it was a young woman. I would be hard-pressed to give even the most basic description, I fear, my memory is not what is once was, and I believe they only visited once… But I do remember they were quite cheerful despite the monumental loss, which struck me as quite odd, back then.”

“Hmm, I see…”

The ghost looked at Sofia’s face and his expression shifted, as he seemed to remember something. “Right! She had strange hair, much like you do!”

“Is my hair so weird? It’s just a bit shiny.”

“That… That is quite unusual, yes,” the ghost deadpanned, “But, back to the point I do remember now, that her hair was a rather unusual dark shade of blue. Certainly not something one sees every day.”

“Interesting, thank you for the information, I doubt I’ll ever get to meet that person, if that was centuries ago, but good to know these aren’t, like, stolen property.”

“That is slightly insulting, but admittedly not totally undeserved… The blue gem earring, then, are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

The ghost carefully took the earring out of the box, after disarming some of the enchantments inside, and also opened the other coffer revealing the ingots of precious metal inside. Sofia recolted the team’s winnings and after that, the ghost led them all to the casino’s actual entrance and exit for valued customers. It was a rather long tunnel with a red carpet, its walls covered in enchantements, going up in a light slope toward the surface.

The group had a lighthearted chat as they walked though, discussing Sofia’s dice game, until Kuli stopped and asked Sofia.

“Wait, Sofia, did you not have some of your skeletons in the Casino? Did you leave the crow behind?”

Sofia turned around with a creepy smile.

“Of course not, I unsummoned them all a long time ago, a necromancer worth their bones would never let their skeletons behind,” she said, lying through her teeth.

In truth, Pestle had gone very deep inside of the Casino’s underground floors while Sofia had kept the Lich’s attention. Ever since then, she had stopped moving.

Since Pestle hadn’t unsummoned herself, she likely had not been captured or anything like that; in Sofia’s mind, this could only mean one thing. Pestle was waiting. Waiting for what exactly was uncertain, but she would have to move before Sofia left the casino and the event ended for her, so she would know soon.

Pestle. I can see the exit. Whatever you’re trying to do, now’s your last chance.

Sofia felt Pestle start to move.

With her action came the deafening sound of an alarm, as the entire casino shook, drowned in bright red lights.

There we go.