“Lily Elbrite, the Challenger, has won with a Full House!”
“Eek!”
“Again?”
Chatter!
A massive pile of coins at the table all rushes towards me.
This is my fifth round of Texas Hold’em.
Thanks to Kiki, my luck has drastically improved; I’ve had great hands all five games, and the cards on the table perfectly matched mine.
The first round had an AA, featuring four of a kind.
The next was a straight with consecutive numbers.
The third and fourth rounds had triplets, but everyone else had lower hands, so I snatched the victory.
“Jackpot!”
And in the final round, there it was: a Full House.
A combination of three of a kind and a pair.
Yena stared at the mountain of coins in front of me and burst into tears.
“Meow! But I had a Triplet!!”
“Too bad.”
“How could I draw KK and still lose…”
Wah wah wah.
“Do you want to continue the game?”
“I can’t; I’m out of money…”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.”
“Meow!”
With the dealer rabbit’s cold remark, Yena jumped up from her seat.
Having lost all her coins, she shuffled away, and Leo and I also stood up.
I guess we’ve played enough.
“Are you done?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll always be here, so if you want to play again, just come find me.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I tipped the rabbit dealer with a red coin and followed Yena.
[Lololololol]
[Lily’s luck is insane]
[Is Yena mad…?]
[Gang Ki Ki]
[Luck really is a cheat]
[How did she not lose once]
[But she didn’t get anything super good]
[No royal]
“A royal, huh… I thought I’d get one at least once.”
Kiki brings immense luck, so I figured I’d at least see a ‘Straight Flush’ or a ‘Royal Straight Flush’ pop up once.
My track record on Kiki Island proved that, and riding on Kiki’s back, I nearly looked like a god of gambling.
But this game was different.
Not every round was stellar; on the third and fourth, triplets came up, so I could have easily lost.
“Nothing’s perfect, after all.”
Luck is merely a form of power.
When facing a being of a higher rank than yourself, the meaning of luck inevitably diminishes.
Leo quietly approached my side.
“How much did you win?”
“Combined, about 30 golden coins? Golden ones are the hardest to come by, so I did pretty well.”
The value of coins is 100 black for 1 red, and 10 red for 1 gold.
So, the golden coins I possess are equivalent to 30,000 black coins.
“Want one?”
“Sure!”
I handed Leo a golden coin.
Yena handed one golden coin to Leo.
Leo was really excited, but the coin taken from him was pretty much the same.
It was basically just giving back the coin.
“This is it!”
“Oh.”
The place that Yena led them to looked like a slot machine store, with a rabbit sitting behind a display full of various items.
Dressed in red, the little guy had a golden coin pinned to his chest.
The rabbit gave a small chuckle at Yena before casually shifting its gaze to me and Leo.
[Split it!]
[What?]
[I should give these little rabbits a lesson.]
[Ah, no!]
“This is…”
Yena glared at the rabbit menacingly, but the 50th floor was a no-fight zone.
Unless Yena was as strong as the Master of the Altar, there was no way she could touch a single hair on the rabbit.
“A new group has arrived. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Hello!”
“This is a place where challengers use the coins they’ve collected. Various items are available and can be purchased with ‘gold coins’. Of course, not everything can be bought with gold coins.”
“Can I take a look around?”
“Feel free.”
The rabbit shrugged its hands and said so, and I started browsing the shop.
Most price points ranged from 2-3 red coins, with the maximum being around 3 golden coins.
Purchasing with black coins mostly allowed for cheap items, and even those were consumables or of poor quality.
“Have you bought anything, Miss Yena? Other than the Growth Coin?”
“…Not really? I’ve tried consumables a few times, but they weren’t very efficient. Like, tearing a scroll to shoot fireballs or potions that temporarily boost health stats. There’s also binding vine magic to trap an opponent, etc.”
“Hmm…”
“But those aren’t great. It’s more effective to just swing a dagger once instead of wasting time casting spells, and the weapons aren’t as good as my mythical weapon.”
In the end, for various reasons, there wasn’t anything particularly useful in this place.
At Yena’s scathing review, the rabbit’s brow twitched slightly before it returned to a relaxed state.
Was it angry?
[Hahaha!]
[Did you see the rabbit flinch?]
[Are we not going to roast the rabbit?]
[But it really is useless.]
[For real.]
“…Of course, it’s true that for strong challengers, these items don’t hold much merit. However, you won’t suffer losses with the more expensive items.”
“Can you recommend something?”
“Yes. Please wait a moment.”
The rabbit quickly rummaged through items behind it and pulled out a pair of boots.
They were boots mixed with red and black, adorned with golden wings on the sides.
“These wing boots, for just 5 golden coins, will allow you to fly freely in the sky without air resistance. It’s a pair imbued with the power of the great master, allowing for near-permanent use…”
“I can fly, though.”
For me, flying was as natural as breathing.
Air resistance? That’s solved automatically when you’re cloaked in holiness.
“……”
“What else do you have?”
“Just… please wait a moment.”
The rabbit rummaged through the items again and this time brought out two rings studded with diamonds the size of a pinky nail.
He brought two rings embedded with diamonds.
“This ring is the Covenant Ring. Its price is the same as the Wing Boots. When both wear the same ring, they can share their current position and some of their power.”
“Oh? That sounds great!”
Leo’s eyes sparkled as he gazed at the rings.
The rabbit, perhaps gaining confidence, shouted loudly.
“How about it! Isn’t this enough? Oh, by the way, these items are called Hidden Pieces, so you can only buy them with the coins you earn through ‘tactics.’ You can’t purchase them with gold coins. Hehe.”
“Can those with holiness share magic?”
“…Yes?”
“That wouldn’t make sense otherwise.”
Due to my job characteristics, sharing power is relatively easy.
I can use the powers of Kraken, Pharaoh, and Karabus as my own, and since my soul is bound to my position, I can know it anytime.
However, the only thing that’s difficult to share is ‘magic.’
If I use the ‘Bracelet of Cold’, which contains shards of the Demon King of Cold, or Progenitor Lasty’s ‘True Blood’, something weird always happens to my body.
Because holiness and magic are forces that would devour each other.
The rabbit looked flustered for a moment but then shook their head after contacting someone.
“Uh. It’s not impossible, though.”
“Is there a penalty?”
“…That’s right.”
“Then I won’t buy it.”
I already have penalties.
“……”
[Ha ha ha ha ha]
[I can’t believe the trash won’t buy it ha ha]
[Aww shucks]
[What a piece of garbage]
[Can’t be without the Bracelet of Cold]
[If only tactic coins were accepted, you couldn’t buy it even with money]
“Can I buy it?”
“? You can buy it, but will you use it?”
“Yes! I think it’ll help me communicate better with the Spirit Kings.”
Even after hearing all the explanations, Leo’s eyes continued to sparkle, and I returned all the coins I took from him.
That item could only be purchased with coins earned through tactics, so there was no way to buy it other than giving it back.
In return, Leo gratefully handed me a massive amount of gold coins.
From the looks of it, he must have given me hundreds in a box.
After that, the rabbit suggested various items, but nothing looked particularly amazing.
There were a few items that Leo and Yena coveted, but they couldn’t buy them due to a lack of coins.
“How much is the Growth Coin?”
“One Growth Coin is worth one Golden Coin or 50 gold coins of the challengers.”
One Golden Coin for 50 gold coins.
That means the 30 Golden Coins I’ve earned are worth 1,500 gold coins.
“Oh, I made 30 million won?”
[30 million in 3 hours ha ha ha]
[What a sweet deal]
[1,000 an hour;;]
[Feels like a real deal]
[How do I do that? I want to go, too]
[Crazy]
[I want coins too!]
“First, please give me one.”
“Understood.”
I handed the rabbit one Golden Coin and received a Growth Coin.
A golden coin engraved with a box shape.
This was similar to the Golden Coin, which also had a box engraved on it.
It looked similar to the colored coin, and the golden coin also had a box engraved on it.
“Hmm…”
Ting~
Tiri ring~!
The Growth Coin and Kiki, who had been playing far away, returned together.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
[You have obtained Coin – Attack Enhancement (S).]
[Your power stat will temporarily increase by 10%.]
[This buff lasts for three months.]
“Looks like you got something good. S-rank buffs are definitely not common.”
“……”
“Would you like to try again?”
“Is this unlimited? Or is there a limit?”
“Of course, there are limit values. The maximum for each stat is 100%. Stacking is naturally allowed.”
Of course, buffs not related to stats have no limits.
“Ha ha.”
“…….”
This coin. There’s definitely something here.
I can understand why Kiki’s luck isn’t working.
It’s true that Kiki’s rank and power don’t reach that of the Master of the Altar. Naturally, luck has to drop.
“But the upper-tier buffs keep coming out.”
So far, I’ve drawn SS, S, AAA, AA.
If luck hadn’t been suppressed, I could say all of them were at least S rank.
But strangely, experience points never come out.
Even for buffs of relatively ‘lower’ ranks like A ~ AA.
“Is there any chance you could tell me the probability of drawing experience points?”
“Are you talking about level-proportional experience points? That buff has the same probability as other A~AA ranked buffs.”
“…Are you sure?”
“That’s right. Neither I nor the great master would ever lie.”
“These scammers, I swear!”
“Can I try too?”
“Of course.”
“Hey! Give me back my coin!”
“Violence is prohibited here.”
“You little brat! Haah!”
“Wow! I got a B!”
[LOL]
[What a mess]
[Anyone can tell they were tampering with the experience points]
[No way, it’s a lie, obviously LOL]
[It’s rigged, rigged]
[Let’s just kill them]
[Lily, what are you doing?]
[Huh?]
[What’s up?]
As the sales desk gradually turned into chaos,
I compared the two new coins I received side by side.
At a glance, they could very well be the same coin, they were that similar.
There was one very tiny difference that needed my full focus to see…
“Oh?”
“What is it?”
“The box is open?”
Compared to the tightly closed golden coin,
The Growth Coin’s box was slightly ajar.
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