Chapter 12

Power of the Cards

After acquiring a new spell it was time to train it. The Enchant Card spell was useful even at low levels, but its efficiency was terrible. The spell could turn almost anything into a card. The only real limit was how much mana I had to use. The higher the proficiency I had in the spell, the less mana was needed. Also, if a card was made that contained another card, the mana cost would be be compounded. For example. Say I used ten thousand mana to turn a lot of items into cards and put all the items in a suitcase. Then I turned the suitcase into a card. The mana cost to do so would be the cost to turn the suitcase plus the cost of every card within, so the suitcase would need a little more than ten thousand to turn.

Also, the weight of each card is independent of the item it holds. They weigh a little more than a common playing card. In other words if I have enough mana, I can turn every item in my possession into a almost weightless card.

I have not mentioned this before, but the inventory of any character still has weight. And unless the character has plenty of physical stats they can’t hold much weight. Previously when I trained on my own I would have to either leave behind loot or travel between my place of training and the nearest town to sell the loot. It is a fair amount of hassle.

My avatar also requires sustenance. I have to carry food to eat when needed or my health slowly declines. There is also a feeling of pain when hungry, an annoying feature for this game. Also food can go bad if left uneaten too long, so I must buy or make my own food at regular intervals. Now however I can turn food into cards. Because the food is frozen in the state I turn it in, when I bring it out it will always be fresh. This alone was reason enough to acquire this spell, but its usefulness goes far beyond that.

Obviously the first thing I did was go to a restaurant of fair quality and order one of everything on the menu. When a dish arrived I moved it onto a plate I brought and used Enchant Card. A fine red line would spread over the dish, draining my mana with each inch it traveled. Eventually the dish was covered with red lines that pulsed and glowed. A few of the wait staff witnessed this and looked on in confusion. When the dish turned into a card, there were a few gasps.

The act of turning a four inch long steak on a eight inch long plate into a card took about twenty seconds and cost 350 mana. The time it took for Master Eldos to turn a similar sized book into a card took only four second and cost him only 40 mana.

This is what I meant by the spell lacking efficiency at lower levels. Also, the spell can turn living NPCs and monsters into cards, but the cost is far more than for an inanimate object and affected by the monster’s level. A level 5 rabbit would cost about 700 mana. A level 15 fox would cost 1850. And a level 25 wolf would cost 2775.

One of the main features of this spell was that if I used it on a summoned creature, the creature would not cost mana to maintain while in card form. I could have a deck of hellhounds, summoned and stored beforehand, and in a battle if any died, I could release another from a card almost instantly to replace it without having to cast the summon spell again.

Of course at this point I did not even have enough mana to turn even a hellhound into a card. A consequence of my training the summon spell was that even the lowest level summon was too high a level for my to turn into a card with all of my mana. For me to take advantage of such a cheat like way to mix spells, I had to get the Enchant Card’s proficiency up to at least intermediate. Then I would be able to turn at least a few monsters into cards before I had to replenish my mana with Meditation.

The training for this spell is not as simple as it seems. The proficiency gained for turning the same item into a card reduces each sequential time. So I can’t just walk along the side of the road turning every small rock I see into a card for a week.

The point where the proficiency gained is not worth the effort for the same object turned is about 67, so the best way to train the spell is to get 67 of as many of the same objects as I could. Also proficiency for turning the same type of item of the same grade dropped too low after about 250. So I can buy 67 low level knives made by one blacksmith and 67 of a different knife of the same quality from another blacksmith, but overall it would be pointless to turn more than 250 low level knives into cards.

This training of course would require more funds than I currently possessed, so it was off to the gambling hall. It had been over a year in game since I last gained money through gambling, so the system would not flag it. The fact that I gained money a few times through gambling was deleted, as most useless information is after some time within the computer itself.

The gambling hall itself was smaller than most for a city of this size, but it was also quite full. I turned half the funds I currently possess, about 22 thousand gold, into chips, the currency for this hall. I then proceeded to a table in which a game of cards was about to conclude.

The game itself has cards you would be familiar with, 52 different cards of Ace, two, three, all the way to jack, queen, king. The game they played however is one you are not familiar with.

Each player in the game, there must be five at the start, is dealt five cards by the dealer. Then five cards are set on the table. At the end of the game, they players may play any card from these five as if they were in their hand as well as their actual hand to make the strongest five card hand they could. However, this is quite difficult. After the cards are placed there is a round of betting. Then, in order from the dealer’s left. Each player may choose to replace one card in their hand with a card on the table. This is done not just to secure a stronger hand only for yourself, but to weaken your opponent’s hands. After each player is given the opportunity to switch out a card, another round of betting begins. Then the process repeats four more times, though the first to take a card on each subsequent round is the person who was second the previous round. Often by the end the five initial cards have all been swapped, and the hand that you could have had dissolves.

The table I was watching was inhabited solely by Users. There were only two players left, the others had lost all the chips they entered with.

The dealer was also a cheater. Not my kind of subtle cheat hacking, but a slight of hand cheater. This is not altogether uncommon for a User run game, but this was my first time seeing the cheater as the dealer.

The five cards on the table were a 2, 5, two Jacks, and 8. The dealer’s hand was going to use the two jacks and a third in his hand to get a three of a kind hand. Not the kind of hand that usually wins this game, but against only one opponent it was enough. Especially since he knew what the opponent’s hand was. He knew the opponent was going to use the 2 and 5 and his own hand to make a small straight. The dealer placed those cards there himself for his opponent’s benefit. In the final round of switching cards, the opponent switched a 4 in his hand for the jack. He hopped that this would misdirect the dealer into thinking he did not want the other cards, but the jack. The dealer’s turn on the final round is often the most damaging for others. As he knows no matter what he lays down, the table and his hand will all be available to him. He took the 3 and set down another four. The opponent’s smile shattered. Now his best hand was just a pair of fours against the dealer’s pair of jacks.

The opponent lost the last of his money, and a new game was dealt. I of course sat down at the table.

“A new face? You know this is the big boy’s table little lassie. Buy in of five thousand?”

The men at the table were all older than I appeared to be, but I didn’t answer. Instead I took out a stack of chips with values in the thousands.

The men flinched a bit before I answered, “Only five thousand? Why not bring it to ten?”

The dealer smiled and put a few more chips on the table. He of course had enough funds.

Now, to those who don’t know, there are three common cheats that can be used for most card games played around a table. The first is to have extra cards in your sleeve that can bring up the value of your hand. This is easy to use but hard to cover up in a long game, as if the extra cards are not removed, the a person my end up with five aces in their hand. The second is a cheat shuffle. At the end of each game, the suffler piles the cards together and puts the higher value cards in a place he can deal to himself. The last is partners outside of the table. Allies that look at the opponent’s cards and give gestural signals that tell what they have.

In this game the cheat shuffle was risky as there were many experienced eyes around that could spot such a thing. The dealer however did have cards in his sleeves that, as the dealer, he could remove before each new shuffle to avoid getting caught. He also had partners. At least two of them. His last dirty trick was not a cheat that could be used in most games, but here it could. He had an ally on the table and they signaled each other back and forth for what cards they needed. Due to how the game went, this was like sharing a hand of fifteen cards between two people. Having a unknown partner was also useful to avoid suspicion. If one man won every game it would look like a fix, but if two men won alternatively, then they were just very good.

Of course relying solely on cheating was very obvious. These two didn’t get caught because they were also very good players.

The first hand was dealt. When I had all five cards I lifted the edges and peaked a bit before putting them back down. The woman behind me didn’t even see the suit of the cards, much less what they were. I didn’t see them either, but I didn’t need to. Lifting the edges to ‘see’ them was for everyone else’s benefit. I could see the object data of each card and I knew what they, and every other card on the table was.

If the suit of the card matters for this next part, I’ll include it next to the number. H=Hearts, S=Spades, D=Diamonds, C=Clubs.

My hand was a 5S, 5D, JD, QueenC, and a KingH.

The deck that dealt me this hand was pre-made and switched with the previous deck while the dealer’s partner was talking to everyone. This hand was a test. Would I go for a flush, a 3 of a full house, or a high straight?

In this game, cheating does not always guarantee victory. It was a game where the opponents could hurt your hand or help someone elses. High levels of strategy and foresight were required to win.

The five cards on the table would not help me make a hand with the hand I currently had, but it did not matter. With a pre-made deck and cooperation between two skilled players it was not possible for anyone but either of those two to win without some serious cheating.

The first round of bets called for 300 gold, a player. I called.

The next round I folded.

It was earlier than they expected, with my hand I should have stayed in until the final round where I would have fallen one card short of a flush and the dealer’s partner would have a full house.

I watched the dealer shuffle the deck thoroughly. He knew I was watching so he couldn’t do anything slippery.

The following games would be the real deal.

Three rounds later the dealer slipped an ace in his sleeve for a card in his hand. The woman standing around the table signaled him that there were no other aces in on the table. They didn’t see my hand which made it a risk, but from the way I was drawing from the table, there was no way I had an ace. The dealer’s hand was now three aces and two jacks.

“All in.” I raised the bet to all the chips I had.

The other three on the table folded. Since it was the dealer’s partner who won the last two games, I had more chips than the dealer himself, if he wanted to call, he would need every chip he had.

“Call.”

I went all-in two turns before the game ended. Even though we couldn’t bet more, we could both switch cards twice more. I switched cards both times, taking a 4D and a 7D. An advantage of scaring others out in a hand was that you were more likely to get the cards you needed on the table. Especially if you needed more than one.

When both of our hands were lain down, I had a straight flush, 3d~7D. The whole pot became mine.

“I’ll take dealership as well, you can start another game on another table.” I said with a smile.

“Wait a minute, why should you be the dealer?” asked the partner.

I picked up a thousand gold chip and said, “Would you like to deal? How about we flip for it?”

Before he could answer I flipped the coin, snatched it from the air, and placed it on the table with my hand over it. No one saw what it landed on.

1000 gold chips and above all have different images on each side. The 1000 chip itself had a picture of a pile of gold on one side and a picture of a castle on the other.

“Call it.”

The man looked closely at the coin. All cheaters are naturally suspicious of cheating, but if he called it after the coin hit the table and I simply moved my hand away, it couldn’t be changed.

By any way he knew of anyways.

“Gold.” he answered.

Good guess. He was right. So I changed the sprite of the chip to the reverse. I lifted my hand slowly, revealing a picture of a castle.

If there were any NPCs looking, they would have seen a pile of gold, but I made sure there were none before hand.

“Castle. I guess I’m the dealer.”

Even in the real world, I know how to shuffle to make what I want come out. In the game it is even easier.

The following games went smoothly. The remaining cheater had a few cards up his sleeve but without control of the deal it was risky to play them. And I made sure no one saw my hand.

“All in.” The partner couldn’t risk losing this game. He had to risk getting caught cheating so his aim was to win in two games, and cheat like hell for both of them. The women signaled him that the other two at the table had fair hands, and thanks to seeing what they picked up and giving them false signals for what he picked up, he made them think he was bluffing, They each called and I folded. He won with three kings and a pair of threes,

For the next game after the first round of drawing, he immediately went all in. He hadn’t cheated yet, he was waiting to see if I would call.

“Call.”

He switched out a few cards in his hand for a low straight flush.

At the end of the game, we laid down our hands. I had two pair, he had a pair of sixes.

“What?!” he exclaimed.

I looked at his cards and said, “You bluffed on a pair of sixes. Too bad.”

I don’t need to touch an object to alter its sprite data, just being close is good enough. I changed his cards the instant he put them down from the straight to the original cards he had in his hand. I also changed the cards from his hands that were now in his sleeves into the hand he had. After looking at them, he would think that he only imagined switching them.

He looked back at me and said, “I want another game.”

I smiled sweetly. “Of course. Would you like me to bet everything I have?”

The total I now had was fifty thousand gold.

“Yes!”

He must have been cheating for a while to be able to come up with enough for him and his partner.

I said, “Alright, but first, there is something I’d like to place a bet on.”

I walked over to a chance game at the gambling hall, one that had a 1 in 22 chance of winning. I said, “I’d like to bet fifty thousand gold on 13.”

Everyone in the hall looked at me with horror. It was like throwing gold bars over the deck of a ship into the ocean while laughing maniacally.

No one had a more horrified expression than the dealer and his partner.

I won the game of course, which shocked everyone more so. Then I acted shocked, like I had intended on throwing away their money and now I had won and did not know what to do.

I just shrugged my shoulders and walked back to the man.

“So, still wanna play? I’ll bet everything I have. Just a little over a million gold. Can you match this wager?”

Sweat trickled down his forehead. He realized as he looked in my eyes that I was above him. He broke eye contact and left. Afterwards I gave a tip to the gambling hall NPC that ran the chance game I won, a tip to the man at the counter, and a tip to the man who exchanged my chips for one million gold.

I left the city before buying anything. There was something I wanted to test out.

Not long after leaving the gambling hall six men started following me. I did not know if they were paid to do so by the gambling hall of if this was an automatically generated event for those who won a great deal of money, but all six were intent on robbing me. I knew this of course because they were NPCs and I could see it was in their data to rob people they knew made a killing in the gambling hall.

When outside the city limits they confronted me.

“Hey there little missy. You’re going to be a good girl and hand over all your gold and valuables.”

Instead of answering, I said, “Summon hellhound.”

The men did not think I would fight back so they were stupefied when I cast a summon spell. If they were true professionals they would have attacked me immediately before the spell completed.

Since leveling up, my hellhounds have gotten much larger. It was inconvenient for smaller dungeons but they were almost the size of a horse and had small flames light the lines of their backs.

The men who came to rob me consisted of three thieves, two warriors, and a assassin. All lower than level 150.

I gave the order for my hell hound, “Keep them off me.”

Then I summoned another. This time the men didn’t stand still but my guard dog kept them away long enough to finish the spell. Then I summoned a third.

“Wound, don’t kill.”

After a not so lengthy battle, two of the thieves were dead, (they had too little health to maim without killing,) and the others had given up.

I then used Dark Heart on the lot and asked, “Why did you try to rob me?”

The assassin answered, “Heard a tip that a young lady won a million gold from the hall. Couldn’t pass that up.”

I smiled and said, “How about you all work for me?”

The men looked at each other for a moment before the assassin answered, “What do we get out of it?”

I answered, “Power. I’ll give you power.”

To prove this point I cast Infuse strength of the lot of them. I explained that I was an Enchanter looking for powerful enchantments, and that if they worked under me, they would become powerful and rich.

Permanent enchantments cast on an NPC last until death, which means forever for them as their is no after death.

After a bit of negotiating we came to an agreement. They would do odd jobs I request of them for a large amount of gold and power.

Next I turned each of them into a card. It took more than half my mana each time, so I had to meditate between uses, but they agreed to become cards I could summon for a lot of money.

In case you’re wondering I’ll likely pay them when I give them work. They were not the clever kind of NPC which meant they were controllable. I doubt I even needed to use Dark Heart to convince them to work for me. (I did so mostly for the proficiency.)

Unlike my summons I would be able to use them when needed instantly. Also I could have them kill users without acquiring a murderer’s mark myself. An assassin, a thief, and a warrior. I’ll train them well. NPCs in this game acquire experience and skill a bit faster than Users, though they still have the set back of only being able to die once.

I had to do something about that. Other than buy enough items to get the proficiency of Enchant Card proficiency up, I also needed to do the quests that would teach me the Advanced Enchantment spell, Love.

This is going to be a busy month.

Chapter 13

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