Hugo walked down to the casino, the tips of his dress flowing over the stairs behind him. It was a backless dress with flowing streamers of various fabrics and metals. He was wearing what amounted to a muted rainbow, sparkling metal strips peeking out from under vibrant silks and satins. It revealed a lot of skin, but still felt modest to Hugo.

Baba had been able to work miracles with the dress, making him look every bit a stunning goddess, but she was only human. It was two days after he had first commissioned the dress. Hugo hated waiting, but he did enjoy the looks he got with his grand entrance.

Another advantage was that he had been able to sell two shields with the impetus rune on them. Now he had a few gold to spend at the casino, enough for an excellent night regardless of whether he won.

The casino was huge, probably larger than the building above it. It was hard to tell though, ornate columns studded the room and made it impossible to see the far end of the room. It was packed with people, employees and patrons milling about. Soft music was playing in the background, mostly overwhelmed by the din of conversation. The floor was covered with the only carpet he had seen in town, luxurious with interesting patterns that changed throughout the casino.

A young man in hotel purple and gold walked up to Hugo and said, “Welcome to the Gilded Lily Casino. Is there anything I can get your August person?”

Hugo assumed he could order drinks from the guy, but instead he said, “I have never been here before. Please give me a tour.”

He seemed surprised at the request but quickly recovered and said, “Of course, please follow me.” He led Hugo across the wide casino floor. As they approached a group of players moving around dominos he said, “Over here are the Pai Gow tables, and right next to them are the Mahjong tables. The tables on the red carpet over there are the bloodthirsty Mahjong tables. You need an invite to play there.” He deftly avoided a server and continued the tour, “Over here are the chuck-a-luck tables, they are very popular with beginners because it is so easy to learn. Just place your bet and tip the cage of dice. Also popular are the roulette tables over there. This room over here is for the songbirds.”

Hugo looked in and saw literal songbirds in cages and said, “What is that all about?”

He shrugged and said, “You pick a bird and they all start singing. The bird that sings the longest is the winner. It’s a game for those that prefer a slower paced experience or just love to listen.”

Continuing on, he led Hugo to a game he thought he recognized but wasn’t sure. The attendant said, “Next we have the poker games. We have eight card stud, quadruple draw, and lowball. The bloodthirsty tables are in red again.”

“Why aren’t there any cards?” Hugo asked. Instead of paying with cards, the poker tables were using thick tiles.

“Our clientele are typically higher end than many of the other gambling houses you may have seen before. That includes blessed and soulmarked. Our tiles are specially treated so light mages can’t see through them. The dice are in cages so barrier mages can’t roll them perfectly. And there is an anti-magic ritual running at all times. So you can be sure that all games here are fair. We stake our reputation on it,” he said with a nod.

The attendant continued to walk and showed Hugo an attendant sitting at a counter with a cage around it. He said, “Finally, this is the cage. At the end of the night you can collect your winnings here. All games are played with our signature dragonbone chips. You can exchange your coins at any of the gaming tables for chips. Just ask the dealer. I believe that covers everything, unless you have any other questions?”

“No thanks,” Hugo said. The attendant smartly bowed and disappeared into the crowd.

Hugo spun in a slow circle, trying to decide where to start.

While he was standing there considering his plan of action for the night, an older riese walked up to him and said, “What is a beautiful young thing like you doing in a place like this?” As he talked he put a hand on Hugo’s back and slid it down to his butt.

Hugo stood there in shock. He tried to blast the old man away with his barrier domain, but nothing happened. The anti-magic field. He could still feel his mana, but it refused to form into a spell. Instead, Hugo grabbed the man’s arm and stepped away, pushing him back as he did. “Don’t touch me.”

The man held up his hands and said, “Whoh, missy. I was just being friendly. Didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled and said, “Let me buy you a drink, make it up to you.”

“Stay away from me, creep,” Hugo said, staring him down.

The man sputtered and said, “Do you know who I am? You should feel lucky I complimented you. I am the first prefect of the water district, not some creep.”

“I don’t care,” Hugo said, folding his arms. He had been so happy to wear the awesome dress, but now that it was attracting attention from jerks like this, he might not ever wear this again.

The man seemed truly affronted that Hugo didn’t care who he was. He scowled and reached forward to grab Hugo. Before he could get close enough, someone else stepped forward and reached up to grab his hand. A human man in a sharp suit held the old riese’s forearm in a vice grip.

The human looked up and said, “Prefect Marrow. So good to see you. I believe Prefect Franklin was looking for you over near the chuck-a-luck tables. You should go find him.”

“Commissioner Binh. I am glad to see you too,” he said, his expression saying he was anything but. Prefect Marrow pulled on his arm a few times. When he realized that the commissioner was too strong for him, he was let go. He looked at Hugo and muttered a few horrific swear words as he walked away.

Hugo looked down to Binh and said, “Thanks, I guess.” He was fairly sure that he didn’t need the help but at least it had been resolved without a fight.

“You are welcome. Don’t worry about him by the way. He needs my mana cores to make the city plumbing work,” the Commissioner said and gestured for Hugo to follow him.

Hugo found himself walking along with him without meaning to. “Are you a merchant of some sort?”

“No, I’m a commissioner in the Durban army. It’s kind of like being a merchant, but with a much bigger budget. I buy mana cores from adventures and sell them to cities on the wheel in exchange for food here. I am one of the main grain purchasers for the Durban army. Prefect Marrow might not like me, but he needs me,” he said.

Durban. That was one of three major countries at war with each other beyond the wheel. Their population was probably bigger than all eight cities put together. Hugo said, “Pleased to meet you. I haven’t met many people from outside the wheel.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to. Not many soulmarked like to visit the breadbasket. Mana density is far too low here. It’s uncomfortable. If I didn’t have to negotiate for the Durban army, I wouldn’t be here. I am slightly miserable every time I visit,” Bihn said, “How about you make my night a little less miserable and join me for a game of Mahjong?”

Hugo looked down at the table and the piles of small tiles. It looked like most of the tiles had a different symbol on it. “I don’t know how to play, actually.”

Binh sat down and gestured to the chair next to him, “Come, sit. I will teach you. It’s not that hard, honestly.”

Hugo looked down at the seats. They were high backed and rounded. No one would have access to his butt if he sat. He shrugged and sat down. He was here to gamble. He might as well start here. Binh seemed impressed when Hugo passed over five gold to exchange into dragonbone chips. The commissioner called a waitress over and ordered the two of them drinks.

The fact that Binh ordered for him was a bit annoying, but Hugo had to admit, the drink was delicious. It was something they called a gargleblaster. It felt like his head was being smashed with a lemon wrapped around a gold brick. But in a nice way.

Mahjong wasn’t nearly as complicated as it looked at first. Similar to poker, it was all about getting the right groups of symbols together. Instead of hands, they were called melds. Hugo won big with his third hand and had six gold worth of chips after that.

“This is so fun,” Hugo said happily to Binh.

“Of course it is, I’m here,” Binh said with a smile, “People always have fun around me. I’m a hoot.”

Hugo laughed loudly at the joke, the dealer and other patrons joining him in laughter. He gave them a weird look. Binh’s joke wasn’t that funny. He turned to the human and said, “Wait. Do people have fun around you, whether they want to or not?”

Binh tapped the side of his nose and said, “You miiight be onto something there. There is a reason the army sent me to negotiate after all. But don’t worry. I am a nice guy. Sometimes a very nice guy.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

This was interesting. The man basically admitted to having high charisma, perhaps even a shadow domain to go with it. But Hugo didn’t mind. He scooched slightly away and said, “Save your niceness, I only go for girls. And I am not sharing any of my winnings, no matter how nice you are.”

Binh wasn’t offended at all. Instead he laughed and said, “You have to win to have any winnings. I am an exceptional Mahjong player and you just learned the rules.”

...

Hugo rubbed his eyes and stared down at the shield again. Whoever had runed this shield had done something to make it hard to copy the runes off of it. He had been at it for two hours and still hadn’t copied down the whole thing. He was lucky that Bastion’s Boon was easy to activate, otherwise this job would take days.

He was here so he could make more money. Last night was lots of fun. He had ended up losing everything, but it had only taken him a few days to earn it, so it didn’t bother him. Plus, the drinks Binh had given him were fantastic.

Eventually, he had the full rune design copied out. He learned a new rune in the process, one he thought of as Redirect. He wasn’t sure if that was its official name but that didn’t matter. He had all the components he needed to make a shield that would knock rock golems back.

He handed the shield back to the owner, Master Gabija. She put the shield away while Hugo got to work immediately. He didn’t bother going somewhere else to hide his awesomeness. He didn’t care who knew about him for this life.

It took ninety points of mana, but he soon had a small buckler shield fabricated. Well, small for him. It was normal for humans and large for nox. A few more points of mana and he had a mithril rod in his hand. He used it to inscribe his maker’s mark. He had decided on a symbol he was going to mark all of his work with. It was a stylized version of shimmer mountain. He had gained his powers there so it held a special place in his heart.

Next, he checked his notes and settled into his chair. He would have to inscribe all three runes in one go or they wouldn’t properly link. This was going to be the first time he did something this complex. He psyched himself up and got to work.

The first rune was the impetus rune, he had that done in a few moments. He had to go slower for the pool rune because it was rotated differently than he was used to. It transferred energy instead of holding it. Finally, he worked on the redirect rune.

After an hour of solid concentration, Hugo was done. He pushed back from the workstation and groaned as he stretched. That was a bit much. He only had ten points of mana left. He might buy a mana potion before he headed back to the hotel. He didn’t like being low on mana.

He called Master Gabija back into the side room and asked for a mana stone. Once the shield was fully charged, Hugo happily slapped it. His hand bounced off the shield.

Frowning, Hugo did that again. His hand bounced back, but not as much as he expected. He was fairly sure that the effect was supposed to be much stronger.

“I was afraid of that,” Master Gabija said, “Artifacts with fantastic effects are usually the result of multiple domains working together. I bet the lacquer on the shield is some special formula an alchemist made. You don’t happen to have that domain too, do you?”

“Nope,” Hugo said disappointed. He had really been looking forward to getting this shield right.

“Oh well. I will still buy this shield from you. One gold fifty silver. The price will go down for the next one you want to sell me. I am mostly set for shields now. I have sources for good shields, it’s the hammer that my customers are really clamoring for. Let me know if you perfect the shield design, I will still buy it for a platinum, as promised.”

Hugo nodded. Maybe he would rank up to thirty-two so he could learn a new lingua and take a shot at the hammer. The whole process would be a hassle, but it would earn him a lot of money and the weapon would be useful for his next life. It would be the perfect weapon to bash through walls.

He tucked most of his money away as he thought about that. He bought a pair of mana potions and drank one as he decided. He often had fun as he went out on hunts. Blowing up monsters was literally a blast. It was only the poor conditions when out in the wilderness that were frustrating. He had enough money in his pocket now that he could outfit himself like a king.

The only sticking point would be who he brought with him. He needed someone to watch his back, someone with the skills to take on tier three monsters. A harvester team would charge more than a gold to take him out like that. Maybe he could ask the sentinels for an escort. He hadn’t talked to them this life, but he had gotten an escort last time around. Maybe he could pretend to be willing to save them long enough to get an escort for a fun trip into the wilds.

While he was thinking about it, he saw a familiar sight. It was a hedge mage running from a group of kids. The woman with the red sash was running his way and four teenagers were chasing her and throwing rocks.

Deciding to do something about it this time, Hugo pushed mana into a huge barrier high in the air. He constructed three more and anchored each one to his hand. As she drew closer, he brought it down.