Chapter 184: Cards

The Dealer slammed his hand onto the green velvet table.

TAP.

The thick black trees overhead let out another deep groan. The wooden branches locked together even tighter, completely blocking out the dim daylight above.

The only light left in the clearing came from the two bright yellow lanterns flickering on the corners of the card table and the faint, blue glow of the wild mushrooms on the ground.

"The rules are set!" the Dealer announced loudly, his voice echoing through the dark trees. "Five rounds of Higher or Lower! Guess correctly three times, and the golden bridge to the Lost City will appear! Fail three times... and I take a soul!"

Tim fell to his knees on the damp dirt, clutching his wooden bow against his chest like a shield. "We’re going to die here," he whimpered quietly. "I shouldn’t have joined the paper bag group. I should have stayed with the shield guys..."

Carmilla stepped right beside Tim and kicked his leather boot lightly. "Get up, bow boy. Stop crying like a scary cat before I make you shut up."

Tim scrambled back to his feet instantly, nodding his head so fast his neck almost snapped. "Y-Yes, ma’am!"

I stepped right up to the mahogany table, taking a seat on one of the high-backed wooden chairs.

Viora stood right behind my left shoulder, her hands resting gently on the back of my wooden chair.

Raymond stepped up to my right side, standing straight with his hands folded behind his back, as alway. His paper lunch bag was tilted slightly downward, his eyes locked onto the Dealer’s gloved hands behind his circular eye cutouts.

The Dealer slid his pale fingers across the top of the glowing silver deck.

SHUFFLE. SHUFFLE. SNAP.

The glowing silver cards moved between his hands. It was obvious he had done this thousands of times before.

"For our first starting card," the Dealer said, shuffling the deck one last time before slapping a single silver card face-up onto the green velvet table.

FLACK.

The card glowed with a soft blue light. Printed on the silver surface was a bright red number seven surrounded by intricate golden line art.

Suddnely a hologram appeared in the middle of the table which everyone one could see.

[ Current Card: 7 ]

"A Seven!" the Dealer declared, spreading his arms wide. "Right smack in the middle of the deck, running from One to Ten! A classic starting point! Tell me, Young Master in the paper mask... will the next card drawn be HIGHER or LOWER than Seven?"

I didn’t answer right away. I leaned back in the wooden chair, tapping my index finger against the table.

"Raymond," I whispered low, barely moving my lips inside my paper mask. "What do you see?"

Raymond didn’t shift his stance at all. He kept his head perfectly still, his voice coming out as a tiny murmur that only I could hear.

"The deck is silver magic glass, Young Master," Raymond whispered smoothly. "The Dealer is using a simple bottom-finger slide. When he shuffled the deck just now, he used his pinky finger to hold a Three at the bottom of the stack. If you guess Higher, he will slide the Three to the top."

I almost smirked behind my brown bag. ’Cheating in front of us. Bold move.’

"Are you taking your time to pray?" the Dealer asked, leaning forward over the table. His golden joker mask gleamed under the lantern light. "Make your choice!"

"Lower," I said plainly.

For a split second, the dealer’s gloved fingers froze against the side of the deck.

"Lower, you say?" the Dealer chuckled, quickly recovering his theatrical voice. "A bold guess! Let us see if fortune smiles upon you!"

The Dealer pulled the top card from the deck, snapping it face-up beside the Seven.

FLACK.

Printed on the card was a bright blue number Three.

[ Drawn Card: 3 ]

[ Round 1: CORRECT! ]

[ Current Score: 1 Win / 0 Losses ]

"A Three!" the Dealer shouted, though his voice sounded a tiny bit stiff this time. "Incredible luck! You take the first point!"

Behind me, Tim let out a massive sigh of relief, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Yes! We’re winning!"

"Shut up, Tim," Carmilla said. "He hasn’t done anything yet."

The Dealer cleared his throat, pulling the Three and Seven off the table and tossing them into a small wooden box on his side.

"Now then!" the Dealer said, tapping the silver deck against the mahogany wood. "The Three is gone! Our new base card is drawn directly from the top!"

He flipped the next card face-up onto the green velvet cloth.

FLACK.

Printed on the card was a deep black number Nine.

[ Current Card: 9 ]

"A Nine!" the Dealer proclaimed. "A very high card indeed! The odds are heavily stacked in your favor now, traveler! Will the next card be HIGHER or LOWER than Nine?"

A normal person looking at a Nine would immediately guess Lower. There was only one card higher than a Nine in a standard ten-card deck, which was a Ten.

I leaned slightly to the right, giving Raymond a tiny glance.

"Raymond?" I murmured.

"He switched his technique, Young Master," Raymond whispered back calmly. "He is no longer using his pinky finger. He has a Ten hidden inside his right coat sleeve. When he flips the card, he intends to slide the Ten out using a mana thread attached to his wrist."

"Can you stop his mana thread?" I asked low.

"It is already severed, Young Master," Raymond replied politely. "I cut it with a tiny pulse of wind mana three seconds ago. The card remaining on top of his deck right now is a Two."

I let out a soft breath inside my paper bag. Having a high ranked hunter as a butler on a raid gate was ridiculously convenient.

"Lower," I said directly to the Dealer.

The Dealer chuckled arrogantly. "Lower! A safe, logical choice! But let us see if the deck obeys your logic!"

The Dealer flicked his right wrist, expecting his hidden sleeve card to slide out onto the table.

Nothing happened.

The Dealer’s eye holes widened behind his golden joker mask. He flicked his wrist again, harder this time. Still, nothing came out of his purple sleeve.

Realizing he had no choice, he frantically grabbed the top card of the deck and slapped it onto the velvet cloth.

FLACK.

Printed on the card was a bright yellow number Two.

[ Drawn Card: 2 ]

[ Round 2: CORRECT! ]

[ Current Score: 2 Wins / 0 Losses ]

"WHAT?!" the Dealer gasped out loud, slamming both of his palms onto the mahogany table. "A... a Two?!"

"Two wins in a row!" Tim cheered, jumping up and down. "We only need one more win! We’re going to make it!"

The Dealer’s shoulders were shaking. He stared at his empty right sleeve, then looked back up at the four of us sitting and standing around the table in our matching brown paper lunch bags.

"You..." the Dealer hissed, his smooth theatrical voice completely disappearing, replaced by a harsh, raspy tone. "You’re doing something... How are you breaking my magic?!"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," I said in a deadpan voice. "We’re just playing your game. Aren’t you supposed to be a professional Dealer?"

Carmilla let out a short, quiet laugh from inside her paper bag. "His face is turning red under that ugly golden mask. I can smell his sweat from here."

"Silence!" the Dealer roared, his voice echoing across the dark clearing.

The black trees overhead shook violently. Loose leaves and black bark rained down onto the dirt ground. The two lanterns on the table flared up with bright red flames instead of yellow.

"You think you can make a fool out of me in my own casino?!" the Dealer growled, pulling his hands back. "The rules state five rounds! I will not lose to a bunch of freaks wearing paper bags!"

He grabbed the silver deck with both hands. Dark, purplish mana started wrapping around his fingers, sinking straight into the silver cards. The cards began to hum with a strange, heavy magic power.

"He’s overriding the deck structure with raw dungeon mana," Viora whispered softly from behind me, her voice calm and steady. "Maybe, He is forcing the remaining cards to change their numbers magically before they are drawn."

"Is that allowed in his rules?" I asked her.

"No," Viora replied, a faint, sweet smile appearing on her face. "It means he is desperate."

The Dealer shuffled the dark, glowing deck frantically. He slammed the next starting card down onto the table with so much force the wood cracked slightly.

BANG.

[ Current Card: 1 ]

A bright white number One glowed on the velvet cloth.

"A One!" the Dealer laughed maniacally, his eyes gleaming behind his mask. "A ONE! You cannot guess lower than a One! The deck only goes from One to Ten! If you guess Lower, you automatically lose! If you guess Higher, my mana will force the next card to be ANOTHER ONE, resulting in a tie, which counts as a loss for the challenger! You have nowhere to go!"

Tim’s face turned completely white. "Wait! That’s cheating! How can he draw a One when the lowest card is One?!"

"The Dealer makes the rules!" the Dealer snarled. "Now make your choice, paper bag boy! HIGHER or LOWER?!"

I didn’t even look at Raymond this time. I slowly stood up from the wooden chair.

"You know," I said, my voice flat and completely unbothered behind my mask. "When people cheat at a game, it usually means they’re bad at it."

"Make your call!" the Dealer screamed.

I reached out my right hand, resting my palm flat against the mahogany table right beside the glowing white One card.

"I call... LOWER," I said calmly.

The Dealer burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. "LOWER?! On a ONE?! You fool! You absolute idiot! You just gave your soul to me! Look at the card! LOOK AT IT!"

The Dealer grabbed the top card of the deck and slammed it face-up right next to the One.

Dark purplish mana exploded across the table, trying to form the shape of a matching white One card to force a tie.

But.... It was ZERO.

[ Drawn Card: 0 ]

[ Round 3: CORRECT! ]

[ Final Score: 3 Wins / 0 Losses ]

[ Scenario Clear Condition Met! ]

The entire clearing went dead silent.

The Dealer froze as he stared down at the broken silver card showing a Zero.

"A... a Zero?" the Dealer stuttered, his voice trembling violently. "There... there is no Zero in the deck... How... how is there a Zero?!"

"You used dark mana to force the card to change," I explained, adjusting my paper bag slightly. "Perhaps, Your magic overloaded the card’s system value. When magic overloads a numbered item, its numerical value drops to absolute zero. Any basic hunter knows how mana overload works."

"No..." the Dealer whimpered, taking a step back from the table. "No, no, NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

RUMBLE!

A massive shockwave echoed through the deep forest.

The thick black trees overhead suddenly stopped groaning. The heavy wooden branches that had been locking us in started unweaving themselves, pulling back to reveal the dim, cloudy sky above once again.

The giant mahogany card table, the high-backed chairs, and the two red lanterns instantly dissolved into glowing golden dust, blowing away in the cool forest wind.

Right where the table had been standing, a massive stone archway erupted from the dirt ground.

Inside the archway, a bright, swirling golden portal opened up, humming with warm spatial magic. Above the archway, large golden letters were carved into the ancient stone:

[PATHWAY TO THE LOST CITY OF ELARIA - UNLOCKED]

"We... we won?" Tim stammered, staring at the golden portal with wide eyes. "We actually won?!"

"Of course we won," Carmilla muttered, cracking her knuckles.

The Dealer was falling to his knees on the grass, his golden joker mask cracking down the middle. His dark purple suit started turning into grey ash, slowly crumbling into the dirt.

"Master Gambler..." the Dealer whispered weakly, reaching his fading hand toward the golden portal. "I... I have failed you..."

With a soft poof, the Dealer completely turned into grey dust, disappearing into the wind.

A small, glowing blue chest dropped onto the dirt right where he had been sitting.

I walked over and picked up the chest, opening the lid. Inside sat a heavy golden key shaped like a playing card spade, along with a small system notification screen that popped up in front of my face.

[Item Obtained: Key of the First Table (A-Rank Key)]

[Experience Points Granted: +15,000 EXP]

15000? For a card game? Really?!