[Current time: September 3, 2037]
Ri took a long time to explain the situation to me, in my opinion adding many apparently useless things, I thought that maybe it was because she wanted to talk to me, this hypothesis made me inexplicably very happy.
Summarizing the most important things: Ri listed three companies that were willing to sponsor me, the first was an emerging company in the mana weapons industry, the second was an IT and communications company, and the third was a company specializing in match betting.
In reality, none of these inspired me very much, from a monetary point of view, however, all three offered a fairly high monthly remuneration, especially considering that I was still a rookie.
The figures were around 3000 PFC per month as long as I was in the Laurel Tier, and it would have increased if I managed to climb the Tiers.
However for now I did not accept any proposal, also because I had an ace up my sleeve to try to earn some money.
In addition to this, she told me about my next fights, in two days my second match was waiting for me, while in a week there would be my third fight, all without external weapons *.
(* i.e. not created with some skill)
Later we trained, and for the first time I noticed a noticeable change, I had definitely become stronger, but above all more aware of my ability and my physical abilities. The fight from a few days ago had really helped me grow.
Now I wandered through the corridors of the Arena, headed to the gym, trained for a few hours, and then went to the casino.
'To buy a random D-class skill onwards it would cost me about 8000 PFC, I only have 900.'
From what I understood, even asking Ri, in the casino was not allowed to use abilities that required mana use, however, my "Vision" did not require mana.
My idea was to wander through the various slots in the casino halls until I found one whose first spin would give me the jackpot.
The entrance of the casino was very luxurious, with columns of black and gold marble, which supported a ceiling full of lights in the shape of stars, at the entrance, there was also an android used to check the personal data of those who wanted to enter. The interior of the casino gave continuity to the style of the entrances.
They let me in without any trouble, so I started looking for the lucky slot...
Then there was the problem of not attracting too much attention, so I thought I'd find the winning slot and then waste some of my money on the slot next to it, then pretend to be annoyed and make a crazy bet on the winning slot.
In my head it sounded like a great plan.
However I did not consider a small, but very important, thing, that is to say, that my power, then, was still very limited, I could only "see" a few moments into the future, and the more I tried to "see" into the future, the more tired my head got.
Disappointed that my plan didn't work, I headed for the exit, however, on the way, I saw a game that intrigued me.
It was a game where there was a dealer with a deck of poker cards, he turned the cards in the deck and you had to guess which card would come out.
It didn't seem very popular, there were no people playing, however, the payout to bet ratio was very high, 1:5.
I walked over to the game table and took turns without betting, to see if my power was strong enough to be useful.
'Ace'
The ace came out.
'Queen'
Queen came out.
I guessed two more, however, since I had to "see" a few seconds into the future, I was already starting to get tired, so I decided to bet.
I bet 200 PFC.
"Three"
The three came out, and I won 1000 PFC plus my bet, so 1200 total PFC.
I doubled my bet and called six.
It was a six and I won a total of 2400 PFC.
I was starting to get noticed, so I decided to bet 200 PFC and lose on purpose.
"Ahh, shit!"
Pretending to be disappointed, I wagered another 400 PFC, still losing on purpose.
"Come on luck…"
I bet 800 PFC, now intent on winning.
"The King… of clubs"
If you also guessed the suit of the card, the payout would have been 1:20.
The dealer turned the card, it was a king of clubs and so I won 16800 PFC.
I then decided to waste 1000 PFC in lost rounds and then I left.
Starting with my 900 PFC I was able to get to 18300 PFC.
I didn't have too much trouble getting out of the casino.
I got home and started thinking about what to do with these 18300 PFC.
I needed to buy a skill but had to decide which skill to buy and how to buy it.
The skills are classified into 5 classes:
-Class D: a skill that does not have much growth potential, and is usually quite weak, but consumes little mana;
-Class C: a skill with a greater potential for growth, and also has a fairly low consumption of mana;
-Class B: high-growth skills, higher Mana cost but very strong, necessary at the higher levels of the Arena;
- Class A: skills with high and fast growth, variable Mana cost, generally stronger than class B skills;
- Class S: particular skills, they cannot be bought, they are special, for example, "Predictive Gaze" can be considered a S-class power.
As The Rings suggested, I needed a mid-range skill, but before buying one, I decided I had to talk to Ri about it first too.
But now I had to decide how to buy my first skill, I discarded the infeasible options.
Skills have different costs depending on the classification:
Class D: 2000 PFC
Class C: 10000 PFC
Class B: 100000 PFC
Class A: 1000000 PFC
These were the fixed prices to buy a skill, however, there was also the option of the random skill, which cost 8,000 CFP, but had a very bad chance of winning good skills:
D 50%, C 40%, B 8% and A 2%.
Eventually, my choice fell to buying a Class C skill and a Class D.
I was thinking of a Class D skill to help me in close combat, and a Class C skill for mid-range fights.