Lucio looked at the man who was standing in front of him, smiling bitterly.
"How much are you betting?"
The fat man in front of him replied
"Two hundred silvers!"
The whole crowd went silent, unable to believe what they had heard. Even Lucio had his mouth wide open. He chuckled depreciatingly as he said
"You are the only one who has been able guess correctly most of the times. Did you find a way to check which hand holds the coin?"
The fat man simply smiled "Maybe."
The crowd was listening intently and when they heard the conversation, they all made up their minds to bid of the fat man winning.
A minute later, both of Lucio's pots were empty. He went to the bar owner and talked to him for a while before leaving.
Kaeso Arrianus saw him leave and walked towards the bar owner. "Hello, I'm a regular at your bar and I just wanted to ask a bit about the boy."
"Yes, I do see you here every night. You can ask me anything and I'll answer to the best of my abilities."
"How long will he work here? I'm asking because most people work here for one or two days before leaving and since he has suffered such a huge loss today, I doubt he will come back tomorrow."
"He signed a contract and has to work for three nights. If he misses even one, I can just get him thrown into the dungeons. He will come back here for sure."
Kaseo smiled as he thanked the bar owner before leaving. 'If I bet a thousand silver and win tomorrow, he should pay me the money. If he doesn't, I should be able to brand him as a slave. His skill surely will be useful.'
He didn't even consider the possibility of losing as he walked back to his shop.
*****
Lucio was in his room, sitting on the bed as he looked at the almost empty leather pouch that only had twenty bronze coins. He had lost almost all his money while trying to set the man up.
He lay down on the bed and checked his player interface.
[
Name: Samael
Age: 14
Title: Son of a prostitute
Job: None
Stats
Strength: 0.8 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Agility: 0.8 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Stamina: 1.2 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Vitality: 1.1 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Senses: 2.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Magic: 0.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:10000 EP)
Experience points: 90
(Exp points can be converted to stats. Minimum conversion value is 0.1 of any stat.)
Skills:
Magically gifted: Born with the ability to sense the mystic particles around one's self.
Tenacity: You feel less pain and take less damage from any kind of physical harm.
Bank: Coin storage with extra functions to trade items and keep a list of people from earth.
Inventory: You gain 20 slots of stackable inventory space with the limit of 20 stackable items each slot. (Items should be similar to be stacked.)
Inspect: When target is in line of sight, shows all the information along with stats.
Language Mastery: You know all Languages.
]
He closed his eyes after seeing the satisfying increase in exp points in just a single day. An increase of forty-six was not a small amount.
Lucio closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. Working and running around for the whole day wasn't easy and he had forgotten to buy something for dinner again.
***
Lucio woke up after a good night's sleep and ran out to the place where he stocked up his firewood and the pot.
There were still some embers so he used some hemp rope to start the fire before adding a lot of firewood. When the fire rose, he left the place and walked back to the town.
On the way to the Old Butcher's store, he bought four pieces of long bread and chewed on one of them as he walked.
The work was similar to the previous day as he chopped the meat and separated the bones. Most people didn't buy bones so they were all thrown away at the end of every week.
Lucio could not see them being thrown away, so he asked the old man if he could take them with him and the old man agreed.
He left the store with a huge smelly bag and walked out of the town, towards the river bank. It was a few kilometres from the town so he had to walk for almost an hour before he reached his destination.
Lucio then cleaned all the bones before putting them all back into the bag. Some were still smelly, so he threw them away and kept the ones that were good.
There wasn't anyone around him, so he simply put the bag in his inventory before walking to his tea making site.
He looked at the huge pot and emptied a whole barrel of tea into it before placing it on the fire. Then, he walked back to the city cursing himself for the lack of planning.
It didn't take too long for him to walk back with four small pots that were seasoned, each costing him five bronze coins.
'Technically, I'm broke right now…' he thought as he placed a few stones in a particular formation and used them as temporary fire places for his next few experiments.
After pouring some of the tea that was boiling in the large pot into all the small ones, he took all the four different herbs and threw them into the small pots.
A few minutes later, he used [Inspect] on all the "Concoctions" and only one had the effect that he desired.
[Mind Booster Tea]
Tea made from God's long dry grass and the blade grass. It has a calming effect as it helps clear a person's mind and increases brain's cognitive functions. It is very bitter.
Lucio burnt the other herbs in the fire and threw the blade grass into the large pot. After extracting everything that he could extract from the blade grass, he threw the waste away and poured in more tea from the barrels.
Lucio continued to increase the concentration of the tea as time passed. The sun had almost set and there was still one more barrel of tea left.
He waited for a while before pouring the concentrated tea into one of the empty barrels and walked to the bar after sending the barrel to his inventory.
When he entered the bar, he saw the fat merchant waiting for him near his stall. Lucio was very happy to see the man as today was the day he would take back everything from him.
Lucio announced to everyone that he would start after a long time and only the hard game would be played.
People were disappointed but Lucio didn't care. He wouldn't be coming back here after that night anyways.
Lucio walked around the room as he chewed on some bread that he had bought in the morning. He had no money to participate in anything, so he could only watch.
After a long time, he walked to the bar owner.
"I need a bronze coin. I'll pay you back after the work is done."
"Sure." He said as he laughed "Looks like he really milked all the money from you."
"Let's not talk about that…" Lucio said as he turned back to look at the fat merchant, who was observing him.
Lucio sighed before shaking his head "That guy thinks I'll run away from here…. While my goal is to milk him dry by the end of the night."
"Do what you want. I just want to know how you plan on milking him."
"Gambling is like a deep pit. All I have to do is lead him in and he won't be able to get back up, continuously going deeper and deeper. When he realises that he is unable to get back up, he will struggle harder and fall down faster.
I'll just enjoy the show as he falls from the golden throne to the abyss. Aaaah, just thinking about it gives me shivers." Lucio said as he stared into the bar owner's eyes subconsciously.
The bar owner swallowed his saliva as he looked into those mysterious blue eyes that were staring at him. He felt like the person standing in front of him was a devil disguised as a young boy.
"You should start the work. That man is waiting for you for a long time." He said, attempting to send Lucio away.
"Sure. But I'll let him wait for a while." Lucio said and walked away, not realising that the bar owner was scared shitless.
He went to his table and sat down as he looked at the crowd that had started gathering around him.
Lucio smiled before announcing,
" Alright, tonight we will change the rules a bit. Only one person gets to play the game and only the one with the most money with them can play."
The result wasn't surprising as after a minute, the fat merchant stood in front of him.
Lucio grinned as he said "Let's start the game, shall we?"