“Are you finished with your preparations?” the duke called out while his foot tapped the ground impatiently.
“You might wanna sit down. I’ve still got two spins left,” I replied.
The crowd was surprisingly interested in my level-up game. They made it clear that slot machines were something that did not exist in this world. Considering what they were capable of with runes, it was possible for them to make some. In fact, if I was an entrepreneur, I might have considered commissioning a rune-smith to make some for me. I could open up my own casino and give others the horrible curse of a gambling addiction. I shuddered when I remembered what I was like when I was an addict.
I placed my hand on the lever and cranked it. I heard the oohing and aahing of the nobles as the reels spun. Everyone was magnetised by the machine, but none more than I.
The first reel landed on something new, ‘Pet’.
A pet? What would that entail, I wondered? Knowing my luck, I’d be given something useless like a goldfish. If I had things my way, I’d ask for a grizzly bear. No one would mess with me if I had one of those. But there was the issue of feeding it and cleaning up after it. Perhaps a bear wasn’t the best option.
The next reel stopped on ‘Cosmetic’.
Great! Now the System wanted to give me makeup. I knew this turn was a miss, but if I had rolled ‘Cosmetic’ on all three reels I would have been more miserable than if I got nothing.
The last was ‘Mount’.
I couldn’t get mad over that one because I didn’t really know what it meant. If I had rolled three of those, would I have gotten on top of something? Or was it short for Mount Everest? I vaguely remembered my niece helping me with my CDs and mentioning the word ‘mount’.
I sighed and went in for another spin. I was sure the System would bless me with nothing once more. Or maybe it would feel cheeky and give me something worse than nothing, like the Charmer title.
This time, the three reels all landed on the same word, ‘Boost’.
“Yes!” I shouted. This was it! The System had finally given me a boon. I didn’t know what would be boosted, but it was certainly better than getting beauty products.
[Choose your Boost.]
[XP Boost: Lose 2x more XP for the next week.]
[GP Boost: Receive 2x more gold from sparing monsters. Lasts for a month.]
[Drop Rate Boost: Gain a much higher chance of dropping your items. One year.]
It was over. None of this would help me with the duel. “Useless, useless, useless. Everything this System gives me is useless!” I started throwing a tantrum. “Why do I never receive anything good? This System has to be rigged against me or something!” I slapped my slot machine. “You piece of junk.”
“Calm down,” Newmill said. He was watching anxiously amid the ring of nobles.
“Calm down?” How was I supposed to calm down? I pointed at him. “What’s the last thing the System gave you?”
Newmill was startled by my sudden interrogation. “Uhm, let me think…” He opened his System’s status page to jog his memory. “Ah, yes. I received this skill.” He came closer and showed me his green System.
[Flip: Turn any creature upside down. Costs 50 MP.]
“See?” I said. “That’s amazing.” I pointed to a random nobleman on the sidelines. “What did you get the last time you levelled up?”
“Me?” replied the nobleman in a high-pitched voice. “I’m not sure if it is proper to mention it in public.” I scowled at him. “Well, if you insist, I was given the Void Bladder title. I need never urinate again.”
I pointed at a noblewoman. “What about you?”
“My System gave me this bracelet.” She held up her wrist to highlight a magnificent golden bracelet embedded with green emeralds. “You see, it regenerates my HP. If you must know, it restores 0.3% max health per second.”
I scratched my head and ruffled my hair. “All of those are amazing. Meanwhile I get either nothing or things worse than nothing. It hardly seems fair.”
Newmill tried again to calm me down. “Yarm, you just picked outliers, ok? Everyone has times when the System doesn’t give them anything worthwhile. For example,” he turned to a nearby nobleman, “what did you last get, sir?”
The nobleman opened his coat and pulled out a goose. “I got this little one.”
Where was he hiding that? I changed my tone, somewhat. “I guess a goose isn’t all that amazing.”
“It lays golden eggs.”
I slammed my head into the slot machine. Complaining wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I clearly got the short-end of the stick with my level-up game. I just had to make do with what I had. Nothing I did or said would change the fact that I was getting unlucky with my spins.
Reluctantly, I picked the XP boost. My choice came down to the first two, and I felt like XP was more important than money. So did the System, apparently, since it gave the gold boost 4 times the duration.
It was time for me to return to my duel that was all but lost before it started. I dispelled my slot machine and started walking towards the duke.
Gosport was plucking his nose hairs with a small tweezer and a pocket mirror while he waited. When he saw me approaching, he slammed the mirror shut and asked, “Finally ready boy?”
“Erm, not quite.” I started wringing my hands together while standing in the ring. “Could I have a handicap please?”
“What?”
“Come on! You’re level 40 and I’m level 15. You’re like 35 levels above me.”
“Incorrect.”
I pleaded, “Have some mercy. I’m just a weak boy with -1 Body.”
Gosport was flabbergasted. “You are the one who asked for this duel! Why are you playing the victim now?”
“What honour is there in defeating a lowly level 15 like me, if you don’t give me a handicap? You’d be mocked by your peers for that. You should make this a fair fight, am I right, everyone?” I appealed to the crowd. They all murmured noises of vague agreement.
“Fine. I’ll stand here and let you have a free attack on me. Is that enough?”
I pumped both my fists into the air. “YES! Yes! Yes!” I received strange looks. “I mean, thank you very much.” With this, my victory was assured. This idiot noble had no idea that I could use acupuncture to knock him out with one blow. A single strike to the neck was all that it would take. It would have been difficult to land a precise pinpoint attack in the middle of the battle, but thanks to my opponent standing still, that was of no concern.
“Let the duel begin!” shouted a nobleman who took it upon himself to play the referee.
“You know, a thought just occurred to me. I don’t even have to move from this spot to take you out.” The duke was many metres away from me. I rummaged through my bag and plucked out an acupuncture dart. I held it up for everyone to see. “I’ll defeat the arrogant duke with this.”
The onlookers looked in bewilderment. “He wants to use such a small object to defeat the good duke?”
“There’s no way that tiny thing will do any damage.”
“Perhaps he has coated the tip in poison?” someone suggested.
This dart was capable of homing in on pressure points. Once I threw it, the dart would fly directly into the noble’s neck. “Watch and learn, everyone. I’ll finish him with this. Night night, Gosport!” I aimed the dart above the duke’s shoulder. I was confident enough in my accuracy to get that far, the dart would handle the rest.
I threw the dart and it flew out of my hands surprisingly easily. It glided through the air and reached Gosport’s shoulder. Then it went further. It passed by the area I targeted and completely missed its mark. The dart had a slightly minimal curve to its trajectory. That was the extent of its homing capability.
“Ow! My leg!” A nobleman had my dart sticking out of his thigh. He had been in an unfortunate position: directly behind Gosport.
“You missed?” shouted Penrin.
Newmill exclaimed, “How could you miss, Yarm? You had a free hit. You could have just walked up to him for an attack. What were you thinking?”
I really should have tested out these acupuncture darts before using them. They were awful. The homing effect was far too miniscule. They were supposed to scale off of my Mind, so perhaps I needed more points in that.
“Now it’s my turn,” said Gosport while cracking his fingers.
“Wait!” I shouted.
“What now? How many times are you going to make me wait?”
I explained, “That attack wasn’t aimed at you. I meant to hit the noble behind you.”
“What did I do?” said the noble pulling the dart out of his leg.
Gosport rubbed his temple. “Before your attack you called out my name.”
“The guy behind you is called Gosport too, ok?” My lies were getting good.
“My name’s, Phil.” Phil swung his arm like he was bowling and rolled the dart back to me.
I picked it up. “Thanks, Phil.” I faced Gosport and held up my hands. “Alright, you got me. I was trying to attack you. But be a good sport and give me another free attack, please.”
“No.” The duke held his arm out to the side with an outstretched hand. Silver particles started to appear in a line. They swirled around a cylindrical white light. The particles increased in number and shined brighter. The light condensed and the particles converged to form a pristine silver sword. “I shan’t let you make a mockery of this duel any longer.”
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter