CHAPTER 676: NECRONOMANCER V SAINTOCHEATER

“What happens if we draw,” Sofia asked, playing with the dice in her hand.

“We go until one side wins,” the dealer answered without hesitation.

“Sure thing,” Sofia accepted, popping a mana pearl into her mouth like a piece of candy, “Pareth you can go first.”

“One second,” the dealer stopped him, “let me get you both a fresh set of dice.”

“Alright.”

The lich controlling the dealer deftly exchanged all of Sofia and Pareth’s dice to another set from the dice bowl on the table.

Does he think we tampered with the dice? He knows to block my aura but he gives me more bone dice… Makes it pretty clear he doesn’t get what my aura does exactly, just that I was using it to cheat somehow. I guess he wasn’t watching the battle against Tartaros.

Now with new dice, Pareth went on with his first roll.

With the augmented processing given by the mana pearl, Sofia was able to predict where the die was going to land even faster. Analyzing the trajectory of the dice, it was pretty clear to her that this was a four or a five.

The dice hit the table, bounced and rolled just like Sofia predicted… And landed on a one.

What…

What the fuck was that…

Sofia tried to understand how she could have messed up her prediction so badly, eventually noticing a tiny dent in the tabletop like a mark made by a pressed fingernail in a fruit.

No way… It landed right on that minuscule protrusion in the felt and that messed up the landing?!

Pareth threw his second die under Sofia’s watchful eyes.

That’s a six. Absolutely a six.

The dice landed. It was another one.

This time Sofia had seen it happen. The felt tabletop just indented itself right as the dice was about to land, completely shifting the result. And the worst part was, Sofia had no idea how this had happened. There was no mana movement to speak of, no invisibility trick, nothing.

Only then did she remember the event’s prompt.

Chronomancer, huh… Did he watch the dice land, then mess with the table at the landing spot and turn back time without resetting the table until the dice landed on a one? All so he could cheat without directly messing with the dice itself because I’m watching so closely?

That’s some next level sneaky shit.

But sure. Sure. Let’s do that.

If I use the toybox freeze again so soon, I won’t be able to maintain it for more than a second or two… How do I counter someone who uses magic that shouldn’t even exist? It’s seamless, too, I didn’t notice anything at all.

“Well? Are you having second thoughts? Considering using a black die perhaps?” the dealer asked, looking at Sofia.

“Yes, I’m thinking, just give me a moment. This isn’t exactly a great start for us so… Tough decision.”

I’d call you out on your cheating if I had any way to prove it… There has to be a limit to what he can do if he wants to stay discreet. I need more time to think…

“Hey, I was wondering,” Sofia said, changing the subject, “What do you think about the owner? You said you’re a manager here, right? So you must know the guy.”

“Who do- Er… Of course I know him!” the ‘dealer’ answered, “You needn’t ask a manager, in fact, who here hasn’t heard of the great Ak’Virad?! He’s a good boss, yes, a truly good boss. Look at all the undead employed here. Nobody wants us anywhere else, it’s very generous of him to give us such a wonderful place to work.”

Oh boy. Someone has an ego.

“You’re all happy to work here?” Sofia asked to keep him occupied while she sneakily threw glances at the dice bowl, testing something out.

“Undoubtedly! Everyone is delighted to work here. Who could possibly be discontent being the sl- the employee of such a powerful and majestic mage. And, and… He’s got the best worker benefits. Yes, no one does worker benefits as well as he does. Hum, wh- why do you ask?”

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“Oh, I’m just curious, as a necromancer myself. It’s not every day one gets to even come close to such a famous Arch-Lich, you know. I even considered becoming a Lich myself, at some point, but it feels like quite the sacrifice to lock your soul in a phylactery like that, not everybody’s got the courage and determination to go through with something like that if they have a choice.”

“Indeed, indeed,” the ‘dealer’ answered, visibly pleased by Sofia’s brown nosing, “Every mage worthy of their name should consider Lichdom at some point, but it truly is not for everyone. Ah, that being said, perhaps we should get back to the game.”

Ah shit. Well. That lasted longer than I assumed it would. This ‘Arch-Lich’ may be powerful but he isn’t as overbearing as the event sold him as.

While she was distracting the lich, Sofia had been hard at work trying to find a way to scam the scammer, and while countering his time magic seemed like a lost cause, Sofia took the opportunity to attempt an age-old gambler’s trick.

Even if the lich blocked her aura from influencing thrown dice, there was nothing he could do to stop her from tampering with the ones she had been rolling between her fingers. Since they were still bone dice, she had just played around shifting the bone density within the dice, essentially moving most of the matter, and consequently the weight, to one side so that the die result would be the opposite.

It was a stupidly simple plan, but the simple weighed dice would perfectly counter the tabletop dent shenanigans, as the results didn’t depend as much on the throw itself.

Sofia finally threw her die, and as she expected, not even the lich’s sneaky dent tactic prevented the weighted die from landing on a five.

Got you. That’s perfect. Now he can’t make me lose right away with my next throw, since a six gets us to thirteen. It’s just a matter of getting a good score in. Can my trick work twice in a row?

Sofia’s second die was weighed differently, it was more aggressively weighted toward landing on the six, so much so that the opposite side was almost hollow.

Just to make sure things were going to go well, Sofia feigned throwing the die a few times, before suddenly addressing the dealer.

“Ak’Virad is such a cool name, don’t you think? I wonder what Origins it has, sounds a bit Kleptran,” she said out of nowhere, throwing out the die in the middle of her sentence.

The lich was so distracted by Sofia suddenly calling out his name that he apparently did not even mess with the dice. It just landed flatly on the six, and as far as Sofia could tell, the tabletop was untouched.

… I can’t believe this worked.

“Ahah… You should ask him that yourself if you get the chance…” the dealer answered, his gaze fixated on the die Sofia had thrown.

Look all you want, everyone already saw it landing on a six.

Though Sofia had done her best to tune the ambient noise and bustle out, the high-stakes game had attracted many onlookers, which must have been part of why the lich tried so hard to make his own cheating very hard to spot. He clearly worried greatly about his reputation somehow despite running a scam casino.

“I doubt I would get the honor, sadly,” Sofia continued the discussion, “Either way, it looks like our stay in the casino will end shortly, unless you also roll a thirteen, I suppose. But what are the chances, right?”

“Right? If one were to look at your records for today it seems the chances of getting a thirteen are quite high. Perhaps we ought to make this game a bit harder…”

Saying this, the lich grabbed his first die and rolled a six.

Sofia didn’t even see him cheat, for now.

Is he going to play safe and roll a one next?

To Sofia’s surprise, the lich threw his second die, and rolled another six.

What the fuck is he doing?

“Oh no! That’s unlucky… It looks like you might really win now. What should I do…”

Sofia could almost see the bratty smirk on his skull.

Trying to get my hopes up as a destabilization tactic? Or just to have a laugh at my face?

I’ll have you know, that’s an expensive mistake. Go on, throw your last pathetic die, Ak’virad.

Playing with the bone die in his skeletal hand, the lich continued to act desperate for a bit, before decisively throwing the final roll.

Sofia’s focus was maximal.

She could tell from the moment the die left the lich’s hand, it was going to be a one even without any tricks.

Sofia’s eyes never left the dice as it bounced and rolled, and then, just as it finally landed on the one with a faint thud, she froze the toybox.

She could not hold it for long, but she did not need long, just enough to be sure she had everything correctly lined up.

Sofia’s left eye shone softly for a brief moment as the toybox unfroze and time started flowing its course.

Four dots appeared around the one already present on the die’s face, as if they had always been there.

The lich had rolled a five.

Previously, when Sofia distracted the lich with her compliments, she had used her storage eye to steal a dice from the dice bowl.

Storage items were usually full of air, and whatever entered the storage space was actually switched in for a similar volume of air from the space. But with advanced control and mastery, it wasn’t impossible to switch something for another item from the storage with a similar volume. Like switching a die facing one direction for a similar die facing another.

Being able to precisely do that from a distance was not something a regular storage item would allow one to do. But Sofia’s eye was no regular item.

There was a moment of silence around the table. The dealer wordlessly looked at the die, that not even his time trick could revert to the correct side, as it was a different die entirely.

Sofia leaned back on her chair, crossing her legs, “If my counts are correct, that will be a total of two hundred and sixty-seven million, four hundred eighty-three thousand and thirteen tokens, or twenty six billion gold, rather,” she announced with a condescending smile. “I assume you will be paying in stones?"