Captain Wager was squinting his eyes, but he couldn’t tell if he was seeing Bingo or just a shrub out along the road, he turned to Sargent Splits standing next to him. Sargent Splits also had a magnification skill, but it wasn’t nearly as high as Bingo’s, and Wager asked him, “Can you see Bingo out there?”

“Yes, Sir. She is looking in our direction, and she is looking very upset.” He replied.

Captain Wager was about to ask Sargent Split a question when Split visibly jerked his head back and exclaimed, “Holy Decks! Her head just exploded!” Captain Wager immediately turned, not to try and see Bingo, but to look in the direction of Sam, Jen, and Tamako.

When Captain Wager didn’t respond to his announcement, Sargent Split followed Wager’s gaze, and noticed the deck droppers on the short inner wall. He watched as the two women picked up their gear, and one of them even picked up the man, and they started walking away from everyone. He asked Captain Wager, “Sir, do you want me to have them followed?”

Wager recoiled at his question, and exclaimed, “By The Seven Decks, NO! We’ve lost enough men already.” Wager paused a few moments thinking, and continued, “Sorry Sargent, didn’t mean to bite you’re your head off, but a mouse doesn’t antagonize an injured lion. Have someone go out and loot Bingo. We need to recover those shackles. When the deck droppers come back, let them know that I have Bingo’s loot for them, and we will pay them for the shackles.”

“Yes, Sir!” replied Sargent Splits, and then he started barking commands to some of the other guards.

========

Jen, Sam, and Tamako, were resting in a small barracks building, and Tamako asked, “What’s the plan boss?”

Jen was watching the activities along the pass-wall through the eyes of her bird, and she used her AI to send the “video” to Sam and Tamako, and said, “The trolls have moved over near the walls of the cliff. It looks like they are trying to dig holes or caves into the ground to avoid the sunlight. The one we shackled is still just lying there. Do you think the goblins are going to try and free it?”

Tamako replied slightly emphatically, “Maybe. Should we head out there and kill them to get the experience points for ourselves?’

Jen shook her head, “We’ve drawn too much attention already. There are still thousands of goblins, and we haven’t even fought any of the elite, high-level ones.” She then said in a barely exaggerated voice, “but I bet you would get a lot of experience points for killing a troll. Maybe if the battle takes us out beyond the wall, an opportunity might present itself.”

Sam was inspecting his gnome ring again, when he half heard Tamako and Jen talk about the trolls, and mumbled, “Yea, sure. I’ve got 12 more of those flash bangs if you want them,” while never looking up from the ring. Sam was placing his primary focus on work, while using his multi-focus to help manage the emotional trauma of watching the guard he'd joked with getting eaten by a troll.

Jen shook her head as Sam failed to take the hint, but then shrugged at Tamako, and said, “Moving on… give me a moment to think of a rough plan for today.”

Tamako just relaxed, while watching Jen decide on a plan. A few moments later, Jen said, “Earth to Sam!”

Sam looked her way, and asked, “What’s up?”

Jen replied, “Put away your project, and let’s discuss what’s next.”

Sam put away the strange ring he bought from the gnome store, as Jen explained, “We win the gambling quest when Lady Domino’s reinforcements arrive, or sunset tonight, whichever comes first. Same as before. We stick with the gambling quest, but if it gets too dangerous, we’re out of here.”

Tamako asked, “What about after sunset?”

Jen nodded, and continued, “We stay in the background. Maybe do a little healing if it is needed. However, as soon as either sunset, or Lady Domino and the reinforcements show up, we’re out of here. Of course, instead of leaving, we can watch from the sidelines if it's safe and looks interesting.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, looked sideways at Tamako, and said to her, “You know she’s full of shit, right? As long as we’re near anyone in need, we’re going to be jumping into the middle of it.”

As Jen gave Sam the finger and stormed off outside, Sam said, “Wait Jen! I was just messing with you. I didn’t mean for you to take me seriously!”

Tamako shook her head sadly at Sam, and replied, “I have failed. I’ve taught you the ability to dodge, but I have not taught you the wisdom of keeping silent when the truth is already known and apparent to all. She’s willing to fight the gods of The Seven Decks for you. I know you are willing to risk everything for her as well, but you also need to quit being a sarcastic smart-ass, even if her plan isn’t realistic. You know you could have easily been constructive with a question instead.”

Sam knowing, he stuck his foot in his mouth again, nodded and said, “You’re right. I was just trying to be funny, and I also know being the boss is a lot of stress. I’ll go apologize to her.”

Tamako held her palm out to stop Sam from getting up, and replied, “No. I’ll go talk to her. She also needs to learn about being honest with both herself and us when making a plan, as well as not letting dumbass comments trigger her so easily.”

=========

As sunrise was threatening to peak over the horizon, Sam was on top of the pass-wall watching the trolls digging their caves. Sam thought it kind of looked like mole mounds as they continued to dig their tunnels back towards the valley behind the goblins. One of the guards told Sam that the trolls could tunnel under ground at amazing speeds, but they couldn’t dig too deep because of something to do with their breathing magic, and how they just shoveled the dirt directly behind them as they tunneled forward.

Jen walked over next to Sam, grabbed his hand and gently squeezed it, and said, “I forgive you old man. I’m also sorry for being triggered too easily.”

Sam was glad that arguments with Jen generally blew over pretty quickly. Even so, he tried to take it to heart when he was in the wrong, and he replied, “I’m sorry for being an ass. Love you millennial.”

“Love you too Boomer. Now get ready, I’ve had the bird circling the main goblin force, and it looks like they are about to launch an all-out attack.”

Sam nodded, and asked, “What did Captain Wager say?”

Jen replied, “he said everything is as ready as its going to get. The guards may not be as high a level as us, but they are all strong, good with a bow, and have a pile of arrows ready for the goblins when they get into range. However, he still hasn’t heard from Lady Domino’s reinforcements.”

Sam snorted, “Any idea what’s taking them so long?’

Jen shrugged, “Some of the reinforcements that arrived earlier, said they were able to pass them because her troops’ heavy weapons were slowing them down.”

“What kind of weapons?”

“Captain Wager guessed they were heavy boom dust weapons that shoot heavy exploding steel balls. He wouldn’t say more, explaining he wasn’t allowed to discuss the weapons.”

Sam nodded, “Sounds like she must have some type of modified steam-bolt weapons, but for steel balls.”

Jen turned Sam to look at him, rolled her eyes, and said, “I can’t take it any longer! Didn’t you see that you reached level 30 after getting the majority of the experience points from killing those trolls!”

Sam’s eyes widened in delight, and he exclaimed, “No way! I didn’t notice! Hang on. I need to take my AI off of ‘do not disturb’.”

Jen scowled, “Why is it turned off!”

Sam replied, “After the guards getting eaten, and then killing Bingo, I just wanted to be left alone for a while.”

Jen’s face softened, as she said, “That makes sense. Anyway, get it turned on and distribute your ability points before this battle old man. I’m going to head back over near Captain Wager”

Sam was breaking his own rules, but he knew exactly where he was going to distribute the new ability points.

Before Jen had moved more than two steps from Sam, she noticed more movement with her bird’s view, and stuck out her arm pointing towards the goblins. She then yelled loud enough for all those around to hear, “Heads up! Their coming!”

=========

Thousands of goblins lined up facing the wall. These weren’t the fodder goblins of earlier. They were armed and armored. They were screaming madly and climbing all over each other, but they didn’t move forward past where they’d established a front line just beyond bow range for most of the guards.

One of the quick reaction reinforcement fighters that joined the wall earlier that night, had both a bow, and the ability, to fire into the goblins all the way out to their current location. He’d been killing goblins nonstop for the last couple of hours, but his ability only allowed him to fire an arrow about every thirty seconds. The two hundred or so goblins he killed were only a drop in the bucket, but every goblin killed helped, and it was also a boost to morale.

Captain Wager called out, “GET READY!” Everyone on the wall readied their bow. The easy accuracy of a crossbow was not needed with the numbers facing them. All they needed to do was fire as many arrows as quickly as possible, because none would miss with the thousands of approaching goblins.

Jen heard the sound of a goblin horn pierce the air, and watched the horde race towards them at a ridiculously high speed. Only a couple seconds later, she heard Captain Wager order, “Fire at will!”

Hundreds of arrows rained down on the thousands of goblins.

========

As the goblins were charging, instead of placing his two ability points from leveling into either his agility, mana pool, mana regen, stamina, stamina regen, or his strength stats as usual, Sam placed the two precious ability points into his Luck stat. Back when Sam’s Luck became his highest stat, he’d promised himself to only use ability points won in gambling quests to increase his Luck, but Sam broke that promise and grinned manically as his Luck stat finally hit 50… then he received a System message.

=======

System Message and Gambling Quest

The first 50 Deck citizens under level 50 to achieve a Luck state of 50, will have their Luck stat evolved into an Active Luck Stat. Your Luck stat can be evolved into an Active Luck Stat. Number of currently evolved Active Luck Stats: 43 of 50 (7 remaining). This System Message and Gambling Quest regarding an evolved Active Luck stat is confidential. Notice to others will cause the loss of an evolved Active Luck stat, the loss all of your ability points in Luck, and the loss of having any of your stats evolved.

Option A: Delay the evolution of your Luck stat, and raise your currently lowest stat, Strength, from 27 to 50 points before reaching level 50. Once your Strength stat hits 50 points, at that time, both your Strength stat and Luck stat will be evolved simultaneously. Failure will result in the loss of evolution in both your Luck stat and your Strength stat, and the loss of 10 random ability points.

Option B: Accept your evolved Active Luck stat, and forever regret a once in a lifetime opportunity. Number of currently evolved Limitless Strength stats: 50 of 50 (0 remaining).

Time to decided: 30 seconds