Tamako growled to Jen, "He's at it again....ughhhh! That one hurt!"

Jen ignored Tamako as she placed a towel over the fresh wound on Tamako's arm, where she'd just cut off a chunk of concrete. She then started the tedious chanting and hand gestures for the healing spell. She was getting better at focusing her mana for the spell, but it still took her almost two minutes to complete the required chanting and gestures. As she ended the spell she snatched the towel off of Tamako and grabbed her arm to force the spell directly into the wound. Thirty seconds later, and the wound was healed.

Jen closed her eyes and sat down with a gasp of exhaustion, and said, "Give me half an hour and I'll cut the next chunk of concrete off of you arm." She then looked up at Tamako's pained expression, and complained, "It would be a lot easier on you if you'd just let me put you to sleep, like I did Sam!"

Tamako replied, "We've already argued about this. I'm not going to be put to sleep. I like to see what's being done to me. It's my pain, not yours..." She then looked towards action man again, and with a little impatience and frustration in her voice from the pain, said, "Why does he keep it up everyday. He's got to understand that we're not going to focus on Old Man Pudding until we get our on shit fixed first!"

Jen sighed, "He's upset about something that's for sure. Just ignore him though. I'm sure there is something very important he would like to tell us, but it is what it is, and our priorities are going to take precedent over theirs."

Tamako asked, "How do you think Sam's doing?"

Jen shrugged, "No idea, but we know he's doing his absolute best, an if he fails, we'll still bounce back. And if he does, hopefully it won't take too much longer for this aura virus we're carrying around to wear off. You know, It's just something I never expected could happen. I just didn't have a backup plan for us if we lost all of our enchanted clothing, armor, storage rings... everything! On top of that, we can't even use or create enchanted gear right now. "

Tamako said in a comforting voice, "No one would have. Even Sam didn't! Quit beating yourself up about this! Like you said, we're going to be fine."

Jen replied, "I know... I'll try to stop complaining about it. Anyway, I'm going to rest now, and we'll get back to your arm in a little bit."

******

As Sam stepped through the doors of the Casino, the smoke, smell, and general despair of those gambling their last copper, brought back all the old memories to Sam. Even so, he almost smiled to himself as he prepared to find the blackjack table and bring down the house!

Gambling Quest!

Bankrupt the Casino and force the Casino Boss to turn her ownership chip of this System-regulated Casino over to you!

Time for Completion: 5 days

Reward: Ownership chip for the Casino, 8 ability points, 4 euphoria, and a euphoria antidote enchantment.

Punishment for Failing the Gambling Quest: Loss of 8 random ability points.

Accept/Decline?

Sam paused thinking about the good he could do with an enchantment that would cure euphoria addiction, but declined the gambling quest. He might have been tempted if they weren't in such dire straits at the moment. After researching the Casinos on the First Deck, Sam had thought about breaking some of them when they'd first arrived, but didn't want to bring too much attention to themselves. Even now, he was worried what might happen.

He'd learned that the System-Regulated Casinos were owned by House Bosses that somehow either earned, stole, cheated... whatever to get ownership chips. Euphoria addicts would often go to whatever casino that would let them gamble, but everyone else would only go to system-regulated casinos, because the casino boss and their employees couldn't rig the games. The system also prevented anyone's ability points, such as the luck stat, from effecting the outcomes. Plus mana usage was entirely blocked off while inside a system casino. So even if their anonymity masks hadn't been ruined by the concrete, they wouldn't work inside a system casino. Everyone was on equal footing in a system casino, but the odds were always in the House's favor... usually. Sam had asked around and no one he'd spoke to had ever heard of card counting.

Sam was nervous, as he thought to himself, "The House Boss can't do anything to me while I'm inside the Casino, but if I win a lot of gold, what might be waiting for me outside?"

While waiting for Jen to heal him, Sam had Bell help him practice his counting skills and calculate a safe betting spread with a low risk of ruin. Unfortunately, Sam's multi-focus skill and his AI would be shut off once he was inside the casino, but he didn't need any help to bring down this House. Before Sam met Kelly, he'd spent several years getting backed off from just about every casino in the US while travelling on Agency business. Fortunately, the House Boss in a System Casino couldn't back you off from a winning run so long as you weren't cheating, and using your un-enhanced brain wasn't considered cheating by the System.

Sam rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before sitting down. While where he sat would not make a difference in his expected value, he liked to be the last player at the table. Fortunately, there was no one else at the table. This let him easily play two hands at a time, and there was no ploppy slowing down the dealer. He grinned at the number of hands per hour he would get in... at least until some ploppy or other players filled up the table.

Sam pushed his gold forward, and the dealer called out, "Buying in for 100 gold!", and Sam noticed the predatory look of the Pit Boss, as the pit nodded approval to the dealer to pass out the chips and start dealing.