I barely heard the musicians playing in the background amidst the roars of laughter, shouts of anger, and cries of joy of the gamblers. Most people ignored me, too busy focusing on the games and drinking the free pints of ale and beer. I felt rather uncomfortable in such a crowded place, especially as I caught faint wafts of burning Cheecah leaves. These hallucinating drugs were not allowed to be smoked in public areas, but the isolation of the private rooms was left to be desired.

I moved away from the private rooms and sat at a nearby empty table game.

 ‘In essence, it does not matter which game I start with since they all rely on luck. However, since the dice’s effect are only temporary, I should aim for games that do not last very long and would allow me to play as many rounds as possible and make several bets.’

I sat down at an empty table and smiled at the lonely dealer. By looking at the marks on the table, I determined that it was a game of Hilo or High-Low. It was the Earth equivalent of Casino War, a simple game where a card was dealt with the player and the dealer. The player with the highest number wins. In case of a tie, the gambler could either increase his bet ‘to go to war’ or surrender half of it to pull back.

Because of how simple it was, few people actually played this game as they preferred the thrill of blackjack or poker where there was a chance to outplay their opponent. For me, however, an empty table simply meant playing more hands.

I handed my fortune card to the dealer, a handsome male elf. He placed it in a slot on the table, in perfect view, and pulled out a set of playing cards. “Will any of you, sirs join as well?” The dealer asked the healers who were accompanying me.

They grunted and coldly moved to the other tables to have a look. Only a hairy man who was a Lycan stayed by my side. He wordlessly shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Please make your bet.” The dealer professionally said despite the cold shoulder of the other healers.

“2 points.”

The dealer quickly reacted, grabbing a stamp and pressing it against the fortune card. It now displayed: 40(2). There were various stamps lined up in front of the dealer. Each one had a different function when stamped against the fortune card. One would confirm the win of the gambler and add the wagered points to the gambler’s fortune card, another would confirm the loss of the gambler and subtract that amount from the fortune card. The rest of the stamps increased the wagered points by different increments. The dealers would take care of all transactions and the gamblers only needed to think about how much they wanted to bet.

‘Betting two points each time should be fine. At worst, I’ll have twenty tries. It should be more than enough to determine my win rate. I’ll move to tables with higher minimum bets when I accumulate some points.”

The dealer took care of everything in this game; I did not even need to touch the cards. The cards in the tower were the same as the ones on Earth, consisting of four suits with numbered cards ranging from two to ten, face cards and aces. They were made of a fibrous material and were magically enchanted to have identical backs and could not be altered.

The cards were dealt face up and the dealer opened his hands to show his empty palms. His card was the 10♠ while mine was the Q♣.

The dealer stamped the fortune card, changing the number it displayed to 42. He then picked up the cards and once again asked in his dull tone. “Please make your bet.”

I bet another two points as before and got the 6♥while the dealer’s card was the 2♦. Another win for me.

It was only two hands later that I eventually lost a hand. On the eighth hand, we ended up with a tie with the dealer having the 8♣ and my card being the 8♦. “Would you like to go to war or retreat for half of the bet?” The elf asked politely.

“I’ll go to war.”

The dealer nodded and stamped the fortune card. This time, it displayed: 50(2)(2). In the case of a tie, the dealer would only need to pay the initial bet if the gambler won the war. It was how the casinos pushed the odds ever so slightly in their favour.

Cards were dealt; my card was the A♥ while the dealer received the K♣. I won, bringing my points up to 52.

I continued playing, facing both wins and losses. But both the dealer and a few other gamblers had noticed that the number on my fortune card kept going up.

After a little over ten minutes, my fortune card now displayed 74; I had nearly doubled the points I initially put in. I mentally counted the wins and losses and estimated my win rate at around 70%. It was not a bad return but there was potential to do so much better.

I increased my bets to four points instead of two and played a few more hands before two gamblers approached me and sat at the table.

“This looks like a nice table. I hope you don’t mind us sharing your luck.” One of the gamblers said with a half-drunk expression. He was a tall Tauren wearing the uniform of the Spatial Bank, holding a pint of ale in one hand and his fortune card in the other.

The other gambler was a Bangaa; he was still wearing his armour, a clear sign that he had just finished his shift at the city gate.

I frowned lightly. I had nothing against these two gamblers but having two more people at the table would mean slowing down the number of hands that would be played. Unfortunately, I had no way of stopping other people from joining the table. Gamblers were naturally attracted to high winning tables even though it would not affect their winnings in the slightest.

On average, a table had about three players but while I could not speed the games up, I could bet larger amounts and with my high win rate, would collect points much faster. I played a couple more hands of Hilo but eventually decided to move to another table when the Tauren was engaged in a war with the dealer, losing a significant amount of time.

About twenty minutes have passed since I entered the House of Fortune and my fortune card was already displaying 96.

‘Let’s hope that this streak will continue. The dice’s effect should not be so short, right?” I said to myself with a smile. I got up, followed by the Lycan, and headed to a nearby table.

A spirit was already sitting there, playing Vanlak with the dealer. Vanlak was the tower’s equivalent of Blackjack. It had very similar rules to Blackjack with a few exceptions. No splitting, doubling down, or surrendering. A ‘Vanlak’, a hand that consisted of only an ace and a face card or a ten could beat any other hands except a pair of aces that was known as a ‘Sunvan’ or a hand that consisted of five cards whose total was lower than twenty-two, a ‘Full Hand’.

The goal of the game was like Blackjack to get a number as close to twenty-one as possible without busting up. Winning a hand would generally mean doubling one’s initial bet but in the case of a ‘Vanlak’, the gambler would be paid 1.5 times his initial bet and in case of a ‘Sunvan’ or a ‘Full Hand’, he would be paid twice the initial bet. With my luck, I was confident in getting a few of these special hands to earn points faster.

The spirit grunted as I sat at the table. He was in a foul mood and I could understand why. He had just lost to a Full Hand while having a Vanlak in hand. This sort of outcome was extremely frustrating.

I handed over my fortune card and started playing. “Six points please.” The spirit matched my bet while mumbling to himself.

The dealer distributed the cards. My hand consisted of the 6♠ and the 5♣. I glanced at the spirit’s cards which were the 8♠ and the 7♥. He was in an undesirable position as he was forced to Hit according to the rules of Vanlak and the chances of busting were not small. He could only stay if his hand totalled sixteen.

Because of our seating arrangement, the spirit acted first. He drew a card which turned out to be the 10♥. It brought his total to 25 which busted his hand.

I was also forced to Hit but the card I drew was the K♦. It brought my total to twenty-one, the best possible outcome I could have with this hand.

The dealer revealed his cards consisting of a pair of Princes. Following the rules of Vanlak, he was allowed to Hit and could theoretically tie my hand if he drew an ace. However, the dealer chose to stay with this hand so that he could still win against the spirit.

The number on my card went up to 102 as the dealer collected the cards.

“Six points please.”

Another round started. The dealer professionally dealt the cards and to my surprise, my hand ended up being the Q♣ and the A♦. On the second round, I had pulled out a Vanlak.

“Hmmp! How lucky!” The spirit gritted his teeth as he looked at his own hand: the 8♥ and the 10♥.

We both stayed on our current hands and the dealer revealed his cards: a pair of nines. Nine points were added to my fortune card and the game continued.

I won and lost but the number on my fortune card kept rising up. I kept playing and playing at the same table since no one else joined us. I finally understood why so many people always came back to this place; watching the number on the fortune card increasing was rather addictive.

‘185 Points… Quite a harvest.’ I smiled to myself before reminding myself to not get carried away. ‘The dice’s effects were not going to last forever and there was also the issue of having won too much.’

‘After winning so much, I am certain that the House of Fortune is keeping an eye on me. It is just like casinos on Earth. They will suspect winners of cheating and if they could not find any evidence of them doing so, they would simply escort the winners out to stop them from taking even more. Nothing could stop the House of Fortune from refusing to serve certain customers. It would tarnish their image but it would be better than to let someone suck them completely dry.’

‘It should be time to move. The House of Fortune won’t be happy if I continue to take points from them. Fortunately, there are also games that are not played against the house but against other gamblers. The House of Fortune should not mind me cleaning these guys up.’

As I was staring blanking at the dealer shuffling the cards, I felt a soft and boneless hand lightly tap my shoulder. “Excuse me, sir?”