NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: The Bracelet of Eros
The next day started early for me. I started working on the charm bracelets.
I rummaged through my luggage and found my adamantium mortar and pestle. And got to work crushing the pink cores. While I crushed them, I turned on my magic burner and started boiling purple water. I added the other ingredients I’d already prepared, including my tears. Yes, this particular charm item needed the tears of a woman. I’ve been saving my tears since I was 10 years old to make this item. Now that I have pink cores and [energy manipulation], it was finally possible to make it. The Bracelet of Eros.
It amplified all your strong points to the men around you while minifying all your low points. It effectively increased your charm by 100 points. Which is unheard of in this world at the current time. The formula for this item was something I got after finishing a quest at level 100. In this world, there are only 10 people with level 100. Maybe 11 if you count the red-haired witch with the striped cat. Though I don’t know her level, I’d assume she’s one of the hidden tigers.
Maybe I should say there are only 10 known level 100s. Well, anyway, I digress.
I mixed the tears with the rest of the ingredients and let it boil. I took out more cores to crush. The more pink cores, the better. 100 points extra charm is just the estimate; the more points, the better. So I kept crushing and grinding more cores. I dumped the finely crushed cores into the boiling concoction and took out more to crush.
I felt hungry, but the inn’s restaurant won’t open until 7. So I continued to work, crushing cores.
At 7:15, I finished breakfast. But I didn’t see Garth or Nikola. I wanted to talk to Garth and give him today’s instructions. I needed him to go to the adventurer’s guild, sell the 100 cores, and register Nikola and me as a group. I returned the plate and marched back upstairs.
I knocked on Garth’s door and got no answer. I tried Nikola’s door, and sure enough, Garth opened the door bowing to me.
“I’m sorry, master. It won’t happen again. I forgot my alarm in my room.” His magic alarm clock was something I personally had made for him by a Mechanical magician.
“What’s the matter?” Nikola showed up behind him wearing only pants and scratching her belly.
“Will you put on your shirt if you’re going to come to the door,” I told her. She didn’t even respond to me and just walked away. I clenched my fist. “Garth, I need you to go to the adventurer’s guild today. Register us as a group. Make sure you make me the leader. And take her along with you, and buy her some new clothes on the way back.”
Nikola showed up again, this time wearing a shirt. “I thought we were going to the casino.” She said.
“We are. Well, I am, at least. But I’m going around 7.” Between 7 and 11 pm was around the time the hidden noble used to show up in the game.
“So me and him are going to the adventurer’s guild after breakfast. Got it.” She nodded with understanding and turned to Garth and said, “Come on, I’m starving.” She happily bounced down the stairs.
“I’m sorry, master.” After she was gone, Garth apologized to me again. “Don’t worry, master, I’ll make sure nothing goes wrong and register you guys as a team.”
“Alright, well, I have a lot of work to do, so don’t bother me.” And I went back to my room to work on the bracelet.
The concoction was still being heated in the big beaker. I had to stir it every few minutes. While I did that, I cleaned a tray and put the steel bracelets I had the blacksmith from back home make for me in the tray. I made sure the bracelets weren’t touching. I took out the inscription needle I’d made when I was 10 years old and put it beside the tray. Now all I could do was wait for the concoction to turn a balanced red. I took out The Theoretical Fundamentals of Energy Magic (3rd Edition). I’ll have to stir the pot every few minutes, but other than that, I had nothing to do. So I decided to read the book I borrowed. I wanted to finish it before the end of the month and return it to the library. I planned on leaving the capital by the end of the month. After I fuck the hidden noble, conquer a dungeon, and reach E-rank, there’ll be nothing left to do in the capital at my current state. The other quests in the capital are much too dangerous, and I’ll have to come back for them later. Like reaching 50 wins and 100 wins in the arena. Which will get me big rewards, like the queen’s blessing, (man) groupies, and invitations. Anyway, all that comes later, for now, I should focus on the immediate future. Now that I have a teammate… I wasn’t expecting her to be a beastwoman… I should change my plans accordingly.
So my mind drifted between the book, my future plans, and the bracelets I was making.
Around 5 pm, I heard them coming up the stairs. I could tell it was them the moment they entered the inn all the way from my room. I went out to see what took them so long.
They were both holding a lot of bags. I saw that they didn’t hold back on spending my money.
“How do I look, leader?” Nikola asked with a stupidly happy smile. It wasn’t just the bags that were filled with new clothes. She was also wearing one. She was wearing a pants suit.
“I thought you’d buy warrior clothes,” I said. Pants suits were more for magicians, while cargo pants and the like were more common on martials.
“We talked to the clerk, and he said this is the kind of stuff you wear to the casino.” She said. “I bought cargo pants too.”
Garth was wearing a new suit and bow tie. It wasn’t an exact butler uniform, but it was the most butler-like he’d looked since leaving home. “Hey, why did you buy a new suit?” I didn’t send you out to spend my money willy-nilly. Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know! “You already have plenty from home!”
“Ah, Well…”
“I guess. But he already has plenty of suits.”
“I think he looks handsome.” She wasn’t listening to me at all.
“You… forget it.” I went back to my room. I couldn’t leave the beaker alone for too long. I stirred it again. It looked ready. But I let it simmer for a few more minutes.
When it was ready, I poured it carefully into the tray. The tray filled up, and the plain steel bracelets were submerged in Mohini’s red charm-fluid. They won’t be plain when I’m done with them. Then I used tongs to flip the bracelets so the underside would get the fluid on it too. Now, there wasn’t much to do for a while. I’ll have to flip it every now and then, but other than that, I only needed to leave it in the liquid for a few days till the plain steel becomes Charm Steel.
I decided to take a shower and get ready.
Then I was ready, but it was only 6. There was nothing to do. “I suppose there’s no harm in going early,” I said to myself and went downstairs.
Nikola and Garth were in the restaurant enjoying drinks in their new clothes.
“I’m going to head out,” I told them.
“Already, I thought we were going at 7,” Garth said.
“I’m done my work for now, and there’s nothing else to do. So I thought I’d head out.”
“Alright, let’s go.” Nikola stood up.
I didn’t really care if she came along. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Garth followed behind us.
***
Bright lights, the sound of slot machines, handsome waiters and bartenders, beautiful dealers, people fresh out of luck, and a strange feeling someone’s always watching you. It was the grand casino of the capital of Minkin Queendom. I walked in knowing the entire layout. I went to the counter and exchanged 5 gold for chips.
“Here.” I handed both of them one-fifth of the chips. Taking three-fifths for myself.
“What?” Nikola was surprised. “You’re giving us this?”
“I’ll be taking it out of your future 5%.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t so happy anymore.
“It’s up to you whether you gamble with it or not.”
“Hmm.” She looked at the chips and thought about it. I walked away while she was thinking about it. “What are you going to do, Garth?” Nikola asked.
“I think I’ll gamble with half of it and see how it goes.”
“Then I’ll do the same.”
So they went off to gamble.
I’m not good at card games, though I could probably win if I used the spells: [energy perception, look-a-look]. But that wasn’t a wise thing to do at my current level in this casino. I sat down at a dice table. Smiled at the others and put my chips down.
“I’ll go for 11,” I said with a confident smile.
Two hours later, I was at the bar, drinking whisky, having lost all my money. It wasn’t fair!
“There you are.” Garth found me. He saw me hunched over the counter and asked, “Did you gamble it all away, master?” Ashamed and with tears in my eyes, I nodded. “It’s okay.” He hugged me and comforted me. “It’s okay. We learned a valuable lesson, didn’t we?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m still waiting for the guy to show up.”
“Who?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
He sighed. “Master, you always say that. Well, then I’m going back. Just don’t spend any more money.”
“I won’t.”
“Good. Good.”
“Where’s floppy ears?”
“She’s with some men.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, did you know she’s good at cards?”
“What?”
“Yeah, she won a lot of money.”
“She did!?” This made me feel worse.
“Yeah, she won a lot of money. Anyway, I’m leaving. I’ll tell her where you are before I leave.”
“You don’t have to do that.” I didn’t want to see her right now. I was hoping she’d lose all her money, and then I’d have laughed at her.
“Anyway, I don’t know how long you plan on staying here, but don’t drink too much.” He said and left.
Good old Garth, always loyal. “Bartender! Another!” Poison for the body, medicine for the soul.
Another hour went by, and there was still no sign of the hidden noble. But Nikola showed up laughing and gloating. She even handed me back the 1 gold I gave her. She’d made huge profits. She kept laughing, which annoyed me.
She patted my back, swung her arm around my shoulder, and whispered in my ear, “You see those two guys over there.” She pointed with her thumb. I looked over and saw two handsome men. They were both tall, around 6 foot 4 or 5 inches. One had red hair, and the other had brown hair. And they both looked like male models. I used [look-a-look] on them, and they had respectively 70 and 90 points. “You see them?” I ignored her. “You see them?” I tried to ignore her again. “You see them?” She wouldn’t stop.
“Yes! I see them! What do you want me to do about it!?” She smiled ear to ear without showing her teeth. “You…”
“You were right; this was a great place to meet men.” Then she did an act of looking around. “Wait, why don’t I see any men around you? Where are they? Huh? Huh?”
“You…”
“It’s okay, big sis is here. I’ll let you use them after I’ve had my fill.” She took her arm off my shoulder and patted my back again. “I’m going back to the inn, don’t stay out too late. Hehehehe.” She went to her new men. Hooking her arm around their waists, she led them to the inn.
“They just want you for your money, you idiot,” I whispered to no one. That’s how it was in the game too. If you win enough, they attach themselves to you. They’re always druggies or leechers.
“You want another drink?” The bartender asked.
“Yes, please.” Or maybe I’m wrong. They love her for her stupid personality.
And the hidden noble never showed up. Where the fuck is he!?
This was supposed to be an easy 50 000. Because all you have to do is guess the noble’s name. And since I’ve already played the game, I already have the answer.
***
I returned to the inn having failed miserably. The man didn’t even show up. Was the timing wrong? Was he not in the capital? No, he was. He should’ve been living here for 10 years. He has to be here. He doesn’t come to the casino every day, but he should be there 90% of the time. My luck really is bad today. As I climbed up the stairs drunk and feeling like shit. I heard moans and a bed creaking and banging against the wall. Of course, it was from my new neighbor. “Stupid floppy ears.” I cursed and went into my room. But it was louder in my room. It seems the walls are thin.
I covered my ears and looked at the tray. Everything seemed fine. There was nothing I needed to do.
“Oh, yeah!” A sound from the other room.
I frowned. I jumped in my bed and buried my head under my pillow. I want to sleep!