Chances of Death: Seven Decks Book I

by S Bailey

  Jen had felt the need to say something to Sam before they assassinated the guild leader, but Sam’s death-like demeanor, had stilled her tongue. She now wanted to vomit all over the rooftop.

  Jen and Sam left the city without a word. Once they located the thugs, Jen and Sam allowed the idiots to “find” them again, and then promptly led them back to the city gates using their superior agility to prevent any opportunity for the thugs to engage with them.

  Now they had the guild’s own henchmen as alibis, and nobody would suspect them. Jen was sure from the intel she had gathered, that the guild members would start a blood-bath among themselves with opportunistic finger pointing, and they would be much too busy with their own power struggle to continue to bother them anymore.

  Jen had taken lives before, and she had personally gathered intel on assassination targets before, but this cold surgical assassination was something different. She may not have pulled the trigger, but she was right next to Sam and was as directly responsible for taking the life of that dirt-bag guild leader as anyone. “I know he tried to kill us several times, but it just seemed dishonorable to kill a defenseless human.” Jen thought to herself.

  Logically, she knew they could have made it a “fair” fight by killing the thugs, and then returning to the City to charge the guild hall and killing many “innocent” guild guards and killing everyone inside. Logically, she knew this would cause more death and possibly their own deaths, but she still “felt” like a murdering coward.

  Jen knew Sam had performed several assassinations for the agency before meeting Kelly, and that Sam’s PTSD would cause him to sink into depression and regret when something would remind him too much of his past.

  “Aren’t I doing the same thing right now, berating myself for being a coward?” Jen thought to herself. The image of the man’s head and brains exploding across the room was burned in her mind, and she could barely keep herself from throwing up as her mind replayed the image over and over again.

  Chapter 47:

  Easy Clean Up

  “Captain, the farmer’s guild-leader has been murdered. His head simply exploded in his office! The guild is calling for an investigation by the city,” exclaimed one of Tamako’s sergeants.

  “Gather ten of the guards and the intelligence team, we will head there immediately,” announced Tamako.

  Upon arriving outside the Farmer’s guild, Tamako ordered, “Sergeant, tell the men to question everyone in the area, and find out if anyone heard or saw anything.” She then entered the guild hall with her intelligence team.

  “It’s nice of the captain to finally show up,” whispered one sleezy guild member.

  “The only reason she was made captain was because of her father,” another said.

  “She is level 19 and almost no one in the city is as strong as her, but everyone says she is a bully, only caring about how powerful she looks,” said a thin weasel looking man.

  Tamako could hear all the comments, but it was nothing new. The other guards always assumed that she obtained her power through expensive magical potions and they constantly gossiped about how she didn’t deserve her position as captain. They had no idea of the brutal daily torment her father put her through growing up.

  And of course, everyone in the city hated the Guard until they needed saving. This left Tamako with no one - “almost no one” - Tamako mused to herself as the thought of Jen flickered through her mind.

  “Show me the body!” Tamako commanded to the guild farmer standing in her way.

  Luke Rogers sneered at Tamako, “Obviously the body has already been looted.”

  It was clear to Tamako that Luke was trying to establish his authority over the guild by embarrassing her and the guard. “Good, that should make it easier. We will lock off the guild and search everyone’s storage devices!” announced Tamako.

  “No, no, Captain Tamako, I looted the body to make sure the guild leader’s property remained safe!” cooed Luke Rogers.

  “You’re either an idiot or the killer. It is going to be very difficult to investigate the murder now! Take me to where he was killed then, or did you burn down his office so I can’t investigate in there either!” Tamako snarled at Luke.

  He took Tamako to the guild leader’s office, but he could see the other guild members eyeing him suspiciously already.

  Tamako and her team looked around the room for any useful information. Tamako took note that the door had not been forced. There was no sign of a struggle, and the window was open, but an open window was normal in the sweltering heat.

  “The room is on the third floor with no balcony. There are very few people in Casino City who could scale the building and enter through the window, and none with that level of power, would care about this filthy farmer’s guild,” Tamako said to her team.

  Jen had told Tamako that the City Lord’s cousin, Li Zhang, was mixed up with the farmer’s guild and some slimy dealings, but Tamako knew he was too incompetent to pull something like this off.

  Sam also briefly crossed her mind as she looked at the scene. Jen told her that this guild leader had started harassing them. Sam was kind of a nerdy enchanter, but Tamako knew how hard he and Jen trained every day to build up their physical stats. She felt that Sam could flip a mental switch and turn into a cold-blooded killer, and she had no doubt that Sam would kill this guild leader without batting an eye, if he became too annoying.

  “Martha, have you cast your spell for any mana signatures, yet?” Tamako asked the investigations team leader.

  “Yes Captain. The only lingering mana signature in the room comes from him,” said Martha, pointing a finger at Luke.

  “It was not me Captain Tamako. Your lieutenant senses my mana signature because I was the one that found our dear leader, just before I made sure to safeguard his personal items!”

  Tamako activated her sound wave. “Sergeant, were there any witnesses, and did you find out anything?”

  The sergeant and his men had interviewed everyone in the nearby buildings and on the street. “Captain Tamako, there are no witnesses. No one heard or saw anything until the guild members started screaming about their leader being murdered,” he reported.

  “Take him away,” Tamako said pointing at Luke.

  As they were heading to the prison, Tamako was thinking, “He may not have done it, but his greed has probably signed his death sentence. The City Lord will be happy getting to confiscate the property of the guild leader and Luke’s property as ‘evidence.’ The remaining guild members will be happy to have Luke out of the way as they fight for control. All done.”

  Tamako had no intention of officially investigating Jen and Sam for the murder. She knew what horrible things the guild leader did to the local farmers, and the City Lord’s policy was for the guards to stay out of the squabbles among the guilds, so long as they did not interfere with the city or the City Lord’s business.

  However, Tamako did investigate a little for her own benefit and found out from the guards on gate duty that both Jen and Sam had been outside of the city all day.

  Chapter 48:

  Rotten Luck

  “My meditation skill has really saved my sanity,” Jen thought as she was assimilating not only her feelings about the assassination, but also her feelings about killing the bandits from when they first arrived. She hadn’t realized how she had just pushed those feelings down over the months.

  As expected, the farmer’s guild was in the middle of a bloodbath among themselves while fighting each other for control. The guild had completely forgotten about Jen and Sam, for now anyways. “No one suspects our involvement in the assassination, except maybe Tamako,” Jen thought.

  After Jen realized that Director Loshen could hide his mana channels and the mana pool in his center, Jen and Sam agreed to hold off on expanding their mana channels and experimenting with the structure of their mana pool. It became obvious that if they could see other people’s mana channels, then some people like Director Loshen
could see their channels as well.

  Jen had said to Sam later, “It’s not just about hiding our mana channels, because that act itself will give away our knowledge of them, and it will tell anyone around us that we feel the need to hide our channels and mana system. For someone powerful like Director Loshen, that would be normal, but why would nobody’s like us want to hide our channels?”

  Sam then asked Jen, “Have you tried hiding or forging your channels like we do with our stats?”

  Jen groaned, “Only a thousand times and a thousand different ways.”

  “I know if anybody can figure it out, you can.”

  Jen was frustrated. She knew Sam was relying on her to figure a way to not only hide their mana channels but also how to ‘forge’ or disguise them to look like those of people with a level of 7 or 8. She was getting so grumpy, Sam finally threatened her with a discussion of pocket space and dimensional space rings if she didn’t take a break and go hang out with Tamako or Cristi.

  Tamako had been on duty non-stop for the past week. Jen wished she could go train with Tamako or check out some of the new weapons and armor the guilds might have recovered, but Cristi was also a lot of fun to hang out with. Cristi’s finances were still tight, so they were just window shopping, looking at clothing, jewels, and buying a few small food snacks.

  While Cristi was across the street looking at some farming tools for sale, Jen purchased some bittersweet fruit that was very similar to an apple and the vendor placed the bittersweet in a sack for Jen to take with her. Later when she opened her bag to eat one of the bittersweets and offer one to Cristi, they noticed all the bittersweets were badly bruised.

  Cristi was furious explaining, “Many of the guild farmers’ vendors will cast a cheap illusion spell on fruit and vegetables to make it look heathy.” Cristi then apologized, “I’m so sorry Jen, I should have warned you about them. I bet they won some euphoria for tricking you, too.”

  Cristi was surprised because Jen was not upset at all, but actually appeared excited. Jen then asked Cristi, “That is pretty slimy of them, but do you know where I can learn or purchase that spell?’

  “Yeah, Robert’s wife knows the spell and counter-spell, but it’s not very good, and it will not work on anything that you are not in touching distance. Plus, with the counter-spell you can cancel it out when shopping for produce.”

  Jen laughed, “Don’t worry. I would like to learn it just for a joke to play on Sam. Do you think she would teach it to me?”

  Cristi smiled, “I’m sure she would. Their crops have been doing much better since you helped them out.”

  A few weeks later, Jen was sitting in the kitchen looking like the cat that ate the canary when Sam came in. When he noticed her look, he backed up slowly, but Jen yelled, “Wait! I’ve got something to show you.”

  Sam was worried; this sounded like one of Jen’s tricks when they were training, when she would throw a hidden knife at him, and he replied, “That’s O.K. I’m good.”

  Jen laughed seeing his fear. “You don’t have anything to worry about, Boomer. Use your mana inspection and take a look at my mana system.”

  Sam focused on Jen and realized he could only see one channel open. “What did you do? Why can I only see one channel flowing?”

  Jen cheered for herself and said, “I figured it out. I figured out a way to ‘forge’ our mana progression. It took me a while, but I learned a cheap illusion spell used on produce from Robert’s wife. Once I learned the illusion spell from her. I then broke down the code of the spell using my Words of Understanding skill, like you do with enchantments. For a while there, I thought I was going to need to get your help, but I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Well, I’m definitely impressed!” replied Sam.

  Jen continued, “I finally decrypted the entire spell and studied the code to learn exactly how the it worked, and then I adjusted the spell with a lot, and I mean a lot, of trial and error with the code, and I was finally able to change the spell to cast an illusion on our mana system instead of produce. And….. I gained enough experience points from creating a unique and new spell, combined with all the points from the beast killing that Slim has been doing, that I am now level 19! I got to place an ability point in mana and mana regen.”

  Sam ran over to Jen and put her in a friendly bear hug, and as he kissed her on the forehead said, “I told you that you could do anything you set your mind to. Don’t doubt me next time.” Sam released Jen from his hug and said, “Now, teach me!”

  With Jen’s help he soon received a system message.

  System Message – You have learned the mana system illusion spell – novice, level 1.

  Chapter 49:

  Tamako

  “Tamako, good to see you!” Sam exclaimed as she came into the store right before closing. Sam waved good-bye to Long and his family, and then turned to Tamako and said, “Jen is in the back feeding her lizards and mice. Before you go see her, if you have a moment, I want to show you an enchantment on a staff that I have been trying to fix for the Joan Guild. It’s just this way in my work room.”

  “Arc Guild!” Jen shouted in exasperation from the other room.

  “Sorry, Arc Guild” Sam corrected while rolling his eyes at Tamako, who was half smiling at his antics.

  Tamako was thinking about how refreshing it always felt when walking into their house, when Sam asked, “Do you recognize what this staff is made of?”

  Tamako took a close look and was shocked at what she thought she was looking at, “I believe this entire staff is made out of mana-infused steel. A Deck Dropper with a very high level in blacksmithing must have made this! You could sell this staff and buy half the city!” she exclaimed with only a little exaggeration.

  “Thank you Tamako, your insight confirms my thoughts, but leaves me with many more questions,” Sam replied and mumbled while staring intently at the staff, thinking about how much the System shop had shown a staff like this would cost.

  Sam hated even having it in their home, and was going to return the staff the next day with his apologies for being unable to repair it.

  Just then, Jen came into the room and teased at Sam. “Tamako like your staff?”

  Jen often made jokes that didn’t make any sense, but Tamako decided to just ignore it when she saw Sam roll his eyes at her.

  “Thank you for inviting me to your home this evening,” Tamako said changing the subject. She liked how direct Sam could be. She knew both Sam and Jen were aware of the formalities that some of the aristocrats used in the City. However, after meeting her a few times, it was clear that Sam just didn’t give a damn about the formalities. Tamako was also very glad that Jen’s father was accepting of their relationship.

  Normally, Jen would take the lead on this type of issue, but when they were planning to have this meeting with Tamako, she demanded that Sam do the talking.

  Sam gave Tamako a rare serious look before saying, “Tamako, I need you to enter into a magical gambling contract stating that you will not discuss with anyone what I am about to tell you. The information you will learn is of great value, and Jen and I believe it may help you tremendously.”

  Tamako looked at Jen who nodded supportingly, and then said, “I will agree to entering into a magical contract if it does not violate my gambling oath to the city or City Lord.”

  Sam and Tamako briefly discussed her oaths with the city before Sam concluded, “I don’t see any conflict, and here is the magical contract. I will add an exception regarding your gambling oaths to the city and City Lord.”

  After she signed the contract, he asked her, “Do you know how many mana channels you have open?”

  Tamako was shocked by this invasion into her privacy. People never spoke of their mana channels except to their families or closest friends. Her father always resented her for only having one mana channel open.

  Sam could tell that he had unintentionally insulted her. Sam hurriedly continued “You don’t have to answer; I just wanted t
o let you know that Jen and I can help you open more mana channels if you are interested.”

  Tamako looked up at Jen to see if Sam was kidding around, but Jen was nodding her head confirming what Sam was promising.

  “How much would you charge for this service,” Tamako said hesitantly. She knew that this hidden knowledge could be sold for hundreds, maybe thousands of gold, and while she was not poor, she did not have that kind of wealth.

  Sam was confused by Tamako’s words for only a second and replied “I will charge you the same amount you’ve charged Jen for all the combat training you have given her all these months.”

  “But I’ve charged her nothing, I train her because I care about her,” explained Tamako.

  Sam smirked, “Good, the price is agreed on then.”

  At this point, Tamako looked down as if embarrassed and said, “I only have one mana channel open.”

  Jen was astonished and exclaimed, “How have you become so strong with only one mana channel open!”

  Tamako grimaced remembering her childhood and replied, “With a lifetime of training and tempering.”

  Sam butted in and said, “Enough pillow talk, we need to get started if we are going to open up one of your mana channels by the end of the week.”

  Jen blushed, and Sam was lucky Tamako didn’t know what the expression “pillow talk” meant, and that she was still stunned by his announcement about opening a mana channel by the end of the week!

  Tamako was surprised to learn that Sam and Jen could see her mana system when Sam asked permission to take a look. Tamako shook her head thinking how odd it was for someone with that power not to just look whenever they wanted. She said, “Of course, please take a look.”

  Sam inspected Tamako’s system and then explained, “Tamako, Jen is going to walk you through learning several skills that you will need before we can open your mana channels. You will need to learn the Meditation skill, Multi-focus skill, Mana inspection skill, Mana manipulation skill, Mana filter skill, the Mana system cleaning skill, and the Mana system illusion skill.”