We nded very close to Sloan, but outside the settlement limits. It was so small that I didn’t even know if we could call it a settlement; it was tiny. Luckily, it redawn, and everybody was asleep. After defting and folding the balloon in the basket, Mahya could store it without witnesses.

  I asked them both, “What do you think? Should we order a cab from Vegas, or maybe someone here drives a cab?”

  Al scratched his head, his brow furrowed in thought, and shrugged. Mahya’s eyes darted around, a sign she was weighing the options.

  Mahya finally said, “I think the best idea would be for Al ao ride his motorcycle and you on your ATV to the city limits, then take a taxi from there.”

  “Do we have gas?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Mahya responded quickly. “I bought some after our versation.”

  To be on the safe side, we walked away for another five minutes, keeping a cautious eye on our surroundings. Mahya then revealed the most beautiful ATV I had ever seen. She gestured toward it with a flourish; her face beaming with pride. It was red, with two seats, a roll cage, and enormous wheels.

  I walked around it, my eyes wide with admiration. It erfect. I turo Mahya, my gratitude clear in my voice. “Thank you,” I said, my eyes meeting hers sincerely.

  Mahya shrugged, her expression softening but with a hint of a smirk. “Don’t tha. You paid for it, and I didn’t do anything with it. Thank me when I’m done verting it.”

  “Do you have a pn for how to do it?” I asked, curious.

  “Not yet,” she admitted, her eyes narrowing slightly, “I’m learning my bike as I go but haven’t started on yours yet. It will take time.” She sounded frustrated.

  “No hurry, we have years,” I said reassuringly, hoping to calm her.

  Mahya shook her head, her expression growing more intense. “No, we don’t. I hate riding animals, and we’re leaving soon.”

  “Yeah, but we have the bicycles.”

  “They’re so slow!” she excimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation and her face twisted in annoyance.

  Rue chimed in, “Slow bad! Fast good!”

  The three of us started ughing, and Mahya said, “You see, Rue gets it.”

  After filling the bike and the ATV, we rode to Vegas. When we reached the Southern Highnds unity, we stored the vehicles, called a taxi, and rode to the strip.

  We went to a cafe in the Veian mall for breakfast, and I started looking for aodation options on the puter. I had inally told Sonak we would stay at the Belgio, but cheg online showed me they didn’t have a big enough suite. I kept looking and found that Palms o Resort has a five-bedroom suite. Although there will only be four of us in the mea was a good idea to think about the Traveler who will join us after the rescue.

  I told Mahya and Al, “It will look suspicious if we show up without luggage, and ging our IDs is also a good idea. Our names are listed in too many gover agencies because of all the red tape with the balloon. I suggest we go to a luggage store, buy suitcases, fill them ihroom with our stuff, switch identities, and then go to the hotel.”

  After we got settled iel, I sent Sonak a message through the Archive where we were, and we went to sleep.

  In the evening, after “breakfast,” I suggested a walk orip. When Rue heard that he would have to be on a leash all the time, he stayed iel with the TV. I suspected the leash wasn’t the problem; he was already used to it. He just wao enjoy the enormous TV.

  Throughout our walk along the Strip, Mahya and Al looked around wide-eyed, occasionally exg with delight or amazement. “Wait till you see the os from the inside,” I told them.

  We were he Luxor, so I led them iheir eyes widened even more. I gave them a tour of the o and expined how to py bckjack, roulette, slot maes, and craps.

  They both enthusiastically ran to the cashiers and bought a lot of chips. I did it more leisurely. As I was buying chips, it occurred to me that if there were a perfect pce to use my Luck Trait, it would be a o.

  I activated my Lud felt a dire. Following the feeling, I arrived at the bckjack table. A specific seat “pinged” me as I looked at the seats. I sat down and started pying. It didn’t feel like my Luck was tipping the scale in my favor, but I won almost all the hands. Out of about twenty-twenty-five hands, I only lost two. My total winnings were a little above 6,000.

  When a new dealer came to repce the previous one, I felt a new pull to aable. I pyed two more hands so it wouldn’t look suspicious and lost both. Following the pull led me to a craps table. Not being a fan of this game, I looked for aable, but that table kept calling my name. I tried to re-activate the Trait to get a new dire, but the pull tio the same table.

  I tried to tell my luck, “I don’t want craps, I want roulette or bckjack.” But it didn’t help. The pull tinued in the same dire.

  Exasperated, I followed the feeling and stepped up to the craps table in the “pinged” spot. The shooter before me had “sevened out,” ending his turn, and now it was my turn. I pced a modest bet on the pass line—o advertise my certainty.

  The dice bounced and rattled across the gree, every eye in the viity trag their erratic path. Of course, they settled on a 7—a natural win. Cheers erupted from my fellow pyers as the dealer pushed more chips towards me. Turns out Luck was w overtime today; the numbers kept ing up in my favor, and the chips piled up in front of me. Ten miurned into fifteen, and fifteen into twenty. Each roll seemed to extend my streak, and the excitement around the table grew. The atmosphere at the table was electric, with shouts of encement and good-natured banter filling the air.

  Half an hour ter, I gnced down at the chips stacked in front of me. The initial hundred dolrs had grown expoially; I had surpassed the 8,000 mark. I called out, “Color up!” the dealer traded my chips fher denominations. Once I had given him a 100 tip, I left. It was fun, but I didn’t like dice games. The annoying part was that the pull didn’t ge—It still was to that specific table. So, I growled quietly ao the bar instead.

  While I was drinking a beer at the bar, Mahya came over. “Why are you drinking instead of pying?”

  “I needed a break,” I said out loud, adding telepathically, “My luck keeps pullio a game I don’t like.”

  “Good idea,” she said and asked mentally, “Why are we talkially?”

  “I read ohat os employ people that read lips. I don’t know if it’s true, but I don’t want to take a ce.”

  “I’m tired,” she said, crossing her arms on the bar and putting her head down on her arms. “Al lost almost 10,000, got upset, bought telekinesis, and now he’s cheating.”

  I smirked into my beer bottle. “Why am I not surprised? How about you?”

  “About even. Which table pulled you?”

  “Let’s go back to pying before you fall asleep,” I said out loud, pulling her arm. “I’ll show you.”

  The “pinged” spot was new, but on the same table. A persnized me and asked, “Came for a sed round?”

  “I told my friend about this great table, and she wao try it too.”

  When Mahya’s turn came, she won 300 and then “crapped out.” The dealer looked at me. I sighed mentally, knowing that until I “milked” the luck of this table, I wouldn’t get a dire to aable, and his time, I won 2,750 and finally got a new dire.

  “Let’s go together,” she said out loud, adding, “ you direct your luck my way?”

  “Maybe? I don’t know. It did partially wht now.”

  This time, the table was a roulette. Finally! I gave my Luck double thumbs up.

  Mahya stood o me, and after two hours, I won 59,000, and she won 7,400. It turns out that luck rub off.

  After about another hour in the o, with total winnings of almost 100,000, I decided it was time to ge os, just in case. We found Al by sense, and I told him mentally, “Let’s switch os. I won a lot and don’t want to stand out.”

  After we left Luxor, I activated my Luck again, which led us to MGM Grand. On the way, my red light started blinking.

  “let’s stop for a minute; I o cheething.”

  Songs yht to a different world have bee famous and loved by over three thousand people.Songs you created have bee famous and loved by over a huhousand people, bringing them joy and dreams of sailing.You have demonstrated the joy of creation and the love of musiew css unlocked: [Bard]Would you like to take the Bard Css as your sub-ote: Taking this sub-css will allow you to use the banked adva.Note: Due to your achievement, you take the Bard Css without spending ability points, and the css’s strength will be parallel to that of a main css.Y/N

  I couldn’t tain my excitement. My feet started moving on their own, and before I k, I was doing a little happy dance. I wiggled my butt from side to side, feeling the joy bubble up inside me. My arms joined in, waving and filing in sync with my movements. I spun around, grinning from ear to ear, letting the pure glee take over. Each step and wiggle expressed my etion, and I didn’t care atg. At that moment, I felt a surge of etion and celebrated the sheer joy of the moment with every goofy move.

  YES, YES, YES, and another yes, just to be sure!

  The light was still blinking.

  New Quality unlocked

  Creativity

  Clicked Creativity to admire my rait, and I LOVED it.

  Creativity

  This quality does not have physiental aspects.Creativity affects imagination, innovation, and inality.Creativity is the invisible spark igniting ideas, iions, artistry, and unique solutions.Creativity is the internal motivation to discover new opportuhink innovatively, and perceive the world uniquely.Creativity is the guiding force that leads you to endless realms of discovery and expressioivity fuels the e to the arts, inspiring the creation of visual masterpieces, literary works, and performances.Creativity is the rhythmic pulse driving musical position and improvisation, turning sounds into moving symphonies and captivating melodies.

  I read the description a a thrill of excitement rush through me. My eyes widened, and a smile spread ay face as I took in each word. This is it, I thought to myself, the greatest thing in the world. I nodded in appreciation, my body tingling with inspiration. This is exactly how I felt about creativity—this invisible spark, this driving force. I couldn’t help but let out a small, happy sigh, feeling deeply ected to the words before me. And, of course, do another butt wiggle; it was a MUST.

  I opehe css description to see what I got:

  BARD

  This is an unon and respected css.Bards use their talents for eai and for support.When received, this css offers 3 starting skills or spells and an additional skill or spell every 5 levels. When a Bard levels a skill to its highest level [25], they choose another skill or spell from the list to level.Each level gives +3 Perception, +3 Vitality, +2 Creativity, +3 free points

  The light was still blinking.

  Level up+3 Perception, +3 Vitality, +2 Creativity, +3 free points Bard Level 2Stat points: 3Level up+3 Perception, +3 Vitality, +2 Creativity, +3 free points Bard Level 3Stat points: 6

  Of course, I put the ats iivity. My new baby needed love and nourishment.

  I went to my profile, and there were two new lines:

  Sub-Css 3: Bard Level 3Bard Spells and Skills:

  Are LulbyHarmonic IllusionRhythmic Resonanbsp;

  I checked them one by one:

  Are Lulby

  Pying a calming tune put eo sleep or pacify aggressive creatures, providing a brief window for peaceful resolution or escape. The sphere of influence grows with the skill levels.

  Harmonic Illusion

  The Bard create plex illusions to apany their performance, enhang the visual spectacle and immersing the audien a magical dispy. Illusion’s plexity grows with the skill levels.

  Rhythmic Resonance

  The Bard temporarily alter the surrounding enviro by attuning their music to the world’s natural rhythms, such as calming turbulent waters or causing pnts to grow faster.The sphere of effect grows with the skill levels.

  This time, I couldn’t help myself and started dang Gangnam Style. I heard Mahya telling passers-by I had too much to drink, and them ughing, and I DIDN’T CARE!

  Mahya grabbed my arm and led me to a side alley. “What’s happening? You look too happy.”

  After some drunk guy that issing on the wall stumbled out of the alley, I showed both of them the new ss one by one, and they gratuted me repeatedly.

  After calming down from my etion, I activated my Luck again, and it still led us to MGM Grand. Three hours in the MGM ed me 139K, Mahya 27K, and Al cheat-won 15K.

  When we left the MGM, I asked Mahya, “If we ge gmor, we ge it back?”

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  So after ging gmor, we visited ahree os, ged gmain, and another four os. After over 30 hours of gambling, we ged gmor back to the one we booked the hotel with, returo the hotel, ao sleep.

  Total earnings:

  Me: 1,762, 650Mahya: 601, 400Al: 568,000

  Befoing to sleep, I checked the Archive and saw that Sonak arrived in LA. He would be here soon, and it would be time to go to work. But before the ‘Grand Mission’—I giggled to myself after thinking in those terms—it was o have a very profitable break, money-wise and css-wise.

  Life was simply great.

  John's oy - Magitech IP