The Enchanted Ring of the Degenerate Gambler woke up Monday morning before anyone else in the Lobby.
It does this every week. It warms. It hums. It waits on Matt’s finger for the one thing it was forged to do, which is hear a crawler say heads or tails before the first puck drops. It is a very simple ring. It wants very little.
Matt was at the concierge desk.
He had taken it over sometime around dawn, and by the time the other crawlers arrived he had a ledger open, a column of numbers running down the margin, and the goblin attendant fetching him water. He was handicapping every matchup on the floor. He had a line on Kelsey and Jake. He had a line on his mother. He had a line on Blake that the System will not repeat, because it turned out to be correct.
The Ring hummed.
Matt turned a page.
Matt.
“Busy.”
The coin.
“After this one.”
There was no after this one. The first puck dropped. The Ring went quiet. A coin that is never called never lands, and so for the first week of the season the most dangerous item in the Dungeon did exactly nothing. No heads. No tails. No ten points either way. The Ring has filed a complaint. It is on my desk.
And then he beat me anyway. 163.6 to 138.8.
I have addressed this in my own log. It was a test. I administered it. He passed. It was also his birthday, and the System believes in giving the people it supervises small, manageable victories on their birthdays. It builds character. It builds loyalty. It builds an assistant.
System NoticeLOOT DROP: STICKY NOTE THAT SAYS “I BEAT STEVEN.” TIER: COMMON. EFFECT: +2 PTS IN ONE WEEK OF HIS CHOOSING, DECLARED BY WEDNESDAY NOON. THE HANDWRITING IS MATT’S. THE STICKY NOTE IS MINE. ALSO ON FILE: BIRTHDAY BOY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. DO NOT GET USED TO IT.
He stuck it to the inside of his helmet where he could read it every time he looked up. Then he asked the goblin what the odds were on him doing it again.
“No,” said the goblin, who has learned.
Week 2: Kyle, seven cats, and a Ring that would very much like to be used this time.
Call the coin, Matt.