“Currency differs from country to country and world to world. Within the Celestial Empire, a standard array of currency was designed that could be used across the Thousand Realms. When journeying into a world that is unconnected to the empire, it's difficult to work with the local material resources and currency. However, it is an experience that I look forward to you experiencing.”
~ Veles Silvertongue to a young Serena Araceli
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“Why did you save the villagers?”
Serena snorted, bemused by his apparent confusion. “I’m not exactly trained in combat, so I used what I excelled at to take out the threats.”
“You could have just walked away.”
Ah. That is where his confusion lied.
“I wouldn’t have, but not for anything purely out of the goodness of my heart. I appeared in this location for a reason, but I also needed a place to base out of for the moment. The villagers would be in my debt and not question me for saving their lives.”
Amalafein nodded his head, satisfied with this answer. “The villagers would likely scrape a few thousand copper pieces in thanks. Much of the village is in poverty and was reserved to that fate.”
I do not know how much that is.
It sounded like a large amount, but without knowing the value of money, she could not tell if it was an appropriate sum or not.
First, copper pieces were the basic units of currency in this village and so were likely the base level of currency in this country. Second, there should be other forms of currency which are more or less valuable.
“How much copper to a bronze coin, and what lies beyond that?”
“Each coin after copper increases in worth by ten, starting from a copper being worth one unit. Bronze comes next, and that is ten units to a single bronze. Ten bronze equal one silver or about one hundred units. Next is gold, which is ten silver or a thousand units or coppers. The last most common currency is platinum, which is ten gold or ten thousand coppers.”
“The Area Quest said that it would pay out two hundred gold, so that would be about twenty platinum?”
“That’s about the current net worth of the Spidersilk business, so it makes sense it would tie it to the claim to the region. About half of the annual earnings used to be sent back to the Dokkalfar, but if you claim the region, you can keep it to improve the region or line your own pockets.”
Serena searched through her spatial artifacts for the paper talismans she had made for similar enough situations. A stylized flame decimating a boulder revealed it was what she lovingly called Explosive Tags, which cleared rubble and helped with mining. In this case, it would explode humans more than anything.
She tossed handfuls of it into the hole, where they floated to the walls and attached themselves to it. Others floated nearby above it, and would attach to those who didn’t fall into the hole.
Another two talismans were modified to provide illusions that there was nothing wrong with the ground where the hole actually was. The other was to hide the dirt that was removed to not draw attention.
During this process, Amalafein was quite talkative about the neighboring countries. They were all names she had never really heard before.
The country they were in was indeed Lavera, which was her original destination. It was just near the border Lavera shared with the Anvar empire. Another nearby country was Hanrae Technocracy, where technological marvels and mad science reigned supreme. There were smaller countries, along with a collection of islands off the coast of this continent. However, over half of the clearly massive continent seemed to be considered Lost or Stolen Lands. Lavera was considered a Lost Land now that the people here had lost the grace of the Divine around the time the other issues in the country began.
The most immediate concern was the Lavera Kingdom and the Anvar Empire. These countries were on different sides a sprawling forest, and at the edge of that forest was this village, under the Lavera Kingdom, and the citadel city of Ashalan.
Relations between the Kingdom and Empire weren’t the worst, and there was plenty of trade. However, the emperor was ailing and had yet to name an heir, leading many to suspect a war of succession was on the horizon. While people fled from Lavera to Anvar when the disasters began, now the natives of Anvar were fleeing to try and survive what was to come.
To the south was the Hanrae Technocracy.
There were other countries, but Amalafein only went into a little detail of these three.
However, the details he could give her about the Divine Will were quite enlightening.
Created by the gods, the Divine Will copies and distills experience (also known as seasoning), knowledge and training into Skills and Abilities among other subcategories. This would allow those connected to the gods to gain blessings and use skills that would take years to naturally learn as a more innate trait.
The Divine Will has functions that no mortal knows, and interconnections that have surprised even its creators, thanks to its adaptive nature. The Divine Will seemed to gain as much from the followers as the followers gained from it, which made Serena think it was a mechanism to empower the gods while controlling the masses.
The skills, spells, powers and blessings granted through the intervention of the gods via the Divine Will are little more than a crutch vs someone with the actual training, knowledge, and experience with the subject.
So someone casting [Fireball] would have a weaker effect than someone who knew how to manipulate mana, channel it into an elemental state, shape it, then unleash it. This goes to many other subjects, and it only further reinforced her belief that something was wrong.
Gods could judge their own followers for leveling and give the announcement themselves. And it was apparently rumored that they could speak to others through the Divine Will.
The Divine Will seems to be somewhat aware of other worlds, as there was a long history of people being summoned to this world by countries and gods. Something about Heroes and Demon Lords, but Amalafein was vague on that.
It seemed to be blind to other pantheons, whose existence was referenced with Amalafein mentioning the goddess-ancestor of his species.
Apparently, there were things called classes or jobs as well. It was something that represented a hobby or profession. As someone gained levels, whatever those were, they would gain additional skills. Leveling was attached to classes, and you could theoretically have dozens of classes, each with their own levels and acquired skills and so on. It was considered proper to introduce yourself and your first class or the one you ‘leveled’ the highest.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Every class has unique 'pools' to draw from, such as cultivators and martial artists often having Chi instead of Mana.
This revealed that the creators of this mechanic were aware of aether, or at least of alternative energy ‘pools’.
The denizens of this world were further bound to the gods by praying at shrines, temples, and communicating with priests and priestesses to even be bestowed a class, or even skills and spells or traits by beseeching the gods. Only through regular prayer and devout faith could the will of the gods bless people.
That sounded dubious to her, and it only made the populace dependent on the gods and how they designed this phenomenon. This was a shortcut to power, and yet there were so many different flaws in this.
Offworlders, Outsiders, or as they were called in this world Godkin, have unique privileges through the machinations of the Divine Will. They were protected from various identification, sensing and scanning abilities given through the Divine Will. They have direct access to the Divine Will and all the tricks and benefits within without kneeling to local ‘sensibilities’ and praying to gods.
If deities were behind this, she would have been surprised. It sounded like something a celestial would do to passively garner boons without having to intervene.
Perhaps there were powerful beings who are akin to her kind here. If so, it was something Serena would need to be careful about her actions and choices going forward.
“This village is doomed.”
Serena tilted her head, her thoughts scattered as Amalafein’s words echoed in her mind. The situation was terrible, but there were ways to salvage the situation. “The amount of laborers and farmworkers is alarming, along with the artisans. However, there are ways we can bolster the workforce until this region and country are back on its feet.”
“Oh? What options are there?”
“Several, if one was not squeamish about the concept of necromancy or servitude.”
Once Serena was certain that the trap was prepared and was hidden through the usage of illusions, she returned to the village of Aranea. As she had requested, the surviving villagers had relocated to the mansion near the village square. The imminent threat of a second raid convinced them to at least trust a higher power or authority to save them.
Though that could also be the generations of conditioning through the Divine Will that made them so unquestioning. Serena didn’t know what to feel about that thing, nor how her unusual situation granted her more benefits than the genuinely faithful.
It was bewildering, and more than a little sad, to think about. However, she also didn’t want to become dependent on such a thing when it had such glaring flaws.
Her eyes drifted over the bodies of the bandits that were left behind, noting that anything of value was picked clean and likely moved into the mansion to be accounted for.
She felt strangely calm, even at home, among the dead. The realization was more chilling than their cooling bodies. Serena could only hope this was another side effect of the bond she had with Mafuyu.
“What will the people of Aranea do with their dead?” Serena asked Amalafein who was far more casually taking in the carnage he had wrought. He was no doubt more used to the sight of the dead than she was.
“The Dokkalfar of Morvahil would require cremation and their ashes placed in burial urns. The human villagers might follow through with this tradition and do the same, but some would prefer ground burial. We do not have the time or resources to create coffins for them, so they would likely just dig a hole and dump the bodies in.”
Amalafein seemed disinterested in their fate, but he also didn’t explain what would happen to the corpses of the bandits. “Would the corpses of the bandits be buried?”
“I don’t think so. These humans who were raised and trained by Dokkalfar wouldn’t want to give a final rest to those who slaughtered their families. They would likely be left in the Webwood for the animals and monsters to devour.”
“What a waste of resources, though I admire the spite and wrath of the people toward their abusers.”
“Resources?”
“Yes, we could put them to work for us until the country is stabilized, though we would need specialists. I would also not be opposed to learning and using necromancy.”
Amalafein cackled like a lunatic for a moment, earning him a mildly concerned stare from her.
Heat rushed to her face as she realized her blunder. “I am not advocating that we kill the average person just to raise them. That would be improper and would only bring unwanted attention. There is no reason to cause undue hardship or unrest among the masses, and raising someone’s recently passed grandmother to tend the fields just seems like rubbing salt in the wound. I do not see a benefit in doing so.”
During her impassioned speech, Amalafein was overcome by finding something about it hilarious, and had doubled over in laughter. It was frustrating to not be taken seriously about something like this. Serena still wasn’t sure what she said that he found so amusing.
“And there is a benefit in raising these bandits?”
Serena nodded her head and happily turned to the person who spoke up in such a soft, yet intrigued tone.
The young man who greeted her shuffled his feet awkwardly at the sudden attention sent his way. His pale fingers flexed awkwardly as they were raised, before he pulled his hands more to his side. He was slim and tall, with his limbs more gangly as if he was still growing into his height. Narrow purple eyes matched perfectly with the rich dark purple of his shoulder length hair. It was even longer, as he had pulled his hair into a single braid that rested over his right shoulder and went down his front. The classy black ribbon was rather plain compared to his outfit.
His top was a pleasant black whose long, hand length sleeves ended in layers of dark gray fabric. This dark gray fabric matched the vest he wore over the top, and silver chains and loops contained vials and tools like paper or feather quills. It didn’t look like it would support the weight, so Serena wondered if it was magically reinforced.
Faint designs of silver roses were embroidered into the design of the ends of the vest and the sleeves. His pants were plain black, while his black shoes looked well-worn.
There was a slight haziness, or more accurately awkwardness to his demeanor, that Serena found oddly endearing. It was clear he was unused to approaching others, but the conversation was fascinating to him.
Serena blinked, and she could feel embarrassment creep up on her once more. It was rude to stare in such a way, and it no doubt made him feel self-conscious.
Let’s try to salvage this.
“There are many benefits to raising these bandits as undead! Or undead in general! For instance, they can fill in the gaps that the loss of population caused in maintaining the country. There are too many abandoned villages, and those that survived have suffered too many losses to manage their own self-sufficiency. Having Undead work in the farmlands, or the lumber yards or mines, would keep the country working in material resources while the living can slowly rebuild.” Serena paused slightly, considering the various applications of necromancy. “That being said, if just talking about restoring the workforce, then the living would suffice as well. Either through slaves who would be freed to become full citizens after being trained and educated, or sentient monsters. If we could find a way to more ethically and reliably source materials from wild/feral monsters, maybe by farming them as ranch animals, then that would be a boon as well.”
“I would love to talk about this more with you, miss. It is so rare to find someone who is so open-minded and accepting,” the strangely dressed young man said. “I hope this is not too forward of me to ask such a thing.”
Serena gave him a bright and friendly smile. “Please do not worry about such a thing. This is an unusual time, so we can be more loose with protocol.” She rested a hand against her heart. “My name is Serena Araceli. My companion here is Amalafein Auvrahel.”
The strange man smiled vaguely at the elf, though his smile seemed more focused on her even as his gaze drifted to the figure floating right behind her. “And who is your ghostly friend?”
“Friends? With this brat? You must be blind.” Up until this point, Mafuyu had been amused about everything. However, he seemed genuinely disgusted by this idea. His face pulled into a sneer as he gestured at her.
There was a dull pain in her heart at the all too familiar sentiment. It would seem that she couldn’t shake her questionable worth.
Ignoring the pain and her own self-doubt, Serena focused on the important part. “You can see Mafuyu?”
The young man nodded cheerfully. “Of course I can. I would be a poor necromancer if I couldn’t sense or see the incorporeal undead.” He bowed to her, resting a hand over his heart, mirroring her own actions a moment ago. “It is an honor to meet you, Lady Serena. My name is Kalani, and among other things, I am a necromancer of some power. Perhaps I would be able to help you with this task.”