NAME: Casper / LEVEL: 34 / CLASS: Mist Illusionist
SPECIES:Phantasmal Canine
HP:500/500 SP:1200/1200 MP:3600/3600
Vitality: 9
Endurance: 20
Strength: 5
Dexterity:30
Intelligence:50
Luck: 12
ABILITIES: Mana Siphon (Action) , Diffuse (Unique Action), Amplify Bark (Attack)
SKILLS: Illusion Comprehension Tier 3 , Shapeshifting Tier 2
BLESSINGS: Sense for the Hunt (Great Huntress)
Afflictions: None
Casper checked his status screen at a glance as he walked ahead of the three person group. The ghost dog easily remembered the path back and kept a brisk pace to keep the others from wasting time. He knew Arthur didn’t have any time to waste. Casper filled an odd role in the world as an intelligent familiar. They were upset at Castien for doing such a god-awful job at explaining things to his protectee. Of course it was his job to protect Arthur, that’s the deal! But it was much more complex than that. Soon they hoped to be able to teach the berserker enough common text to understand the role they have as his familiar.
Casper had seen Arthur’s quest notification. It was part of the spell contract for him to fulfill his summoner’s quests; and they would get a large amount of experience if it got done. Plus Arthur would probably die if both of them didn’t get to work on it immediately. Casper didn’t have a solid opinion on the man. His situation was really interesting academically, and he had decent instincts in a fight. He was kinda dumb though and was willing to throw Casper at people if the fight on the cart told them anything. It turned out to be the right move to not get cut open by that bandit; but it was still weirdly insulting to the mage to be hurled like a smoke bomb into someone's face without communicating about it first.
Casper largely ignored the conversation between Arhtur and Filantriam. They caught enough to know the warlock was reminiscing about the city and telling Arthur all about the taverns and cabarets both of them should go to. Everyone including Casper flinched as he heard a great roar booming through the air, it was overpowering and drowned out every other sound for a long moment. Then a shadow passed over them quickly. Casper saw Arthur’s jaw gape as a true dragon gilded overhead close enough to the rooftops to think it would crash into a chimney. A massive regal creature with a crown of horns that glinted in the sunlight like obsidian. It had deep black scales that seemed to absorb light. It was like a starless midnight sky had a child whose purpose was to remind the brightest days that there would be another darkest night.
Casper shifted in anxiety as the true dragon deftly flew over the city with a mastery over its flight, tiny movements dodging chimneys and turrets on buildings..It gained altitude rapidly as it approached the castle. “Is it gonna attack the castle?” Arthur gawked.
The people around him excluding Filantriam chuckled at him when they heard him say that out loud. They watched as the dragon landed on the castle and roared its dominance across the surrounding area. Then a very large window was opened on the castle, even from a distance Casper floated above other peoples heads and watched the large chains used to pull the extremely expensive and ornate stained glass slabs that decorated the castle and allowed the dragon to comfortably crawl inside. Arthur turned his head to the warlock speaking quickly out of exasperation. “That was a real dragon? I saw the drake that Petal killed but that was…so different! Why did it go into the castle?” Filantraim smiled and shrugged. “Remember when I said this city was taken by force? That dragon was the spearhead of that war as far as I've been told. The castle used to be a lot smaller.”
Arthur raised an eyebrow and looked back towards the castle. “Does the dragon own the city now?” Filantriam scoffed as he turned his head to look at Arthur. “No, of course not. The king supposedly controls that thing.” Arthur glanced back at the castle. “I don’t see how anyone could control that…her?” Filantriam paused in the street. “What?” The warlock asked. Casper also paused, having gotten the same feeling as the dragon passed overhead. Arthur replied “I don't know. I got this feeling that the dragon is a ‘her’.” Casper realized the likely reason why they both had that thought. Dragons were symbols of authority and respect; it was most likely a skill that the dragon possessed that impressed upon people who and what she was. Calling her a ‘creature’ or something would be disrespecting the dragon. And everyone knew it was idiotic to disrespect a dragon. Casper knew that Arthur actually had it right; and she owned this city as much as the king did.
A few quiet moments later they approached the regal banking building. It wasn’t the only bank in the city according to Filantriam but they were all controlled by its own guild that actually wasn’t loyal to the king or the city themselves. Wealth has a power of its own and apparently the bank had enough to not be absorbed by any of the governments it did business with. The hustle of just a couple of hours ago had become relatively quiet and the line only held about a dozen people. Arthur jogged up to the line to reserve a spot and Casper floated alongside him. Casper enjoyed the quiet moments like this. Arthur was a pretty easy person to read most of the time. Casper observed his face as he started contemplating his situation in the time he had to wait. If nothing else they respected his ability to ignore stress to keep going instead of agonizing over what to do . Casper hoped they could put Arthur in a safe situation when the stress and the pain finally caught up to him.
Before they realized how much time had passed Casper and Arthur arrived at the front and was waved over by one of the many tellers. A counter with a glass window between him and the teller, and a slot that was just large enough for a person to reach their arm into; but long enough to support large stacks of paperwork or sacks of coins. Arthur began speaking to one of the most generic acting people he had ever met. The bank uniform was an emerald green with a stylish gold trim that somehow worked despite having clashing colors. The man was in his early thirties, white teeth, short cut brown hair and a plastered on smile that gave even Casper the creeps. “How can I help you today, sir!” Arthur scratched his scalp as he thought. “Uh, I guess I need to do some kind of exchange? I have enchanted gold that-” He almost jumped out of his skin as the teller cut him off “Wonderful sir! I’m sure you'll be excited to hear that since enchanted gold is in high demand we can offer an even higher rate than usual!” Arthur looked back at Filantriam. The warlock nodded at him, “You can trust them to handle money honestly, even if they employ some odd people.” Arthur turned around as the teller smiled even wider. “Well I have about twenty pounds of it.” Arthur's eyes widened as the teller suddenly speed walked away from the window and appeared in a doorway twelve yards away that led into the back. “Please follow me sir!”
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Arthur and Casper apprehensively followed the teller into the back while Filantriam sat on a cushioned bench off to the side of the main room and pulled out a book. Arthur glanced around at the dozens of people rushing back and forth either by themselves or with rolling carts stacked tall with lock boxes and lockable bags filled with valuables as he walked into and quickly passed the employees area.
The nameless teller opened an unadorned door that led into an office with a single desk. Arthur immediately noticed the giant magnifying glass with ten lenses of varying sizes attached to a moving stand; which was itself bolted into the desk. Arthur was confused by what he saw at the desk rearranging the lenses and peering through them at a roughly cut green gemstone the size of Arthur’s fist. He imagined his brother Gary walking into the same room and having a panic attack just seeing the huge dark green spider-like legs of the giant crab standing at the desk in front of him. What truly surprised Arthur was how ordinary the shape of the sentient sea life was in front of him. It was like a regular crab; if that crab was as taller than Arthur and as wide as a car.
Arthur slowly walked up to the sentient crustation as he looked over the shiny necklaces that were welded from gold into long ornate and delicate chains that were draped over the crabs carapace. The gold contrasted sharply against the dark grayish-green of the shell that could easily camouflage itself as a rock on the seabed. Arthur realized that the large crab had stopped working and was presumably looking at Arthur with its pitch black eye-stalks. “Uhhh.” Arthur made a sound as he tried to think of what to say; despite meeting orcs and gnomes and elves he was still taken off guard by the familiar yet alien form of the crab. Small shiny bubbles formed at the mouth of the crab; which was slightly disturbing to watch. When the bubbles burst they formed sounds much to Arthur’s surprise. A slightly gurgled but oddly clear voice could be heard amongst little pops. “Can I help you?” the crab asked plainly.
Arthur looked down at Casper who nodded in encouragement. The sentient dog somehow helped him accept the reality he was in. “Yeah, I wanted to sell some enchanted gold to the bank?” He wasn’t sure if it was technically a sale or an exchange but he pulled out the main nugget of gold that weighed roughly twenty pounds by itself and gently set it on the desk in front of the crustacean that clicked together its claws seemingly in excitement. More bubbles popped as they spoke. “Wonderful, may I have permission to test and weigh the gold myself?” Arthur gave a quick nod and giant but nimble claws brought a lens with no glass in it down to the nugget of gold. Arthur was confused why that was until the crab picked up and passed the enchanted gold through the open lens and two little red lights shone through the gold as if it was translucent. Arthur almost jumped as he watched the grab effortlessly dig through the soft metal with its giant claws and then a stark contrast as it gently pulled out what looked like two tiny nuggets of silver. And set them on the desk in front of Arthur. “Slime eyes; easily identifies this gold as sourced from a monster hunt. Very good but they are an alchemical ingredient and not a metal so we cannot take this in the exchange.” The crab spoke as he set the torn up gold onto a scale and weighed it.
As Arthur scooped the slime eyes into his bag the banker crab brought out a clipboard and paper of all things and somehow maneuvered a quill without fingers to jot down calculations on the paper. Arthur was starting to be quite entertained by the crab person as he watched it write with a regular sized quill in a claw as big as his head. The giant crab set aside the paper and placed the gold on a fresh sheet between them. Bubbles formed as they made an offer. “I can exchange this amount of enchanted gold for fifteen thousand and twelve gold pieces. I can offer it to you in a lump sum for a large exchange tax; or you can open an account with us and start gaining interest on it immediately.” Arthur nodded in excitement when he considered having that much money. He thought about the choice before realizing something about the number the banker had just said. They said fifteen thousand gold pieces. A copper coin seemed to be worth slightly less than an american dollar but a gold coin was still equal to a hundred copper coins.
“Wait, what?” Arthur shook his head. “How many gold coins again?” The crab paused for a second as their eyestalks went into their resting position, then back up. “Fifteen thousand and twelve standard gold coins.” Arthur was the one to pause again, a cold sweat forming on his forehead. “Would I be able to access all of my money from my account immediately?” The crab nodded with its whole body. “I think I’ll open an account then.” Arthur said as he stared blankly at the crab person; which was now somehow less surprising than becoming a fantasy millionaire overnight. Arthur’s next half hour was a blur as he signed papers after having Casper read over each one himself and confirming there weren't any malicious loopholes or clauses. The fact that he was slightly wealthy probably went a long way for the kind attitude of the bank.
Arthur walked back into the main hall and quickly got back to one of the main tellers. He withdrew only sixty gold and kept it in his bag; considering any wealth sensing abilities people might have. It was still a hefty sum but Arthur reasoned if he had to give it up to a particularly powerful mugger it wasn’t a huge loss overall. Arthur suddenly felt a pang of guilt unexpectedly. “Are you able to send letters to people on my behalf?” He expected the teller to be accommodating; even when Arthur told him just to write down what he was saying instead of writing the letter himself. Arthur didn't expect the bank to agree to hold a small sum of gold for the recipient of the letter too. When the teller asked who the recipient was Arthur had to search through his memory and look through the notifications he could call upon at will; and the name he was looking for was quickly found. “I want it sent to a ‘Mangol Pemud’ of the Western Bell village.”
As soon as the letter was sent off Arthur left to find Filantriam reading a book outside. He looked relieved to not have to stand around anymore and snapped the book closed. “Took you long enough.” The warlock muttered. Arthur walked up and stared at Filantriam with an obviously questioning look. He recoiled slightly from the face Arthur was making. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Arthur tilted his head and asked with a sort of uncomfortable curiosity. “Why didn’t you kill me for the rest of the gold?” Filantriam huffed and looked affronted. “Should I have?” the warlock shot back in response.
“I mean, no. But I didn’t realize just how much that stuff was worth. Considering everything you probably would have gotten away with it.” Filantriam put away his book and breathed in deeply.
“One, that is exactly the kind of warlock stereotype I'm trying not to feed into. Two, it would have been extremely obvious.” He stopped when he saw Arthur’s raised eyebrows and blank expression. “Why are you still helping me?”
Arthur asked. Filantraim looked away nervously. “Well … I really like fighting with my magic; but at every turn in my life I’ve been forced to do the job of a pacifist. After I almost accidentally killed you, sharing all this money, and especially after we fought those bandits, I feel like I’m living the adventurer's life! and I feel like I can actually trust you, as weird as that sounds.” Arthur slowly nodded.
“I appreciate it. Filantriam.” Arthur held out his hand, and the healer apprehensively took it and gave it a firm shake. Arthur let go without breaking any of Filantriams fingers.
“Wanna keep helping me not die?” Arthur asked Filantraim, who smiled warmly and nodded. “Maybe, just don’t let me die on the way either.” he mused. Arthur rolled his shoulders. “Well I have a quest leading me… It’s just another church so I should be fine for now. You should go enjoy your money and I’ll let you know when I figure out what to do.” Filantriam smiled in a way that looked grossly nefarious to Arthur. “Sure thing friend! I’ll be staying at an inn called the ‘Honeyed Fountain’ until you need me.” They parted ways. A few minutes later when his mind wandered while he walked Arthur murmured to himself “The ‘Honeyed Fountain’ is definitely a whore-house…”