Paying a visit to the bank was the first objective. While having two ultimate goals, power or money. For one reason or another, the jobs she took while dark in nature rarely held very much in terms of payment. Because of that, her having stayed in an inn for a week without doing anything after failing to get payment for her work in Fort George. Then again, the situation was rather serious, and they had to leave immediately after, combined with the fact they split up so she could create tracks leading away from the south.
The money she was given for the trouble he caused meant that she would be fine, but she needed to merge the accounts as her account was of the lowest grade. She mainly wanted the money, but was also curious of what level of account she would receive in compensation. Moving to the Adventurer's Guild building, she passed the large doors to move to the building next door that was built as an extension to the main building.
The inside was quiet and very simple. Knowing of her plans, she ignored the questioning looks she was receiving. Moving towards the reception desk, she didn’t need to wait long for her turn. As she started the process of account transfer, she was given time to answer the excessive questions of the boy. She had repeatedly asked for a name to call him, but he always repeated that if she wanted to call him something, she should just come up with a name.
“The Adventurer Guild Bank is a small subsidiary of the Adventurer’s Guild. What started out as a repository for adventurers and mercenaries to hold their belongings and handle the will of their members. Slowly, as the Adventurer’s Guild grew, so too did their connections. Soon their members were given discounts for shopping at places near the Adventurer’s Guild as their members only needed to use their fingerprint on a record crystal, so their bill could be collected from the Adventurer Guild Bank.”
“Oh? That sounds oddly familiar.”
Ignoring his uselessly vague comment, she continued as she waited, “In this way both sides are protected. While the Adventurer’s Guild members are usually rough rogues, those that caused trouble would risk having funds deducted for damage or payment for wrongdoing. But in exchange, the Adventurer’s Guild members didn’t need to worry about getting robbed or scammed. As trying to fake a claim and being caught meant they were trying to steal from the Adventurer’s Guild themselves.”
“Once they added a storage, it started to attract mercenaries. While the two do similar work. Mercenaries don’t have a shelter like Adventurer’s Guild. Because of the usefulness of their service. There were numerous adventurers trying to make a living before they become famous mercenaries. Once these people introduced other mercenaries into the fold, they were the first exception. Because of the familiar nature of their work, having a trusted source to hand their belongings with a will. It drew a lot of attention. It can be said, without mercenaries, Adventurer’s Guild Bank might have never blown up to what it is today.”
Watching the lady from the reception desk returning, she quickly finished her explanation, “Slowly this built out as not just Adventurer’s Guild members started to use the bank. Soon they expanded to the point that every Adventurer’s Guild comes with a bank that is verified in every kingdom and territory, including the north but not the far north. Now it is the most popular and most secure bank in the world. As the strongest power on the continent, nobody is dumb enough to attempt to rob them or their clients, even if they get stolen the items inside are insured to a limit depending on the level of account.”
Quickly stopping as she was starting to get a few peeks from the woman behind the counter as she found herself whispering to herself. Showing her professionalism, she flashed a pretty smile before speaking in a gentle voice, “Everything has been proceeding smoothly. As the benefactor has already processed the necessary requirements from their end, we can finish the transfer process right now.”
With a nod, she watched as the woman took a crystal as she inspected it to make sure there weren’t any problems before there was a visible freeze. It was only for a moment, but she quickly tried to flash the same smile, only it was a bit awkward. Handing her the crystal, “Please double-check the information to make sure it is correct. If this step isn’t handled correctly, it can make recovery and future processing very complicated.”
Her tone was still gentle, however she seemed a bit stiff. Taking the crystal and injecting a small amount of mana into it, she was able to read the content. As she was going through the information she saw his name along with hers plus other identification information to ensure the account holder identities. As she reached the bottom, she smiled as she saw that part of the transfer was the funds along with the merging of her old and new accounts, as the one with the highest level would become the new level.
Seeing the thousand gold, she was happy. She now had a total of 1,217 gold coins. As she was double-checking, she made sure to read every line to ensure that there were no issues. It was only when she looked at the line under the account holding did she notice the level of the new account. She showed a visible shock and understood why the receptionist had such a reaction along with the peeks she was receiving now. The new level of the account was B.
Her original account was grade E. This meant she would be insured a total of 1,000 gold coins, and she had a personal locker that was insured for a total of 500 gold. To upgrade the account, one needed a certain status or money over the next level. At level B the account was insured for a total of 50,000 gold, while she could store items that would be insured for a total of 25,000 gold. Fred Smiths status in the Adventurer’s Guild was higher than she had expected. To transfer her an account of level B meant he had to have at least an S level account.
B was the highest level one could receive with money alone. To get an A account one needed a certain status and above that was even stricter. To give a level E account a boost to B was generally possible for a level A account through adding funds. But she only had little over a thousand gold, not even worth a level D account.
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After waiting for the account crystal to be processed and sealed with only the basic functions left open, she was sent off with a good amount of politeness she wasn’t used to. Before she could get too far, she stared absentmindedly around, “Is a thousand gold a lot? The amount of respect you were given seems like a lot. But when he told you the amount, you didn’t appear to have received that much.”
Giving him a dirty look, she looked at the boy before scoffing at him, “It isn’t the amount of gold, it is the level of the account that caused that. But don’t you have any modesty? You know it's extremely impolite to peek at other people’s belongings…”
As he was technically in her arm, she had absolutely no trouble sensing the mana he sent into the crystal to peek what was inside. She didn’t do anything as she kept getting peeked at by the receptionist, but it was very much so annoying. She had already gotten strange looks while whispering to him. Their time together was generally alone, so she wasn’t used to sending her will into the mark. Instead, it was easier to just speak and have her will be transferred to him subconsciously.
“You didn’t tell me to stop, nor did you stop me.” He had been walking next to her, nobody including Fred seemed to notice his existence, so she got used to it. He turned to look at her with a nonchalant expression on his face, “You forget I am not a person, I am also your possession. So how can your own possessions looking at your other possessions be rude?”
Without a response, she could only walk quietly to her next destination. She didn’t even know how to reply. Even after she made it to her destination, she didn’t feel any emotional flares as if becoming a possession was such a simple matter, or maybe for him, it was. Dropping the subject, she could only greet the man behind the counter, “Hi, I need to see the doctor.”
Greeting her with a smile, she was led to an isolated room before an older gentleman entered. He sat down on a chair as he studied the person in front of him with a gentle voice, “What seems to be the issue?”
Without having to say anything, as soon as his gaze reached her arm, he paused for a while before inspecting the rest of her body. Pulling down her outer garment, she knew she was coming and prepared accordingly. The clothes she was wearing were sleeveless, as she needed to make sure not to aggravate the healing wound. She only put an outer robe on to cover the bandage.
“You are a rather impressive dunce. I won’t bother asking, but you are seriously very lucky.” The doctor spoke with a serious expression the more he inspected the wound. After he finished he had a frown, “The wound is too serious to heal. If I use my own mana it could affect your heart and cause side effects worse than any amount of healing I could accomplish.”
Lifting a finger, he left the room for a minute before returning with an ointment, “Apply this around the wound twice a day for two weeks. And you must absolutely not aggravate the wound, so don’t do anything strenuous.” As he was getting ready to leave again, she had to call out to him.
“Uhm, doctor…”
With a serious look, he gave her another once over, “You’re telling me there is more?” He was using a common tone used by the old man when she returned with injuries. It was the type of reprimanding a young person for being too careless.
Because of the embarrassment of using the same tone as the old man, she only sheepishly pointed at her leg. As he injected mana to inspect her leg, he had a disastrous look on his face.
With a very serious tone, he asked, “Have you studied medicine?”
“No.”
“Child are you being abused?”
With a heavy sigh, she responded rather emotionlessly, “No, I am just a bit clumsy. I am also not a child.”
This time the heavy sigh came from the doctor, “This will hurt a little, but the bone was set fairly well and won’t need much adjustment.” When he saw the grim look on her face, he seemed to be in a worse mood. With a short count to three that ended after starting at one, he shifted the bone, causing a sharp scream to escape her mouth. The doctor quickly left after leaving.
She was left on the bed as she was sweating profusely, with some dripping down her forehead and making her hands clammy. As she was trying to calm her breathing, she heard the familiar words of the boy, “What was that?”
Without answering immediately, she could feel his gaze, but he wasn’t pushing the subject. Which made her feel better. Once she finally calmed down, she spoke in the same tone she had answered the doctor in, “I have become rather good at setting my bones from experience.”
With an exaggerated strange exclamation, “Wew, who knew there would be benefits to getting beat up a lot. I guess it's true that it's never too late to start learning.”
She stood up with a bit of anger. As he wasn’t using a voice to talk and his words were being translated and injected into her head, it made his exclamation somehow more exaggerated and insulting. When she reached the front desk, she noticed that the negative feelings she was feeling from the similarities to the way the doctor spoke to the old man were barely there anymore.
As a crystal reader was used to display the insides, she had to pause as she looked at it. She knew it was going to be expensive, but the ointment was a hundred gold coins… Nearly with tears in her eyes, she used her fingerprint to finalize the transaction. She moved a bit dejectedly to her last destination. The sign had a hammer with a series of letters making out two words.
The boy seemed to be a bit energetic as they entered the shop. On the table was a series of different weapon types. While the tables held different things from anything like a sword to even a shield, each table had a name but no price. This was a blacksmith shop. The tables were different blacksmiths from the same or a small group of blacksmiths. Usually there was the master and an apprentice or two, and the master sold the real works, this was more of a bargain shop to buy the more common goods and the goods of the apprentices.
Seeing the lazy expression of the clerk, it was likely that the shop was run by the collection of blacksmiths and the man behind the counter, judging from his build, was only doing it because he had to. It was likely his goods were also in the store. There were a total of six rows of goods.
The aisle in the middle had the largest and cleanest nameplate along with the least amount of goods, the aisle itself went from the door to the counter. Furthest the aisle from the door and counter, the smaller the name and the more goods. The closer you were to the center, the higher the level of skill and the more expensive the goods. In this way you could find anything from random quality goods for cheap from a new apprentice or something that cost a pretty penny with a guaranteed quality. It also funneled the blacksmith brand when not just master works were appreciated, but the apprentices took after their masters.
As she glanced at the center aisle, she didn’t really see many daggers. Even more so as she was looking at the goods she heard groaning from the boy next to her. She very quickly had a dark expression on her face as she heard the boy speak.