"When you stepped into this industry, you are going to need special weapons. Evil creatures and extraordinary ones need specially crafted and enchanted things to deal with them.”
“But don’t worry. Our Church has organized a market which sells powerful and reliable enchanted things at a reasonable price to all mercenaries.”
“Normal mercenary without recommender would have to apply the request with a list. This process takes a few days, ranging from two to eight days."
“But, if you have recommender, you can directly enter the market and enjoy the privileges.”
"The most popular item in the market is enchanted bullet. Many mercenaries of this century love this item because they are the best at using firearms. Moreover, range attack method like using firearm is much safer than traditional melee fighting methods.”
“The craftsmen have already adapted to the market demand so you can find a wide range of firearms and various enchanted ammo of different calibers.”
“Of course, you can use normal bullets to kill some small strange creatures with normal physical body. However, for creatures with energy body like evil ghosts need enchanted bullets to deal with them.”
“Although there is a popular saying of greater power comes from bigger barrel, I would like you to run directly if you accidentally met with existence above tier two.”
“Eh, I forgot you don’t know about tier classification. In short, run first when you meet a strong existence. Then, report the situation to the Church. Church will immediately send strong personnel nearby to eliminate the sinner."
“Instead of fighting for honor and bravery like in books, you should seek to live longer. Because there would be infinite possibilities once you survived. But if you died, everything would be gone.”
“Trust me. I have known dozen of tough warriors falling in battles because they chose to chew the hard food, which they could not bite. Life is very fragile. A single energy pollution from a small wound could also make you die painfully.”
"For example, the way you guys did in Cerriro Town is a very dangerous thing. I have read the official report on the Church's internal network and also a book about that.”
“Guess what. I was really surprised to know that there was a daemon lord of tier three and you guys fought back. It is a miracle that you guys survived. You guys were simply dancing on the blade. Moreover, it was a very sharp blade.”
“It is very lucky for you to meet his highness Lord Cardinal Steller. Otherwise, the whole town would just have silently disappeared like that because we couldn't even find the subspace the daemon lord created."
Looking at the woman occasionally glancing at Chester and talking non-stop, Peter felt bad for Chester who kept nodding in silent all the way. To be honest, he felt that he did a good thing. Peter knew he might not be able to stand a chance against a very talkative woman like Cathy.
Although he tried to match Cathy and Chester, he didn’t expect the situation to go well like this. Now, it looked like he did a good thing. Nevertheless, things went really well.
Silently remembering the important information, Peter felt that he could proudly say to other brothers about his contributions. After all, they were seriously lacking of these information on mysterious world.
After walking down the stairs for a while, the three people reached in front of a metal gate at the end of the staircase. The place was at two stories under the ground just right under the church. The metal gate looked like a smooth metal wall with no gap.
Cathy walked towards the wall at the right side beside the huge metal gate and stood in front of a metal box on the wall.
As she put her palm on the surface of metal box, the metal box lighted up and scanned her body with red rays. The scanning of red rays only took a few seconds and the gate slowly opened on its own after that. The vertical crack appeared at the middle of the mirror like smooth metal wall. The separated metal gate slowly retreated back into the walls of left and right sides.
After the deserted and silent long corridor appeared, Cathy looked back at the two men who were doubting their life and said, "Welcome from the Origin church’s underground market. Follow me. You are going to find out awesome and fantastic things here. Your only problem would be your wealth because we use a special currency here."
Peter talked about his doubt while following at two steps away from the two, "Wow, I was really amazed by that gate. It is very high tech looking. I had always thought that occult society would be like using various magics."
Cathy turned her head to look at Peter and asked, “What did you expect?”
Peter rubbed his cheek and said, “I thought we were going to see magical door like enchanted bricks wall in Harry Potter. The kind that require magic input and a certain secret knocking pattern to open it.”
“Harry Potter? What a strange name!”, Cathy murmured.
Peter explained, “Oh, that is a novel about a magic world of Britain. It is written by Lady Rowling.”
Cathy nodded and said generously, “Britain? Oh, a country taken down by the Aryan Empire in World War II. I don’t know if they had magical world written in that book but I have never heard of it. I will take a look at that book when I have time.”
While leading the two into the depth of brightly lit long corridor, Cathy explained, “About the magic enchanted entrance like you said, yes, we had them in the past. But, church stopped using them after a big reform happened at four decades ago.”
“It was a major reform beneficial to rootless extraordinary people and small occult influences. It is all thanks to his highness Lord of knowledge, everything changed to the better.”
“Actually, the technology mastered by our Church is very advanced. Of course, it is okay to tell you about these because this is all public information on the internal network. And you will be able to gain access to it because you have a recommender, a beautiful and generous lady.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever read about why the World War II suddenly stopped. But most of the things you know are just a cover-up information. When you think about it, Freemasonary would come into your mind first. Right? In fact, Freemasonary is just a force set by occult world for public relation with mortal governments. At that time, our Federation, United States of America, was almost unable to stop the advance of Aryan Empire under the rule of Kaiser III.”
Peter and Chester was surprised by the sudden information. After all, all they knew was that the federation was able to make a comeback thanks to Freemasonary association and forced back the advancing forces of Aryan Empire, and making them to sign the peace treaty.
Although organizations could be powerful, they couldn’t be more powerful than super powerful countries. Peter always thought that something seemed unreasonable. Now, everything seemed right if Freemasonary association was built by occult world.
Cathy said proudly, “The federation was too weak and it was about to lose. However, due to the advanced technologies provided by us through Freemasonary association, the federation was able to make a comeback and forced Kaiser III to sign the famous Paris peace treaty. It would be another different story for the federation without our helps. After all, Aryan Empire had the three greatest scientists of this generation of mankind at their side; Kaiser III, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla."
After saying the glorious deed of the church which raised her, Cathy stopped in front of a door and introduced, “This is our first stop, Fortune bank. You are opening bank accounts here and exchanging the special currency to shop various items in the underground market. Various rumors said that the bank was opened by Goddess Fortuna. I don’t know whether it is true or not but nobody dared to make trouble to this bank. Moreover, Fortune bank is also the biggest and the most famous bank in occult world. Of course, this is just a branch here.”
The normal looking wooden door made from unknown red wood got a golden-words name, ‘Fortune Bank’, carved on it. Cathy twisted the door handle and opened it.
Peter thought that he would see a small space inside. After all, there were only five meters distance between one door and another. He paid attention to environment and noted it well. Even Chester thought the same too. Although Chester didn’t like to talk too much, he had also raised a sensitive awareness on the environment due to his profession.
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However, the reality was unlike what they thought. They were completely wrong. The room behind the door has a very huge space so it could be even called a big hall. Peter looked around quickly and he estimated that it was almost as big as two basketball courts.
Nearly two thirds of the space was full of comfortable looking sofas, which were placed in groups. After that, there was around five meters free space distance from the nearest sofa and a long wooden counter line. That wooden counter line, which had two ends touching the walls of both sides seamlessly, directly created a separation line between the customers area and servicemen area.
Peter looked at the shiny marble floor and felt the luxury decoration of the bank. Chester also noted it too. They thought that it would be a small room behind the door.
“Sure enough, it is a magical world where impossible things can exist.”
The two men thought the same thing silently in their hearts.
However, despite of being so big and luxuriously decorated, there were only two women behind the counter. They were sitting on their sofas lazily and using their phones.
Both of them looked beautiful and graceful. They were wearing simple uniforms made of white silk. The one at the left seemed more mature and had pink hairs and sexy hourglass body. She got flesh on where they should and her healthy wheat skin looked great under the bright light. Peter looked at her pale blue eyes and gave her ten points.
The one on the right also got the same wheat skin and pink hairs but she looked young and her body was still developing. However, she got a pair of golden pupils and they made her looked amazing. She put her phone into the pocket, smiled and greeted, "Cathy, a rare visitor to the bank. What bring you here today?"
Cathy smiled and said cheerfully, "Fortune be always with you, sister Lilac. Good morning, V.”
She also greeted the beautiful woman and introduced the two men to them.
“This is Mr. Peter and Mr. Chester. The well known survivors of that recently famous Cerriro town case. They came to register a mercenary team today and I decided to be their recommender."
Lilac laughed and teased, "Don’t tell me that you fell in love one of them. So, you chose to be their recommender to give them a smooth sailing for the dangerous journey of occult world. Am I right?"
“I am not. Stopping joking around, Lilac. There are guests here.”
Cathy blushed and argued back weakly.
“But why are you blushing?”, said Lilac with a chuckle.
Looking at the two lively young women, the beautiful mature woman at the side smiled softly at Chester and Peter and said, "Gentlemen, I am V, the manager of Fortune Bank’s branch here. Lilac is my attendant."
V put three different coins on the table and said, "Allow me to introduce the currency we use here. As you can see, there are three different coins here. One gold coin is equal to one hundred silver coin. And one silver coin is equal to one hundred copper coins.”
“The formal exchange rate is ten dollar for one copper coin, one thousand dollar for one silver coin,and one hundred thousands dollar for one gold coin.”
Then, V put a new purple gold coin and said, “This one is purple gold coin and it is equal to one hundred gold coins. It is solely created for the convenience by our Bank. Of course, they are completely legal and you can spend them or exchange them at any place."
Peter leaned forward to look at the coins with interest and asked, “Anywhere? Can I exchange them at the banks of normal society?”
V smiled softly and said, “Yes. You can exchange them at the banks of normal society. But please remember that not all banks would exchange them for you and doing it would also endanger your life. Don’t mistaken me, my dear. We are not doing anything to our customers. But the crazy evil occultists will not think so. They use all means to get the resources of our closed occult world and they have a good nose. So, once you try to exchange the coins at banks in normal society, you will fall into their sight and your security would be at your own risks.”
Peter was surprised, “Gold coins are also targeted?”
V rolled her eyes and looked at the handsome man with idiotic look before saying, “Money is, of course, a strategic resource, mister.”
Peter coughed to cover up his embarrassment and put back the gold coin on the counter. He asked without blushing, "Can you directly mobilize the money from my bank account?"
V said with her charming smile, "Of course, we have a vast network and we can indeed directly mobilize the deposited money in various bank accounts. How much are you going to exchange and may I know your bank account?"
Looking at the beautiful woman behind the counter operating the computer, Peter said calmly as he handed over the master card in his hand, "Titan bank, password is *****. I want to exchange $1m. Two third is going to be inverted into gold and the rest is silver coins."
V looked at the bank card and operated with her computer for a few minutes before she gave it back. She walked towards the vault after saying, "Please wait for a while."
Peter boringly watched the two women chatting at the side while Chester was still carefully looking at the coins as if he wanted to remember them in details. They didn't have to wait for too long. It was just like five minutes and V came back with two cloth pouch bags in her hands.
She placed them on the counter and said, "Gold coins are in this smaller one and the other is filled with silver coins. We also provide various banking services. I wonder if you want to open bank accounts so it would be more convenient for you in the future business."
Peter thought about it and agreed to open two accounts; one for personal use and the other for their mercenary group. There were no complicated procedures. He only needed to give two names.
Two minutes later, V took out four metal cards from a nearby strange machine. One is a plain black card while the other three have the image of their mercenary group badge on them.
She explained, "We use the latest technology in these metal cards. You only need to put a drop of your blood on the card for physical body recognition. When the blood is completely absorbed, you have to put it on your forehead and keep it in touch for ten seconds for soul body recognition. After that, nobody else beside you will be able to use it."
Peter muttered as he flipped the cards and looked them carefully, "So magical?"
He requested, "Can you tell us about them?"
V said with a smile, "Each card represents different authorities. This one with a golden bar is the highest. It is meant for the leader. After leader binds his identity, he would be able to handle the bank account as he like to. There are no limitations. This card with two gold bars has the second level authority. And this one with a silver bar has third level authority. The leader card holder can set different level of consumption for lower level card holders.”
“So, basically, leader can set a withdrawal limit on lower level card holders while he can withdraw money without any limit. Am I right?”
“That’s right.”
V confirmed and handed over the cards to Peter. Then, she continued, “When you lost the cards or when they got stolen, you can contact us to apply for another card. And by touching this blue dot here, you can open holographic image in the air. It also works when you're sticking on the glass.”
“Of course, only the master would be able to open it. Through the card, you can easily transfer your money, check your balance and even exchange the occult world currency directly. It is very convenient. There are various functions in it and you can check them out later.”
“Also, please remember our website name, 'fortuna.net'. Oh by the way, here is my little advice for you, you should exchange all your money into occult world currency. You can buy everything with it but mortal currencies cannot buy a thing of our side. They are pretty useless for you."
Peter said calmly after putting away the four cards into his inner pocket of the jacket, "Thanks. I will seriously consider about it. But after all, we are just new into this mysterious world and we are still living in normal world."