“Welcome to the Spatial Bank. How can I help you?”

Twenty minutes after leaving the Tauren’s jewellery, we stopped in front of a different building. The insignia depicted a leather pouch with a pile of coins and diamonds on the side. This building was the Spatial Bank, the institution where all Space element users gathered. It was the Space element equivalent of the Healing Temple and as its name suggested, it offered mainly banking services.

The Spatial Bank was also one of the places I wanted to visit today. I let Copperbane introduce me to the city while subtly pushing him toward the bank. I needed a place to safely store my items and I did not fully trust the Healing Temple. If the succubus was able to enter the bathroom so easily when I was inside, people with malicious intent could also access my room without my knowing.

‘A dryad?’ I mentally pointed out as the clerk greeted. “Hello. I would like to open an account and a storage box.”

I was not worried about entering the Spatial Bank. According to my memories, the Spatial Bank was one of the institutions who supported the humans, like the Healing Temple. Their goal was much more straightforward than the Healing Temple; they simply wanted the humans to open accounts and deposit their valuables in private storage boxes.

Then, if the human was captured or killed during the conflicts, they could simply claim all the stored items under the human’s name for themselves. There would be no one else to claim the valuables. Just like the Healing Temple, they wanted to create a conflict and a sense of insecurity to push people to store their valuables in a safe place like the Spatial Bank.

The dryad wordlessly sized me up. He rubbed his chin as a couple of leaves grew on his finger. “Of course. Please follow me. I will help you go through the necessary procedures.”

I was escorted to a more private area and transferred into a separate dimension, similar to the one belonging to the Seraph, Judge Asynth. The Spatial Bank did not look very large from the outside compared to the other buildings but there were countless separate dimensions inside the building.

Copperbane silently followed behind. He was allowed inside the separate dimension as he would act as a guarantor.

“Opening an account with us is very easy and free of charge. All you need to do is to first fill in this form and leave behind a drop of your blood.”

“The private storage box is also not an issue as you have a guarantor from the Healing Temple. However, there are different prices depending on the size of the box you want. There will also be a fee each time you try to access your storage box. Here’s a list of the types of private storage boxes we provide.”

The dryad professionally pushed a couple of forms and documents toward me, explaining the services provided by the Spatial Bank. I was already aware of the details but went along and listened to him. There was a simple difference between the Bank account and the storage box; the latter was used to store physical items like mana stones while the former was used to store Points. I would also receive interest from my bank account; about 1% every month, a meagre amount compared to what the tower offered on the zeroth floor.

At the moment, I only had 18 Points but there was no harm in creating a bank account for the future. It was a free service and I was not afraid of being scammed by the Spatial Bank. It operated on trust and its rules protected all its customers from any races, not just the races of the Union.

I read through the documents and started filling the forms. They asked for generic information: name, race, address, source of income, expected deposits, recovery words in case I lost the keys and so on. It took me a few minutes as I double-checked my writings. Then, I picked up a black card that came with the forms. It was thin and sharp; it was made of a rare material and designed to easily cut through even the toughest skin. I made a short shallow cut on my thumb allowing a drop of blood to flow out. The blood was instantly absorbed by the black card which then seemed to have gained a luster.

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The Spatial Bank would keep my blood as reference. From now on, my blood was the key to accessing my bank account and storage box. The recovery words needed to be set in case I experienced a mutation or an evolution that would affect my blood.

“Everything seems to be in order.” The dryad commented after reading through the forms. “All you have to do now is to select which volume of storage box you want.”

“I don’t have many points right now. So, I’ll just go with a cheap option for now. The two cubic metres box seems appropriate for ten points per month. I can always upgrade later if necessary, right?”

“Naturally but there will be a small fee for changing the volume of the storage box. Your storage box will be available for free for the first month, so you can use a larger box if necessary. The cost will be automatically deducted from your bank account every month.”

I smiled faintly. ‘A special offer of free storage for the first month? More like a trick to get people to leave everything here.’

“There is no need. Two cubic metres are more than enough to store what I want at the moment.”

“Very well. Give me a few minutes to process your application and I’ll bring an expert to create your storage box.”

…

‘A Blood Wing…’ In front of me, a tall human-like creature was channeling his mana, creating a private storage box for me. The creature had long ghostly white hair dropping all the way down to his waist. The iconic blood red wings of his race especially stood out as the veins on the wings contracted continuously.

I observed the process quietly. The Blood Wing was essentially using the Store spell and activating a series of enchantments and runes to change the ownership of the storage space. He would then bind it to the black card that absorbed my blood earlier.

When the storage box was finally ready, the dryad escorted everyone out of the dimension, giving me some privacy to store the items I wanted in the storage box. Having had a storage box in my past life, I was already familiar with the steps to take.

I started by taking out the large wine barrels from my storage belts, followed by the multi-coloured gems, the dice that changes the odds and the vial containing Levi’s blood. These were the items I did not dare to keep on me. Only a few miscallenous items remained in my storage belts, including my equipment and a single waterskin full containing the fermented wine.

‘This should be it. Now, I can finally sleep well at night.’ I smiled satisfactorily and cut myself with the black card to close the storage box.

…

Having completed the two tasks I gave myself, I went on a stroll with Copperbane. The dwarf happily showed me around; we went to the Harlek Square and visited the business area and markets. I estimated that our trip had lasted for about two hours. It refreshed my memories of this city and was an enjoyable activity despite the awkward looks I received.

As I was casually wandering around, Copperbane suddenly looked up the sky and said, “Oh! I forgot that I had an important task to complete. I need to go right now. You have memorised the way to return to the Healing temple, didn’t you? In the worst case, you can just ask a few people for help.”

I paused for a moment, taken aback by the dwarf’s sudden statement. Our eyes met and as he winked, I understood the meaning behind his words.

‘How convenient… This place is very close to the slums and the path we took made us go around and attract enough attention from anyone who will be interested in me.’

I knew it was time for me to act as bait. “I’ll be fine.” I replied as calmly as I could.

“That’s good. I’ll take my leave then.” Copperbane chuckled and left without further ado.

As soon as the dwarf disappeared, the streets suddenly felt emptier and colder.

‘I am too weak but if Copperbane is leaving, it means that there are probably a few troublemakers nearby.’ I felt nervous. My palms became sweaty as I took a deep breath. ‘I’ll just stick to what Copperbane said. If the Healing Temple wanted to harm me, he would not have allowed me to deposit my valuables at the Spatial Bank. I just need to trust them a little bit.’

I retraced my steps, heading in the direction of the Healing Temple. It would take about twenty minutes to reach there by walk. The streets were relatively quiet and empty as we were in a residential zone close to the slums.