“Lydia, are you okay?” I asked, walking back over to her.

“Yeah. I’m fine, ” she said as she collected herself. “Racist prick.”

“I thought you said that that wasn’t common.”

“It’s not, at least in the civilized world. But the Zeitgeist Imperium is at the ass end of nowhere and was completely removed from the fighting during the invasion. Its most notable exports are racism, arrogance, and punchable faces.”

“Oof, tell me what you really think. Is that everyone’s opinion or just yours?”

“Everyone's, I’m just more vocal about it than most.”

As we talked, Klein and his friend finished up their business with branch manager Hajim and made their way over. Lydia saw him coming and grabbed my sleeve.

“He's coming over! Oh my god! I can’t believe it!” she squealed in a hushed tone. Lydia tugged me close. “Don’t you dare ruin this for me.”

“What?”

“Sorry for involving you in that,” Klein said, reaching us.

“It's fine,” I replied. “It could prove bothersome, but he certainly had it coming.”

Lydia’s mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but only squeaked.

“Lydia, are you okay?”

She continued to move her mouth, making only strained grunts. Lydia then gave up, closed her mouth, blushed furiously, and nodded her head.

“Nice punch. Where did you train?”

“Self taught.”

“Really? We should fight.”

At that time, his friend chimed in. “What ‘e meant to say is ‘Hi, I’m Klein. We should spar.’ Ain’t that right, pretty boy?” The way the new woman’s thick lyrical accent seamlessly morphed into an impression of Klein’s gruff tone suggested this was something she did often.

Klein shot daggers with his eyes. “Yes, that’s what I meant.”

“See a’int so ‘ard." The woman looked back at us, "I’m Belerah. Now who might you lovelies be?"

“Noah, and this is my friend Lydia.”

“Hi…” Lydia barely got out, still a deep shade of red, staring at Klein.

“Lydia is normally capable of speech, but she is currently under the effects of a horrible curse.”

“Really?” asked Klein, suddenly interested.

“Yes, it’s what my people call ‘hoof in mouth.’ It's very serious.”

Lydia punched me in the arm. “Shut up!”

“She’s cured! It’s a miracle!”

“You’re an ass.”

“No gratitude whatsoever. Hmph.”

She punched my arm again and looked at Klein, trying her best to make eye contact.

“I’m Lydia. It’s an honor to meet you. I’m a huge fan,” she finally got out in a tone resembling that of a person.

“Oh, I see.” Klein said, losing his sharp edge and looking disappointed. Belerah laughed deeply.

“And dat meant “Why yes, I’m glad you're not cursed. I appreciate all my fans. Would you like an autograph?”

Lydia began to nod intensely as Belerah reached into her bag and grabbed a picture of Klein and a pen.

Klein took the objects and glowered. “Yes. Of course. Thank you, Belerah.”

Belerah fixed her gaze on Lydia's leg. “Not for nothing lovely, but I think you should ‘ave seen the doctor before coming ‘ere.”

“We need to trade in some cores to pay for the healer,” Lydia said.

“Ah, well if dat is the case, let me ‘elp with dat.” Belerah stretched out her arm towards Lydia. Muttering a few unintelligible words, white tendrils snaked out of her fingertips and wrapped themselves around Lydia’s leg. They slowly squeezed in, producing a loud cracking noise.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“AAAGH!”

“And there we go. Should be as good as new.”

Lydia carefully stretched out her leg. She then gingerly stepped on her foot, checking if it would support her weight. It did. Finally, she stamped it a few more times to be sure.

“Thanks so much. Though I guess that I should have expected nothing less from the white witch.”

Belerah smiled broadly. “You know me too! See 'ero, I do 'ave fans!” Would you like another autograph?”

“I would like that very much.”

“I knew you ‘ad excellent taste.”

*********************

We continued to exchange pleasantries for a short time before parting ways. Klein said that if I was ever interested in a spar that he could be found at the Magis’ Embrace Hotel. Eventually, we got back on line and turned our impressive number of cores into 60,000 GSUs.

As we walked out, I turned to Lydia and asked, “What is a GSU? I mean, I understand from context that it is money, but what is it exactly?”

“Gideon Standard Units were introduced during the invasion. With populations from all over the continent mixing, people from different kingdoms suddenly needed a way to do transactions without memorizing fluctuating exchange rates for 10 different currencies. So, the various major guilds and trade associations as well as several large kingdoms created the GSU. Their value was established because the guilds publically, every member of those guilds privately, and the founding kingdoms accepted them as payment for goods and services. Now, its the primary currency in most places because people learned that the guilds don’t fuck around and debase their money whenever they please.”

“Debase?”

“Imagine a kingdom's currency was gold coins that weigh 20 grams. The king runs up debt, but doesn’t have the money to pay it. So, he forces everyone to bring their coins to the government. He takes them and shaves off 5 grams of gold from each and uses the shavings to make new coins. He then pays back old debts with new coins, which have less value because ‘what are you going to do about it, peasant?’ Now, although internally the kingdom is forced to pretend everything is the same, other countries don’t and won’t. In effect, GSUs decentralized the currency to a variety of stakeholders, preventing that type of manipulation.”

“I think you just gave crypto bros a raging clue.”

“Please stop making allusions you know I won’t understand.”

“You will pry my cultural references from my cold dead hands.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“So violent,” I gasped theatrically. “How do people know that the guilds won’t inflate the currency?”

“Although you can’t be 100% sure, the coins are the result of many guilds working together. The alchemists’ guild is the only ones with the skills to meld the composite material used to make the coins. The blacksmiths’ guild is the only one with the skills to actually shape and imprint materials that hard. And finally, the mages’ guild is the only one who can design the intricate enchantment that marks each coin. So unless they all work together, it can’t happen. A few rogue officials from each did try to collude and make new coins a few decades back but… well, the executions are public and brutal.”

“Wait, guilds are allowed to execute people?”

“No, but kingdoms can, especially when pressured to by guilds and invested nobles.”

“And are public executions a common thing…?”

“Not if you don’t fuck with people’s money.”

“Noted. Is 60,000 GSUs a lot of money?”

“Yes and no. Mostly yes.”

“Oh, well, that explains it.”

Lydia smirked. “It depends on what you’re trying to buy. For mundane items, yes, it's a ton of money. We could eat, drink, and be merry for quite awhile on what we have, but if we wanted to buy magic items, live in upscale areas, or run in the more fashionable circles, then it would only last a couple months.”

“I see, so cores are worth a lot then?”

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire world runs on cores. I think I already told you that they can be used to level people outside of combat, but they also, more importantly, power enchantments and items. Every enchantment will burn through the magic initially used to create it, and the greater the enchantment's effect, the faster it burns. For example, the spatial distortion enlarging the Mages’ Guild building probably requires one greater core a month, which is why it's such an outrageous display of wealth and power. City defense shields need many high grade cores as well. Hell, the Sintrus Magocracy is experimenting with a way to harness the power of cores to deliver energy along conduits throughout its entire capital.”

“Is slaying monsters the only way to get cores? Good god, did I just use the phrase ‘slaying monsters’ in a literal context. Not the point. Please continue.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. Killing monsters is the only way to harvest cores.”

“But didn’t I get cores from the Abyssal soldiers?”

Lydia's face screwed up. “Like I said, monsters.”

A moment later, she settled. “The theory is that the Abyssals generate cores because this is not their natural plane. This has led to some questions about the origin of the other magical beasts, but that’s not the point of what we are discussing at the moment.

Anyway, the higher the grade of the core needed, the more dangerous the monster you need to kill. And that danger increases exponentially. The power gap between monsters with lesser cores and with common cores is huge, but it's nothing compared to the chasm between those with common cores and those with greater cores. Beasts with greater cores have evolved, which means that they are unpredictable, intelligent, and deadly. There is a world of difference between a level 59 monster and a level 60 one. You saw this with that elemental.”

“Interesting.”

My eyelids grew heavy. Weeks of poor sleep and anxiety caught up with me.

“That's enough of an economics lesson for now. I need a bath, a bed, and a good night's sleep.”

“Couldn’t agree more.”

“Do you want to live affordably or run in fashionable circles?”

“I want to drink thrice distilled dragons wine from a solid garadine cup poured by a bixtarian serving boy.”

“... So that’s fa-”

“Very fashionable”

I laughed. “Let’s make it happen.”