After a good night's rest i woke up and made myself a good meal, mom always said a hungry man isn't a strong man.

I dug into my pockets and took out the bag of money Mr. Recondos had given me, as well as the odd looking piece of paper he handed to me after our talk. Inside the pouch there was 500 Gold coins and 1 Platinum coin.

!!!

What! What was this, 500 Gold coins were already generous enough, but a Platinum coin!

The Universal currency in Potestera, was Platinum. In Potestera Platinum was a super precious material, not only because of its looks but because of its usefulness to all kinds of people in different ways.

It indeed represented monetary value when it was in coin form, but the value of the coin was carried by the material itself, and therefore needed no bank or governmental backing. In Potestera everyone respects Rankers, and everything related to Rankers has value.

To most Rankers and their associates, civilian currency like gold, silver, bronze and copper as well as the many governmental currencies were useless. That is because a long time ago, for some reason, most Rankers, and those who dealt with them, changed the way the did business with each other.

They had all agreed as an always valid and default currency, that for trading and official transactions of their precious Ranker goods and materials, to use Platinum.

After that agreement most other currencies fell out of grace with Rankers, and eventually became useless in the Ranker world. In fact some currencies were hit so hard they even completely crashed severely damaging whole countries and affecting power dynamics. Those that survived to still be considered valid currency for Rankers, maintained their status because of the same reasons people suspect Platinum was chosen as the main currency, their usefulness.

Platinums hegemony remains for several reasons as has been determined by the years of conjecture of people. As said before, it’s very useful, different Rankers have different needs but as it turns out most Rankers can find a use for Platinum.

It's very practical, for Magic its almost indespensible, it's great as a Divine medium or electrical conductor, it's amazing as a Spiritual template or as an esoteric material, it's famous for its weapon fortification properties etc. etc.

Platinums versatility also makes it even more precious though. Even though there are no reports of a shortage of Platinum from Potestera mine and ore fields, the coining of Platinum falls far behind its consumption. This despite the best use for platinum being to keep it as a coin, and everyone having the ability to coin it.

Because of this Platinum is always in short supply, skyrocketing its value.

Some other reasons for the popularity of Platinum is its availability in all lands, eliminating the possibility of currency monopoly, making it a unifying currency rather than a controversial one.

Platinum also holds its own value eliminating the need for any sort of outside organization to provide backing, the only regulation being that all countries and parties have agreed that standard platinum coin should be a 2 inch diameter and a quarter of an ounce weight.

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Perhaps the most important of its advantages is that the Seeier and the Seeier Group seem to put a value on it, although they don't handle the currency itself. All in all, there isn't any sign of Platinums time as currency king to end any time soon.

Volunterra itself has adopted the use of Platinum as its national currency.

Of course the only difference is that it also uses Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper as subsidiary units to not plunge its civilians into poverty. One Platinum coin was equal to one thousand gold coins. One gold coin was equivalent to one hundred silver coins. One silver coin was equivalent to ten bronze coins, and finally one bronze coin was equivalent to fifty copper coins.

Not surprising at all, any civilian that got their hands on a Platinum coin would most likely never exchange it for gold let alone silver, bronze, or copper. So in Volunterra there was a culture of Platinum hoarding and most transactions were handled in Gold and the like.

The assigned equivalency was more idealistic than anything. Most people wouldn’t trade a Platinum coin for ten thousand gold coins, the reason being each Platinum coin earned was one platinum coin closer to acquiring a sought after Ranker item. If you could acquire a Ranker item even if you didn’t become a Ranker your fortune was sure to change.

In fact that has been one of my problems all this time, my lack of Platinum or any Ranker approved currency. Although in Volunterra you can live a great life without ever seeing a Platinum coin, for me who wished to become a Ranker, the countries culture was a nightmare.

I lacked any natural talents so my only option was to deck myself out with gear. But it couldn't just be any gear it had to be at least high grade “Unranked” equipment.

The only thing in my Possession that could even qualify as that is my Slingshot . But I've yet to hear of a powerful Slingshot user in the Ranker list.

Well what use is there crying about it right now, things are different now, i've finally gotten my hands on a Platinum coin, and 500 gold coins along with it!

Maybe i can go on an adventure after all.

What use is having this money here, nobody in this town trades in Platinum, at least that I've heard, and I definitely won't go flashing my wealth to the traveling adventurers.

I'll probably end up in a ditch in the outskirts of town. Than its decided im going on an adventure! I'll make a list of what I need tonight. First time to look at this paper Mr. Recondos gave me. In the top in bold letters the paper was titled,

“Potestera Files: Volunterra”

“Powers, Organizations, and Groups of influence in Volunterra”

What the heck is this!

Isn't this a political paper, how is this supposed to make me stronger. Well whatever no harm in reading it i guess, i don't think Mr. Recondos would lie to me, I mean to be honest just that Platinum coin was already help enough, i can't be greedy. I picked a comfortable spot to sit in and begin to read.