Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 22 Money Bags
🕑 Added 2024-07-26 02:03:33 +0000 UTCThe chief turned at his question, blinking slowly and huffing as he took on a patronizing tone, “Yes, honored customer. That is correct, and may I congratulate you on the wonderfully uncommon achievement of tripling your level in a single stat. I have seldom met such a… bold warrior as yourself, and I assure you, this branch's discretion is assured.” The Chief added with a stiff shake of his head.
“Now I will leave you in Harold’s more than capable hands and return to my meeting.” The chief concluded with a trumpeting harrumph.
“Yeah, um… I am sorry to do this to you, but if it stops at 150… it's not going to work.” Tilly responded wincing. The clerk in front of him paled, releasing a small squeal. The Chief’s expression however turned thunderous and he marched back to the counter, his low voice filled with menace. The servile, customer service mask was completely shattered, his disdain on full display.
“Listen, human! You are obviously new to the Plane, so let me educate you. The Commerce Guild is a very powerful organization, and we will not be swindled or toyed with. Such a stat spread would be insane and nearly impossible to pull off without some sort of Legendary class. Now you will accept our generous terms and stop causing problems.”
Even as the lines of Tilly’s wince turned downward into a frown of anger, some part of him sighed in relief. He hated playing games and was glad to finally deal with the real attitudes of this institution. An idea suddenly occurred to him, and his frown relaxed up as fast as it had tightened the lines of his face,
“Just to be clear. You want me to attempt to bond with this Keystone as well, and if something goes wrong, it is not my fault?” Tilly said, slowly reaching out a finger to the metallic container on the counter.
The Chief’s eyes flicked from Tilly to the container and back, and he licked his lips nervously, “Be warned human, if you do anything to intentionally harm that item, the enchantments of this building will not treat you kindly! We have protective measures in place for almost any eventuality.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Tilly smirked, his hand now halfway to the container. “I’m just a happy customer, who completely trusts in the guild’s word and by extension, its certification.” He added with a wink.
Just before he could lay a finger on the container, the chief snatched it back, confusion and desperation warring across his grey, wrinkled face, as his trunk shivered in distress, “You can not be serious… have you truly done something so idiotic?” He asked flabbergasted.
“Guilty as charged,” Tilly said, shrugging as his attempt to touch the object was blocked. He couldn’t put his finger on the reason, but he found something about the whole situation delightful.
Did elephants sweat? He couldn’t remember.
Kindle chose that moment to poke her head out of his little front pocket, cheeping hungrily up at him.
“Sorry girl, I’ll feed you as soon as I’m done here.” He said with a little scratch to her head. She peeped tiredly and snugged back into her warm space against his chest.
The elephantine’s eyes flashed with a system notification and his mouth slowly fell open, “You have bonded a… phoenix? What’s next?! A dragon in your pocket!?” He asked breathlessly, clutching the higher-tier Keyston to his chest protectively.
“Look, I have things to do. Can I get a refund or something? I also think another one of those insurance payouts would probably be appropriate in this situation, don’t you?” Tilly asked, ready to move things along.
If the third-tier Keystone was valued at one thousand gold, then he doubted they would even carry a fourth tier in this branch considering it was brand new. As he watched the elephantine flap his ear in thought, Tilly wondered how much of this Mochizuki anticipated when she made her suggestion.
“Yes, yes, another Notice of Refund would be more than appropriate,” The Chief blurted in a whisper, jumping on the request suddenly, as if afraid of being overheard. Yet even as he did, a line of runes began to glow an angry red around the borders of the counter, completely unnoticed by the Chief as he leaned toward Tilly hungrily. He had locked eyes with Tilly and was urgently running figures under his breath. The Clerk to his right, however, immediately looked down as the magic began to glow and swallowed noticeably.
“If we pay out two issuances… it would be noted by headquarters.” The Chief continued, thinking furiously, a slight sheen of panic begging to glitter in his eyes, “Alright Mr. Tillman! I am prepared to offer you double the rate in damages if you consent to keep this between us!” He almost demanded, like a drowning man reaching for a float. The runes went from red to smoldering at the words, releasing actual heat into the nearby air.
“Sir!”
“What, Harold? Can’t you see I am busy fixing your mess!” the Chief hissed back, his eyes fixed on Tilly.
However, the object of his intense attention began to back away from the glowing heat. Even with his resistances, he did not like the look of that spellform. The chief watched his reaction, confusion returning to his large features, before finally looking down, and discovering that the growing heat in the room was more than his imagination.
“By the gods! What have you done now, Harold?!”
The Clerk stepped forward urgently and whispered his response in a panicked voice, attempting in vain to hide his answer from the customer before him.
“Sir, you already offered an ‘appropriately tiered Keystone’ to the client. I think the enchantments registered that as a guild commitment, and now that you are a branch chief…” His words trailed off, allowing the implications of the Chief’s new office to speak for themselves.
“What!? We only have one Fourth-Tier in our inventory allowance!” The chief whisper-yelled back. “It is for unexpected VIPs only. Not this…” The chief turned toward Tilly and realized that his responses were well within Tilly's hearing range.
“Ahhmm” He cleared his throat noisily, before coughing several times as he looked back down at the threat of the enchantments on the counter. Tilly watched in fascination as the grey skin of the humanoid elephant actually changed hues. He swayed on his feet as he spoke his next sentence, regurgitating each word in an incredible display of emotional nausea.
“It would…” He, paused, fighting down a surge of bile, “Be our pleasure, to offer you a fourth-tier Keystone. As a sign of respect to your, Um… station,” He continued robotically, “We do not charge for this tier. Consider it a gift from the Guild, a sign of our respect.”
The Elephantine chief deflated as he reluctantly finished what was clearly a rote line. Saying those words might as well have sucked the last of his life from his body, and he finished as more husk than elephant man.
He waved vaguely at the Clerk to finish up, and stumbled back to his office. Tilly almost felt bad for the guy, until he remembered that this was a bank, and he was probably worried about losing some first-quarter bonus.
Tilly shook any empathy from his mind and shifted his gaze to the shell-shocked Clerk, who watched his boss shuffle away with a wide-eyed look of self-concern. It reminded Tilly of the bystanders he would often have to shoo away from car accidents when they built up on sidewalks like sardines, gawking at other people's tragedies.
“So… Can I see this thing?” He prompted.
The Clerk flinched, before swallowing and turning toward Tilly with a pale nod, “Certainly, Sir. It’s our pleasure to serve.” He choked out, fumbling under the counter, as the angry red light of the enchantment slowly cooled before fading altogether. A faint chime interrupted Tilly’s careful watch of the now hidden spell, and the Clerk pulled out a crystal container, holding it reverently.
This one, like the others, resembled a small ring box, except instead of wood or velvet, it was made of what might have been a diamond. The Clerk slid it forward gently, “Your finger… Sir.” He said, finally regaining some of his confidence, along with that faint whiff of snobbery.
Tilly pushed his hand forward, reaching for the box, and accidentally letting one of his celestial bracelets slip out of his sleeve. A small gasp accompanied his contact with the top of the box, and Tilly looked up just in time to catch the telltale flash of an ocular skill being used.
He scowled up at the Clerk, as a luminous glow blossomed up from the box, shining like a prism dispersing light into its broad colorful spectrum. The Clerk’s nosiness forgotten, Tilly looked down in wonder, as he slowly pulled back his hand, and the lid to the container opened on its own.
Inside, was a perfect ring formed of a crystal that seemed to refract a different color depending on how long Tilly watched it. The effect was not ostentatious. Rather, it only seemed apparent after you watched it for a few seconds. Then the effect seemed to deepen the closer he looked at it, and without thinking, he reached out and picked it up between his two fingers, engrossed in its many colorful facets.
A notification dropped into his log as he picked up the object,
Congratulations, you have bonded a Legendary item. As this item is soul-bound, it can not be stolen or lost while you live.
Warning bonding multiple items of the same type can have severe consequences.
Tilly cleared the notification and found the Clerk watching the item in rapturous awe. After a moment of failing to capture the bank worker's eye, he cleared his throat. The Clerk's eyes shot up from the ring and found Tilly’s again, now glowing with envy.
“Mind telling me what else this thing can do?” Tilly asked, giving the small object a playful shake, and causing the Clerk’s frown to deepen.
“As I said earlier. It will give you instant access to your funds as well as instant exchange rates for any currency of your choice. There are no fees associated with this tier and it is impossible to lose or break. You can choose an inheritor upon your death, but otherwise, it cannot be passed on to another. Finally, this tier comes with the ability to deposit and withdraw upon contact. The others are limited to expanding into a subspace opening that you may reach through and manipulate with your will. This Tier automates all of that. In some cultures, it is even referred to as a world ring…” The Clerk finished explaining, clenching his many teeth to bite off any further explanation.
Tilly's giddy smile was a stark counterpoint to the Crocodilian’s consternation. Already, different possibilities were running through his head, “Limited to currency, right?”
“That is correct sir. If we accept it as a deposit, and it is unattached to another’s ownership, it may be deposited into your account upon contact.”
Tilly fought down a giggle, until a sudden thought crashed his parade, “Wait, how will this interact with teleportation? Don’t they explode or something?”
“Sir, It is precisely for this reason that we created this item to be soul-bound. The key to the spellwork is hidden in your soul and will not interact with a teleport spell unless you attempt to use it simultaneously with teleportation magic…” The Clerk explained tiredly, doing his best to impersonate a burnt-out elementary school teacher.
“Got it. No looting while teleporting.” Tilly joked to the flat-eyed face on the other side of the counter.
“Well, thanks.” Tilly followed up awkwardly.
“It was our pleasure to serve” The clerk answered dryly, glancing back at the now-shut door of the office.
Tilly nodded and turned quickly, eyeing the huge armored guards, as he hurried passed them, slipping on his new, almost inventory ring.
While he didn’t mind how things had ended up, he did not like how he had clearly been used in some sort of power play between his Faction and the Commerce Guild. Well, he didn’t actually mind that so much as walking into another situation having literally no idea what was going on.
Comments
Wyatt Hilbert
Thanks for the chapter
Joshua Hutto
fat amen to this statement.
Zachary Koffink
I need a world ring in real life. It would save me so much time* looking for lost things
