Eve sat opposite Ping Chun in a luxurious office clearly designed to impress. She waited patiently for the bank manager to finish pulling paperwork from various drawers. The split between magical scrolls on the right and elemental sprites in crystal balls on the left caused Eve to wonder if there was a design firm that did high-end offices. The two-sided split was the same as Guildmaster Bookworm’s office, if slightly different in actual items involved.

“Now, please understand, we don’t actually keep Dragon Gold on hand. We are basically faceless brokers who will facilitate the trade of said gold back to the Dragon’s Bank. In exchange for three percent, we’ll ensure that you get the full amount of Rune Coins of whatever currency you choose while remaining anonymous. Please, don’t try to keep the Dragon’s Gold to yourself, I assure you, on my honor, such actions never end well for all involved parties.” Ping Chun said with a serious face as he finished pulling all the paperwork together.

Eve switched her plans from a tenth to the full amount as soon as she started reading the paperwork. It wasn’t a big sacrifice as jewels, artifacts, books, scrolls, eggs, and other assorted items were not required to be exchanged. The only basic requirement was that all Dragon’s Gold had to be returned upon acquisition.

The likelihood that Dragons have a Perk or Affinity based on wealth is clearly without question. Eve thought. I bet such a thing is limited to the higher Tier Six or Seven of the species. Oh! It could also be linked specifically to the Imperial bloodline!

If a Perk or Affinity was bloodline limited it would kill so many birds with one piece of gold it wasn’t even funny. The Imperial Dragons would remain in power based on their accumulated wealth, they could increase wealth by forcing exchanges with other Banks, and their lineage would make finding excellent partners a breeze. Eve nodded in understanding, it was a scam, for both sides. Non-dragon banks would get a nice cut of profits, while the Dragon’s Bank could keep the Imperial Family on top. Everyone won, except for the dead dragon, but you couldn’t make sausage without grinding the meats.

Feeding the paperwork to Nota to check for discrepancies, loopholes, or other such shenanigans was the work of a moment. Once she was certain nothing nefarious other than the listed terms existed, Eve asked, “Will the brick be a problem during the exchange?”

“No. The exchange is System controlled, you will have room to dump the gold, and the rest is handled by the great calculator in the sky. You won’t even see the Rune Coins, they will be deposited directly into the personal Vault provided as part of our services.” Ping Chun said with a dismissive wave.

“Is it possible to provide too much?” Eve asked nervously.

“I wish. If you have more than one Vault, additional ones will be made available in numeric additions of one until there is no longer a problem. Our entire Vault system is created by an item from the Deeps so there is no chance of effective theft or failure to have enough space. The miracles of the Deeps are quite useful.” Ping Chun said with a quick smile.

“So the brick isn’t a problem at all?” Eve asked curiously.

“More of an annoyance, one of the main methods of defense is to shift the spatial coordinates of the Vaults to prevent entry. It basically means the brick enters, but then gets lost, and eventually exits before being captured. However, it leaves everything in a mess that takes time to arrange back to order, that’s why it is more of a massive headache than an actual threat.” Ping Chun said with a sigh.

“You can’t kill it?” Eve asked.

“No, demons can’t be killed only banished. Trust me, we’ve tried.” Ping Chun said with annoyance.

“So it’s a real demon, from the Deeps?” Eve said as the dots connected.

“That’s what the Guildmaster claims. Honestly, I think the creature took advantage of the rock collecting obsession most dwarfs have at one point in their life. Devious piece of ceramic, I’ll admit that.” Ping Chun replied.

Eve used her Ink affinity to fill out all the forms in the blink of an eye before returning them. Ping Chun gave a look over them all stamping each sheet with a different mana-infused stamp. Once the final sheet was complete, he shuffled the papers into a leather binder, before opening a wall safe and placing the binder inside. Eve’s confused face cleared when the bank manager said, “The safe is connected to the Vaults, specifically the filing section. Helps with the endless battle against paperwork. What can I say, if you ever get your hands on a Deeps artifact, be sure to abuse it!”

Eve nodded, it made sense the Deeps would contain such miraculous things. Something that could slay paperwork and befuddle demons was to be expected in her opinion.

“Do you want different denominations or will you be keeping everything on the crystal card? I would recommend at least some physical money, as certain organizations do not deal in traceable transactions.” Ping Chun advised as Eve exited the office with him.

“I’ll take one hundred gold, silver, and copper of from each of the three thousand Empire’s Rune Coinage. Keep the rest on the card please.” Eve responded after careful thought. It wouldn’t do to be without physical money, but carrying everything in Storage wasn’t her cup of tea either. If she filled it with enough, the mana cost of maintaining the extradimensional space would skyrocket. There was no reason to change that, and encourage being a packrat to her mind. The advice of Ping Chun was accurate too, one couldn’t hire street urchins with a crystal card, or purchase any of the darker guild’s services.

After a short bit of travel, Ping Chun stopped outside a door littered with a plethora of enchantments and said, “Here we go. Just enter inside, dump whatever amount you have, and we’ll handle the rest per the contract.”

Eve nodded, “Banking is rather easy with the System isn’t it?”

Ping Chun said with a laugh, “Indeed, I’ve read those Hero tales, and the few fantasy stories describing the methods of various Earth-based banking systems. It amazes me the incredible methods available to rob an unsuspecting population without access to the System.” As soon as he finished speaking, the bank manager handed her a custom crystal card tinted in the same color as her adventurer’s plate.

Indeed, I find the System’s willingness to keep economics balanced worthy. Eve thought as she entered the door before closing it behind her before slipping the Orichalcum-tinted card into Storage. The System does a few things right that I wholeheartedly agree with.

The deposit room was covered with Runes, but what really caused Eve’s eyebrow to twitch in irritation was the brick sitting dead in the center of the white room. She hadn’t planned on pursuing the creature, but this was blatant disrespect. The brick could only be her equal or lower because the System would have wiped it out of existence the moment it attacked her otherwise.

“Since you want to play, I guess we can play,” Eve said before using the new property of Library of Dust III. Like an origami made of reality itself, Space Folding took effect instantly creating a six-sided construct around the brick. Runes flashed on the wall, and the space returned to normal. Eve’s eyes glinted in amusement. Had the poor creature entered here planning to feast on dragon gold before finding it couldn’t leave?

Oh, the irony. Wait, perhaps that wasn’t the right word for a brick.

Eve dropped a few pieces of Dragon Gold from Storage to the ground and they vanished like copper coins down a wishing well. She felt a faint hum accompanied by a sense of bloodlust from the immobile entity. With deliberate slowness, the stream of gold increased from a trickle to a river, and from a river to an ocean. The bloodlust grew thicker, causing Eve to smirk. She opened the floodgates and let the stolen wealth flow like blood from a severed artery.

Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it? Eve thought as her smirk morphed into a vindictive and demonically gleeful smile. Too bad, so sad.

Almost an hour passed before she finished getting rid of all the assets. As she moved to exit the room, Eve watched as the brick sank slowly into the ground like a predatory mole vanishing from sight. She rolled her eyes at the dramatic exit, which probably managed to work due to some variation of elemental magic. There wasn’t much worry on her part about the killing intent since the poor creature couldn’t penetrate her Witch’s Dust defenses.

A quick look at the crystal card from the adventurer’s bank when she pulled it from storage after leaving the room made her chuckle. The number of zero’s was high enough to be represented with a magnitude instead of actual zeros. It had taken some time, but Eve was finally back to a comfortable level of wealth once more. Ping Chun gestured to several carts nearby filled with numerous small pouches that bulged with Rune Coins.

“Here is everything, as requested Madame Eve. Please do not hesitate to ask for me by name if you visit us again.” Ping Chun said with a deep bow. Her name was required on the paperwork, so it wasn’t a shock that the bank manager used it in an attempt to form a closer connection to a wealthy client.

“I’ve been wondering, but, is the Rune Coins of different Empires accepted in lower places like Kingdoms, Dukedoms, and so on?” Eve asked as she used Looting and Storage on the pouches, keeping them organized as they entered her magical purse.

“Absolutely, any region under an Empire is required to accept Rune Coins according to pre-determined rates. Failure to do so would result in catastrophic destruction for the said region if imperial inspectors found otherwise.” Ping Chun said with a faint smile.

Eve nodded in understanding before following the bank manager as he quickly led her to the exit. Leaving the bank was the work of a few seconds, and the evening sun greeted her brown eyes. There were still a few hours available to shop before she would meet up with the four teenagers at the training field.

Spatial Step took her to the rooftops again, but before she could move onward her eyes narrowed. Eve stared at a nearby brick suspiciously out of place and with a slightly incorrect coloration. Witch’s Dust attacked without warning swarming the brick which disintegrated into dust.

Paranoid much? Eve thought as the brick turned into dust. Clearly, I’m in need of some therapeutic spending.

Moving rapidly over the rooftops she quickly moved from the outer section to the middle section of the City of Gold. The city was built like a lopsided egg wheel with the larger portion facing the civilized lands, and the smaller side facing the Wilds. Like most cities, the level of wealth increased the closer one was to the center of power. City Lords had a habit of keeping their estates in the exact, or close to exact, the center of their cities. It served as both a method of defense and a declaration of status. Few, if any, people in power chose to live on the outskirts of the population center they controlled. Eve understood the theory, as even Earth seemed to follow the same basic social principles of power.

A quick look at a few shops in the middle section made Eve shake her head. There were some interesting things, but attempting to offload her non-dragon gold treasures here was pointless. The shops in the middle wouldn’t have anywhere near the required cash flow to even take a single ring off her hands. She quickened her movements flowing over the roofs like a shadow slipping into the sunset. Even with the speed, she was moving, it took several minutes to reach the inner city.

The cut, quality, and level of mana rose sharply as she slipped past the inner city walls. Patrolling guards were there to stop the riff-raff but they had little chance of halting Eve’s steps. Once inside the walled area, Eve shifted her clothing to match the standard fashion women displayed. She chose to match those who allowed more skin to show, as it was also a display of status. Revealing clothing on a woman’s form meant they were powerful enough to deny the sun’s touch or heat’s horror upon their skin according to Eternal Memory.

While the sight of Zun was few and far between, the Ten Thousand Tribes had enough concentrated wealth that quite a few could be seen within the inner city. Eve’s swaying stride and casual grace grew ever more synchronous as she entered deeper heading towards the more luxurious shops.

Been a long time since I’ve visited someplace with real service and minimal haggling. Eve thought as she stopped outside a restaurant with delicious scents wafting out. Time to relax and unwind from all the crazy grind.