Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 184 Conducting Business At The Exchange Hub

Continuing towards her original goal, Elizabeth entered the Guild's Exchange Hub. Much like the reception area, the Exchange Hub had dozens of staff members ready to assist any Guild members and since today was a slow day, there were well over a half dozen booths marked "Unoccupied."

Thus, after picking a booth at random, Elizabeth walked in and was greeted by a smiling elderly man. She watched him press a button on his side of the booth, and the entrance behind her closed as she saw the previous green-tinted sign flip from "Unoccupied" to a red "Occupied" sign.

As the booth's privacy reached the Guild's standard, the elderly man asked, "Miss, what business do you have here today?"

"I'm looking for some books…" Elizabeth said.

"Ok, what kind of books do you need?"

"Mhmm… Let's see, I don't have specific books in mind, but from the descriptions I provide, could you give me suggestions?" The man nodded patiently before Elizabeth continued, "Then I'll need a book that details the history of this city, country, and the local geography. It would be best if the book or books you recommend have something written within them of the relationships between the various local powers, and a book on the Guild or Guilds in general would be appreciated."

With Elizabeth's demands coming to a stop, the elderly man paused in thought for a second before he said, "That shouldn't be a problem. I can send someone to fetch three books that cover all the information for just 80 Gold. However, that will only cover things in general terms. If you want as much detail as possible, I can think of just over a dozen books that will run you 275 platinum."

"Mhmm… Gold and Platinum? How do I earn that?" Elizabeth asked as she was essentially broke when it came to the city's currency.

"You don't have Gold or Platinum?" The elderly man looked a bit disappointed, but after taking another look at Elizabeth and sizing her up to be nothing but another brat still learning from the Academy, he came to reproach himself for not expecting this outcome. The elderly man continued, "You can trade resources you get from the field here in the Exchange Hub for currency or by completing bounties or missions for the Guild there will usually be a reward founded in the empire's currency."

"Going by how unsure you sound, I'm guessing you're not too sure what the empire's currency is, so I'll do you this little favor for free. In the Irealian Empire and all its governing cities, towns, and villages, the currency system follows a base in hundreds where Copper is the least powerful coin. 100 Copper is equal to 1 Silver, 100 Silver is equal to 1 Gold, and so the trend continues from Gold to Platinum to Mythril."

"Mythril being the highest valued coin is generally only used in Tier 1 cities of the Empire and since we are only a Tier 2 city, you'll find it generally difficult to find a reason to use that kind of money. But in Tier 1 cities and the capital, it isn't common for banknotes of Mythril to be used when transactions surpassing the hundreds of coins of Mythril are involved."

He concluded his explanation, and Elizabeth nodded in understanding. She then materialized a Monster Core that had come from the King Stage Jade Rabbit she had fought in the cave system earlier in the day — it was literally the weakest Monster Core in her possession after giving away the Level 10 Core to the guard who escorted her to the Guild. With an expectant look, she placed the Monster Core before herself and asked, "How much money will this net me?"

Expecting maybe a couple coins of gold or perhaps even platinum, Elizabeth was floored as she watched the elderly man apparently black out after realizing what Level the Monster Core was.

"Uh…" Elizabeth felt bad for stunning the man unconscious, so she walked over to him and jolted him away with a tendril of Neutral Magic; an application of her Acupoint.

Seeing the elderly man come back to life with a heavy gasp, she asked, "Are you OK?" Alas, she was met with a look of disbelief and horror intertwined with excitement that she had not seen since the Wushi Tournament back on Earth.

"This… this Monster Core, is… is it…" The elderly man couldn't formulate a complete sentence, so Elizabeth affirmed his thoughts by saying, "It's a Monster Core that came from a King Stage Jade Rabbit; an Early Phase King Stage Jade Rabbit if you want specifics."

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Hearing it from Elizabeth herself, the man's heart gave out, rendering him unconscious again. Seeing this, Elizabeth squinted her eyes in annoyance, thinking, 'Why can't he just do his job?' She sent another tendril of Neutral energy into his body, only this time, it split off into dozens of acupoints that would ensure he stayed awake for the next couple hours. Elizabeth could accomplish this because she was both a Grandmaster in the Art of Acupoint and her "patient" this time around possessed a very weak cultivation base at Level 1 Mortal Stage.

Awaking once more, the elderly man didn't even know he had blacked out twice as he propped himself up after seeing Elizabeth return to her seat. He pressed a different button on his desk, all the while shaking as if in mid-seizure and within ten seconds the door to the booth opened up with the arrival of a courier.

"I need 780 Platinum Coins…" The elderly man said despondently. Yet as both he and the courier looked at each other with mirroring emotions, Elizabeth spoke up to say, "Don't forget to subtract the 275 Platinum for the books." Flashing a look of shock at the elderly man, the courier wondered which prestigious member of the Guild he would have the honor of serving today, after receiving the order from the elderly man to add on Elizabeth's books to the money he was tasked with retrieving.

"Right away, sir…" The courier said as he moved with unprecedented haste to do his job.

After the courier left, Elizabeth realized that the elderly man hadn't asked for her card. A bit annoyed as she thought that perhaps the woman from the receptionist's office had lied to her, she asked, "Aren't you supposed to check my Guild Card? You didn't impose the 5% fee on me in advance, did you?"

"Ah! I knew I forgot something… Sorry, but could you show me your Guild Card now? I didn't detract from your payout as I assumed you were from Ulterian Guild." The elderly man, upon realizing his mistake pleaded as he would suffer a pay cut if this incident was made known to the higher-ups in the Guild.

Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, 'After I joined this Guild, I better not be paying some stupid fee…' She handed over her Guild Card and after seeing the expression on the elderly man, she knew she had made the right decision to stimulate his acupoints as he would definitely be knocked out cold had she not moved proactively.

The man read the contents of Elizabeth's Guild Card no less than five times. He even rubbed his eyes as if to make sure he wasn't seeing incorrectly, but seeing as the information never changed, he finally couldn't help but screech: "SSS-Class… MAGE?"

"Yeah, but I'm from this Guild, so you better not add that 5% fee…" Ignoring the source of the man's shock as if it was but a trivial matter, Elizabeth restated what was of most importance to her. If she weren't a beautiful "Supreme Mage of Destruction," the average person would liken her to some sort of miser.

"O-of c-c-course…" The elderly man said before promptly turning silence; unwilling to look at Elizabeth.

The scene became tense as neither Elizabeth nor the elderly man spoke until at last, the courier returned with a small pouch filled with Platinum Coins and a pile of books on each of his hands. He was a Level 3 Mortal Practitioner so even if it looked like he'd be overwhelmed by the weight of the books, he didn't even break into a sweat.

Smiling at the sight of her new treasures, Elizabeth brought out some Storage Talismans before promptly putting everything away. She discreetly added the filled talismans into her Spatial Ring before departing from the booth without bothering with the elderly man and courier who had appeared to be smitten by her frivolous display of wealth; to them, the Storage Enchantment was a rare Spatial Treasure.

…

With her business in the Exchange Hub completed, Elizabeth returned to the reception area. Meeting with the same receptionist from before, she awkwardly requested a room to camp by as she read through the books she got in the Exchange Hub. After the receptionist explained to her the differences in the rooms she could rent as well their price, Elizabeth settled with paying 10 Gold for one of the rooms of the highest quality. Whereas most people rented by the month, because she and the members of her party agreed on spending only 25 hours in the Shadow Realm, Elizabeth only rented the high-class suite for a day.

She traded a platinum coin to pay for her lodging and received 90 Gold Coins as change before the receptionist gave her the key to her room. After getting the directions to her room, Elizabeth headed for the elevator and took a ride up to the 25th floor. There, she went towards her room, Room 2507, and was surprised by how well this world's definition of high-class measured up with that of modern Earth's standard.

In all honesty, it was at the level of a Five-Star hotel resort on Earth. With three separate bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room or lounging area, a kitchen, and a balcony view overlooking the city, the room could comfortably house an entire family. The room even came with various amenities in the form of artifacts. From what Elizabeth could tell there was the artifact equivalent for TV, air conditioning, artificial heating, and even a humidity setter.

Impressed, Elizabeth sat on one of the chairs in the living room before dumping the various books she had recently acquired on the coffee table before her. She materialized a snack from her near-endless reserves and indulged as she sat back and began reading. Of course, to her, a snack consisted of a full course meal.

Though she had over a dozen thick tomes to read, because of her Neutral Magic's application in scanning, even though her reading speed was cut as she needed to use it in conjunction with her Basic Translation Spell, she still read the books at a rate of one tome every ten minutes.

Chapter end