Author Note: I edited some minor detail in previous chapter. I changed the color of the crystal given by the envoy from reddish-amethyst to purple-amethyst. The reason can be found in this chapter.
We are trying to look for a clinic, but since we don’t even know whether there is something like a clinic or a hospital we decide to ask the local first. Tokyo was excitedly saying that we should look for a priest for a healing service. I kinda doubt him on that suggestion, and to my expectation, the so called priests indeed exist but they don’t have a healing services to heal injury or cure illness.
The two locals who were also the onlookers from before suggest us to rent a healing crystal or ask for a treatment from the Adventurer’s Guild’s medical center, but they also warn us that it will cost a lot of money. They then take a closer look at the children’s injury before finally concluding that medical ointments and some rest should be enough.
They direct us to the nearest medical shop, it’s a small shop in an alleyway just a minute from the main street. While waiting for the shopkeeper to prepare the ointment and for Ms. Latina to apply the ointment onto the children’s injury, I don’t forget to ask about the healing crystal they mentioned before.
They look confused when I ask about it, apparently it’s a common knowledge in this world. Nevertheless, they kindly tell us that it’s one type of Trixium crystal that adventurer’s usually have because it has stronger healing attribute compared to other type of Trixium Crystal.
When I ask them about what a Trixium crystal is, they make an even more confused expression.
“How come you don’t know about Trixium crystal?”
“I’m sorry, actually we’ve just come to this place from a remote village today and something like Trixium crystal has never been used in our village before.”
“Waah, I didn’t know that there is still a village who don’t use Trixium crystal in time and age!” They look honestly surprised.
“Sorry for being a country b.u.mpkin.”
“No, no, no, that’s alright. I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect it, I’m once again reminded that the world is a big place and there are still many uncharted places out there. I take it that you were brought here by a travelling merchant, no?”
“Right, right, a merchant who happened to stumble upon our village told us to try explore and see the outside world. His direction lead us to this place.” I’m such a smooth liar.
“Oh, no wonder you were so daring in dealing with the n.o.bles, plus I have never seen someone like him before.” He pointed his hand toward Tokyo.
“Yeah, I definitely have never seen someone of his race before too.” The other guy also tells us his thought.
“Well, good for you then, Tokyo. You’re like an exotic man now. Maybe an ‘exotic’ woman will take an interest in you.” I joke a bit on the occasion, pointing out on the word exotic woman which mean… ‘that’ type of woman.
The two locals understand my joke and are laughing while Tokyo only smiles wryly.
“Then, can you tell us about the Trixium crystal?”
“Oh, right. Trixium, it’s a type of crystal that are able to store Mana in it. That Mana can be used as a source of energy for various purposes. You see that street lamp? It’s powered by a common type of Trixium crystal. The Trixium crystal for that kind of small machine is the smallest and most common one while bigger and more complicated machinery require a bigger and rarer Trixium crystal to operate, it mostly goes by that rule.”
I see, so it’s like some type of energy battery then. That Mana he mentioned must be a type of common energy of this world, like Electricity in Earth.
“Other function of Trixium crystal is for rejuvenation. The mana stored in the crystal can be channeled into the holder’s body for a variety of benefits. Each type may have their own strong attribute among those variety of benefits, one can transform the stored mana into healing power that can hasten your regeneration, one can restore the expended mana in your body, one can be used for mind-relaxation, another to enhance various aspect of the body’s capability, and many more. Being strong in certain attribute means that type of crystal can convert the stored mana energy into the desired effect more efficiently, making each almost used specifically for that feature.”
Wow, this stuff Trixium crystal is actually a really useful thing!
“Among the many features each type of crystal may specialize in, all of them have one universal use which is also the main purpose of having a Trixium crystal.”
“Oh, it still has an even bigger feature? What is it?”
“Money.”
“Money?”
“Yes, the mana stored in the crystal is used as a universal currency. It can be equally transferred to other Trixium crystal no matter what the type. The Mana inside the crystal is a raw type of Mana, it can only be obtained by mining new Trixium crystals which have naturally absorbed natural Mana in the world over a long period of time, which mean that it can’t be restored using the Mana from your body and can’t be artificially made. Well, some madmen have been trying to create them but n.o.body has ever succeeded in making one. You should be careful not to be scammed into getting fake Trixium crystal by those kind of people.” He kindly explains and warns us.
“The Mana content in Trixium crystal is basically mined resources, a compact unrenewable energy with various uses and a lot of demand, making them a very nice instrument of currency. A common Trixium crystal with a size of a nut in full capacity may have equal value with a sack full of metal coins.”
It has that kind of incredible uses? What’s this, an ATM card? This world actually have such a convenient and useful type of currency!
“That’s actually very very impressive...” Tokyo tells us his opinion.
“It really breaks the traditional standard of using precious metal in the shape of uniformed coin as a form of currency. What they have here even transcends the purpose of paper money and outrank the usefulness of e-money in our world. This Mana currency may not be able to be transferred to distant places instantaneously like in online credit transfer, but its fundamental usefulness is simply above e-money.”
“What do you mean by that?” He looked like an executive level businessman before, so he probably knows a lot about economy or financial stuffs like this. I may know some about it but probably not so deep to the root like what a real businessman would know.
“Let me make a simpler example. The form of money we use in Earth are basically metal coins, paper money, and intangible electronic money. These money have value in our society because they are based on something. E-money has value because they are based on hard currency like paper money or precious metals stored in banks, they are basically the avatar of hard money being easily exchanged electronically as a form of data and records without the real hard money being exchanged.” He complicatedly explains so.
“Err, okay. I still get it.” The two locals already look confused to what we are talking about, Latina is focusing on the treatment, and Vodka already left the conversation when Tokyo started lecturing.
“Then about the hard money themselves. Cash, coins, or even gold and gemstones. Why do you think they have value?”
“Because people like them? Because they know they can be used a currency to be exchanged with commodities?”
“Exactly! People use that type of money because they have common ‘believe’ that those money are valuable! If you think about it, paper money are nothing more than paper with some images and numbers written on it. People determine the value of paper money but they have no other practical use other than being exchanged for consumable or usable things. You can use that type of money to buy food or houses, but you can’t eat money or use it as a material to build a house. Even gold and gemstones are like that. They have value simply because they are a limited mined resources and people deem them to be precious because they look beautiful while in fact, they barely have common usability in the society. Yes you can use gold as a material in rocket engineering and some other specific things, but what about common use in society? Nothing!”
“Oh, I kinda get what you mean. Basically that type of money themselves are useless without something to be exchanged with.”
“Right. Then we have this flexible Mana energy in Trixium crystal. This is a revolutionary form of money! Not only it’s compact to be carried around and can be easily exchanged for something, the Mana itself can be directly used for various things. It’s a form of exchangeable and consumable currency! You can use Mana to power things up or even directly consume Mana into your body! It’s like, other than having an exchangeable e-money, you also have electricity, gasoline, cigarette, candies, medical items, or possibly many other useful stuffs in one ATM card!”
“Wait, cigarette and gasoline in one place?” Did I miss something? I think I lose myself somewhere within the lecture because he talks too fast.
“No! What I mean is, unlike our type of money in earth, not only Mana can be used as a form of exchangeable currency, it can also be consumed directly for various usability!”
“Ah, I get it. I see, that really is a revolutionary form of money. This Mana currency fixes up the fundamental flaw of conventional currency being inconsumable themselves.”
“I know right?!” Tokyo sighed after successfully explaining it to me.
“You really know your stuffs, young man.”
“... I was part of j.a.pan’s leading conglomerate group after all.”
“I’ve predicted that you were a businessman of high caliber, perhaps like a CEO? Still, good for you, being an executive at such a young age.”
“Well... complicated things happened and I ended up with such position, something like that.” He doesn’t look like to be in a mood to explain it in detail. Let’s not intrigue him more about his past.
“It’s alright, no need to tell us if you don’t want to, everyone has their own past.”
“Thanks.” He replies with a slight smile.
“Excuse me, what were you talking about?” One of the locals finally talks.
“Oh right, sorry, we were talking about something from our ‘village’. Nothing important now.”
“Oh, okay.” He politely stop prying more into the topic.
“Ah, right, we received something from the merchant when we parted ways with him, he said that it’s money but he didn’t explain how to use it, could this be a Trixium crystal?” I take out the amethyst-like crystal from the pouch given by the envoy.
“It is! A high grade one to be precise!” He immediately spurted and both of them have a surprised look on their face.
“High grade?”
“Yes! A Trixium crystal of this size alone could fetch a fortune. Common Trixium crystal used by the people are around the size of a nut or as slim as a pinky finger, this one is at least three or four times thicker and bigger! It should be able to hold up to a hundred times more Mana than common size Trixium crystals. Only n.o.bles or great merchants uses this kind of Trixium crystal, us common folks could only dream of having one in possession!” Both of them are excitedly inspecting the crystal I brought out.
Apparently that Envoy guy has given me something really valuable. Thanks, Mr. No Name Envoy.
“That’s great. So how do we see how much Mana it has in it?”
“Oh, you want to know how much Trix stored inside?”
“Trix?”
“It’s the common name of raw Mana stored in Trixium crystal, it’s also used as the name of our universal currency.”
“Oh that’s a cool name, kinda like Gil or Zenny. By universal you mean every country in this world use the same currency?” Tokyo excitedly says as he spouts some unknown terms.
“I don’t know about Gil or Zenny you mentioned, but Trix is indeed a currency used by all country. The currency value is uniform no matter where it’s used because it’s also the unit of scale that shows how much raw Mana remain in the crystal.”
“Cool, so how do we check the remaining balance in the crystal?”
“That’s simple, just hold it in your hand and recite the spell to identify a Trixium Crystal’s Mana points. Here, like this, I command thee to reveal thy value, Galdean Trixium!” The Trixium crystal which is being hold in his fingers glows slightly and reveal a small hologram like foreign words above it. The couple last words in the spell are untranslated, I don’t know why.
“It’s almost full! It has nearly 150 million Trix in it!” Both of the locals excitedly yell and their eyes are almost bulging out.
“A hundr... A hundred and fifty million??!” Tokyo is the first to reply, also with total excitement.
“Boss, you are rich.” Vodka says so while grinning at me. Why ‘boss’...
“What boss, really...” I rebuke his sentence.
“Anyway, is that a lot? Exactly how much is that?” I ask them for to explain in detail.
“It’s a lot of money, although not enough to purchase a big property, you can live extravagantly for some time with it. For example, the price of staying overnight plus a breakfast in a standard inn would cost around 100,000 Trix while a more expensive and luxurious inn would cost up to 1,000,000 Trix a night. A common breakfast or lunch set in a restaurant would cost around 20,000 to 50,000 Trix each. For simple items like a gla.s.s of water or a loaf bread, they usually cost 5,000 Trix and 15,000 Trix respectively.” He kindly explains with easy to understand examples.
“That’s like.... around 10,000 Trix per US Dollar, right?” I ask Tokyo about it.
“Yeah, the value is around that level. So the total value this Trixium crystal currently hold is around 15,000 USD huh...” He dejectedly reply me, looks like he hoped that the value would be a million dollar or something. This level of money may look like a chump change for someone of his position, but it’s still a rather big money for ‘common’ people like me.
“No cheat starting money huh...” He mumbles to himself.
“Isn’t it alright, it’s still a pretty big money, right? This should be enough for probably a few months for us all.” I pat him on the back.
“The maximum this Trixium crystal can hold is probably around 150-160 million Trix. That means the crystal itself as a container would have value around that level.”
“The Trixium crystal itself costs that much?” That’s unexpected.
“Yes, a Trixium crystal of this size is a rarity. It’s also a symbol of wealth and prestige for the bearer, common people normally carry Trixium crystals which can only store around a million Trix.”
“What about these coins?” Tokyo takes out the metal coins from his pocket.
“Oh, these are the local coins used here and in nearby countries. They don’t have much value and usually only used as chump change for small transactions. The Kingdom now only mint new coins for image purposes, it’s like a souvenir for when someone visit the country. Around here only kids would use coins because they are not considered old enough to have a Trixium crystal yet by their parents.”
“Those really are a chump change! The three of you almost go with pocket money while I have the gold bar for myself hahaha.” I laugh upon learning the coins’ value.
“Right, good thing we came back looking for you.”
“I guess that’s true.”
The conversation then continue to talk about the local recommendation. Good place to stay, popular restaurant, places to avoid, things like that. While talking, we introduce ourselves and get acquainted with each other. These two kind souls are called Farajee and Nimbus, they are common merchant selling groceries in the Residence Distric’s highway area. Their stall was nearby so they came to look at the commotion from before and were impressed by our daring action towards a n.o.ble. They felt sorry that they couldn’t help during the beating so they tried to at least help us in treating the abused children afterwards. It’s nice to know that there are good men among the people here.
They tell us that although not every n.o.bles are like that, some can be pretty oppressive and tyrannical. They say that discrimination against Demi-Human is not much of a thing in this era, but some human supremacist like that n.o.ble still exist and they can be really cruel towards non-human.
They themselves really hate those people who discriminate others like that, they say that such way of thinking is outdated because the war between Human and Beastman are long over now.
I ask them about the war but Latina who has done applying the treatment and is currently seating on a long chair under a shade with both of children laying on her lap left and right suddenly talks, “She wakes up!”
We turned our face and see that the older kid is waking up from laying on Latina’s lap. She’s timidly looking around, a.s.sessing the situation. She has a worried look on her face but it suddenly disappear when she finds that the younger kid is sleeping peacefully next to her.
“It’s okay, we won’t hurt you. You’re alright now.” Latina gently speaks.
“That’s right, we even beat up the baddies who hurt you.” Tokyo follows up.
“That’s true, kid. You were lucky that these fellows were nearby, if not, I don’t dare to imagine what would’ve happened to you.” The local says so in confirmation of Tokyo’s statement.
She still looks a little bit scared, probably traumatized by the abuse.
“Everything is okay now, n.o.body will hurt you. Is your injury okay, how do you feel?” I kindly try to calm her down too.
“It... still hurts a little, but I’m okay. Truly, I think I can do just fine. Ouch!” As if trying to prove that she’s fine, she forcefully try to stand and walk but soon stumbles and falls down.
“You are not fine at all! Please don’t force yourself.” Latina and the others worriedly help her get back up.
She’s being helped to seat back on the chair. Seeing that, I ask Farajee something.
“Farajee, you said that Trixium crystals can heal injuries right?”
“Correct, if you are thinking to use your Trixium crystal, I would advise you not to do it.”
“Why is that?”
“Your Trixium crystal is not the healing type, a healing type is red-blood or red-crimson in color while yours is purple in color which is a mind-relaxation type. Even though the color is similar, the functionality and attribute differ greatly. Using your crystal for healing will cost you at least fifty times more Mana than the healing type, it could even be a hundred times.” He sternly warns me about the consequences.
“That’s alright isn’t it? Money exist to be spent after all, and to use it for saving someone is money well-spent isn’t it?” I tell him what immediately come to my mind after I heard his explanation.
“That’s....” Farajee and Nimbus look like taken aback on my statement.
“True, very true! Money used to save a loli bunny-ear girl is money very well spent!” Tokyo gives a thumb up.
“You’re unexpectedly kind.” Latina says to me.
“Well, aren’t you unexpectedly a kind and gentle one yourself.” I reply her with a slight smile.
She looks friendlier now that things are properly explained.
Old man Vodka only nods a little at me while grinning, showing his agreement in spending the money for this.
“All things considered, please use this to heal her.” I pa.s.s the Purple-Amethyst colored Trixium crystal to Farajee.
“Okay.” He nods in understanding.
“I command thee, surge and let my subject retains its original form, Seraphica... Enielle!” He holds the crystal with both hands in front of the little bunny girl.
After he recites the spell, the crystal glows a bit and a thin line of transparent purple light slowly shoots out from the crystal, it then changes color midway from transparent purple to transparent red before reaching the kid’s body. The light then envelope her body, making a thin red glow over her skin.
The light soon vanishes after only half a minute. The bruises are all gone, showing a healthy skin of a young girl after the healing process, she now looks completely fine.
“It actually costs 30 million Trix! It must be at over a hundred times more costly than treating with healing attribute.” Farajee looks very surprised upon seeing the amount of Mana used for the healing treatment.
“Isn’t that great, looks like there is enough to completely heal her injury. Girl, how are you feeling now?”
“So much money! This, for a stranger to actually help someone like me... and even to go this far, I don’t know how to repay you, kind sir. I don’t have anything on me worthy to repay you with...” Her eyes are slightly teary and her body looks like trembling a bit.
As she says that, Latina who has always been standing next to her instinctively hugs her.
“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about that. It’s all good as long as you’re okay now.” Says Latina.
The little girl is almost crying, but then the smaller kid also wakes up.
“...Big sis?” The first thing this little girl looks for after waking up is her big sister.
“I’m here, Mira.” The older girls wipes the tears on her eyes and goes to her younger sister.
“Everything is okay, these kind people helped shush away the bad guy.”
“Ooo...” She innocently makes a cute sound upon hearing her sister said that, one of her long bunny ears folds down while doing so.
“Uwaaa, so adorable~ whoops.” Tokyo uncontrollably moves closer to the little one while making a weird expression so I hold him back by grabbing the back of his shirt.
“Oh right, the Golden Rule! YES Lolita! NO Touch!” He makes such statement. This guy says weird things from time to time.
“Namira, say your grat.i.tude to these kind people.”
“Tha, Thank you for saying u— *growls*” Before she manages to finish her sentence, a small growl can be heard coming from her stomach. The little girl called Namira has just unintentionally showed that she’s hungry.
“Thi, this... I’m so sorry.” The elder sister frantically bows down in apology.
But then suddenly a much louder growl can be heard.
*GROOOWL!*
We unintentionally look toward the source of the sound.
... It’s old man Vodka! It was his stomach which growled just now.
He’s still grinning, now while rubbing his stomach. Really, this guy has the best timing ever.
“Boss, when are we going to eat?”
Again with the ‘boss’ thing. Please stop, no matter how you look at it you are much older and much scarier than me.
“Geez, you old man. Alright then, Farajee, Nimbus, lead us to your most recommended restaurant, we’ll all go for lunch. It’ll be my treat!” I happily declare so.
Thus we all go to a restaurant for lunch after paying the medicine shop. It costs us only 30,000 Trix for the ointment. I learn that the spell name to transfer Trix to another crystal is called Trixium Senalis, and to receive from another crystal is called Trixium Rivilis. Nimbus and Farajee tell us that it doesn’t take much to evoke this spell, anyone should be able to do it if they try for a bit.
Along the way we learned the name of the elder girl, her name is Namine. Both she and her younger sister, Namira, are m.u.f.finy Demi-Human from a village on the surface. They were sent to the capital city by their parents to look for work because their village is poor. Nimbus then explains that it’s common for parents from rural villages to prematurely send their kids to work in the city so that there will be less mouth to feed, but Namine strongly disprove the statement. She says that their parents were a loving one and would not send them away because of such reason.
After that topic, Nimbus explains to us about her species. m.u.f.finy is a species of Beastman with distinct traits like long ears on top of their head, a short almost round tail, and fluffy hairs over their body. They can jump very high and the female one has a pouch on her belly. The description is very much similar to a mix of bunny and kangaroo except that he also tells us that male m.u.f.finy are usually very strong and brawny which ruin our imagination of all m.u.f.finy being adorable beast.
He says that according to his a.n.a.lysis, the siblings must be at least a quarter Beastmen or probably even lesser. That’s because there aren’t much trait of a m.u.f.finy left on her appearance.
He explains that A Demi-Human is a race from a mix of human and Beastman, and the siblings, with only having the ear and tail trait left on their appearance shows that they are a few generations away from the original Demi-Human. Namine confirms his statement and says that many in her generation are also like that, having more human traits than the Beastman traits.
We see some more variety of Demi-Human along the way, there really are many kinds. Some resemble an animal we know from Earth, some are a mix of several, and some are even from a totally new kind of animal.
While chatting, we finally arrive at the restaurant recommended by Farajee and Nimbus in the Business District. It’s located in a pretty big road directly branched from the highway so there are still many traffics on the street. This is a restaurant owned by the family of their childhood friend.
We enter the restaurant slash bar. The name is ‘Wonderful Day’, a really fitting name whether to start a day with a breakfast or to finish the day with a dinner after a hard work. The place is not so big but also not too small. There are a lot of people currently having lunch but there appear to be still some spots left for us to occupy.
“Nona, a table for eight please!” Farajee called one of the waitress.
A Cat Demi-Human with cat ears, tail, and sharp cat eyes but refreshing smile come to us.
“Right, this way please!~” She sounds energetic.
She leads us to a big round table enough for all of us to sit together.
We sit down right away.
“What would you like to order?~” Nona the waitress asks us.
The siblings who sit next to Latina is fidgeting, they look reluctant to order anything.
“It’s okay, order anythi—“
“*Braak!* I WISH TO DEVOUR THE UNBORN GYAHAHAHA!” Old Vodka suddenly cuts my sentence and yells loudly after slamming the table with both hands holding a spoon and a fork.
“Nyaaaa!~” Nona is very surprised that she jumps back a little while holding an order note tightly onto her chest, both her tail and ears are standing straight up.
“!!!.....” The rest of us are also startled. Namine and Namira instinctively hugs each other and are now trembling. Even the people on other tables are surprised and direct their attention toward us.
“... ... ... ...” There is a long silence following Vodka’s loud declaration. All eyes are still on him.
This crazy old man... really.... I can’t help but let out a big sigh on his behavior.
“Eggs... He’d like to order some eggs, please...” I dejectedly explain so to Nona who now looks very alert towards our group.
“Eh? Ah?... Eggs?” She looks at me while being confused.
“Yes, some eggs please.” I dispiritedly confirm her question.
“Tear ‘em up, mince ‘em, and burn ‘em up!” Vodka talks again, his scary eyes are locked up to Nona, making her almost jumps back again.
“...Scramble eggs. Make it into a scramble eggs...” Please old man, talk normally.
This little commotion doesn’t get bigger than that, but we definitely attract the attention of the whole restaurant. As an apology, I treat everyone here to a gla.s.s of alcoholic drink, and because of that, we get to talk with other people and get friendly acquainted with some of them.
Nona takes all our orders and before long, the food come to our table. Most of us ordered the recommendation of the day while Tokyo firmly asked for a meat-only dish, saying that he’s expecting to see a certain type the meat dish in this fantasy-like foreign world.
I’ve got to say, the food being served looks very appetizing. The recommendation menu is a grilled meat that looks similar to a chicken wings and thighs with some veggies and something that’s similar to a mashed potato as a side dish, while the meat that Tokyo ordered is a thin slab of steak with green sauce over it. Nona explains that the grilled meat is from a breed of wingless local bird and the steak is from an orc meat.
The surface of the grilled bird meat looks almost glossy from a certain flavor oil poured onto it and the inside looks very juicy and tender. The aroma is also so good that Namine and Namira unconsciously drool while looking at the plates of grilled meat in front of them.
On the other hand, Tokyo disappointedly stabs the slab of steak in front of him with his fork. The steak looks not bad but the green sauce smells so spicy that I can smell it from meters away. What’s that, green chili sauce?
The scrambled eggs Vodka ordered comes in large portion and with a mashed potato thingy too. The difference is... the color is blue, not yellow or brown, an authentic blue scrambled eggs. I don’t know yet whether it’s from the seasoning or the eggs themselves are simply blue in color.
He eats up the scrambled eggs as if nothing’s wrong. I guess the blue color doesn’t make him the least bit hesitant to eat it, this old man is now confirmed to have a few screws loose.
As I hold the wonderfully smelled glossy grilled bird meat in my hand, preparing to eat it up, a gulping sound can be heard from behind me.
“*Gulp* That looks so tasty...”
Wondering who it is, I look back and see an astonishing scene.
The floating beauty has just wiped a drool on her mouth. I forgot that she was there following me all this time because she’s silent all the time.
Our eyes meet.
“Ah...” She lets out another sound, it’s a pleasant voice to the ear that I almost forgot the main concern, she just talked!
She really can speak and she has been avoiding my effort to communicate with her all this time while the thing that actually manages to make her speak up is food! This delicious looking thing in my hand!
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Author Note: I changed the crystal color in previous chapter because I want to make the red color as the one with healing attribute. It’s to make it easier to remember, you know that in games, health potion usually looks red and mana potion looks blue, right?
As for several things regarding this chapter, before you even manage to ask, let me answer them first.