The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

"Young guest, you are heading out?"

The asker was a slightly hunched draculkar, appearing out from the shadow of the gate. The symbolic key hanging from his belt indicated he was a gatekeeper.

"The night is young," Krow affirmed blithely. "Where can I buy scribe's tools in Rakaens?"

"The scholar's street is under Rormessk."

Krow vaguely understood while he was in Nyurajke, that the towers were numbered how far they were from the First, the administrative tower. The prestige of each tower was commensurate to how close they were to the First.

That was why Buri's family apartments and tavern, in the Khoyresk, the second tower of Cerkanst, said something about the prestige of their family in the village.

Rormessk would be the third tower.

He assumed the First Tower of Rakaens to be the Rosetower.

Which other tower could it be?

"And the bank?"

The gatekeeper grunted, thinking. "Cyzarkka has Zurganesk, Essax is Najmessk, and Dunmervin has a branch in Esravesk."

The Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth towers respectively.

Hah!

He'd learned the numbers when researching Cerkanst. He remembered.

What forgetfulness?

"Take this, young guest," The gatekeeper handed Krow a pendant. "It will get you through the outer protections, and alert a gatekeeper to assist."

Krow thanked the draculkar, looping the pendant over his head and tucking it under his shirt. With a smile and a wave, he headed out, passing under the low shade of the hookfig tree.

For a tree with such long taproots, it didn't grow that tall.

The root-bridge connecting the pillar to the town proper was twenty metres long and three metres wide.

Krow felt it sway under him gently as he sauntered toward the town.

Rakaens at night, he noted, was quite pretty.

The streetlights he could see on the main streets and viaducts were a warm orange-yellow. There were stone lanterns everywhere, in every size, in multiple colors, illuminating the stone art of Rakaens.

The delicate crystal murals he'd seen in Gremut and Nyurajke were made of colored stone tiles here, and there were more statues and carved reliefs embellishing the towers and walls.

The sturdy décor of the town, in multicolored stone, stood vivid and mysterious in the light of shadowed lanterns.

Below, in the forest of pillars, smaller lights twinkled, a cloud of distant fireflies.

Krow counted the towers.

The Eighth tower and the EYTC affiliated bank, Essax, was closer. He grabbed a passerby. "What level of Najmessk is Essax Bank?"

The passerby brushed him off. "It is Najmessk."

Eh?

That was just parroting the gatekeeper.

When he reached the Eighth tower, he understood.

The Essax bank took up the entire tower, all ten floors and one hundred meters of it.

One of the guards in the EYTC caravan said only Cyzarkka Bank, the royal bank, was allowed in the draculkar highlands. Apparently in the borderlands, the outsider banks enjoyed only slightly less prestige.

Not too far away, the Sixth tower stood, undoubtedly wholly integrated with Cyzarkka Bank.

Only eleven towers, and two were subsumed by banks?

Rakaens must see a lot of foreign trade.

He looked toward the Tenth tower. Unlike the other two, the lights in the Tenth were livelier.

More businesses?

The Dunmervin Trade Bank, attached to the Council that ruled Duryndon Gate-City, had only a minor branch in town then.

Despite Dunmervin having the strongest trade and political backing of the three, Krow decided on the other two.

In research from his last life, the Dunmervin bank offered generally conservative and moderate-risk investments in equity and debt, while Essax had more aggressive offerings for both passive and active investors.

He didn't know how Cyzarkka operated, but he imagined it was similar to Dunmervin. It had the added draw that Krow expected most of his plans to take place in the draculkar nation.

Draculkar avatar, draculkar nation, draculkar bank.

There should be perks, right?

The game creators wouldn't have created a bank that had too many problems anyway.

He entered the front hall of the Eighth tower.

Despite it being already nightfall, the front hall of the bank hummed with business.

"Welcome! What might Essax Bank do for you?" The siren greeter smiled brightly.

"I'd like to open an account."

"Certainly!" The greeter led him to a second hall, a quieter place full of clerks working on massive account books in large cubicles. All the clerks on the lower floor were occupied, so the greeter led him up the stairs to the mezzanine. "Ah, here we are. This is Ogdei bal Togosem, one of our account keepers."

The clerk looked up, stood politely, and closed his account book. "Good evening. Thank you, Arcelan."

"Of course!" The greeter smiled at them both and left.

"Young sir, you are here to make an account? Please sit. How may I call you?"

"Ilas Krow," he introduced. Then added belatedly, "bal Yulsukh. In addition, I wish to connect an Orddet's account to this bank."

"Of course. Which catalogue?"

"The Infinite Bourse."

The clerk nodded. "I'll need your name papers, Orddet's documentation, and your trade token, please."

Opening an account for the Yulsukh name and linking it to his Orddet's account was a simple thing. When it came to the first deposit, though.

Krow currently had in his Inventory, 476 drax and 11,327 serpens.

The minimum account to gain a premier account was 500 drax.

"I don't suppose you'd take ethermica cubes?"

The clerk only paused briefly. "Certainly, but we'd need an appraiser." He waved down a passing messenger boy and quietly gave instructions.

Krow waited until the boy ran off. "The rate?"

"Nine drax a cube."

No way. "Ten and a half. They're worth twelve and six in the Bourse right now."

Krow brought out 200 cubes.

The clerk inclined his head, nodded at the human who entered the cubicle. He pressed something on his desk, which widened it considerably.

The appraiser took out a steampunk-styled loupe and bent over each cube, placing them on a circular scale, then flicking them to another end of the table when done. This was done so rapidly that barely a minute passed to appraise two hundred cubes.

The appraiser straightened, nodded.

"Ten and a half drax," agreed the clerk, smiling at Krow. "Two thousand one hundred drax for two hundred ethermica cubes."

"I'd like to exchange these, as well." Krow brought out another two hundred cubes.

The clerk glanced at the appraiser, who started his work again.

Krow watched with an internal sigh. He was running through ethermica fast, and he hadn't started enchanting yet.

Five minutes, and Krow was walking out of the bank, his on-hand cash supplemented by 2100 drax.

His Orddet's account now permanent, Krow was relieved. There was only two days until the thirty day limit Yulanve had given him.

He could reactivate it from the Orddet's branch in town, but how much again would that cost?

He headed toward Cyzarkka Bank, to open another account.

When he did, though, the opening conditions were different. "A thousand drax? That's a bit much, isn't it?"

The draculkar clerk shrugged helplessly. "I am only a clerk, young sir. I cannot change bank policy."

Krow thought to make an account in the name Osmiorni, for 500 drax.

But so suddenly, it doubled just like that?

The premier account in Cyzarkka had 1000 drax as a minimum opening.

He paid it, lamenting.

One thousand drax wasn't a small amount. Right now, only elite players had earned that much savings just from the game. It was half his living expenses for a month!

But why would he need a premier account?

Legitimacy, basically.

There were a few good investments in Zushkenar that were not offered unless a bank customer ticked off a few requirements.

In Essax bank, a year with a standard account or a year with a premier account. Of course, the investment offerings to standard and premier had different profit tiers.

Like in his Essax account, he invested 100 drax with Cyzarkka.

Again, just for future legitimacy.

Investment offerings in banks gave too low interest, and he didn't want to tie up his capital in a bank when he still needed cash.

When Krow's goals were met and he was secure, only then would he settle his savings in bank investments and live off the interest!

Like an actual rich person!

Until then, he had to slog through monster carcasses to build up that fortune.

Heading for the area under the Third tower that the gatekeeper called scholar's street, Krow's interest was piqued by a large butcher shop.

Oh, right.

He did need to clear his Inventory of meat.