HH 10 - Where’s My Money? Pt. 2

“Yes, that’s understandable,” said the banker. “Our records show you’ve never accessed the account. There’s no history of anyone checking the balance, either.” 

The demon pricked the tip of her finger with a pin and pressed it to a blank sheet of parchment on the table. The blood flowed out, forming a ledger with a dense, but readable script. 

“This is an accounting of all transactions in your account’s history. You’ll see that each month there is a deposit of one gold. At the end of each month, there is an interest payout, which is one-twelfth of that cycle’s annual interest rate. The rate varies from year to year based on market forces, but the average return was close to five percent annualized.”

She ran her finger down the long page to the bottom. “The interest compounds over time. You’re paid new interest on the gold that was paid to you as interest in the previous month. The total deposits into the account over the last century was 1,203 gold. The rest was earned through interest payouts.”

Castor studied the page. He vaguely followed what the demon was saying, but found the concept so foreign, he couldn’t help but feel there was some trick involved. Rather than dig into why he was suddenly rich beyond any measure he could comprehend, he moved on with his business.

“I’m moving out of Lord Bythrax’s domain,” said Castor. “What’s the best way for me to keep access to this money?” 

The woman nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, many of our clients are highly mobile,” she said. “We have several solutions for frequent travellers, even for those who move between realms. May I ask your destination?”

“Somewhere in the human kingdoms,” said Castor. “I’m not settled on a final area.”

“Of course. We have partnerships with numerous human banks. With your demon ID, you’ll be able to access your account through most major chains.”

Castor didn’t know how he felt about the demons having such a wide reach into human finance. “What if I’m in a more rural area? Somewhere outside of a city.”

“For an account of your size, we can supply you with a personal imp. We call them Pimps for short.” She flashed him a smile. “You’ll have an enchanted bell that you can ring, which your Pimp will hear, no matter where you are. Your Pimp will then teleport to your location within a few minutes and can handle most common banking needs, including deposits and withdrawals.”

“What if I wanted to close the account and take the gold with me?” Castor asked. The Greed Demon grimaced slightly.

“That is doable,” she said. “Logistically, it is difficult. Not for us, that is. We have enough gold on hand to handle a withdrawal of this size, but the gold coins in Lord Bythrax’s domain are each precisely measured at one ounce. With nearly 35,000 ounces of gold, you’d be looking at a strongbox that weighs slightly more than a ton. 

“Then there’s the matter of security,” she continued. “Having so much wealth on you is a risk, even if no one knows you have it. If you were to fall victim to random banditry, they could flee with your life’s savings in one fell swoop. If someone were to discover that you had that much gold, they might arrange for an entire army of thieves to rain down on you. Again, we are perfectly willing to deliver your full account’s worth of funds, but I would strongly advise against it.”

“Yes, I am worried about having all my money in one place,” said Castor.

“Ah!” said the Greed Demon, bouncing in her seat. “I totally understand. If you’re looking to diversify, we have connections to a wide range of financial institutions. For example…”

Castor and the demon met for several hours, and Castor got a personal crash course on the modern, human-facing demonic finance industry. He left with 1,000 gold’s worth of liquid assets split between gold, silver, bank notes, mana dust, and precious jewels. It was still an enormous sum to travel with, but Castor wanted to make sure he had plenty to live on, in case his account–and the half dozen he’d just opened–disappeared the moment he stepped foot outside Lord Bythrax’s domain.

Finished at the bank, Gully, Castor, and Castor’s soulbound slaves made a few stops in the merchant sector. Castor purchased two pairs of simple, but sturdy travel clothes for each of the slaves, along with rations and other travel and camping gear. He got each of them a large backpack to carry their own supplies, and made sure that they all had any personalized items they needed for travelling a long distance on foot. 

It was more consideration than the slaves were used to getting, but on the other hand, many demons treated their slaves like high-end commodities. Ensuring that they were all equipped and capable didn’t turn any heads, since every demon understood the desire to protect one’s assets and to show off. Gully didn’t even raise an eyebrow when Castor purchased a dozen large hunting knives and gave one to each slave along with a leather sheath, keeping two for himself. The slaves literally could not raise a hand against Castor so long as he held their writs, so he was at no risk of assassination.

Trying to communicate with the slaves once again exposed Castor’s lack of fluency in modern Common, and Gully was forced to translate. Because of this, their next stop was with an [Enchantress] who whipped him up a Babel Stone for 10 gold. So long as he held the stone and channeled mana into it, he could effectively communicate with anyone, regardless of the language barrier. 

The resulting conversations were a bit impersonal–the stone did a terrible job communicating tone–so Castor resolved to learn the language as soon as he could. He grabbed a dictionary and guide, along with a few other texts from a bookstore, amazed at how affordable the tomes were. He had early memories of the pride his parents had held in their personal library, especially since books were more expensive than their weight in salt. He mentioned as much to Gully, who informed him that they still were. Salt was quite common these days and therefore cheap.

Castor continued to prepare himself for the world he’d face outside.

The essentials accomplished, the group proceeded to Castor’s workshop, which was down in Sector F. Gully grumbled and complained about all the freshwater running through the pipes around them, but the Wrath Demon diligently followed behind them to ward off any handsy demons. The demon population down there was sparse, but his services still came in useful a time or two.

The shop was originally a small affair. Over the years, Castor had knocked down several walls and absorbed a gulf of the sector into his workspace. Lord Bythrax had said Castor could have everything he’d ever gathered or been given, and so he took everything from the massive workshop and put it into his Infinite Backpack. 

Everything.

All of his raw materials, the work tables, the desk, the chairs, the miniature smithy, the loom, the tanning racks, the water purifier, fifty gallons of Dwarven concrete, blueprints and diagrams by the hundreds, nails, screws, and fastening by the thousands, and equipment for a half-dozen other crafts and professions. It all went into the backpack. If it didn’t fit through the opening, Castor disassembled it. 

Gully took the initiative to direct the slaves to help, which made things go a little quicker, but the process still took the better part of twelve hours. By that point, Castor hadn’t slept in over thirty-six hours, but he refused to stop until he was on his way out of Lord Bythrax’s lands.

Finally, he was ready to leave, and the march to the carriage station took four more hours, even with Castor paying for everyone’s use of the waypoints. They hired three carriages and loaded up for a ride that would take another twelve hours to drop them out at the border. Castor was filled with an anxious energy, but decided to force himself to sleep for a portion of the journey. 

First, however, he had some more build choices to make. He picked up Brawling, cross referenced what the Intrinsic Skill could do against how he could continue specializing his attributes, and spent his spec points.

Brawling - Level 73

Brawling can be used to modify any melee attack. Additionally, Brawling improves your ability to grab, grapple, trip, and disarm opponents, as well as your attempts to resist such actions.

You deal +(Brawling Level) bonus damage whenever you are grabbing or grappling an opponent (10)

You gain +(Brawling Level) Critical Strike when you are grabbing or grappling an opponent (20)

You gain +(Brawling Level) to Disarm attempts when grabbing or grappling an opponent. (40)

You gain +(Brawling Level) to Takedown attempts when grabbing or grappling an opponent. (70)

He focused on grappling due to his size and his concentration toward body attributes. Even if he didn’t have anything to use as a weapon, he could use his Dodge and high health to tank hits, get in close, and lock opponents down. Once they were within arm’s reach he could tear them to pieces with his bare hands. If he also had a weapon available, it would still get the bonuses, so it was win-win. It bent Castor’s style toward close and personal, but he didn’t mind. The way he’d handled the [Hero] at the end of their fight had been… satisfying.

He shook morbid thoughts from his head, eyes wandering to the ominous message he’d gotten from Demonic Immortality. 

Your soul darkens. 

The System provided no more context than that. He looked at the human slaves riding alongside him in his carriage, whose souls he was ostensibly saving, then he put it out of his mind and moved onto his attributes.

The specializations starting at Level 20 started to offer some crossover with the other attributes. Strength could improve health, Agility could add to movement, Intelligence could add to mana, and so on. The bonuses were smaller than what came directly from the main attribute. 

These were probably useful to someone who was missing attribute growth in some of their stats. A Strength and Speed fighter would benefit from getting health from Strength while their Fortitude lagged. An Agility and Luck fighter would benefit from getting movement speed from Agility. Castor didn’t have that issue. All of his stats were climbing with each Level, so he focused on getting more of what made each attribute good.

More Lift Capacity from Strength, more Dodge from Agility and Speed, more health from Fortitude. 

For Wisdom, he chose mana regeneration. Having a larger mana pool would be useful in a fight, but higher regeneration would give him more total mana to use over the course of a day. For his class, he felt that preparation would play a massive part in combat, which meant being able to use his mana for enchantments and crafting over the course of hours of work. He also reminded himself he wasn’t planning on looking for conflict, so his ability to sustain his productivity over long periods was more important, even in the absence of threats to prepare for.

Mana regen was also the first bonus that wasn’t linear. While Level 10 granted 1 additional regen per Level, Level 20 granted 2. Castor could now regenerate his entire mana pool in two-and-a-half hours, as opposed to ten. At Level 40, he’d be able to regenerate his full pool in about one-and-a-half hours.

His health pool was enormous compared to his mana, and it would take him 100 hours to regenerate all of it.

Intelligence could grant him Skill Feats, allowing him to gain more Intrinsic Skill slots. Considering the many skills he had available that started at a high Level, he figured that was more beneficial to him than any of the other bonuses.

He waffled for a while on Charisma. One line of specializations made him less noticeable. Another made him more intimidating. They were different philosophies, and he wasn’t sure which one to focus on. Did he want to avoid being noticed in the first place, or did he want people to think twice about engaging him if they did notice him?

Stealth was an Intrinsic Skill he could grab, and its Level began at 45. It was Agility-based, which meant it would have better growth than Subterfuge, which started out lower Level and used Charisma. He got fewer Charisma points per Level, so going unseen and picking up Stealth would be a more focused build.

He decided on going the route of being less noticeable. He wanted his work to be functional, not flashy. And when someone realized that a seven-foot-tall, four-hundred-pound man was standing right next to them and they had no idea how he’d gotten there, that would be a quality of intimidation all its own.

For Luck, he kept focusing on crits, which would mesh well with his Level 20 Brawling spec. 

Castor scratched his chin and pulled up Stealth. He grinned when he saw there was a line of specs that made him less noticeable, in addition to helping him stay hidden. They were called Grey Man bonuses and, combined with his Charisma spec, would help him move through crowds without anyone paying him any mind. His ability to hide wouldn’t be as strong as it would with a dedicated sneak tree, but the hybrid tree would provide more utility, and take advantage of his broad attribute spread.

He’d decide the rest of his skills once he was somewhere he could get some work done. Smithing, Tailoring, Woodworking, Leatherworking, Engineering, there were a wealth of choices that played to his extensive experience, but that weren’t immediately useful for traveling.

Once Castor was finished with his choices, he was unconscious in under a minute. He’d learned to sleep whenever he could, even in the worst of conditions. It was a matter of necessity. By the time they arrived, he had a full night’s rest under his belt, although his gaggle of slaves were much worse off than he was. He paid for a large, hot breakfast at a border pub, got everyone loaded up on beandrip, and readied himself to get the fuck out of Lord Bythrax’s domain.

As they stood on the border between the fortress realm and the nearest human kingdom, whose name Castor didn’t even know, Gully clapped a hand on his shoulder. The Wrath Demon looked at the hard demarcation between the lands, where the lush forest became a blasted hellscape, and heaved a wistful sigh.

“This is where my duty to protect you ends, Castor,” Gully said, patting the large human on the back. “Your title of Heroslayer will afford you some respect, but demons who roam the human world don’t always give a shit.” He arched his neck, bringing his face closer to Castor’s own. “Remember that once you cross this borderline, there’s almost nothing to protect you from the demons you might meet on the road. But also remember that it goes both ways. There’s nothing to protect them from you.”

Gully gave Castor a menacing grin, whacked him with one last pat on the back, and turned to begin the long journey back to his home. 

Castor didn’t watch him go. The moment Gully had said his piece, he called for the slaves to form up, and the group left the demon lands, bound for the nearest human city.