Chapter Six: One Gold Coin

Asher followed behind the guard as he walked from building to building the guards' armor clanking with each step, Asher was doing his best to keep his emotions in check, he could hardly contain the happiness he was feeling a smile was threatening to creep onto his face if he wasn't careful. These were the first people he had seen in what felt like weeks, he knew it had only been a couple of days, but each moment had felt like an endless torment sent by the devil himself. 

"We're here," the guard said after stopping at a giant three-story building in the middle of the city. The building was mostly brown but had some tan spots and there were about five windows on each floor. The roof was shingled and was pointed at the top, reminding Asher of something he would have seen in a fantasy movie. The guard quickly ushered Asher into the building, inside was considerably louder than what he was expecting, people wearing leather armor to full plate armor walked in groups, quickly going from one side of the building to the other until eventually heading upstairs. Asher was led to the main reception desk by the guard. 

As Asher was practically forced to the desk by the guard, a young woman with fair skin, pointy ears, blond hair and emerald, green eyes greeted him. She looked to be about Asher's age, but he couldn't be certain, she looked like the standard description of an elf from his world, but he didn't want to assume, who knew if this world had the same stereotypes, if he blurted anything out it might get him into serious trouble. 

"Ah, another newbie huh?" The woman said with a voice that made you know she had worked in a customer service job for a few years at least. 

"That makes four this month, how do you get so lucky Greg?" She asked, talking to the guard behind Asher.

"Don't know they just seem to show up, this one though says he has the money," the guard said while shrugging his shoulders. It seemed like Asher wasn't the first to show up without paperwork, but it did look like he was the first with some money to his name. 

"Oh, does he now? Then that makes this so much easier!" The woman exclaimed, clapping her hands together while directing her gaze at Asher. 

"As long as you can give me change for a gold piece," Asher said, finally speaking up for the first time in the conversation. The guard and the woman went wide eyed for a second then started laughing, the guard clutching at his stomach while the woman just tearing up. Asher could only look at them dumbfounded for a second but quickly came to the understanding that a gold piece wasn't common, nor did he know if his system or inventory was common as well. While the guard and the woman were distracted, he quietly muttered "inventory", bringing his inventory up before him, then with another mutter quickly said, "one gold", then with a glance of his eyes the screen was gone, and a gold piece was firmly grasped in his hands. 

It took the guard and the woman quite a bit of time before they had control of themselves, but after a few seconds they had regained the composure of what some would call professionals. The woman had called for her supervisor in the time that it had taken for the guard to calm down and come to attention as a tall man with brown hair and a luscious beard came out standing at the desk with the woman. He wore a simple tan and red robe that was adorned with what Asher could only describe as magic runes. 

"Ok, if you truly have a gold piece on you then now is the time to bring it out," the man in the robes began. 

"I promise that as long as I am here there will be no one who is able to steal it from you. But if you lied about having a gold piece then you will need to tell me now." The man said in a completely professional voice, only letting it become stern when getting to the end of his sentence. Asher just nodded at the man before he reached his clasped hand into his tunic, then after making it look like he had felt around for a second brought his hand out and slowly placed the gold coin on the counter. 

Both the woman and the guard's eyes widened in shock as he placed it on the counter, the woman began to shake as she tried to control herself upon seeing the money. The guard on the other hand couldn't take it and leapt at the counter. His huge fist raced towards the coin like it was the most important thing in the world. Asher was about to respond, hoping that he would be able to grab the coin before the guard was able to. But he quickly backed off when he noticed what looked like bands of electricity started to form from the guard's arms.

As soon as the guard's hand clasped over the gold coin the room became blinded in a white light. The only thing Asher could hear was the guard's screams, then everything went silent. After a few seconds the light disappeared leaving Asher and the woman standing over the charred corpse of the guard. The robed man stood in the exact same place as he had previously, but now he was holding the gold coin in-between his thumb and index finger.

"Well, I can tell you that this is real, I thought I knew Greg better than that though, I didn't think he would throw his life away trying something like that", the man said while a sad look crossed his eyes.

"Anyways, the one silver cost will be deducted from this gold, that leaves you with 999 silvers remaining. Would you like to spend one silver and open a bank account here, storing the rest in said account?" The man asked while he began writing everything he had just said down on a piece of paper. Asher could only nod his head at the man, clearly one gold was enough to cause anyone in the right circumstances to attack him for it, best he let everyone think that he stored everything he had in the bank, just in case. The man eventually finished writing everything on the bank paper and presented Asher with a card. 

"Well, it's time we get you registered," the man said while reaching under the counter and after a second produced a large blue crystal that floated around a silver-gray base with a ring of runes floating around it. After the man set the crystal on the counter, he took a second to look at Greg the dead guard on the ground and with a wave of his hand two maids came out of the shadows from behind Asher and collected the body.

"Alright then, just place your hand on the crystal and everything will get recorded into our system," the man said after the maids had disappeared, leaving only Asher, the woman and the man standing in the room, before people had gone from one end to the other quite frequently but now no one entered or left the main room. With a sigh Asher could only comply and placed the palm of his hand firmly on the crystal. For a second nothing happened, then after what felt like a day or two the crystal started to glow blue and Asher's information screen appeared before him as if forced to.

[Name: Asher Gentry]

[Level: 6]

[Race: Human, Rank: F]

[Titles: Bear Slayer, Beginner, Rabbit Slayer, Adventurer]

[Core 1: None]

[Core 2: None]

[Core 3: None]

[Core 4: None]

[Core 5: None]

[Core 6: None]

[Abilities: None]

[Overall Rank: F]

The whole thing made Asher jump slightly; he hadn't expected that there was anything that could force the system to appear before him, unless it was a quest of some sorts, but even in the days he had the system that rarely happened, and that was usually accompanied by a ding letting Asher know that's what had happened. But this was silent and appeared as if he had spoken the status command, after a quick breath Asher had calmed himself down. It only took him a second to see the new title, but he didn't have time to check the new title as a grin spread across the man's face. 

"I knew it," the man said with excitement that worried Asher, fear struck his heart as the man smiled back at him. The man didn't make a move at Asher, but he didn't know what to do, should he run or would that cause more issues. After taking a second to steel his nerves he stood firm and awaited what was to come.