Changed our mind
"She too didn't say anything?"
"No. She didn't. But luckily she has now calmed down and is now much more in control of herself. Most likely it wouldn't happen again, but you should still keep an eye out for it."
Ivan nodded his understanding.
"Anyway. Do you already know when you will get your title?", Key then changed the topic.
"No. But I guess it should be sometimes soon after Lara comes back.", Ivan responded.
"I guess she must have already started to train you.", he said with a smile.
"Yeah. Why the hell must there be so many weird rules?"
"That's the way it is. Although we aren't that strict here. I heard that some courts in the upper realm have so many rules, it is nearly impossible not to break at least one, whatever you do."
"You haven't gone to the higher realm?", Ivan asked.
"Nope. I never had much interest in fighting. And in that case, there is no reason to go up there. There it is always about strength and getting stronger. To me, living happily and freely is much more important."
"So that's why you are leading such huge cooperation?", Ivan asked jokingly.
"Of course. How else could I live freely? You know the most important thing in this realm is power and connections. And for that, what could be better than be a member of the royal family and the head of the Imperial Trust Fund?", Key said while smiling happily. "Besides I enjoy the feeling of being in control of so much money and power."
"Well, that sure sounds like your true thoughts."
They continued joking around until the three girls came back. They too were chatting happily with each other.
"So how did it go? Did you find something?", Ivan asked Celine.
"Of course. This store is great. I never knew that there could be so much diversity. So many different materials and designs.", she happily answered. "And Cait was a great help."
"I thought you wanted us to help select something?", Key asked confused.
"Well, we changed our mind.", Yevina retorted, sounding unreasonable, but then explained, "We want it to be a surprise."
"I can assure you that it will be a pleasant one.", Cait chimed in as well.
"Great. Then if there is nothing else, how about we go home? And if you like you could come with us and we can eat dinner together. I'm sure Jane would be happy.", Ivan asked, with the second question being directed toward Key and Yevina.
They simply looked at each other and then Yevina agreed, "Sure, that would be great. I'm really looking forward to meeting her. After all, she will be my niece soon."
"So you are planning to marry soon?"
"Yes. It will be at the beginning of the next year."
When they were getting ready to leave, Ivan turned towards Cait and pulled out the only Blood Essence Crystal he had. It was from a weak snake, that he had fought back then when he had gone on an adventure in the wilderness.
"Could you maybe tell me how much this is worth?"
"Hm, a low-grade Bood Essence Crystal. If not for the monster being so weak, it would be worth a lot. But the energy content is only at about 20 nEU.", Cait said after inspecting it. It seemed she was no stranger to those crystals. "Still, since it has a great usage as a catalyst during pill refining it is still worth about 50 nEU."
Although 50 nEu didn't seem like that much, in fact, it was a lot for Ivan. With around 1 billion gold for one EU, 50 nEU still meant 50 thousand gold.
"Wow, that's a lot more than I expected.", he exclaimed.
"Well, they contain nearly all the energy of the monster it is from. And a lot of its price comes from the fact that it can help pills, of the same grade, achieve higher quality.", Cait explained.
If not for it dropping only rarely and him needing the crystals to increase his strength, they could make a great source of income for Ivan. And even so, he could still sell them if need be, which was great news for him.
"If you get more of them, you shouldn't sell them for gold.", Cait advised him.
"Why? Isn't it the same if I sell them ore use them?"
"Of course not. You will later realize that there are things, you won't be able to buy with gold. But you can buy the same thing for an equivalent amount of EU. That's because it is always harder to get useable EU. And this is especially so for these Blood Essence Crystals. Oftentimes pill refiners will sell things to you for them, that they wouldn't sell otherwise."
"That good?"
"Yeah. But not for this crystal. Because of the low amount of energy contained in it, it can only be used by new pill refiners. Others won't even touch them. But if they have more energy, then even low-grade Blood Essence Crystals can be traded for great things.
We too accept them as an EU payment method."
That was something she had explained to them before. Most of the things in the store could only be bought with EU and not gold.
<< Congratulations, you have discovered EU as a payment method and have acquired your first bit of it. In accordance with article 23.5B.24.C.45.D, you are now eligible to own a System Bank account.
Your System Bank account can currently store EU.
Your current interest is: 0.01%
You have currently stored: 0 EU
Remark:
You can unlock new payment methods by discovering them and acquiring a certain amount of them.
You can increase your interest by increasing the amount stored in your System Bank account.
>>
Suddenly a message popped up and in his hands, a black crystal card appeared. The card was slightly see-through with a three dimensional S and B displayed in it.
When Cait saw the card, she gasped in surprise. "You have a System Bank card?"
"Mmm, just got it.", Ivan answered, while still trying to understand the message he had gotten.
Seeing his unimpressed reaction, Cait asked him in agitation, "Do you even know what this means?"
He shook his head. To him, it seemed like just any other bank account, but judging by her reaction there should be something more to it.
"It is the only known bank card, that can be used with just about any payment method. And you can even exchange between them. And the status connected with it is immense as well.
In many stores, it would work the same way as a VIP card, because it is only given to people, that are either very rich or whom the system expects to become rich. At least that is what research has been shown. In reality, nobody knows for sure.", she explained. She then continued with teaching him how to use it, "Put the Blood Essence Crystal beside the card and imagine it being absorbed."
He followed her words and a screen popped up, asking him if he wants to deposit the crystal in his bank account. It also displayed the energy the crystal contained at 20 mEU.
"Seems like it is better not to deposit those crystals.", he commented.
"Yes. Since their value doesn't just come from the energy contained in them.", Cait agreed, before continuing, "But if you want to get Energy Crystals, you can use this method to exchange them."
"Then is there a benefit of Energy Crystals, compared to Blood Essence Crystals?"
"Yes. The main difference is the ease of use. If you don't have some very special skills, it is impossible to use them besides pill refining. And if they contain enough energy, it would be better to use the energy directly, then using them to create low-grade pills.
Of course, that only applies to low-grade crystals. If their grade is higher than the point where the energy is more useful is higher as well."
"So the grade doesn't depend on the energy contained in them?"
"No. The grade depends on the skill that is used to form them, which makes those higher than low-grade very rare."
Ivan nodded his understanding. "Thank you for explaining this."
"No problem. I'm just doing my job.", Cait waved away his thanks. "But if you are truly thankful then how about you select me as your attendant as well?"
"Sure. It seems like Celine was very satisfied with your service.", he gestured towards Celine who was talking animatedly with Yevina.
"It was my honor to have served her.", suddenly Cait's tone changed. When before she had spoken more freely, she now spoke very reserved. Her eyes wandering towards the entrance of the section.
Ivan turned to check out, what she was looking at and was stunned at the sight.