33: Chapter 33 Temple of Wealth Bank

Then, Morpheus suggested: "Everyone is tired from this mission, so let's rest for a few days. In a week, we will meet at the Adventurers Guild to accept new commissions."

Richard nodded. He stood up, hung his halberd back on his back, and fastened his coin pouch securely to the inside of his belt.

Jinbao jumped down from the bench, brushed the dust off his tool kit, and walked toward the tavern entrance.

The black cat followed closely behind. When it reached the entrance, it looked back at Richard and said: "Don't be late in three days," before blending into the flow of people on the street outside.

Morpheus was the last to leave. Before walking away, he stood in front of Richard, bowed his head slightly, and performed an extremely standard mage's salute.

His white hair fell from his shoulder, covering half of his face, and his purple eyes watched Richard through the gaps in his hair.

"Mr. Richard, you possess certain abilities that I cannot fully comprehend, and I believe these abilities will continue to surprise me in the future. I look forward to our next collaboration."

"I look forward to it as well," Richard replied with a smile, saying nothing more.

Because they had a significant amount of gold coins on hand, Richard and Cecilia decided to head to the bank.

The Temple of Wealth bank was located on the widest street in the upper district of Blackwater City, sandwiched between a spice guild and the church of the Temple of Wealth.

Compared to the ostentatious buildings surrounding it, this three-story stone building was excessively low-key.

There were no gilded door frames or jewel-encrusted signs, only a black stone tablet standing in front of the door, engraved with the words "Wealth Bank" in both Elven runes and the Common language.

However, anyone who had lived in Blackwater City for more than three days knew that this building was wealthier than all the buildings next to it combined.

Standing at the entrance was not a human guard, but a golem cast from black iron. It was shaped like a crouching griffin, with two unblinking sapphires embedded in its eye sockets, emitting a cold, hard, eerie light under the daylight.

When Richard pushed open the iron-clad oak door, the golem's eye sockets turned to focus on him.

The golem's sapphire eyes flickered, as if it had quickly searched for the visitor's identity information within some invisible magical network.

Then, it slowly turned its head back to its original position, once again becoming an immobile iron statue at the entrance.

At the same time, the second iron gate inside the bank lobby automatically slid open to both sides, revealing a corridor paved with a deep red carpet behind it.

At the end of the corridor was a semi-circular reception hall. There were no windows, but several continuously glowing milky-white magic stones floated on the ceiling, illuminating the entire room as bright as day.

In the center of the reception hall stood a counter carved from a single piece of black oak, with over a dozen female clerks in dark green uniforms sitting behind it.

On the collars of their uniforms, they wore the holy emblem of the Temple of Wealth: a gold coin surrounded by wheat ears.

The smiles of these female clerks were just right—not too much, not too little—ensuring that one would neither feel neglected nor subjected to overly enthusiastic sales pitches.

"Welcome to the Blackwater City branch of the Wealth Bank," one of the female clerks said with a smile.

"I need to open an account," Richard stated his purpose.

"Opening an account requires valid proof of identity... an Adventurers Guild badge, a noble crest ring, or any official identity document certified by the city-state council will suffice."

Richard took out his Adventurers Guild badge from the leather pouch at his waist and placed it on the counter. The female clerk took it, glanced at it, and pressed a glowing magic crystal ball under the counter.

A cloud of light blue mist surged inside the crystal ball. A few seconds later, the mist dissipated, and a short word in the Common language appeared on the surface of the sphere: Verification Passed.

"Please come with me," the female clerk stood up and led him and Cecilia into a small, secure room.

The walls of the secure room were covered with dense protective runes, each one glowing faintly.

Inside the room, there was only a stone table and two chairs. On the table lay a pitch-black quill, a small opened bottle of dragon blood ink, and an unfolded parchment contract.

The text on the contract was written in an extremely fine red ink. Under the illumination of the magic stones, the edges of every letter shimmered with a golden glow.

"This is the account opening contract," the female clerk pointed to the blank signature field at the bottom of the parchment.

"Please sign your name using this specialized magic quill."

"The signature will be stored in the bank's archive crystal to serve as a magical credential for all future transactions."

"Additionally... if you wish to open a high-security account, you may choose to add biometric authentication."

"A drop of blood or a strand of hair will be used for identity verification during withdrawals. High-security accounts have higher withdrawal limits and support cross-city-state transactions."

Richard picked up the quill and weighed it in his hand.

The shaft was surprisingly heavy, seemingly made of some special alloy, and the nib was engraved with microscopic runes as fine as hair.

He dipped the nib into the dragon blood ink and signed his name on the signature line—Richard Baimon.

The moment the nib touched the parchment, the writing flashed with a brief, pale golden light, then quickly solidified into a dark red color.

After a moment of thought, he pulled a small lock of hair from his head and placed it into a small sealing crystal handed over by the clerk.

The moment the crystal touched the hair, it absorbed the strands. A line of small numerical codes appeared on its surface before it returned to being transparent.

"The account opening fee is five silver coins."

The female clerk handed him a palm-sized metal card. The surface of the card was embossed with the Wealth Bank logo and a string of raised account numbers.

The back of the card featured a special mark with slowly shifting patterns. When turned under the light, it would display, in sequence, the holy emblem of the Temple of Wealth, the full name of the bank, and a blooming golden rose pattern.

"This is your account card; please keep it safe. The Wealth Bank does not pay interest, and a monthly maintenance fee will be charged."

"The maintenance fee for a standard account is one-thousandth per month. For example, if you deposit one hundred gold coins, you will need to pay one silver coin per month."

"If you need to store items that are inconvenient to carry, we also have private safe deposit boxes available for rent."

"Small safe deposit boxes are five silver coins per month, and large ones are one gold coin per month. The bank does not record the contents of the boxes, making them suitable for storing scrolls, gemstones, magic items, and the like."

She paused, then added with a smile: "If your deposit exceeds fifty thousand gold coins, the maintenance fee rate can be halved."

"Additionally, if you do not want your property to be visited by certain unwelcome forces, it is far safer to keep it in the bank than under your bed at the inn."

Richard did the math in his head.

Including his previous savings, he now had a total of nearly two hundred and thirty gold coins on hand.

Carrying it all was both heavy and unsafe. It was enough to deposit the bulk of it and keep a portion for emergencies.

He tucked the account card into his pocket, counted out two hundred gold coins from his money pouch, and pushed them onto the table, keeping about thirty gold coins and some loose silver coins for himself.

The female clerk used a gold-verifying magic stone to verify the purity of each gold coin one by one, then poured them into a metal pipe embedded in the wall.

The gold coins slid down the pipe, making a series of crisp clinking sounds, and finally disappeared behind the heavy iron door of a large vault deep inside.

Cecilia also intended to deposit most of her gold coins into the bank.

After Richard finished the procedures, she also opened an account using her new identity document as "Lia," and her biometric authentication was also a lock of hair.

After her transformation, her hair was a shade darker than before, changing from gold to a unique color between gold and dark gold.