Age of Gods - A VRMMO Story

Rock lead Thomas up to a grand building made of white marble and decorated with gold gilding. The building reminded Thomas a lot of the temple he first spawned into AoG inside of, only significantly more decadent and gaudy. Rock gestured to the building as he spoke to Thomas, "This is one of the Banking Guild's branch offices."

Thomas nodded and looked a little closer at the building. He couldn't see anything special about it. However, the doors leading inside were guarded by two men in full plate mail that looked rather imposing. Rock walked to the doors to enter and Thomas followed without saying anything. Banks were a very common theme in any vrmmo game, there was just no way players would be able to carry everything they owned on their bodies and leaving it inside of a house would just make it inconvenient to get something you needed if you were far away.

After entering inside, Thomas was rather surprised. The interior looked a lot like a modern-day bank with teller windows and a line for customers to wait in. None of that was really surprising, what was surprising were the creatures sitting in the seats at the teller windows. They were all green with bulbous heads and long hooked noses. Awkwardly, they were all dressed in pristine business suits while some even wore glasses. Thomas immediately recognized the race of creatures before him and turned to look at Rock, "The bankers are... goblins? But... aren't goblins monsters that kill men, steal gold, and capture women to breed with?"

In every game Thomas had ever played Goblins were some of the most loathsome creatures in existence. Right up there with orcs. Both races were known, lore wise, to rape women to reproduce. Thomas could accept a lot of things and very few things ever really bothered him but there was just something about rape that would throw him into an absolute killing frenzy. Seeing the goblins, a race known for such acts, made Thomas have to use every bit of his willpower not to pull out his kukri and attempt to kill them all.

Rock looked at Thomas with a frown, "Not these goblins." Rock sighed and started to explain, "About a thousand years ago all goblins were like you described. But around that time a few goblins began to evolve and became much more intelligent. They realized their weakness and that the actions of their species were only going to bring doom upon themselves. So those few goblins took command of some goblin villages to stop their brethren from committing evil actions. It took decades, but eventually, they managed to broker a non-aggression pact with the other intelligent races of the world. Knowing that they were being watched closely the goblins did their best to show their good intentions and not provoke the stronger countries into action. During that time the goblins developed a unique ability. No one really knows what that ability is, but using it they created a bank."

Rock smiled and gestured to the building around them, "Banks had existed before, but whatever magic the goblins developed made their banks much more convenient to everyone in the world. The greedy goblins were known for became their greatest asset. No one has ever managed to steal from a goblin bank and get away with it. In the hundreds of years that have passed by since they opened their first bank, many have tried and all died in the process. Only a single person managed to actually steal from them, but the mercenaries the goblins employ tracked the culprit down within hours and killed him to recover the stolen goods."

Rock gave Thomas a serious look, "This is the best and most trustworthy place to store money and items. It's also the only place to do so!"

Rock gave a hearty laugh at the end of his statement and led Thomas into the line to wait for a free teller. The goblins were quick and efficient in their work, so it didn't take them very long to get to Rock and Thomas. Rock led the way and spoke congenially with the goblin behind the counter while gesturing to Thomas, "He's here to open an account."

The goblin squinted its red eyes at Thomas from behind his spectacles, "To open an account you need a minimum deposit of 1,000 gold. Once you open your account, deposits of gold are free but withdrawals will cost you five gold each time. Item deposits and withdrawals cost five gold each time. Groupings of similar items, such as bundles of arrows or herbs count as a single item." The goblin spoke in a flat monotone voice like he had said the same thing a million times before and was dead tired of saying it.

Thomas hesitated for a moment while glancing at Rock. Rock nodded and gave an encouraging action so Thomas nodded in return and thunked the sack of gold coins onto the tellers counter. He retrieved enough to leave himself with 487 gold with the intention to deposit the remaining 9,000 gold. Grinning at seeing the goblins eyes open somewhat, Thomas addressed the goblin, "I'd like to open my account with a deposit of 9,000 gold."

The goblin visibly swallowed and suddenly turned a lot nicer to Thomas, "Of course sir." The goblin pulled out a crystal ball, similar to the one from the adventurers guild, and a similar metal card, "Once you drip some blood onto the globe it will open an account for you. The card will be your only way to access your funds in the future, so do not EVER lose it. Replacements are exceedingly expensive and difficult to procure. The card will keep track of not only your funds within the bank but also the items you have deposited. You can retrieve your money and items from any guild bank within the world."

Thomas nodded and wondered how the game 'logically' implemented the functions of a game bank into the world of AoG. His best guess, space magic! Well, if space magic existed anyways. With that thought, Thomas realized he didn't know very much about magic within AoG, but he'd just had so little free time to do any exploration or to learn anything other than the professions. It could wait, magic wasn't going anywhere!

Accepting the offered needle, Thomas pricked his finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the globe. It began to glow with a golden light as his identity was carved into the metal card. Once the glow faded the goblin picked up the card and the bag of gold coins, "Give me a moment to process your deposit."

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It only took the goblin about five minutes before he returned and passed the metal card over to Thomas, "Please check your balance to make sure everything is in order."

Thomas looked at the card and saw a line beneath his name stating that his current balance was 9,000 gold. Nodding in satisfaction, Thomas awkwardly thanked the goblin before leaving the bank with Rock. Together they headed back towards the artisan district while Thomas once again wished he had an inventory to store the card inside of to protect it. Without that handy ability, Thomas instead hid the card within his boot. When he had the spare time he would have to design a belt with a hidden sleeve to store the card inside of.

After arriving at the artisan district Rock bid Thomas farewell and headed towards Rock's Armory while Thomas made his way to Hyde's Hides. After entering the building, Thomas greeted the energetic Teena before heading into the back room to greet Hyde. Hyde gave Thomas a warm smile and spoke, "Today is your lucky day. I don't need any more backpacks for the moment."

Thomas let out a sigh of relief and looked expectantly at Hyde, "So what do you need me to work on?"

Hyde gave Thomas a playful grin, "It seems Rock has been experiencing an increase in sales lately and his apprentices have been having some trouble keeping up with some of the requests." Hyde gestures to a crate, "Every weapon in there needs their handles wrapped in leather."

Thomas moved over to the crate and opened it, there were at least a dozen weapons inside of various shapes and sizes from daggers to longswords, and even a greatsword. It was probably the production work of a little less than a day at Rock's. Every weapon had been completed with a firmly adhered wooden handle that Thomas was now going to wrap leather around. He wasn't sure if this was funny or not, but he still chuckled.

"Well, get to work already!", Hyde called out.