Gold is Justice

"A shield with fangs?!"

Boss Longstick took a deep breath, looked left and right, and finally leaned his head and whispered in Ai Luo's ear, "Hey, tell me the truth, are you going to join the war? I heard that the front line is now The battle is getting more and more tense, you are not some adventurers, but the army? Will it really not affect our town? We will not be dragged to serve in the army?!"

Airl shook his head: "Don't worry, boss, you are in charge of manufacturing, and I am in charge of paying. You don't have to worry about safety issues at all. How is it? How much is it?"

"This...well, two short swords and an iron shield, I'll charge you...a silver coin."

"Isn't the price a bit expensive? You see, the owner of Pudian next door helped me sew a cloak by hand for only one copper coin. You can directly double it by ten times! It's quite amazing."

The long stick looked in the direction of Budian, hesitated for a while and said: "Then... 5 copper coins, it can't be lower. Weapons are different from cloaks. I will grind and quench them for you. The process is very complicated. too much."

"make a deal!"

Arrow paid the money without hesitation, but his face was full of a regretful expression of being slaughtered.

After dealing with the business, Arrow threw the empty sack to Brad, and stretched long.

After visiting the bazaar and everyone wandering around for a while, Airl still decided to have a hemorrhage.He took the two of them to a food stall and sat down. This lunch was probably invited by him.

"Come on, just order whatever you want, you're welcome, as long as it's on the signboard. You've worked hard this time too."

After all, I don't have to pay the salaries of these two people, so I should be more generous in terms of food.

When Airl was looking at the menu, Brad couldn't help it first, and said, "President, I'm really... sorry. I'm not strong enough, and I need you to help me buy equipment. During this time I also learned a lot about the guild, and the equipment of this kind of thing should be done by the adventurers themselves..."

With Brad at the beginning, Coco finally mustered up the courage: "I'm sorry... Brother President, everything is because I'm too weak..."

Airo ordered himself a plate of stewed noodles with white fish and black olive sauce, handed the menu to the two of them, and said with a smile: "As I said earlier, the guild is generally quite like a family. I have no combat power, After the guild develops and grows in the future, I'm afraid I won't be able to take risks with you again. Therefore, as a person like me who has no power or magic, the only thing that can help you adventurers is this aspect."

"If you really want to repay me, then as I said, try to make yourself stronger and complete more tasks. Now that the mine will produce gold, it has been spread, and there will be More missions like this are coming, so you two must be fully prepared. And I will help you to be fully prepared."

Speaking of gold mines, Arrow still can't figure out why the hearts of creatures are made of gold.Especially the heart of a ghoul?According to the gold mine information I got before, there was no mention of any monsters at all, and the person who escaped from the gold mine did not seem to have the ability to single out a corpse eater and know the heart information.

Then, the purpose of the magician named Merlin is obviously to find out whether there are gold mines in the mine as rumored.Now he has his answer.

So, who is this Merlin?An official person from the empire?But if they were official members of the Blue Bay Empire, why did they kill the first two adventurers who might also be official members?

Or... the matter of the gold mines has already caused disputes between the imperial family and the nobles, and those nobles have begun to use their brains about these gold mines?

This is not impossible. Although the Blue Bay Empire is currently in a state of war externally, it is not monolithic internally.If the situation of the gold mine is true, then no matter who occupies the gold mine, it means that whoever has a strong voice among the top management of the empire.

After all, all power in this world itself is created by money.

Chapter 32 The Worth of Gold

Arrow thought to himself, but by the time his food arrived, hot and ready to eat.Coco, who hesitated for a long time, finally looked courageous and opened his mouth: "Brother President, I want to tell you...about that Merlin Dark Whisperer. Hmm...Actually, I want to tell you more Talk about the organization behind him, that is, the magic organization called Eye of Reality."

Brad's large potato stewed large flatbread and mushroom soup came on the table. He carefully put Barfie off his shoulders, took a spoonful of soup and placed it in front of Barfie, and waited until Barfie began to eat with relish. After that, I ate with a big mouth.

Ai Luo put down the knife and fork, and looked at Ke Ke seriously: "If you want to talk, I can listen."

Ke Ke nodded, and after her small salad was brought to the table, the little girl slowly said what she had always feared in her heart.

"Actually, you should be able to know these things as long as you go to the big cities to inquire about them. After all, even a humble magician like me can know about them, so it can be seen that they don't want to hide much."

"Eye of Reality, although on the surface it is a pure magician guild organization. But in fact, what they are doing is not just a guild organization."

"Using their own powerful magic power, their guilds often have strong combat power. However, what comes with great power is not a good thing for others..."

Great power naturally requires strong constraints.The more powerful the force, the more it needs to be restrained, otherwise this force will run amok.

Airl can basically guess something from these few short sentences, but it's not specific enough.

Brad on the side raised his head from the potato cubes and wiped his mouth: "No good? If so many people know that this guild is not good, will the empire ignore it?"

Ke Ke shook his head: "I won't take care of it, because no one dares to take care of it. Although I don't know who it is, I heard that the high-level management of the empire is behind this magic guild. So they are even more blatant, and no one dares to take care of it at all. .”

"Because no one cares about them, the members of the True Eye Guild have almost reached the point where they can occupy farmers' houses at will, assassinate those who oppose them, and even arrest people to do some magic experiments. They..."

At this point, Ke Ke suddenly stopped, but a second later she continued——

"I heard that they will capture some newly born children and use their souls and blood to refine something called 'true alchemy'. This is also why many cases of missing children have occurred in certain areas of our empire , but the reason has never been cracked.”

Airl: "Real alchemy? How is this different from normal alchemy?"

Ke Ke lowered his head and hesitated for a moment, as if he was thinking about whether he really wanted to tell all the things he knew in his head.After a while, the little girl finally took a deep breath and said slowly——

"Real alchemy... I don't know very well, but I heard... Occasionally, I heard rumors that it seems to be used to refine real gold. The refined gold is as good as real gold in terms of color and quality. It is exactly the same and can be used instead of real gold."

Hearing this, Airl's face changed suddenly.He lowered his head to think, but Brad next to him seemed very relaxed, and said with a smile on his face: "I was scared to death, I thought this magic guild was going to refine something related to powerful demons, immortality, resurrection, and the Philosopher's Stone." What about big magic like that. Alchemy? Doesn’t sound like much.”

"If real gold can be refined, it will be much more terrifying than the Philosopher's Stone."

Airl didn't have the mood to continue eating, he tapped on the table lightly, and said while thinking——

"Some of my magic apprentice classmates in Lao Tengshu once said that the highest state of being an alchemist in his life is probably to refine the Philosopher's Stone. But actually think about it carefully, even if the so-called Philosopher's Stone is terrible, it is absolutely Nothing compares to real gold."

"If the members of these magic guilds can really create precious metals that are real or infinitely close to gold, then it means that the world's economy will collapse in an instant, and there will be countless wars that will happen as a result, starving to death Countless people died in battle. The living and cultural level of the entire continent may instantly return to the oldest chaotic era. In comparison, the disputes that the Philosopher's Stone can bring are really too childish. "

Ke Ke didn't understand: "Brother President, I can't understand this. I have heard of the Philosopher's Stone. It is said that once obtained, it is a magical element that can subvert the entire world. It is a kind of existence that can turn people into gods. But in the mouth of the president brother...is this thing even worse than the gold coins in our hands?"

Arrow didn't mind asking questions, and he was happy that his members kept asking questions.As long as he can answer, he will try his best to answer, which will help his members grow rapidly.

"Coco, Brad, Buffy. You should know that although there are many countries in this world, the currencies of each country are also different, and the exchange rates between each currency are also different. There are even differences between some countries. They do not recognize each other's currency."

"For example, I have a thousand gold coins in our Blue Bay Empire. Then I took the thousand gold coins to the Murderous Empire next door to us, because our country is now at war with the Murderer, So they don't recognize my wealth. Therefore, even if I arrive in their country with the thousand gold coins, I am still equivalent to a poor man. Unless I dissolve the thousand gold coins and separate the gold from them."

"But in this way, my wealth will shrink greatly. Because the value of a gold coin is the value of a gold coin, it is because our Blue Bay Empire has given it such a value. Therefore, the gold coin itself does not need to be completely pure. Made of gold. The daily common currency of our empire contains about 15% to 20% gold, and the other components are supplemented by metals such as iron, copper, and silver.”

"However, there is one thing in this world that can be used anywhere in the world. That is gold."

"If I take pure gold from our Blue Bay Empire to the Hunting Seat Empire, then one kilogram of gold can buy things in our Blue Bay Empire, and then I can also buy gold equivalent to one kilogram in the Hunting Seat Empire." s things."

"Gold is the most basic currency in this world. All the exchange rates of all countries are based on gold, and gold is the real hard currency in this world. Even if you reach the country of dwarves, the country of elves, even if you meet The legendary dragon, if you show the gold, it means that you are willing to buy their things, and the other party will also recognize the value of this piece of gold."

After explaining the prelude knowledge, Ai Luo looked at Ke Ke who seemed to understand, and continued to say——

"So, if this magic guild really develops how to make gold, it will immediately depreciate the value of gold that is sufficient to serve as the world's currency because of its scarcity and stability properties. After a large amount of gold flows into a country's market, it will directly drive this country. The value of gold fell.”

"The initial consequence is that a large number of assets scattered among the people will start to purchase a large amount of gold for storage of value. But the problem is that a country's economy at a certain stage is fixed. Once a large amount of funds are used to buy gold, other The funds used to invest in business, agriculture, construction, and social security will decrease rapidly. The worst part is that there are many problems that are not easy to be discovered in a short period of time. But once the problems start to explode, it will bring huge social unrest."

"The reduction in commercial investment will bring a lot of unemployment, the reduction in agricultural investment will lead to insufficient food supply, and the reduction in social security will lead to social unrest that cannot be appeased in time. The simplest example, if you can buy gold in large quantities to make money, then you are willing to The number of soldiers begging for food will naturally decrease, and the reduction of soldiers will reduce the stability of the society, so that when it is hostile to other countries, it will lead to insufficient defense.”

"Of course, this is only based on the internal problems of a country. If there is too much gold in this country and the price depreciates, then the economies of other countries will naturally find ways to reach out to purchase gold in large quantities, and then transport the gold Go back to your own country to resell and earn a lot of difference.”

"The result that can be caused afterwards is that the entire world begins to flood with gold, and after reaching a certain stage, gold is finally completely abandoned and becomes the world's common currency."

"Once gold loses its status as the world's common currency, the chaos of the international financial exchange rate will follow. Because before that, each country confirms the exchange rate according to the value of a kilogram of gold in its own country, and then State-to-state transactions with other countries. After losing gold, each country is no longer able to know how much its own money is worth in other countries' currencies. Therefore, the exchange of transactions between countries has completely stopped. "

"There are also many contradictions within the country, because how can we civilians know the exact value of a gold coin? For example, a gold coin can buy 1 kilogram of wheat. But if our wheat harvest is bumper this year, I will The wheat that I can buy with one gold coin is only a small part of the big harvest, so am I at a loss? If our wheat harvest is poor this year, and people in many places are starving, then the wheat that I can buy with one gold coin is not Have you made a fortune?" "Since the end of the chaotic era, it took us more than 1000 years to finally confirm that gold, an unchanging, extremely stable metal, is used as a universal currency. At present, we have not found the next extremely stable and undeteriorating metal, and The material that will be loved by everyone will be used as the standard. Once we lose gold as the standard, our human economic activities will immediately fall back to before the era of chaos."

"Looking at this situation, being able to refine real gold is much more terrifying than refining any Philosopher's Stone. The Philosopher's Stone can only give one person great power at most, and This person who has gained great power will have rationality and appeals. This person can be restrained by himself, or stop acting for some other reasons. What's more, he can take his Philosopher's Stone. All in all, there are countless There are endless ways. But if the financial system is out of control, even if there is a god in this world, then this god may not be able to save us from the depravity of human beings."

"Coco, Brad, Buffy, you three must remember that the most powerful thing in this world is never a powerful magic. Although we often say 'the truth is within the reach of the fist', you must also remember Live, 'The amount of money ultimately determines the range of the fist'."

Chapter 33 Equipment Improvement

Having said so much, the food in front of Coco and Brad was gradually finished.

Ke Ke lowered her head, as if she was constantly thinking about what Airl taught just now.After a while, the girl raised her hand with a questioning expression, and after Airl smiled at her approvingly, the little girl said timidly: "That... Brother President, it shouldn't develop into what you said. Is this the point? If it really develops to the point where there is too much gold, then those alchemists will know that too much gold will collapse the entire society, and it is not good for themselves, so they should not continue to alchemy. Right? Making gold as worthless as stone is going against their purpose.”

Airl was very happy that the little magician was able to ask such a question. He was very relieved, and he would never be stingy with his knowledge for a good student with a question: "You are right, if everyone has reason, then they should You will know that you can’t make too much gold, enough to destroy the current financial system. But the problem is... Humans don’t have much reason when facing greed.”

"Even if we know that increasing gold will only make gold more worthless, as long as there is even a little value, even the refined gold can continue to increase even a little bit of wealth, and even more can be purchased. A cow, a horse, a pig, even a chicken, even an egg in the end. As long as it is possible to get even a little bit more for nothing, the irrational person will never stop until until the entire financial system collapses."

Brad was much simpler. He tilted his head and thought about it. He seemed to feel that he couldn't figure it out, so he simply gave up. He picked up the plate and licked his mouth clean. After putting down the plate, he said: "In short, this The magic guild called the Eye of Reality is a badass organization, right? Well, next time if I meet that Merlin again, I must bring him to the president, and let the president tell him well that their actions are wrong. It is wrong to destroy the world."

All right!Arrow is proud that his number one soldier has such a kind heart!

Seeing that Keke was still silent beside him, Brad picked up Buffy who had finished his soup and put it on his shoulder, nudged Coco gently with his elbow, and said with a smile: "Hey, Keke, what you know is true. A lot. You even know they're doing 'real alchemy'? Where did you hear that?"

Coco, who was still thinking about something just now, suddenly raised her head. Facing Brad's question, the little girl immediately showed a embarrassed and evasive expression. The appearance of walking.

But Brad didn't see Coco's evasion, and asked again.Seeing this, Arrow quickly interrupted Brad, paid the bill, and left with the two of them.

After returning to the guild, Airl took the opportunity to mention the so-called "real alchemy" and Napa, but this cat also showed a very strange look, completely ignorant of this method that can truly refine gold .Similarly, it doesn't catch a cold, and has an attitude of "refine it if you want to, not such a horrible thing as the Philosopher's Stone. You humans can refine gold as you please".

Seeing this, Airl didn't bother to explain the human concept of money to the cat, and went back to sort out and update the map.

——1301年9月16日，护甲修理与装备制作：-3铜5铁。武器盾牌制作：-5铜。伙食费：-2铜8铁。结余：83金6银6铁——

After a week of recuperation, Brad's injuries were fully recovered, and Coco's magic power was recharged.At the same time, the equipment was delivered one after another within this week, and the Song of the Mermaid Guild could finally restart receiving tasks.

Brad's slime armor was not only repaired intact, but the boss of Pudian added an extra piece of cowhide outside the slime skin.Although this is a bit heavier, the entire leather armor is obviously stronger.When the warrior put on the armor, raised the hammer, and at the same time moved the spiked iron shield inlaid with fangs to the front of his body, the feeling immediately became a little more unbreakable.Looking at the current Brad, Arrow even had the illusion that this guy could face those corpse eaters head-on!

But fortunately, he shook his head immediately, telling himself that it was just an illusion.

As for the two clawed short swords, Airl felt a little "thick" when he held them in his hands.

Pulling out the short sword from its scabbard, the sharp blade ground by the claws of the corpse eater still exudes a bit of breathtaking chill in the sun.The slightly curved blade has the most appropriate arc, Airl tried it, and it can easily penetrate the wooden wall of the hall, just like cutting into lean beef!

Seeing such two great weapons, Airl was both happy and a little bit regretful.

I am glad that my vision is indeed right.

It's a pity that I am not a fighting material after all. I am afraid that these two daggers are more decorative than practical when hanging on my body.

But anyway, he used a belt, and hung two short swords around his waist.Needless to say, after having this pendant, she looks a little mighty when she walks.

Finally...

"Be careful!"

Outside the gate of the guild, Ke Ke was wearing a brand new cloak with dark red patterns, standing nervously in the middle of the street.

Airl held a torch in his hand, and after confirming that Coco was fully prepared, he gradually moved the torch closer to the cloak she was wearing.

It was broad daylight now, and such an action naturally caused some onlookers to stop and watch. They couldn't help screaming when they saw that the torch was already attached to Ke Ke's back!

Ke Ke also closed her eyes tightly, held the dead branches tightly with both hands, and gritted her teeth to endure.Obviously, she felt the torch on her back, and her heart began to beat violently.

However, after a while, the little girl turned her head slowly and looked at Ai Luo who was burning herself with a torch.

"Brother President...? How's it going?"

"It's all right! Do you feel the fire?"

"No...no, I seem to be fine..."

"Very good! The fire resistance of this cloak is good!"

Throwing away the torch, Airl clapped his hands and said with a smile——