Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (96/?)

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30. Thalmin and Ilunor’s Dorm. Local Time: 1900 Hours.

Emma

“Excuse me?” Ilunor’s words echoed throughout the room.

The Vunerian met my gaze with a wide-eyed disbelief, prompting me to cut to the chase, and to sharpen the needle poised to burst his Nexian-grade ego-bubble.

“It would seem as if we both went through a similar paradigm-shift event, Ilunor. A point in which this shiny yellow metal just finally stopped holding its own value; where it no longer held its own… weight in gold.” I reiterated, announcing those words loud and clear for the Vunerian, hoping that the EVI was able to translate that bad attempt at humor to something at least discernable in High-Nexian. “Gold as it currently stands, has lost its historical value. It’s no longer the rare be-all and end-all metal. It has, using your own words — lost its luster.” 

Thalmin had finally returned with Thacea just as I’d finished making that bold statement, the prince seemingly adamant on making this entire exchange one which all parties were privy to. 

Ilunor didn’t pay them mind however, as his gaze was locked onto me, his features contorting into one of genuine disbelief, before finding itself back in a signature look of incredulous scrutiny. 

“You’re bluffing.” He retorted. “There is no means for an adjacent realm, for any realm other than the Nexus, to have both discovered and matured the art of pinnacle-transmutation.” 

I raised a brow at this, cocking my head to overcome my emoting handicap. “Pinnacle-transmutation?” 

“The alchemical art of transmuting one form of inexpensive and readily-available matter, into an otherwise rare form of matter, using mana and other mana-based materials as a catalyst.” The blue thing helpfully clarified.

This prompted me to feign a moment of thought, bringing up my fingers up to my chin. 

“You know what Ilunor, you’re right!” I nodded, eliciting a smarmy grin from the deluxe kobold. “We don’t have magical transmutation, at least not in the way that you think, let alone your whole lead-into-gold style magical alchemy.” I quickly expanded, garnering more self-satisfied looks from the Vunerian; as he reached that point of peak smugness. “But we didn’t really need it.” I clarified, pulling the rug right from underneath the Vunerian. “Moreover, it didn’t stop us from achieving the same state of precious metal devaluation that you went through.”

“Oh dear Majesty, not this again…” He responded emphatically, before diving back into the thick of the conversation. “There exists only two means of acquiring gold.” The Vunerian snarled out. “One — through brute force, by mining into the earth itself and laboriously collecting this beautiful, shiny, irresistible metal.” He almost went into a sort of trance for a moment there, but managed to pull back before continuing unabated. “Two — by transmutation. The latter is what has caused gold to become so readily abundant, so… unexpectedly worthless. And since you admit to lacking the latter… are you expecting me to believe that you have achieved our current state of abundance through the former?” 

“Yes.” I replied immediately, and a matter of factly. “That’s exactly what I’m expecting you to believe, because that’s exactly what happened. Through good old fashioned sheer brute force… or more specifically, by expanding our operations to scales and extents never before seen — we turned gold from an object of indescribable value, to a chunk of pretty yellow metal.” I took a moment to let that sink in, as my mind went to ponder a second, more technical talking point.

I mean, we technically have ‘transmutation’, or at least, a sci-tech equivalent of it… but it’s just woefully impractical and more of a gimmick compared to the efficiency harvesting space-rocks and dwarf planetoids.

I decided it was probably best to skip that talking point for now, at least, until a foundation could be built to discuss that can of worms. 

A few seconds of silence punctuated my first point, as it was clear Ilunor was taking the time to actively consider it.

“And I’m assuming you’re going to claim to have brute-forced the accumulation of metals, both precious and utilitarian, from the surface of your world; to the point of complete exhaustion?” The Vunerian shot back in an almost rhetorical way through a desperate chuckle. Though that series of dismissive laughs was barely able to hide the fear which underpinned it. A fear which was blatantly obvious from the furrowing of his brow ridges, and the narrowing of his slitted pupils. 

A fear that this line of questioning would lead to an answer he simply didn’t want to hear. 

A fear which was reflected even in the eyes of both Thacea and Thalmin.

A fear… that would come to pass with a single-worded answer.

“Yes.” I answered simply. 

Color once more drained from the Vunerian’s face, as he seemed to almost lose his footing atop of his nest of gold.

It was at that point that he broke his gaze, his expressions shifting from tentative disbelief, to frustration, before landing back on what I was beginning to call his resting Nexus-face — a look of superiority that resulted from either active denial, or a root error in fundamental systemic incongruency.

“Alright then.” He retorted, sarcasm oozing through each and every syllable. “Let’s suppose this is all well and true. Where is your gold? Where is your silver? If you truly have broken the shackles of earthly scarcity, then surely you must have more!” He continued, as he maneuvered himself with several high-pitched yips and yaps, through the gold, and back onto solid ground. Eventually, he managed to find the gold he’d plinked in my general direction, holding it high above his head. “I am willing to entertain your ridiculous claims, so in lieu of any long-winded displays, show me just how much your people have given you as instruments of trade and barter for this journey. Because this—” He paused, waving the gold coin around. “—is a pittance for any self-respecting newrealmer hoping to forge relations.”

I took a moment to quickly grab the cylindrical precious-materials dispenser (PMD), holding the hefty oversized candy dispenser in my hands for a moment, before lobbing it over towards the Vunerian.

The deluxe kobold managed to hold on to the object like a pro, as he examined the rather simple device, eyeing it from every possible angle.

It didn’t take him long to figure out how it worked, as those greedy little grabby-hands found their way towards the bottom ‘slot’, pinching it sideways, resulting in a satisfying — CHA-CHING! — reminiscent of ultra-vintage cash registers; something the engineers back at the IAS claimed wasn’t intentional. 

Though I had my own reservations on that.

A single silver coin, exactly one troy ounce in weight, was gently ejected from the unassuming cylindrical device.

On it, was the Greater United Nations’ seal sans its signature fourteen stars, flanked by raised lettering which read ‘Greater United Nations - Peace and Prosperity for All’. Flipping the coin to the other side, the Vunerian would find the missing fourteen stars, which was then flanked by a series of smaller raised lettering which read ‘Minted Under Special Order 32-7. FOR EXCLUSIVE USE IN DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS’.

The Vunerian took a few careful moments to regard the coin, flipping it through his fingers, before simply letting it fall to the floor with a satisfying clink!

“That’s disrespectful, Ilunor.” Thalmin uttered with a dulcet growl, which Ilunor simply ignored as he pressed onwards.

CHA-CHING!

Came another silver coin.

CHA-CHING!

Then another.

CHA-CHING!

Then another.

CHA-CHING!

And another.

CHA-CHING!

The Vunerian kept clicking that little mechanical button, mashing it to the point where the noises all just blended together, until he finally made it through the copper and silver, finally arriving into the gold section of the tube.

He once more went through the same motions, twirling the innocuous shiny object in his fingers, before simply dropping it.

“Dead… and uninspired.” He added, probably referring to the same relief patterns on either side of the coin. 

And so, the pattern continued, as he continued mashing that button, until the final gold coin clinked satisfyingly onto the small pile made by his little outburst.

But gold and silver wasn’t all that was in there.

As he curiously pressed the button once more—

CHA-CHING!

—to reveal what appeared to be just another silver coin, albeit slightly smaller, landing on the palm of his hand.

The formerly unimpressed Vunerian’s expressions visibly changed at that coin, as his face quickly contorted from one of passive indifference, to abrupt attentiveness. 

For starters, he began raising his hand up and down, as if ‘weighing’ the thing by feeling alone.

Next, he picked up one of the silver coins that’d accumulated by his feet, as he held both side by side, noting just how marginally larger the silver was compared to this similarly gray and shiny coin.

His eyes widened after that, as he dropped the silver coin, and immediately reached for his monocle.

Seconds passed, as he spent nearly a minute inspecting every nook and cranny of the identically-minted coin.

It was only after a minute that he finally dropped his monocle.

However, instead of simply dropping the coin to the floor, he raised it up towards his maw, poised to bite it instead.

The deluxe kobold started by attempting to sink one of his many sharp teefs into the coin, before devolving into outright nibbling on it, as if attempting to gnaw out some shavings from it.

It was after a few seconds of these motions, that he did something I hadn’t ever anticipated from him.

He went full gremlin mode.

In a single swift motion, the deluxe kobold simply shoved the coin straight into his maw.

“Ilunor, what are you—”

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 300% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

ALERT: EXTERNAL TEMPERATURES EXCEEDING SAFE LEVELS. 400… 725… 997… 1227 DEGREES CELSIUS. 

Without warning, flames erupted from his maw, the likes of which prompted Thacea to intervene by covering our side of the room in a small blanket of snow, courtesy of her snow-princess powers and the series of little snow-clouds that’d formed just over top of each of us.

This went on for a solid half a minute, before he finally relented, huffing and puffing all the while, as he eventually spat out the coin; the still-intact disc sizzled and clinked as it eventually came to a rest on the stone floor. 

Silence dominated the room after that whole stunt.

Thalmin however, would be the first to break that silence, reiterating a former point I’d made.

“Ilunor, what in ancestors’ and spirits’ names are you doing?!” He shouted out.

Surprisingly, however, Ilunor didn’t respond.

Not with a dismissive remark, nor with a coy retort.

Instead, he simply remained silent, his eyes as wide as dinner plates as he weakly and warily knelt down to pick up the coin; a surge of mana radiation indicating that he’d cooled it down quickly prior to touching it.

“This isn’t silver.” He noted bluntly, turning towards Thalmin first. 

“So what if it isn’t silver? What the hell did you do all of that for—”

“This is platinum.” He began, his voice shaky and in tentative disbelief. “Pure platinum, with no impurities… sans the alloys necessary to strengthen the soft metal.” 

It was at that point that Thacea and Thalmin, in that order, started to register something about Ilunor’s revelation.

Though it hadn’t clicked with me just yet.

“Yeah, so, can you not transmute platinum or something? You were so big and mighty just a second ago when you were going on about the whole — breaking the shackles of earthly scarcity — thing. So what’s with this reaction?” I shot back.

“It’s… not so much about the platinum itself, Emma.” Thacea spoke up, taking over from the still-dazed Ilunor. “Platinum, along with most rare metals in existence, are all capable of being alchemically transmuted, and thus are worthless until attuned. However what surprises us, and Ilunor in particular, is the fact that you even have platinum at all. This is because historically speaking, it is rare to find a newrealm that utilizes platinum as a form of currency or a store of wealth, prior to the adoption of pinnacle-transmutation. Some might not even recognize it as a distinct form of metal, whilst most might simply find the traditional process of refinement too much of a hassle, thereby disregarding it outright due to the difficulties involved.”

“However, those that do, process it in limited quantities; relegating it to decoration and jewelry, or a relatively rare store of wealth. This leaves gold, silver, electrum, and copper as the typical forms of currency in most adjacent realms prior to Nexian reformations.” Thalmin promptly added, giving Thacea a nod as they tag-teamed this impromptu explanation. 

“All of this is to say, Emma, that your possession of minted platinum, runs counter to typical conventions.” Thacea promptly surmised. 

“And it serves only to reinforce your claims of having somehow achieved a state of post-shackling, without Nexian intervention.” The lupinor prince added with a bewildered, yet excitable expression. 

A small grin suddenly formed across my face, as I knelt down to pick up the fallen coins, and in the process snatched the PMD from the Vunerian.

“This is not to say it isn’t unheard of.” Ilunor attempted to reason. “This is… this is just unprecedented, clearly just… a one-off statement of wealth.” He stammered out, before finally collecting himself. “So? Is that all you have, earthrealmer? I admit, this… rather audacious display of wealth is certainly one thing, but for an adjacent realm, this merely places you as a cut above the rest. Nothing truly remarkable, nothing that could indicate you’ve achieved earthly post-shackling, as Prince Thalmin so clearly wishes to support—”

“How about I just skip the pleasantries and show you the treasury, Ilunor?” I offered with a grin. 

“Excuse me?” 

=====

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30. Thalmin and Ilunor’s Dorm. Local Time: 1900 Hours.

Ilunor

The earthrealmer was bluffing.

I was sure of it.

The platinum coins were a ruse, a clever attempt at making me assume the unassumable. 

The potential that they could truly be… no.

That was impossible. 

For in spite of their… manaless miracles, there was one miracle that simply could not be replicated without the aid of magic, or in this case, alchemy — the unshackling of earthly binds.

It was a known fact that every adjacent realm that comes into contact with the Nexus, lacked Nexus-grade alchemy, or alchemical magics altogether.

They might have had some form of transmutation, yes. They might even have some form of intermediate alchemy. But none could match the purity of Nexian transmutations, let alone perfecting the art of pinnacle transmutations.

It was because of this that the Nexus stood alone as the only realm to have broken those earthly binds. 

Indeed, this meant that only the Nexus had crossed that threshold, where unattuned gold, dead gold, could be considered as worthless as iron or dirt.

And indeed, this meant none could resist the final nail in the coffin that came with all Nexian Reformations — the influx of worthless wealth, and the complete devaluation of what gold, silver, copper, or whatever may be present in their coffers.

For even the wealthiest of adjacent realms buckle and crumble upon this aspect of the Nexian reformation.

As even the mightiest of ‘Emperors’ and ‘Kings’ could not operate, if the lifeblood of economic exchange was rendered null and void.

The shock alone managed to kill empires. 

The long term effects of which, meant that only by adopting Attuned coins, were they able to operate as they once did.

Though this tactic was most often employed if the knee had yet to be bent. 

Most rulers however, understood the threat of this bloodless war.

And as such, most acquiesced long before it could even be a possibility… and were rewarded handsomely for it.

Perhaps this is why the earthrealmer wished to hold her ground, bluffing her way out of this trap.

Perhaps she understood, after my earlier statements, that only by bluffing would she be able to stand toe to toe with the monolith that was the Nexus’ treasury.

Perhaps this was why she was so adamant to stand toe to toe with a dragon, when she could scarcely be considered a kobold in this instance.

=====

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts.  Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30. Emma and Thacea’s Dorm. Local Time: 1920 Hours.

Emma

We’d shuffled wordlessly towards my dorm, arriving at one of the few crates I’d left untouched, unpacked, and outside of the tent.

“I understand your heistance to believe my claims, Ilunor.” I began. “However, circling back to what you said before… you wanted to see just how much my people have provided me as instruments for trade and barter, yes?” 

The Vunerian refused to respond, simply standing there with both of his arms crossed, monocle at the ready. 

I took this as an opportunity to move towards the back of the crate, my hand poised for a dramatic flourish. 

“Perhaps this is more what you had in mind?” 

With a satisfying click, I flicked open the crate’s latches, pneumatic hisses signaling the equalization of pressure as all sides of the cube fell apart to reveal what to the average contemporary observer would seem akin to a solid mass of industrial-grade metals… but to most in human history, and indeed, to most in the Nexus and adjacent realms, would be more akin to a representation of their most coveted desires — a disgustingly flagrant display of wealth, in the most innocuous of forms.

A solid, hulking, cuboid mass of gold.

But that was only accounting for what was on the surface.

A closer inspection would reveal a series of hairline seams seemingly overlaid atop of this glistening cube, betraying the fact that this seemingly unbreakable aurous monolith was in fact not a solid unibody object.

Instead, it consisted of rows and columns, of stacks upon stacks of bricks which were roughly equivalent to the old ‘good delivery’ bar standard; modified following multiple UN resolutions on commodities standardization to meet new universal criteria. The most notable changes, being its size and dimensions, which deviated from the archetypical trapezoidal shape, to one that now more resembled a simple brick. 

The Vunerian’s height barely put him at eye-level with the top of the cube, so as he approached, the factory-polish sheen of the formerly precious metal managed to act almost like a mirror, betraying his expressions to Thacea and Thalmin who stood behind him.

The former’s expression was one of tentative disbelief.

Whilst the latter pair’s, was a collective sense of sheer awe.

No one uttered a single word.

So I took that as my cue to move on. 

I slowly began rotating the cube on the provided multi-axial platform, revealing that the solid wall of gold was only one of the faces to what I dubbed the wealth cube. 

Indeed, as it slowly spun on its axis, it would soon reveal an entire face containing bricks with a distinct silverish sheen. 

Ilunor approached even closer at this point, putting barely a foot of space between himself and the giant rotating cube of metal.

“Ilunor, you might not want to come so close just in case something happens and it falls on—”

“Quiet!” He hissed, before managing to recompose himself. “Just. Keep. Going.”

I acquiesced with a nod, continuing the unnecessarily dramatic spin as we eventually went past silver, and onto a face consisting of more than a single metal. 

The Vunerian, and indeed, both Thacea and Thalmin raised a brow at this face of the wealth cube; consisting of the less common utilitarian metals, from tungsten to copper, to iridium and titanium; and practically every other metal that could be reliably stored in the iconic commodities-standards brick-form. 

Yet it was the last of the faces of this wealth cube that I was more interested in showing, given the immediate ramifications. 

The platinum face.

So as we crested that multi-colored face, entering the realm of a literal wall of platinum, I took extra care to take note of each and every one of the gang’s reactions.

Starting with Ilunor, who at this point, was practically right up against the wall of platinum, his hands trembling as he attempted to ‘inspect’ it using his monocle; bursts of mana radiation punctuating each and every movement he made with it.

His formerly cocky features slowly betrayed him, as that facade of Nexian exceptionalism was slowly chipped away with each passing burst of mana radiation.

Thacea, however, had managed to regain her composure to the point of once more regaining her natural serenity.

Whilst Thalmin went in the completely opposite direction… 

The wolf was now grinning ear-to-ear, holding short of a cackle as he observed not just Ilunor’s reactions, but the wealth cube with glee.

This whole scene, and the vastly divergent reactions between Thalmin and Ilunor managed to pique my curiosity, overpowering my desire to continue the game of ones-upmanship with the Vunerian.

“Is this evidence enough for you, Ilunor?” I asked, wishing to end the boasting game, as I stood there ready to set the record straight.

“This should not be possible.” He muttered out, reaching out a hand to touch the reflective wall.

“Like I said, we’ve reached the same state of abundance.” I shrugged. “I know it’s hard to accept, but it shouldn’t feel like that much of a surprise for you, right? I mean, you can literally transmute as much platinum if you wanted to. Meanwhile, my realm manages to mine up and process as much platinum, gold, silver, copper, and whatever other metals there are for our machines to gobble up to the point of excess. So I guess we’re equals in that sense?”

The Vunerian attempted to form something of a coherent response to that, but ended up simply having his words clogging up his throat.

It was Thalmin who finally broke the silence however, as he walked over to Ilunor, and myself, before placing both of his hands on our shoulders.

“One final question before I pull the words right out of Ilunor’s mouth, Emma.” He began. 

“Yes, Thalmin?”

“All of this—” He gestured towards the wealth cube. “—is this truly as abundant as you claim it to be in your realm?”

“Yup.” I nodded. “Now, I know that there’ll be questions about just how transactions are made and how the economy functions in such a state, but please understand that like, we already got rid of the gold standard and the peg of currency to gold like… at least a millennium ago. We also experimented with fiat currency for centuries after that, then, following that, we implemented a form of UBI after automation started buckling the traditional economic models, and we doubled down after we managed to crack mass-resource gathering from—” Space-based industries. “—the expansion of our resource gathering efforts.” I paused, before back tracking a bit, as Thalmin’s expressions started growing from supportive vigor to tentative confusion. “In any case, yes, Thalmin. The answer is yes.”

The lupinor’s grin returned following that, as he let out a slow series of chuckles, before evolving into an outright cackle as he slapped the wealth cube hard. Hard enough that I felt the pain of having committed to that act.

“Well then Emma Booker of Earthrealm, I congratulate you on your immunity to one of the apocalyptic dragons of the Nexian Reformations.” 

“I’m sorry, what?” I responded reflexively, before suddenly… it clicked.

My eyes locked with Thacea, then Ilunor, then Thalmin, before going back to Thacea as the avinor gave me a resolute nod.

“I should’ve known from the ffffricking beginning.” I managed out with a heavy breath. “So… I’m assuming every adjacent realm at the point of contact lacks… pinnacle transmutation or whatever it’s called?” 

Both Thacea and Thalmin nodded affirmatively, prompting me to let out another breath.

“So that’s part of their induction game? Inundating your realms with worthless rare metals, devaluing your treasuries, and then forcing you to adopt their attuned minted currency or what have you?” 

“That’s the abridged version of events, Emma.” Thacea acknowledged. “But it is, in effect, the essence of one of the apocalyptic dragons of the Nexian Reformations, as Thalmin has so colorfully described. If what you say is true, Emma… then this places your realm, as perhaps the first in recorded history, to have achieved… resource parity with that of the Nexus.”

“Resource parity, upon first contact at that!” Thalmin eagerly added.

That statement, both of their statements… managed to hit me hard. What had begun as a simple exercise in proving the Vunerian wrong, had quickly evolved into an exercise in determining the relative material and resource potential of our two polities.

The fact that the Nexus was, in a manner of speaking, technically abundant in raw and processed resources was not only a surprise but a hard-hitting wakeup call.

The realization that it’d used its excess resources as a part of its domination strategy shouldn’t have surprised me… but hearing it laid out like this was still shocking all the same.

“And hasn’t anyone ever tried attuning their own coins?” I promptly asked the group. 

“As in, forgery?” Thalmin shot back.

“I guess it would be forgery in a sense wouldn't it? Since attunement is just fancy mana minting?”

“Many have tried, Emma.” Thacea answered. “However, the process of Nexian attunement is one that has been fine-tuned over the course of millennia. There are multiple layers to the Crown’s attunement process, many of which line up with their mechanisms of control. First, there is raw attunement, which is the process of imbuing the gold itself with mana, then there is the individual binding every coin to the Crown Treasury’s Scroll of Coin, finally there is the work of Artisan-Mages, whose entire careers are based around the personalized creation of attuned coins, each of which are bound to their signature and hold a particular unique quality bound to the artisan. These mechanisms of control make it so that every attuned coin is registered and tracked, and is always at threat of being recalled following the death of the Artisan-Mage.”

“I’m sorry, hold up for a moment.” I raised both hands to stop Thacea’s informative rambles. “These are pretty advanced security features for gold coins.” I offered, as the preconceptions of a fantasy-medieval trade system was shattered, instead replaced with what appeared to be a somewhat robust financial system.

“As I’ve said, Emma. These are mechanisms of control.” Thacea reiterated. 

“Right, right.” I nodded, stowing away any specific questions on the Nexian attunement system for now, instead opting to finally close this point of contention with the Vunerian.

“I guess that means we’re even here then.” I offered Ilunor.

To which the Vunerian finally perked up, but still refused to voice a single response.

This prompted me to lean against the cube of wealth, inching forwards towards the Vunerian with a single fist affixed to my hip. 

“This means you’re going to have to practice diplomacy on a level playing field, because you can’t resort to your usual tricks. This means that for the first time what has probably been forever in your eyes, you have to interact with someone who matches your potential, at least as it pertains to the resource department.”

We’re tied, at least, in the basic resource and economic war front. You can’t just pour your dead gold in our faces, nor can we pump out attuned gold your way. I quickly thought to myself. 

Whether it was from his overexertion from the failed platinum forge incident, or the shock of this entire reveal, the Vunerian seemed to have finally reached his limits… as he outright fainted in front of us, dropping into a heaping pile of blue lizard.