Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

“Mm....” Shuffle thought about for a few moments before shaking her head. “I don’t know... Parts of it sound, but parts of it don’t.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry nodded and looked at Niudisa, "See?"

 

[Fangs9090]

“Alright then. Since she’s on the fence, I’ll drop the subject but keep a vial ready just in case.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Whatever," Jerry shrugged and stood up, "Better go check on the others." Considering the track record, somehow the four that left in search of bathing pools had managed to get hurt somehow, with Jerry's luck.

 

[Fangs9090]

Setting up the pools was taking slightly longer than expected as Erina had insisted on making the fabric a little bit bigger. She didn’t need her loom for it, but it still took some time. By the time Jerry found them, she had finished and allowed it to be hung up.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry was impressed. They'd actually managed to do something behind her back without almost getting killed. She didn't vocalize that, but nonetheless she wasn't sure if she was glad or disappointed.

While Erina worked on the fabric, Adran was working on setting up a kind of boardwalk with Veo and Emil, laying thin trees down and using magic to smooth them into something that wouldn't be dangerous to walk on barefoot, lashing the result together in a path from the pools back up the camp.

"You know, I think if we do get out of here I'm gonna find a spring and make a business of that," Jerry said as she watched what the group was doing.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil glanced over. “That seems like a relaxing way to retire.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Good money, too," Jerry nodded, "I mean, I don't think I'm ever gonna stop treasure hunting, but at least I'll have a stable source of income."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked over at Jerry. “What exactly is money good for?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Well," Jerry leaned against a less-wet side of a terrace, "On the surface, you kinda need money in order to survive. It's the basis for trade up there. Our coins are made of gold, silver, and brass," Jerry fished out a gold coin, "Kinda like this, but this is from an ancient kingdom. On the surface this is probably more valuable than a coin of equal trade value just because it's probably rare." She put the coin away and tried to think of something to explain trade.

"Let's say there's something you really really want that I have, okay," Jerry started, "On the surface, there's a value in gold, silver, or brass coins for just about everything. If you have money equal to the value assigned to the item I have that you wanted, you could pay me that money, and in return I would transfer ownership of that item to you. It's the same way for labor. If I want a worker to come with me to a dig, I need to pay his wages while he's in my service. Usually that amounts to the cost of what he needs to live. A place to sleep, food and water, tools, and payment for the labor itself is my responsibility to give to him in exchange for his work."

 

[Fangs9090]

“That...sounds terribly complicated. But I suppose if the surface is more densely populated than down here, it would work to avoid the chaos of just taking what you want.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"It isn't nearly as complicated as it sounds," Jerry shook her head, "Adran can teach you better than I can, my daddy taught me how to steal before he taught me what money was." That was way too much power to give a young Jerry with no morals yet. "I could walk into whatever shop I wanted and walk out with whatever I wanted and not pay a dime in the six months before the house got foreclosed."

 

[Fangs9090]

“You seem to have had an interesting childhood. At the very least, it was less monotonous than my own.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"I almost died twelve different ways before I was ten," Jerry shook her head, "It was interesting but I'd have preferred something monotonous and stable."

 

[Fangs9090]

“Mm, fair enough. I suppose the things we don’t have tend to be what we want most.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry nodded, that sounded about right, "I just helped Shuffle bring Nyah back out, so she's back in the game. You guy's should have soap when the time comes."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina blinked. “I thought soap was for the laundry?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"It is," Jerry nodded, "But there's more than one kind of soap. There's the soap you use to clean clothes, called detergent, and there's soap you use to clean your animals and hair, called shampoo, and then ther's the soap you use to clean your body. There's also a bunch of different perfumes you can add to soaps to make it smell a certain way."

 

[Fangs9090]

“Is everything on the surface more complicated?” Erina paused. “Actually, if that’s the case, I’m excited to see the fashion.”

 

[Darkling0096]

'That's even more complicated," Adran called, "Different areas have different concepts of what clothes do and don't look nice or are practical."

"Yep," Jerry nodded, "And different clothes are good for different situations, too. The time for a suit and tie is much different from the time for roughage clothes."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina smiled. “That just means there’s far more variety than what I’m familiar with. I look forward to that.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry shrugged, "We gotta get up there, first."

"On that note," Veo picked a splinter out of her hand and flicked it to the side, "We're basically done, so if you've got stuff you want to do in the meantime we've got time."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded. "I'm still resting from my work, so I guess I'll make sure everyone knows about the path and which pool is which."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry gave thumbs up and started heading back up to the camp. Beri, predictably, was not at all interested in going in the water, and paid no attention at all to Erina's announcement.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia, on the other hand, were excited to get in the water again. Having finished their food, they were eager to run off, but they decided to wait for some of the others to go as well.

Corona glanced around, scratching her ear awkwardly.