Chapter 5: She Gets her First Pay
"Please wait a moment." The Elf said as she took out a tray and placed several different coins on it. There were three bronze coins, three silver coins, three gold coins, and one made of a kind of white metal.
"Pay attention to these first three coins." The receptionist pointed to the three bronze coins. "These coins are the most that common citizens use every day. This first coin, the small bronze coin, is worth about five zetu. It is about the price for one half-loaf of bread, or one to two fruits, depending on the size of the fruit."
'Hmm, so it's about 50 cents in USD, which makes each zetu about 10 cents' Robin noted. "And the next one?"
"This is a regular bronze coin." The receptionist replied. "It is worth about ten times as much as the small bronze coin. It can be used to buy a cheap meal from a tavern or local food stall."
'That's around 5 USD or 50 zetu' Robin nodded, glancing over at the large bronze coin hesitantly. Surely, this large bronze coin wouldn't be ten times the regular bronze coin, right?
"This is the large bronze coin." The receptionist noticed Robin's glance. "It is worth about two times the regular bronze coin." Robin inwardly sighed in relief. 'Only twice as much. That makes it worth about 10 USD or 100 zetu'
"The large bronze coin can be used to pay for a hearty meal from a restaraunt, or for supplies such as meat, flour, eggs, and the like." The receptionist continued. "A regular commoner will most likely receive about five large bronze coins per week as pay."
"Hmm? That would be about 260 large bronze coins per year per person, right?" Robin asked.
"Indeed! It seems you are good with numbers. Can you tell me how much zetu 260 large coins is?" The receptionist leaned on her palm, interested.
"Each large bronze coin is about 100 zetu, so that would mean...26,000 zetu per year?" Robin replied.
"Correct!" The receptionist smiled. "My you are smart, aren't you?"
"Er, Only a little. I can't handle much larger numbers than this without writing it down." Robin replied, slightly troubled.
'But still, if I convert that amount to USD, 26,000 zetu is only about 2,600 USD. I get ten times that much just working at my scheduling job!' Robin noted. Of course, she had to pay for electricity, appliances, and bills for things like car payments and college, so it wasn't like she couldn't get by on $2,600 after cutting all of that out.
"Next up is the silver, right?" Robin asked. looking at the next group of three.
"Yes. This small silver coin is worth twice the large copper coin, at 200 zetu. The regular silver coin that I gave you is worth about 500 zetu each." The receptionist smiled delightfully as she asked. "Now, can you tell me exactly how much zetu you received from the quest you turned in?"
Robin's eyes widened. 2, 500 zetu! That was a lot.
"Why such a great amount of pay for a job like weeding?" She asked.
"Because there is the chance that one can become a magic plant's food if one isn't careful. Ah, yes. If you manage to defeat any magic monsters, we do purchase monster cores, so you can exchange them for 1 silver coin each. More dangerous monsters will get a higher price. Profitable, right? That is, if you don't get killed."
Robin took out the blue crystal she had picked up earlier, and handed it over. "You mean this?"
The receptionist's smile grew slightly bigger. "Yes, it is that. It's in good condition, and has been freshly gathered, so I'll give you a bonus of one large copper coin." She quickly retrieved one silver, and one large copper coin, and handed it over to Robin, before continuing to explain the coins.
"The large silver coin is worth twice as much as the regular silver coin: 1,000 zetu. This is usually used by merchants for large orders like clothing or food for their guards, or as payment for adventurers accomanying them on their merchant's route, if the road is particularly long. Now, while I could have given you 2 large silver coins instead of four regular silver coins, we usually handle all payments with the regular coins as much as possible."
Robin nodded. 'I never thought I'd see a coin worth as much as $100' she thought to herself.
"And now, we arrive at the last set of three: the gold coins." The elf sighed, pointing to the smallest of the three. "This small gold coin alone is worth 10,000 zetu."
"T-ten thousand!?" Robin asked, shocked. The price seemed to escalate quickly when it came to gold.
"Yes. Gold is a currency that only important people use, like the head merchant of a merchant guild, or the King's Navy General. It is a sign of prestige, and only the nobility or merchants will usually use these. I say 'usually' because sometimes if it is given out as a reward for great valor or as part of a bounty, or the reward for a highly difficult quest, the commoners will be granted it. But if they wish to convert it into smaller money, then they can only visit the bigger merchants, or the king's secretary."
Robin gulped. "T-then, the regular gold coin?"
The elf's eyes narrowed with delight as she lowered her voice a bit. "25,000 zetu"
"A-and the large gold coin?"
"500,000 zetu."
Robin was taken aback. "T-there's one more coin there, on the tray."
The receptionist put her finger to her lips.
"Shhh..White gold coin: worth 1,000,000 zetu."
Robin felt shocked that so much money was spread out on the tray in front of her. it was only ten coins, but it was already worth more than 600x what she held.
"What are you thinking, now?" The elf asked her.
"I'm thinking that you're very confident, otherwise you wouldn't take so much money out into the open like this." Robin replied, feeling scared. "Aren't you afraid that someone will try to steal it?"
The elf tilted her head sideways. "No?" She asked, as she put the coins away. "Unless you were thinking of doing something like that?"
Robin shook her head vigorously. "No way. I'm a law-abiding citizen, I am! Moreover, it's much too troublesome."
"How so?"
"Well, first off, if I stole from the guild, I'd be breaking the law, thus being automatically ejected from the guild-which is where I get paid for the work I do. Even if I somehow managed to bypass the safeguarding spells and muscled adventurers, I'd probably have a bounty placed on my head, and be on the run from that point on, hunted like a rabbit wherever I went. And I'm not one for cross-country running, so, like I said: It's just much too troublesome for me." Robin finished.
The receptionist broke out into laughter. "Refusing a quick trip to riches simply because it's too troublesome? That's definitely not something I've ever heard before."
"Putting it a separate way," Robin added. "I want to make money. But I want to make the money, honestly. The other reasons are just for extra good measure. Is there a problem with that?"
"Hmhm~No, there's no problem with that." The receptionist chuckled. "Well then, have a nice day~."
"See you tomorrow!" Robin waved as she left the guild.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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