Percy Jackson - Cursed to Forget

The Richest Man In The Universe

I was flying around the myths, magic and legends section of the library wracking my brain for the books that might help the kid. He was strange, and had big ideas, but he was also clueless, with no idea about how things worked. At least he was aware enough to ask for help. I don't know exactly why I was helping him, it was partly true what I told him. That I was helping because he was the first interesting thing to walk through those doors in a long time, but there was also something else.

I had finished collecting all the books I thought he would like and was making my way back to where I had left him reading about the four fables. I rounded a shelf and I saw Percy close the book and lean back into the chair, a stupidly giddy smile plastered across his face. "What's got you so happy?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he replied, "just I think I have thought of something fun to do," he continued on. I just sighed and shook my head, if he was thinking of doing what I thought he was, then it would be anything but fun. Why would a kid like him want to go chasing creatures with the power of gods, it didn't make any sense. But then again, nothing he has done so far makes much sense. A seemingly normal numahn kid, with zero knowledge about the universe wants to know about legends and myths and things that could kill him. Sorry kid, but without magic or some power most things will be able to kill a numah like you.

"I found some more books you might be interested in," I said snapping my fingers, causing the trail of books floating behind me to settle down on the small table next to Percy. "Thanks," he said, while picking the one on top of the pile up. "I might need to take a break from reading though, I have this thing about letters jumbling themselves about that can make it quite tiring," he said while looking at the front cover of the book he picked up. It was about the 10 most dangerous monster species. "Hey Yisstil, if you're not to busy," Percy started, looking at me kindly. His eyes were dazzling, a beautiful green colour, with specs of orange dancing around them. "Can I ask you a few questions?" he asked.

"Sure kid," I sighed as a floated down towards the chair next to him. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, sort of everything," he answered a little shyly. I rolled my eyes, this was going to be harder than I first thought. "There is a lot to cover when talking about everything kid, try to be a little more specific," I said. Percy thought about his next question carefully. It was easy to see that he really wanted to know everything he could but he needed to slow down. "Ok, how do people move around to different planets?" he asked.

"Well there are transports available to the public, they don't go everywhere though, just the most populated places. There are enough of those to last lifetimes though. The more wealthy people have their own ships and go wherever they like. A lot of planets keep to themselves and can range from being cautious of outsiders to outright hostile. Mostly though people just move around the planets within a solar system," I replied, answering as best as I could. Percy was just looking at me, intently absorbing what he could.

"You said the wealthier people have their own stuff, so that means there must be money. Does everyone use the same money or do different planets have different currencies?" he asked his second question.

"No, the whole universe uses the same currency. However, prices of items may vary from planet to planet," I answered.

"So how does the money system work?" he inquired. I looked at him with a smile expecting him to start laughing at his own joke, there was no way he didn't know about money. But he didn't, he just looked at me with those hopeful eyes of his. "What sort of a planet did you come from?" I asked him, my curiosity getting the better of me about this strange kid.

"Oh," Percy said, a little taken back. "I come from a place that is kind of cut off from everything else so I don't know anything about how things work," he continued on. That just opened up more questions, but I left it alone, instead started explaining how the currency worked. "Well, the money system is made up as a tier system. The lowest is a bronze coin, that is your base. Next you move up to copper, and a cooper coin is worth the same as 10 bronze. Moving up is silver, which is worth 50 copper coins. Next tier is gold, and gold is worth 10 silver coins. The final tier is platinum, and a platinum coin is worth 50 gold," I finished.