The group had lunch at a small cafe that featured a primarily vegetarian menu. A smaller quick service style cafe, the group ordered at a counter and then a server brought them their food. Leka paid for the group using paper money, as opposed to coins, which Anika had expected in a fantasy world. She decided to ask Leka about how money worked here once they had food.

  Lily delighted in the summer salad, which featured a mix of fruits like jiri and talorin and vegetables on a bed of leafy greens. Anika tried a vegetable soup that had a collection of the root vegetables she recognized from the temple dinners, though she also encountered a few new mystery veggies she couldn’t identify. She thought about asking Leka to name them, but decided she could just find some kind of book in the library on food. It was getting a little old having to constantly ask people to label the food like in preschool just to try to learn the names of everything.

  Philip got a very large plate of stir fry that included crispy fried tofu. The stir-fry looked tasty, but the plate held far more food than Anika could imagine eating for lunch. She liked something a little lighter. Leka joined Lily in ordering a salad, though her salad had tofu and didn’t include any of the fruit that decorated Lily’s salad.

  ”So how does paying for things work here? I saw you used some kind of paper money. Are we going to get paid for being heroes? Or do we just live in dorms for the rest of our life like broke college kids?” Anika realized she probably shouldn’t have asked the last question, but she assumed at some point she may want to buy something for herself. Clothes or gadgets or just meals at cafes like this.

  “Of course you will not be forced to live at the temple your entire life if you don’t want to. But you do not need to pay for a lot of things here.” Leka took a sip of juice before continuing. “Everyone contributes to the community and in return the community cares for everyone. Basic housing, food, and clothing are covered for every person and in return every person contributes to the community. For example, did you see on the menu the section called ‘Daily Meals?’”

  “Yeah, I saw it…some kind of stir-fry like Philip ordered.” Anika remembered that it sounded a little simpler than Philip’s dish, consisting of some kind of noodle, tofu, and one or two other vegetables.

  “That is the meal that anyone can come in and eat without paying. Each restaurant and cafe is required to offer a Daily Meal. They are usually basic fare that is easy to produce in large quantities and feature more local ingredients that cost less money and are more easily accessible. Something like the jiri in Lily’s salad isn’t grown locally, so it would not be offered in a Daily Meal.”

  ”So I can come any time and just eat for free?” Philip’s eyes opened wide as he looked at Leka, voice filled with awe. Anika assumed he imagined himself going from restaurant to restaurant, slowly devouring every meal into the bottomless pit that resided inside him. Anika envisioned him like an anime character piling in the food before wandering fat and happy home to the temple and smiled to herself.

  ”No, you are only entitled to one Daily Meal from a restaurant per day. For other meals, there is the community dining hall similar to the dining hall at the temple, though it is most frequently used by single adults, and the weekly food allowance each person receives. To track that, we have our identification tablets.” Leka pulled a small tablet out of her satchel. It had a chain attached and looked like a similar material to the time tablet, only much smaller. As it dangled from Leka’s hand, Anika couldn’t quite make out the inscriptions on the small tablet beyond recognizing them as magical runes and possibly numbers.

  “We will actually be picking up your own identification tablets tomorrow afternoon. They are created by runesmiths at the city temple. We do not have the ability to create identification tablets at our temple, as we are a training and dungeon management temple, not a city governance temple. Each person is registered with the city temple upon birth, or in your case, summoning, and a tablet is created within a week. While pets and companions would not normally get their own identification tablets, the city governance decided that Epona and Lily should also get their own tablets, as they are sapient beings contributing to the community who will need resources in return, such as food and housing, unlike the companions of the other three hero’s, who do not require additional resources. Those companions will still earn additional contribution marks based on service beyond community minimums but they will be assigned to Morigan, Panu, and Zola directly whereas Epona and Lily will track their own contribution marks.”

  ”I get my own card? Yay! But I don’t have a bag so Anika will have to hold it for me. Unless I can have a bag too?” Anika found Lily’s excitement at receiving the same items as the humans of the party endearing.

  “Anika did mention wanting some kind of armor or protection for you, like Epona has, so I’m sure we could also give you a way to hold your own identification.” Leka looked at Lily contemplatively. “I did ask the local armorers to consider protection options for you, so we can ask them about that as well. We likely will need to get a significant amount of custom work done, which may require a large portion of your contribution marks, but the temple will cover some of the cost.”

  ”Hold on… can you explain contribution marks?” Anika needed to sort through the information packed into what Leka had said, but the emphasis on contribution marks seemed important to figure out now.

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  ”Contribution marks are assigned for any work you provide to the community above your assigned quota. They can be spent and traded with businesses or artisans, or cafes like this.” Leka motioned vaguely at the space around them.

  ”So contribution marks are how we pay for things, and we earn them for work above our quota… which consists of…?” Anika couldn’t help saying ‘quota’ with a slightly negative tone… she didn’t necessarily like unknown obligations. The idea of it shouldn’t have surprised her. Anika figured it did make sense that they didn’t refer to it as ‘money’ in the same way she would, as this world had a more community oriented culture than earth. When the gods dictated everything, she supposed it made a lot of sense. While Leka had not specifically stated it, the comment that the ‘city governance temple’ issued the identification cards confirmed her earlier assumptions that this world was quite literally governed by the gods and that they likely dictated a lot of these policies directly. She didn’t mind the idea of having a universal basic income, but it sounded like this “quota” directly correlated with the basic goods and housing provided. She wondered what happened if people didn’t fulfill the quota.

  “Every adult is expected to fulfill their obligations to the community.” Leka smiled, “Don’t worry, it’s not a difficult obligation! You are already fulfilling yours with room to spare. In general, the quota is fulfilled by a person’s chosen job. The amount of work required is quite reasonable, and people are encouraged to give more to the community through contribution marks. For example, my job is trainer. I am required to spend a certain number of hours in that job, and any hours I put in over that earns me additional contribution marks. Those hours are all completed during the Greater Week, and some jobs may have variations in their required hours. For those with more labor intensive or dangerous jobs, they would require less hours to fulfill their contribution than someone who works as a shop keeper, for example. During the Lesser Week, each person is required to contribute at least five hours to community improvements or activities. Business must also contribute to the community, and Daily Meals are one way that cafes and restaurants contribute.”

  Philip finished the last of his stir-fry and pushed the plate aside, “So, we have to get a job? Can I work on a farm?”

  Leka laughed, “You are here to fight in dungeons, you don’t need another job.”

  ”So… what exactly are we required to do to fill our quota?” Anika felt relieved that she wouldn’t need to start working a part -time job while also trying to keep up with training and dungeons and learning magic, but she also wanted to ensure she wouldn’t suddenly be denied food or housing for failing to meet expectations.

  “Right now, you have the effective status of acolyte until the temple determines you are sufficiently competent in staying alive and clearing out dungeons on your own and you feel comfortable participating on your own. Of course, the temples will always assist you due to your special status, when needed, but you are not required to respond to them beyond completing your quota. As acolytes, you are students and do not have a quota beyond completing your required training, and in return you are provided food, housing, clothing, and necessities for your studies such as the armor and weapons the temple provided. You can start earning additional contribution marks, however, for your part in providing crafting materials like the squirrel tails or lidok hides I picked up behind you in your dungeon forays this week. At the start of each week, the governance temple updates contribution marks, though marks can also change hands directly with crafters or shops.”

  Anika nodded, relieved the requirement consisted of doing what they told her to do, and, as far as she could tell, no pass/fail element existed to deny her credit. She considered asking what the requirement would be when they advanced from acolyte status, but she had a long way to go before anyone released her into the world unguided. Finding out some nebulous future requirements could wait. “So the paper you used to pay for lunch…those were contribution marks?”

  “Correct!” Leka took a few pieces of paper from her satchel and put them on the table for the group to see. “Each mark has different values starting with one, five, ten, fifty, and so on.”

  Anika looked at the marks on the table and noted the small size and square shape compared to the rectangular bills of earth. A decorative roundel in the center of the mark represented the different elemental magics, with Anika recognizing clear water, fire, and earth design elements. A small number in each corner represented the mark’s value.

  “So when I get marks I can come to the village and buy candy any time?” Philip eyed the marks and the almost empty bag of candy he had returned to after finishing his meal.

  “I may recommend saving some money for other things… like better equipment.” Leka responded dryly.

  “What do you do if you have a lot of marks? Is there a bank or something you can keep them in?” Anika assumed that some people would end up with a lot of marks, as some highly motivated people just liked to do work. She hoped she didn’t just have to hoard them in a chest in their room like in games.

  “You can turn them into a city temple and get the value inscribed on your identification tablet.” Leka pointed to a spot on her tablet that had the number 1735. “You have to have paper marks for any mark transactions, however. The identification tablet magic is only set up for community allotments, as those are standard for everyone and don’t have varied amounts.”

  The identification tablet sounded like it worked more like ID cards on campus for meal plans. She had a set number of meals on her plan, and it just counted those, so she assumed allotments worked similarly where they didn’t have an actual monetary value in marks. Having something that worked a bit like a bank account helped, even if they couldn’t spend the marks directly like a credit card. Maybe they would develop that technology in the future. Anika really enjoyed not having to carry around paper money, but she supposed being able to carry things in a Mary Poppin’s style spatial bag could change her mind about things.

  Anika looked around the table and saw that everyone had finished their food. “So where do we get our identification tablets?”