CH 18

Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~

Chapter 18 – “K”

After closing up my stall, I headed for the library.

I already had a well-established rotation here in “Frontiers”: Production > Appraisal > Set up a stall > Library > Production.

Of course, I also wanted to talk with Mika-chan and Hime-chan whenever I had the chance, but this was the general gist of my everyday experience.

The library was only open during the daytime, which didn’t work too well with my schedule. Still, I didn’t want to remove it from my flow.

After all, I could get plenty of recipes just by reading books there.

I even had some recipes that I couldn’t yet use, but I was certain that I would be able to use them soon.

My Skill Lv steadily continued to increase.

Going through this cycle smoothly for a while, I was able to enjoy “Frontiers” without any major happenings.

There were quite a lot of small happenings, but they could all be solved with just a little bit of talking.

The stalls still weren’t in a position to be selling Bronze gear yet, but Copper-type “Option” items were becoming common enough to be found here and there.

And since I had a high login-time-to-production ratio, I seemed to be one of the top crafters in the game.

Of course, there were still many people crafting exclusively for their clans, but since they don’t tend to open many stalls, I can’t really say much more than what can be seen in the forum threads.

The information in the forum wasn’t clear enough to see whether people had started to craft Bronze ★3 gear yet or not.

I think it’s time for my rematch against Bronze.

After all, my “Smithing” had gone over Lv 50!

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I had made up my mind about going for it after checking my skills in the private room of the “Rental Production Facility” near the south gate, which I had already become familiar with.

Back when my “Smithing” skill was getting closer to Lv 50, I had been increasingly checking my skills in anticipation, so I had already gotten used to seeing them. But still.

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Crafting Lv34 / Sewing Lv42 / Weaving Lv31 / Merchant Lv49 / Tool Making Lv39

Smithing Lv51 / Magic Circle Lv42 / Magic Manipulation Lv42 / Magic Enhancing Lv42 / Magic Recovery Lv42

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Leatherworking Lv31 / Woodworking Lv28 / Alchemy Lv32 / Languages Lv33

Remaining SP: 36

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It took me about 4 days from the release, almost 2 in-game weeks to get myself to these levels.

Several players have already posted screenshots of their Skill windows on a certain forum post, and only a handful of them had any skills over Lv 50. And even then, those were combat skills, not production skills, so… I think I’m doing pretty good so far.

According to the info from the beta test, it seemed that one should be able to reliably craft Bronze gear starting from “Smithing” Lv 50, so I decided to give it a try right away.

I had bought a large amount of “Copper Ore” and “Tin Ore”, and put equal amounts of each into the “Magic Furnace”. Then I slowly removed impurities using “Smithing Arts/Lv 15/Extraction – Improved”.

The last time I tried this, it had taken me too long to completely eliminate the impurities, which caused me to get a low rank product that seemed to be on the verge of failure. But this time, I had a higher Skill Lv, so I felt I could give it another go.

And it turned out that it was now as easy as making a “Copper Ingot”.

Almost as if my previous struggles had been nothing more than an illusion, I could quickly remove all of the impurities. Here’s the finished product:

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Bronze Ingot

Material / ★4

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I did it! And not only that, it went all the way to ★4!

This must be due to the fact that I had kept raising my Lv by constantly doing Bronze gear over and over.

I got so excited with my new creation that I forgot I was still holding it when I threw my hands up in the air as I cried “Banzai!”, which caused the “Bronze Ingot” to be launched so high up that it hit the ceiling. Thankfully, “Bronze Ingots” are materials that don’t have any durability, so I didn’t have to worry about it getting damaged. But I should be more careful next time.

There were no scratches in the ceiling either, because “Bronze Ingots” have no durability and so they cannot cause any damage. You can even safely throw them at someone else and they won’t get hurt. It’s still scary, though.

After that, I continued to make a lot of “Bronze Ingots”, and before I realized, I had already spent over 2 hours making them.

I was so happy that I got a bit carried away. But I would be using a lot of them from now on, so it was okay.

My first piece of Bronze gear had to be, of course, my “trademark”.

I couldn’t have it any other way.

By the way, that “Bronze Ring” I made previously has been erased from history, so it doesn’t count!

By thoroughly shaping it with “Molding”, I can make things over and over again so that it’ll let me register it as an original recipe, so this one would be completed in no time.

Of course, I had my “Copper Bucket Helm” registered as an original recipe, so I would make as many of these bad boys as I can to register this one as well.

Here’s the finished product…

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Bronze Bucket Helm

Head / Heavy / ★3 / DEF +13 / Durability 40

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It was easily made into an Original item, so I was able to name it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end up being a ★4, and of course it didn’t have any “Options”, but I was still happy with it.

It had almost twice as much defensive power as my old “Copper Bucket Helm”.

It was almost identical in shape, but its color was a little brownish, which was a characteristic of Bronze gear.

After placing it side by side with my “Copper Bucket Helm”, it was really easy to notice the Copper one’s much stronger reddish tone. But on its own, it was really hard to tell the difference between the two.

Well, looking at its stats should be enough anyway, so there was no problem there.

First of all, I would be making as much gear as I can to upgrade the equipment of the people I know.

Since Mika-chan didn’t want Bronze gear, and we agreed that I’d let her know as soon as I made an “Option” item, I contacted Hime-chan first.

Some heavy gear and her “trademark” face mask, and a “Magical Thread Gloves.”

I would be using a special thread for the gloves.

Rush might be interested in Heavy gear too, so I would be making two of those.

Here’s some of the finished gear…

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Bronze Magic Thread Gloves

Magic Thread Gloves / ★3 / ATK +17 / Durability 90

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Bronze Face Mask

Head / Heavy / ★3 / DEF +9 / Durability 40

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Bronze Longsword

Longsword / ★3 / ATK +29 / Durability 80

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By carefully and thoroughly using “Molding” to finish the a product as if I was making it for the first time, I was able to reliably craft ★3 Bronze gear without having to get through ★2 or ★1 results first.

Though my hands felt as if I could fail to get ★3 results the moment I stopped being very careful as I worked on them.

That was how important being thorough in my work was in order to reliably produce ★3 Bronze items.

The stats of the finished gear was no less than double than that of their Copper counterparts.

Looking at the market price information, I could also see that their price, just like their stats, was at least double too. I figured that getting a new set of gear would cost a lot of money.

Well, that’s how much better stats are worth.

I thought, if I can start making “Option” items of this kind, they should sell for quite a bit of money.

Considering the price at which I was purchasing the raw materials for them, I was pleased as punch.

It was really worth the effort.

I continued making gear that would be useful for the people I know with the large number of “Bronze Ingots” I had created.

By the time I finished making all the equipment, I noticed that it had been more than five hours since I started renting my spot at the facility.

I had finished just in time for my logout time, so after going back to the real world to take care of a few things, I logged back into the game.

After a nice, refreshing break, I went straight back to make even more Bronze gear!

But before that, I emailed everyone I knew to let them know that I was now able to make Bronze gear.

And even if they can’t buy any of it, ★3 Bronze gear would sell quickly once I put it on sale at my stall anyway. I was sure of it, because even my Copper gear was still selling quite well.

After that, as I set out to get back to work, I quickly received two replies.

Both Hime-chan and Rush wanted to buy as much Bronze gear as they could afford to.

However, they seemed to be a bit concerned about whether or not I had enough stock, so we decided to do business in person.

Both of them had stopped hunting and would be arriving soon, so I asked them to DM me once they had arrived.

It seemed that Bronze gear, which was still in short supply at stores and rarely seen at stalls, was quite alluring.

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“I’m here”

“Okay~ I’m about to finish doing something, but I’ll be with you right after I’m done”

“K”

About 10 minutes after I got back to work, I got a message from Hime-chan.

I quickly finished the piece of gear I was working on, so I would be able to meet with her without making her wait too long.

But before selling it, I couldn’t afford to forget to get an evaluation for it at the Guild.

We agreed to meet at the Guild. I would get my evaluation for the Bronze gear I had made so far, and Hime-chan was going to report having finished a quest.

“Welcome, Mrs. Bucket-san.

Would you like us to make an appraisal of the items you’ve manufactured today as well?”

“Yes, please.”

I come here every time just to use their “Production Item Appraisal System”, so it seems that the receptionist with raccoon ears already remembered my face.

(Even though I said “my face”, I’m always wearing a “Bucket Helm”, so I think she wouldn’t recognize me if I ever took it off.)

I was very happy to hear a whisper saying “Congratulations on producing your first piece of Bronze gear!” as I handed over the equipment to be evaluated in the trade interface.

The reason why it was only a whisper was that things would have gotten very noisy if it was revealed that I can reliably craft Bronze gear. I appreciate the thought!

The receptionist of the “Production Item Appraisal System” seemed to have a high “Appraisal” level, and she had evaluated many of my items.

That’s why she expressed her congratulations like that, since she was well aware of how well my game progression was going.

When I got the gear back after the evaluation was over, seeing the results made me even happier.

They didn’t get twice the rating as Copper gear would have gotten, but it was close enough to that.

If I had had any “Option” items to evaluate, I would’ve been close to reaching ★3 and even ★ 4.

Going from ★1 to ★2 didn’t take too long, but going from ★2 to ★3 would take a considerable amount of time because it would take 6 times the total value needed to reach ★2.

And from ★3 to ★4, it will take more than 3 times the total value needed to reach ★3.

But from now on, I’ll be focusing on making Bronze gear only, so the time needed to reach those values should be reduced by almost half.

Though this was all theoretical, and it could end up taking longer than I anticipated…

“Bucket-san.”

“Ah, sorry, Hime-chan. I’m done here, so shall we go to the cafeteria?”

“K.”

There were far fewer people in the Guild approaching me and other producers for business.

As a result of a number of small happenings other than the one I had in the Guild, there was a lot of debate on the forums about “crafter pressure.”

As a result, it seems that various rules such as “No pressuring crafters into doing business with you” were made, but since they were more like house rules rather than something official, they weren’t really enforceable.

However, it seems that the majority of people voluntarily stand in favor of the crafter Pioneers so that they do not stop their production activities.

Though some players still seemed to be harassing crafters into negotiating, they were simply longer doing it inside the guild’s premises.

Frankly speaking, it was quite the nuisance.