CH 63

Chapter 63 – Can’t be too picky about this kind of thing

I logged in after finishing my usual morning things.

Yesterday I was making the requested products until I logged out… Well, not exactly that. I was doing a bit of an experiment yesterday.

Since Summoning gets half the level of the used skill, and I only needed to make Bronze and Copper items this time around, I decided to try calling a Summon by using the Blacksmith skill as its auxiliary skill.

This summon was Kurobi, the Fire Blacksmith! My Improved Blacksmithing skill was already at level 92, so Kurobi was at level 46.

With this level he should have no trouble making the requested items, but there was the problem of fitting the standards of NPC stores, so he had to make the items as 3*.

I was a bit worried over whether or not Kurobi could properly adjust his work to fit those standards, but there were no issues at all.

Or rather, he was actually better than me at making Copper and Bronze items that fit the standards.

Well… This is an important learning opportunity, isn’t it? One can’t simply swing their hammer if they want to fit the standards. One needs to carefully determine the right timing and force used in their swings if they wish to attain a specific rank.

Those were the things that master Merget taught me. And making a low-rank Copper or Bronze item would definitely be as hard as making a high-rank Iron one.

Or rather, it would actually be much harder to aim for a low-rank for these materials.

Therefore, this is a good time to practice my techniques that cannot be measured by skill levels.

Therefore, I’m sorry Kurobi, but I decided to make the requested products myself. You’ll instead have to make Copper and Bronze Ingots, as those don’t require much skill.

******

My hard work was giving good results. It didn’t take that long to make each individual item, but there was a decent amount to be done, so I had yet to finish it.

Nonetheless, there is still some time until the deadline, so I’m not particularly worried. I just want to finish it early to make sure I won’t have to rush it when I’m close to the delivery date.

In any case, my Improved Blacksmithing skill is almost at level 100, isn’t it? Most Improved skills had their growth slow down considerably after evolution, but Blacksmithing kept on raising at a good pace because it’s what I dedicate most of my online time to.

Though well, there are some other skills that got quite a few levels… Namely, Improved Magical Power Manipulation, Improved Magical Power Enhancement and Improved Magical Power Recovery.

Magical Power is always used when crafting, and skills like Summoning, Concentration and Discovery also consume Magical Power, so the skills directly related to Magical Power keep on growing even without me actively trying to level them.

As a result, all three of them are already at level 100… While this would in theory allow for their evolution, I only have 16 remaining Skill Points, and I’d much rather save those points for evolving Improved Blacksmithing, so those Magic-related skills will have to wait.

Especially because I’m not having any trouble with my pool of Magical Power at the moment. This would probably be different if I was a combat-focused Pioneer, but that is not my case at all.

So, my priority will be on the crafting-related skills. No more evolution for the Magical skills unless I start experiencing a shortage of Magical Power.

******

After I felt like I made enough of the requested products, I decided to switch to making products to restock my store… I got too absorbed into making products for the request though, so I didn’t have that much time available. Let’s do this fast!

Improved Blacksmithing may be almost at level 100, but the requested items being made of Copper and Bronze ended up barely giving me any experience at all… I just got a single level on Improved Blacksmithing since I got started on those requests.

I guess it’s only with iron gear that I can keep on raising my skill level… Well, it’s not like I have enough Skill Points to evolve the Improved Blacksmithing skill anyways, so I’m not in a hurry.

I need to raise the level of other skills to obtain some extra Skill Points… I suppose the best options might be Doll Making and Decipher right now? I guess I’ll focus on those once I finish making the items to restock my store.

******

After getting my gear evaluated at the Guild and restocking my store, I ended up having some free time for myself, so I decided to work on increasing my Skill Levels to secure some Skill Points.

I’ll most likely need to evolve my Blacksmithing skill to start making Steel equipment, so I need to do my best!

Doll Making is fairly easy to level for one. I just need to make dolls with it… However, there is a problem with it.

Dolls are way too cheap. I can’t really do anything with dolls that don’t make a real profit, so I keep on Recycling them and then making new dolls with the recovered materials.

Of course, I still lose materials in the process since Recycle doesn’t recover everything that was used, but this is still the best way to go for gathering Skill Points.

Decipher is also easy to level though. All I need to do is to keep on reading books.

Moreover, it also helps level the Improved Magic Language skill while satisfying my desire to read! It’s three birds with one stone!

During the process of leveling Decipher, I also got some new Doll Making recipes, so I’m not restricted to only the fox doll anymore.

However, all recipes I got were of beast-shaped wooden dolls, like dogs, cats, bears and raccoons… And well, them being wooden means that they aren’t very cute.

In any case, I made sure to pay proper attention to eat and drink from time to time while reading, so as to not let my Hunger and Drought meters go too low.

When crafting though, I often forget about those things… I end up only realizing how low they are when the warning sign starts flashing in the corner.

… I guess I’ll make the warning start appearing at a higher threshold than before, just for safety.

******

Before I realized it, it was already lunch time… Of course, that’s on real time, as I did take proper care of my Hunger and Drought already.

Frontiers doesn’t make you feel full no matter how much you eat, so you still need to leave the game to eat properly once you start feeling hungry.

Though well, in my case I make sure to always eat on time or it would be troublesome due to a variety of reasons.

Can’t be too picky about this kind of thing, after all.

In any case, after I finished lunch, I logged back in. My store was currently open right now, so there wasn’t much point in restocking it as I wouldn’t be able to make many items before it closed.

I’ll put more gear up for sale after it closes, but before the next opening instead.

And well, since I’m now regularly announcing what things are for sale on the store’s blog, the number of player Pioneers that complain about products have decreased.

Though not everyone looks at the blog, so we still get complaints from time to time… Still, if someone causes too much trouble, they’re mercilessly banned from the store, so even the problematic people end up not being much of an issue.

******

The production of the requested items has progressed considerably… I just received the quests yesterday, but I might finish it a fair amount of time before the delivery date!

<A new area has been unlocked in the Zabrina Kingdom. The Flower Jungle is now available>

Woah! Just as I was excited about making the requested product, a sudden Goddess Announcement appeared!?

We’re close to the end of the event, so many player Pioneers must be on the last spurt to clear as many Demon Trees as possible.

It was a dungeon last time, but I guess this one is different… Let’s ask Hime about it.

“Hey there, how are you doing?” I sent her a message asking that.

“I’m well.” She replied.

“Were you involved in this last Goddess Announcement?” I asked.

“Yes.” She told me.

“Oh! Congratulations!” I said.

“Thank you.” She replied.

The Eku Labyrinth might have been unlocked by the person who is second place on the leaderboards, but this new area was unlocked by Kikoridottokoru. As expected of Hime!

Though well, people didn’t finish exploring the Eku Labyrinth yet, and Mika was spending all her time exploring that area, so… I guess she won’t challenge the Flower Jungle yet.

But at the same time, it’s not as if Mika and her clans are the only strong combat-focused Pioneers out there. I’m sure other Pioneers will go check the new area out.

I won’t be able to buy whatever new materials end up appearing at the Flower Jungle directly from Mika, so I guess I’ll need to get them either from the Guild or from my store.

Although… Considering that name, I think the Flower Jungle will get flower-related materials? Flowers are plants, and plants are primarily useful for Alchemy… I guess there isn’t much that might be valuable to me there?

Though I’ll be sure to look out for any information related to the materials of this new area… After all, maybe something that allows me to increase the rank of the Magic Paper might appear there.

Well, I’m still only making assumptions based on the name ‘Flower Jungle’, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see what materials end up being available, and purchase them if anything ends up picking my interest.

I should go to the Guild later to get information on it, once the first batch of Pioneers that explores the area comes back and share what they found there.