CH 143

Chapter 143 – Y-yes

“Mmm… I guess the Zabrina kingdom is the best one, after all. I feel at ease here.” Lolita said.

“Well, it’s the place we’re most used to.” I nodded.

“… We live in this capital, after all.” Lulu agreed.

“And this disorderly townscape just feels nice.” Lolita commented.

We came back from the Tabarist Empire to the Zabrina Kingdom.

This is the end of our sightseeing trip. We had a bit of trouble at the end, but it was not a big deal, so it’s fine.

We were also able to secure a sufficient amount of materials, which was our primary goal on the trip.

“Well, I want to try out what I bought, so let’s go home.” Lolita said.

“I want to do some research…” Lulu nodded.

“Alright. Let’s go home then.” I agreed.

Our three shops are next to each other, and my workshop is nearby too.

Well, I’m the only one with a dedicated workshop, but even then, the road to the workshop is the same as the one to the store.

I also want to try crafting with the compatible materials as soon as possible.

We’re all producers, so we must all be thinking the same kind of thing right now.

On in-game time, it’s been about a year since the game was released.

I haven’t had many opportunities to come to the temple, but I’m very used to the Guild near the South Gate, so the road we were taking was pretty familiar.

However, we could also see plenty of new player Pioneers roaming around the market, so even though this much time has passed, we still saw a large number of people with beginner equipment.

Though more remarkable than that, was that we were seeing a lot of people with equipment that we had never seen before.

They are probably Pioneers from the other countries, as many producers from the other countries make Original equipment.

There are some people in Zabrina that do it too though, like Mukaida that only works with Originals, and me who makes a handful of Originals too.

And well, as the number of people that can make steel-tier gear increases, so will the number of people with Original steel gear.

Right now, about half the players on the streets seemed to be wearing Originals, so I’m sure a good chunk of them came from other countries.

Besides, even I, who almost never leave town, ended up going sightseeing, so it’s no surprise that combat-focused Pioneers decided to come too, as leaving the city is a natural action for them.

“Let’s keep in touch.” Lolita told us.

“I’ll bring something new once I can…” Lulu commented.

“A-ah! Please do call me when that happens!” Lolita exclaimed.

“… Of course.” Lulu replied.

“Yes!” Lolita happily exclaimed.

“Good for you. Well then, see you all later.” I told them.

“Laters!” Lolita said.

“… See you later.” Lulu said.

In the blink of an eye, we reached our stores, so we parted ways.

Though it’s amazing how desperate Lolita became to eat Lulu’s sweets after she couldn’t eat them in both trips.

… Well, she really loves sweets, so maybe it has nothing to do with her losing the games, but more that she was simply desperately wanting to eat them anyways.

Either way, it’s nice that Lulu and Lolita are getting along well.

******

“Hey, Yuri! Did you see the e-mail from the devs? Seems like they’re finally holding an event that uses the matching system! About time!” Mika suddenly called me.

I had tried crafting some items with the compatible materials, but I got no remarkable results from it.

I knew this was what was likely to happen, so I didn’t mind it much.

But when I was about to start making gear with Royal Steel, I got a call from Mika.

And an e-mail? Oh my, there is indeed a flashing e-mail notification on the corner of my vision.

“You didn’t see it yet!? Ah! You hyperfocused on your crafting again and ignored it!” Mika exclaimed.

“Even if that is true, I saw it now, so it’s fine.

“Coming to think of it, they recently implemented a party recruitment system and a party auto-matching system, right?” I replied.

“Yes, yes! They’re quite convenient, even if not very useful to people like me who have a fixed party!

“But still, it’s an event! An event!” Mika exclaimed.

With Mika’s prompting, I checked the e-mail from the dev team, which announced the start of the event.

It seems like it’s gonna use those new party systems that were implemented in the major update.

The Party Recruitment System lets you party up with people on the spot without needing to go to the Guild or to the forums to try searching for teammates. It’s quite convenient as it has a dedicated UI and allows you to set various requirements to let people join your party.

And as the system can be used anywhere, you can keep on doing other things while you search for a party, which is pretty neat.

The Party Auto-Matching System is a bit different, and it’s aimed exclusively at combat-focused Pioneers.

It still allows you to set various requirements to let people join, but once the party is filled, you’ll be automatically moved to the field area you want to.

Since the only possible destination are field areas, this is useless for craft-focused Pioneers… Except for stuff like Joint Collection Tours, I suppose.

In any case, this system also requires you to set an end goal, and as soon as your party reaches said goal, you’re all teleported back to your original locations.

The automatic movement is probably possible because of the implementation of the field portals.

Ah, and of course, this system consumes Magic Stones during the teleporting process. In fact, in order to even use the system, you need to deposit Magic Stones in advance, as they’ll automatically be consumed as the party is teleported.

Once the party finished their hunting, any excess Magic Stones that were deposited will be given back to the original owner of them.

It’s a pretty practical system for sure, but it’s still in testing stage, so the dev team might tweak it in the future, or maybe even remove it altogether.

On the other hand, the Party Recruitment System isn’t nearly as experimental, so it has no chances of being discontinued.

Though well, I don’t think I’ll use it either way.

“So, I read the e-mail, and we’ll apparently get event points if we party up with people from other countries?” I resumed my conversation with Mika once I finished reading it.

“Indeed! And you can maximize the amount of points you earn by making a party with two people from each country.” Mika told me.

I sighed a bit.

“I figured you’d react like that. You don’t really get any advantage from partying up while crafting, after all.” Mika commented.

“Well, even if I am crafting something together with someone, there really is no benefit from being in a party.” I replied honestly.

“But it’s an event, you know? You can get points…” Mika told me.

“Mmm…? Hey, Mika, did someone ask you to contact me for this?” I decided to ask her.

“Ah! Well, you see… Ehehe…” Mika said.

Mika knows me very well, so she knows that I never partied up with anyone for crafting.

Sure, there is a merit to it this time around, but party members need to be within a certain range of one another to make this work, so if we craft in my workshop, I’ll inevitably need to lend it to the party members.

But I don’t really want anyone other than the members of Works to use my workshop.

There is no problem system-wise, as they can’t really dirty or damage the place or anything like it, but I just don’t like it.

And well, Mika surely knew that I wouldn’t want to share my space, yet she brought this up anyways.

“Well… There’s an acquaintance of a member of Mist Knights who is in a clan of the Tabarist Empire, so we started talking about it and… Ehehe.” Mika explained.

“So you were asked to do this by a craft-focused clan.” I stated.

“H-hey, come on! Now that we can go to more countries, that’s a chance of you expanding your circle of friendships, Yuri! What do you think of it?” Mika asked me.

“Is it a pre-requisite to use my workshop?” I asked.

“That’s actually up to you. The other clan was fine with using the Rental Production Facility.” Mika replied.

“That’s reasonable.” I said.

“R-right…?” Mika said.

I guess Mika might have been worried about me, who doesn’t have many friends.

And they don’t seem to be wanting to simply use my workshop.

But to be honest, I don’t really want to use the beginner facilities of the Rental Production Facility anymore.

But at the same time, I don’t really want people I don’t know to use my workshop.

“Doesn’t this other clan have a workshop?” I decided to ask.

“Ah, well, maybe? Though I think they preferred using the Rental Production Facility instead, I think?” Mika replied.

“Mika.” I said.

“Y-yes!?” She said.

“Can I refuse?” I asked.

“I’d like you to accept it if possible… This clan from the Tabarist Empire is called Beyond the Faraway Time, and they’re a top clan from that country. It would be pretty nice if we could create a good connection with them now, you know?” Mika told me.

“If they’re a top clan, then they surely have a dedicated workshop, don’t they?” I pressured her.

“If you are able to use their workshop, will you accept it?” Mika asked me.

A top clan of the Tabarist Empire surely has their own workshop, so I guess they didn’t want to share theirs either.

It makes sense, I guess. They might not want to share some of their original recipes or production methods.

On the other hand, since we can now access the other countries, the game’s population has basically tripled now, so future raid bosses and event battles might require a very large amount of players.

I understand that Mika wants to start working together with the strong clans now, so as to be properly prepared for future events, but… I don’t think she should sell me out for that.

No, selling me out is an exaggeration.

Mika is worried about me having too few friends.

This is a request from my best friend, Mika, so I want to grant it.

But just accepting it unconditionally isn’t something I can do, even for Mika.

Isn’t there a good compromise?

Maybe Hime might have a good idea.

Yeah, let’s get in touch with her!