CH 148

Chapter 148 – Seriously! You’re overfocusing again!

Some of the event recipes are really simple and can be done even if you have no skill levels at all.

However, the members gathered in this workshop are all top craft-focused Pioneers. All of us have very high skill levels and techniques.

In other words, the things we can make are the hardest ones available.

“Hahaha! First one is done!” Hamelun exclaimed.

“You’re as fast as ever, Hamelun.” Riou commented.

“Just make sure to not make anything that is low-ranked. It would be pointless to finish fast if you’re making low-ranked items.” Akebi told him.

“It hurts when you say it like that! Hahaha!” Hamelun laughed again.

Even though we are on a party, we still do the production activities separately.

For as long as we are within a certain range of one another, we’ll still be getting points for the event, so there is no need to collaborate.

In any case, after I chose which materials I was going to use, everyone picked whatever they preferred working with and started doing their best.

Things usually aren’t this lively, so the mood feels a bit strange right now, but what I have to do doesn’t change.

Well, I’m using intermediate-tier facilities and tools, so it does feel a bit different than usual because of that too, but that can’t be helped.

Now, let’s focus!

******

“-ket! Hey, Bucket!” I heard Lolita’s voice.

“Huh? Were you talking to me?” I asked her.

“I am! Seriously! You’re overfocusing again!” Lolita exclaimed.

Oh dear, oh dear. Seems like I was focusing too much on my crafting, so I ended up not noticing when Lolita called out to me.

During the crafting process, I often end up not noticing messages and calls. It’s a bit of a bad habit of mine that I don’t know how to fix…

This time too. I only noticed she was talking to me once she started shaking my body.

“Sorry, I was concentrating like usual.” I told her.

“I saw it, you know? But wow, you concentration is seriously amazing. It’s been three hours already and you can still focus like that.

“Anyways, it’s time for a break and everyone has already gathered, so let’s just go.” Lolita told me.

“Oh, alright.” I replied.

Already? But it’s only been three in-game hours… Well, Lolita said it’s break time, so I guess we should take a break.

I usually keep on going for at least six in-game hours though… But well, I guess today is a special day, so it’s fine.

“Thank you for waiting.” Lolita said as we entered the break room.

“That was quite the amazing focus.” Akebi commented.

“Yeah! That was really impressive!” Riou exclaimed.

Everyone was already waiting for us at the break room.

Now that we were here, Lolita immediately started serving sweets and tea that Lulu prepared for us.

And as expected of Lulu, they were all incredibly delicious… And oh, there is a new creation there too.

“Delicious! Is this a new creation from ‘Lu’s Patissier’!?” Akebi asked.

“That’s right. Lulu worked hard to make those for us.” Lolita replied.

“I knew it! I’m a big fan of her creations!” Akebi exclaimed.

“Oh! Lulu certainly has a lot of fans, doesn’t she?” Lolita commented.

“Akebi is quite picky with food, but she got taken in by ‘Lu’s Patissier’ in no time! Hahaha!” Hamelun exclaimed.

“Shut up, Hamelun! What if Lulu gets embarrassed and doesn’t join us because of this kind of comment!?” Akebi scolded him.

“Well, Lulu is quite shy, so I’m unsure if she’ll participate regardless of the people involved…” Lolita told them.

“I-is that so…?” Akebi seemed disheartened.

‘Lu’s Patissier’ is the name of Lulu’s store.

The sweets she makes are quite delicious, and they often come with good meal bonuses, so they are very popular with both combat-focused and craft-focused Pioneers.

Since we’re from different countries, Akebi must have only been able to taste Lulu’s sweets recently, but it seems like she already became a fan of Lulu’s works anyways… As expected of Lulu.

Unfortunately, Lulu is a very shy person, so it’s hard for her to participate in this kind of talk.

She can speak normally to the members of Works, but it’s hard for her to interact with everyone else.

In fact, she still struggles to talk normally even with Mika and Hime.

“Anyways, the power of the top producer is truly overwhelming…” Riou commented.

“I know, right!? Bucket is definitely amazing! She’s the member we’re proudest of!” Lolita exclaimed.

“I didn’t expect her production speed to be twice as ours! Hahaha! I’m beat!” Hamelun exclaimed.

As we enjoyed Lulu’s new creation, the conversation suddenly turned to me.

The things that everyone made were lined up in their assigned spaces.

Once I paid attention to it, I saw that I apparently made twice as much as the other people did.

Of course, the crafting speed does vary depending on the difficulty of what you make, but I made the hardest items available, as those were the best ones for raising my skill level.

And the other members did the same thing, as it’s not only way too hard to raise skill levels by doing easy crafts, but also because we get more event points by crafting the harder items.

Also, being on a party further increases the amount of event points we earn, so it’s only natural that everyone will try making the hardest items available in order to maximize the points earned.

Therefore, everyone made things that would take quite some time to be crafted and that were pretty hard to make, but… Even if we were working on the same tier of items, I still made about twice as many items as anybody else did.

This surprised me too… Did they all work too slowly or something?

“I didn’t really cut corners when making my items, but I’m surprised at this big difference.” I commented.

“I’m surprised too. I guess it’s not just your long login times that let you be keep your position at the top.” Akebi commented.

“Indeed! Also, look at the rank of the items that Bucket made!” Lolita exclaimed.

“Oh!? That’s quite big! It’s two ranks higher than my items!” Hamelun exclaimed.

“It can’t be helped that it’s better than what Hamelun did, but to think it’s also better than mine and Akebi’s while maintaining this crazy speed… You’re gonna destroy my confidence like this.” Riou commented.

“As expected of Bucket.” Mukaida said.

I could only laugh wryly at all that.

Since we were at a party, we could see the details of the items made by the other crafters in this workshop.

Apparently, I was the only one who was able to make the hardest event recipes at a stable 7*.

The other members made a variety of different items, with most being of the highest difficulty or one level below it, but… Their ranks were either on the 5* or 6* range.

And yet, they were only able to make half as many items as I did after those three hours passed, so it’s no wonder that they were surprised by my results.

I was certainly quite surprised by it myself, as I didn’t know much about other crafters’ production speed.

After listening to their conversation, I also found out that my focus is apparently out of the norm too.

I mean, I knew I had a bad habit of overfocusing and losing sight of my surroundings, but this is actually something they envy me for.

I already knew that the quality of your items will be higher if you can focus properly while you make them, but there was another factor that I wasn’t aware of.

Apparently, even the top-class crafters gathered here today find it hard to keep on crafting for more than three in-game hours without taking a break.

But I regularly kept going for six in-game hours without stopping…

Moreover, when people are working together, it’s normal to take breaks every in-game hour, it seems. And beginner crafters seem to take breaks even more often.

That was quite strange to me. I’m sure I’ve been working for long amounts of time since the start.

When I told them about it, everyone opened their eyes wide.

“As expected! This is the top crafter alright! I can’t win against that! Hahaha!” Hamelun exclaimed.

“Bucket, let’s take proper breaks regularly, alright?” Lolita told me.

“Ah, well, I forget all about it while I’m focusing, but this is just normal to me now…” I replied.

“I thought you were just a disabled person who could stay logged in all day, but instead it’s like this…” Akebi commented.

“H-hey! What are you saying, Akebi!?

“I’m sorry for that, sorry about that.” Riou hastily apologized.

I gave them a wry laugh, “Well, it’s alright. It’s true that my login time is quite long…”

It’s undeniable that my login time is bigger than normal, and the longer you can stay online, the more time you have to raise your skill levels, so it’s only natural that I can stay one step ahead of everyone else.

But it seems like that’s not the only reason why I’m at the top of the craft-focused Pioneers.

I did do some research on the forums about crafting, but I wasn’t aware of the details of how others worked due to not much information about it being shared.

In addition to my long login times, I was able to stay at the top due to how much time I can stay focused on my crafting.

In the end, I guess this depends a lot on each person’s individual qualities, so even if someone tried to imitate that, they probably wouldn’t get good results.

And well, I think I was also able to move ahead due to the various NPC quests I cleared.

In any case, we were able to make some pretty good items today.

Though with the intermediate tools and facilities, 7* seems to be my limit. I can get them to 8* if I use the advanced tools and facilities in my workshop, however.

Yesterday I made a few practice items, and they were all at a stable 8*, after all.

But there’s no point in worrying about what can’t be helped, so let’s not mind it.

Moreover, the devs went out of their way to create this cooperative event, and making 7* items at a party does end up giving many more event points than making 8* items by myself anyways, so this is more than enough.

I was also able to learn a lot of things I wouldn’t be aware of, so I think participating on this was the right decision.

Thanks for giving me this opportunity, Mika!