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Published at 15th of June 2022 09:19:40 AM


Chapter 19

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Chapter 19 – Don’t Mind It

After walking to the cafe with Hime, I sold her the bronze equipment while we waited for Rush. I was a bit surprised that she bought so much in one go even though bronze gear costs more than twice as much as copper gear.

“With this, my attack and defense have basically doubled.” Hime said while happily giggling.

“You’re quite the rich girl, aren’t you?” I replied with this question.

“Thread is strong!” She said. I think she was making a fake pout from behind the mask, but it was hard to be sure since I couldn’t see her expression.

“As expected of Hime.” I said while nodding.

She just gave a cute giggle in return… When she is like this, I suppose it’s no wonder that she’s considered a celebrity in the official forums and even have a dedicated thread for her. A mysterious and mostly silent masked girl who manipulates a weapon as complicated as the Magic Gloves. A girl who is not only incredibly efficient when she is playing in both solo and as a party, but is also extremely cute… Definitely a game idol material alright.

Her popularity alone was enough to raise the number of people using the Magic Gloves… They’re still not that popular since they’re quite hard to use, but the increase in the number of players that wanted this weapon was still noticeable.

Also, Hime seems to often receive party requests from top players that want her help, so I suppose they might also help spread the word about her amazingness in one way or another.

As I thought about that, I heard a familiar voice say, “Oh my, is that Himecut?”

Hime turned her head towards the source of the voice. She seemed to be a bit confused, but that’s fine, I can just introduce him to her, “Rush, thank you for coming.” I said.

He seemed to be quite surprised to see Hime next to me… Is this the power of a celebrity? I suppose that can’t be helped then.

“Sorry, Bucket, I’m late… But this is Himecut, right?” He seemed to be really eager to talk to her… Seems fun, “Do you know her perchance?”

“Yeah, she’s my best friend.” I answered instantly.

“B-best friend!?” Rush was clearly surprised.

“Mmmm… I suppose that’s true.” Hime complemented my statement.

It’s true that we haven’t known each other for that long, but we’re still pretty close, so we have to be best friends!

Regardless of that though, we should do business first before digging more into Rush’s feelings, “Rush, why don’t you sit down instead of standing over there?” I told him while gesturing to an empty nearby chair.

“O-o-oh! Th-that is… Sorry, I mean, thank you.” Him fidgeting that much was really cute, I wonder how interested he is in Hime…

Well, that can wait until we’re done though, “Here, Rush. This is a sample.” I showed him one of my products.

He inspected it really quickly before saying, “As expected of you, Bucket, it’s really amazing that you could make it be this good in such a short amount of time.”

“Well, I’ve been on the crafting business for a while now.” I answered.

“My acquaintances that are focusing on crafting haven’t gotten this far though, you know?” He seemed to be a bit keen on praising me, but it’s not that much, I mean… I’m just spending more time than most on this. I’m dedicating most of my free time to this game after all, even if I still make sure to take care of my normal everyday life.

“They’ll surely catch up soon.” I replied to him.

“No, you know, you’re really doing something amazing…” He seemed to be planning on continuing the flattery, but then he stopped for a second, then said apologetically, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the money to buy all that.” I guess it took him a while to realize how high the price of bronze gear is?

“It’s alright, just get what you can. I’m sure the rest will sell in no time anyways, so it’s not like you need to feel bad about not buying everything.” I told him honestly.

“Alright, in that case…” He then specified what things he wanted.

******

Once the transactions were finished, it was time to start the fun, “Hime, Hime! It’s a bit late, but let me introduce him to you. This is Rush, he was one of my first customers.

“And Rush, you already know her, but this is my best friend, Mechacure Himecut, or just Hime for short.” I introduced them both.

“A pleasure to meet you.” Hime said to him.

“I-I-I’m really happy to meet you! I’ve heard a lot about you on the forums, and I can’t say how amazing it is to meet you directly!” He eagerly said… This is wonderful, isn’t it?

“Oh my, thank you for the praises.” Hime answered.

“It’s truly an honor to meet you.” Rush said once more.

I like where this is going. Let’s keep guiding the conversation in a way that can let them grow closer and closer. My life has nothing to do with romance, but that doesn’t mean I can’t push people towards each other’s routes!

******

“Then, see you later! Once again, thank you very much for your time!” Rush said as he left while waving us goodbye.

Hime just waved back to him without saying a word.

“See you!” I replied. Though my words sounded cheerful, I was actually a bit bummed out… To think Rush was interested in Hime solely because she was a popular user of Magic Gloves! How could this be!?

I can’t believe he just wanted to talk more to her because he fell in love with the weapon during the beta, but had to give up on it because it was too complicated to use… He just wanted to talk to someone that also liked the same weapon that he did!

They ended up shaking hands before parting, but that was all that happened between them…

“Disappointed?” Just as I thought that, Hime-chan said this single word to me.

“Yeah…” I replied… She really saw right through my intentions, didn’t she?

“Don’t mind it.” She said while patting me… I pouted for a bit, but… At the end of the day, Hime is still really cute.

Well, who needs a boyfriend anyways!? We still have ‘Frontiers’ after all! That’s all that we need!

“I should go back to hunting.” Seeing that the talk was over, Hime got up and said that.

“Alright, I’ll also go back to crafting myself.” I answered while getting up too.

“Do your best.” Hime gave me a small encouragement.

“I will! You too, do your best!” I told her in response, to which she nodded.

After that, we both left the cafe and went our separate ways, with me going back to the ‘rental production facility’ and her going back to hunt.

Once I got back to the facility, I kept on working on my remaining bronze ingots… Let’s aim for Bronze equipment with ‘Options’!

******

I was so devoted to making equipment with my bronze ingots, that I didn’t even realize how much time I had spent doing that. I only noticed that six in-game hours had passed when I finished making the last of my bronze equipment from the bronze ingots… But well, it was fun to make new gear, so it can’t be helped.

After taking the usual forced break, I came back to the game and immediately went to the Guild to have my gear appraised. There was a lot of equipment for the receptionist to look over though, so it would take a small while… But well, that was fine! I’m now bringing bronze gear to the guild regularly! I’m making some real progress here!

And well, it was also nice to see the smile on the receptionist’s face when she saw how much bronze equipment I brought at once. The bronze gear sold by NPC stores alone isn’t being enough to meet the demand after all, so it’s a given that she’d be happy to see more people producing it.

But for the time being, I don’t have much to do, so I decided to sit down on a couch and do some embroidery while waiting.

That said, a person immediately tried to talk to me as soon as I sat down… Luckily enough though, other players immediately stopped said person and told him that it was rude to bother crafters while they’re at the guild.

The person seemed to be reasonable enough and even apologized to me for the bother… It felt a bit troublesome to see how the other players seemed to be going really overboard in the crafter protection thingy, but I guess this was better than being bothered by every single player in the surroundings… Also, I know they’re doing it with good intentions, so let’s not reprimand them or anything.

Instead, I told the person who had apologized to me for the disturbance that, “I’m glad you’re interested in my products. Please come check my stall once the guild finishes evaluating them.” while giving him my best business smile.

He seemed to be happy by my reply and said he’ll definitely come later. It sure is nice when people are sensible and can understand and follow the rules properly, even if they’re unofficial ones.

The rest of the waiting time was mostly uneventful, so I could do some embroideries in peace until all the gear was evaluated. And once that was done, I immediately went outside and set up my stall.

The person that apologized to me inside was actually the first in line, and his gear seemed to be mostly made of copper, so he’ll probably think of upgrading… Let’s do business then!

I opened up the stall and said, “I’m sorry to have kept your waiting.” with a smile.

“Oh, not at all, and uhn… Wow, Bucket, you…” He seemed to be flabbergasted at the bronze gear. That’s a good reaction.

“Take your time to choose, although you might get in trouble if you take too long…” I said as I saw that there were already more people looking at the item list.

“Wow! You’re already selling bronze, Bucket!” One of the potential customers that were looking at the list said… Knew it.

“Amazing!” Another shouted.

“I’m gonna buy it!!!

“… I can’t afford it.” A third one just said. His disappointment was a bit pitiful, but it couldn’t be helped.

I giggled a bit and said, “Thank you for your purchase.” To another customer that just bought some bronze gear.

This quick exchange was overheard by other players on the surroundings, and a crowd was quickly formed in front of my stall… I wonder where all those people came from, there weren’t that many around until a small while ago.

And with this, all the bronze gear I made was sold in the blink of an eye, even though I made so much… Well, this is actually a good thing.

Also, at least that person who apologized to me first seemed to have also been able to buy it, I’m happy that he wasn’t left out.




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