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Published at 15th of June 2022 09:19:38 AM


Chapter 21

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Chapter 21 – Reflect On It

Since it was still night, I couldn’t really go to the library, so I decided to go back to making bronze ingots with the materials I purchased earlier. I spent quite a while doing that, but eventually I got a mail from Mika and Hime saying that they had just finished hunting and wanted to meet up at the usual cafe.

It was a time as good as any, so I stopped my crafting, told them that I was going, and headed out of the production facility.

******

“Hey, Yuri! I heard you were already crafting bronze gear! I knew I could count on you! Contact me as soon as you start making iron, alright!?” Mika said as soon as we sat down on the private room of the cafe.

“It’s still going to take a while to get there, you know…?” I answered while drinking some of the lovely milk tea that they serve here.

“It’s alright, Yuri! With the speed you’re going with, I’m sure you’ll be able to get this done in no time!” Mika replied eagerly.

“As long as it’s Bucket doing it, it’s going to be alright.” Hime said.

I could understand where they were coming from, but there’s a big issue here… “I’ll do my best alright? Although… Mika, didn’t I tell you to not use my name while we’re in Frontiers?” It would be pretty bothersome if others heard it after all.

“I got it, I got it. You can count on me, Bucket.” Mika said half-heartedly.

“Please reflect on it properly.” I said while sighing.

“… How about engraving the mark of a lily?” Hime suddenly interjected.

“That’s a good idea! As expected of Hime!” Mika exclaimed while hugging her.

“A lily…?” I ended up asking. To which Hime nodded.

I mean, I could do it right away since it’s not that hard to do this engraving, but what’s the point?

Mika seemed to catch on to my confusion, so she explained, “If you put the mark of a lily in your gear, I can call you Yuri without causing any issues!”

“Ah!” I replied as I finally understood it… That makes sense. Yuri and Lily can be pronounced the same after all, so it can be seen as if she was giving me a nickname due to the symbol on the gear… That was a good idea, alright.

“And it’s also a cute design.” Hime said while nodding at Mika’s statements.

I nodded too, “Okay, then let’s do it.” after saying this, I took out my crafting set from my Item Box and put a small lily engraving onto one of my Bucket Helms.

It only took three minutes to do it… It sure is nice to be playing a game, it would definitely take longer otherwise, “How about this?” I asked them.

“Pretty!” Mika instantly replied.

“That seemed to be pretty easy…” Hime seemed to be impressed, “you didn’t even use any Arts, did you?”

“Well, it’s not too hard if you’re used to crafting.” I replied honestly.

“I can’t do it!” Mika exclaimed. Hime nodded in response to her statement.

It didn’t feel bad to be praised by my friends like this, but I’m still only able to do those things this easily because of the game’s mechanics in the end, so I don’t think it’s that impressive.

But well, I suppose I could use this lily mark on future products to make it clearer that they are mine… Especially if they’re good products with Options in them, that would be pretty nice.

“Anyways, Yuri, what are you going to do about the store? You decided on anything?” Mika asked me, changing the topic a bit.

“Ah, about that… I’d like to buy a store that could also be used to craft the things I’ll sell, but I can’t buy it right now, so… I think I might just try practicing how to hire people? I’m not sure if I’m good at this kind of thing.” I answered.

“You mean hiring NPCs?” Mika seemed to be confused about why I’d need to practice for that.

“There’s hardly any difference between them and players.” Hime replied… And yeah, that was basically it. I may be able to hire NPCs, but they still behave like real people, so it’s not like I can treat them carelessly, “And rented stores can easily close after a single month if not handled properly.”

I nodded in response, “Practice is important.”

“You’re quite informed, aren’t you, Hime?” Mika commented, to which Hime nodded.

“I wonder how exactly you got this information…” I ended up commenting.

“Investigation of minimal investment needed to obtain results while taking into account the structural limits of Frontiers.” Hime responded in a single breath.

“Hime, don’t use such hard words…” Mika said while pouting.

“Well, that’s an attack with quite a bit of destructive power.” I said as I saw how Mika was utterly defeated by Hime’s statement just now.

Hime giggled a bit at this comment, which made Mika pout even more.

“Hey, Hime, did you drink enough milk when you were younger? You haven’t grown at all, you know?” Mika suddenly said… Is this a pitiful attempt of trying to make a comeback?

“Not small.” Hime replied while holding her own chest.

I giggled at that, “Mika is pretty small though, isn’t she?” and then said this while staring at Mika’s chest.

“I wasn’t talking about breasts!” Mika exclaimed embarrasedly.

******

We ended up talking about all sorts of things and before I realized it, two hours had passed… Time really flies when we’re having fun.

Though I still wasn’t able to solve that one problem…

As I thought of that, Mika suddenly got up and said, “I should go back to hunting. I got a mail a while back asking for my help on it.”

“Top player life sure is busy.” I said.

“I should also get back to my own things.” Hime said as well.

“Then I guess I’ll go back to crafting.” I told them. It was a shame that time passed so fast, but it can’t be helped when it’s so fun to talk to them.

As we were about to leave, however, Mika ended up telling me something, “You tend to overthink things a lot, you know? Sometimes it’s alright to just jump at opportunities without thinking much on them.”

“Going with the flow can be good.” Hime said in response.

“… Alright, thank you, I’ll keep it in mind.” I replied to their words. I’m sure they weren’t just talking about renting a store, but also about the clan recruitment thing… Advice given by my two best friends.

I was just thinking of declining the clan invitation, but maybe I should try reconsidering it a bit and seeing if there were some merits to it.

******

After returning to the Rental Production Facility and renting a private room there, I decided to try something new before getting back to crafting bronze equipment… Let’s use the new ‘Add’ Art that I got from reaching level 50 on Blacksmithing!

With this I can try adding some extra materials to the gear I’m crafting… I can only do it before the ‘Complete Process’ though, but that’s not a big deal… Though it also seems to be hard to make this work out properly, with things often having no result or failing entirely.

If it goes right though, I can add Options to the item and even some unique properties too!

Well, they’re basically just restrictions though, like ‘can’t be traded’. Also those properties can also apply to the creator, so they need to be handled with care… But if one uses the properties right, like if combining ‘doesn’t affect a specific person’, ‘can’t be traded’ and ‘time limit’, one can make an item that can be sold by the creator, but cannot be traded for 24h… Which is particularly useful at stopping people from reselling gear at a steep price right after buying it.

Though well, it obviously gets harder as you put more properties on the item… And if you fail, the item might have its rank lowered or be lost altogether, so this really is something that has to be handled with care.

For now though, let’s try using ‘Add’ to put a specific Option in a copper equipment.

… It’s surprisingly hard to do this even though I can already craft bronze gear… Ah! What a failure! I got Substance X…

On the other hand, adding properties to the item seemed to be a lot simpler. ‘Add’ only became harder when trying to mix materials it seems… In that case, I might try putting a ‘can’t be traded’ setting on bronze items with items that I craft. They’re still pretty rare, so I don’t want them being resold.

… That said, I can’t even do 4* bronze equipment at the moment, so let’s keep on working hard to raise my skill level!




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