Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~

Chapter 93 – Right right… Wait, I’m not evil!

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Now that the event passed its middle stage, the top combat-focused Pioneers, who were frustrated by having to fight weaker mobs, are now able to relieve stress to their hearts’ content by fighting the strong event mobs in high-level areas.

And with this, I am now able to purchase many more materials… It really was the right decision to save up some funds before buying the advanced facility.

Though well, I’m already making even more profits by selling steel items with Options to my acquaintances… Options are truly wonderful for business!

It’s also nice that my acquaintances are mostly top combat-focused Pioneers, so they have the necessary money to spend on those wonderfully profitable items.

Well, part of it is probably because they don’t have much more use for their money.

I mean, purchasing a Clan Base might be useful, but it’s not like all Clans need one… Mika’s Mist Knights just rent a conference room if they need to hold a meeting, for example.

They don’t have any crafter on the clan, and while they’re all top players, their numbers are also fairly small, so something like a workshop or a big base are completely unnecessary.

Not to mention that they spend most of their time hunting, so they don’t really need to meet up in a room often.

On the other hand, the Kikoridottokoru clan that Hime is a part of is fairly large, so they did end up getting a Clan Base… Still, they have no crafters, so they don’t need a workshop… Not to mention that one of their best members, Hime, gets priority sales from me, so she really needs no help from other crafters.

The other members do end up needing to line up at my store if they want to get steel gear, but they still seem to be able to obtain the items I craft in this manner.

I also remember that, back on my first collection tour, quite a few of the escorts from Mist Knights and Kikoridottokoru did have items made by me, so they’re certainly willing to line up to get my gear.

Though well, it’s a lot harder to get my items now than it was before, due to how long it takes to craft steel equipment.

That said, steel can’t really show its full performance against event mobs under normal circumstances.
Event items tend to be able to generate more firepower due to the mobs’ built-in resistance, so one doesn’t need to force themselves to line up to buy steel.

… Unless they have access to the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation that is.
As this Magical Formation can considerably reduce the damage resistance of the event mobs, which makes the steel items become a lot more effective than the event items.

And well, I can make the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation more often now, as the Shards of the Large Shadow Crystal are dropping, and the amount of mobs that drop the full Large Shadow Crystal have also increased.

Due to that, the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation stopped being an item that needs to be saved for particularly hard enemies, and became more of something that can be used whenever the party wishes to be more aggressive.

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Ah, though I’m still the only person that can craft it, as there is no one else that is as enthusiastic about Magical Formations as me.

I hope everyone will make use of this opportunity to learn the wonders of Magical Formations!

It’s not that I’m lonely due to not having any comrades on this love or anything…

******

“Are you free now?” Mika suddenly asked me through a call.

“What’s up, Mika?” I asked her.

After finishing my usual things, such as dinner, I logged in.
And the first thing that happened after that, was having Mika call me.

School already ended by now, so I thought she’d be exploring a new area at this moment, but what made her suddenly call me?

“Ah, I defeated a boss and got something that looked like an event material, so I figured I’d ask you if you could make something out of it.” Mika told me.

“Oh? It wasn’t on Eku Labyrinth again, was it? Where was it then? And what’s the material?” I asked.

“It was on Thorn Valley, and the material is Shadow Granite.” Mika said.

“That’s definitely one of the places that were found during the last event… And you already reached its boss!?” I exclaimed.

“I’ve done my best!

“Or so I’d like to say, but in all honesty, it was mostly luck.” Mika explained.

The Thorn Valley was not a dungeon like the Eku Labyrinth, but more like a field area, similarly to the Flower Jungle.

It is quite wide though, so Pioneers don’t have to compete for prey in it.

And as the name suggests, there are many thorny monsters in that area.
Apparently, Pioneers can be damaged from merely touching the mobs of the Thorn Valley.

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So, when pairing those special characteristics together with a high level, and the extra strengths of the event mobs, it ends up being quite tough to explore this area right now.

And then, there seems to be an event boss near the center of the Thorn Valley.
The Flower Jungle had no such thing, but the Thorn Valley seems to have one.

Moreover, the enemies on this area drop some wonderful high-rank materials.
I have bought quite a few of them through my store.

In any case, the boss’ spawn location seems to be semi-randomized in the Thorn Valley.
It is always near the center, but not in any specific place.

Hence why Mika said that it was mostly by luck that she found it.
That was the explanation that she gave me.

“Well, let me look at the list of event recipes…

“I found one, a consumable item.
Its name is Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stone, and it doesn’t seem particularly hard to make.” I told Mika.

“Oh? Considering the name, I guess its effect will be similar to the one of the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation?

“But it’s a consumable, so… I guess it sucks?” Mika asked.

“I don’t know.
I guess we’ll have to see how many uses it has.
There is a possibility that it is not single-use.” I replied.

“Oh, right!” Mika exclaimed.

There are several different types of consumables.

Some are like Magical Formations and Potions, which have fixed number of uses.
Others are one-time uses, and others have durability.

If it has durability, it can be used until its durability reaches 0.

Differently from equipment though, consumables can’t be repaired, and they are more volatile with how much durability they consume with each use.

For example, a throwing knife may lose a lot of durability when used against a mob with strong armor, but lose only a bit when used against an enemy with little-to-no armor.

And well, throwing it on unarmored parts of tough enemies will also consume little durability, so it’s something that is better if your techniques and skill levels are higher.

I think the Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stone probably uses the durability system, as I can’t imagine it being a one-time consumable when it requires a boss drop to be made.
It would be completely worthless like that.

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Well, I can’t say for sure until I try it, so let’s wait until Mika brings it to me.

******

“Finished!” I exclaimed.

“Ooh! How is it? How is it?” Mika asked.

“It’s durability-based, after all.” I replied.

“Ohoh! Then we now need to check the effect.” Mika said.

“Well, its market price is cheaper than the one of the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation, but I dunno if that’s because of usefulness or because of crafting difficulty.” I told her.

“Well, it probably doesn’t have as many uses as the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation.” Mika said.

“Most likely.” I agreed.

It’s definitely easier to make the Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stone when compared to the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation… In fact, I’m the only one that can make this Magical Formation so far.

But well, the number of uses of the Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stone is skill-dependent, so, depending on the situation and on its effect, it might actually be more efficient than the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation.

I’ll have to leave the testing of that to Mika though.
I’m just happy with the fact that the Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stone generates quite a few event points, so I want to make as many of them as possible.
They’re easy to make anyways.

However, they’ve only been dropped by the boss of Thorn Valley so far, and no information about it has been posted on the forums… It’s possible that the people that did obtain it have just kept the information secret, but it’s more likely that the drop simply isn’t guaranteed.

But well, people will keep on beating this boss, so all I can do is purchase it whenever available.

And of course, if Mika or Hime get it, then it is certain that they’ll sell it to me instead of to anybody else.

Ah, and the people from Gospel will probably sell it to me too… I really should add them to the list of people with access to the private section of the blog.

But I haven’t met them at all in the Guild recently, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to them… I should have registered them as friends back then.

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It should be useful to them as they’ll be able to get steel items with Options without lining up in front of my store, and I’ll be able to keep on getting more and more rare materials, so it will be a win-win relationship for everyone!

“Hey, Mika, do you know of the ‘Gospel’ clan?” I decided to ask her.

“Ah, those guys… They’re a clan who are famous for being polite and ‘well-behaved’.” Mika replied.

“That seems about right… Well, they’ve been selling me rare materials for quite a while now, so I was thinking of adding them to the list of people with access to the private section of the blog.” I told her.

“Ah, well… If you want it, Yuri, then it’s all good?” Mika said.

“Huh? Do you dislike them perchance, Mika?” I decided to ask her, as she didn’t seem happy to hear it.

“No no, that’s not it, it’s just… Well, that clan is…” Mika started muttering.

“The exact opposite of you?” I asked.

“Right right… Wait, I’m not evil!” Mika exclaimed.

I just laughed at her reply.

They are one of the top combat-focused clans, so it’s a given that Mika knew of them, but it seems like she dislikes them.

I guess it’s because she tends to prefer dark heroes, so they don’t fit into her ideal.

Well, that’s fine, for both Gospel and Mika don’t seem to be the kind of people that would fight in battles in cowardly ways, so they don’t exactly clash in ideologies or anything.

In any case, Mika unfortunately has no way of contacting Gospel.

Well, I’m not in a hurry, so it’s fine if we can just meet up by chance like it happened last time.

It’s not like I finished making preferential gear for Mika and Hime yet anyways.
And then there is Armilate and Rush next on queue before I consider anyone else.

So, even if I allowed Gospel to get the stuff on the private section of the blog, they still wouldn’t have access to the best items just yet.

… But at the same time, they’d probably just be happy to get any sort of steel gear? I guess that would depend on how many steel pieces they were already able to buy.