Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 103 – Thanks you for your advice

On the day after the defensive battle, Frontiers was back to going all-out in the event.

As for me, I was spending all my time making steel gear and event items.

Though there was also some progress on yesterday’s discussions. The Guild was quite terrified by the Demon Trees re-invasion, so it immediately posted quests for cutting down Demon Trees surrounding each area that has been unlocked so far.

With the player Pioneers appearing, the world that had almost collapsed by the invasion of the Demon Trees was now revived. Humanity was finally having their counterattack.

That’s why the Guild is moving quickly. If they take it easy, then the NPCs might end up dying in the process.

In any case, with this development the possibility of future defensive battles should have definitely decreased.

Though of course, it depends on Pioneers accepting the quest, but woodcutting quests are already fairly popular in general, so this isn’t a big worry.

Of course, the event might push people away from taking those quests, but this one in particular has a very good reward, so a lot of discussion was raised on the forums about it.

In fact, it’s a quest that even I want to take, because its reward are Skill Points!

Unfortunately though, you can only take this quest if you have a tier 3 level of Woodcutting. I don’t even have the tier 1 skill, so this is impossible to me.

Hime seems quite happy about this quest being released though, I’m jealous… I wonder if a quest like this one can be released for crafters…

******

In addition to making event items and steel gear, I am gradually reading the books from the second floor of the library. Thanks to that I found quite a few recipes, but I didn’t get the ones I wanted yet.

Namely, the Improved Intermediary Tool recipes.

Also, I ended up getting many recipes that I can’t make yet due to lacking the appropriate materials. In particular I found quite a few silver-based recipes.

The previous tiers were copper, bronze, iron and steel, so I thought silver could be the next stage of equipment, but… Silver requires a smaller amount of intermediate materials than steel, but more than iron.

It’s strange. Steel recipes are available from the get-go, but Silver requires access to the second floor of the library… And yet, I think the performance of silver gear will probably be worse than the one of steel gear.

Maybe silver has some attribute-related bonuses? Perhaps some undead-slaying modifier even?

Well, I can’t be sure until I make the item, as recipes don’t give you that much information by themselves. I won’t know much about silver equipment until I make them.

Couldn’t there be some silver materials out there somewhere…?

<On the Zabrina Kingdom, the Dotril Silver Mine has been unlocked>

“Whoa!?” I exclaimed to myself.

Just as I was wondering about that while laying down and reading a book on my recently purchased sofa, a new area was unlocked!? And a silver mine to boot!

This can definitely get me some silver materials! Absolutely!

Though it’s in Dotril, that city with nothing special about it that was located after the highway… The event mobs didn’t appear in that area, but there was apparently one seriously devoted player Pioneer who kept on cutting down Demon Trees near Dotril, so I guess this person was the one who unlocked the mine.

And they got the material I wanted with their dedicated woodcutting! Thank you!

Though there are some problems, like… The event is still going strong, and event mobs aren’t appearing near Dotril, so nobody that is participating in raids and competing for a good position on the event will go to the Dotril Silver Mine.

And like, it’s not just the people who want a high event rank who are fighting on the raids. The price of the Shadow Tears is still rising, so many people are raiding just to resell those.

Still, there are many people playing Frontiers. In Zabrina alone there are probably over 10000 players, and the number keeps on rising each day.

So, it’s unlikely to have no players go to the Dotril Silver Mine at all, but… What if one has to be fairly strong to hunt or mine there?

The strongest players should be focusing on the raids, so there is a chance that nobody who is strong enough wants to explore the Dotril Silver Mine… Though well, that depends on how much of a tough region the mine is.

But then there is also the matter of being able to purchase the materials, I mean… The Dotril Silver Mine is in Dotril.

I checked just in case on the forums, but yeah, it’s totally in Dotril. It’s a city that I visited once, so I can teleport there via Gate if I pay the usual fee, but… I’d need to open a stall to purchase the things mined there.

It would take a fair bit of time, and I’m a celebrity too, so I’d rather not go out in public for long periods of time.

I mean, I could use a disguise or ask someone to open the stall for me, but still… If the development on Dotril keeps on growing, then this kind of thing will only become more of a problem.

So, it would be idea to actually open a store there too, but… My current store is always out of stock and never meets the demand, so it’s not like I can afford trying to provide items for two stores.

“Then why don’t you make a store that only purchases things?” Mika asked me.

“Fuaaa!?” I exclaimed.

“What’s up with that scream?” Mika asked again.

“Mika! You surprised me!” I told her.

“I mean, I knocked on the door and said I was here a few times, you know?” Mika replied.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t notice at all…” I said honestly.

“I figured, which is why I entered without permission.

“Anyways, it should be fine for you to make a store that does only purchases in Dotril, shouldn’t it?” Mika suggested again.

Seems like I was too absorbed in my thoughts and didn’t notice Mika coming in at all… Moreover, I was probably thinking out loud the whole time.

It’s quite common for me to not notice my surroundings during crafting due to the concentration, but it seems like this habit is getting worse and worse… Well, I guess that’s fine, more importantly…

“A store that exclusively purchases… I certainly never thought of that before.” I said.

“Well, yeah, stores usually do engage in both buying and selling.” Mika agreed.

“But if I make a store that only purchases, then I can have fewer staff and a smaller store…” I mused.

“And if you want to sell things, you can just do it here.” Mika added.

Yeah, I don’t think there is any store in Frontiers that does only purchases so far… I mean, maybe someone is doing it without me knowing, but there wasn’t much of a point for player Pioneers to do that up until this point, so I think there shouldn’t be any store like that yet.

Like, most people would also want to sell stuff on top of buying materials, and like… If you just wanted to purchase a few materials, you could simply make a stall.

Not to mention that player Pioneers in general shouldn’t have enough money to make it worthwhile to make an entire store whose purpose is just buying things. Especially because of how profitable it is to sell the things we craft.

But on this case, it’s really better to just buy things. I can afford to have a second store that only purchases materials in a distant city, then simply go there to collect the materials and then sell the finished products on my main store.

It will cost me the fee of using the gate twice to collect the materials and go back, but that’s not a problem.

I can also contact the clerks by call and message, so I don’t need to go there just to talk to them.

It would be nice if I could use the store warehouse that is shared across stores, but that’s sadly impossible, so I guess the trips back and forth using the gate can’t be helped.

Well, maybe the warehouse contract would be more expensive like that anyways, so it’s not that bad.

******

“Thank you for your advice, Mika.” I told her.

“Glad to help. Do tell me if you can make anything better than what you currently craft.” Mika replied.

“Roger that.” I said.

Mika had come to sell some rare materials and play, but when I told her that I had a silver recipe, she was quite happy about it.

If I make something better than the Mysterious Sword or the Dark Short Sword, then Mika would definitely be the highest priority to receive it.

She’ll also soon finish paying for those two items, so it’s fine for her to take the next loan!

In any case, with Mika’s advice, I decided to open a store that exclusively purchases in Dotril.

I’ll try finding a good location for it, but hopefully I can also get a small store in order to cut costs… After all, I may have plenty of money, but my resources aren’t infinite.

And I’m far from being done with upgrading all my facilities to advanced tier, so no matter how much money I have, it’s not enough.

Then, let’s go to the site and secure a store. I don’t think Capital Sabrina’s real estate agent handles the properties in Dotril, so I have to go there myself.

And I should go now, because if me and Mika were able to come up with this idea, then it shouldn’t be hard for other people to reach this same conclusion.

Well, the number of player Pioneers who have the need and the resources to buy or rent a store in Dotril should be fairly limited though, so it’s not like I need to rush this.

But well, there might also be people wanting to get a store in Dotril early as an upfront investment so as to have an advantage as Dotril is developed…

In any case, it’s been a while since my last outing. This is a place I wasn’t expecting to return to any time soon, but I guess I’ll go there again.

I won’t be visiting Haldrin this time around, but I’ll still be careful to not get involved in any sexual harassment.

Well then, let’s go!