Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 114 – Can’t I get its recipe?

Hayflick called me as it was my turn again.

This time we’ll be moving on foot though, so I’m surrounded by plenty of escorts.

There were some battles here and there, but the scout team took care of most enemies in advance, so we didn’t have many encounters with mobs.

Moreover, almost all of them were instantly taken care of. The knights are truly strong, aren’t they?

“Here, Ms. Bucket.” Hayflick told me.

“Alright.” I replied.

The place I arrived to had an altar just like the previous one.

Instead of having a barrier in front of us though, what we saw was a steep cliff.

It would be pretty tough for fully-armored knights to climb that without using some special tools. And even then, the weight of the armor paired together with its restriction on movement would make climbing really hard.

However, the altar is right in front of the cliff… Could it be as simple as that? It’s so obvious that it makes me suspicious.

“Let’s hope it goes just like the Royal Library’s books described…” Hayflick muttered.

Then, I used the Divine Goblet on the altar. Once that happened, a clear path appeared, cutting right through the middle of the cliff… Basically a tunnel.

It’s a bit disappointing due to how predictable it was.

Hayflick seemed to also know that this would happen.

This ended up getting me a bit more interested in those books… I wonder if I’d be allowed to read them?

“Groups 3 and 7 should continue scouting. The rest should maintain this area.

“Ms. Bucket, please be careful until we finish making the next base.” Hayflick said.

“Understood.” I replied.

Seems like they’ll be setting another makeshift base here instead of returning to the entrance of this area. I guess this will save time since they won’t need to keep on moving back and forth between the first base and the current location.

And I guess I’ll still be needing to do more work since I am to stay here.

On another note, even though they’re making a makeshift base here, this doesn’t suddenly become a safety area because of that, so the knights have to deal with regular mob attacks. A defense force is essential to maintain the bases.

The second knight division has plenty of people though, so it should be alright to set up three or four bases, even if it means decreasing the overall strength of the group by splitting it up this much.

After all, each knight is incredibly strong. This place doesn’t seem to be dangerous for them.

Still, it is normal to have strong mobs on the deepest regions of any given area, including bosses, so it’s never a good idea to underestimate an unexplored area.

******

Once the scouts finished finding the next altar, they returned to the makeshift base and it became my turn again.

Each time an altar was bypassed, the latest makeshift base was removed, then set up again on the location of the new altar. This process kept on being repeated for about five hours until we finally reached what looked to be the innermost part of this area.

This altar had a much fancier decoration than the last ones, and the barrier ahead of us gave off a terribly ominous feeling.

Aside from the first barrier, all other altars unlocked cliffs or doors, but this one was clearly different.

There is definitely a boss ahead. No doubt about it… I’ll be counting on you, knight escorts!

“All members have reached their assigned combat positions, sir!” One knight exclaimed.

“Alright then, Ms. Bucket, please go ahead.” Hayflick said.

“Okay.” I replied.

Differently from the last few times, the knights have now positioned themselves to surround the barrier, and only after they finished their preparations that it became my turn.

When I put the Divine Goblet on the flashy altar, a system window appeared, but this one was different than the rest.

“Uhn… Hayflick, it seems like the Divine Goblet will be destroyed if it breaks this barrier. Is this alright?” I asked.

“I see, so it will break here?

“No problem. Do it.” He told me.

“Roger that.” I replied.

Since Hayflick gave permission to use the Divine Goblet even if it will break, I guess this means there are no more altars where it will be required from here onwards, which means my role ends here.

I wish I could hear the details of what was written on the Royal Library, but I guess it’s all confidential.

Though it’s interesting that the Divine Goblet, which has no durability at all, will end up breaking now… I guess it’s based on a hidden parameter?

If its rank was low, it would most likely break sooner then.

Taking that into account, I guess it’s unsurprising that multiple materials were prepared when I was going to craft it. I thought they were there just in case of failure, but maybe it was because they expected to need some spares?

Or rather, wouldn’t it have been better to craft some spares regardless? Or was there something on the Royal Books that assured them that a spare would be unnecessary?

Well, it’s not me who decides that, and it seems like things are working out right now, so it’s okay.

I activated the Divine Goblet and another bright light was released from it. The light slowly made the barrier disappear, from top to bottom.

What was inside it was a small figure. A humanoid whose face and body were all made of shadows.

It’s a bit similar to the event mobs, but it doesn’t seem to have any strange irregularities, differently from the event stuff.

I could only observe it for a few seconds before Hayflick gave the order to start the battle.

Of course, as I can’t fight, I hurriedly evacuated.

A few knights remained as my escorts and we moved away so as to not get caught up on their battle.

And even if I could only see it from a distance, this battle was quite amazing. The knights weren’t giving the opponent any chance to counterattack as they kept on using coordinated flashy Arts one after another.

There is a cooldown on the usage of Arts, so it’s pretty hard to control an enemy with Art spam, but the second division of the Zabrina Knights have enough people and coordination to make it possible.

It is quite amazing. Even after a while of Art Spam, the monster was still alive… I guess that’s to be expected of bosses, it has incredibly high durability.

However, there is a limit to how much it can withstand, so the battle ended once Hayflick was able to land a direct blow with his Art.

It was an overwhelming victory. The second division of the Zabrina Knights is truly amazing!

<On the Zabrina Kingdom, the incident of the Disappeared National Treasure has been resolved>

<On the Zabrina Kingdom, the Mysterious Shadow Monsters Incident is going through rapid changes. Please be careful>

“Ooh?” I muttered.

“We were able to safely recover the national treasure, but it seems like something happened to the other incident…” Hayflick commented.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Probably a consequence of defeating that monster. It probably had some connection to the shadow monsters.” Hayflick replied.

“That makes sense.” I nodded.

“Anyways, let’s withdraw! We have no reason to remain here anymore!” Hayflick ordered.

With his command, all knights immediately started retreating, and I, of course, followed suit.

They were incredibly strong knights after all, so I wasn’t hurt at all.

With this, the quest will be completed as soon as we return to Capital Sabrina, but it should take four hours to get there… This is troublesome I’m close to my logout time now.

“Everyone, prepare your Transfer Stones!” Hayflick exclaimed.

“Yes sir!” The knights said.

“What is a Transfer Stone?” I asked.

“You don’t know, Ms. Bucket? It’s a convenient item that allows us to return to Capital Sabrina in an instant.

“It’s a consumable item, so we can’t use it that often, but I have to report this as soon as possible, so it is ideal for this situation.” Hayflick explained.

How come there is such a convenient item!? Can’t I get its recipe somehow? Like, on top of the reward or something?

Well, all that I did was use the Divine Goblet, so it’s impossible to expect any kind of extra reward…

******

The Transfer stone is really convenient. A four hours long journey was done in a single second.

I really want this… I mean, it’s not like I’d use it much since I rarely go out, but Mika and Hime would definitely want it.

Or rather, most player Pioneers would want it.

However, a Transfer Stone can only allow one to return to places they have already been to before, so it’s not something that is helpful for exploring new places… Still, it is very convenient. I want its recipe.

In any case, the quest was completed after we returned to the workshop on the north gate.

And as expected, I didn’t get any recipe and the reward was unchanged.

I knew that this was going to happen, but I’m still disappointed.

Still, this solved one incident, which is quite something.

Moreover, Hayflick, the dwarf and all the knights of the second division were very grateful to me. Which was also a nice plus.

On a side note, there was actually a spare Divine Goblet.

That one was about to break though, so it really was just a spare. It was a low rank goblet with no restriction of being only usable by its creator.

Apparently it’s a leftover of an incident that happened over a hundred years ago… It’s truly old!

In any case, the quest was completed and I got my reward.

On top of that, I created a connection with the second division of the Zabrina Knights, so this was a pretty wonderful quest.

There are still two incidents remaining.

Though the event seems to have undergone some changes too, so I think I wanna gather information about that first.

The event is already on its last spurt, so I wonder if it’s a good or a bad thing to have this happen now.

Well, I won’t know If I don’t look up the information about it, so… Let’s check the forums!