Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 115 – Ah, a raid

Good morning.

The typhoon already passed, and now the sky is blue again.

The weather outside seems comfortable, though as my room always has air conditioning on, this doesn’t really matter to me.

And Frontiers is as comfortable as always.

The incident was solved smoothly, though I’m worried about the changes to the event.

After browsing the forums for a while, I ended up finding out that the raid battle seems to have changed.

Previously, the raid boss was the Shadow Vanguard, but ever since the Disappeared National Treasure incident has been resolved, the boss has been changed to the Shadow Elite.

The Shadow Vanguard wasn’t that strong. The real problem came after defeating it… This doesn’t hold true for the Shadow Elite. Even the people who had fought on plenty of raids seemed to be struggling with the Shadow Elite at first.

Only at first though, because it only took a few hours for people to figure out a good way of handling this new raid boss. It didn’t take long to find a good way to handle it because the method was just an extension of what they were already doing.

Namely, they’ll be using multiple Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formations and Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stones.

Those items aren’t very effective against the damage resistance of the Shadow Elite, but that can be solved by using the Shadow Destroyer items multiple times.

It is a simple, but effective method.

Also, while the fight against the Shadow Elite may be much harder than the one against the Shadow Vanguard, the former doesn’t spawn a bunch of small fries after it is defeated, differently from the latter.

However, the Shadow Elite does drop an incredibly high amount of Shadow Tears. Way higher than what the Shadow Vanguard did.

Due to that, the price of the Shadow Tears finally stopped rising, though the competition for event ranks became fiercer than ever.

Hime and Mika also started requesting more consumables from me, since their consumption is more intense than ever right now.

Though it shouldn’t be as needed for them as it is for others, since they both have weapons with attributes on them.

They’re making those requests mainly to make it easier on their party members and increase their overall fighting force.

******

By solving the Disappeared National Treasure incident, I got a reward of 45 Skill Points which were immediately spent in evolving three skills.

It was truly a wonderful quest. It allowed me to evolve Improved Decipher, Improved Discover and Improved Concentration into True Deciphering, Great Discovery and Ultra Concentration, just as I had planned while on the trip to the incident’s location.

Those didn’t unlock any new skills, but I can still expect good results from evolving those three.

In particular, True Deciphering might help me obtain new recipes for my beloved Magical Formations.

The other two won’t be helping as much as they’re supportive skills, but I’m still sure that, as I use them all the time, they’ll be worthwhile in the long run.

In any case, let’s go make the items Mika and Hime requested, then restock the store with steel, then go do some reading!

******

Due to the changes in the event, more Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formations and Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stones are required.

The number of raids has also increased a bit, so the demand for those items has rose even further because of that.

That said, the market price of those items didn’t raise that much… It may feel a bit strange, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Even if the price of the Shadow Tears stopped rising, it is still incredibly high. That, paired up with how competitive the leaderboards are, has made quite a few people decide to give up on the competition once they realized they didn’t have a chance of getting a top spot any longer.

Not to mention the raids now being tougher than before, so less people are willing to attempt them.

Perhaps those people were accumulating materials and waiting for the right chance to sell them, but because of that, I was able to purchase more Large Shadow Crystals and Shadow Granites than before.

Due to that, I could make even more event items and became very satisfied with how many event points I earned and how high my profits have been.

At this pace, it would actually be possible to get both the Count Woof Minicot and the Magic Mirror Minicot at the same time.

But I’m not doing that.

After all, I already got Count Woof!

I’ll go for Magic Mirror next, but I don’t expect much out of it… Count Woof looks so cute, on the other hand.

It may not be a king, but it still looks great with its crown and scepter.

It actually stands in place while using the scepter to support itself. And its plump hind legs certainly help out on this.

However… This child doesn’t move nor bark much. It just does its best to create an imposing stance that was worthy of a noble dog.

It’s definitely better than the Wandering Mushroom, but… What do I do with this pitiful child? Just looking at it makes me sad.

… Let’s change it back for Singy. I can bring Count Woof out again every now and then, but it’s too pitiful to stare at for a long amount of time.

I was hoping for a more free-spirited Minicot, but the result ended up disappointing me… But well, I guess that’s fine.

The last one needed is the Magic Mirror, as the other Minicots are all trivial to obtain.

And thanks to how many points I’ve been earning lately, I’m sure I’ll be able to get them all before the end of the event.

Well, it doesn’t hurt to be careful about it though. I can’t relax now when we’re so close to the finish line.

******

“What about a Shadow Knight?” Mika suggested.

“Or a general.” Hime said.

“Ah, that could happen, couldn’t it?” Lolita commented.

“Maybe… A Shadow King?” Lulu said.

“Would it really go as far as the king level?” Lolita questioned.

“A shogun! After the general a shogun has to come next!” Mika chimed in.

“Well, there is only one week left in the event, you know?” I commented.

At our girls-only-gathering, the topic of discussion was primarily the event.

After the raid boss changed, everyone started wondering what other mobs might come in the future.

However, the event ends in a week, so like… It’s unlikely that the raid boss will change again this close to the end.

In the first place, the boss only changed when the Disappeared National Treasure incident was solved, so a special trigger was probably necessary to create any changes.

There are two more incidents left, but I don’t think they’ll be solved any time soon… Though at the same time, this thing with the national treasure all happened really suddenly, so I guess we can never know for sure.

Nobody expected a sudden small quest chain would clear out an incident, after all.

On that note, I actually told everyone about the resolution of the incident. Not just to the girls-only-association, but also to all members of Works.

I didn’t post anything about it on the forums though, so most people there assume that the incident was just solved by NPCs without player involvement.

For a brief moment there was someone who was sure I was involved in it somehow, but that opinion was quickly buried.

“I wonder what will happen after this event ends…” Mika commented.

“Halloween.” Hime instantly replied.

“Ah, it’s fitting for October alright.” I said.

“Pumpkins and sweets? Isn’t this perfect for you, Lulu?” Lolita commented.

“I… I’ll do my best.” Lulu replied.

“Considering that this event was made in a way to let both fighters and crafters participate, I guess the next one will also try doing something similar.” Mika said.

“It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the development team wanted everyone to be able to participate.” I commented.

“Agreed.” Hime said.

“It would be pretty bothersome otherwise.” Lolita nodded as she said that.

With the end of the event in sight, it’s normal to wonder about what will come next… Could it be a Halloween event like Hime suggested? Would there be a costume parade then?

I hope it’s something that crafters can easily participate in at least.

“Even though we got a nice crafter-friendly event this time, there are still really few people who want to focus on producing items… A few days ago, I decided to check the Rental Production Facility, and it was really vacant, you know?” Lolita commented.

“It takes a while to save up for a workshop, so every new crafter should be using the Rental Production Facility…” I muttered.

“Maybe it’s because the price is too steep? I heard that it was costly to use it.” Mika said.

“Was it really? I never thought it was too expensive to rent the space.” I replied.

“I also never felt it was too expensive.” Lolita agreed.

“Same here…” Lulu said.

“Probably because you could sell things easily.” Hime chimed in.

Well, we certainly are top craft-focused player Pioneers… Back when the game had just started, all equipment I made easily sold out, and even now that hasn’t changed.

And people now have a lot more money than they used to, so they won’t be buying starting gear anymore… Unless they’re just starting out, of course.

Crafting may involve many simple tasks, but it also requires quite a bit of patience.

Furthermore, if you’re just starting out, then you’ll need to spend a fair amount of time on a stall until the items you made sell.

And you can’t make many items at first, so your profits are always fairly small.

I guess plenty of people give up on crafting because of that and go focus on combat instead, since it’s easier to get results from battling.

I wonder what the development team thinks about it… For us who already went through the initial stages, the current system seems fine, but maybe there could be some improvements to make things easier for newer players?

I’m not sure what would be the best way to go about it, but when we consider the fact that the number of crafters still hasn’t rose that much, then it might be necessary to make things a bit easier for the newbies.

After all, crafting feels great, so it would be nice to have more people working on our field.

“Ah, a raid.” Mika suddenly said.

“I got the message too.” Hime told us.

“Do your best!” Lolita exclaimed.

“Good luck.” I told them.

“Work hard…” Lulu said.

Our girls-only-gathering was suddenly ended with Mika and Hime being called to participate on a raid.

It can’t be helped since we’re near the end of the event, but it’s okay as we were able to talk a lot.

It would be fine to continue our girls-only-gathering with just me, Lulu and Lolita, but they need to get back to crafting soon.

Everyone has a lot of stuff to do, after all.

Especially because both working adults and students have a limited amount of time available for gaming. Not everyone can log-in for long periods of time every day like I do.

Still, it’s amazing that they can maintain themselves at the top even with those timing limitations.

As for me… Let’s go read something for now.