Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 67 – Good grief

After spending a while being soothed by Homun, it was now time to make Steel gear!

As expected, I didn’t get any requests to make gear for their parties, so I’ll only be making things for Mika and Hime for now.

After that, I’ll be putting some stuff on the private section of the blog to give priority to updating the gear of my acquaintances though.

However, steel gear is a lot more expensive than iron gear, so I don’t think there are many people other than Mika who can upgrade their entire getup at once.

Ah, well, the new areas do give high-rank materials that are very expensive though, so pioneers who have been exploring those might be quite rich right now.

After all, a high-rank material costs about twice as much as a material one rank below it.

And then, those rich pioneers buy gear from me, and I use their money to buy new expensive materials to make more gear.

The economy ends up working quite well, doesn’t it?

When taking this into account, I think it’s quite possible that a huge line might be formed in front of my store again once I announce that steel gear is up for sale.

Well, I’m a bit used to this by now, and my clerks are quite experienced, so it’s okay to leave it to them without worrying too much about it.

Then, with Homun’s soothing help, let’s start working on those steel items!

******

I spent about six hours making steel gear.

Iron had already increased the amount of materials needed for each individual item, but steel has raised the material requirements even further.

Due to needing to process such a large amount of materials, the entire crafting process ends up taking quite a while.

That said, I already knew what I needed to do, for I already had the recipe for the items I wanted to make.

And since I knew what were the required materials, I had already purchased them in advance, so there were no issues.

Of course, it’s hard to purchase hard-to-obtain materials, but not many people can make steel gear at the moment, so it was fairly easy to obtain the required materials.

Well, even with that, it still takes a long time to make the items, so the final result after six hours if roughly half of what I’d make if I was working on iron gear.

Though with how high the profit margin is for steel items, it’s not really a problem that only half the amount can be made.

The main issue is that it will take longer for the amount of steel gear on the market match the demand of battle-focused Pioneers.

Though well, it will take a while until other player Pioneers can craft steel gear… And even then, Iron gear is quite popular right now, even without Options.

Well, items with Options are much more popular, of course.

In any case, Mika’s and Hime’s items have been finished, so let’s send them a message. They’ll probably rush here right away, so let’s hurry up and get it all evaluated at the Guild before they arrive.

******

“Congratulations, Bucket, you are now eligible for the promotion exam that can lead you to the 5* rank in the Guild.

“What exam would you like to take?” The usual fox-eared receptionist of the Guild asked me that after she finished evaluating the gear I brought.

“What are the possible exams?” I asked.

She then explained to me that I could choose between subjugation, delivery or escort exams, but… Well, subjugation and escort are impossible to me.

Therefore, there was only one option available, “Then, I’ll get the exam of delivering an original piece of heavy gear of bronze tier or above.” I told her.

“Very well, I’ll issue the promotion exam then.” She replied.

There really was no point in not taking the exam, as raising the Guild rank is incredibly beneficial.

For one, reaching Guild rank 5* will let me participate in auctions, which should be helpful in letting me obtain some hard-to-acquire materials more easily.

And well, I also think an auction might be fun. I think I’ll be able to enjoy it even if I just look at the items being exhibited.

Moreover, the Guild rank is also a way that non-Pioneers can use to judge Pioneers. A high rank makes it more likely for them to trust us, and it might even allow us to get quests from NPCs from our very first meeting.

The permission to reach the second floor of the library might also be related to the Guild rank… Or well, at least I think so. There is no information on the requirements for the library’s second floor, so I guess I’ll just need to check it once I rank up myself.

In any case, in order to clear the promotion exam of delivering an original heavy piece of gear of bronze tier or above, I needed to make an original item according to some specific standards.

For example, if the item was of bronze tier, then it needed to be at least 6* to pass the exam.

Items of better materials required a smaller rank though. Steel only needed 3* for one.

So… I can already clear it?

I mean, there is the problem of needing to be an original item, which takes longer to be made without a recipe, but… I already make original Bucket Helms, so I can easily clear this exam whenever I want.

However, the only Steel Bucket Helm I have made so far is the one I have equipped… I don’t want to take it off and deliver it right away, so let’s wait a bit longer to clear this one. I can always make a new helm and deliver it then.

Besides, Mika and Hime should be near my workshop by now, so I better return to it for now.

******

“You’re late!” Mika exclaimed.

“Welcome back.” Hime told me.

“I’m back! Sorry for being late, but I had to hear the details of the promotion exam.” I explained.

“Oh? You’re finally at 5*, Yuri? What test did you take then, delivery?” Mika asked.

“It’s the only option available to me, so yes. It’s easy to clear it though, since the Bucket Helm is an Original.” I replied.

“As expected of you.” Hime commented.

“Yeah, that’s just what I’d expect of you, Yuri.

“But the steel! Quick! Everyone is waiting!” Mika exclaimed.

“Aye aye. Though I only have barely enough for you two.” I told them.

“That’s fine, that’s fine! We’d get really poor if you had all the items right away!” Mika told me.

“Expensive…” Hime commented.

“Well, that can’t be helped.” I replied.

I then sold the steel gear to both Mika and Hime.

Each steel piece is fairly expensive, so almost nobody should have enough funds to upgrade all of their armor at once like Mika did just now… But well, she didn’t hold back even though she knew it was going to be pricy. That’s Mika for you.

“That was dangerous… I almost went bankrupt here.” Mika commented.

“Barely enough to pay for it…” Hime said.

“Well, that was because you bought enough to update the whole getup at once.” I told Mika.

“But it’s steel! It’s the best gear we know of at the moment!” Mika replied.

“It’s a good idea to get it even if it leads to debt.” Hime surprisingly agreed with her.

“Good grief. You can’t buy potions without money, you know?

“Anyways, if you have some material available, I’ll buy it.” I told them.

“I have a stockpile of potions!” Mika exclaimed.

“Buy these then.” Hime said.

“Hime!? Ah, right! Buy my materials too!” Mika said.

“Good grief…” I sighed, but I bought their materials.

The steel gear made two of the top battle-focused player Pioneers almost run out of money, but they were able to recover some of it by selling some materials to me.

And with this, the performance of their gear is now top-notch.

“Oh, right! I finally finished figuring out what the Mysterious Dark Sword’s enchantment does!” Mika suddenly exclaimed.

“That took quite a while, didn’t it? What does it do?” I asked.

“Yeah, the probability of the effect occurring was a bit too low, so it was hard to be test it enough to get a good gist of it.

“I figured it out during the exploration of the Eku Labyrinth though.

“Essentially, it has a chance of restraining a slashed enemy with pure dark bindings. How long the restraining lasts depends on the enemy, but it can even last up to ten seconds on some enemies, so we gang up on any restrained enemy for easy kills!” Mika explained.

“Ooh!” I said.

“Impressive.” Hime commented.

While the chance of the effect occurring is small, this Option is truly amazing… As expected, a 9* weapon is nothing to scoff at.

It’s not only stronger than a Steel Short Sword, but it also has a fantastic Option… We really did the right thing to not post about it on the forums. This is way too much of a dangerous item.

“Anyways, I gotta go back to exploring! We’re close to clearing that Labyrinth!” Mika exclaimed.

“I also need to go back to the last spurt.” Hime said.

“Good luck to you two!” I told them as they left.

Steel gear may have a dull silver color, but it ends up looking really cool and beautiful when Mika equips it for some reason.

As for Hime, probably because she uses it together with the clothes made by Lolita, the steel gear ends up having a special charm when it flickers from below her clothes.

It works quite well with the Steel Magical Gloves that cover up to the tip of her fingers.

And then there is also the Wooden Fox Doll on Hime’s shoulder, which had its fangs, claws and tail replaced with steel, which also adds up to the charm of the getup.

Though the way she moves that doll looks less like a puppeteer and more like a summoner… As expected of Hime.

******

After seeing them off, it was now time to continue crafting, as I still need to make priority sales for my acquaintances.

For now, the next ones should be Rush and Armilate.

Armilate in particular deserves priority because I want to fulfill my promise to her… Though it’s not exactly a promise, so she may have even forgotten about it by now.

Still, it has been one of my goals for a while now. And I have achieved this goal, so it’s now time to fulfill the promise!

First things first, she wanted the more mobile pieces of steel gear. She may have already finished updating her getup by now, but that’s probably unlikely as only a small amount of steel items appeared for sale on NPC stores.

Though there might be some available at auctions too, I suppose… Well, I’ll just make some of the gear that prioritizes mobility, then ask Armilate herself about it.

There is still a bit of time until my usual logout. It’s not enough to make a full set, but I can make a few items at least.

And well, it’s still midnight on in-game time… It’s better to message her on the morning instead.

I mean, Pioneers don’t care much about it being day or night, but it’s still important to be considerate of the other party, so… I’ll do my best!