Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 71 – Impossible

I arrived at the Kederick store a bit earlier than needed, because I wanted to greet master Merget and the other disciples, and give them the souvenirs I bought at Lulu’s shop.

Though we couldn’t talk much, because the middle-aged receptionist of Mr. Kederick came to greet me at the workshop while I was still distributing the sweets. Seems like master Merget was already informed that this would happen in advance, so I ended up quickly leaving the workshop and went to the waiting room.

So, I then drank some tea while waiting. Mr. Kederick came roughly ten minutes after I arrived.

“I’ve kept you waiting. Let’s get down to business right away.

“You reached rank 5* on the Guild, right, Bucket?” He asked me.

“Oh yes, I got it just the other day.” I replied.

“And the production of steel gear has now become stable for you as well, right?” He asked.

“Yes. That was also something I accomplished recently.” I told him honestly.

I wonder what will he request of me though. If it’s just a delivery of steel gear, then I think I’ll prioritize my own store as the amount of steel items I can craft in a given period of time is too limited.

“Then, you are aware that the rank 5* of the Guild allows you to participate in auctions, right? Both by bidding on them and by listing items to be auctioned.” Mr. Kederick asked this next.

“Yes. I read it on the booklet issued by the Guild.” I replied.

“Good. And you know that the country will be holding an auction soon, I assume.” He said.

“Ah, yeah… Sadly, I don’t have anything interesting to put up to be auctioned.” I told him.

“As expected, you are interested in participating.” He commented.

“We’re a bit too close to the deadline for listing items though.” I replied.

I did wonder where he was getting at with the auction talk, but… Well, the deadline is the deadline. Even a store as big as the Kederick Store can’t really break the rules set by the country.

Unless they have some sort of secret arrangement? Though even then, if he requests an item to be auctioned, then I need to make something really good, and anything below a steel item with an Option would be worthless for that.

“You’re correct… Then, would you like to try putting an item on the auction?” Mr. Kederick asked me.

“As I said before, we’re too close to the deadline, and I can’t really make something worth being auctioned right now.” I replied.

“Is that so? I believe something on the level of the Sealed Dark Mysterious Sword would be definitely worth auctioning.” He told me.

“… Impossible.” I said.

I was surprised… Mika shouldn’t have leaked the information related to the Mysterious Sword… At most she talked a bit about its performance with her party members, since they’d probably notice that her performance was better than usual anyways.

But even when taking this into account, the Sealed Dark Mysterious Sword should be indistinguishable from an Iron Short Sword when sheathed.

Well, it does look jet-black when out of the scabbard, but Mika has been exploring the deeper layers of the Eku Labyrinth right now, so hardly anybody outside of her party should have been able to see her fight…

“What are you surprised at? I’m the chairman of a large store. It’s trivial to obtain this kind of information.” Mr. Kederick told me… Was my surprise this obvious?

“That’s true, I suppose.” I replied.

“Then let me ask again. Can you make an item for the auction?” Mr. Kederick said.

“I cannot.” I told him.

“I see… Then is Merget’s assessment on it correct? You cannot make this kind of item without some specific conditions?” Mr. Kederick asked.

“Yes. I probably can’t reproduce it for now.” I replied.

“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped then.

“However, if you can make an original item above the level of steel, then you can secure a spot at the auction under the name of the Kederick store.

“The normal deadline certainly is close by, but larger stores have a bit longer to list their own items.

“If you can make something by then, please feel free to contact me about it.” Mr. Kederick told me.

“Oh, alright. If I can make one, then I’ll be in your care.” I said.

“It’s okay even if you can’t do it, for the record.

“That’s all that I wanted to request of you. See you again, Bucket.” Mr. Kederick said.

As expected of the chairman of a large store… He not only has a tremendous information network, but also has special leeway for auctions held by the country.

After all, large stores are truly amazing.

Though even with an extended deadline, I don’t think it would be possible to produce something at the level of the Sealed Dark Mysterious Sword.

In the first place, even though my store has Lich Bones on the list of materials it buys, I have yet to be able to buy any from it.

And when I tried using processed materials to use the ‘Add’ function like master Merget taught me, the result wasn’t that great.

Well, I’ve also been busy making steel gear, and I don’t have enough Skill Level to try using Add on steel.

So well, I’d need to try doing it with Iron, but unless the original unprocessed material is as good as a Lich Bone, the final result won’t be that great.

I’d probably be able to proudly exhibit an Iron item with three Options in it, but it’s hard to do that with the current processed materials I have available… Especially because even if the item has three Options, it won’t be good enough for an auction if the Options aren’t useful.

I’m fairly sure Mr. Kederick would refuse listing an item with poor Options at least… Though well, it’s pointless to worry about it if I can’t even make items with three Options in them, so… Let’s experiment a bit more with doing Add while using processed materials.

******

Until the time of today’s last logout, I made a bit of steel gear, then used the rest of the time to experiment with various processed materials to make iron items.

But from looking at those results… Isn’t it impossible to reach three Options? I really don’t feel like I can do it.

I mean, it’s not like the effort was wasted though. Processed material is much easier to Add to the craft, but… The final result tends to feel really similar to Adding unprocessed material.

Or rather, it’s more that it’s really hard to notice the difference, as it doesn’t seem to be increasing the rank of the final item… But it does seem to be increasing the chance of getting Options in the items I craft.

But still, it’s hard to measure something like the chance of getting options. It’s much easier to simply look at rank ups and seeing the effect there.

Of course, I can get improvements by raising my skill level, improving the rank of processed materials, upgrading my equipment and tools and the like, but… At the moment, unless I enter the Zone, it seems impossible to make items with three Options or something like the Mysterious Sword.

Can’t I somehow forcefully enter the Zone?

******

Good morning.

It’s the 25th day since the release of the game. On in-game time, it’s midnight of the 72nd day, while on reality it’s 8am.

I would like to experiment a bit more today, but let’s first make some steel gear. I’d like to make as much as possible before the store opens, then go back to experimenting after restocking.

Though I’m not expecting many results without rare materials… I wonder if I can buy some Lich Bones?

Perhaps Mika may sell some to me, she shouldn’t have much money left with her, after all.

And well, she did get super excited about the Mysterious Sword even if she couldn’t buy it, so… Well, maybe she’d like to give me more materials to make similar items.

Though well, right now I can’t try anything like it because I lack rare materials, so let’s try sending a message to Mika.

She is logged out now though, and as her day and night schedule is totally messed up, she’ll probably take a while to reply.

… Is it okay to keep this kind of schedule when summer vacation is almost ending?

Well, let’s start making steel items for now and not worry about that.

******

After I finished making the items and got them evaluated at the Guild, I returned to the workshop and decided to take a short break.

The sweets I bought at Lulu’s store were a nice luxury that I allowed myself to get… Though well, I can actually afford buying those small luxuries every day with how much I earn in-game.

But we haven’t had a girls-only gathering in a while, so it’s been some time since I last slowly ate sweets like this.

It can’t be helped… Mika and Hime are busy with their last spurts, while Lolita and Lulu are working adults who can only log-in for long amounts of time on weekends… Not to mention that they often want to spend an extra amount of time crafting in those days due to being the only days they can play the game for a long time.

Well, when they finish their last spurt, we’ll hold a girls-only gathering with only me, Mika and Hime, so I’ll patiently wait until then… Those gatherings involved only the three of us at first, after all, so it will be nice to do one with just the three of us for a change.

But for the time being, I’ll read a bit while eating the luxurious sweets… Mika and Hime aren’t here, so I called my summons to stay with me… Yeah, I’m not lonely. I have the summons to keep me company.

Right now, Homun and Gol are at the table. Homun can eat sweets, but Gol cannot.

… I made a mistake in the selection of summons. I should probably called Lady Tsuru instead.

Though well, it’s not like we’d establish a conversation either way…

The important part is setting up the mood!