Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 90 – Hime, why don’t you start making Magical Formations too?

I gave quite the sermon to Mika who came to the workshop to buy the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation.

With this, she won’t skip school again for the time being, or I’ll report her skipping to her parents.

… I want Mika to diligently go to school, and get both of our shares of school life.

******

The scolding ended up lasting quite a while, so I ended up only being able to go back to crafting things after my lunch logout.

This time I’ll be clearing some NPC quests. It’s a pity that they aren’t giving me any Skill Points as a reward, but it is still a good thing to clear my quests and build more trust with the NPCs.

If the trust gets high enough, they might eventually introduce me to other NPCs that can give me the things I need.

In any case, the products, as usual, need to be 3* to clear the quest.

However, this time around they were actually requesting event items instead of the usual copper and bronze tools.

And for the reward, I’ll actually be getting event points!

… How do NPCs even give out event points as a reward?

Would it be possible to give this kind of reward when setting up quests at the Guild?

Well, probably not. I’m sure there would be a way to abuse it if players had access to this kind of reward, so it should be a privilege exclusive to NPCs.

Most of what players can do can also be done by NPCs, but the opposite doesn’t hold true.

Well, this is a game, so that can’t be helped.

“Thank you for your help, as usual!” The NPC blacksmith told me.

“Glad to help. I’ll come back as soon as I finish them.” I replied.

Getting quests from the five blacksmiths that Mukaida introduced me to has already become a normal thing to me.

They usually give long deadlines for the delivery, but I usually clear the quests fairly quickly.

Though well, even with a quick clear, they still take some time before making a new quest, as they need to wait until the items made are sold and the like.

However, this time they issued a quest a lot earlier than normal, so I quickly accepted it.

The contents of the quest this time were mainly event consumables. That, paired up with the event points as a reward ended up making this a very lovely quest.

For craft-focused player Pioneers who cannot get event points without using event materials, it is extremely helpful to get this kind of reward.

If enough NPC quests are issued with event points as the reward, then it may be possible for crafters to actually aim for the top of the leaderboards.

Well, I’m aiming for a Minicot though, so that doesn’t concern me.

On a side note, the Kederick store has never requested for event items. They only request steel gear, and they don’t ask for it very frequently… The store probably has some sort of internal rule regarding how often they can request for the help of third parties.

After all, NPC stores have their own standards for items, so it wouldn’t be strange if they had standards for requests too.

Though well, the Kederick store gives great rewards both in money and in Skill Points, so there is no reason to decline them.

Well, the Skill Points are kinda rare though. I only got them when receiving some very special quests, like the auction one!

Therefore, it’s important to take the quests from the Kederick store whenever possible, as I’ll only get this kind of special quest again if I maintain a good relationship with them.

And well, I’m suffering heavily from chronic Skill Points deficiency, so I really need all help I can get on this matter.

I’d really like to go on collection tours to improve other skills and secure Skill Points, but those tours have become really infrequent since the event started.

Because well, event mobs are appearing even in the points of collection… Or rather, they only appear in the areas I’m interested in collecting at, since we don’t usually go to high-level areas for the sake of collecting.

It is quite troublesome alright.

But well, let’s go back to the workshop and start working on the quest items. I already finished restocking the store anyways, so it’s not a problem to postpone the production of steel gear.

Let’s do our best as usual and finish this quickly!

******

NPC quests end up needing me to make quite a few different things, and as I’m making items for 5 different requesters, it takes some time to finish all the items.

Though well, if I dedicate a whole day to it, it will be done in no time.

And as they’re requesting for event consumables this time around, I’ll be getting event points and experience for this quest. It’s two birds with one stone!

If I was making the usual copper or bronze tools, I wouldn’t be getting any experience at all, so a quest like this one is a very welcome.

Today I finished about half of the requested items in a single sitting, so let’s take a bit of a break and finish the rest at a calmer pace.

After all, even if I get more event points from this, it will still take a while to get the Singing Cat Minicot, so there is no need to hurry.

Though I still only have about one third of the necessary points, but… Well, I think I’ll be able to get this Minicot by the second half.

I’m looking forward to it.

The Wandering Mushroom may be cute, but it can’t beat the charm of the Singing Cat.

After all, my current Minicot is just a mushroom in the end. Even if I did get attached to it, the Singing Cat feels much more like a real pet no matter how I look at it! They’re two beings of completely different categories that just can’t be compared!

In any case, the event has just entered its second half, so if the predictions of Mika and the other players on the forums are right, the event mobs should start appearing in more areas soon.

I wonder how things are going? Let’s go gather some information about the event, on the forums, while taking a break.

******

Well, would you look at that?

I was planning on looking up information on the event, but by the time I realized it, I was already looking at something completely different.

Namely, a Frontiers Wiki.

You can’t access most web pages from within Frontiers. Not even the homepage of the game is accessible from inside the game.

There are only a few websites that one is allowed to browse, and all of them are managed by the development team.

However, since it became possible for players to have their own personalized webpages, many people made their own sites that could be accessed from within the game.

Most of them are blogs like mine, or pages introducing one’s own clan, but some users created other types of websites with the tools provided to us.

One of those sites, was the wiki.

It seems like quite a bit of work was put in it without me noticing, so we now have a splendid wiki that covers quite a bit of information.

However, it is unavoidable that the wiki is heavily biased towards the combat system, as there are many more people who participate in that.

Nonetheless, the wiki still has some info on crafting.

Most of it is more of a newbie guide though, like recommendations on how to raise skill levels, or what are good skills to get early on and the like.

It’s not really useful for me, but it is nice for beginners alright.

Considering that such things can be viewed from within the game, then maybe a better wiki might help increasing the overall number of crafters, as they’ll feel more comfortable trying it out if they know what’s the best way to go about it.

Then, I guess I should add some information to the wiki too.

Like, the number of library users seems to be gradually rising for one, so since the information about it is already spreading, I guess I might as well put it up here for everyone.

After all, the only people that really want to go to the library are the crafters who want recipes, so it makes sense to put this kind of information on the wiki.

******

Completed!

I think I wrote it pretty well.

There was basically no information on Magical Formations on the wiki, so I wrote quite a bit about it!

Magical Formations are quite wonderful, aren’t they?

I wrote a lot about the wonderful experience of mixing up curves and straight lines, and how them making up the key points of a composition creates a wonderful final work!

I have no doubt this will help increase the number of people making Magical Formations!

It would be wonderful if the love for them was spread.

Then, let’s draw some lovely magical formations right now!

… Well, I think I should make steel gear instead.

I ended up drawing many Magic Circles while I edited the wiki, so I think I had enough love for now.

I almost have enough for the advanced facilities, after all, so… I’m not at the last spurt just yet, but I’m gonna make a lot of steel equipment today too!

******

“I saw it.” Hime said.

“Woah!? W-what happened!?” I replied.

I was really concentrated on making steel gear, when I suddenly got a call from Hime.

That was surprising. To suddenly have a call pop up on me like that…

I usually don’t even notice it if I receive messages, but the same can’t be done with calls.

“Wiki.” Hime told me.

“Ah. Did you see the page on Magical Formations perchance?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She replied.

“I think I was able to write it well.

“How about it, Hime? Why don’t you start making Magical Formations too?” I asked.

“Well…” Hime started saying.

“It’s fun! My personal recommendation is…” I tried making a reply, but…

“Ah. Event mobs.” Hime stopped me.

“The curve that… Wait, are you in battle, Hime?” I asked her.

“Yes. In the City Buried in the Sand.” Hime replied.

Seems like the mobs got in the way of my recommendations of my favorite Magical Formation patterns to draw…

That said, the City Buried in the Sand is a high-level area, so event mobs appearing there means that the event has progressed.

Mika and the rest of the people on the forums were right.

<On the Zabrina Kingdom, the Mysterious Shadow Servants are now appearing as new threats in a variety of places.>

And the Goddess’ Announcement appeared at just the right time.

There’s no doubt about it then. Now that the event reached its halfway point, it has accelerated.

“It’s strong.” Hime told me.

“You okay, Hime?” I asked.

“I’m fine, but I’ll need to cut this off. See you later.” Hime replied.

“Yes! Do your best!” I told her.

“Work hard.” As she said that, she finished the call.

Seems like the strong mobs require Hime’s full attention… I guess the event has become quite difficult then.

However, that should also increase the amount of good drops we get, so it should only be a matter of time before something even better than the Large Shadow Crystals appears.

I’ll definitely be needing not only a high skill level, but also very good facilities and tools to properly work with it, so, for that reason, I absolutely need to purchase that advanced facility!

In other words, let’s make more steel gear! I’ll do my best!