Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~ - Chapter 99 – Just what was that!?

After eating lunch in reality, I logged in.

I had just finished eating in-game, then had to eat lunch in reality, but there was no problem with that. At most, I felt a bit full.

It’s a bit scary to imagine that people might skip eating in reality because of this feeling though.

I used to think that you just couldn’t feel full no matter how much you ate in Frontiers, but after eating an overwhelming amount of delicious food, I realized that this isn’t necessarily true.

Well, there was no ruckus raised on the forums about that though, so things should be fine.

Besides, even with that feeling of fullness, I still ate my whole lunch. It would be too troublesome if I didn’t eat properly, after all.

In any case, now that a wonderful restaurant has opened nearby, I might buy less food at the stalls. The price is no problem for me anyways.

Like this, I can satisfy my desire to eat and then satisfy my desire to craft.

Regardless of that, things remain as usual in Frontiers. I make and sell steel equipment with good Options to my acquaintances and the remaining subpar Options are sold out immediately once they are put on the store.

Of course, even steel gear without Options still sells out immediately, so it’s a given that the items with subpar Options would sell too.

Besides, items with underwhelming Options have a pretty small price increase, so it’s not a problem to the buyer.

In any case, due to the lunch logout, the meal bonus I got from eating at Kuuruu’s restaurant has already worn off.

It’s fine though, because I didn’t go there for the bonus anyways.

Right now, my goal is to accumulate Skill Points to acquire Improved Language.

Though of course, I also need to keep on making items in order to get enough money to buy more advanced facilities, so… Let’s get started!

******

What steel items I make vary with each day, but I always carve my lily design on them.

Due to that, the level of my Crafting skill raises pretty fast, almost as fast as the Blacksmithing one.

Most people on the forums seem to be able to level Leatherworking and Woodworking faster, as they’re also indispensable for production work, but that isn’t true for me.

Well, there is also the fact that both Leatherworking and Woodworking are already at level 100, so they aren’t really gaining any experience right now.

And even though they are important for processing intermediate materials, I want to evolve Language first.

After all, I think I’m still pretty far from getting two Options in my steel gear, as even the evolution of Blacksmithing didn’t make me feel like I was closer to the two Options… Even a single Option was only obtained after getting my first advanced facility.

So, I don’t think there will be a real change in the rank of my steel gear even I get more improvements on the rank of my intermediate materials.

Of course, my next big goal is still getting two Options on steel equipment, but as I find it unlikely to happen just from using higher-ranked materials, I’d rather evolve Language.

There should be no player Pioneers on the second floor of the library yet, so… I’m looking forward to finding out what sort of information is buried there!

******

Time passed in the blink of an eye while I did my crafting, got the gear evaluated, sold priority items to acquaintances and restocked the store.

Crafting, as usual, consumes a lot of time and doesn’t result in that many steel items being made.

On the way back home from the Guild, I wanted to stop by Kuuruu’s restaurant to eat, but it was unfortunately closed late at night, so I had no choice but to buy some sandwiches at stalls… After eating the delicious food at the restaurant, this felt very dull.

… It’s really scary to imagine this kind of feeling affecting me in reality.

In any case, I was now on free time, and wondered what I should do while I played with Singy… I guess I’ll read for now. It will help me get levels for Improved Magic Language and for Improved Decipher while also letting me fulfill my reading needs.

Though Improved Magical Language should be reaching level 100 soon… I want to evolve it, as it should help my Magical Formations even more.

However, that will have to wait. Sure, Magical Formations are also highly affected by materials, tools, facilities and the like, but the skill levels are also incredibly important, so evolving Magical Language is definitely crucial for crafting them better.

But my beloved Magical Formations are not as much of a priority as making steel gear, so I’m not as desperate to evolve that skill.

Of course, I’ll do my best if I can get new Magic Circle recipes though. And for that to happen, Language has to be of a higher priority than Magical Language!

Magical knowledge is irrelevant if you can’t read!

******

After fully satisfying my reading desire, I went back to crafting… After all, I’m primarily a crafter, and it’s plenty fun to me.

Of course I get happier when I get useful Options, but I enjoy it even if no Options appear at all.

Or rather, the most exciting things about the options is how high the price ends up going!

I wonder what kind of Options will I get today… Well, there is no guarantee that I’ll even get Options, so excessive expectations are prohibited!

“Yuri! You free now?!” Suddenly, Mika called me.

“What happened? Why do you sound like you are in a hurry?” I asked back.

“I need you to make as many Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formations and Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stones as you can!” Mika exclaimed.

“Eh? I already put them up for sale on the store…” I replied.

“Ah, damn it! Can’t you make extras!?” Mika asked me.

Considering her request, it seems like an emergency situation at the event arisen… I can’t really take them out from the store though, but I have enough materials to make more.

“I can make some more now, but I won’t be able to make many if you’re in a rush.” I told her.

“Please make as many as you can! I’ll go there to fetch them in an hour!” Mika exclaimed.

“Roger roger! But what happened? Something going on with the event?” I asked.

“Yeah! A raid boss appeared!” Mika told me.

“Oh? That’s earlier than what the people on the forums expected.” I commented.

“I know, right!? So I’m worried we might not have as many resources as needed right now, so I’m asking you to do this!” Mika said.

So her impatience comes from the sudden appearance of a raid boss? People did expect one to appear near the end of the event, but we’re still around the halfway point, so this was unexpected.

Mika and her party were apparently already making preparations for it, but they didn’t prepare enough as they also expected the boss to appear later.

Well, there aren’t problems for me on the material end because I did retrieve more event materials from the store when I restocked it. The main problem is having little time needed to craft them.

I decided to check the forums a bit while processing the materials, and apparently a bunch of threads regarding the raid boss appeared in the blink of an eye. It seems to be very strong and to have spawned in a particularly troublesome location, which caused great damage to the people near it.

Currently, a large number of people are organizing themselves into a raid party.

It is the first one for this event, and the second raid boss that player Pioneers are facing, with the first one being the Lich.

It’s no wonder that Mika is in a hurry. If she misses this opportunity, she might not be able to participate in a raid for a long time.

Then, let’s do our best to meet Mika’s expectations!

******

“You saved me! I love you, Yuri!” Mika hugged me.

“Yeah yeah, do your best!” I replied.

“Of course! This time I’ll take the last blow!” Mika exclaimed.

“By the way, will Armilate and other people participate in this raid?” I asked.

“Of course. Not only her, but everyone in Mist Knights will participate, as well as some acquaintances from other clans and Hime as well!” Mika explained.

“That’s quite the large number of people.” I commented.

“Yeah, maybe even more than what we had in the Lich raid.” Mika replied.

Considering how much damage the boss caused with its spawn, I guess that much can’t be helped. Judging from what I saw on the forums, the location was filled with hellish screams at the very minimum, so the boss much be very strong.

Well, the raid to kill it will start soon, so more information about it should appear on the forums later. Like a video showing the battle and stuff. I’ll try watching it later.

“Then, I’m going! Look forward to souvenirs!” Mika said.

“Do your best!” I told her.

The desperate Mika of an hour ago was no longer there. She seemed pretty excited now.

I saw her off while she showed off her brave sprint.

Now it’s time to do what I can… Which of course, means making more steel gear.

******

“It was terrible…” Mika called me.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Just what was that!?” Mika exclaimed.

“I don’t know? Please explain it to me.” I replied.

It’s been about thirty minutes since Mika’s departure, and she has now called me.

Apparently they were able to defeat the boss, but it seems like this enemy had a nasty trick up its sleeve.

The raid was going well at first, and because they were able to prepare plenty of items for the battle in advance, they were able to kill it… However, once the raid boss, the Shadow Vanguard, was defeated, it scattered a large amount of Shadow Tears on the ground.

Then, a large number of event mobs appeared and quickly started picking the Shadow Tears up… And each event mob that successfully got the tear ended up becoming a strong mob.

The number of scattered Shadow Tears was quite large, and so the number of strong event mobs was equally large, so a large-scale battle happened after everyone was exhausted from the raid.

Moreover, Mika and everyone else were off-guard due to thinking the fight was over after the boss was killed, so they ended up suffering considerable damage at the start of the battle.

Nonetheless, they were able to clear it somehow.

Also, a few player Pioneers were able to pick up some Shadow Tears, and they’re apparently consumables that give you a large amount of event points.

While that may make picking the Shadow Tears up appealing, it also seems like the event mobs that become stronger from absorbing Shadow Tears end up having almost 100% chance of dropping either Large Shadow Crystals or Shadow Granite… Ain’t that kinda troublesome?