Frontiers ~Chronicles of Bucket-san’s Detailed Pioneering~

Chapter 81 – If you can’t get it, then you should make it!

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*Translator’s Note: I’m changing the translation of “Equipment” to “Facility” (Facility is the more accurate translation anyways.
No clue why I was using Equipment) … I probably should have done that long ago, but I’m doing it now.
I’m doing this mainly to allow me to switch back and forth between “gear” and “equipment” when referring to gear, because it sounds ugly to use “gear” all the time.

——

In the real world we’re at the first weekend after the end of summer vacation, and today we have a pretty large number of people playing Frontiers.

As expected of the world’s first VRMMO.

However, producers like me aren’t really affected by this large crowd.

I mean, the number of crafters has surely grown since the game’s start, but the number of combat-focused Pioneers is still much larger than the number of crafters… I think only 10% of the players are crafters, in fact.

I don’t know the exact number though, since this is information obtained mostly from checking the forums and by chatting with the people at Works.

In any case, the number of new player Pioneers keeps on increasing, and most of them are combat-focused.
That much is certain.

Also, I still seem to be the only person who owns her own workshop among this small number of crafters.

Well, I don’t own the only player-owned workshop in Frontiers though.
Some Clans have made joint purchases to get their own workshops for the entire clan, as the Rental Production Facility only has beginner facilities in it.

However, as it is quite hard for individuals to get enough money to purchase intermediate-level facilities as well as their own workshops, they instead are purchasing it with the funds of the entire clan.

It may not be a private workshop, but its main benefits would still be available to a clan-owned workshop.

And well, even if not that many players are crafters, there are still quite a few player Pioneers who became dedicated to crafting for their own clan.

After all, as one can see from the prosperity of my store, high-performance gear is something that has an incredibly high demand… But even after I restock my store and update the blog with the currently best type of equipment available, the steel gear, I still don’t make nearly enough items to meet the demand due to how long it takes to make said steel items.

Due to that, it’s still quite hard to obtain the steel items even if one lines up in front of my store.

‘If you can’t get it, then you should make it!’

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I’m sure something like that went through the minds of the clans who decided to buy their workshops.
Even if it was a heavy expense for everyone inside the clan.

Facilities are very important for crafting after all.
The results that come from using beginner and intermediate facilities just can’t be compared.

But as facilities and workshops are all very expensive, it’s hard to obtain them without a joint investment from an entire clan… And even then, as far as the information on the forum goes, only two clans have purchased their own dedicated workshop right now.

Moreover, they’re still having trouble purchasing intermediate facilities, so they’re still using beginner facilities right now.

… I don’t think it makes much sense to make this investment if you can’t get an intermediate facility, but at the same time, I was very happy when I was able to purchase my own workshop, so I suppose I can understand it a bit.

After all, I doubt this nice feeling would change even if it required a joint investment… Moreover, if you reserve a bit of space for it, you can make your workshop have a clan home in it as well.

It feels bothersome to rent a room at a store or at the Guild to talk to one another.

Sure, one can use a Clan Call or a Party Call to talk confidentially to multiple people, but it just doesn’t feel right to hold some types of meetings outdoors… I certainly wouldn’t want to hold our girls-only gatherings outdoors for one.
Which is why we used either the private Rooms or did it at my store’s waiting room.

But now, we can hold the gatherings at the living area of my workshop… Having a property that can serve as a base truly has quite a few advantages.

Though of course, this is still a workshop, so about 70% of the space is taken by production facilities!

And I still have quite a bit of free space left for future facilities, even after I finished upgrading all my facilities to intermediate level due to the high profits obtained from selling steel gear.

Steel gear is way too good! It’s too profitable!

And well, I’m still the only player Pioneer who can make it reliably.
I sometimes do see 2* and 1* steel items at stalls, but the performance drop is really drastic if the level is below 3*.

In that case, it’s better to purchase Iron gear with Options instead.

… I’d like to make steel items with Options soon, but I have yet to make even 4* items.

Even if Artisan’s Blacksmithing is steadily leveling, I have yet to see any meaningful improvement on this area.

I was hoping the 4* items would come soon, since I became able to make 3* steel equipment sooner than expected, but right now the Options feel really far away.

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Also, even if it’s still something that will take quite some time to reach, I should start searching for the next tier of gear that comes after Steel.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get any information on that.
Neither the library nor the NPC quests gave me any clue on these matters so far.

However, I do have permission to access the second floor of the library already.
I just need to get Improved Language first in order to become able to read the books there.

I can also try getting some pointers on other things by doing more quests for the Kederick store and from the five NPC blacksmiths that Mukaida introduced me to.

The first reward I got from the blacksmiths were recipes for Intermediate Tools, so maybe they might have information on how to get Advanced Tools too… Well, they have yet to provide any information on that to me though.

However, the people giving the rewards all have an advanced AI that feels alive here in Frontiers.
I can negotiate with them, unlike in a normal game.

I have to keep on trying to get new information! It may be hard, but I won’t give up!

Facilities may be important for crafting, but so are tools!

Of course, the most important things are Skill Level and rank of your materials, but the tier of your tools and facilities is right behind.

Therefore, I’ll keep on trying to negotiate with them and get more information on the future! Even if they don’t have the recipes, they might be able to introduce me to someone who has!

******

As usual, I am now at my free time after I finished making enough gear to restock the store.

But well, since steel equipment takes too long to be made, I ended up not having much free time left, which is a bit sad.

It would be alright if I reduced the number of items crafted in order to increase my free time, but I want to make use of my current steel monopoly to accumulate as many funds as possible in order to save for advanced-tier facilities!

As for my free time, I can just do whatever I want, but right now my focus is on acquiring Improved Language in order to challenge the second floor of the library.

The level of Language is already 100, so I can evolve it for as long as I get the Skill Points for it, but I ended up using the Skill Points on other skills instead, so I’m suffering from a shortage again.

Let’s see… My current skills are…

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Main Skills

Artisan’s Crafting lv 32/Improved Sewing lv 100/Improved Weaving lv 12/Improved Merchant lv 100/Improved Tool Making lv 97

Artisan’s Blacksmithing lv 51/Principle of Magic Circles lv 20/Improved Magic Power Manipulation lv 100/Improved Magic Power Enhancement lv 100/Improved Magic Power Recovery lv 100

Summoning lv 100

Sub Skills

Improved Leatherworking lv 67/Improved Woodworking lv 66/Improved Alchemy lv 87

Language lv 100/Improved Magic Language lv 72/Improved Decipher lv 31

Improved Discover lv 17/Improved Concentration lv 17/Improved Doll Making lv 24

Collecting lv 88/Mining lv 81/Detection lv 71/Stealth lv 67/Magical Gloves lv 45

Skill Points: 3

——

With all my hard work to get Skill Points, as well as the quest rewards I got, I ended up being able to evolve Principle of Magic Circles, Improved Weaving, Improved Discovery, Improved Concentration, Artisan’s Crafting, Improved Decipher and Improved Doll Making.

Earning all these Skill Points was really worthwhile.

Especially for Principle of Magic Circles and Artisan’s Crafting, which are tier-three skills already.
And similarly to Artisan’s Blacksmithing, there are remarkable improvements in their performance after evolution.

I had already become able to draw Magical Formations much quicker than before with its first evolution, but now the speed is tremendous and the final results are much more beautiful too.

Not to mention how incredibly pleasurable it is to draw the complex and mysterious Magical Formations of higher tiers.

The same holds true to Artisan’s Craftsman though.
I can now use its effects on the materials better, ending up with faster and more beautiful results.

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… Maybe I can now draw Magical Formations on metal more easily.

Back then it used to take me a couple hours even to make a simple Magical Formation, but I can make them on less than five minutes now if I try drawing them on Magic Paper.

Though I suppose it might still take a while to draw on metal, since it does give a considerable increase to the number of uses available for the Magical Formation.

In any case, I could also see a noticeable improvement on the skills that I evolved to the second tier, but they are still considerably behind the third-tier skills… Well, I guess that can’t be helped.

The important part is that I can now process materials much better than before, so I’m glad I evolved all those skills.

I also evolved Improved Discover and Improved Concentration because I use them all the time, so their bonuses end up benefitting me quite a bit.

After all, they’re primarily supportive skills that need to be used together with other skills.

Improved Discover also allowed me to get a new recipe, though it was sadly just a recipe for a slightly-more complex steel item.

I suppose I really need to go to the second floor of the library if I want to find the next tier of equipment, but… I need to evolve Language and I only have 3 Skill Points left.

I’ll need 15 Skill Points to evolve Language, so I need 12 more…

It’s too rare to get Skill Points from NPC quests, so I can’t rely on that either… The last time I got any Skill Points from a quest was when I delivered the Dark Short Sword to Mr.
Kederick, after all.

It did help me evolve many skills, but it’s still not reliable!

On the plus side though, even with the auction being canceled due to the attack of the mysterious shadow servants, the Dark Short Sword was still able to be sold before the auction was interrupted.

And it sold for quite a bit of money too.
Mr.
Kederick was in a cheerful mood even with the auction being cancelled because of that.

And it was also great for me due to how much I earned even after deducing the fees that went to the country for hosting the auction and for the Kederick store for selling the item too.

Well, I still earn a lot from selling still gear, so even if it didn’t sell for that much, I’d still be fine.

In any case, let’s now aim for Improved Language!