By the time I finished making the equipment that Mika requested, it was already midnight in-game. It took quite a while, but I also got a lot of skill levels.
It was a bit of a shame that I had no time to read books nor make Magical Formations though, so no skill levels related to those… Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Sewing and Merchant both reached lv 100 though… Wait, Merchant did? But I should only be gathering levels for it when the store is open…
It must have reached lv 100 a few hours ago. I was too focused on crafting, so I didn’t notice… Oh well, that can’t be helped either.
Either way, I did acquire a fair bit of Skill Points by leveling my new skills, so let’s evolve those two right away! Sewing will become Improved Sewing by spending 20 Skill Points, and Merchant will become Improved Merchant by spending 15 Skill Points!
Though I wonder what Improved Merchant will do… Sewing will probably be about the same as Blacksmithing, but Merchant? Will it just make it easier to collect Market Prices or something?
I got a new subskill, ‘Contract’. It allows me to make a contract with someone with whatever specific functions I want… I guess I’d need that to make use of the new Renting function? Seems kinda pointless to me. Was it a mistake to evolve Merchant? It’s gonna get levels, which is always good, but it’s going to be taking a slot of the Active Skills during that time, so… Well, can’t do anything about what was already done. Let’s just accept that and move on.
I sent a message to Mika, telling her that I finished crafting everything, then headed to the guild to get the gear evaluated and to get the Personal Web Space. Hopefully the queues aren’t there anymore, since it’s been a while since the update went live.
******
… It wasn’t as crowded as before, but it still took some time to get everything done. I didn’t decide if I want to purchase any premium items yet, so I went for free stuff only.
Then, after that, I went to my store to meet up with Mika. She must already be inside since she can enter without a key, but I decided to send her a message that told her I was coming anyways.
“You took forever! I’m so tired of waiting!
“Nah, joke, I guess it was pretty crowded?” She replied.
“Better than right after the update, I guess.” I told her.
“By the way, I’m in my ‘Room’ right now!” She suddenly said.
“You already bought it!?” I asked her.
“Yeah! I got it with a 3-month package! All of my allowance is gone!” She proudly declared.
“Wow…” As I sent this message, I finally reached the store. Mika was inside it, so she probably left her Room to wait for me.
It does make sense that she bought the 3-month package as it’s cheaper than renewing it every month, but doing that with only allowance money is rough… Mika really doesn’t hold back.
As she saw me get inside the store, she said, “Take a look! This is the key to my ‘Room’!” and showed me an old-fashioned key that had nothing to do with voice recognition, fingerprints or retina authentication… Truly an old relic that we only see in textbooks.
“It’s quite pretty.” I told her. It really was a fashionable key with lots of embroideries to it. Definitely an item that gives off a luxurious vibe.
“I know, right!? Now see this! Open, door!” As she exclaimed this and inserted the key into thin air, a door appeared out of nowhere, together with a cute glittering effect, “Welcome to my Room!”
“Please excuse me.” I said as I entered the ‘Room’ after her.
It was very spacious, the ceiling was high, and the furniture all felt like it was pretty far from each other due to how large the room was… Or maybe it just gave that feeling because there was little furniture in the first place.
“So that’s what it looks like…” I commented.
“It’s large isn’t it? There isn’t much furniture, but it’s fine for a beginners’ ‘Room’ I’d say.” She replied.
As I looked around a bit, I noticed something, “Oh, there’s a toilet here. Does it do anything?” I asked her.
“Not as far as I know, though it does flush properly. There is also a bath, but it’s equally useless.” She explained.
“Well, I guess it is to help give the ‘Room’ a nice feeling.” I replied.
The ‘Room’ did feel like it had everything a house might need, so those essential things did add a nice touch, even if ‘Frontiers’ had no need for them.
“Oh, the bed is pretty dangerous, by the way.” Mika suddenly said.
“Eh? The bed? Will it log you out if you lay on it?” I asked.
“Bingo!
“Nah, it also does nothing.” Mika replied. Not surprising when considering that I don’t think it’s even possible to sleep in ‘Frontiers’.
“By the way, we really can’t put a Production Facility in here, can we?” I asked just to be sure.
“Yeah, we can’t. All you can add are new rooms and expand the original room. You can also buy some furniture, but nothing production-related.” Mika explained.
“Ah… Well, I guess I really don’t need a ‘Room’ after all.” I said.
“But of course, you have a shop already!” Mika exclaimed, “By the way, that’s it for the tour. There wasn’t much to show in the end.”
“I’m glad I could see it though. That said, here are the items you ordered.” I showed her the things I produced.
“You really did it! As expected of Yuri! I love you!” She said while hugging me.
“Yeah yeah, just don’t forget to pay up.” I told her while hugging her back.
“Oh, wow! I’m almost bankrupt with this! I’m definitely earning all this money back by beating that Lich!” Mika exclaimed.
It couldn’t be helped that Iron was expensive when it was about twice the effective as Bronze, but she’ll probably collect the appropriate share of the money from her party members later, so I think it wasn’t as hard to pay for as she made it sound.
That said, I figured I’d ask her about what she just exclaimed, “So the boss is a lich?”
“Yeah? Didn’t I tell you? It was an annoying lich that summoned a bunch of undead minions to fight against us.
“The summons weren’t that strong, but it was really hard to reach him with all those mobs on the way, so we ended up getting wiped.” She explained.
No wonder they had trouble with it. Undeads aren’t that common near Capital City Sabrina, so they probably didn’t have appropriate countermeasures ready.
Though this also means that they’ll have a much better chance of winning next time.
“By the way, did you get enough Magic Crystals for everyone?” I asked her.
“Kinda? More would be better, but since we’re able to use it on Iron now, thanks to you, I think it will be enough.” She replied.
“It definitely will help if you make the strong Iron gear even stronger.” I said while nodding.
“Yeah. The rest will just be undead-specific preparations though.
“Do you have any light-element Magic Circle, by the way? It would help a lot to have more availability of a spell that attacks the undeads’ weakpoints.” She asked me.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any like that, but I’ll try searching for a recipe.” I replied.
“Thanks! We still have some time until we’ll be ready for the next raid, so do tell me if you find something! I can buy it even if it’s a last-minute production!” She told me.
“Roger that!” I exclaimed.
******
It really was fun spending time with Mika. Even with just the two of us there was no shortage of topics and we could have easily spent hours like this.
However, her party members replied to her message that told them about the purchase of the items, so they wanted to meet up with her to get their share of the gear, which meant that we would have to part now.
“You should invite Hime and Lalalu here next time. We could make a girls-only gathering in your Room!” I told her before we left.
“I’d love to, but won’t them both buy their own Rooms too?” Mika asked me.
“Well, we’d just need to switch whose Room we visit in each gathering then?” I asked her back.
“Then you should also buy a room, shouldn’t you? The 3-month package is a great deal, you know?” Mika tried to convince me to spend my money on the game…
“Well… I think that might actually happen.” I replied. I was already thinking about spending anyways, so I might as well.
“Ah! Sorry, my party already reached our meeting point, so I really need to leave now.” Mika told me as she read a message from them.
“It can’t be helped. Subduing the lich is a priority after all.” I replied.
“Sorry about that though!” She exclaimed that, then opened the Room’s door, leading back to my store. As expected, you really do come back in the same place that the Room was opened at, “See you again!”
“See you!” I told her as she left.
Then, after she parted, I made my decision. I bought a 3-month package that included a Room in it, though the pack I chose also allowed you to pick some other things together with it… It really would be nice if there was a Production Facility within the Room.