I worked hard making Iron Gear in order to raise the funds to purchase my production equipment, so by the time I realized it, it was already midnight.
I wouldn’t usually mind making more gear even after this long crafting, but Tool Making, Woodworking and Leatherworking reached level 100, and I don’t have enough Skill Points to evolve them… And it would feel like a real waste to keep on crafting in this condition.
And I don’t really have time to go on an expedition right now, as I’ll be training on daytime and fundraising on nighttime, so… I guess I’ll give up on crafting for today and have a girls-only gathering with Mika, Hime and Lolita.
I also passed by some stalls and bought a few sweets for our gathering. Ideally I’d buy some fancier ones at an NPC store, but they were closed right now, so it couldn’t be helped… Well, someone else will surely bring nicer sweets anyways, so it’s no big deal.
******
Today’s gathering was on Lolita’s Room, and we had a table full of sweets in front of us. The cookies that I bought from a stall, doughnuts from Mika, a mousse from Hime and macaroons from Lolita.
“We surely brought a lot…” I commented.
“No worries, it’s all delicious.” Lolita said as she ate a cookie.
“This mousse is wonderful.” Hime said.
“You really do love mousses, don’t you?” Mika asked Hime.
“Deliciousness is justice.” Hime replied.
“As expected of Hime.” I commented.
Well, it’s not as if we’ll get fat from eating at Frontiers, so we could eat as much as we wanted.
… The pace at which Lolita was eating was a bit amazing though, the number of sweets available was declining fast… Is this stress eating or something?
After a while of us eating to our heart’s content, Lolita said, “Ah, I’m satisfied.”
“You really ate a lot… Did something happen perchance?” I decided to ask her.
“It did! Like…” Then, Lolita started explaining her troubles to us.
Like how she was working hard to get her guild rank to 4*, but some troubles on her work ended up getting in the way of her grind inside the game.
She seems to have finished solving them by now, but I was a bit surprised to find out that Lolita was actually an adult already.
Because… “I know you can change your appearance plenty on Frontiers, but your height is…” I started saying.
“Please say no more.” Lolita replied.
Frontiers doesn’t allow us to change more than 1-2cm in our height when compared to our height outside the game, as it would be hard to move a body that is too longer or shorter than the one we’re used to, so…
“Legal Loli!” Hime exclaimed.
“Oh, come on!” Lolita exclaimed in return.
I mean, I’m sure we were all thinking the same here, but that was harsh of Hime…
Also, Hime is shorter than the already short Lolita anyways… Though Hime is a high schooler, so I guess she still has potential for growth.
Nonetheless, the average-height me and Mika just gave them a pitying smile.
“Don’t go too far on the teasing, Hime.” Mika told her.
“You’re an adult, Lalalu, so you shouldn’t cry.” I told her.
“Adults too have the right to cry!
“Ah, anyways! I’m considering buying my own store!” Lolita changed topics.
“I mean… After seeing Bucket’s shop, I figured it would be a good idea to have one of my own.
“Though I probably need a bigger one, as I need to display my work, like…” Then, Lolita started explaining to us how she wanted to make her clerks wear some of her outfits to advertise products, or how she wanted to put mannequins showing them off as well and the like.
It was a world that I, who leave all the customer service work to the clerks, couldn’t understand at all.
However, Lolita surely was good at convincing us to try out the clothes that she made, as before we realized it, Hime was already making another fashion show… Well, those are fun, so it’s not like this is a bad thing.
“But well, in that case, I think you should try visiting the Real Estate Agent?” Mika asked.
“Yeah, I know, but like… Well, wouldn’t it be easier if I went with someone?” Lolita replied.
“You mean like… Someone with experience in buying properties?” Mika asked again.
“Precisely!” Lolita replied.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I guess I can go with you?” I offered.
“Yes, thank you! I’m not that good with Real Estate Agents…” Lolita explained… Though I can’t really imagine someone being bad with them, since one would almost never visit them in the first place? Is this just because Lolita never visited one?
Well, I promised to go with Lolita anyways, which made her quite enthusiastic… How unusual.
In any case, after this was done, we all ended up talking leisurely about how nice the sweets were, or about how beautiful the fairy tale-like Room of Lolita was, or about the upcoming Lich subjugation as well.
But eventually, our meeting had to be ended, as Mika and Hime were both requested on the field… I guess it can’t be helped, since Mika is a top combatant and Hime a top woodcutter.
Besides, this meeting surprisingly ended up going on for almost 3 hours, so I guess it was a good time to end it… Time surely flies when we’re having fun.
It would soon be time for the clerks to come to my store, and my logout timer was also approaching, so I decided to replenish store supplies, read a book, kill time, then log-out.
******
After having dinner and bathing, I logged in again. It was midday already, so time for training! Let’s go to the Kederick Smithy right away!
“Good to see you again!” I said as I met Merget.
“You came at a good time! You should go have lunch if you’re hungry, as you’ll be no good at work if your stomach distracts you!” Merget replied.
… I didn’t really need to eat as my hunger meter was close to being full due to how many sweets I ate, but… Well, it’s not like I can get sluggish from overeating in Frontiers, and I’m not one to turn down tasty food, so… “I’ll eat first!” I told him.
“Got it! Eat plenty, then work hard!” As Merget said that, we all went to eat.
It was a pretty noisy meal, just like the last one. Even though there was no sound of metal being hit while we were within the dining hall… It’s just that everyone here speaks really loudly. Maybe it’s a trait of the profession?
Or maybe it’s just that all apprentices got Merget’s habit of speaking really loudly…
******
After I finished the meal, I returned to the smithy and started making the requested 3* Iron gear by using the Beginner Equipment and following the standard recipes. There was no problem with it as it was something I was pretty used to making.
And once that was done, it was back to crafting Bronze Light Circlets! As I was making them, Merget sometimes gave me some tips on what I could do to make the process smoother. It was always very good and easy to understand advice, which I was quite thankful for.
I was a bit worried at first when seeing his personality, but he is actually a great teacher! I’m glad I accepted this apprenticeship!
And the result of it, was that I eventually got the recipe for the Bronze Light Circlets completed… And it was like, way faster than expected. I have a good grasp of how many times I need to make an item before an original recipe is registered by now, but I ended up needing to make it way less Light Circlets than Bucket Helms in order to get a recipe. This was definitely only possible due to the good advice that Merget gave me.
His tips are surely going to help me quite a bit from now on, as they weren’t specific to just the Light Circlet… Training is truly amazing! I can see so much progress even without leveling my skills!
… Though it is a bit sad that I barely got any skill levels from this training session.
Nonetheless, Merget praised me for doing a good job, and I could hear some disciples grumbling about how fast I got that recipe done, which was quite nice… However, the training is not done yet! “Master! What’s next!?” I asked.
“Try this one!” Merget replied.
“Yes, master!” After I said that, I started paying attention to his movements once again, to see the process of how to make the next item he was going to get me to craft… That’s right, the training is just starting!