Chapter 12: 12

My【Repair】Skill Became an Almighty Cheat Skill, so I Thought I’d Open up a Weapon Shop

— Three days have passed since I opened up my weapon shop. I got used to my new life in Greenhollow, and I have gotten considerably better at customer service.

Currently, I had a good amount of customers.

Most of the customers were rookies who could handle gathering quests at 『Sundial Forest』easily.

Some came to buy their very first weapon with the money they saved up from doing low-ranking quests, while others came to replace their current weapon for a better one. I was earning a good amount of money from them as expected.

Furthermore, news of my high level【Repair】skill had spread, so I was getting a steady income from repair requests for weapons and armor.

Most likely, the source of money from some of these customers came from the dragon’s corpse I left behind on the fifth floor of 『Sundial Forest』.

The bar girl and guild house receptionist Mareeda mentioned how happy she was because profits have gone up thanks to the adventurers’ plumage.

My customers were not all adventurers, however.

「This is unexpected.」

「What is?」

Silvia, who came to check up on me, heard my mutter.

「Oh, I was just thinking that even though I opened this shop with adventurers in mind, I’m getting quite a lot of the locals coming in to purchase things.」

「Of course. Things like knives and wide-blades are necessary to live in the mountains here. The hunters here use spears along with their bow and arrow. Your shop is quite popular since people don’t have to travel out of town to get good quality tools now.」

「So that’s why I got so many requests to【repair】kitchen knives on the first day…」

It was true that adventurers were not the only people that used bladed tools. I should put that into consideration the next time I order more inventory.

「By the way, I noticed that adventurers don’t really buy spears. I’ve always thought that was strange.」

「Hm? I guess so.」

「I’ve only seen the local hunters come and buy them.」

Right before I was about to answer Silvia’s question, a young adventurer who had been staring at my products asked me a similar question.

「Excuse me. Which is better as a weapon, a sword or a spear? Everyone seems to be buying a sword, but…」

「Oh, here comes another one. It mostly depends on the type of quests you want to focus on, but for adventurers, I would recommend a sword to start.」

Some of the other customers were listening to my answer as well, so I decided to give a better explanation.

「If a person with a sword fought against a person with a spear in an open area, then of course, the spear would have an advantage. It’s strong, and as long as there are no obstacles in the way, it has quite the reach. But when you think about it, the places that an adventurer goes to are full of obstacles, right?」

I began listing off some examples.

For example, when one went to collect herbs. It would be most efficient to hold a basket or bag in one hand, and to pick herbs in the other. However, it’d be hard to do so if you brought a spear along.

You’d have to leave the spear somewhere in order to pick herbs efficiently, but by doing so, you end up defenseless.

Another example was when one climbed a cliff. You need both hands to climb with a rope, but spears would get in your way.

If the adventurer tied the spear to their back so that they could use the rope, then they’d be too slow at taking out their weapon to deal with monsters like wolves lying in wait. I’ve seen tragic moments like that where those people end up getting eaten by wolves.

Finally, another case would be when one explored a cave or a cramped labyrinth. Spears are strong because of their long length. On the other hand, they cause a lot of stress in cramped places because the user can’t move around easily.

If the adventurer tried turning to deal with a surprise attack from behind, the tip of their spear would most likely end up hitting a wall or the ceiling. A single moment like that was fatal.

「With swords, you can put them into a scabbard and hang it off your waist. You can’t do that with a spear. It’s important for adventurers to have a weapon they can carry around easily. 」

「I- I see…」

Unlike the adventurer who asked me that question, Silvia was nodding more frequently at what I was saying.

Spears are a good unsheathed weapon, but terrible for carrying. This is obvious, but it’s difficult to walk around carrying a pole longer than one’s own height.

Spears wouldn’t be a problem for the town guards. The paths are nicely paved so it’s easy to walk on them. Also, since the guards actually live in the area they work in, they would know how to detour in order to avoid cramped areas.

As for hunters, they would use a spear to deal the final blow to their prey. Generally speaking, hunters hunt in terrains they are familiar with. That way, they could go on an easy footpath while carrying a spear.

However, for adventurers, that would not always be the case.

Most of the time, they would have to go through unknown routes, and be prepared to battle in unimaginable areas.

That’s why I think that swords, which are easy to carry and can be used for most situations, are the best for new adventurers.

「I see… that’s why you recommend swords. But I’ve seen adventurers who work at a city carry around these fancy spears.」

「Well, that’s because swords are recommended『in general』. It changes depending on one’s goal or skills.」

Fundamentally speaking, the most ideal would be switching weapons depending on the situation.

Then again, if that could be easily done, then all the adventurers out there wouldn’t be suffering like this.

「There are even adventurers who bring both a sword and a spear, but those are special cases. Those people can carry more things with them to begin with. The only ones who could do that are probably the leader of high-ranked parties 」

「I see. Thank you very much!」

The adventurer smiled and purchased a moderately long sword.

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Just as he left, another adventurer came up to the counter with an apologetic expression.

「…Um… I wanted to ask, is there a sword I can buy, with one big silver coin…?」

I see. This was a common problem rookies had; running out of money. Not everybody was able to snatch up some material off of the dragon, and a lot of an adventurer’s income went to inn charges and food.

In our region, Westland, we had six types of coins. The coins were separated into three types: gold, silver, and bronze. All three were further split into big and small coins.

The values of the coins were different a long time ago, but in recent years, the conversation rate was ten small copper coins for one big copper coin, ten big copper coins for one small silver coin, and so on. Basically, ten coins were equivalent to one coin of the following rank.

As for the value of the coins, one small gold coin roughly enough for a commoner’s family to live off of for a month. One big silver coin would be one-tenth of that value.

「Don’t worry, a big silver coin is enough for a regular iron sword.」

「Thank god… Then, I’ll buy one.」

「Thank you for your purchase. In Westland, an iron sword is generally worth one big silver coin. Remember that, and try not to get scammed.」

Of course, expensive swords would be ten times the price of that. In other words, it wasn’t rare for merchants to ask for payment in gold coins.

Purchasing equipment that was at the level of a knight’s would burn through a large amount of gold coins.

If there was anything that would require gold coins to purchase in this shop, it would be…

「Luke-san, are your 『featured products』selling?」

After we watched the adventurer with the iron sword leave the shop, Silvia brought that question up casually.

「No, I haven’t sold a single one. The price isn’t low enough for them to be sold quickly anyways. They’re basically decorations.」

We looked over to where the silver swords were lined up, and saw some adventurers gazing at them.

The blade glittered differently than a regular iron sword would. One might think, 「is this what a sword made from silver looks like?」

I set the prices of the long swords to be one small gold coin, and the short swords to be five big silver coins.

The amount for one sword was roughly equal to a commoner’s monthly expense. The price was set like an expensive shop’s, one suitable for a noble or knight.

I only brought back one small pouch’s worth of metal powder from the labyrinth.

I didn’t have enough to produce more swords that were the same quality as the one that took down the dragon, so the ones lined up in the shop were simply replicas with lower quality metal mixed in.

If I were to sell that particular sword, it would definitely be worth at least one big gold coin. As for the replicas, I decided on the price based on the amount of metal powder I used. In the end, a longsword ended up being one small gold coin.

Of course, I wrote a note that I placed under the swords saying that they were replicas made with less mystery metal powder due to circumstances.

(If I could mass produce the swords with that powder, I would, but… I never want to step another foot in that dungeon, and I’m not exactly in a hurry to earn money either.)

In order to mass produce the swords, first I would have to descend all the way down to the fifth floor of the E-ranked dungeon『Sundial Forest』, then go down the hidden stairs into the A-ranked dungeon『Hade’s Millenium Corridor』, and finally【disassemble】the labyrinth walls into powder.

The biggest problem would be the ghost-type monsters that lived in the labyrinth. They could go through the walls and floor to attack.

I could gather the powder from the walls near the hidden stairs, but if I was unlucky and ran into one of those, I would be good as dead.

Even if I were to notice it, the monster would likely aim directly at my soul, turning me into a corpse instantly.

Although monsters like ghosts have a low appearance rate, being able to wander through a labyrinth without running into one was actually considered to be good luck.

(Not to mention, there are only rookie adventurers at Greenhollow. I can’t ask them to help me gather stuff or be my bodyguard. That’ll only increase the amount of corpses.)

On a side note, I had already reported the existence of the hidden stairs to the guild, but no warnings about the dangers of the dungeon had been announced from them.

Basically, they said they were going to observe the area for the time being, since there was no way the monsters would ascend from the stairs.

Unlike goblins and kobolds, ghosts and skeletons are famous for not leaving the dungeon they’re from.

There was a popular theory that said the reason those monsters couldn’t leave the dungeon was because they were being sustained by the magic inside.

(Then again, if the guild wasn’t saying anything, then the town was probably safe at the moment anyway…. That reminds me, where did that dragon come from? )

As I thought about that, someone opened the door to the shop with a lot of force.

I was startled by the noise and looked over.

There were two people. One was a muscular man wearing a thick mantle. The other one was a blonde man with an aloof atmosphere around him.

「Excuse me, are you the owner of this shop?」

「Hey hey! Is this the shop that’s selling the sword used to kill the dragon with?」

Author’s Notes:

Digression (feel free to skip this)

I tried researching the actual price of a sword back in the medieval times, but the numbers conflicted with others.

I would read that a cheap sword owned by a peasant was around 20,000~30,000 yen, but then a different source would mention that some swords were worth up to 1,000,000 yen…

In this story, I decided to write that「1 big silver coin = 1/10 of a commoner’s monthly wage.」Meanwhile, a high quality sword was 「1 small gold coin = a full month’s wage for a commoner.」

There are all sorts of skills used in this world, so I imagined that industrial goods would be cheaper compared to the real world.

Of course, the price of a sword bought by a noble knows no limit.

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