Chapter 7: Hidden Parameter

So, here’s another chapter.

Enjoy.

The next day, Monday, 9pm.

An hour before the time I had promised to meet up with Miyu, I had finished my domestic chores and had some free time.

Before I noticed, I had already put on the VR gear and lay down on top of the bed without anyone telling me to do so.

Seems like I’m more immersed in TB than I thought.

Before starting, I relaxed my body…and immediately turned it on and logged in.

Then, the scenery completely changed, I was standing in the plaza of 「Altrowa Village」 where I had logged out the previous day.

Just in case, I opened my friend list and checked Yumir’s name, naturally, it said 「Offline」.

Once she has some time, she’ll probably log in and contact me.

…If I prepare our equipment now, we can proceed to play smoothly once she logs in.

Since I have an hour, I should sell all the unnecessary items and I think I should be able to learn the basics of crafting.

First off, since I’m a beginner, I headed to the trading BBS that I was interested in that was in the game.

As a result, I was able to grasp an understanding of what the current market prices were.

It’s still the second day so it was still unstable, but it was still enough to give me an idea.

The currency used is gold, it’s usually displayed as G.

When I saw normal weeds or pebbles you can find anywhere being sold for 9.999.999G I honestly didn’t know what was going on.

Who is going to buy that?

Gear is expensive as expected, if you don’t mind working for it, it’s naturally cheaper to craft them yourself.

Eventually, I’ll have to look for another crafter to help me…but I should ignore that for now.

I don’t really have the money after all, I should craft them myself for the time being.

After that, I went around to check on the weapons and defensive gear being sold at the shops, but like the BBS had stated, their performance was lower than that of the ones crafted by players.

Sometimes 「Good quality」 was attached at the start, other times 「+1」 appeared at the end and even if they were the same weapon, their performance would be better.

For example, the 「Good quality broadsword +3」 when compared to a normal one, its performance was extremely above it in comparison.

For better or for worse, you could say I was surprised at its price.

The ones that were being sold in the village’s shops were the ones that usually had nothing attached to the name or the ones for poor players that had 「Crude」 attached to the name.

「Iron lance」 or 「Crude iron lance」, something like that.

You would think that there’s no use for these shops in the village, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Their main use is to repair your current gear, thus recovering their endurance.

There seem to be whetstones that you can carry, but they are expensive, giving the feeling that their use is for things like long dungeons, making repairing your gear in shops much cheaper.

The repair costs are generally on the cheaper side.

Take for example the 「Crude broadsword」 that is sold for 50G, in the case that you want to repair it, it’d only be 5G.

By the way, in the case of Miyu’s weapon that got 「damaged」, it’s possible to repair it but…

「That’ll be 150G」

「So expensive!」

With arms the size of his legs, the old man from the weapon shop ruthlessly informed me of the price.

Like this, the price can suddenly just go up.

Besides, a 「Broadsword」 is usually being sold at 150G so you could say that there was no point in repairing it.

There’s probably no point in repairing gear from that status until players are able to obtain unique gear.

Since there was no point this time, I sold the 「Broken crude broadsword」 to the old man for 1G.

「Mu…are you telling me to buy this…?」

Don’t make that dissatisfied face.

So, they won’t make a good face when they are being sold trash…they are so sensitive, the AIs in TB.

Isn’t it fine if you just melt the iron and re-use it?

Unfortunately, there’s no way for players to dismantle weapons like this into materials, that’s why this is the only way to get rid of them.

It basically means that it’s better to get 1G for it rather than just throwing it away.

With this, my current gold was 2031G.

The following is related to blacksmithing, you can build a workshop after making a guild and building a guild house, but there’s also the method of buying your own house and setting a workshop.

If you don’t have either…wait, I believe most players aren’t thinking about that kind of thing yet…

You can also borrow the workshops in the village, that’s information I got from the NPCs in the village.

Fundamentally, what you need to craft a weapon is 「Iron」 and a 「Sheath」 for it design, these two.

After that, you apparently need to buy a 「Blacksmithing set」 from a second-hand shop.

It’s an item you can’t trade among players, seems like the only way to obtain it is to go and buy it from the shop yourself.

When it comes to those ingredients, I already had a good quantity in my inventory, so guess I’ll go take a look at the second-hand shop for the time being.

I passed through the entrance of a small shop with a potion mark drawn in it that looked like a second-hand shop.

「Welco-…Oh, you are…」

「Hello. Yesterday, in front of the gate…」

「Oh my, of course, I remember you. Welcome to Claris’ second-hand shop. Please, take a look around」

「Thanks」

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In a shop that you wouldn’t be able to call spacious, Claris-san, the NPC I met yesterday, was looking after customers on the other side of the counter.

Inside the shop, there were various customers…wait, why are they looking this way?

「Hey, did Claris-san ever say those lines?」

「No, not to me. Usually, she just says 「Welcome」. It’s mysterious how she even recognized him」

「Right? There might be a requisite for it…didn’t he say something about the gate?」

I see, thanks for having a conversation that was easy to understand.

It seems like Claris-san, who is an NPC, usually reacts in a different way, so they were looking over here because they found it strange.

If I thought about it like that, was I lucky? Though I don’t really know if there are any benefits to that.

After that, I found the blacksmithing set I was looking for and looked at the price tag but…

「1-1200G…」

So expensive…

Each time you use the blacksmith’s forge you have to spend 300G and it would make me unable to buy healing items.

The price of a beginner healing potion is 50G and a bottle of holy water is 200G.

Particularly, not being able to buy many of the revival item called 「Holy water」 would hurt.

Since I still haven’t learned any resurrection spells, I’m particularly afraid of the death penalty.

At the very least, I’d like to purchase two of them.

My partner is that wild beast after all…with the healing spells I currently have, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with her.

「Is there something wrong?」

「!」

Having her hand placed on top of my shoulder so suddenly, I reflexively jumped.

Once I turned my head around, Claris-san was looking at me while showing a sweet smile.

「Ah, well…you see, my wallet…」

Because I was agitated, I suddenly started to confess honestly…and Claris-san placed one of her index fingers on top of my lips.

…Even though she’s an NPC, my heart is somehow beating really fast because of her coquettish behavior!?

Claris-san proceeded to bring her face closer to mine and whispered to me.

「As thanks for last time, I’ll give you a discount but it has to be kept secret from everyone else. …How about 40%?」

40%!?

They were such favorable terms…I reflexively nearly agreed to it, but I held back and stood where I was.

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For some reason, I was feeling a strange uneasiness.

When thinking about the unique behavior of the NPCs in this game, was it OK to accept her offer?

…Since there was nothing to lose here, I should just trust my intuition and simply accept her offer.

「I would be really grateful, but aren’t the conditions too favorable for me? I believe it’s too much as thanks for helping you when you fell down. Somehow, I’m scared that there’s more to it」

「Oh, you are more distrustful than I thought. Though, as a shopkeeper, I like that more…in that case, how about you take a personal request from me later? I won’t ask for anything too difficult, I’ll even add a reward on top of the discount. What do you think?」

Oh!? The flow of the conversation has changed!

Is this…no, but, it’s still a bit unclear.

Having reached this point, it would be a loss if I didn’t hear more about it.

「If after hearing the contents of that request, I decide to refuse…」

「Of course, I don’t mind. Even if you decline my request, I’ll still provide today’s discount. I promise」

Claris-san was smiling, as if she was enjoying our bargaining talk.

Hmm…for some reason, I can’t read her character at all and it’s scary.

However, she has promised, so she probably wouldn’t do anything bad.

Since we are already here, should I try to increase the scope of the discount?

Will she let it go through? Or will it be going too far and she’ll get angry?

「In that case, I’ll take you up on that offer. While we are at it, I would like to purchase: holy water, beginner potions, and this sewing set. If I bought all of it, would the discount still apply?」

「Fufufu, that’s fine. You are quite skilled at shopping, huh? In that case, come back tomorrow. I’ll be waiting for you」

Alright! I got my first quest and the item discount was a success!

When they said that NPCs would give you quests on their own, they meant this!

The old man in the weapon shop also showed his emotions on his face, so it seems like treating the NPCs in this game well is very important.

There might be a hidden parameter for likability among NPCs.

No good, I got a bit too excited…the previous two people were looking at me again with suspicion.

Let’s calm down.

I don’t really know the contents of the quest, but she left me room to decline if I wanted to and I still got a discount on everything, so there was nothing more to say.

Besides, we are still at the beginning of the game, I doubt it’ll be a harsh request.

I had bought the blacksmithing set, the remaining gold I used to buy: 5 beginner potions, 3 holy water and I was even able to buy the sewing set I had taken an interest in for 480G.

That left me with 321G.

I just barely had enough, but it should be fine.

I left the item shop with a happy face and this time, I headed towards the blacksmith’s forge to craft the weapons.

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