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

Chapter 140 – Ah…

 

Differently from me and Lulu, Lolita seems to be planning on taking on a disciple.

While we listened to Lolita talk about why she wanted to take a disciple and eventually increase the number of clan members, we ended up noticing that the number of stalls near us was steadily increasing.

And it felt a bit different than seeing stalls on other countries.
The ones here gave a bit of a festival feeling.

Though well, they still sell weapons, armors, materials and the like, so that part doesn’t feel like a festival at all.

In any case, before sightseeing, we decided to go around the stalls to buy materials.

In Capital Rivas though, differently from Capital Melis, I couldn’t find an item as good as Royal Steel for cheap.

It’s sad, but it also can’t be helped, as that was a really lucky find.

Nonetheless, I was able to find a fair amount of compatible rare materials that were being sold at a lower price than what I could find at the Zabrina Kingdom.

Though they weren’t materials I used that often…

I also asked the player Pioneers who were running stalls if there were any Japan-themed materials, like the cherry blossoms, but unfortunately there were none.

I really wish we could use the cherry blossom petals as materials, but they can’t be used even to make original items.

Some people even tried turning the petals into a paste to try doing something with them, but even that had no success, so it’s definitely impossible to make them into weapons or armors.

That said, I was able to buy several Magic Stone Balls in this shopping spree, so it’s not like it was that bad.

Information on which book teaches their recipe is available on the forums, but I’d like to first try using them to see how they work.

If it can be applied to the Magic Doll, then it might reduce the burden on Hime, so this is definitely worth researching.

Though well, the Magic Stone Balls might be made with unique technology of Frontiers, so it might be hard to try improving them by making an Original creation.

It’s similar to how Lulu is struggling to recreate the sweets from the event.
It’s really hard to recreate the game’s Original creations.

And then further improving it would be even harder…

Though well, I can’t say for sure if it’s using any sort of unique technology, so I have no choice but to try it out first!

Besides, Lulu’s case is probably harder than mine, as she is trying to recreate event-specific rewards.

******

I bought a few materials of a rank that could only be found on the Tabarist Empire, a fair amount of rare materials, and plenty of compatible materials for experimentation.

Even if I have plenty of money, I can’t help feeling like I spent too much.

It’s possible that many of those materials will end up rotting in my warehouse… I mean, they’re mostly compatible materials, and not all of them were of a high-rank, so if I can’t find any use for them after an experiment or two, then they’ll be truly worthless to me.

But if the experiments show good results, then I’ll definitely be needing more of them, hence why I decided to buy them in bulk.

I also noticed that there are quite a few types of Magical Gloves being sold here, including some Originals.

The variety of dolls was much higher though.

However, I couldn’t see a single humanoid doll, so I guess that they’re too hard to make?

The humanoid that we put on top of the Spider Doll with Magical Remodeling was fixed to a base and operated from there, so it wasn’t too hard to control, but a proper bipedal doll would surely be much harder to make properly.

One would need a very good understanding of human anatomy, robotics, weight balance and whatnot to make this work out, I think.

Or well, at least that would be the case when making an Original.

The Magic Stone Ball is also a thing though, so maybe, if we can find a recipe for it, it should be possible to fight by manipulating humanoid dolls.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Hime could fight by controlling two or three bodies at the same time when using the Magic Stone Ball too, so… If she got first-class gear on herself and on the dolls, she might become a one-woman-party.

Though well, if things went that far, I’m sure they’d end up getting nerfed.

“Even with the Japanese aesthetic, the temple still looks like a Western temple.” I commented.

“Kinda disappointing, right? I thought it would be like a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple instead.” Lolita said.

“… I guess it’s because all countries worship the same Goddess?” Lulu suggested.

“Well, I guess it would be strange to have that Goddess be worshipped in a Shinto shrine.” I commented.

Lolita suddenly started laughing, and she seemed to accidentally spit on the ground in the middle of her laugher.

“… Lalalu… Dirty.” Lulu said.

“S-sorry! I-it was just… Too funny to imagine!” Lolita started laughing out loud.

The Goddess in the opening was clearly a Western Goddess, which really wouldn’t go well with a Shrine.

Lolita tried imagining the scene and couldn’t stop laughing at all.

She even leaned against me and slapped me on the back.
It didn’t hurt, but it was quite shocking.

If she wasn’t registered as a friend, she’d get a harassment warning for that…

But well, after laughing for a while, Lolita calmed down, so we went to the temple and got our International Stamp Rally finished.

With all stamps collected, the event was over for us.

It was a fairly simple event, but it’s fine since the real goal was to visit the other countries.
The decorative prizes are just a nice extra.

“By the way, did you two visit the Skill Points Conversion Priest?” Lolita asked us.

“Not yet.
It’s an NPC that exchanges max level skills for Skill Points, right?” I asked just to be sure.

“Pretty much.
I guess it was made to deal with people’s complaints that they have too many skills that they can’t evolve due to lack of Skill Points.” Lolita replied.

“… It’s hard to evolve everything I want.” Lulu nodded.

“I also have some skills stuck at max level.” I commented.

The Skill Points Conversion Priest is an NPC that was added with the major update.
He received a special ability from the Goddess, which allows him to convert max level skills into Skill Points.

Though you also need to spend a large amount of the in-game currency, Nil, to make the conversion.

I haven’t used it yet because there’s a lot that I want to do, but I certainly want to visit it once things settle down.

“I’m trying to think of skills that are easy to level in order to grind Skill Points, but… It’s hard to find good ones for that, isn’t it?” Lolita commented.

“Ah, yeah, it takes quite a while to max even the basic skills.” I replied.

“… When it comes to efficiency, choosing the right skills is also important.” Lulu added.

The basic skills can easily be learned at the tutorial areas, and they aren’t too hard to level, but they still take a while to get to max level.

It’s also hard to think of skills that can be leveled during the normal crafting process, but that would be better off being exchanged for Skill Points instead of kept.

The skills that are necessary for our daily activities on Frontiers absolutely cannot be converted, so if you want be efficient with this system, then you probably will have to go out of your way to grind Skill Points.

Nonetheless this system still got plenty of attention on the forums, and plenty of discussion is being made about what are the ideal skills that should be converted, so the most optimal choices should be found sooner or later.

“How much money does it cost to convert skills though?” Lolita asked.

“It’s not written on the forums?” I asked her back.

“I just looked at the sightseeing threads for the Tabarist Empire so far, so I don’t know.” Lolita replied.

“It seems like the price varies depending on the skill…” Lulu told us.

“Ohoh!” Lolita exclaimed.

“Since it was announced to be a large amount of Nil, it will probably be quite costly regardless of the skill.” I commented.

Though if the price varies depending on the skill, then maybe it will be cheaper to exchange a skill that takes a while to get to max level, as opposed to skills that are easy to grind out.

I don’t mind it for as long as it’s not outrageously expensive, but I’d definitely prefer to exchange cheap skills.

“I’ve been struggling with my skill levels, but it’s hard to think of doing it when I know it will cost a lot of money…” Lolita groaned.

“Well, it’s another use for money, so I think it’s a good addition.” I commented.

“You certainly have a lot of money, don’t you, Bucket? Did you earn too much and have no use for it anymore?” Lolita asked me.

“No way.
Facilities are absurdly expensive.” I replied.

“Ah!” Lolita exclaimed.

“Ah…” Lulu said.

Even if I have huge profits from selling steel gear with two Options in them, I still haven’t been able to upgrade all my facilities to the Advanced tier.

Moreover, I’m also thinking of getting some portable facilities, so no matter how much money I have, it’s definitely not enough.

And then there is also the possibility of the major update introducing even higher tiers of facilities.
There was no announcement about it, but I think it might have happened.

Or rather, I’ll be in trouble if Advanced is the final tier.

Facilities and Tools are just as important as Skill Level and materials, after all.

If I want to make Royal Steel items with Options, then I’ll probably need to improve not only my Skill Level, but also my facilities and tools.

Though well, improving your facilities and tools is quite hard… Nonetheless, it’s still an extremely high priority.

That said, for the time being, my goal is to upgrade all my facilities to Advanced tier.
I can worry about what comes next afterwards.

“Well, since none of us saw it yet, should we go take a look at the Skill Points Conversion Priest?” Lolita suggested.

“Sure, let’s do it.” I replied.

“… Let’s go.” Lulu agreed.

There should be no problems in checking it out even if we don’t want to convert anything yet, so we might as well go take a look.

In my case, I don’t think I have any skill that I want to convert yet, but I might change my mind after more information is posted about it on the forums.

Besides, when being with Lolita and Lulu, I have fun regardless of what I’m doing anyways, so we might as well go take a look.

It’s fun to play with Mika and Hime, but I can get a different kind of fun when playing with Lolita and Lulu.

Alright, now where is this priest…?

Could it be where that line is…?

It’s kinda long… I don’t think I want to go there anymore…