Only Sense Online - Volume 03 Read online

"Now then, let's go to Lyly's place."

  Since they didn't specify what to take, I left 【Atelier】 empty-handed and headed to 【Lyly's Woodworking Shop】.

  【Lyly's Woodworking Shop】 was located on the east side of the first town, opposite of it stood Cloude's 【Commonest Café & Clothier】 .

  When I arrived and peeked inside Lyly's store, the NPC was arranging the weapons made out of wood. I was noticed by Magi-san and Cloude who came ahead of me and waved lightly.

  "Hello, Yun-kun."

  "Hello Magi-san. Also——Cloude."

  "Yun, why only when greeting me, do you add a subtle pause?"

  "About that, how about you put a hand on your chest and ask that yourself."

  Cloude was a crafter who produced both leather and cloth armour, he tilted his head in response to my words and placed a hand on his own chest. And the one who looked at Cloude follow-up on my words like that and letting out "ahahaha" laughing dryly, was Magi-san who crafted metal weapons and armour.

  "Welcome, Magicchi, Kurocchi and Yuncchi. I've been waiting."

  And from behind the counter appeared the store's shopkeeper, Lyly, a boy who was the crafter specializing in wooden weapons.

  Then Lyly beckoned, and guided us to the back of the shop; 10 metres in width and 15 metres in length, it was a place I had once made a memory of an embarrassing failure in. I wondered if they wanted to prepare a tea party in a wide place this time, but Lyly's feet carried him even further.

  "Eh? We're not going to have the tea party here?"

  "There's a better place than here. This way."

  He said so and proceeded, even further in the back of the store there was a black door. However, comparing the store's appearance and the position of this door, there wasn't supposed to be any space in there but...

  "Now, I'm opening. Follow me."

  As he said so, going after Lyly who opened the door and entered was Magi-san and Cloude. Then, I too have entered without any hesitation, ahead there was——

  "Where is this?"

  There was a wide plain and a forest of young trees in a slight distance away, also I could see a building made out of wood.

  ●

  "How is it, amazing right?! This is my 【Ownership of a personal field】 !"

  "Ohh, from the event reward. So it's this amazing huh."

  In front of us; who were looking at the grand spectacle, Lyly happily spread his arms and headed towards the middle of the built-up building. When we looked behind us, all we could see was a black door and several dozen centimetres of a wall. Even as we circled around it, there was nothing on the other side. We shook our heads at the mysterious sight of just the door being there.

  We followed Lyly who was smiling wryly as we did that. Inside of a building we have arrived, located by the entrance to a huge mountain of lumber we could see a small table.

  "Today we're having tea party here! Kurocchi, take out the tea."

  "Yeah, leave it to me. I want you to tell me your impressions on the product I'm going to be offering in Commonest Café & Clothier."

  Cloude, prompted by Lyly, took out a tea set and a cake from his inventory. Because it was just a sample made in order to get impressions on the taste, it has been created as a mini-cake.

  "These are cakes prepared by a pâtissière. I want you to tell me which combinations could be offered without any problems at my store. Also, if you have any other ideas fire away."

  Magi-san raised a voice of admiration when she saw beautifully prepared colourful cakes.

  The contents of several teapots were respectively different and it seemed like we were to pour it for ourselves.

  When I was about to reach out to the table, Magi-san seemed to remember something and pulled on my sleeve.

  "Wait a moment Yun-kun. Hey Lyly, if there's a field here, then can I call Rickle?"

  "Ah?! Then I'll call Shiacchi too."

  After Magi-san said so I understood what she meant and immediately took out Ryui's and Zakuro's stones to summon them.

  It was wide and safe, a place far from people's sight was a great playground for young beasts.

  Magi-san had a small light blue wolf. Lyly had a beautiful bird which had gold and vermilion colours together. Cloude had a black kitten with only its paws coloured white.

  And I summoned the unicorn, Ryui and two-tailed young fox, Zakuro.

  "This place is safe so you can play all you want, just don't go too far."

  All of the young ones listened to Magi's voice, and understanding what she meant, all five greeted each other by rubbing their noses and left through the entrance to the plains outside.

  Then, all of them climbed on Ryui's back and head; riding him. Hey, can't you move your own legs? I felt like retorting so, but after moving further away they seemed to start playing tag. Relieved, I sat down at the table.

  "Now, let's begin the tea party. Go on and tell me your impressions."

  Being told that, I immediately took a cake in my hand. Generally women like Magi and children like Lyly are said to love sweets. Also, since I didn't hate sweet things I went through them one by one and reviewed them.

  I took several kinds of straight tea and cakes, then tried one after another to compare.

  "The orthodox combination is quite delicious after all. As long as it's something like shortcake or millefeuille I drink just about anything with them."

  "Is that so? I prefer it balanced. For chocolate-types wouldn't something like a coffee set be good? I think the sweet and bitter would balance each other out well."

  "Hmm. Lyly likes standard. Yun-kun's prefer the chocolate eh. I prefer the sweet and sour fruit cake-type, cream and chocolate are too sweet so instead I go for the ones that are more sour."

  "Mm. So the balance is the essence huh. It'll be a good reference."

  Although Cloude muttered so, it seemed like he already knew the answer. He might just have wanted to confirm his choice was not a mistake.

  "Also, it's quite difficult to carry those cakes. Wouldn't it be fine to have cookie-like sweets that last longer and can be bought for take-out? Also, baumkuchen and waffles, or chiffon cakes."

  Since my 【Atelier】's sandwiches are type of food assumed to be taken outdoors I made them as such for ease and convenience of portability, cookies would also fall under that category.

  "I'll adopt that idea."

  My pleasure. I answered and looked around.

  The plain with green surface spread out far. Wind blowing through the grass resulted with waves forming patterns, it was a mesmerizing sight.

  After we finished telling Cloude our impressions, I asked Lyly implicitly.

  "Even so, it's amazing. To be able to use a field freely to this extent, was it like that right from the beginning?"

  "No, in fact, it was very hard to arrange it to this extent. At first I simply selected several field patterns and that was all, and I didn't know what to do after that. Making it up to this extent was difficult."

  He said so, sipped tea and started complaining. However, it didn't feel like he was frustrated, seeing him smiling made me think he must have enjoyed doing it.

  "I thought of editing this field more, but there's nothing that comes to my mind as I already made the shipyard I've been wanting to make for a long time. To make a building, I didn't have enough wood so I made it that I can collect it in the forest here, but it took a while before I could unveil it."

  "No, just creating a forest from scratch would take a lot of time. Just where did you move those trees from."

  "Hm? These are made from seeds. Really, it took an entire week for them to turn out as they are now. Also, they are limited to the amount that was planted and won't multiply any more than that, it's made so as not to have it arbitrarily increase by itself onto the field or something like that."

  That really felt like fantasy after all. The cultivated herbs are also ready to be collected after a day, so being able to collect wood after a week since planting is possible to
o...

  "I'm curious about how's Yuncchi's and Magicchi's Making Box? I've heard a little about Kurocchi's dungeon from rumours already."

  Lyly already told me what I asked him about. That's why I told him what my circumstances were like without hiding anything.

  "I've gotten medicinal herbs for one week straight. Also, being able to replicate some materials I'm short on is convenient, but its usability is not all that good."

  "I got Mithril Ore on the first day but..."

  Honestly, I was a bit envious after hearing those words come from Magi-san who was a smith. Speaking of mithril, in fantasy it's a magical metal. Mithril = rare. And as I was in the middle of thinking like that, Magi-san continued to speak hesitatingly and my envy disappeared along with the words that followed.

  "To turn it into an ingot, five pieces of ore are required. Although I've been duplicating it for a week, it continued to fail and the number wouldn't increase."

  She said so and smiled wryly. Hearing about the complex result of someone who took the same reward, I too smiled wryly.

  "I wonder if a personal field would be good for me too? The wide field could be used to secure herb-type materials for example."

  "Turning this wide field to harvest an excessive amount of materials would be too much effort for something that's supposed to be a game right?"

  As Cloude retorted calmly. He's right, I thought. Having it on scale where I can leave it for Kyouko-san the NPC to handle was the best. Any more than there currently is would require me to hire additional NPC personnel.

  "That sounds... difficult."

  "In the first place rewards like Making Box and Personal Field are just a bonus to the event. If their usability was good it would increase the difference between us and other players wouldn't it."

  "Well, I guess so. I shouldn't have had such high expectations."

  As I growled Cloude retorted calmly and Magi-san pouted, cutely revealing her feelings.

  "Speaking of which, how about Cloude's? It was 【The right to make your own dungeon】 wasn't it?"

  "Well. Currently, I'm researching how to earn more efficiently with it."

  "Earn more efficiently?"

  "The dungeon's level and the materials yielded by it, as well as increasing my own level. It's mostly working on earning gold with it. Well, let's talk about that later. The reason I called Yun is to talk about the crafting guild."

  "Crafting guild?"

  Talk about the crafting guild; I've heard about it before, but I wasn't interested and refused so they didn't bring up this topic again, still, I was a little interested.

  "Ohh?! Yun-kun, you've got interest in it? Then let's talk about that before we talk about Cloude's dungeon."

  "I'll take it upon myself to explain."

  Saying so, he proudly grasped his black cloak and energetically wrapped his body with it.

  In that short moment Cloude's equipment changed.

  A white shirt and grey vest. The long pants on the suspender accentuated his slender and long legs.

  In addition, he used his index finger to push-up the glasses with a square frame. Before I realized he took out a white board and hit it twice with a marker. That appearance of his looked like a detective's assistant or was in image of 19th century's scholar. That's how it felt.

  While his everyday behaviour gave an unfortunate impression, as long as he remained silent his features were quite refined. However, that's not where the problem was lying——

  "Why did you change in a hurry! What kind of meaning is there in that!"

  "There is no meaning! It's just for self-satisfaction!"

  He asserted that?! And continuing like that Cloude started explaining.

  "Listen well, what kind of guild we conceptualize for ourselves!"

  On the whiteboard he wrote 『Whaat is a crafting guild〜?』 with childish writing which annoyed me quite a bit. Lyly let out a 'waaa' and clapped his hands and appalled Magi-san spat out a sigh,

  "In the first place, the crafting guild's concept is to make a system promoting our concept of 『fair price』 as well as promoting technical enhancement among crafting players."

  Starting with that introduction, the guild's concept itself has been explained.

  The crafting guild is centred on Magi-san and the others, and exists to support crafters.

  The amount of quarrels for places to open stalls in at the market has increased, invigoration of resale and buying up all the material items, and so on. In order to have fighters and crafters sober up and eliminate stress on them a guild hall will be created and various systems will be put in place. Is how it seemed.

  Centralizing the material trade and its simplification which will lead to decrease their costs. Also, stabilizing the crafted items' cost.

  Support for new crafters, opening a variety of crafting facilities inside of the guild hall free of charge, offering a place to level and have an initial experience of crafting Senses.

  Giving a place for fighters and crafters to exhibit and sell the obtained and crafted items by holding auctions. Other than that, acting as an agency that sells items for players who do not have a shop.

  "Well, putting it simply, we're making a backup system for crafters that do not have their own shops so that they could freely enjoy crafting?"

  "I can understand that. But what I don't understand yet from that story is where the problem lies."

  "As expected, you can tell even with that vague explanation?"

  "Haa, somewhat."

  Such grand plans are bound to have difficulties. That's why when they started explain it to me I thought there has to be some kind of problem.

  "Well, there's only one problem——we have no money. We've ran out."

  "Ehh? Even the three of you top crafters together?"

  As I muttered, the three smiled wryly. "You're overestimating us〜" Lyly responded with a listless tone of voice, and Cloude explained the reason why was that.

  "No matter how much we earn, there's only three of us. Three people or few dozens, if we do it poorly we won't be able to create an organization capable of backing up several hundreds of fighters."

  Cloude stretched his shoulder once. Certainly, that might be so, I thought.

  "The guild establishment item 【Guild Emblem】 and the guild's base, equipment and facilities necessary for the guild. Continued employment of NPCs in order to operate various facilities, initial cost of merchandise. There's no guarantee we can raise it, but most of them are problems that can be solved with gold."

  Although I didn't understand half of what he explained, I could understand the last part about needing more money.

  "And so, you want me to become a member and help out."

  "No no! We're not going to insist on that, we know that Yun-kun plays solo. We ask for your cooperating with something else."

  Hurriedly, Magi-san strongly denied that idea, I might have used too low a tone of voice. I touched my throat and listened to what Magi-san had to say.

  "We want to ask you for funding so that we can establish a guild for fellow crafters. Even a small amount would be fine. Of course, if we manage to create the guild it will become a proxy responsible for sale so the time spent at market's stalls will decrease and there will be more time for other activities. Also, we will purchase materials for more than NPC's do and when we sell them, it will be cheaper as well. If materials are cheaper, it will be easier to raise crafting levels. There are merits like that."

  "In Yun's case, it would publicize 【Atelier】 and you would get priority for necessary production material, or something like that. Well, these would be your benefits."

  Magi-san's and Cloude's proposal was attractive, but what does that mean for the crafting guild.

  "What about the crafting guild? Can you keep selling crafting materials with such minimal amounts of profit?"

  "No. Rather than earning by trading items, we intend to earn money by using entertainment events like auction. An admission fee, you
see. Also, the auction's primary role is to determine the value of new items and quest items."

  "Our primary principle is 『Selling at reasonable price』 after all. For the auction items that don't have any balance between supply and demand, we can have crafters distribute them starting gradually from there, decreasing its price. That's why. By preventing situation where players who lack common sense like Yun start supplying items free of charge in their ignorance, we will maintain integrity of crafter's activities as one of our goals.'

  Somehow, I feel like I've been told something very rude, but since it's a fact I'll stay silent. I thought about it a few seconds and asked a question.

  "Then, are there any benefits for players who have funded the guild or people like guild members who have ties to it?"

  "Unfortunately, the crafting guild is not a company. There's no dividend of the sales and no discounts on merchandise. The ones having it would be rather the resale guilds."

  Cloude categorically stated and then Magi-san added on.

  "It's pure goodwill... maybe it doesn't go that far, but isn't it convenient to be in guild with other crafters? I think there would be many funders who think like that. The guild isn't only for crafters but open to all players after all."

  Told so, I reviewed the entire story.

  "That's fine. If it's just funding——rather, I don't have any on me now so can I pass it at later date?"

  Hearing my words, Magi-san stroked her chest in relief, "it's all right" said Lyly and "seems she's convinced" said Cloude respectively.

  "As for the amount, is it fine to prepare just to an extent acceptable?"

  "Yup. Thank you, Yun-kun. Recently we've been continuing to secure money so it's a big load off our shoulders. But if we use Cloude's dungeon's materials, it might turn easier to fund it."

  "Hey, Cloude. Can you earn that much with a dungeon?"

  "It's the same as Lyly's, in order to prepare stable operation a fair amount of preparations is necessary. It should be good time now, wanna take a look?"

  He said so and moved his finger in mid-air and visualised the menu for us to see.

  The semi-transparent menu was expanded to a size of a large TV and affixed in easy-to-read position.