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

Chapter 100 – They’re horrible!

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Frontiers is a game whose main purpose is to cut down Demon Trees and open up new areas to save the world eroded by the Demon Trees while having a large amount of freedom and a steadily expanding range of activities to be done.

However, while that is the main theme of the game prepared by the development team, one does not necessarily need to abide to it.
Each person has a different play style, after all.

Some people are fully dedicated to crafting, like me, while others are fully devoted to battle, like Mika.

Neither me nor Mika cut down Demon Trees, which is the main theme of the game.
Instead, we do what we want to do, like exploring the new areas or making items that are essential for the people out on the fields.

Even if we are deviating from the main theme, we aren’t completely separated from it, otherwise things would just feel out of place in the game.

With the way things are, there is no problem.

That said, even among combat-focused player Pioneers, there are still people with different styles and goals.
Mika and her clan prefer to get event points and aim for the top, for one.

Other people may prefer to get the rare materials and sell them in order to get as much money as possible before the items drop in price.

And then there are people who like seeking out stronger and stronger enemies, as well as some other groups that I may be unaware of.

With this situation in mind, it’s probably inevitable that some trouble occurred on deciding how to beat the raid bosses.

The Shadow Vanguard raid boss drops a bunch of Shadow Tears on its death.
It also summons a large number of event mobs when that happens.

When the event mobs pick the Shadow Tears up, they become stronger.
And if one defeats the strengthened mob, it’s almost guaranteed to get the rare drop of either the Large Shadow Crystal or the Shadow Granite.

However, if one gets the Shadow Tear before it is taken by the event mob, you can use it to get a large amount of event points.

So, the problem is focused around the discussion of what should be done with the Shadow Tears.
Should they be picked up? Or should they be left to the mobs in order to get more rare drops.

There are a large number of people participating on those raids, so there are obviously differing opinions on this kind of matter… Nonetheless, now that this part of the battle is known, it’s not hard for people to organize themselves to pick up the Shadow Tears before the event mobs get them.

In fact, it seems like it is easy to get at least one Shadow Tear per person.
And when this happens, the summoned event mobs will just be a large number of small fries.

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And if the mobs do pick up the tears, a properly organized team can still beat them up and get the enjoyment of tough battles while also obtaining plenty of rare materials.

Both Shadow Granite and the Large Shadow Crystal are fairly rare and have a high price to them, but now that they’re more easily obtainable by defeating the raid bosses, it’s inevitable that their price will drop.

So, there are people who want to obtain as many of those materials as possible now, in order to get the highest profit possible before the price drop… And well, the people who really enjoy tough fights will also be glad to take on the large number of strong event mobs.

That said, Mika is on the event point group.

The event has a limited duration, after all, and the influx of rare materials is steadily increasing as the event progresses anyways.

In any case, the relevancy of this discussion depends entirely on the frequency with which raid bosses appear.

However, four bosses have already been defeated since all this started, so there is plenty of reason to discuss those matters.

The main problem is that raid bosses require large number of people fighting it, so it’s natural that confusion on how to handle the Shadow Tears will occur if there isn’t a consensus on that in advance.

As a result of this, the forums are being quite heated right now.

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“This is really is quite bothersome.” Mika commented.

“Agreed.” Hime said.

“I’m happy that it’s easier to get rare materials now though.” I told them.

“Well, you have a point.” Mika replied.

“Ranks changed again.” Hime said.

“Ah! Did it spawn again!?” Mika exclaimed.

While the forums are still having quite the heated discussion, the top players already reached a conclusion on this debate.

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Namely, that they’ll only fight on those raids with their own clan or clans they’re in a friendly relationship with.
Like this it will be easier to get to a consensus and collaborate on the battles.

However, this is only possible for clans with a high number of top combat-focused Pioneers.

Some of the raids are being done by clans that aren’t necessary at that strong… In fact, there are even cases where they fail the raid.

It is particularly troublesome for those people after the boss falls, because all cooperation disappears as soon as the Shadow Tears appear.

And well, if a raid fails and information about it is posted on the forums, then a short amount of time later, the boss ends up being secretly defeated and a change on the event rankings happens.

Of course, Mika and her clan are also hunting bosses in this same way.
They’re cooperating with acquaintances and picking up any failed raids for themselves.

However, since the raids bosses don’t belong to anyone, it seems like conflicts can often occur when different groups try taking it on at the same time.

Not to mention that the drop distribution can be kinda troublesome, especially for the Shadow Tears.

This may be the world’s first VRMMO, but I can’t help wondering why the staff made a system that caused so much trouble to the players, they should have been able to find a better way to go about it.

Unless… Could they have created this kind of internal conflict on purpose?

Until now the game has progressed relatively peacefully, with the only truly unexpected thing being the appearance of mobs during the auction.

Players knew it was an event occurrence though, so while the NPCs were worried about enemies appearing within the city, the players were not.
There is a large difference in how this affects players and NPCs.

Perhaps the development team also wanted the player Pioneers to feel impatient and anxious in order to better experience the feel of Frontiers?

Well, regardless of their intention, it’s undeniable that those raid bosses are causing trouble within the playerbase in an otherwise pretty enjoyable event.

It was a pretty weird move from the developers.

“Well, it was nice to see you, but I’ll go back to searching for a raid.” Mika told me.

“Same here.” Hime said.

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“Got it, got it.
Do your best, you two!” I replied.

Mika and Hime weren’t visiting my workshop to complain, nor were they here for a girls-only gathering.
They had come to sell some rare drops and to buy more Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formations and Shadow Destroyer Throwing Stones, both of which are essential for the raid.

The fight is definitely much harder without it.
The Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation is very effective for quickly defeating the small fries, which are the mobs Mika want to beat, since her group picks up the Shadow Tears.

But even for the people going after the rare drops, this Magical Formation is still fairly important to kill the stronger mobs more easily, so the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation is now immediately selling out as soon as I put it up on the store.

Of course, I’m taking some measures against re-sale, but some people are bypassing that.
They buy the item and then tell a raid party that they have the Magical Formation available and will use it on the raid if they’re paid a large sum of money for it.

On another note, I don’t know if it’s because I edited the Magical Formations page on the wiki or because of a shortage in the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation, but the number of people trying to draw Magical Formations has increased.

It’s nice to see more people giving them a try, but this also led to more and more people slandering and complaining about my beloved Magical Formations on the forums.

One person said it was too complicated for them, so they gave up.

Another smashed the Magic Pen after ten minutes of drawing.

A third one said that they were going crazy from even trying it out.

They’re horrible! How can they say that about my beloved Magical Formations!?

Well, I’d be happy if they kept on trying and became able to understand the beauty and fun behind drawing the Magic Circles.

Though it’s not like someone with a low level on the Magical Formations skill will be able to draw the Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation.
Especially if their tools are subpar.

So, due to all that, the shortage of Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation probably won’t be solved until the end of the event.

If I start focusing on only drawing them, then I might alleviate the issue a bit, but that’s not happening as I also make steel gear.

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Due to this current situation where people’s rankings on the event are fluctuating a lot, two items ended up having an extremely high demand for them.

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Of course, one of them is the Shadow Tear, while the other is… The Shadow Barrier Destroyer Magical Formation.

The former is natural, as it gives a lot of event points.
Even if one participates in a raid boss battle, they probably will only get a single Shadow Tear, which isn’t enough for the people aiming for the top of the rankings, so it’s unsurprising that the price of the Shadow Tears has soared high.

As for the Magical Formation, the problem is a simple lack of stock.

Its market price has already tripled, and even if one can’t resell it, they can still get paid for using it in the raid boss battles, so it’s a very profitable item right now.

And there isn’t anything I can do about it.
It’s an act similar to reselling it, but it’s impossible to stop it with the features available within the game’s system.

My only option would be limiting who I sell the Magical Formation to, but this would be the worst kind of monopoly.

I’ll still be doing priority sales for acquaintances, but everyone else will just have to line up at the store if they want to obtain it.

And of course, as quite a few people are aware that the priority sales exist, it ended up leading to a lot dissatisfaction appearing on the forums.

There are plenty of items that they can’t buy even if they do line up in front of my store, after all, so… Those combat-focused Pioneers who never did any crafting seem to be thinking I could just be making as many items as I wanted and sell more of those.

There are also some complaining about the raise in the market price and stuff.

Well, the forum moderators are handling the more aggressive people at least.

But even then, if I look at the forums I’ll often end up seeing plenty of those posts, but… Quite frankly, I don’t care.

No matter how much you complain about it, I can’t simply increase the speed at which I craft things.
Moreover, I will only do what I want to do.

It’s natural for me to prioritize my acquaintances over strangers.
If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to buy things from my store.

Over time, the skill level of other people will raise and they’ll be able to make the items I make too, so you can just wait until then.

If you’re not okay with waiting, then you’ll have to line up at my store.

… Well, that, or become someone who can get priority sales form me, but I don’t have any plans of adding those people, who keep on complaining about me on the forums, to the private section of my blog.