Chapter 25 [【Discovery】I Know Manufacturing Occupation]
Part 1
「My apologies for the rudeness, my name is Sakura. My occupation is a cook. This dandy over here is Hanzou. He works as a master blacksmith; he is also my husband.」
Sakura, an adult woman with the appearance of one in her early 20s. Husband, she means husband in real life by that, right?
「Oioi, at least let your husband get his chance. It"s as she said, I"m Hanzou, Sakura"s husband. Nice to meet you!」
The middle aged dand―― No, I mean this adult man, is Hanzou-san. Then, are you guys just role-playing as a married couple? Are you guys married for real? I might consider your request if you tell me the answer.
「Nice to meet you, Sakursan. My name is Hive, and this blonde cool guy who should just explode is Sou. The flat beauty over there is Leaf, and that busty beauty is Blu-GOGAAA!?」
Yup, that was a splendid straight right, Wakakussan. Moreover, it was one loaded with killing intent that no amateur would be able to pull off. Shinji is indeed a fool, huh.
「――Cough. I apologize for his stupidity. My name is Leaf, a magician. A moment ago you asked whether we wanted to sell the sliced pine, right? How much do you need?」
「That"s right! I hope you will sell the materials at the same price as the store. The amount I need is 20 pieces.」
20 pieces. They should have enough after defeating few of those pineapples, though?
「Can"t we? I think it"s not a bad offer when compared to selling at the trading a.s.sociation.」
The things she just said is correct.
The logistics of this world is done in an extremely similar fashion to reality. We players sell materials to the guild run by NPCs, this guild will then sell it to the city via the shop, and then from the shop back to us. That"s how they control the circulation of goods. In short, any kind of restorative potion or weapon sold in the shop will be experiencing a shortage of stocks once we players don"t go hunting for materials. There"s this rumour that the management team once had deployed several NPCs to do the gathering of raw materials for the sake of maintaining the balance between expenditure and gathering.
Though there are many players selling raw materials to the guild, there are also players from the manufacturing sector that use the materials to make finished goods. Since Sakursan mentioned that she was a cook and Hanzou a master blacksmith, the two of them must have manufacturing jobs. Since players of the manufacturing jobs need materials, the method of collecting said materials from the field is far cheaper than buying from the shop.
The thing is, manufacturing jobs are not that popular. Different from combat jobs like us, the manufacturing jobs have extremely low combat capabilities. They naturally have a higher risk of dying in a fight. That"s why, although gathering their own materials is a better option, in case the gathering isn"t going according to plan, some of the manufacturing job players will try to exchange directly from the players of the combat jobs. I considered the two of them as those kind of players. But there"s one doubt that I want to make clear first.
「Certainly, we will make a profit if you buy the materials at a higher price than the guild would, but there"s no merit for you guys to do so, right?」
Part 2
Yes, I can"t see them getting any profits from this kind of trade. There are always hidden agendas behind sweet-sounding talks. What do they want to achieve behind our backs? I won"t be too enthusiastic in this kind of talk as long as I cannot understand their true motives.
「It"s as you said in terms of profit. But the raw materials in your possession right now, their freshness is in a completely different level than the ones sold in the shop!」
「Freshness?」
I couldn"t help but unintentionally question them. Naturally, the freshness of a material is something akin to common sense even for little kids. But, I never thought that this freshness would also apply to virtual reality. Looking at the rest, I found out that everyone had realized what I did too.
「Turns out it"s something new for you guys. The very concept of freshness existing in the game never came to you mind, right? But that freshness does exist in this game, and it"s extremely close to reality.」
As expected, the tutorial had also mentioned this game being the "Closest to reality". My apologies, people of the manufacturing jobs.
「So, could you please sell 20 pieces of sliced pine to me?! I really cannot find fresh materials, and the ones in the shop are far from what I need!」
If that"s the case, I can understand her concern. Though I was about to sell the raw materials to the guild, if it"s according to their story, it"s better to sell it to them instead. My other party members thought the same as me, so we took out 20 sliced pines from our item boxes and did a trade with Sakura and Hanzou.
「Thank you very much! Uhm, since 1 sliced pine is currently sold at 300 fon in 【Naha】, 20 of it means 6000 fon.」
Looking at everyone"s faces, it doesn"t seem like they have a different opinion. Thus, I received the money. In fact, I"m really moved that I can finally hold the money of this world for the first time since entering the game. By the way, by selling the sliced pine, I have become aware that the currency of this world is called 【Fon】. It took way too long for me to know about this.
「Here you go!」
I acted as the representative to receive the money, but naturally, the money will be divided into four equal parts. Though they kept insisting that I should take most of them since these items basically dropped because of me, I stubbornly divided the money into 4 equal portions. The booty of the team is owned by the entire team. It"s a line said by my father ever since my childhood, and I have been following those words since then.
Now that I recalled my father, I"ll log out for a while to see whether Ruri and Mom are back.
When I was about to tell everyone, Sakursan suddenly took out chair and desk from her item box and then lined them up together on the plain.
Eh? What are you going to do?
「Thank you very much, now let me treat you guys to my home cooking!」
Wakakussan raised her voice upon hearing those words.
Part 3
「EH!? Is that okay!?」
「Naturally, it"s been a while since I felt this happy, you know?」
「We did it, Sou! Now, we even got an extremely rare experience of eating the handmade dish of a cook!」
My train of thoughts are unable to catch up with Shinji and Wakakussan who were showing delighted expressions.
Eh, it"s just an item called cooking, right? Just how much do you like to eat in this game? Since it"s not like it has any special flavors, either.
Maybe because he noticed my confusion, Shinji started explaining to me.
「Could it be that you have no knowledge about cooking? That"s basically losing half the amus.e.m.e.nt of this game, you know?」
W-H-T? HALF?
「What does that mean!?」
「Do you know that eating a dish will improve your recovery rate?」
「Yeah? But the dish I bought from an NPC didn"t have that much of an effect and was tasteless, though?」
I won"t force myself to eat tasteless dishes. I"m still traumatized by the experience where my father abandoned me in the middle of a jungle. Although I"ve never eaten this world"s dishes, I had no intention to eat those dishes anyway after hearing information about them.
「NPC, huh. But the manufacturing job―― Or should I say a person with the cooking skill can reproduce the flavors you can find in reality.」
W-H-T? Does that mean that we can enjoy a sumptuous meal—— in the virtual world? That"s wa~y too real. On the contrary, it makes me worried about the level of skill one needed to have to be able to go that far.
「Things which are made by the people of manufacturing jobs have higher degrees of perfection than the ones made by NPCs, and the best of all is that they are not widely circulated due to their limited number!」
I see, so that"s the reason why you"re so delighted.
When I consented with them, Sakursan approached us with an amiable smile on her face.
「I"m so happy to be praised so much, you know? But, even you guys can cook by yourselves, you know?」
「EH?」
Wakakussan displayed a shocked face after hearing her words. By the way, Fuyukawsan is wiping the chairs and desk while br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a cute smile. What is this adorable creature…
Part 4
「A person"s skill level is extreme important to make goods in this world. That fact isn"t a mistake. A player can show an ability that is lower, similar to, or even superior in this world depending on their own abilities in the real world. Even then, it"s still really difficult. 」
Shinji and Wakakussan suddenly fixed their gaze at me, their faces saying「Ah, it"s the same for him, huh」. I do my best to ignore their gazes and continued listening to Sakursan"s story.
「I realized that fact just recently, though. Normally, one wouldn"t consider making something manually when there are skills in this game.」
I know how you feel. Since I was also extremely troubled by that matter when I just started playing the game.
「But since I"m also working as a professional chef in the real world, I couldn"t bring myself to be satisfied with just the skills in this game. One day, when I tried to cook without relying on skills on a whim, I did it. I still can"t forget that discovery.」
Sakursan is a chef in real world too. A chef in both the real and virtual world. She really likes cooking, huh.
「Then, does that mean we can cook too!?」
Wakakussan pa.s.sionately asks that question as she had just discovered a new possibility in the game. Maybe cooking held some special meaning for this girl?
However, Sakursan replied to that question with a troubled face.
「Uhm, I can only say that you might be able to do it. How should I say this? Ah, that"s right! How about cooking with me after this? I think it"ll let you understand by yourself!」
Uhm, what"s with this flow of conversation?