Chapter 4.2

Chapter 4.2

「Rash Control? Can you put that on underwear?」

「I can… But there’s a huge problem with craftin’ underwear.」

「…What is it?」

「For some reason, I can’t put on Auto-Size-Adjust to underwear.」

「Oh…」

That was a huge problem. If Hiroshi were to make it, anyway.

「Not today, I guess…」

「Thanks a bunch. I’ll put it on the clothes, just in case.」

「Please do. But Auto-Size-Adjust…」

「Yeah?」

「In the game, it was super-duper rare if it came on a drop Armor.」

Hiroshi didn’t quite understand.

「You could throw on Auto-Size-Adjust to any ol’ armor.」

「Sure, but it uses up an enchantment slot.」

「Then just have ‘em adjust the size to ya.」

「A lot of the times, NPCs can’t handle drop armors.」

「Really?」

「Mm-hm.」

The unreasonably detailed Fairytale Chronicles had it so no one could use a weapon unless they recalibrated the balance, and no one could use an armor unless they had it tailored. While the weapon could still be equipped even if its balance was off from the user was used to, and many used them anyway, it was a different story for armor.

Even with robes and other clothes, which had the loosest size restrictions, followed the set restriction for body size. Wearing an attire much bigger than one’s body would make them look… off-putting, to say the least, and the wearer would suffer major penalties. If the piece of attire was smaller than one’s body, the player couldn’t put it on at all.

When it comes to leather and metal armor, the player had to have them accurately tailored in order to equip it at all. And once the size is adjusted, it has to be retailored before anyone else can wear. In addition, some methods of size adjustment prevent any further adjustments. Tailoring an armor through an NPC came with considerable risks.

In addition, only certain NPCs could handle drop equipment, and there were heavy restrictions even when they could (most equipment found in upper-level dungeons could only be slightly refined or improved, for example) making it surprisingly difficult to get armor of one’s body size.

While players with Advanced equipment crafting skills can easily adjust even the strongest equipment available in-game (that can be obtained in the highest-level dungeon dubbed The Inferno), but those players were hermits, secluded from the presence of most players. As a result, rare drop armor pieces ubiquitously required Auto-Size-Adjustment and Auto-Repair.

Some Guilds of dedicated addicts to the game had noticed the importance of Crafting from the earlier stages in the game, but it was apparently a slow process since they had none of the critical information, starting with the existence of Making Mastery. Another problem was potion poisoning.

The fact that they couldn’t drink one Stamina Potion after another to keep gathering materials and processing them was a major setback when it came to power-leveling new artisans. Mana and Stamina potions were especially keen to causing poisoning, and all potions heal a set amount. Frequently drinking potions to heal at the rate at which new players lose Mana and Stamina, soon caused a poisoning. Otherwise, one of these guild members would have mastered the Advanced classes all ready.

「That being said. Our problem is getting’ our ingredients.」

「Any thoughts?」

「Plants are out. I don’t think there’s a hemp field ‘round here, and I don’t know if cotton’s bloomin’ this time of year. Can’t do sheep or rabbit, either.」

「Why not?」

「There ain’t any wild sheep ‘round, and we’d have to hunt down every single rabbit in the area if we wanted to get enough thread for an outfit.」

Haruna groaned in agreement. She was realizing that making a single piece of attire was quite the ordeal back in the middle ages.

「Then what are we going to do?」

「Lessee. Not that I can recommend this to any normie, but we can use spider webs.」

「Spider?」

「Right. Spider Silk.」

That made sense. Silk did come from an insect. Ordinarily the material would come from silkworms, but Haruna had read somewhere that spider webs could be substituted.

「Wouldn’t it be a lot of work to get spider webs, though?」

「I got a lead there, don’t worry. The only thing is, you’d need an adventurer strong enough to handle it. Really, it ain’t for a normie.」

「Okay. I’m getting a really bad feeling about this. How strong are we talking here?」

「Considerin’ the worst case scenario, someone who can take down a Berserker Bear mano-y-mano in two seconds flat.」

While that wasn’t nearly as bad as Haruna had imagined, but it wasn’t easy, either. Haruna would have no problem, but Randy or Kurt may not be. As for Hiroshi, his issue lied with damage output. He wouldn’t die, but two seconds flat was a hard ask. Unless he prepared a real weapon, he couldn’t get it done with a scythe or axe that he primarily used to gather materials.

「…I have a general idea, but what do you mean worst case scenario?」

「There’s a field boss, Piaranork the Grand Arachnid. This one’s easily twice as strong as a Berserker Bear, and it don’t got any venom, it’s got an annoyin’ ability. So it’s tough unless ya can take down a Bear like that. That bein’ said, it don’t heal more than the Natural Heal amount. It’s easy to take care of if ya take ya time.」

「…I know the answer already, but I’m asking you anyway. Where are we going?」

「In the deep end of the forest where the Berserker Bear was, there’s a nest of Giant Spiders. A bunch of insectile mobs, too. We should gather some potion ingredients and rare spices.」

「Insectile… It’s getting worse and worse.」

Young girls, maybe, but not too many seventeen year olds have an affinity for insects, regardless if they are full-blooded Japanese or three-eighths British like Haruna. While she wasn‘t quite so disgusted by them to not be able to look at spiders or centipedes, but in no way did she want to voluntarily go near some giant bugs.

「Yeah, it ain’t somethin’ you’d be excited ta see. If you don’t wanna do that, I’ll buy some thread from the market, and weave ‘em.」

「…But these are silk, right?」

「Yeah. Lot more durable than normal ones, too.」

「…We should do some adventuring once in a while, shouldn’t we?」

In the end, Haruna had decided to traverse to the nest of spiders, blinded by desire. While she had gathered all camping supplies since Hiroshi told her that they would need to spend the night along the way, she was still optimistic. Until she witnessed the circle of life at their destination.

***

「So. How do we collect the webs?」

「That…」

To answer Haruna’s question, Hiroshi scurried to an area away from the webs, and started throwing a rock at a giant grasshopper to chase it away. Before Haruna could voice her concern, he chased it into a web. The grasshopper was caught square into the web, and soon wrapped into a ball of web by the Giant Spider.

「And we make a bunch of these silk balls.」

Leaving alone the spider that started reconstructing its web, Hiroshi trapped a mantis onto another web. He trapped one bug after another into webs, turning them into balls of silk, until there was 20+ plus of them. Then, he changed course.

「Once there’s plenty of ‘em, we take care of the spiders and gather the thread.」

「Oof…」

Haruna did know that she should be impressed at how ruthless it was. The true, human way of things.

「While I’m at it, I can take apart the little guys suffocated inside and make some extra money. Two birds with one stone.」

「That’s dirty. You are an artisan, after all. That’s real dirty.」

「Can’t make a livin’ without gettin’ your hands dirty.」

Jesting as he were, he ruthlessly took care of the spiders. Even his harvesting axe, now that it was gilded with layers upon layers of enchantments, easily broke through the spiders’ exoskeletons like he was cracking eggs. Haruna was almost worried that he would extinct the spiders at this rate, but it was their habitat after all, and there were enough around her to not make her want to count them.

「All right. Let’s take these spiders apart.」

「Spiders first?」

「It won’t be fun if any of the buggers inside the silk balls were still alive. They’re all dying from suffocation or bein’ crushed, anyhow.」

Bugs are pretty resilient, ya know. Hiroshi said, to which Haruna nodded and started taking the spiders apart. From time to time, Hiroshi held up some part of the insect and processed it in a strange way. All Haruna could tell was that they were going to serve as material for something. After taking apart most of them, they just separated the harvested materials out of the way and into their bag. While the catalysts were a little more heavier than expected, they had enchanted the bag with Increase Capacity, Decrease Weight, and Prevent Rot. Even after shoving a decent amount of goods in there, it could fit plenty more.

「Alright, let’s get to the entrée.」

「There’s not much I can help from here, is there?」

「Don’t think so. Weavin’ the thread with our portable equipment may be too much for your skillsets.」

「I don’t have Weaving to begin with. I’ll try my best to learn it by next time.」

「Sure. I’ll teach ya soon. You can practice with Rabbit fur.」

「Thanks.」

No matter what the skill, having it was better than not. As Haruna was helping out Hiroshi here and there, her harvesting skills and Potion Making were improving somewhat, but just barely to the point where she could start accepting some quests that require those skills. On her own, she could manage to create some practice-level potions, and at best, 30% of those actually had the effect of a potion.

Hiroshi had been down that road, so he didn’t mind even when Haruna would end up not being able to put in work when he was. They handled different tasks to begin with, so he was in no place to complain, anyway. Hiroshi could barely work the front end of the food stand, after all.

「I’ll just gather up some potion materials.」

「Watch out for Piaranork, it might be out there.」

「Will do. I just need to watch out for the webs, right?」

「No, Piaranork is the same as any other active monster. It uses its web to look for prey, too, but it’ll catch you by eye sight and heat signature, too. Other than the fact that it wraps its prey into a ball, it acts the same as any carnivorous active monster.」

Haruna couldn’t control her exasperated expression hearing the tiresome detail.

「It sounds like you know a lot about it. Have you fought it before?」

「Three times, maybe. To be honest, it ain’t that strong, but takin’ it down can be more work than a dungeon boss. It’s aI’s the same as ‘em, but it moves just like a spider.」

「…Like a spider? …Does it fly?」

「With its web. Considerin’ where we’re at, it’s moves around three dimensionally, pretty much. It’s a 3 feet tall, 15 feet long spider on a flying harness. What a joke.」

It was sounding more and more tiresome, and Haruna’s face showed her dread for it. Unlike where the Berserker Bear was, they were now in an area where most players never had a reason to come to, let alone new players. So, it was never known as a newbie-killer field boss. Haruna didn’t understand why all these tiresome monsters were gathered relatively close to Wulls.