#031
“……”
The gray-haired young man sitting with drooped shoulders seemed to have no intention of getting up or greeting customers, keeping his blank gaze fixed on the counter. Seiz was originally a character with extremely few words and little expression, but he never felt this powerless and lazy. Rather, he was closer to a workaholic who only worked from morning to night. It seemed that even Seiz couldn’t escape the turbulence of the changed environment.
“Uh… hello, Seiz.”
I awkwardly offered a greeting. Only then did Seiz slowly lift his head that had been hanging down to look at me.
“…Hello.”
As if that one word of greeting had exhausted all his energy, he lowered his head again without even asking how I came. Seeing him like that, my confidence that Seiz wouldn’t dislike me that much rapidly shrank. I needed objective information.
‘Seiz’s favorability.’
Even though I had just decided to forget about favorability for a while, I called up the favorability window again. Well, that’s how life goes. Seiz’s favorability bar activated and appeared small before my eyes. The number was 0.
“……”
He has no interest in me at all. That was actually better. So Seiz being so deflated like this had nothing to do with me.
Though it was pathetic to be relieved about this, I swallowed a sigh of relief and brought up my business.
“Um, could this possibly be repaired?”
I first took out and showed him Elmer’s vest and gloves. Seiz only briefly raised his gaze to examine the items. Then he lowered his head again and answered as if muttering.
“No… there are no materials for repair.”
“Ah.”
Was it a similar case to Eira’s? But I couldn’t understand it well. Eira couldn’t get medicinal herbs because she couldn’t enter the village and her trade was cut off. The forest was contaminated making gathering difficult too. Seiz had his workshop in the village anyway, so trade should be possible. With the guild where hunters come and go right next door, material supply shouldn’t be difficult, so why was there no material?
“Uh… then I have some things I gathered, could you repair with these or make something else?”
I rummaged around and took out monster byproducts and minerals from my backpack, laying them out. I knew well that most of what thickly covered the counter were junk items, but surely a few of them would be somewhat useful.
“Well. Even if I make something with these, it’s not particularly… huh?”
Seiz, who had been listlessly scanning the junk items I laid out with dead fish eyes, suddenly stopped talking. His eyes sparkled. It reminded me of Eira’s eyes when she discovered Melbrain. Unlike before, with quite agile movements, what Seiz picked up was indeed a fragment of the mushroom mob.
It was worth scraping up even the tiniest pieces, knowing they’d have use in a workshop.
“Did you go to the mine dungeon?”
At Seiz’s heated question, which was hard to hear even normally, I nodded triumphantly. Seiz’s eyes grew even larger.
“I heard the entrance was blocked, how did you manage?”
“Uh… the passage happened to open by chance.”
It was a result of Muchi randomly setting off bombs. It was a crazy bastard’s crazy act and I almost died, but I gained a lot thanks to it. I thought I should even give him thanks. (Though I won’t.)
“If I grind this in, I can make several high-grade items…”
Seiz, who had started talking in a rarely slightly excited tone, suddenly stopped mid-sentence. His expression immediately became gloomy. Just as suddenly as he had perked up, he returned to his original deflated balloon-like state. It felt like switching from color to black and white.
“With this, don’t bother selling to me, go to the guild. They’ll buy it for more money there. With that money you can buy suitable items there.”
The guild also handled hunted items all at once and sold combat items. A one-stop service, you could say. It was convenient, but they didn’t buy resources at high prices, so had something changed in the situation?
Either way, it didn’t matter. If I was going to make items with good materials anyway, I wanted something touched by Seiz’s hands.
Though they’re known here as ordinary potionists and ordinary workshop owners, Eira and Seiz were actually the world’s best potionist and best item craftsman respectively in the worldview. The difference between what others sold and what they made was like the difference between factory mass products and luxury goods made stitch by stitch by ‘artisans.’ Not factory luxury that’s only fancy on the outside, but genuine masterpieces made by real masters. Even if it was the same A-grade item, what they made could be called A+++ in terms of function and quality.
“No, I want to have something you made. If it’s okay, I’d like you to make it yourself.”
At my words, Seiz looked at me with a strange expression. Then with a complicated face, he hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“I heard your farm became a mess. And that you holed up for quite a while without coming to the village. So you probably don’t know the village situation well… I don’t want to see you come to me later saying you were cheated and throwing a fit. I’m sick of that kind of thing now… First go to the guild and check the costs. They’ll buy rare resources at high prices, and you can buy items of the same grade much cheaper. Anyway, they’re mass production.”
Seiz talking this long was something that never happened even in the game. It was somewhat interesting. But it was an unnecessary explanation for me.
“I understand what you’re saying. But I have no intention of selling these rare materials to the guild, and I’ll say it again, even if it’s more expensive than the guild, I want items you made.”
Seiz stared at me blankly. Light slowly returned to his powerless eyes.
“Well, if, if that’s the case. Go, good.”
Seiz stammered while his eyes reddened. At the same time, his favorability bar that I had up blinked. It was 70. It went from zero to 70 in an instant.
What the hell. This guy. Why is he so easy.
I was a bit dumbfounded. Was he easy in the game too? I don’t remember well, but Seiz was quite picky because he was so shy and uninterested in others. Of course, back then I didn’t say lines like ‘I unconditionally like what you make.’
‘So this was the strategy.’
I didn’t look it up specifically, but it might have been on the message boards.
Anyway, I felt somewhat embarrassed by the unexpected gain. I just told the truth and made a choice beneficial to me, but didn’t this innocent NPC seem moved or something?
‘Anyway, it’s not a lie… sincerity is sincerity.’
After that, the transaction with Seiz went smoothly. Seiz agreed to repair Elmer’s vest and gloves with the materials I provided, and to newly make my exclusive work vest and gloves with defensive capabilities. He also said he’d further enhance the axe using mushroom fragments.
Actually, what was more urgent was a weapon, so I asked if he could make a weapon, but Seiz shook his head.
“I’d like to make one, but I can’t make anything proper without the core material.”
“What’s the core material?”
“Well… the best would be illumine, but that’s impossible to obtain… I need to get at least lightmite or halmite to make something useful.”
Illumine was actually almost legendary-grade metal. Honestly, even in the game it only appeared in stories and never actually showed up. That didn’t mean halmite was easy either. Originally it wasn’t something you could easily get above intermediate level, so it would be even worse now.
“Halmite… can I buy it at the guild?”
Unfortunately, Seiz shook his head again.
“The guild buys high-grade resources and rare resources at expensive prices, but doesn’t sell them. What they sell are all just small resources… If you need good stuff, you have to get it yourself.”
“……”
“If you bring good materials, I can do my best to make something for you.”
Seiz said seriously. Looking at his face, I had one thought.
‘It’s a sub quest.’
And it was going to be a struggle.
***
Seiz’s story was indeed a sub quest. He emphasized once more that what I could obtain in the current situation was halmite, and then a quest window appeared.
[Sub Quest: Desert of Eternity]
[Go to the Desert of Eternity and obtain the mineral halmite that workshop owner Seiz wants.]
[Reward: 2 Tranquility Potions, 10,000 Rual]
‘Desert of Eternity…’
This area wasn’t originally a desert and had several villages formed across a vast territory, but over the past few years rapid desertification had progressed, causing people and animals to mostly leave and become a habitat for desert-type monsters.
So it was originally a place with some difficulty where monsters lived, but now with severe contamination, I couldn’t even guess how much it had worsened. It would be on a completely different level from Eira’s forest or Wanderer’s Plains that I could originally visit comfortably.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
