Volume 4 - CH 5.14

And if that is the case, then I see no need in correcting his thinking by saying that she only made one of them. If he wants to think that Sherry is so amazing that she created six 「Copper Swords of Obstruction」, then so be it. Is that what he meant when he was saying that Sherry must be pretty skilled and experienced? Or maybe he was deceived by how thin her ears are, because of the general understanding that the thinner the Dwarf’s ears, the older they actually are? That is another misunderstanding of his, and a pretty big one at that, but it is also the one that I cannot hold against him, because if I was not Sherry’s owner and looked it up at her Intelligence Card or had my 「Identify」 Skill, I would have also thought the same and it would have never even crossed my mind that she is actually one year younger than me.

「Of course Sherry is skilled. She and I are both good with our hands.」

That is another thing that I will not bother to correct him about, because that little lie might actually be pretty advantageous for us in its own right.

「I see. Well, let me give you a bit of advice when it comes to smithing and item fusion: There are people who buy cheap Skill Crystals and fuse them together with equipment to make weapons and armors with Skills in them in order to sell them at an elevated price and in large quantities, so if you are planning to do the same, I would not recommend it all that much. It would be bad for the business as a whole, not to mention incredibly reckless, and even if it would give you a lot of profit in the short term, then the long-term consequences of such an act would be pretty catastrophic for the market.」

I already know that, but there is no harm in asking for a little more detailed clarification, so. . . .

「Why would that be so bad?」

「Because normally people tend to buy certain things only when they need them, and when they do not need them, they do not buy them. Usually, the number of people that need certain items is always going to be bigger than the amount of the item that they need, which makes it possible for those in possession of said items, or those who deal in buying in selling them to increase or decrease the price of that item accordingly when they are being put on an auction. But when many people try to sell large quantities of items simply because they used cheap materials to make a lot of them in hopes of quickly gaining a fortune for themselves, what they end up achieving is the effect opposite to the one that they have intended. Over the years of my work as  broker I have seen many who have attempted to do that, but very few who have actually succeeded.」

So that is it. What he meant to say is that when there are many competitors who try to manipulate the prices by bringing too much of a certain item onto the market, it ends up screwing up demand and supply, causing those who thought they are going to make huge money on it go through nothing more but huge disappointment. After all, for everyone else but me, the process of fusing equipment and Skill Crystals together is a huge gamble where the odds are stacked against you at all times. Just one successful fusion is normally a cause for celebration, and two successful fusions in a row would probably mean that whoever achieved that could make a lot of money with just those two fused items alone.

However, that is the purely idealistic version of how things would go, because as we are all well aware, the reality is not as kind to the people as they would wish it to be, because when you use auctions and go through them with the help of a middleman, you have to be aware that a part of the fortune you would make by selling the items the Master Smiths have created would have to go to the broker himself because they do not run charities, and this is their way of making money. I think that many Master Smiths fail to realize that because if they manage to succeed with the fusion of the items, they become blinded by the prospect of how much money they could earn, and then they have their sweet dreams shattered when they do not earn as much money as they have initially thought they would earn.

「Sherry, if you do not mind me asking, does being a skilled Master Smith has any effect on the success rate of fusing Skill Crystals with equipment, or is it just a superstition?」

「I cannot say with absolute certainty, but the belief that the success rate of Skill Crystal fusion is going to be greater is the Master Smith performing the fusion is a skilled one is certainly quite popular these days.」

When I asked her about it, that was Sherry’s opinion on the matter, but I have to remember that hers might be a somewhat biased one, because she only learned that she became a Master Smith recently, and moreover, I kind of forced her into making her first fusion, and she was pretty desperate to become a Master Smith even though she herself claimed that it was not the case at all.

However, that information actually works in my favor, because I know with absolute certainty that it a load of horse crap.

The success rate of the fusion does not depend on the level of the Master Smith, or how skilled he or she is.The success rate of Skill Crystal fusion depends only on one factor, and one factor alone: whether the piece of equipment that you want to infuse has Empty Skill Slots or not. If it has, the fusion will be successful, and if it does not have them, the fusion is going to end up in failure.

「Do not worry, Sherry. I am not going to force you to do anything that you do not want to do.」

For the time being, I decided to reassure Sherry that I am not going to behave like a slave driver that would force her to fuse items against her will.

「I see. Thank you for being s kind to me, master.」

「If that was what you were worrying about, then you can rest assured. My goal is not to try to make a quick fortune or to destabilize the market. I am simply trying to equip my Party members and myself with the best gear possible so that we could make the exploration of the Labyrinths that much easier for ourselves.」

I explained to Luke the broker what my objective here was.

「In that case it would be my pleasure to continue doing business with you as a broker. Let me just tell you that: since there will be a lot of competitors during the auctions, it might not always be possible for you to buy things at extremely low prices. Is that all right with you?」

So it seems that will not have any issues with being my personal broker from now on. He also knows that I have one hundred and thirty thousand Nars on me right now, so there is n way he would pull out from doing business with someone who has that much money on them.

「Basically, if the prices end up being a little cheaper than the regular market price, I would have no problems with it, and I will leave all the decisions related to the process of buying and selling to your judgement. Also, can you tell me if you have Scissor-esque Carnivorous Plant Skill Crystal available for sale?」

「For the 「MP Absorption」 Skill?」

Sherry checked in with me, and I nodded affirmatively, confirming my intentions. Having more than one weapon that would allow us to regenerate MP is definitely going to be useful, and for that, we would need Scissor-esque Carnivorous Plant Skill Crystal.

「If possible, I would also like to get some more Rabbit Skill Crystals to create more weapons with 「Chant Interruption」for us. Once I get my hands on those, I would then like to aim for the Kobold Skill Crystals.」

If I reduce the number of situations where I use Durandal to fight, it would enable me to get more Bonus Points into increasing the value of EXP obtained from monsters, allowing us for large gains of it, we should be aiming for that in the first place.