Chapter 143: The Safe Choices

After discussing all they wanted during the evaluation meeting, everyone had dinner together and got themselves a good night's sleep. The next two days were the Clan's days off, so everyone was free to do whatever they wanted.

Tsutomu woke up early in the morning, greeted Ollie while the latter was doing housework, and then went outside to buy today's newspapers and take a look at the Monitors. At this time, Golden Tune and Scarlet Devil Squad were fighting the Bolseyer; Tsutomu watched them as he scanned through the papers, checking to see if the news were faithful to the answers his Clan had given them yesterday.

[Welp, they embellished it a great deal.]

As was the case with exaggerated quotes and eye-catching headlines, Tsutomu could not help but chuckle upon seeing Daryl largely being hyped up as the one who would one day surpass Garm.

Turning back to the Monitors, he saw some nice developments such as Alma exploiting the Bolseyer's weakness by casting Blizzard Cross, and Golden Tune carrying out their strategies successfully, among other things. After some time, he got up and headed over to the Dorren Workshop.

Quite a few people were already here despite being before opening time, but then again, there was a sign in front of the place announcing that the Workshop would not be accepting any new orders for some time. It seemed that they were fully booked thanks to the flood of customers yesterday.

"Hey, isn't that..."

Some new and semi-new Explorers whispered among themselves as Tsutomu walked into the Workshop. As soon as he opened the door, he found himself wrapped in a wave of heat, characteristic of smithies. Then Dorren, raising his hammer, shouted angrily without looking in Tsutomu's direction,

"Hey! Didn't you see the sign outside? We're not taking any more orders for now!!"

"Boss," An apprentice blacksmith spoke up. "Mister Tsutomu's here!"

"Ahh!?" Dorren lashed out again, seemingly short on patience due to how busy he had been since yesterday. As soon as he saw that it was indeed Tsutomu visiting, however, he quickly backpedaled. "...Ah! Tsutomu! Sorry 'bout that!"

"Good morning. Business has been good, I see."

"Thanks to y'all! Look, just lemme finish this piece first, then we can talk. Hey! Get 'em some tea!"

Dorren grinned and continued to work on the long sword on the anvil with his hammer. In the meantime, the apprentice blacksmith, a young man with a buzz-cut who wore a twisted headband, guided Tsutomu to a seat.

All sorts of satisfying sounds echoed through the interior — hot metal cooling down, water evaporating, and hammers striking steel. Tsutomu sipped some tea as he looked on at the workers as they worked on their weapons and armor, sweat pouring off their faces. Eventually, Dorren walked over, wiping the sweat off his forehead and putting on his jacket.

"Well. Y'all really be pullin' in work for us like magnets!"

"Oh, no — I think it's because your craftsmanship stuck with the customers, Sir Dorren."

"Thanks, man!"

Dorren, all calmed down from his busy work, scratched his white-haired head and sat in his chair.

"So, you brought your gear today?"

"Yes. Right here."

Tsutomu placed his Magic Bag on the desk and unfolded it like a wrapping cloth. Then he pulled out several pieces of Daryl's heavy armor and Hannah's brass knuckles. The armor had been heavily damaged in spots from being hit by the Mount Golem's heat blasts; seeing several sets of them so broken down, Dorren scratched his chin and groaned.

"Damn, they're banged up real good. Sorry we couldn't make them tougher, man."

"It's alright — And I think they held up quite well, actually."

"The way they're melted here isn't exactly common. Blazestones won't cut it..." Dorren muttered to himself while he examined the armor pieces, and after seeing enough, he put the pieces down. "Sorry, but lemme keep all this armor here, so that we can actually work on them — oh, and the little miss' greatsword should be done in two days. The whole blade's a bit bent, I bet because of how solid those Golems were. Gonna need some time to fix it. The bird girl's brass knuckles are in the same state — and a bit burnt, too, so they'll take just about as long."

"Understood — I can leave all of them here, no problem. Oh, and we'll be fighting in low-temperature areas starting from layer seventy-one, so we'd like to request some equipment to deal with that, too."

"Sure thing. We're already working on that as well, actually. Probably gonna need more materials from the Volcano though, so could you get them for us? They're the stuff that aren't exactly common in the market yet."

Currently, only one of the merged mid-tier Clans had progressed past the Fire Dragon, so the market still was not getting enough Volcano materials to keep up with the demand. Most of Ealdred Crow's gathered materials were used in their own workshops, while Golden Tune and Scarlet Devil Squads had their own sponsors to deliver to. Most of the market's circulating supply was from Guild staff members, which, needless to say, was nowhere near enough.

"Yes, of course. Miss Ollie will probably be dropping by later, so please write up a list and pass it to her then."

"Thanks, man," Dorren replied and smiled, then called his apprentice over to carry away the equipment Tsutomu had brought.

Tsutomu proceeded to bow to Dorren.

"I know things are busy around here, so I should get going now."

"Hey, I should be the one bowing, you know. Really, thanks for all the publicity. We got so many more customers now — so much that the workshop's gonna be fully booked for a while, even. Oh, but we're always gonna work on your gear first, so don't worry about that."

"Thank you very much."

Dorren kept a straight face and waved his rugged hands in dismissal, exasperated by Tsutomu's unnecessary gesture.

"Like I said, I should be the one thanking you. Even my apprentice's stuff sold like hotcakes yesterday — And it was the first time we ever ran out of stock, actually. We'll all have food on our plates for a good while thanks to that. We're all grateful, man."

"Thanks a bunch, Mister Tsutomu!"

The apprentice, done putting the heavy armor pieces away, also bowed to Tsutomu. Tsutomu proceeded to thank them back... turning it into somewhat lengthy a back-and-forth before he could leave Dorren Workshop. After looking at the time, he decided to drop by the Guild next.

[Man, they sure are full of energy.]

Tsutomu saw Hannah, Daryl, and Amira on Monitor #1, with them having been exploring since morning. He proceeded to walk to the relatively quiet corner of the Guild interior, where there was a bulletin board for posting notices of expeditions to Dungeons outside of town, and also Clans' recruitment forms.

[So this is what their recruitment form looks like now? It's changed up quite a bit from last time.]

Ealdred Crow has previously been recruiting personnel over a wide range of Jobs, but now, they were focusing on a more narrow variety. Those other jobs were excluded from this part of their recruitment because they were instead searching for promising candidates on their own initiative.

Scarlet Devil Squad had always been a closed circle of long-time comrades, and Silver Beast was not recruiting either due to practically being their own family. As for Golden Tune, Leon had a tendency to randomly 'bring in' new members on his own, thus eliminating the need for conventional recruitment processes.

Mid-tier Clans, on the other hand, were still seeking out a wide variety of Jobs. Attackers were in short supply right now, while those with Tank and Healer Jobs were more readily available. The increasing prevalence of the three-role composition was causing those who had previously given up on the Explorer lifestyle to come back to the scene, adding to the number of newcomers and reducing the disparity among different Job types.

Buffer Jobs such as Minstrels and Enchanters still were not getting much attention, however. Ealdred Crow and Silver Beast were currently training their applicable members to carry out the role, meaning none of them were in the spotlight to help bolster their originally low popularity.

[Buffers, huh... Maybe we should have one of our new members be one... or maybe not?]

Absolute Helix currently had five active members, and that would be bumped up to seven once Garm and Amy joined. Counting those two, there were three Attackers, three Tanks, and one Healer making up their ranks. The plan was to add three more before Garm and Amy's eventual addition, but Tsutomu was unsure which roles to look for.

The simplest solution would be to find one person for each of the more common roles. But on the other hand, adding a Buffer did have its merits. After all, a Buffer could provide boosts to all allies' attributes and even had skills to manipulate mental energy.

With their help, Attackers would receive STR boosts, Tanks would be able to mitigate more damage, and Healers would have an easier time managing their mental energy. Having one less Attacker or Tank to add a Buffer to a party was, on paper, not at all a bad choice.

Tsutomu was already carrying out a Buffer-like role, however, and he was really not feeling like training someone else to replace him on that front now.

Ealdred Crow currently had one effective Buffer to work with: the overweight man whom Tsutomu had trained personally soon after the end of the Stampede. Silver Beast was still training theirs with the help of Tsutomu's notes; the Buffer in question could be occasionally seen on the Monitors as the Clan explored the Volcano layers.

[It kinda feels like I've built up our strategies too solidly to change them now. Going with the safe choices should be perfectly fine, of course, but... Hmm...]

Tsutomu checked what Jobs each of the Clans were looking for, then considered which ones were not yet sought after much. Putting ideals aside, he understood that it was impossible to create a situation in which all jobs were equally desired. This world had no content updates to introduce buffs and nerfs, so some Jobs were bound to be objectively better or worse than others; so to speak, they were not made equal.

Still, each individual Job was sure to have something that only they could do. With enough work, every Job could have a chance at getting in on the action — Such was the kind of environment Tsutomu wanted the dungeoneering scene to have, which was why he was seeking out Jobs less desired.

[For now, I definitely want a Channeler. But the rest... ugh, I can't choose any.]

There were two main Jobs that could carry out the Healer role: White Mage and Channeler, both of which had some sort of resurrection skills within their arsenal. Gray Mages had healing skills, too, but not resurrection, so they were not really viable as full-time Healers.

Currently within the scene, however, demand for White Mages was overwhelmingly higher than for Channelers. Since Channelers' resurrection skill required more time and effort to invoke, they were considered objectively inferior to White Mages — but that was not the case at all. As Healers, both Jobs were practically equal in performance. In fact, back in Live Dungeon, the player who had been something of a rival to Tsutomu was also a Channeler.

Among Tsutomu's acquainted Clans, Ealdred Crow had a Channeler in their fifth party, and Silver Beast had one in their secondary team. The Guild also had a Channeler in their ranks — a woman with whom Tsutomu had tried to talk to once before... and managed to scare her away from him during that occasion. She was the Guild's top Healer; whenever the Guild wanted to explore the Dungeon or level up their staff members, she would be included in the party along with Amy, Garm, and Camille.

[For coverage's sake, I also want one magical Tank and Attacker each... Gotta discuss that with everyone later.]

Walking away from the Clan recruiting board, Tsutomu went to the Appraisal Office next. A yellow-furred, cat-eared girl was appraising an item behind the front counter, and to her side was Amy, looking bored out of her mind.

"Hello there. Slacking off today?"

"Nah, it's called lettin' mah apprentice learn the job~!"

"Sounds like the same thing to me."

The Aelurkin girl, seemingly intimidated by Tsutomu's presence after confirming that it was him, bowed to him repeatedly. Tsutomu returned a greeting to her before reaching into his Magic Bag to take out the Scorchstone Robe.

"Here, I'm letting you borrow this. A promise's a promise."

"Wait, you actually meant it? Thanks a bunch!"

Amy picked up the robe with both her arms as if to hug it, and then she put it on the shelf behind her. Next to her, the girl whose Appraisal skill was still level 1 went back to working on appraising her item.

"So is the Guild anywhere close to beating the Mount Golem? Doesn't look like they've been attempting it much lately."

"Can't say we are — all we're doing these days is collect materials from the Volcano, and we'll probably be hunting Bolseyers to try and get more of this robe starting today... Yeah, it's gonna take a while."

Tsutomu's heat-nullifying equipment had received quite a lot of attention in the news, and investigations had revealed it to be obtainable from treasure chests dropped by the Bolseyer — Thus Golden Tune and Scarlet Devil Squad hunting the lava fish today since morning. And apparently, the Guild had plans to do the same starting today as well.

The drop rate of treasure chests was by no means high, however. Tsutomu had gone in knowing that the rates were clearly lower than in the game, and sure enough, it had taken Absolute Helix a great deal of effort to obtain one Scorchstone Robe. During their training period, they would hunt two per day, and that number increased to four after they were done with training; in the end, the treasure chest drop came on the fifty-third try.

It was entirely possible for one to get rare items that they did not actually want — Which would be quite demoralizing, especially for those two major Clans. Perhaps the Guild was getting in on this trend so that they could sell the robes later.

"Ah, Tsutomu, listen! Once this girl's Appraisal skill gets to level 2, I'll finally get to leave my post and join your Clan! Get things set up for me over there, yeah?"

Amy's pending work had all but cleared up by now, and she currently was supervising her apprentices to improve their Appraisal skills. As a result of this development, there currently was one other staff member whose Appraisal skill was on the same level as Amy's, and this Aelurkin girl would be another one after she was done.

"Nice. How much longer will that take, anyway?"

"Hmm... about two months or so, I guess? Go tell your Clan members all 'bout me, 'cause I'll be there in no time!"

"Got it. I'll leave a space open for you."

"Mm-hm!"

Amy happily folded her hands together and walked behind the apprentice girl, then rubbed her on the shoulders.

"Now then, hang in there, m' girl! I'mma get your skill up to level 2 real fast!"

"You're scaring me..."

Seeing Amy quite non-subtly pressure her apprentice, Tsutomu chuckled and proceeded to leave the Appraisal Office.