Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: The Bus Business
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Whooong.
[Welcome to Astria Online]
With a strange sense of floating, my body arrived in the world of Astria Online.
"That was a good rest!"
As I always did, I hopped in place and stretched my limbs.
By now, I was spending overwhelmingly more time on the Astria Continent than in the real world. Inside this world, I could feel like a completely different person.
I'd logged in at the rocky mountain area in front of the elite dungeon, the Demon Army's Forward Base.
Before logging out, I had hidden my body behind a pile of rocks, so I could stretch without any worries.
Peeking out.
I poked my head out from behind the rocks and observed the people gathered in front of the dungeon.
"LFP for Swordsman! Cleared once! I can tank the 3rd boss's chimeras!"
"Experienced kiting orbs on the 2nd boss! Anyone need a Ranger? Looking for a spot!"
As always, there were many people looking for parties. Some seemed to have cleared it multiple times, while others were attempting it for the first time.
While some might have had fixed parties, the majority of casual players formed impromptu pickup groups like this.
I immediately opened the auction house to check the price of weapons, my main source of income.
On the third day since the dungeon opened, weapons were still maintaining a decent price. It seemed the difficulty of this elite dungeon, the Forward Base, was quite high.
The problem was.
"The price of a weapon now varies wildly depending on its stats."
In the case of Swordsman weapons, the most preferred stat was 'Starlight Slash Damage Increase,' which boosted the multiplier of their main skill.
There was a wide variety of additional stats, from damage reduction on a successful block and increased thrust damage, to damage boosts for PvP skills like knockdowns or aerial attacks.
In other words, even among weapons dropped by Zarkan, there was a huge gap in preference.
The same was true for the weapons of other classes. The stat that increased the damage of a class's main skill was the most expensive and sold the best. There was some demand for PvP skill stats as well.
In the early days of the game, players prioritized the weapon's base attack power because skill ranks and multipliers were low. But now that damage rotations were established and main skills accounted for a larger portion of total damage, additional stats had become the priority over attack power.
Still, dismantling useless accessories and weapons yielded 'Zarkan Coins.' These coins, which could also be obtained from daily quests, were the only way to purchase socket items called 'Echostones' at a fixed price.
I grimaced as I looked at the Echostone socketed into my weapon.
"I didn't realize it would be such a rare item."
The socket item, the Echostone, was still priced almost as high as the first weapons sold.
If I had just been patient and farmed diligently, I could have saved up Zarkan Coins and eventually bought one at a fixed price. I cursed my past self for being impatient and socketing it into my weapon.
Slap.
I slapped my cheeks with both hands, steeling my resolve.
Anyway, weapon prices were still decent, so I had to run the dungeon again today and earn some gold.
I had already converted most of the money I made on the first day into cash, but I still needed to keep running the Forward Base today to collect Zarkan Coins and save up gold for the next region.
I hope lots of weapons with good stats drop today.
Just as I was leaning against the pile of rocks, firming my resolve.
A shadow fell over my head.
A strand of red hair slightly blocked the sunlight.
"Gasp..."
I stared blankly up at the owner of the shadow.
The backlighting made them appear a bit dark, but this person was definitely.
"Found Rain."
Chris looked down at me and smiled brightly.
"You just came online on my friends list, so I figured you'd be nearby. Running the dungeon again today?"
"Uh, eh. Yes? Yes."
I stammered.
I hadn't expected to run into Chris today.
"Ahem, have you finished farming Zarkan's gear? Or did you already promise to run with your party members again today?"
Chris looked around, as if searching for my party members.
My heart pounded nervously.
Even I knew that it wasn't normal for someone like me to be soloing content at the forefront.
In a way, I was using a cheat code called 100% virtual reality synchronization. A kind of bugged character. I couldn't afford to reveal the fact that I'd been solo farming with the vanguard this whole time.
No way. I've managed to get by so far, but one wrong move and my account could be suspended for being a bugged character.
The vivid sense of reality I feel on the Astria Continent... If I couldn't feel this anymore, I wouldn't be able to go on living.
"I don't have any plans today."
I added a small qualifier.
It was true that I didn't 'have any plans'.
By adding 'today,' I could create the impression that I had been running the dungeon with a party until now.
I felt a slight pang of guilt, but it couldn't be helped.
Chris seemed like a kind person, but I didn't know her well enough to reveal my current situation.
Chris beamed.
"Really? In that case, can I borrow you for the day, Rain?"
"B-Borrow me?"
I jumped in surprise.
Borrow me? I'm not an object. What does she mean?
Sure, Chris is nice, but doing something together is another matter entirely.
I have to farm and earn gold today.
I should have said I had plans to farm today.
"...Just the two of us?"
"Hmm, there's one more person. Is that okay?"
I jumped again.
No, no, no.
I can somehow manage with Chris, but someone else? Absolutely not.
"W-w-well, goodbye then."
"Wait!"
Chris stopped me just as I was carefully trying to slip away.
"Rain, you haven't forgotten the promise you made me, have you?"
She smiled brightly and pointed at my clothes.
"Ah."
The clothes I was wearing now, the Desert Admiral's outfit.
I had promised to run a dungeon with her in exchange for this outfit.
"Seeing you still wearing those clothes, you must like them, huh? That makes me happy."
"Hiii..."
Hooked by a single gold coin, I was completely trapped by Chris.
"Eek...! Wow! Wow! She's so small! Not just short, but her face is tiny and cute, too... How can you be a Swordsman with that body?"
"Ahem, Beimerung! Rain is for ornamental purposes only! Just look, don't touch!"
"Ornamental...?"
I clutched Chris's collar and hid behind her.
That pink-haired woman squealing at me... she was definitely the Mage from Chris's party.
She doesn't even seem that much taller than me, so why does she keep calling me small?
While I was okay with Chris, my aversion to other people hadn't disappeared yet.
"Anyway, I'll talk to Rain, so you just focus on handling the customer, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The Mage called Beimerung snapped to attention and saluted Chris. I couldn't help but ask Chris the question on my mind.
"Customer?"
"We're starting a carry service today. Our tank is busy and had to drop out, and our Spirit Master can't log on, so I was hoping you could take a spot, Rain."
"Huh? But didn't you just threaten Cherni not to come...?"
Glare.
Chris shot Beimerung a sharp glance.
"Ah, it's nothing!"
Beimerung hastily turned her head away and brought up her interface again. She was typing some kind of message.
"Rain, the two of us will handle everything else, so can you main tank the first and second bosses, and tank the chimeras on the third?"
"Tank the chimeras?"
I tilted my head.
Main tanking meant tanking the boss. I'd been doing that solo, so it wasn't a problem.
The chimeras on the third boss... she must be talking about the two doggies that appear when the boss's HP drops below 50%.
"Who's tanking the boss, then?"
"Huh? Didn't your party clear it with a ranged DPS tanking?"
"Uh, umm. So I just need to hold the two chimeras?"
Chris smiled and nodded.
It seemed that for the third boss, it was common for a ranged DPS to tank in a party. In any case, I just had to do as she said.
"So we're going in as a party of three?"
"I mentioned a customer earlier, right? We're taking one person along as a passenger."
"Oh."
I nodded.
Carry services existed for the level 25 elite dungeons, too. If I turned on the zone chat announcements, I'd always see messages advertising them.
Back then, farming the low-level elite dungeons was quick, but now that the farming difficulty had increased and proper PvP battleground content had been added, the carry business was probably booming.
Running a carry service was a stable way to earn gold without having to rely on selling weapons with good stats or getting lucky with an Echostone drop.
I asked another question that came to mind.
"But don't people run carry services with just one or two people?"
"Huh? Ahaha! Even if a character has finished farming, whether they can solo the dungeon is one thing, but running a carry with one or two people would mean taking two or three customers. If you do that, you can't give all the drops to a single customer, right? The whole business model works because all the items from the dungeon go to one person."
"Aha."
Even if you only took one customer, a solo run would take much longer than a party run, so there'd be no benefit for the customer. Some might pay just to watch how a solo run is done, but there's no sustainable business value in that.
So even if a player could clear the dungeon alone, they couldn't run a carry service alone.
Though in my case, I probably wouldn't even be able to handle the customer service part properly.
For some reason, I felt a pang of disappointment.