"Welcom—ah, isn't this the Zero Hero-sama?"
The magic item shopkeeper immediately smiled upon recognizing Kiriko.
"How may I help you this time?"
"Yeah, I'd like to place an order for an Advanced Dimensional Bag."
Previously, Kiriko had bought three Intermediate Dimensional Bags from this magic shop—not because the shop couldn't produce an advanced version, but simply because Advanced Dimensional Bags were prohibitively expensive and required pre-orders.
Customers first paid a deposit, after which the shopkeeper would go to the Adventurers' Guild to post a request for the materials necessary to craft it. Most of these materials came from powerful monsters, meaning adventurers had to go hunting.
Only after successful adventurers brought back the requested materials could the shopkeeper craft the item.
Another complication: whether upgrading equipment or crafting smartphones, nothing had a 100% success rate.
Even if you managed to raise success chances to ninety-something percent, failure was still possible.
Naturally, the cost of failures wouldn't come from the shopkeeper's pocket, but from the buyer's.
Kiriko understood this clearly, which was precisely why she'd previously opted for three Intermediate Dimensional Bags instead of a single Advanced one.
But after nearly two days of use, she'd realized wearing three bags strapped around her waist felt incredibly uncomfortable.
More importantly, splitting items across three different bags made it easy to forget where certain items had been placed. Extremely inconvenient.
Although most of what she carried was just gold anyway.
Still, she'd prefer having a single Advanced Dimensional Bag—even if it cost extra.
After all, right now, money was the only thing she wasn't short on.
"Oh, I see. Perhaps you don't realize, but the crafting cycle for an Advanced Dimensional Bag is quite lengthy. If you need it urgently, you might not receive it in time…"
The shopkeeper patiently explained to Kiriko.
"To craft an Advanced Dimensional Bag, you'll first need 75 pieces of Embroidered Deep-Sea Silk, 10 Spirit-Banishing Gold Ingots, and 3 Ocean-Cleansed Cores. These materials aren't easy to come by, even if you raise the reward at the Adventurers' Guild. It'll still take some time before they deliver everything…"
"Furthermore, even after collecting these materials, to combine them into a magically infused item requires the technique of enchantment. Do you know what enchantment is? Enchantment is…"
[A Magic Item Shopkeeper offers to teach you "Tailoring (Novice)" and "Enchanting (Novice)." Accept skills?]
What?
Kiriko blinked at the sudden pop-up.
Without thinking, she focused her mind on "Yes."
The window disappeared silently, just as it had appeared.
She instinctively opened her status panel, quickly sorting her "Skills" section by recent additions, and soon located her two newly acquired skills.
But just as she found them, their suffixes suddenly changed.
From "Tailoring (Novice)" and "Enchanting (Novice)," they became "Tailoring (Apprentice)" and "Enchanting (Apprentice)."
Skills increased proficiency automatically, much like levels—Kiriko knew this already, though the skills she'd previously acquired at every fifth level used alphabetical ranks.
Earlier skills like "Golden Rule A" had long since become "EX+++…+++."
Did she have materials? Of course she did.
But this was something else…
Kiriko focused her mind on the question mark next to "Tailoring (Apprentice)."
When selected, a description popped up immediately.
[Crafting Skill Proficiency Ranks from lowest to highest]:
Novice
Apprentice
Journeyman
Expert
Master
Grandmaster
Great Grandmaster
Great-Great Grandmaster
Great-Great-Great... Grandmaster.
The final rank, "Great-Great-Great... Grandmaster," probably meant the same thing as "EX+++…+++"—indicating overwhelming strength beyond measure.
What the heck…just adding "Great" endlessly?
Like Greatsword, Great Britain, Great Wall, Great Dick…
Reasonable, perfectly reasonable.
"Zero Hero-sama? Zero Hero-sama? Are you listening?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I just…had something on my mind. Anyway, since it's so troublesome, never mind. But could I trouble you to sell me a recipe for the Advanced Dimensional Bag instead? Also, I'd like all your magic item recipes. I'll buy however many you have. Don't worry, I'll pay properly."
When Kiriko left the magic item shop, one of her Intermediate Dimensional Bags was already filled to capacity with various recipes and blueprints she'd bought.
Sorry, but having money means you can do whatever you want.
Next, she headed toward the weapons shop.
...
Kiriko spent nearly the entire day wandering around town. Only when the golden glow of sunset painted rooftops did she finally turn back toward the inn.
In half a day's time, she'd essentially visited every weapons shop, tailor, potion shop, and magic item store in the royal capital's town district…
Learning almost every crafting skill available.
As for her earliest skills—"Tailoring" and "Enchanting"—both had already reached "Master" proficiency.
Previously, all her skills had been combat-related or supportive ones like "Golden Rule."
She'd never imagined crafting skills could be acquired this easily.
As long as someone briefly explained the steps involved, she'd receive the skill-teaching prompt. After that, proficiency just passively increased on its own.
This was even more absurd than Skyrim's Fortify Restoration Loop.
At least Skyrim's method required some effort. This didn't even need that—you could literally just lie around, and your skill would eventually climb to "Great-Great-Great... Grandmaster."
Additionally, she'd bought practically every recipe and blueprint available from shops throughout the town.
Sorry again, but having money really does mean you can do whatever you please.
She'd even stopped by the Adventurers' Guild and posted requests to gather materials.
With her strength, she could easily have purchased monster-location information from the guild, then hunted down the monsters herself to collect materials directly.
But she didn't want to.
Back when she played Skyrim, she'd scoured every corner of the nine holds for a single ingredient…
Then there was Final Fantasy XIV, where she'd crafted relic weapons for every class…
Nearly drove herself into the hospital.
Now, whenever she remembered all the grinding she'd done, she felt physically ill.
Taking a little extra time was fine. Even spending extra money was fine.
It was far better to let someone else handle the legwork.
---
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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