kscans

Chapter 256 - Market Research

Hayato and Ren split up and began listing their items.

Basically, they set the buyout price to the highest price in the sales history. However, for items that had no other listings and no sales history for a while, they set the price a little higher.

The listing period was three days. Many players couldn't wait three days to get an item, so in those cases, they would buy it out immediately. There was also the idea of raising the bid price a little during the three-day period.

After listing all the items, they decided to look at recent trends, as Rose had asked.

They checked the listed items, prices, stock levels, and history to see what was selling recently.

Unlike in a shop, the auction retains a history of the last hundred successful bids. Information such as when and for how much an item was sold is recorded, making it easy to understand sales trends.

Hayato checked the history. He primarily looked for items with a high number of transactions and low stock.

With the Treasure Hunting event still ongoing, many of the recent transactions were for treasure chest keys and treasure maps. Since these were also a means of obtaining Treasure Coins, prices remained high.

However, even if Hayato knew that was the trend, it was meaningless to him. There was no point in going to a dungeon to get keys to make money. Besides, Hayato was a production class. He wanted to make money with produced items, not drop items.

When he looked at the history for items other than keys and maps, it seemed that cheap weapons and armor for beginners were selling well. These were so-called obsolete items, equipment with performance that was no longer useful on the front lines.

He already knew about this trend from what Rose had told him, but making money with low-performance equipment was a bit difficult. Since the prices were low, he wouldn't make a big profit unless he made them in large quantities.

Because of his high skill level, Hayato couldn't mass-produce low-quality equipment. The cheap items he sold in his shop were just failures from when he was aiming for high quality, so considering the cost of materials, there wasn't much profit in it.

Cheaper food and medicine were selling well, so Rose's suggestion was helpful, and in the sense that it brought in new customers, it could be considered an investment for the future. But right now, it was more about the near future than the distant one.

As Hayato was wondering what to do, Ren, who was next to him, raised her right hand sharply.

"Um, what is it?"

"It seems that accessories are selling well. Things like the Ring of Teleportation and equipment that can use charge-type magic. It looks like lumber is selling well too."

"Charge-type items...? Oh, right, they're essential for beginners. Their skills probably aren't at 100 yet, and their stats are low. I guess a lot of people use items to substitute for magic."

Charge-type items are items with a limited number of uses that can be used regardless of skill.

The "Ring of Teleportation" that Hayato often used was an item that could use the teleport spell, but since it could be used even without magic skills like Hayato, it was probably essential for those who didn't have magic skills.

However, even though they can be used without magic skills, their power and success rate depend on the user's stats and skills. Even if Hayato were to use the attack spell "Fireball" that throws a ball of fire, it wouldn't be powerful. It might not even do any damage against an opponent's magic defense.

It is said that skills are easy to raise up to 90, but that is because people know how to raise them efficiently. Information that was once available on the web is now difficult to find. It is highly likely that beginner players are having a hard time with various things.

Hayato thought that there would be a demand for charge-type accessories for a while.

"Even if the quality of charge-type items goes up, only the number of charges increases, so they won't be that expensive, making them easy for beginners to buy. And equipment that raises skills is also likely to sell. Thanks, Ren-chan."

"You think it'll sell? You can thank me with pudding, okay?"

"When we get back. Um, so lumber is selling well, huh. For ships and airships, maybe..."

Building ships and airships requires a large amount of lumber. Some people probably go to the forest to get lumber, but it's not efficient without the logging skill, so many people just buy it.

The Woodworking Skill is underprivileged compared to skills like Blacksmithing, so the Logging Skill can also be said to be underprivileged.

Rare lumber like that from a Magic Tree is in high demand for making staves that boost magic power, but considering the effort, it's more profitable to just defeat monsters. With that money, you can buy lumber without having to raise unnecessary skills.

Because of this, there tends to be few people with the logging skill.

(Speaking of the logging skill, that's Mist-san, but she's busy right now. I could make money by selling the World Tree Lumber, but I want to save that for something, and my pride won't let me sell raw materials... I have such a difficult personality.)

Mist had raised her logging skill to 100 to make her own coffin. However, although she raised the skill to gather lumber, she gave up on the woodworking skill to make the coffin midway through. Raising a production skill to 100 is quite a tough task.

As for the World Tree Lumber, he was to receive it regularly from the Elves and Dwarves in the Spirit Country. This was a reward for protecting the World Tree during the Stampede event.

Selling it would probably make a lot of money. But Hayato's craftsman side refused to turn raw materials into money. That said, if he processed it, it wouldn't be equipment for beginners. He concluded that he had no choice but to put it in storage until he decided how to use it.

Ren looked up at Hayato, who was deep in thought.

"Whoa, you scared me. What is it?"

"Come to think of it, you went to the Floating Island a while ago, right? Esha-san didn't seem to have participated, but I heard you had a vacation at the lake."

"Seems so. The guys couldn't get close, though. Ney was smiling even when she got back, so I guess it was pretty fun. Well, she did say some incomprehensible things like someone's swimsuit had high attack power. I have to take Maris next time, so why don't we go together then?"

"It's a promise, okay? So, about the lumber, I had a thought. Don't you think it might be materials for building a base? I think the first thing beginners want to do when they save up money is to build a house for their base."

"I see, that could be it. Come to think of it, Ney did say she wanted help rebuilding her base..."

Ney and the others' "Kokuryu" base was near a town called Grandbell.

It was the new base they had built when Hayato was kicked out before, but it was more or less on the frontier. Thanks to that, there was quite a bit of land available for building houses. Grandbell itself was well-equipped for a frontier town, so it was probably a good spot.

(I think Ney and the others should be able to log in soon, but I wonder how they're doing? I'll ask them the next time they come to the cafe... Well, I've figured out what's likely to sell, so maybe we should head back.)

"I've got a good idea of things, so let's go home for today."

"Yes, let's go home and eat pudding!"

Hayato used his Ring of Teleportation, while Ren simply used the teleport spell.

Immediately after returning to the base in an instant, the sound of clashing metal reached Hayato and the others' ears.

Wondering what was going on, they saw Ash and Simon fighting. When the two of them noticed Hayato and the others, they stopped fighting.

"Hayato, Ren, you're back."

"Um, what are you doing? You stopped attacking, so it's not like Simon is attacking you, right?"

"I was training on the third floor when Simon came by. He said if I was going to train, why not fight him, so we were having a mock battle. But it's no good, it's been a while so my body's reactions are slow. I need a little more time to get back in shape."

"You say your reactions are slow when I can't even land a single blow? Just what I'd expect from a Genesis Dragon. But you're a bad man, Hayato. You could have at least told me there was someone this strong here."

"Ash and Ren-chan were away for a bit because of the Stampede incident. They just came back yesterday."

"He did mention something like that at the farewell party yesterday. But I'm in luck. I was thinking it would be a bit boring now that Ivan and Gil have left this place, but to be able to fight Ash instead."

"You call me a strong fighter, Simon? It seems I've gotten stronger than I was back then. Now, Hayato. We're planning to continue our mock battle, but..."

"Oh, yeah, go for it. But don't push yourselves too hard."

"Brother, you can't lose, even in a mock battle!"

"Yeah, leave it to me. Alright, Simon, shall we continue?"

"Then I won't hold back!"

As Simon said that, the sound of clashing metal echoed around them again.

Ash was using his Dragon Eater to block Simon's sword. From Hayato's perspective, he seemed to be reacting at a considerable speed, but for Ash, it was probably still not enough.

Watching the fight, Hayato had a thought.

(Maybe I should build an arena in the basement like the Maid Guild has. It's conspicuous to be fighting outside...)

He wasn't sure if he could do something like that, but he decided to ask Diite about it later, and then he and Ren went inside the base.