kscans

Chapter 430 - Making Money is Important

On Sunday morning, the three of them, Parfait, Natsu, and Chris, were gathered on the first floor of their base.

Parfait leaned both elbows on the table decorated with a picture of a cat and laced her fingers together. Then she opened her mouth with a solemn expression.

"We’re out of money."

"My friend, you must use your allowance wisely. I may have fallen to the dark side, but I abide by that."

"Natsu is right. How about you refrain from buying animal goods for a little while?"

"This isn’t about the real world. I’m talking about being out of in-game money."

Parfait had bought the land and building for their base, but she still had nearly ten million G left. However, after furnishing the base, she had run out of money.

Normal furniture wasn’t that expensive, but the furniture that Parfait, Natsu, and Chris had each painstakingly chosen was quite pricey, and they had spent a lot of money on it despite it having no effect other than its appearance.

She had no regrets about that, but now she didn’t even have enough for the base’s maintenance fees, that is, the taxes paid to the country that owned the land. The Eastern Country was relatively cheap, and Parfait was a ranker, plus she periodically received money from the view count on the in-game video site. But even so, she couldn’t pay.

When Parfait explained this, Natsu nodded.

"So in other words, if we do not make some money, we will be kicked out of here?"

"Right. To put it simply, foreclosure. Our furniture and stuff will be sold off and turned into money."

"My skull curtains will be sold!?"

"My bench press too…!"

"Finally feeling the sense of crisis? So, we’re going to make some money. Our goal is one hundred thousand G. And by the way, this is money we have to make every month."

Parfait explained further.

Basically, in AFO, you don’t get money directly from defeating monsters. The mainstream way is to sell the items dropped by defeated monsters. There was selling production items, but with their skills, Parfait and the others couldn’t make anything that sold for a high price.

If you wanted to strike it rich, you could aim for rare drop items, but in terms of game-like combat, Parfait and the others weren’t that strong. They might be able to win in PvP, but they were still weak against monsters.

There were weak monsters that dropped rare items, but considering the time it would take to find them and the probability of a drop, it wasn’t worth it. And since they needed money periodically, they needed a stable source of income.

Ideally, she wanted to make money at the cafe, but they only had one table, and no dishes or drinks to sell. So that was impossible until things were more stable in other ways.

So what to do?

They could get money from treasure chests in dungeons. They could do guild quests. They could gather materials for production items. Those were about the only methods they could take.

"My friend, I believe there is one other way to make money."

"Eh? What’s that?"

"Why not just take a weapon from a ranker again?"

"That’s mugging or being a bandit, Natsu-chan."

"It is sad, but the world is survival of the fittest… My donuts, even when I write my name on them, sometimes disappear…"

"I understand what Natsu is saying, but we cannot do that every time. In that case, let us first go to a dungeon and make some money. I heard that the deepest part of any dungeon has some decent treasure. I have heard that we can make a decent amount by running it multiple times."

Parfait and Natsu nodded at Chris’s opinion.

Monsters didn’t drop money, but treasure chests inside dungeons sometimes had money in them. And it was a well known fact that at the deepest part of a dungeon, there was a boss monster, and defeating it would yield decent drop items and multiple treasure chests.

Since Parfait and the others didn’t have a very well balanced party, the difficulty would be higher even for a beginner dungeon, but they decided to give it a try.

"Are you okay, Chris-chan? Have your skills gone up since then?"

"I am fine. My hand-to-hand combat skill has risen considerably. At this rate, I can take down a goblin in one hit. As expected of muscles… STR. It is quite fun to train this."

"Fuhaha, I shall show you my necromancy as well! My Dark Knights have leveled up and become Bloody Terror Knights! Kukuku, let the curtain rise on this tragedy!"

Parfait felt a little anxious, but she figured they would be fine, and the three of them headed to a beginner dungeon.

The beginner dungeon in the Eastern Country, "Kobold Copper Mine."

It was a mine where copper could be mined, but it was a place where relatively small demons called kobolds had taken up residence. It was said to be safe even for production-focused players, so the danger level was low. However, that was only on the lower floors, and if you went deeper, there were demons of considerable strength.

It was a good place to test their skills, and for Parfait, the most important point was that no cute monsters appeared. In other words, she could defeat them to her heart’s content.

The three of them were at the entrance of the Kobold Copper Mine, peeking inside.

The reasonably large entrance was reinforced with wood to prevent cave-ins. Inside, there were torches at regular intervals, so they didn’t need to worry about a light source. Apparently, there were some places you couldn’t enter without negating your sense of smell, but this place didn’t have any particularly strange smells.

"Then let us go. There is a quest at the Assassin Guild to bring back the horns of kobolds, so I was a little interested."

"I wonder if the Maid Guild had a quest like that?"

"The Necromancer Guild has a lot of quests to collect bones… and wood. Apparently, it is used as material for coffins. I heard that my father and my friend’s father met for that reason?"

"I think I heard something about Mist-san asking Dad to make a coffin. But before that, he came to investigate a Clan War or something."

"I feel like I heard that too… But I see. Coffins are a necessity for vampires. Someday, I shall also put a coffin in my room… no, is it cooler to carry a coffin on my back?"

The furniture in their base was becoming more and more suspicious, but Parfait told herself that if it was in her own room, it was within acceptable limits.

"So that is how Mist-dono and Hayato-dono met. I heard from my father that he was confined by Hayato-dono?"

"I heard that too, but before that, I heard that Gil-san confined Lunaria-san and made her bake cookies?"

"…I do not understand."

"I guess that kind of thing happens when you meet in AFO…"

It was a situation she couldn’t imagine at all.

Lunaria was the head of the Foundation, but in the game, she was the Demon Lord. The situation of confining that Demon Lord and making her bake cookies was incomprehensible. She had also heard a story about Lunaria being hung from a ship’s hook, but she didn’t understand that either.

Deciding to think about that later, the three of them stepped into the copper mine.

As they had seen from the entrance, it was a reasonably wide passage and not that dark. There was no particular smell, and all they could hear was the occasional sound of a pickaxe hitting ore.

"Do you know how many floors this place has?"

Parfait nodded at Chris’s question.

"Three floors. And apparently, if you go in the direction the wind is blowing, there are stairs."

"For you, Parfait, you are surprisingly well prepared."

"I did a lot of research. There aren’t many places where I can fight at full strength."

"It is difficult not being able to attack cute animals."

"I’d rather ask why you can hit them. You shoot them with a gun, Natsu-chan."

"My friend. This is a game, and they are monsters. Even if they look cute, they will bite you hard."

"They’re just playing!"

"If my HP is going down, it is an attack."

As they were having this conversation, they saw a kobold in the passage ahead. The kobolds also seemed to have noticed them and attacked normally. They were five red-skinned demons with small horns on their heads, carrying small clubs.

"O dark servants who have transcended death! It is time for the banquet! Let the world be thrown into a vortex of chaos—"

"Too long, too long. Natsu-chan, hurry up and use Create Undead."

"This is where it gets good. I am a little dissatisfied."

Though she said that, Natsu used Create Undead and created two skeletons.

Then everyone challenged the kobolds to a one-on-one fight.

Chris was in her maid outfit, fighting boxing style. Natsu used dual pistols and martial arts. Parfait used a katana.

The skeletons Natsu created attacked with a sword and shield, but they weren’t that strong. They were just tanks to prevent attacks from being concentrated on one person.

Chris unleashed a one-two punch that was too fast to see. A light jab with her left hand, followed by her real attack, a right straight. It wasn’t a normal movement.

And Natsu, while holding a ranged weapon, engaged in close quarters combat, an attack that the dark side would admire. And she didn’t forget to strike a cool pose after defeating her opponent.

Parfait just cut them down normally. But even after cutting them down, she didn’t let her guard down. This was something Benitsuru often told her.

Immediately after that, the skeletons were defeated by the kobolds, but Chris and Natsu each took on one and defeated them normally.

"They were no match for us, but no drop items. What about you two?"

"I have none either. Apparently, if you have a treasure hunting type title, the drop rate increases."

"I didn’t get anything either. The title is ‘Red Snake,’ right? It slightly increases the drop rate. But why a red snake?"

"It is strange."

"As long as it is cool, anything is fine. What is needed in words is not meaning. It is pronunciation!"

Leaving Natsu to her speech, Parfait thought about the title.

The acquisition condition was simple, just opening a Hihiirokane treasure chest, but it was said that no one knew where such a treasure chest was. Some players seemed to have it, so it must exist, but it was also said to be a mysterious treasure chest with no information.

Thinking that there probably wasn’t one in a beginner’s dungeon like this, the three of them proceeded deeper.

They didn’t have a map, but as Parfait had said, all they had to do was follow the flow of the wind. Stronger monsters appeared on each floor, but they were no match for Parfait and the others.

And so, they arrived at the door to the deepest part. A large, double door stood in their way.

The deepest part of a dungeon had a boss, and if you defeated it, you would get a lot of treasure and then be warped outside. There were exceptions, but dungeons basically all had that system.

"Alright, you two ready?"

"Yes. Even if it is the gates of hell, open them!"

"I am ready."

Parfait pushed open the door and the three of them entered. The door closed immediately after.

It was a dark space inside, but soon the torches on the walls lit up. The way they lit up in order from the front to the back was a rather elaborate production, and Parfait was impressed.

And there were monsters too. About ten of the same kobolds they had been defeating so far.

"The same monster. A bit of a letdown."

"Chris-chan, boss rooms like this are a series of battles. When we defeat them, another monster will appear."

"I see, that is the system. Then let us defeat them without hesitation."

"Yeah, let’s beat the boss and get the treasure!"

"To monsters, adventurers are nothing more than plunderers…"

"You say unnecessary things sometimes, Natsu-chan."

"Not sometimes. Always!"

Parfait didn’t know why she was looking so proud, but she decided to defeat the monsters first and readied her katana.