After stocking up on amber, I returned to the Town of Beginnings. Then, having remembered something very important, I teleported straight to Red City in Zone Ten.
“I completely forgot that I raised my Riding skill to level 10.”
“Neigh!”
“Sorry, sorry!”
I had fulfilled the school quest that I had accepted a while ago without even realizing it.
School Quest
Description: Raise Riding skill to level 10.
Reward: 1,000 G
Time Limit: None
The original reason I had tamed Carro in the first place had been to complete this school quest, but I had gotten so distracted with the new forest and all the new crops that it had slipped my mind completely. It was, by all accounts, a combat quest, so I guess it just wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.
Once I made it to the Magical Beasts’ Guild, I asked to see Sagitta, and was able to meet with him right away.
“Oh my! You’ve raised your Riding skill to level 10! That’s fantastic. You’ve completed the quest!” Sagitta said, excitedly announcing my completion of the quest. Seeing how happy he was about it made me feel a little guilty for forgetting about it.
“Th-Thanks.”
“And with that, you are now an official member of the Centaur School,” Sagitta informed me. Apparently I hadn’t been considered affiliated with the school until this very moment.
“You have earned the title ‘Centaur School Apprentice.’”
“Oh, nice.”
At last, I was an apprentice. I had a feeling that enrolling wasn’t the end of the story, and my title would update as I completed quests for the school. And sure enough, I got a notification for a new quest.
School Quest
Description: Raise a long-range attack skill to level 20.
Reward: 1,000 G
Time Limit: None.
As soon as the quest popped up, I also heard an announcement informing me I had completed it, and I received the 1,000 G reward. Earlier, Sagitta had told me that magic was considered an acceptable method of attack, and since my water magic was at level 50, the game recognized that I had already fulfilled the conditions.
“Your ‘Centaur School Apprentice’ title has changed to ‘Centaur School Beginner Rank.’”
“Wow, that’s amazing!” Sagitta rejoiced. “You’ve excelled beyond an apprentice! Please continue to be diligent in your learning.”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
Wait, this is going too fast! I wanted to learn some things as an apprentice!
“Here are the details of your next test.”
“O-Okay.”
School Quest
Description: Defeat 500 monsters using long-range attacks while on a mount.
Reward: 10,000 G
Time Limit: None.
Jeez, this one looks like a lot more effort. Defeating weak monsters would probably be sufficient, but that would still take a lot of time. But, well, this one didn’t have a time limit either, so I could complete it at my leisure.
Having reached a good stopping point with my school quests, I teleported back home from the Magical Beasts’ Guild to take a breather. I had planned to craft all day but had ended up doing a whole bunch of other things instead.
“Poko.”
“Oh, thanks, Kettle!”
As soon as I sat down on my veranda, Kettle promptly came over and served me tea. By this point, the yokai had developed the impeccable timing of a competent butler.
“Gwak?”
“Kapa?”
“Kappa, you came to hang out? And Taro’s here too!”
The Kappa yokai and Taro the Mini Kappa mascot came over to me. They looked friendly with each other, and I wondered if they got along well because of their similarities. In any case, I drank tea and relaxed as the two friends sat by my side. I stroked Kettle’s fluffy tail on my right side and admired the kappas sitting on my left. Both the Kappa and the Mini Kappa were eating through cucumbers as though their mouths were electric pencil sharpeners. I was entertained just watching.
A Japanese-style house, yokai, and green tea... This was the life. In that moment, I didn’t even feel like I was playing as a Tamer in a Western-inspired fantasy world.
Once I had spent thirty or so minutes relaxing on the veranda and enjoying the view of my cute creatures, I decided to shut myself back into the workshop.
“Sakura, Himka. I brought more amber. Can you work on these too?”
“...♪”
“Hm!”
Sakura and Himka looked super enthusiastic to be given more amber. It was simple work, but they must have enjoyed the gacha aspect of not knowing what was going to come out from inside. I understood how they felt.
“And Reflet and Fau, you two are going to make fertilizer with me.”
“Hum!”
“Aye-aye!”
I left the amber-cutting to the experts while I would be working on increasing our supply of fertilizer, which had been my original plan for the day.
“Tra-la!”
“Oh, do you want to work in here too, Eine?”
“Tra-la-la!”
Eine arrived on scene in the workshop, evidently wanting to work in the same room as the rest of us. She started passing a needle and thread through the cloth she was working on. The needle, which was the size of a rapier during battle, conveniently turned into the size of a normal needle when she used it for crafting.
She seemed to be using her Sewing skill to turn the fabric she had made herself into some sort of item. So far, Eine had been making various types of fabric as well as a good number of test pieces of simple accessories like handkerchiefs and scarves. Of course, she was also able to make stuffed toys, but on top of being time-consuming to make, I thought she wasn’t at the point yet that she could make anything that had a very high rarity... But maybe things had changed. I wondered if she had raised her Sewing skill level enough that she could make them more easily now. The thing she was currently working on was clearly three-dimensional.
“What are you making?” I asked her.
“Tra-la-la!”
“Hmm?”
Eine held up the fabric to show me, but since I knew nothing about sewing, I couldn’t tell what it was.
“Tra-la! Tra-la!”
“Okay, I get it. I know you’re working hard, you don’t need to shove it against my face!”
“Tra-la-la.”
Anyway, the one thing I was certain about was that Eine was making something out of cloth. Soon I would be able to add Eine-made products to my unmanned stand. With tableware, meals, and now textile products in the lineup of goods, it barely seemed like a farm stand at all.
“All right, today we’ll work on our crafting projects together!”
“...♪”
“Hm!”
“Reflet, can you supply us with water? Fau, you’re on Alchemy duty with me.”
“Humm.”
“Aye.”
And so, using all the materials that I had obtained, we made mass quantities of fertilizer. Judging by how cheerful and animated they were acting, my monsters must have enjoyed our crafting time too.
Around the time we finished making enough fertilizer and plant booster, Sakura and Himka were in the home stretch with their amber cutting. They seemed to have gotten a good hang of the process—they were really going at it with their chisels. They were carving away at the amber with such force that I was starting to get worried just watching them. If it had been me doing that, I definitely would have failed, but Sakura and Himka were totally locked in. They were able to extract the contents of the amber without breaking it. Unfortunately, the amber shavings disappeared afterwards, so I couldn’t reuse them for something else.
“...!”
“Hm!”
The two of them finished with their last amber at nearly the same time, looking pleased with themselves as they clutched the plants they’d obtained.
“A medicinal herb and a poison hemlock, huh?”
“...♪”
“Hmm!”
Sakura and Himka mimed wiping sweat off their brow with a look of satisfaction. They were happier about the fact that they had successfully extracted the plants than about the plants’ rarity.
They had chiseled plants out of a total of eighty-five ambers, which left them with a very large spread of flowering plants on top of the table.