Prologue - The 【Faerie Ring】 and Drop Rate

Countless players aligned items, spending time preparing for dungeon and field searches in the evening. As people shared information amongst each other and traded items during the hours where it was bustling with adults, in the 【Atelier】——

"Hmm. Rice crackers in this store are delicious."

"They'll feel too salty if you don't drink tea with it. Here, sweets."

"I prefer ball candies here rather than crackers. I love sweets."

Finding the time when there's few people in, they have occupied the corner of the store...

"Hey, you all. What did you even come to my store for?"

"Hohee?"

Making a mystified expression, the Mischievous Fairy and her friends desperately swallowed the sweets they had in the mouths and after pouring hot barley tea to fairy-size cups, she then answered my question.

"Eh, this is the most quiet place to take break in the entire town."

"No, I don't intend on making a break station for fairies you know."

Although I stared at her, "and so" she responded and plopped her butt on top of the three-coloured synthetic Gel mobs. Is that like a soft sofa spoiling people? When I thought so, other fairies also started lazying around.

Seeing a sight of fairies lazying around on sofa with rice crackers in their hands, I could only thing they're picking a fight with fantasy setting.

"So. What are you doing for a while now?"

'Hm? This?"

What I raised up in front of the fairies was a crafting recipe's note with the mixing ratios. I always verified the ratios of the recipes I was able to decipher and I wrote the results of try and error in order to improve their effect.

And, on the page I left the note in there was something slightly different from the crafting verification results.

"I was looking at the 【Faerie Ring】's effect verification results."

"Ahh, that."

Saying so, the Mischievous Fairy flew up to me and touched the ring on the index finger of my right hand. And, as if convinced, she stroked the ring.

After becoming a 【Fairy Possessed】 accessory, as a result of the fairy's release, it did not return to being a normal accessory, but was changed into an unique accessory. I have written results of the 【Faerie Blessing】 effect it had in the notebook.

"The slight increase in stats can't be measured, but the success rate of skills, rare drop rate, elemental damage and bad status resistance are all increased by 3%."

"Is that amazing?"

"No, I've no clue. Isn't that in the margin of error? Well, since it doesn't overlap with other accessories and Sense effects, it shouldn't be too bad."

There was no way I could verify 【Faerie Blessing】's effect alone. Other players who held the 【Faerie Blessing】 items helped me out in gathering information I put up together.

"Well, skill and drop rate's bonus is 3% and in margin of error, but I'm glad it's a fixed value."

Although only some skills had a success rate, the 《Cursed》 skill that reduced enemy's stats is one of those that are sometimes resisted, so its success rate was increased.

Also, since the effect was also applied not just to skills but also manual crafting, the success rate of precise crafting had increased, so it was a great help.

"Just, I don't know if this rare drop rate increase is good or bad."

"I don't know, but is that drop-rate amazing?"

"It's not that important to me——"Then Yun-chan, won't you give it to me?"——Eh, woah?!! S-Sei-nee?! You startled me."

Sei-nee suddenl

y appeared. I was careless since there's few people at this hour, I almost slipped down from the chair so I grasped the counter in panic.

"I have a bad luck with drops, so I want that kind of item."

"Ahh, speaking of which, you always miss the drops you want don't you, Sei-nee."

Sei-nee was a skilled mage and a sub-master of OSO's top guild 【Eight Million Gods】. But, her only weakness was her greed sensor which was the cause for her bad luck with drops.

"Yun-chan, won't you give that ring to me? I'll pay."

"No way. No matter how much you pay, I won't give it up."

I remember responding the same way when Myu had come just recently, asking for the same thing.

"That's right. This is the proof of our bond!"

Saying so, Mischievous Fairy embraced my right hand as if to show off.

"Uuu, I heard you refused Myu-chan too, but it's no good after aalll."

"Sei-nee, you have safely finished the Fairy Quest too, right? How was it?"

"I used up the wishes before the information on 【Faerie Rings】 appeared."

She slumped depressed. If only I knew earlier, she muttered, but unfortunately I couldn't say anything.

The Mischievous Fairy stood on Sei-nee's shoulder and with "Well, cheer up. Want a candy?" she held out a candy ball.

They were honey candies made with the honey material Mischievous Fairy brought in a few days ago. Sei-nee put it in her mouth and made a delighted expression.

"It can't be helped.. It's not put up on auctions or the stalls as it's an item with limited availability. I should gather guild members and aim for that. It might be good to make them shared items in the guild too."

Saying so, she made her usual smile. That's when Kyouko-san poured her tea and Sei-nee sighed.

This 【Faerie Ring】 is highly versatile and makes a slight increase in drop rate. The method to obtain it has been discovered after the time-limited Fairy Quest added with update had ended.

"If I'm not wrong, don't 【Fairy Possessed】 accessories drop in dungeons?"

"It was added by the update right. They made it so that people who didn't clear the time-limited event are able to enjoy the atmosphere a little."

Although the time-limited Fairy Quest had ended with the last update, the 【Fairy Possessed】 are now possible to obtain through normal play means.

They can be for example found in treasure chests of certain level dungeons or be in stock of NPC stores at times.

In those cases, the number of "Fairy Wishes" was only one, which was very little compared to the Fairy Quest's reward.

"Well, no choice but to be patient and aim for it."

"Is it really something you can aim for?"

"Now, I wonder about that. I might get it while I aim for a boss' rare drop, maybe when I aim for 【Fairy Possessed】 accessory it'll unexpectedly appear right away from some treasure chest. That's why, I'll head to the dungeons in the frontlines and leisurely try aiming for getting one."

She's considering it quite care-freely, while I thought as we talked about it, the Mischievous Fairy bit through the ball candy and entered the conversation.

"I think it might be difficult. After all, they're fairies who were sealed a decade ago, they probably don't have any interest in humans."

"Hee, so there was a setting like that. First time hearing it. Did you know, Yun-chan?"

"Nope, I didn't."

Same here. When I said that, speaking of which it's the first time I said it, the Mischievous Fairy responded, making me exhausted.

"Well, we don't know much about the era when those fairies were sealed, but there shouldn't be too many of them."

"In other words, the drop rate of the accessories is low, you mean?"

"But, if it's hard to get, since it's possible to receive 【Faerie Ring】 and tamed mobs from it, they'll become rarer."

Currently, although there are fairies who visit their original accessory owners like Mischievous Fairy and there's a few dozen of such cases, there were few people whose accessories had become a 【Faerie Ring】. Moreover, as far as I knew there was only one person whose fairy had become a tamed mob.

"Ahh, then, I wonder which is faster, to defeat the enemy mobs for rare drops or getting the 【Faerie Ring】. Well, there's no use thinking about it."

After saying Sei-nee stretched her back, purchased necessary consumables like potions and Revival Medicine and left the store. It seemed like a light chat where she complained for a bit had left her refreshed.

"Still, a drop-rate increase huh. If the probability is low, and the lower it gets, the better the effect is, eh."

For example, if a rare item's drop rate is 1%, after defeating 100 mobs you receive one of the item on average. And with 【Faerie Ring】 equipped that probability rises by 3% to 4% total and rather than 100, you need to defeat roughly 25 mobs on average to get the item.

As expected, having it will probably feel like a huge change.

"...maybe I should go hunt some mobs aiming for rare drops."

I also want some strengthening materials for ornaments, I muttered absent-mindedly.

●

I equipped a Sense build for combat in order to aim for hunting rare drops.

Possessed SP29

【Bow Lv43】 【Longbow Lv17】 【Sky Eyes Lv10】 【Speed Increase Lv31】 【See-Through Lv18】 【Magic Talent Lv50】 【Magic Power Lv50】 【Enchant Arts Lv30】 【Earth Element Talent Lv22】【Cooking Lv30】

Unequipped:

【Dosing Lv34】 【Alchemy Lv35】 【Synthesis Lv36】 【Crafting Knowledge Lv37】 【Taming Lv10】 【Engraving Lv5】 【Swimming Lv13】 【Linguistics Lv22】

While doing that, I found Senses that could be grown and proceeded with it.

This time, it was 【Speed Increase Lv30】's higher Sense 【Swiftness】, and 【Cooking Lv30】's higher Sense 【Cook】.

Also, after both 【Magic Power】 and 【Magic Talent】 reached level 50, I acquired the new Sense 【Sorcery】 which had integrated the two.

The advantage of 【Sorcery】 is that it had effects of both 【Magic Power】 and 【Magic Talent】 in a single Sense slot. The disadvantage was that its level would go down to 1 and the stat increase value would decrease, but the growth rate should be higher. Also, it was possible to obtain 【Magic Power】 once again to compensate for it, but I didn't need that much MP in the first place.

And so, the new Senses looked like this.

Possessed SP25

【Bow Lv43】 【Longbow Lv17】 【Sky Eyes Lv10】 【Swiftness Lv1】 【See-Through Lv18】 【Sorcery Lv1】 【Enchant Arts Lv30】 【Earth Element Talent Lv22】 【Dosing Lv34】 【Cook Lv1】

Unequipped:

【Alchemy Lv35】 【Synthesis Lv36】 【Crafting Knowledge Lv37】 【Taming Lv10】 【Engraving Lv5】 【Swimming Lv13】 【Linguistics Lv22】

"The mobs long-distance attacks will work against, and I can take on are..."

I thought about it for a while, but I couldn't think of any appropriate mobs and ended up heaving a sigh.

"As I thought, what a solo crafter can do is quite limited. I'm weak and since my build's half-baked I can only go into places below my level."

Although I tried mixing in some combat Senses, I didn't understand my own directionality in the first place.

Bow-type Senses, cooking, elemental magic, enchants all amounted to being a support. Was I a long-range attacker or something similar, or maybe a mage.

To say, I was jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

"Haa, let's go around beating bosses I can fight with my level, like the Blade Lizard or Golem."

Rather than taking on rare mobs that have useful drops, it was better to aim for weak bosses with a fixed respawn rate.

The rare drops were Stone Bladescales and Stones of Earth Spirits.

"Well, let's go at it lightly."

Using the mini-portal installed in the 【Atelier】 I jumped to the Second Town and moving from there I found the Blade Lizard at the road to the First Town.

There was no one there when I came, I continued to challenge Blade Lizards time after time and then on another day, I kept challenging Golems.

It was something I normally didn't do, but aiming for rare drops with the 【Faerie Ring】, to put it simply, wasn't too interesting.

Against the Blade Lizard, I delivered damage by attacking from a distance with the bow. As I escaped I continued to attack with my arrows until the opponent fell down. Since the attack patterns of the bosses near the early towns were monotone, it was mostly routine work.

Occasionally I bored of it, so I tried attacking with only magic or limited myself to only using the knife, but in most cases it was a waste of time because the damage was much lower than with the bow and since I wasn't used to it I received enemy's attacks. Because of that there were many cases where I had to hurriedly escape into a distance to recover my self with potions.

"As I thought, Golem is stronger than the Blade Lizard, huh."

And so, that was my impression after finishing the rare drop hunt at later date.

The Golem was a mob that had a high durability against physical attacks, the damage dealt to it with arrows and the knife was small, so it took much longer to defeat it even compared to defeating Blade Lizard with magic or the knife, because of which I defeat it only using earth element magic.

As for damage dealt, it was good compared to the other attacks, but considering enemy was of the same earth element the effectiveness was slightly worse than it should be. And so, during the Golem hunting I simply practised earth element magic I normally haven't used too often. I continued to use magic endlessly and repeatedly recovered the used MP with potions.

"My level didn't go up, but how are the hunt's results?"

Later, when I arranged collected drops, from the rare drops there were 12 Stone Bladescales and 7 Stones of Earth Spirits. It seemed like the rare drop probability increased from 5% to 8%, or maybe this time I just had luck, but I obtained a lot of strengthening materials so I was pleased.

"Still, I've nothing to use them on. Oh well, I'll make some accessories, reinforce them with the materials and put up in the store."

After that, a high pitched sound of a hammer striking metal had echoed in the 【Atelier】 for a while.