The Chair conducts Market Research

Back on the main street, I wandered towards the center of town while stealthily practicing my wind magic with a thin barrier, trying to think of a good exam quest. It had to be somewhat difficult, but it shouldn’t be impossible completely. After all, I couldn’t just stick the party up against an S-rank thread and call it a day, as much as I wanted to.

The main issue had to do with what B-rank and above represented: the effectiveness and efficiency of a person’s skill, not their mana capacity. C to F-ranks didn’t have mastery over their skills, so it was common to see a C-rank water magic user lose consistently to an F-rank water magic user if the F-rank had a larger mana capacity. However, B-ranks did have some level of mastery, allowing them to use their mana in more creative ways. Even if a C-rank contained a thousand times more mana than a B-rank for a given skill, the B-rank would win almost every single time. The same applied to A-ranks vs B-ranks, or S-ranks vs A-ranks. The barrier was nearly impossible to overcome. That’s why B-ranks and above were considered ‘Experts’ in their skill.

Now that I thought about it, what did an adventurer carry on quests? I usually made everything I needed, so it had been a while since I’d gone shopping for items. Having a wide variety of skills certainly helped as well; however, the average adventurer only had three or four. Could be wrong about that, though I was probably correct. You picked up a few things after…some number of years. My memory was pretty hazy at times.

Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that.

Back on track, there was a marketplace in the town center where adventurers frequented, so I could ask around there. Putting the unnecessary thoughts out of my head, I slightly sped up towards my destination.

The town center was a giant open space lined with rings of stalls. Some were set up by the farmers, carrying fresh food from the farmlands and forest. Others contained goods imported from foreign towns. Another group sold goods from the local stores, including weapons and magic tools. Besides a blacksmith or workshop, the marketplace was a one-stop shop for almost anything at a somewhat reasonable price, even if it was completely pointless.

Look, I could complain about why adventurers should always be improving their own skills, but it was impossible to understand without being put in a death-or-death situation. I was way too familiar with those back in the day.

…huh. That gave me a good idea. I just needed a bit more info first.

The sun had already started to drift below the horizon by the time I reached the marketplace; however, the stalls remained brightly lit from the hanging lanterns. Each lantern contained a crystal imbued with light magic – a rarity in this town. I heard they were trying to swap out light magic for fire magic, but with all the wooden buildings, it wasn’t safe for everyday use yet. At least it was better than their last crazy idea – though, most people would blame its failure on me, which was fair, but completely unjustified. I just happened to make it fail a million years faster – barely a blip in history.

There were plenty of adventurers shopping around, so I was about to begin my search when I noticed some familiar mana approaching from behind.

“And how are you doing, No. 1?”

“I’m No. 4.”

“...you guys really need more uniquely identifiable mana.” I slowly turned around, scratching my head. He – wait, sorry, I meant she – curtsied in her tight-fitting butler’s uniform. Her dazed eyes stared straight into mine, her expression a mask of neutrality. Her ears – not her human ones, but the cat-like ears atop her head – slanted downwards, aggressively pointing towards me. She was definitely mad.

“You just called me a ‘he’ again, didn’t you?” she emotionlessly intoned. Damn, how’d she know? This was why I didn’t like races that could change their sex spontaneously. Most of the time, they were nice enough to use the same pronouns regardless of their appearance. However, there were a few like No. 4 that changed theirs on a whim. It always gave me a headache trying to figure out how to address them. For a frog, she was really quite annoying. Still, it made me happy she could express some level of emotion, even if it wasn’t actually real.

Of course, there was only one thing to do!

“No idea what you’re talking about,” I lied again. What? There was no right answer here.

Knowing that, No. 4 sighed, moving onto the main topic of conversation. “What are you doing at the marketplace? The last thing you bought here was–”

I immediately clamped my hand over her mouth. “Hey, hey, hey! That’s private information! I don’t need you– Ow!” She bit me! What the hell?!? Sure, I should’ve expected it, but what the hell?!?

“What are you doing at the marketplace?” And now she’s moving on. Ugh, fine. Fighting a losing battle against a headstrong opponent wasn’t worth it.

“I’m doing some market research.”

“Market research?”

“Yeah. See–” I went on to explain my current predicament with Kumari, and how I got ‘roped’ into proctor work for the Rank Up exams. I made sure to emphasize that point. While her expression remained the same, I could tell she was listening intently. “–so, could you ask around, too?

“I understand.”

“Thanks–” Before I could finish getting the word out, No. 4 had already disappeared in the crowd. Jeez, that b-girl. Needed to get used to that. Though, I had a sneaking suspicion she would become a ‘he’ again by then.

Well, things to worry about later. Couldn’t sit around while my… subordinate… yeah… subordinate did all the work. Slapping my cheeks, I walked around the stalls with a cheery expression, surveying adventurers at random.

“Excuse me, sir. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions? What do you carry around as an adventurer?”

“Ma’am, why not carry higher-quality potions?”

“Do you use the crystals for something else?”

About half an hour later, I had asked twenty or so adventurers. Using their testimonies, I compiled a general list: basically just potions and crystals.

…

Fine, to be more specific:

—

First, almost every adventurer carried some kind of instant or regenerative healing potion. The quality carried was based on the difficulty of the quest taken. Higher quality potions cost more coins, so an adventurer only bought what they needed, along with a few extra in case of emergency. Those who didn’t either had an adventurer with healing magic or an alchemist in their party. There were plenty of wild plants and animals with medicinal properties, so someone with the proper knowledge and skill could easily bring out their effects.

Second, adventures carried mana potions specifically for emergencies. Mana allowed creatures to manifest phenomena within the world, usually in the form of magic. Whenever a creature used mana, they would expend a certain amount proportional to the phenomenon manifested. Mana did recover over time by absorbing and converting what was available in the environment, but it could be recovered faster via a mana potion. The problem was it took time to transform absorbed mana into something usable. A mana potion only sped up this process, which was prone to make the user feel sick and exhausted, similar to when one used up all the mana in their body. People could die when drinking mana potions, so they were used sparingly.

Third, adventurers carried crystals imbued with some kind of magic for everyday needs. For example, a crystal with fire magic could be used to light some wood; one with water magic could supply water to drink. Since the magic stored within is finite, they typically lasted for three or four days, maybe seven if used sparingly. However, crystals needed to be handled with care. Breaking one released the stored mana such that, combined with the mana in the surrounding environment, would automatically invoke the magic, releasing some unknown disaster like a typhoon of flames or tsunami of water. The more dense the surrounding mana, the more powerful the output.

I knew about these three since the last time I bought supplies; however, the last item was something new. Nowadays, each adventurer always carried a return crystal: crystals imbued with space magic. As the name implied, they contained a [Teleport] spell that would return a person back to a set location, using somewhere within the town the adventurer was working within. Towns were required to have one space magic user that could create them and set a safe location. Passing mana through the crystal would activate it for the user. Breaking the crystal, meanwhile, teleported every person in a relatively small area. The Adventurer’s Guild made sure that every adventurer always had at least one return crystal on hand to escape from any dangerous situations. I could only assume the reason I didn’t have one was because I became an adventurer before return crystals were commonplace, or Kumari determined I wouldn’t need one. The latter seemed more likely.

—

Happy? Good. It’s all for the setup anyway.

With this, I had a pretty solid idea of what the exam should be. No. 4’s report should hopefully confirm everything I found out. Now, I needed to pick a suitable area to host it.

As for how, who knew?

Stop making my life so hard, Kumari.