Xol was sitting in a desk recreating the main entrance as he waited for Kingo, Richter sat in a lotus position on his bed while he cultivated as principal Zestari had taught him. He had the earplugs Jun had given him to block any sound and instructed Xol and Marcel to not disturb him. Marcel had recovered his mood somewhat and was in the second desk reading some magic books.
*Creak
"Kingo." Xol stood up and walked toward Kingo who was entering the room.
"Oh, Xol how did it go with teacher Izuriel, did you pass the task this time?" Kingo said as he turned around after closing the door.
"Un, I did. He already explained all the next tasks I´ll need to do to become his disciple." Xol nodded.
"Haha, good I just became a disciple from Aidan today. I just returned from his first mentoring, man I was impressed by his sword style and he even gave me some good tips to improve myself that I need to put them to practice." Kingo rubbed his nose.
"Un, I heard from Marcel. Congratulations.��� Xol extended his hand with a smile.
Kingo accepted the gesture and shook Xol hand.
"Before I forget, Richter said that unless he stands on his own, we must wait if we need to ask him something." Xol moved and gestured Kingo to see Richter who was cultivating. "Currently he can't hear us and said we mustn´t move him."
"I see, thanks for letting know." Kingo nodded .
"Also, I need to ask a favor of you." Xol glanced at Kingo.
"Oh, don't tell me, you decided to become a blacksmith and want tips to improve so you can have easier time farming." Kingo said with some expectation.
"Uhm, no I decided for go for other side jobs to accomplish teacher Izuriel task, you see…" Xol soon started explaining all the happened and the plan he had started crafting so he could help the dormitory and still make some contributions.
"I see." Kingo nodded his head with his arm crossed.
"Let me see the knife first." Kingo said extending his hand.
Nodding his head Xol took out the hunting knife and handed it down. Kingo started examining the edge of the knife, its equilibrium and made some swings in the air. Kingo placed the knife in the desk then closed his eyes with his arms crossed in thought.
"All right, as its in perfect condition I should be able to learn its crafting recipe by imitation if you lent me the knife. It would take 1 or 2 days for me to learn the crafting process, but Xol let me tell you something your plans have more merits than you thought." Kingo said as he took again the knife and gestured Xol with an open hand with his free hand.
"*Phew*, I was worried if you couldn't learn from it and had to find a recipe I would be in pinch. You can have it until you figure the recipe. What do you mean there's more merit?" Xol exhaled a breath of air as he took his right hand to his chest then glanced at Kingo.
"You said you where going to tell Ethan and negotiate about the side job problem you have right? How about I go with you and tell you both the merit, hearing it from me would make it have more impact to him instead of you repeating don't you think." Kingo said as he made a let go gesture for the door.
"Un"
Xol and Kingo soon exited the dormitory and went toward Ethan room, Kingo also recommended for the leaders of the farming contribution role to come after telling Ethan they have a plan to improve the dormitory performance. Nodding Ethan went to find them, soon he returned with 2 females who were farming leaders, the last leader was Ethan roommate, so they didn't have to look for him.
After all, arrived there were seven persons in the room, apart from Xol, Kingo, Ethan and the three farming leaders, there was Micah who had been measuring Xol since he entered. He still remembered Xol almost took his position as a party leader and this piqued his curiosity more than anything.
"Now then, Kingo and Xol here said they have some proposal to improve our current plan and asked for you to hear it. Xol I understand you were the one who came with the idea can you first explain it." Ethan informed the group who sat around a table they have near the window.
"Un, so I currently I´m trying to be disciple of teacher Izuriel and due ..." Xol stood up and started explaining what the task Izuriel had given him.
"The first thing I looked after exiting teacher Izuriel office were which side jobs could help me get some food since I wanted to minimize the contributions I would use in the dining hall. I found that the Botanist side job can grow alchemy ingredients, fruits and vegetables. From the last two groups some could can also be used as alchemy ingredients. We could undertake the side job to grow some of these ingredients for the dormitory usage or see if we can earn contribution from what we grow."
"Apart from that I found there a side job called Beast Hunter in the city library. It improves how much one get from the drops and also allows to get meat from them. I think having this side job for the farmers would improve the contributions one makes, improve how much they collect for crafters lastly, I read it can also improve slightly the quality of the drop. To get this side job one need to collect the loot with a hunting knife equipped, the knife takes some damage and could even break but Kingo said he could learn the recipe and provide them to the farming group." Xol gestured Kingo who took out the hunting knife and passed to Ethan, Ethan passed to the farming leaders before returning it.
"At first one need to keep using the knife to get the side job, once one get it they don't longer need a knife as the side job would improve the drops and the meat but having a knife make it more frequent for the meat to drop and improve the drops." Xol said once Kingo store away the knife.
"Lastly, I also learnt from the city library about the Magical Chef side job, those with the side job can make dishes from the meat from monster, magical herbs and other alchemic plants to gain some stats points, restore HP and MP similar to potions but I think the most important think is that it can give a nourishment buff improve one´s body overall performance for a time. According to the book the shortest duration would be an hour depending on the ingredients, also there's a maximum number of stats points one could potentially gain from a dish.
"I´m trying to meet a magical chef that works in the ' Crimson Coiling Dragon' restaurant and see if he can train me but a chef from the restaurant told me I need to prove I can get the ingredient before I can meet him, until then I can´t say more on this point." Xol said as he bowed.
"I see, the Botanist suggestion itself its pretty good. The Beast Hunter side job also sound promising, but as I have mixed feeling I must ask, how much does the loot improves, as I don't know if we could get contributions from the monster meat or how much contributions are given from it, we should take in consideration this point before deciding if the farming team should learn it as it could harm our contributions. About the last point if you can get in touch with the chef and train with him, we could make some dining hall in the dormitory to cut our expenses and get the buff." Ethan said after some time "What are everyone opinions."
"Before that, I told Xol there were some extra merits from his plan that I would like to say before discussing the contributions one could earn or the cost of the knives." Kingo raised his hand to the group and stood up.
"As you know currently, we blacksmiths are upgrading the armors we get from the dungeon, currently I have the highest success rate therefore I´m taking the highest-level armors to improve them, while the rest work the low-level armors. Due their low level in the side job, they have very low success rate meaning the armor can be destroyed. If this happens, we recover less than 20% of the materials back."
"To help them improve their blacksmith level and in turn improve their success rate I task them to make some weapons or armors when there is no armor from the dungeons to improve. I told them they could sell these armors and weapons, or they could smelt them back into materials. This allowed them to recover some of the materials in the process so they can craft some more gaining more experience for the side job." Kingo explained the blacksmith situation.
"Now then the fact the knife breaks work in our advantage"— Kingo glanced to the table —" We need some way to improve quickly the experience for the other blacksmith and crafting this knives regularly could help to improve this point, the more they level up the easier it would be to improve the armors dropped in the dungeons, this make the benefit of undertaking the Beast Hunter side job improve highly." Kingo said as he raised a hand and glanced at the table.
"Senior, I know I´m not part of the reunion you are having but couldn´t help hearing the discussion." Micah, that was in one of the upper bunkbeds, spoke.
"As you know there are some events in the competition focused on farming, furthermore even if it wasn´t like that, the elite monster hunting event could benefit greatly if one member from the team has specialized in the side job as we can keep the loot for our use after the competition."
"I see, you both make the argument more solid proof, then let act with that plan. Kingo give priority to the knives for the teams that are focusing on improving themselves for the competition, the other blacksmith would focus on equipping the farming teams. Xol as you are the one that need more of the Botanist job try to see if you can learn it and what the dormitory would need, after that focus on contacting the magical chef. The farming teams see if there are person interested in the Botanist side job. I would talk with alchemist about the same topic. Does someone want to add something?" Ethan glanced at the room.
"I think we should report which persons improve the most in the Beast Hunter side job, before the competition so those that want to participate in it apart from the current six team could have a person tasked with collecting the drop and improve the performance of this extra teams that always form during the competition." One of the female farming leader said.
"Un, that would be good, I also leave this task to each of you. Anything else?" Ethan said again. Seeing nothing else pop out everyone started returning to their rooms.
"Thanks for the help." Xol said to Kingo as they left the room.
"Don't mention it, also I´ll also need a favor from you and the rest of the room." Kingo smiled and nodded.