James separated the 14 screens to two groups, one with four depicting the scouting parties, and one of ten depicting the crafting classes.

It'll take a while before the scouting parties run into any trouble, so I can put off watching them for now and listen in on the crafters telling their party members what they need. James thought as he pulled the bundle of ten screens closer, rapidly switching his attention to them as he double checked that he was watching from the observer of a crafting climber instead of one of their party members.

"So, I take it you can only craft iron daggers right now?" One climber asked the weaponsmith in their party, who was frowning at the “Recipe Book Menu” floating in front of them.

"Worse." The weaponsmith said as they flicked a copy of their menu to the rest of the party.

[Item: Low Quality Iron Ingot

Ingredients: Low Quality Iron Ore x5

Type: Material]

Wow, so their only free recipe is just refining a material into something they can craft with. James waited as the other crafting climbers went through their recipe books as well.

[Item: Low Quality Leather

Ingredients: Any Monster Hide x5

Type: Material]

[Item: Low Quality Healing Grass Extract

Ingredients: Bundle of Healing Grass x5

Type: Material]

[Item: Low Quality Mana Ink

Ingredients: Berries x24, Any Monster Cores x3

Type: Material]

[Item: Low Quality Wooden Plank

Ingredients: Any Wood x5

Type: Material]

They're all like that. Only able to craft a material they need for further crafting, with the same classes all having the exact same recipe. I wonder if the recipe books of the same classes unlock everything in the same order? Surely not, with combat classes having more than one choice of skill per level.

"Damn it, we just sold all of our hides last night. We'll have to wait till lunch before you can try to craft anything." One party leader said to their armorsmith, as they moved on to talking about what skill the armorsmith had picked, as they prepared to head out.

Right, with gold being a priority, most people haven't kept anything from the monsters beyond what they could eat, or the weapons the goblins have on them. At least they should have plenty of wood. James noted, as he moved to the only carpenter within the tower, who had just finished putting the wood he'd been given into his inventory.

"Alright, now see if clicking on the recipe does anything." One of the climbers instructed. The carpenter poked at the recipe for wooden planks, and another screen appeared in response. However, the expectation in the party's eyes quickly gave way to disappointment as the carpenter read the message on the new screen aloud.

"Recipe Guide Failed: Required Item: Carpenter's Tools, not found."

There was a short debate about what the item it talked about could be, before someone suggested checking the general store. There, after scrolling past the cheaper items, they found the item mentioned by the system.

{Item: Low Quality Carpenter's Tools.

Price: 100 Gold.

Description: A set of tools used by a Carpenter to aid in Crafting. Necessary for the use of a Carpenter's Recipe Book and Crafting related Skills. These tools are of Low Quality, and will reduce the Quality of Ingredients or Recipes of a higher Quality.}

The tools for the other crafting classes were found there as well, the tools listed right after the other as they were all set to the same price.

A hundred gold, before they can even craft anything? That's not impossible to get within a week, it could only take a day or two if the party pools their funds together, but... Wait!

James pulled up the description for the Carpenter's Workshop, and cross referenced with the description of other crafting stores in the village menu. The stores allow crafters to pay to use their tools, so it's not 100 gold to be able to craft anything, it's 100 gold to be able to craft on your own without any recurring fees. James waited for the party to realize this themselves, but rather than move towards the Carpenter's Workshop, they moved towards the village entrance. They aren't going to the store to see how the carpenter's crafting works? Wait, do they even know they can do that? Yesterday, the carpenter's workshop didn't have an option for someone to learn or practice any recipes, because the crafting classes weren't available then. Combined with how they read off what buildings could be built, but I don't remember them reading the descriptions aloud to everyone... They don't know you can borrow a store's crafting tools.

{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 473 Tower Points remaining.}

James prepared a quest meant to inform everyone of what they had missed, but hesitated as he worked on the description. Only the carpenter can take advantage of this information. The other crafting related stores haven't been built yet, and they're already struggling to balance their resources between setting up the oldest waves to find the next floor, and expanding the size of the village... Maybe I should have picked multiclassing first, if only to buy time before everyone had to worry about accommodating another group of climbers with more resources and buildings... Nothing I can do about that now though.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

{Build Crafting Stores

Quest Type: Mandatory Multi-Participant

Recipient(s): All Climbers on Floor 1

Description: The Crafting Climbers require tools to perform their craft, but there's another way beyond buying a tool set for 100 Gold. Crafters can use the tools in their related Shop for a smaller fee. Build all of the Stores related to a Crafting Class so that the Crafting Climbers can get to work!

Village Stores Constructed: 1/5

-Alchemist’s Workshop: 0/1

-Armorsmith's Workshop: 0/1

-Carpenter's Workshop: 1/1

-Enchanter's Workshop: 0/1

-Weaponsmith's Workshop: 0/1

(Input Quest Reward(s))}

James paused as he considered the quest reward. "61-3, could I offer a reward that lets the crafters use the tools in their related stores for free a certain number of times?" I'd like to offer a reward that helps the crafters, since this whole quest is about setting things up so they can take advantage of their classes.

[Affirmative. Much like how tokens for the bathhouse, inn, and canteen can be rewarded to provide a free use of their services, tokens for crafting lessons or tool use can also be rewarded. However, passes for crafting lessons or tool use do not exist, as climbers can benefit too significantly from permanently free access to their services. Additionally, the currently pending quest, with the objective of completing the remaining workshops within “(Unnamed) Village”, would allow for up to 200 Tower Points to be spent for that quest’s rewards.]

"Oh, right, I can give free access to the food and bathing services too. Thank you for the reminder, and for telling me how many tower points I can spend on rewards." I should look into rewarding access to the bathhouse and canteen later. Come to think of it, I could have just checked the Item Database instead of asking 61-3. It likely updates itself like the stores do in response to other stores or modifiers. Opening up the Item Database, James scrolled to find the list of Tokens and Passes available.

{Item Database

-Canteen Well Token: (5): A Token that grants a Climber one day of free access to a Canteen's Well.

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Token: Poor (10): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Bathhouse's Private Toilet (Poor).

-Canteen Well Token Bundle: (20): Five Tokens that each grant a Climber one day of free access to a Canteen's Well.

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Token: Mediocre (25): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Bathhouse's Private Toilet (Mediocre).

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Token: Luxury (50): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Bathhouse's Private Toilet (Luxury).

-Canteen Lesson Token (50): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Canteen's Cooking Lesson service.

-Canteen Meal Token (50): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Canteen's Expert Cooking service.

-Canteen Well Pass (50): A Pass that grants a Climber permanent free access to a Canteen's Well. This Pass must remain in a Climber's Inventory to be used.

-Crafting Store Tool Token (50): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Crafting Store's Tools.

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Pass: Poor (100): A Pass that grants a Climber permanent free access to a Bathhouse's Private Toilet (Poor). This Pass must remain in a Climber's Inventory to be used.

-Crafting Store Tool Token Bundle (200): Five Tokens that each grant a Climber one free access to a Crafting Store's Tools.

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Pass: Mediocre (250): A Pass that grants a Climber the permanent ability to pay for the Bathhouse Service: Private Toilet (Mediocre) for the Base Price regardless of repeated use. This Pass must remain in a Climber's Inventory to be used.

-Bathhouse Private Toilet Pass: Luxury (500): A Pass that grants a Climber the permanent ability to pay for the Bathhouse Service: Private Toilet (Luxury) for half of the Base Price regardless of repeated use. This Pass must remain in a Climber's Inventory to be used.

-Crafting Store Lesson Token (500): A Token that grants a Climber one free access to a Crafting Store's Lesson service.}

There were more entries than these, but by this point James had understood the pattern of things. Each token is five times the base price of the store's service, with passes ten times that like when making a reward for a repeating quest. The passes for the Bathhouse and Canteen also change based on the quality of the service provided. For the Bathhouse passes, poor services are free, mediocre services are the base price, and the luxury services are half of the base price. For the Canteen, the well Pass is free, but the cooking pass is the base price. I can also reward a bundle of five tokens of the same type for the price of four of them, although this doesn't extend to any lesson tokens, and there are no passes for lessons either, even the cooking ones which aren't related to a crafting class.

More importantly, I really should have looked at this earlier. It's not impossible to add a few tokens as a repeating quest reward, or something I could do manually each day, and considering the price of those services grows each time they're used, daily tokens could go a long way to helping them save their gold for more useful things without forcing them to forsake basic comforts.

But I can work on that idea later, right now I need to finish the quest for the crafting shops.

{You have added “1 Crafting Store Tool Token Bundle” to the Reward(s). -200 Tower Points. 273 Tower Points remaining.}

At first I was thinking it would be unfair to add a reward that only the crafters can benefit from, even if the whole point of this quest is for them, but this could actually be a great idea. The climbers with combat classes can hand over materials and tokens to the ones with crafting classes, in exchange for the crafters making things for them.

I should really consider repeating quests for all of the tokens, at least for any floor with a village on them… Damn it, ideas for more things to buy just keep coming. I miss when 1000 felt like a lot, now not even 10,000 feels like it’d be enough for everything I want to do, and that’s just for this floor! I really hope the amount of viewers I get scales with the number of floors I have, or I might have to be significantly less active in the future, hoarding points for when I can create something permanent.

Confirm Quest.

As James finally submitted the next quest, he noticed the four screens showing the scouting parties were flashing red as the parties fought off a wave of monsters. The scouting parties must have gotten far enough for their aggression fields to pick up every nearby monster group. The parties with crafting classes are outside of the village by now as well. Time to see how they do. Hopefully, I don’t end today with even more warnings to put up on the outside broadcast.