Chapter 88

Starting To Deal With White Rank Equipment
The day after Rumaja and the others' inspection, I immediately set to work on designing leather armor for the White Rank customers, just as I had been advised.
The material I had in mind was the leather of very inexpensive monsters.
I designed the armor to cover the front of the body down to the lower abdomen, and the back to cover the entire back.

Once the pattern was ready, all that was left was mass production, so I decided to go to the Trade Guild to purchase the materials.

"I see. So the most suitable material for this is the leather of Large Frogs?"

"That's right. It has just the right amount of stretch and elasticity, and it’s easy to gather in large quantities. It should be perfect for your purpose."

When I consulted with Alizée, she quickly identified the material I needed.
It turns out, I should use the leather of a frog-like monster called the Large Frog.
While the proof of defeating Large Frogs is their tongues, according to Alizée, the rewards for defeating them are low, so their skin, which is not very portable, is also taken back.
Their subjugation rank is also White, so quite a few are gathered, but they are too soft and thin to be used as armor, so they are not commonly used for that.
They are mainly used for making leather rain gear because of their high water repellence.

Because of that, Alizée figured that no one would mind if I bought a bit extra.
The Trade Guild even had samples of the product, and when she brought them over, it was clear to me that the leather was soft and thin, making it unsuitable for armor as it is.
However, stacking several layers seemed to be a solution for the problem.

I bought roughly enough leather for five sets from Alizée and returned to my shop to immediately craft the armor.
As a result, I had produced reasonably good Large Frog Leather Armor.
It looked quite nice.
The question was its performance.

I asked everyone from the Wildcat Claws and Jenna to confirm the performance, and it turned out that as a White Rank armor, the performance was sufficient.
It was weak against sharp weapons like swords, spears, and arrows, but it provided ample defense against blunt and dull-edged weapons.
It also had a slight impact reduction effect, which might be attributed to the original properties of the material.
The only issue was its poor breathability, which could make the wearer sweat.
However, adventurers were expected to endure such discomfort.
So, as far as its utility as equipment was concerned, it was good.
The only thing left was to set the price, which was the challenge.

"The material is cheaper than the paper pattern, isn't it…"

"And you can make about ten sets from a single pattern, right? Isn't the cost too low?"

"The fasteners and such might be more expensive."

"What will you do, Lady Lily?"

"Hmm, I’m troubled..."

The biggest problem was that the material for one suit of armor cost less than 50 Rubies.
In other words, the original purchase price of the material was already low, and it seems it will be even lower when bought in bulk.
So I asked what kind of armor the Wildcat Claws members wore when they were White-rankers, but it turned out they didn't wear armor at all.
For White Rank adventurers, even weapons were hard to come by, and they hardly had any money to spare for armor.
If they had extra money, they would use it to slightly improve their meals.
Basically, I had to offer a price that was affordable for kids.
I recall hearing that White Rank adventurers earned around 400 Rubies on average in a day.

"Yeah, let's price it at 500 Rubies."

"It seems quite cheap, but it's probably the limit for White-rankers."

"White Rank adventurers really lead a tough life, don't they?"

"Yes, most of their daily earnings go towards lodging, and their meals are barely enough. If they get injured, they might lose the money for lodging too. We had to go monster hunting even on rainy days, so it was quite tough."

I see.
I had it easy as a tamer, but it seemed that regular adventurers have a pretty tough life.
I was advised not to make it any cheaper because it would damage my reputation, so I'll try selling it at this price and see how it goes.