Konbini Ossan Volume 2 Chapter 7 – Pricing Research
The next day, I left Arisa-san at home and headed to the shopping district alone.
My goal? To research the prices of existing lighting tools.
If I’m going to sell lightstones, I need to understand the fair market value. Random pricing would only cut into profits.
First stop: a supply shop for adventurers.
Since adventurers often explore dark dungeons, caves, or venture out at night, lighting tools — like torches and lamps — are essential.
Naturally, there’s a wide range of options in terms of type and price.
Adventurers range from the lowest G-rank up to C-rank and beyond, so shops stock products tailored to each level.
I started scanning the shelves.
At the cheaper end of the spectrum were ordinary torches.
These are basically disposable and not exactly cost-effective. But they run on fire — useful against monsters that fear flames.
Torches can double as blunt weapons in a pinch, and even when used roughly, they won’t break easily. They continue to burn and light up the surroundings.
Lamps, on the other hand, can be a nuisance during battle. But torches can be tossed aside and later picked up for reuse.
This makes them a favorite for many adventurers.
Lamps that use oil are similarly inexpensive but not popular among adventurers.
They’re fragile, require upkeep, and can be a hassle for the rough-and-tumble types.
They’re also a liability in combat — drop one by accident, and it breaks instantly.
Even if made sturdy, the oil inside is liquid and spills easily, snuffing out the flame. That unreliability makes them less desirable.
Some miners and stationary-type adventurers still use them, but they’re not the mainstream.
On the other hand, lamps powered by magic rather than oil are popular. However, they’re pricey. Getting one often means draining your savings.
They function not with a glowing skill, but via an embedded flame attribute enchantment — basically like a magic sword. Because of that, they’re rare.
And maintenance is costly. You need magic stones to replenish their energy.
These devices require stones of specific size and grade, so you can’t just grab any magic stone you found lying around.
Higher-ranked adventurers sometimes have the skills to transfer magical energy from stone to device. That way, they can get around the size restriction and save money.
But mid-level adventurers who splurge on a magic lamp often can’t afford the upkeep and end up selling it later.
Then there’s the most popular lamp: Light Moss lamps. These use bioluminescent moss sealed inside a container.
(E/N: 光苔/Hikarigoke translates to Light Moss.)
As long as you keep the moss alive, it continues to glow for a long time. It’s durable, easier to handle than oil lamps, and more practical overall.
Prices vary widely based on the type and quality.
Torches and oil lamps go for a few dozen copper coins. Light Moss lamps cost several silver coins. Magic lamps start at a gold coin and go up from there.
Most lighting tools fall within that range.
There are also some quirky, expensive designs — like iron clubs with torch mounts built in.
The idea is to wrap a cloth soaked in pine resin around the end and light it. But in practice, it’s not all that handy.
The mounts break quickly, and you’re left with a plain iron club.
Honestly, it's better to just buy a new club than mess with all that. Torches aren’t expensive enough to justify complicated reuse schemes.
After browsing through most of the lighting goods, I was ready to compare them against my Light Stone.
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Let’s evaluate.
First, the Light Stone can be reused like a torch. Since it’s a magic stone, you can just toss it on the ground during combat and retrieve it later.
It’s not a weapon, but in terms of utility, it’s on par with torches.
In terms of brightness, it outperforms Light Moss lamps. The moss glows faintly due to its small volume, but the Light Stone shines at torch-level brightness.
As for maintenance — it’s even better than Light Moss and far easier to care for.
If you expose it to sunlight for a day, it will glow for three to four times as long.
Its glowing duration outclasses magic lamps.
Magic lamps consume a lot of energy since they generate actual fire. Five hours is usually their max.
In contrast, my Light Stone — after a day of sun exposure — can last several days.
Even on cloudy days, they’ll emit light for twice or the same length as the sunlight they absorbed.
Just place them by a sunny window, and they’ll stay charged and ready to go.
———
All in all, the performance of the Light Stone is overwhelmingly superior.
Of course, this is only possible because I possess both the «Light Absorption» and «Illumination» skills.
Normally, these two skills are extremely hard to enchant into items. Adding your own skills to an object is easy.
Adding someone else’s skill makes the magic circle vastly more complex. It consumes more mana and becomes harder to control.
Trying to extract «Light Absorption» from plant-type monsters or «Illumination» from Light Moss is expensive.
So much so that stones made this way are more valuable than those used in magic lamps.
But I’m a human who happens to possess both skills. That’s why I can easily produce these magic tools.
By the way, it took some cleverness to let Arisa help make the Light Stone.
If I had her directly try to add my skill, the magic circle would’ve gotten far too complex.
So instead, I drew a magic circle where I added my skill, and the spell only required mana input to activate.
It’s a magic circle type usually used when channeling external mana—like drawing energy from a magic stone instead of your own.
Using that logic, I designed a workaround — Using Arisa’s mana, I activate a spell with my skill already embedded.
This let her perform the enchantment without needing my skill herself, saving on mana costs.
It’s a bit of a hack, but it works — and only because I have the rare combination of skills.
You can't just tell a Light Moss to enchant something with its own skill. You can’t mass-produce glowstones cheaply like this.
Maybe, if you befriended an intelligent plant monster, you could get light absorption...
But that’s way harder than simply learning to enchant someone else’s skill.
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E/N:
Entrepreneurs take notes! Ossan is thorough with his market research! Stat tuned!
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