Peckle Life

The sun had set.

While acquiring night vision would allow me to continue working at night, I was mentally exhausted, so I ended today’s work.

And what I took out was the modified fishing rod from the Pioneer’s Seven Tools.

Not just food for the Peckles, but fishing allows me to relax, it’s part of my soul life.

I came to the rocky area where I had been fishing while waiting for Shouko and the others for a week.

Thanks to Fishing Mastery, I catch a decent amount, but the rod level is still low.

Well, after using it for a week, it did reach level 3.

The variety of fish that can be caught increases with each level.

At first, it was just cheap fish like herring.

I want to catch better fish quickly, but with level-up equipment like this, daily practice is key. From now on, no matter how busy the day, I’ll devote at least one hour to fishing.

「Oh, I’ve got a bite already.」

Personally, I’d like to get more used to the reel, but since the seven tools don’t include one, it can’t be helped. Thinking that, I tugged on the rod as usual.

『Pen!』

「………」

Somehow, I caught a Peckle.

An inexplicable anger welled up inside me, and words naturally spilled out.

「Don’t slack off, yo… Hey, who are you?」

「Peckle-pen.」

I know that.

Unlike the other three Peckles, this one had a bandana wrapped around its head. Of course, there’s a possibility the other three could be wearing different hats, but judging by the individual display, this is likely a different Peckle.

Checking the Peckle Counter, the three were working in separate locations, and a new fourth entry had been added. Of course, on standby status.

Its motivation was at 30%.

I tossed some squid from my item pouch, and it wolfed down two portions.

Since I want the house completed quickly, I’ll have it help with construction.

I assigned the newly added bandana Peckle to construction, like the Santa Hat one. The Peckle that had been eating squid then took out a saw from its bandana and headed off toward the remains of Count Havenburgh’s mansion.

「What was that about…?」

Did it increase?

Ah, do Peckles increase when certain conditions are met?

In this case, a new Peckle joined from fishing.

Although they are deformed, they are penguins, it’s not strange for a penguin to be at sea, I suppose.

Well, whatever.

Fishing is part of my soul life.

No matter what happens from now on, I’ll keep doing it for one hour every day.

Convincing myself of that, I continued fishing.

The next morning, around when the eastern sky was just starting to brighten slightly, I was still fishing.

To be honest, I was sleepy, but of course there was a reason.

Peckles kept getting caught at regular intervals after that.

Tonight’s haul, including the bandana Peckle, was five Peckles.

In other words, I currently have eight Peckles working under me in total.

Six of those eight are assigned to construction. Having a place to sleep is a good thing.

The important part is that the lumber I acquired over the past two days seems insufficient.

I’ll stop collecting Peckles for now and get some sleep first. Then, when I wake up, I’ll chop down trees with the axe and gather lumber. That way, the new house will be completed. I don’t want to keep living in dilapidated houses forever.

Anyway, I returned to the ruins and lay down to sleep.

「Master, wake up-pen.」

How long did I sleep?

Judging by how sluggish my body feels, I definitely didn’t sleep for six hours. Checking the clock on the cursor menu, it displayed 08:26, meaning I slept for about three hours.

「Let’s see, Santa Hat, what is it?」

Being the Peckle that emerged from the box left by Count Havenburgh, the Santa Hat one seemed to be the leader. It approached me with a troubled expression, prompting for something it needed.

「We don’t have enough lumber-pen. Can’t continue working like this-pen.」

「I figured.」

I didn’t originally have that much lumber to begin with, so running out is understandable. I put construction on hold and instructed the six Peckles to go logging, then went back to sleep.

After sleeping for about four more hours, I woke up around noon when the sun was directly overhead and made breakfast.

This morning’s breakfast was grilled herring and squid.

For both the herring and squid, I removed the scales, entrails, etc. with cooking utensils, then simply grilled them.

The flavor of the ingredients really comes through.

My cooking skill aren’t that high yet, so it was just average.

While having the Peckles work, I leisurely woke up and headed to where the Peckles were logging in the forest.

Checking the Peckle Counter along the way, their motivation had dropped to nearly 70%.

Full operation for a day seems to drain about 50%.

Eventually, the six Peckles logging in the forest came into view.

The Peckles were trying to fell huge trees, with two on each side wielding large saws.

The lumber amount seemed slower than expected – with all six of them together, it was only about one-tenth of what I could do.

「Hmm, guess this is what you get with support characters.」

The Santa Hat Peckle turned back in response to my mutter.

「Peckles still lack proficiency-pen.」

The timing was too perfect, so it was probably just making excuses for the dissatisfaction.

Does proficiency even exist for them? Or rather, at this rate, I can’t really rely on them for the fields either. Putting logging aside for now, I filled a bucket with water and headed to the fields.

Compared to logging, the one Peckle working in the fields was extremely slow.

It was easy to imagine that the straw hat Peckle, which had been at it since morning, still hadn’t finished watering.

In any case, I sprinkled water on the parts of the field that weren’t watered yet.

Two days after planting, the sprouts had started to thicken.

Unlike reality, the growth rate was faster. At this rate, I should be able to harvest them tomorrow.

To check if the cowboy hat Peckle was properly hunting, I looked in my item pouch and saw that two『Animal Meat』items had been added.

I didn’t know what kind of meat it was, but it seemed that hunting was possible at least.

It wasn’t much compared to doing it continuously since yesterday, but it couldn’t be helped since their proficiency was low.

I decided to keep these two assigned to those roles for now.

After finishing the day’s work, I returned to the forest.

The Peckles were still continuing to fell that same tree from before.

I did feed all the Peckles herring to recover their motivation, but their speed was slow.

It’s unreasonable to expect too much, so I continued working with the intention of providing everything myself.

This sort of life continued for about three days, until finally a house… or rather, a base facility was completed at the mansion ruins site.

The base was a small log cabin, equipped with a device that had the same effects as the Peckle Counter, aside from being an ordinary house.

Checking the island map attached to the base, it was listed as Base Level 1.

Apparently there are expansions and such, but for now, just having a place to sleep is sufficient.

Additionally, during that time I spent four hours every night fishing, increasing the number of Peckles to 15.

Of course, compared to me their movements are slow, but with the increased numbers and rising proficiency level, they’ve become a bit more useful.

Apparently each individual has fields they excel at, which affects how quickly their proficiency rises.

Broadly speaking, their forte can be predicted by the appearance of their hat. Otherwise, they occasionally say things like 『I want to do ○○ work-pen.』 in which case I prioritize assigning them to that.

And as expected, the Santa Hat Peckle seemed to be the leader, capable of handling anything and everything.

Its proficiency level is currently the highest among all Peckles.

I predict that ultimately, its overall abilities won’t match up to specialists, though.

As I was thinking that, the Santa Hat Peckle approached me, seeming to have a request.

「What facility should we build next-pen? A warehouse-pen? Understood-pen.」

「No… I didn’t say…」

Without letting me respond, the self-concluding Peckle turned around and left.

What did it mean by 『Understood-pen』 If it was already decided, don’t bother asking me.

It’s probably just that the facilities to be built are predetermined by the game system or something.

Anyway, the Peckles kept increasing facilities like a warehouse, ranch, and waterway.

The number of Peckles assigned to the fields increased to five, and those sent out hunting increased to five as well. Once the ranch was completed, the animals caught from hunting were released into it, and five Peckles were assigned to ranching to obtain food for themselves. Eventually, they even started their own fishing industry to obtain food.

Before long, a separate food storage facility was created apart from the warehouse, and by registering Peckle’s fish here in advance, it started automatically recovering their motivation.

Then the Peckles assigned to logging and pioneering expanded the premises.

By this point, the number of Peckles had exceeded 50.

Their abilities varied, but their proficiency was rising, and their work was getting faster.

When a stable supply line was established, the Santa Hat Peckle said

「There’s a huge monster in the forest halting our progress-pen.」