The Day the Shore Girl Arrives

 

「There’s something washed up on the beach-pen.」

 

Peckle said, waking me up early the next morning.

Well, there were enough flags, so I had already noticed, but I was still sleepy.

Recently, I had been leaving most of the work to Peckle and living a fishing life, so I had been living a somewhat decadent life. Especially yesterday, since I couldn’t participate in the Dimension Wave event, I went fishing like crazy.

As I thought about this, I made my way to the beach, where I had first washed ashore.

There, lying face down vertically, was the figure of a person.

 

「Whoa, what a way to fall.」

 

Their hands were raised vertically, like a pencil.

It was kind of funny, so I should take a screenshot.

I struck a camera pose with both hands and took a few pictures of that person.

Should I get a little closer?

I moved closer and took some close-up photos.

But wait, wouldn’t they suffocate in that pose from the sand and seawater?

Maybe it’s okay since it’s a game.

Alright, one more.

But the moment I got closer, my foot was grabbed.

 

「Eeek! A shore girl!?」

「Who are you calling a shore girl!? Oh, Kizuna…san?」

 

It was Shouko, who had turned into a shore girl by grabbing my foot, and she let out a puzzled remark.

So Peckle’s actions yesterday were flags to summon her here.

 

「Kizuna-san! What have you been doing all this time!? I was so worried…」

 

Shouko murmured this as she embraced my small body.

Just as I couldn’t understand what Shouko and the others had been doing, they couldn’t know what I had been up to either, it seems.

Still, it had been quite a while since I heard Shouko’s voice after drifting ashore, but it was strangely reassuring.

Why was that? Well, Shouko is reliable and trustworthy, that’s a fact.

 

「When you ask what I’ve been doing… I’m a bit hesitant to answer, but honestly, I’ve been pioneering.」

「Pioneering, you say?」

「Yeah, I couldn’t leave the island.」

 

I went on to explain everything that had happened up until now.

How I had drifted ashore a week ago and waited for everyone. How I couldn’t leave the island. How I started pioneering using the Pioneer’s Seven Tools. How I had been pioneering with the support character Peckle. How the development had progressed, and my living conditions had stabilized somewhat. How yesterday, Peckle had asked about Shouko’s name.

I continued talking like this. Since I had essentially been living alone for nearly two weeks, I became more talkative, but Shouko listened intently.

 

「I see, so that’s what happened… Kizuna-san.」

「Hm?」

「You did your best.」

「…Thank you.」

 

When asked if I did my best or not, I do think I gave it my all.

Peckle was there, but it was still an NPC. Living alone was lonely.

It’s true that I threw myself into colonizing and kept myself busy to distract from the loneliness.

It was a relief that I particularly enjoyed colonization games, but I was still glad to see Shouko.

 

「So what have you all been up to?」

「Well, after the battle with the ghost ship, we all woke up on the beach of the First City…」

 

Apparently, after the battle with the ghost ship, Shouko and the others had all washed up unharmed on the sandy beach of the First City, Lurolona.

That was a relief. I had actually been worried that Shouko and the Yamikage energy damage might have had some effect.

In the worst case, they could have all ended up scattered like I was.

Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

After that, Shouko reunited with everyone directly, but they realized they couldn’t contact me.

When they tried sending me a chat, it just said

 

『The recipient’s device is currently turned off or in an area without signal.』

 

It politely showed a different version of the chat I had sent them.

In addition to the strange wording of the chat, Shouko said they set out to search for me with everyone due to the baffling situation, but their efforts were in vain, and they were just wasting time.

According to Shouko, since the location was the sea, they speculated that I might have been caught up in some event, which was close to the truth, and they explored the sea and such, but as you can see, it didn’t amount to anything.

Around the time they had only gained experience points and time had passed, the second Dimension Wave occurred.

A sense of urgency took over Shouko’s heart, and suddenly, a giant hand-shaped body of seawater appeared in her inn room. Despite their desperate struggle, it was in vain, and before they knew it, they were here.

 

「I see, I did see the second wave too, but I’m sorry for summoning you at this timing.」

「No, as long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.」

「But not having Shouko for the second wave is a pretty big loss, in terms of wave strategy.」

「It’s fine. I didn’t intend to participate from the start…」

「What do you mean by…」

 

Shouko closed her eyes and gripped the hilt of the Energy Blade I had lent her, holding it close. Then, she handed the Energy Blade back to me and continued talking.

 

「I wanted to return this to you, Kizuna-san.」

「…You’re still the same, Shouko.」

「Yes! I don’t change much.」

 

Regardless, it was good to see her energetic.

Ever since coming to Kalmira Island, the only thing on my mind was worrying about everyone.

Of course, I didn’t know how it would go since I had reset my ship combat skills.

 

「So, why don’t you want to participate in the Dimension Wave?」

「Well… Are you going to make me say it?」

「…? If you don’t want to, that’s fine.」

 

For now, even if it was just Shouko, we had reunited, so that was good.

Anyway, it was a reunion celebration. Let’s have the fish I caught yesterday for breakfast and celebrate. I led Shouko to the base where I had been staying. On the way, Shouko tensed up when she saw a group of Peckles.

 

「Monsters!」

 

She instantly drew two folding fans from her sash, keeping her distance.

 

「Peckle is not a monster-pen.」

「It talked!」

 

Oh no, her reaction was the same as mine.

Well, they don’t look anything more than Peckle (laughs) or monsters, I suppose.

And Peckle can only end its sentences with “pen” due to its low intelligence.

 

「Um, these are the support characters I mentioned.」

「I-Is that so? I was surprised by how many there were.」

 

Come to think of it, I was used to it, but this sight must seem strange…

If I were in her position, I’m confident I would have reacted the same way.

 

「But it’s amazing. There are giant penguins in the buildings on this island.」

「…What did you say?」

「I’m saying, there’s a huge purple penguin in that fish-sign building…」

 

I looked in the direction she was pointing.

It was the food storage facility where Peckle’s food supplies were kept.

As Shouko said, it had a fish sign, and if you put fish in there, it would automatically restore the Peckles’ motivation.

 

「The facility is under attack-pen.」

「Santa Hat… you say it so calmly…」

 

The Peckle who seemed to be the leader, the Santa Hat Peckle, calmly reported this.

Personally, I wish he had reported it with a bit more urgency.

However, the Karma Pengu had never left the forest before, as far as I knew.

So my gaze turned to Shouko, who was watching the spectacle like she was admiring the scenery.

Is it because the number of players on the island has increased?

In games, it’s common for the difficulty to increase as the number of participants increases.

Maybe the Karma Pengu this time fell under that category.

 

「A-Anyway, now that Shouko-sensei is here, we can definitely take down that fatty.」

「Sensei? What’s with that malicious expression?」

「In my mind, Shouko is a sensei.」

「…I’ll pursue that another time.」

「A-Anyway, could you take care of that? It’s too much for me alone.」

「Understood. It seems strange things keep happening when I’m with you, Kizuna-san.」

 

Shouko said it with a smile.

It’s not like I was intentionally encountering those kinds of things.

Anyway, we ran to the food storage facility and challenged the attacking Karma Pengu.

 

「Here I go!」

 

On the way there, Shouko had already unsheathed her folding fans from her sash and was charging her skills.

Her kimono and folding fans had changed to more expensive-looking ones than on the ghost ship, hinting that something had happened while I was gone. She had mentioned gaining experience points while searching for me, so she must have gotten stronger.

As for me, I had just been pioneering on Kalmira Island, so I felt a bit left behind.

 

Name: Kizuna†Exceed
Race: Spirit
Energy: 138,630
Mana: 49,070
Serin: 68,780

Skills:
Energy Production XIV
Mana Production XI
Fishing Mastery X
Hate & Lure II
Angling I
Dismantling Mastery VII
Cleaver V
Slicing II
Rapid Dismantling IV
Destruction Mastery III
Farm Mastery I
Cooking Mastery IV
Element Conversion II

 

My lifestyle… was all about production, I knew that.

Anyway, I gripped the Energy Blade Shouko had returned to me and the Cerberus Slaughter. This equipment was still my combat setup.

But wait, was this really okay for me?

Could I really look Shouko in the eye and proudly say that I had done my best with this way of fighting?

Should I be satisfied just forcing my way through with an Energy Blade?

 

…Probably not.

 

What I aim for is to defeat enemies in a stronger, more extraordinary way, right?

It might seem strange, but I feel like there’s a different way for me to fight.

That’s when I noticed the Pioneer’s Seven Tools in my item box.

This, this is it!

 

「Round Dance Third Stance – Mist!」

 

As Shouko landed a four-hit misty attack on the Karma Pengu, I charged in.

 

「Drill!」

 

With a sharp motor sound, I pierced the Karma Pengu’s flank with the drill.

Well, it’s only level 4. I should be able to expect at least some damage.

Plus, the drill is still essentially an unimplemented weapon. It has decent power among the equipment I can use.

 

「――!」

 

Oh, the Karma Pengu flinched a bit.

Taking that opportunity, Shouko attacked from the left, right, above, and below with her two folding fans. The Karma Pengu staggered back from Shouko’s strengthened attacks, and I struck it again with the drill.

It might seem a bit underhanded, but I’ve always been underhanded, so this is fine, I think.

Anyway, as expected of a weapon belonging to the destruction category, it was effective.

The Karma Pengu flipper had spiral marks, and its feathers fell out.

The damage was decent, if not spectacular.

To put it simply, it was like drilling into Namihira-ojisan’s last hope.

By repeating such harassment… no, such sharp attacks, the Karma Pengu unexpectedly went down with a loud death cry.

 

「The attacks were heavy, but it went better than expected.」

「Yeah. I didn’t get hit thanks to you, Shouko.」

 

I was just attacking from the side with the drill, after all.

Shouko had been dodging the Karma Pengu attacks by a hair’s breadth.

I couldn’t dodge, but while each of my attacks was heavy, my speed was slower than Shouko.

In that sense, this victory was inevitable.

 

「Alright, fatty bird, time for dismantling. You’ll pay for interfering with my colonization.」

 

Since it was a bird-like monster, I dismantled the Karma Pengu with the Silver Glass Key.

I obtained chicken meat, feathers, quills, beaks, and down feathers.

And as the dismantling was mostly done…

 

「Hm? What’s that?」

 

The Karma Pengu corpse started moving and squirming.

 

『Pen!』

『Pen!』

『Pen!』

「………」

「Um…」

 

An awkward silence fell, but to simply state what happened.

Three Peckles burst out from inside the Karma Pengu body.

I had a feeling something like this might happen, but the sight of penguins coming out of a penguin’s belly was a bit… well, surreal.

These three Peckles wore a helmet, an Indian hat, and one with a scarf around their mouths. Unlike the other Peckles, the helmeted one held a sword, the Indian hat one held a bow, and the scarfed one held a short sword.

Just what were these guys?

 

「Peckles go delinquent when they get too stressed-pen.」

 

I turned to see the Santa Hat Peckle explaining.

So the Karma Pengu was a derivative of the Peckles?

Or rather, “delinquent” doesn’t seem like the right word. That was more like an evolution.

 

「Look at the Peckle Counter-pen.」

 

As instructed, Shouko and I checked the Peckle Counter.

A new category called 『Stress』 had been added, which didn’t exist before.

 

「When a Peckle’s stress reaches 100%, it turns into a Karma Pengu-pen. You’ll have to be careful from now on-pen.」

「Damn…!」

 

What do you mean, be careful? If that was a thing, you should have told me from the start.

Moreover, due to me making them work day and night, all individuals had stress levels exceeding 90%.

The Santa Hat one was a special case with 0%.

As for the three newcomers, their stress was low. Probably because they had just gone berserk.

 

「Huh?」

「What’s wrong?」

「There are more categories added too.」

 

Under the jobs the Peckles could perform,『Dungeon』and『Mining』had been added.

Mining made sense. There were definitely Peckles wearing helmets, so they must be for that.

As for Dungeon… it must refer to the helmet, Indian hat, and scarf ones in front of me.

Anyway, since their stress levels were equally high, I set all of them to standby mode.

Some tasks had probably been completed to a certain extent, after all.

Starting tomorrow, I would create a rotation schedule to manage their motivation and stress levels while having them work.

 

Since I had managed to defend the food storage facility from the Karma Pengu, I fed them to restore their motivation.

After that, I assigned these three to the dungeon job.

The three Peckles then climbed up the mountain and reached a midpoint.

In a spot that had previously been blocked by rocks, there was now a small hole, just barely big enough for a Peckle to fit through.

The three entered the hole one by one, and their status displayed『Exploring』on their entries.

I didn’t fully understand, but it seemed they were exploring a dungeon.

 

「A-Anyway, shall we head home for now, Shouko?」

「Understood.」

 

And so, with the shore girl’s……no, Shouko help, my pioneering has progressed.