The Foundation of Something

「Such pragmatic…」

「Since the goal is to complete the development, I think that’s also an option…」

Because my aim wasn’t to become stronger, but to see a new land and go fishing.

I’m not a good athlete or anything to begin with.

My stance was supposed to be leaving the exploration to the dedicated groups.

「In any case, I’ll do my best to see what kind of items can be made with the current materials.」

Saying that, Romina began smithing.

「To be honest, I think it will be difficult to overcome this place without any combat-oriented members besides Shouko.」

「Yes.」

Preferences naturally show up in skills.

There is a gap between combat and production.

There are semi-producers like me, but we can’t beat those specialized in combat.

As we were having this conversation, a Santa Hat Peckle came to me at the perfect timing.

「Is there anyone you want to see-pen?」

「Good timing.」

「It’s almost like it was planned.」

Shouko looked at the Peckle with a slightly wry smile.

Now, who should I call?

As an immediate issue, I want to conquer the dungeon.

In that case, someone with good combat sense, who can recover quickly even if defeated, would be the most suitable for the task.

Among my acquaintances with high combat sense that I can trust… there are my sisters Kanade-neesan and Tsumugi… and then Yamikage.

There are some others, but in terms of trust, it’s those three.

Come to think of it, I haven’t talked to my sister at all lately.

I think she’s good at this kind of thing.

She has the accomplishment of casually clearing the 99th floor, or even the 999th floor, in roguelike games.

Since there are return items, she should steadily clear them.

However, if I suddenly call her, who knows what she’ll say.

She’s the type to hold grudges, or dislikes having her own pace disrupted, so it’s better not to bother her.

In that case, it comes down to Tsumugi or Yamikage… but Yamikage is a spirit.

If something happens and she loses, the consequence is severe.

It would be better to have someone who can just waltz back into the dungeon the next day, even if defeated.

I believe Shouko won’t make any blunders that completely drain her energy, but with Yamikage… she fell into the sea before and was scared on the ghost ship, so I couldn’t look her in the eye if she died.

In that sense, someone like Tsumugi who thinks anything is fine as long as it’s fun seems like the appropriate person.

That girl has gone up to the 999th floor in roguelike games just like my sister, despite being fickle. She probably likes this kind of dungeon exploration.

「Alright, let’s call Tsumugi.」

「Are you sure?」

「Yeah, for better or worse she likes this kind of grinding content, from what I know about her. And she won’t get mad if I suddenly call her over.」

「She is your little sister, after all.」

「Sister Tsumugi.」

「Yeah… hey, Sheryl and I had our lines reversed there.」

Saying that, I copied and pasted Tsumugi’s name from the friend list and pasted it.

「Got it-pen. I hope you can meet them soon-pen.」

Spouting the familiar line as always, the Santa Hat Peckle went back to work.

Does this mean I’ll be able to meet Tsumugi tomorrow?

I have a feeling it’s going to get lively around here.

Well, I’ll have her work hard on various things.

「What about Yamiko-san?」

「We can call her next time. For dungeon exploration, it would be a bit difficult.」

Just as I thought earlier, she’s not the most suitable person for the current situation.

If there’s a next time, we can call her then.

「Still… exploring the dungeon is making me sleepy… let’s rest a bit before preparing for what’s next.」

「Yes, let’s consider it after meeting with Tsumugi.」

And so, we went to bed early that day, then each of us diligently went about our pioneering work as we pleased.

Me? Of course, I went fishing.

Night fishing is nice too.

I need to retrieve the Shining Lure soon… if I try to catch that big one with my current equipment, it will just slip off as soon as it bites.

So I need to increase my proficiency and raise my skills.

†

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

The next morning at dawn, a Peckle woke me up and said that.

「She’s here!」

「I think it’s a bit much to speak as if you’ve been eagerly waiting.」

When we all headed to the beach, just as expected, Tsumugi had washed up on the shore in a vertical position.

「I think about this every time, but can’t something be done about this?」

「It’s the developer’s setting mistake, isn’t it?」

「It’s an incredibly ludicrous situation. That said, it’s amusing. How about identifying where she washes up and planting some pranks there?」

「Good idea.」

「No, it’s not.」

I tried the customary taking of screenshots as usual.

It seems she won’t react unless someone approaches, as if it’s some kind of gimmick.

Right after finishing the screenshots, sure enough, a hand stretched out so we avoided it.

It was as fast as Shouko’s. It must be Tsumugi!

If you weren’t used to it, you wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

「Ugh… Huh? Here is… Huh? Kizuna-chan?」

「Don’t call your brother with -chan!」

「Eh? But I always call you Onii-chan with -chan.」

「That’s not what I meant. I won’t allow you to call me by my name + -chan.」

「No, I mean, why are you here, Onii-chan!?」

With a jerk, Tsumugi sat up and looked around.

「Ah, Shouko-san and Sheryl-san, and Romina-chan too!」

「Hey there, it’s been a while.」

「So you haven’t been around lately because you’re with Onii-chan. There are rumors that you disappeared because you’re upset about being treated like an NPC.」

Then Tsumugi turned her gaze back to me.

「Why were you in a place like this?」

「Well, actually…」

I briefly explained to Tsumugi what had happened so far.

As I did, a sparkle gradually appeared in Tsumugi’s eyes, and she began to wear an excited smile.

「As I thought, it seems more fun around you, Onii-chan! I want you to let me explore the dungeon too!」

「I’m glad you’re motivated. Please, take on the dungeon together with Shouko.」

「Yeah! Leave it to me!」

「So, I suddenly called you over, but was that okay?」

「Hmm… after separating from you, Onii-chan, I was helping out Shouko-san, but then Shouko-san went missing too, and then Sheryl-san went missing, right? I was thinking something fun must be happening, so I’ve been hunting with Yami-chan.」

「I see… It’s good to know Yamikage-kun is living properly over there. I was a bit disappointed since Alto asked me to let her stay in my workshop.」

Ooh… so Yamikage is living comfortably over there too.

Well, she did put up good results in the second wave after all.

Knowing Yamikage, she’s probably fighting at the forefront by now, making use of the experience with us.

She has a pretty strong mentality, so I’m sure she’s managing well one way or another.

She was solo until she formed a party with us, after all.

And so, with Tsumugi joining us, we continued our life on the island.

As for dungeon exploration, having Tsumugi made it easier to fight, as expected.

She had exceptional combat sense originally, so she and Shouko easily slaughtered the enemies together.

「Man, it’s a good challenge! Over there, they’re saying we might have to wait until the next wave, you know?」

Tsumugi said as she defeated the Slate Green Bats appearing in the dungeon.

「Is that so?」

「Yeah. So far, no new cities have been discovered. They’re waiting for undeveloped areas to be released, so they’re forcibly leveling up in places that lack decent challenge.」

「I see… What about the ocean?」

「The ocean is a hassle for combat, so only some people have gone there. But they seem to have found out that Yami-chan and I were fighting there somehow and tried to imitate us.」

Hmm, so quite a few people have started taking an interest, huh?

Still, the frontliners probably can’t take that kind of risk.

If the ocean maps turned out to be detours, they could end up falling far behind the other frontliners.

In that case, steadily leveling up would be more reliable.

Either way, I want to finish the pioneering and go home soon.

As I was thinking that…

「What’s this?」

An item called『The Foundation of Something』dropped from the defeated Jelly.

It dropped without disassembling.

「Could it be garbage?」

「This kind of item seems to be floating around.」

Trash mobs past the 15th floor have started dropping these occasionally.

Is it an item that needs to be collected for use somewhere?

Thinking that, Shouko and Tsumugi opened a path, and we reached the 20th underground floor of the dungeon.