Let’s Build a Castle

A few days later.

I heard that Shouko and Tsumugi dungeon exploration party was making steady progress through the dungeon without me or Sheryl’s help.

Apparently, it was thanks to the weapons made from the nushi materials that I caught.

Of course, since it’s an instant dungeon, they can re-enter any floors to obtain items and monsters, but they are aiming for the deepest part.

Even though there are elevators that allow shortcuts every 20 floors, there’s a limit to how many floors they can explore in a day.

It seems they can hunt re-spawning monsters for experience.

It’s a delicate balance.

I don’t know how deep it goes, but it depends on their skills.

While I was listening to their dungeon exploration report, this happened.

「It’s about time to build a castle-pen.」

「Huh?」

Santa Hat Peckle approached me as if it’s time to summon someone, just when I was thinking of calling Yamikage next, that’s how it responded to me.

「Here’s the blueprint-pen.」

Peckle took out a blueprint from his Santa hat and registered it for construction.

「Ah, I see.」

「So I’ll leave the instructions to you-pen.」

A castle, huh?

Well, this place was originally the territory of a Count or something, and there was a treasure chest containing Peckle inside the manor.

And since the goal is to develop this land, it’s not entirely unexpected that there would be a castle blueprint inside.

But… this island is quite large, isn’t it?

It’s big enough to build a castle, I suppose… Ah, the construction site is designated.

It seems that if I give the construction order, it will start immediately.

However, we fundamentally lack the materials.

Moreover, it seems like there are various necessary materials too.

There are many items that can be found in dungeon exploration… Hmm.

Should I put it off for now?

「I suppose we should build it, but…」

Most likely, it’s a building necessary to complete this pioneering event.

But do you have any idea how big a project this is going to be? It’s an unimaginable amount of materials!

First, we need to lay the groundwork.

Organizing Peckles personnel is quite a hassle too.

Originally, I was good at this kind of detailed work, but it’s a different story when it comes to operating efficiently.

I’m good at playing for a long time, but not very good at schedule management.

That’s my playstyle.

「It’s about time to build a castle-pen.」

And now that I’ve obtained a new fishing rod, my current hobby is fishing.

I’m doing it in between fishing, but even so, there are so many of them that it’s becoming troublesome.

There are so many Peckles that the island’s food storage is looking scarce.

In such a state, if we build a castle, we’ll either run out of resources immediately and stagnate the development, or they’ll all turn into Karma and destroy the buildings.

Isn’t there a way to resolve this?

No matter what, the amount of fish I can get from fishing is limited.

I’m discussing with Sheryl whether we can’t get more from fishing.

Well, if I give Peckle the instruction to fish, we can manage to a certain extent, but…

We should adjust it so that it doesn’t go into the red.

But… just increasing the number sent fishing will eventually hit a limit in terms of stress.

It’s a delicate balance.

「It’s about time to build a castle-pen.」

And we need to raise the skill levels of the increased number of new Peckles.

We have to watch out for stress.

Food problem.

Either way, there are many Peckles who need to rest due to stress, so food procurement is worrisome.

It’s okay to send the highly skilled ones fishing, but then the development will be delayed.

「Kizuna-kun.」

「Nn? What’s up, Romina?」

「Ah, it’s not exactly a report, but it seems the Peckles have started opening their own shops. You can now buy materials found on the island and such.」

Following Romina’s lead, we went to a shop that had been built next to the workshop without me realizing.

There, they were selling various materials, including those needed for castle construction.

As long as we have money, it seems we can somehow manage to a certain extent, but… they’re not selling food.

「It’s about time to build a castle-pen.」

「You’re noisy! Shut it!」

「Peckle is not a monster-pen.」

There it is again.

The Santa Hat Peckle keeps approaching me and saying that whenever he passes by.

This must be a system warning telling me to give the instruction quickly.

But it’s annoying.

I want to build it, but it’s difficult in terms of materials!

「Calm down, Kizuna-kun. He’s just a Peckle.」

「I know. I know, but he’s been saying it over and over again, and it’s persistent.」

「Can’t you just give the instruction?」

「Even if I do, there’s no prospect of being able to build it. Isn’t there something else that should be built first?」

「True… we might be able to make something good from an unknown blueprint… I wonder if simultaneous construction is possible?」

「It’s not impossible, but…」

「Then how about giving the instruction for now?」

「That’s the thing, it’s treated as a major project, and we’d have to allocate a minimum number of Peckles to it. Throwing something like this into the mix now, when things are finally running smoothly, would make it extremely troublesome.」

「I see… material procurement, food problems, and personnel management… You’ve been finding ways to increase the number of Peckles, but there are other issues too. I’ll help as much as I can.」

Then Sheryl showed up.

She was probably taking a break.

「Shop.」

「Ah, it seems a shop has opened.」

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

Just in time, Romina pointed at a Peckle.

「It’s about time to build a castle-pen.」

「Who to summon…」

To be honest, Shouko and Tsumugi have been making steady progress in dungeon exploration, so no problem there.

Romina has been making weapons and such from the dropped items and materials found in the dungeon.

In that sense, calling Romina was the right decision at the time. I was lucky then.

The combat issues have been resolved, but in terms of my acquaintances, the only close ones are Kanade-neesan and Yamikage.

After that, there are the people from Tsumugi’s Death Game group.

…But I’m not that close to them.

So Yamikage then?

「Kizuna-kun, may I suggest someone to call?」

「Eh? Sure, but…」

「Well, I know someone who would be suitable for this situation. They would probably manage the Peckles better than you.」

「Haa…」

For some reason, Romina has a slightly wicked smile.

Her acquaintance, huh.

I flicked the Peckle suggestion icon over to Romina.

Then Romina brought up the friend list, did some copy-pasting, and returned it to me.

The name listed there was…

Altorese.

「Alto?」

Upon saying that, Romina gave a wicked smile, and even Sheryl looked slightly uncomfortable.

What’s going on?

「The reason I didn’t want to do blacksmithing for the frontliners for a while was because of him.」

「Is that so?」

This is news to me.

Well, he was all about making money from the very start of the game, so it’s easy to imagine that he would get into trouble over money.

He even stowed away on our ship to gather information.

Apparently he’s afraid of scary things like ghosts.

「And the cause was the crazy frontliners he introduced.」

So it was Alto’s fault too!

Well, more accurately, it was the fault of that crazy guy, but still.

「They treated me like an NPC. With their arrogant attitude, they demanded I make weapons for them. In the end, they unilaterally made me their exclusive blacksmith.」

Romina seems to deeply resent Alto, her eyes are grim.

Did they not get along?

I’m not quite clear on her relationship with Alto.

What kind of relationship did they have?

「They made me build ships. I did get paid, but…」

It seems Sheryl also had some issues.

Now that she mentions it, she did say that before.

But normally, being made to build ships wouldn’t cause such a lingering grudge.

Using manufacturing skills to make tools is part of the appeal for those types.

I wonder what they made her do…