Dimension Wave - Chapter 60
Peckle Whistle
「The dungeon boss has been defeated for the first time-pen!」
As soon as I returned, those large words appeared in my vision.
An island-wide announcement?
It’s probably like a server-wide announcement common in online games.
The dungeon boss was defeated, huh?
Then that means Shouko and Tsumugi defeated it.
For now, I should go see everyone.
「I’m back. The announcement said the dungeon boss was defeated just now.」
I called out to Alto who was in front of the warehouse.
「It’s You… That was from yesterday, you know?」
「Eh?」
Alto gave me a sideways glance as he questioned me.
「Hey, Kizuna-kun」
「What?」
「It’s already been three days since you left. I’d like to know how many days you stayed in the dungeon.」
Ugh… I never thought there would be a pitfall like not being able to stay indefinitely.
I’m getting worried that Shouko and the others might be really angry.
No, they definitely are.
「Shouko-kun was worried since you never came back. Well, Tsumugi-kun did say『Since it’s Onii-chan, even if he stays in the dungeon, time will only pass for one day! and went fishing.』But it seems that’s the case.」
As expected of my sister, she figured it out.
For someone like me who played that certain kingdom game extensively, this is nothing.
By the way, all the citizens ended up becoming slackers in that game.
It was easy for them to become slackers due to the game’s system.
It took hundreds of years to fix that… I should have just restarted.
Anyway, we’re talking about this game now.
「So, how many days were you in there?」
「F-fifteen days…」
「That’s amazing in a different sense. From what I heard, it’s not that big of a place.」
「No, it’s actually quite large. Vertically large, I mean.」
As I handed over the fishing results and dismantled materials besides the nushi to the warehouse, Alto put his hand on his forehead.
This reaction doesn’t seem like Alto is joking.
Which means one day passes every five days, huh?
Come to think of it, it’s not like I could stay there indefinitely.
Considering game balance.
The fish conversion rate was bad too.
Well, the safe area not having the same flow of time as outside was a saving grace.
「It’s just like you to not be lying. I’ve already contacted Shouko-kun and the others.」
My spine freezes, but I’ll have to explain.
Looking at Alto again, he’s managing the Peckles.
Taking a closer look, the layout of the buildings on the island seems to have changed slightly.
The roads are fully paved and tidied up, and where it used to look like a village when I was handling it, it now looks more like a town.
It’s still in the developing stage, though.
「It looks like you’ve acquired quite a bit of Peckles.」
「Yeah, they get caught while fishing.」
「I’m aware. I’ve heard that if you send Peckles to explore the dungeon, they might be found, and that they can be found no matter what you do.」
Fifteen days… No, even though I was gone for only three days, Alto has grasped various things.
It was the right decision to leave this job to him.
「Kizuna-san!」
Shouko and Tsumugi came running over to us with great energy.
「I-I’m back.」
「You never came back no matter how long we waited, and we couldn’t contact you since you were in the dungeon, so we were worried you had gone missing again.」
「S-sorry.」
I guess I made them worry.
It is an instant dungeon, and you can’t regroup in the same place if separated.
The Underground Lake is technically treated as a dungeon too.
「Apparently he was fishing in the dungeon for around 15 days.」
「For that long?!」
「I thought one day would pass no matter how long I stayed.」
「There’s a limit, huh.」
「Staying too long is dangerous… right?」
I should probably return every three or four days next time.
The key is when the one day calculation is made.
「So…」
Tsumugi is wearing an unfamiliar outfit, so I point at it.
Come to think of it, her equipment is completely different from when I summoned her to the island.
「How is it? It’s equipment that dropped when we defeated the dungeon boss for the first time. It’s quite powerful, and made fighting much easier.」
「I see…」
「We managed to earn a lot of energy and experience points on the way to the boss. Although, my energy has already reached its limit.」
Hm? An unfamiliar term.
I’ve just been adjusting my energy to not increase or decrease much, so I don’t really know.
「Limit?」
「Yes, it seems like Spirit energy has an upper limit. Once you hit that value, you have to do a Limit Break Expansion or you won’t be able to go further.」
「Oh…」
Well, it makes sense when you think about it normally.
Spirits have some disadvantages, but if used properly, they can become the strongest.
One reason is that they can use skills as much as they want as long as they don’t worry about energy.
In that sense, having a limit and additional skills is only natural for power balancing.
The limit might even increase with each wave, for all I know.
「We weren’t sure if we could handle it on our first try with just the two of us, so we were going to observe the situation. But the boss movements were easier than expected, and Shouko acted as my shield and supported me in various ways, so we were able to overwhelm it.」
「We’ve got a good grasp of the patterns now, and we want to disassemble the boss and such, so please come with us, Kizuna-san.」
「Got it.」
Boss dismantling, huh?
That does sound fun.
「So you cleared the dungeon, right? Any rewards?」
「Yes, this.」
Shouko handed me a whistle.
Peckle Whistle
If the island’s owner blows this on the beach, they can summon the Peckle Boss.
「What’s this?」
「Who knows… We’d like you to try it out. It seems we can’t use it.」
Just for me?
Does that mean only the leader who started the pioneering can use this equipment?
「Well, thanks to the fish you handed in, the food issue has been resolved for the time being. Next, I’d like to ask you to procure materials.」
According to the report, Alto had bought up quite a lot of the blueprints and materials being sold at the Peckle shop with the funds he had on hand.
However, it seems that’s still not enough. The reason is that they’re quite expensive.
It seems Alto has switched to a stance of not compromising on castle and building construction up to a certain line.
I guess this means Alto is a stickler for details too?
Well, it means he’s reflecting on his shady past, I suppose.
Just how big of a project is this?
「While we can gradually pioneer using the materials we can obtain daily from the island’s mining sites, you probably want to finish it sooner, right? That’s what it is.」
Ah, I see. He’s rushing us.
With that, we headed to the beach.
As usual, Sheryl seemed to be building ships there.
Recently, she’s been diligently creating fishing boats using Machinery too.
I’m looking forward to when she’ll make a boat with sonar.
Sheryl interrupted her work and came over to us.
「…Welcome back.」
She must have noticed I was back.
When I showed her the whistle for the experiment, she nodded.
For now… let me try blowing it.
Oh? My hands moved automatically and the whistle resonated.
「「「Pen!」」」
The Peckles gathered in the sea, turning into smoke and taking the form of a single giant Peckle.
Its size is… maybe around 10 meters?
I wonder what it means that it can only be summoned on the beach?
「Pen.」
The Peckle then laid down on the beach, occasionally pointing its flippers at its back as if telling us to get on.
「…」
Everyone else fell silent.
「Wow, that looks fun!」
Except for Tsumugi, that is.
Following Tsumugi’s lead in immediately trying it out, we all got on the Peckle’s back.
But Sheryl seemed a bit reluctant.
「A ship…?」
「Ah… Yeah, it seems so. It looks like you can fiddle with the settings using the whistle like the Peckle Counter. It seems you can even equip it with gear.」
The Peckle will carry us like a ship.
I had a bit of an ominous feeling, but as we all boarded, a departure option appeared in my vision.
「Could it be that we can leave the island?」
With that expectation making my heart race, I selected departure.
Then, for some reason, the giant Peckle began swimming in a crawl stroke while carrying us.
It seems we can control the direction by pulling on the feathers on its head, but…
The island kept getting smaller and smaller… and eventually, the island came back into view.
Yes, it was our island…
「We can’t leave the island! Let us out already!」
Let me fish for the nushi of the second town!
「Calm down, Kizuna-san!」
「It’s gaining speed… I can’t lose. No… It might be good to modify a ship for riding comfort.」
Sheryl was observing it from a craftsman perspective.
As a result, a ship to be towed by this giant Peckle was later completed.
But putting that aside, we returned to the beach.
Once we had all disembarked onto the beach, the giant Peckle turned into smoke and dissipated, scattering the Peckles.
「Ahahahahaha! It’s never boring with Onii-chan around! Who would have thought something like this could happen!」
「Don’t laugh! Tell that to the management!」
Incorporating such a weird event.
What are they trying to make me do?
In any case, the experiment is over.
「Oh yeah, I caught the nushi in the Underground Lake. Sheryl, that Underground Lake still seems to have deeper areas, so I think we could reach the bottom with free diving.」
「You’re going again?」
「This time I’ll be back in around five days. Okay, Sheryl?」
「…no.」
Sheryl averted her gaze.
Doesn’t she want to go?
Damn, and I thought Sheryl and I were kindred spirits.
「We should make diving suits and oxygen tanks to see if there’s a bottom or if it branches into another map or dungeon, right?」
「I understand how you feel, but…」
「…Challenges are important.」
It seems Sheryl has a spirit of adventure too.
Well, she is my comrade aiming for a new frontier.
Maybe she just didn’t like the long stays.
Storyteller Serinweis's Words
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