“Oooh...”
We hopped aboard the elevator, carrying us deeper and deeper down into the depths of the dungeon by the desert oasis. Though it resembled the underground lake in Cal Mira, here the water shimmered and glowed from the countless fluorescent crystals that sprouted from within it.
The glow of the crystals provided a decent view of the floor in its entirety.
This was quite the fantastical place—not half bad.
And near the lake’s shore, the ground was dotted with patches of soft soil, clearly meant for farming.
“Wow, so pretty! Can I use Excavation on the crystals to take them home?” Therese asked Emoji, her eyes sparkling just as brightly as the crystals themselves.
“Most are indestructible, but a few can be excavated.”
“I see, I see! Thanks, Lahal!”
“A boss spawned when I tried approaching Cal Mira’s underground lake. How is it here?”
“The old members took care of them before they vanished. They do respawn, but the respawn timer still has a ways to go.”
So they’re already down, huh? That’s a bit of a shame.
“Now then... It looks like we’ll be staying here for a while...”
“A tent, aye! Or maybe we could be a bit more extravagant, use a bit more of the timber I brought to make a cottage?”
Emoji’s proposal was a bit more ambitious than I’d expected.
You brought that much timber? I thought it was pretty rare in the desert. Granted, that mysterious grove by the oasis regrows itself every so often, and you can harvest it. But still...
Emoji even knew a bit of carpentry... Despite being part of the combat crowd, she’d picked up quite a few sub skills.
“There’s no need for that. I came prepared.”
With an exaggerated ta-daaa! I pulled out my reward from the last Dimension Wave event: the Pekkle House. It looked like nothing more than a dollhouse at first glance.
“What’s that now?”
“Oh, I heard about that from Shouko. It’s your new interesting item, right, Kizzy?”
Therese already knew about it.
“I just do this and this...”
As soon as I found a good spot to be our base of operations, I set the Pekkle House down. Then up and up, it grew and grew. All I had to do was jam the Pekkle Pipe into the door like a key and... Done.
My party members could now enter it and do as they pleased.
The Pekkle House—a mobile shelter, and just what we needed.
“Ooh... That’s incredible. One could live here more comfortably than in most houses on the surface.”
“Yaaay! I knew it was going to be fun!”
“It might be an island lord perk... I got it as a reward in the newest wave.”
“I see. So you’re saying that I, too, might acquire an item to rival it one day.”
She wasn’t wrong. Given the conditions, there was a high chance she’d find herself owning one too.
“Try entering it, just in case. It might reject you like the Buno-no-meter rejected me.”
“Aye aye!”
Emoji stepped inside and started rifling through this and that. No rejection, it seemed.
“This is... Why, it’s overflowing with Pekkle merchandise!”
Every single furnishing was modeled after the humble Pekkle. Stylish? Maybe not. But it was definitely fancy and expensive-looking. The place was stocked well enough for a handful of people to live comfortably. There were beds, and even a fully equipped kitchen.
“There’s even running water! Honestly, this may be more luxurious than my personal player housing,” Therese said.
“It’s not too spacious, but it looks like there’s a shower and bath,” I said.
“Hmm. At this point, I have to agree with Therese. It’s better than mine too.”
“It’s amazing! Even more lavish than I imagined. I can’t help but feel excited!”
As for fuel... A device in one corner of the house could convert fish into power. You just needed to feed it a steady supply.
It really was an item tailor-made for me.
Although it was probably designed to let players camp out in relatively safe maps with fishing areas, it was nice that we could use it in dungeons too.
And thus...we were ready for fifteen days of laid-back fishing and farming.
“Everyone pick whatever room you want. This’ll be our base of operations.”
“Aye aye!”
“Yay!”
I’m glad these two are so enthusiastic.
“Oh, there’s a diary on the bookshelf. It looks like it’s separate from system memos.”
“Then why don’t we do a camp exchange diary? It will help nurture our bonds.”
Exchange diaries... I’ve only ever seen them in manga and anime. Never in real life. No, I get the feeling I might have done a bit of it in elementary school, but that was more like writing logs back and forth with the teacher.
“Sounds fun. How about it, Kizzy?”
“I don’t see why not? It is a bit embarrassing, though.”
“Oh, don’t worry. Just think of it like tweeting online or something.”
“Indeed. And if you would note down anything that catches your attention, it could prove beneficial to us.”
“Got it. I’d appreciate it if you could jot down some things you could only learn here in the desert.”
I’d only just met Emoji, and the idea of an exchange diary felt like a pretty high bar. But we were fellow pioneers, so maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Of course.”
“Then that’s settled... So let’s get to the fishing! Or, before that, maybe we should check on the fields first.”
“Leave the tilling to me.”
“I’m going to go check to see if there are any good excavation sites!”
“Break a leg.”
Emoji and I got straight to investigating the potential farmland. Though...calling it farmland was generous. It was soil that could be tilled, but far from ideal. Still, that was leagues better than the contaminated patches aboveground.
“First, we dig! Am I doing anything wrong yet?”
“Hmm... Let’s work the soil so we can get some air in. You know about forming rows, right?”
“Obviously! You divide the soil so there are softer fields and then harder parts that are easier to walk across!”
“Yep.”
Even in farming sims, that was usually the first step. Emoji was well aware of it.
“Next is soil improvement. Mixing in compost or fertilizer.”
The ground here wasn’t poisoned, but there was nothing wrong with doing a bit of proper prep.