Goal: One Steak a Day

Mahariku-san headed back to Suriad, and the next day arrived.

Penpen had apparently sold one "Delicious Steak" to help pay off her debt.

She said it fetched a pretty good price… though the exact figures and units were blocked by the mystery filter.

"… Definitely made my money back!"

"She actually made it back, huh."

"Return on investment… yeah, yo."

It had probably blown past the cost of five convenience store onigiri with ease.

Money… What was even going on with it?

Or maybe the devs were also ranchers and could get steak on the cheap.

"I'm gonna buckle down and farm SP. Goal: one steak a day."

"O-Oh. Good luck?"

"Really sorry about this, but I'm going hard until the real-life meat stops coming!"

Was Penpen planning to become a steak vendor?

"I was thinking of putting my assassin skills on display too, but… Gin-chan, go do that circus quest!"

"Understood. Leave it to me, Penpen-sama."

I wasn't really a fan of reselling, but Penpen seemed to have pretty pressing circumstances… Well, selling a leftover bonus from a game item you'd earned wasn't really "reselling" anyway.

"Oh yeah, I looked into this game's terms of service the other day, yo. RMT wasn't banned either, yo."

"Seriously? I figured it'd be prohibited since it causes so many problems in online games."

"It's hard to transfer items to a specific player in the first place, yo."

Now that he mentioned it, that was true. The mystery filter hid most personal info, so even if we wanted to send Penpen money right now, we couldn't.

Even after registering via the Friend List, actually meeting up took a considerable amount of time. Unless you were transferring exceptionally rare items, the hassle wouldn't be worth it.

"I'll leave the ranch defense to Pochi."

"Hm? Pochi?"

A name I'd never heard before. Could it be that Penpen had unlocked a third character…!?

"Oh, it's the fossil Golem-kun I finished the other day."

"Ooh. So Suriad had Golem magic?"

"Nah, they didn't. Merchant-san tracked it down for us."

Apparently the usual Merchant-san had asked around extensively and procured it.

"Huh. That merchant really is capable, yo."

"He's always looking out for us, so if I get a ton of 'Delicious Steaks,' maybe I should give him one."

"Giving a rare item to an NPC… Actually, the 'Delicious Steak' is an Affection-boosting item to begin with, so would it raise an NPC's Affection too, yo?"

If the merchant's Affection went up, would he start selling everything at a permanent 10% discount or something? Some games did work that way.

Anyway, she showed us Pochi right away.

There it was: a fossil Golem resembling something undead, clacking the mighty fangs of a large carnivorous dinosaur while sunbathing like a dog.

Amazing, it was moving! A fossil that looked like it belonged in a museum exhibit was actually moving! Its tail was going thwap, thwap!

I see, "Pochi" really was the perfect name for it.

"Amazing it can move without muscles, yo."

"That's magic for you."

"Does it cost anything to maintain?"

"Negligible while on standby. It uses MP for heavy movement in combat and for repairing damage, though."

It would keep moving until the MP stored in Pochi ran out, with repairs drawing from that same pool. As a backline class, Penpen had plenty of MP to spare, so topping off Pochi's reserves was never an issue when she was around.

And apparently the MP storage capacity varied by material. Fossil was classified as a "material that can store an extra-large amount of MP."

In other words, a Golem far superior to ones made from ordinary stone or dirt.

Nice… Now I wanted a fossil too.

"Oh. Pochi was born thanks to Merchant-san, so I should introduce them, right?"

"That's true, only polite, yo."

"Making Merchant-san come all the way here is a bit much. We should bring Pochi to him. Just don't forget the collar."

According to the Adventurer Guild's regulations, tamed monsters and Golems needed collars or similar gear in town to show they were under control.

Classification-wise, Pochi fell under "large carnivorous dinosaur fossil Golem," so slapping a collar on it should be enough to bring it into town.

"I can whip up a collar no problem. My Crafting level's gone up, so it'll be done in no time!"

With that, Penpen pulled out materials and crafted a collar in an instant using her skill. It came with a leash too.

Penpen promptly climbed up on Pochi and fastened the collar. It dangled loosely, snagging on the bumps of the neck bones.

"… Hey, couldn't we ride on top of Pochi?"

"A rideable Golem… that could totally work, yo!"

"Oh, it's probably faster than your average horse! Should I try making a saddle? … Actually, if I build a seat inside the ribcage, that'd basically be a cockpit, right?"

For real. That was awesome! I definitely wanted a fossil too!