Grinding vs Gardening

With Penpen as our guide, we headed for civilization.

"Alright, I'll just put away the Home for a bit."

"Huh?"

After we both stepped outside, Penpen did something and… the base that had been surrounded by fences vanished with a whoosh.

There was no trace of the base left. Even trees that hadn't been there before were now standing.

No, just one thing. A red pin-like marker, the kind that shows your current location on a map, was bobbing up and down.

"Wait, what? How does that work?"

"Hm? I just stored the Home?"

Even when I asked Penpen, apparently this was normal for her.

I really had no idea how it worked, but I was sure I wouldn't understand even if she explained. It was probably just how the SP "Home" feature worked.

"Ah. It's fine. I'll know how to get back. There's a pin on the map."

"Ah, that marker… it shows on the map too."

"Then, let's go to town! Departureee!"

Yeah yeah yeah! Penpen raised her hand energetically… Not saying what, but there was definitely some bouncing going on. She probably saw it as voxels on her end, but hmm. Maybe I should switch to voxel display too… Nah, I won't.

"…"

"Hm?"

"… Oh, h-hi, yes, hehe."

Penpen gave a little bow. Apparently she'd switched to Penpen-chan again.

"Um, well. I'll guide you then, okay? I'll run, so p-please follow me… ugh."

"Ah, okay."

Having stumbled over her words, Penpen-chan ran ahead toward town.

Along the way, a few slimes appeared, but Penpen-chan lightly kicked them away while picking something up and continued.

After running hard for an hour, we finally reached civilization — the town.

"And we've arrived at the town!!"

As soon as we arrived, Penpen raised both hands and said that cheerfully.

"Oh, picked up some slime jelly. Good good!"

"You just leave things to Penpen-chan during travel, huh."

"Huh? Games are like that, right? Well, if there was no time progression, I'd want to go back and forth between home and town to gather materials though."

Somehow, Penpen was playing a different game from us.

She'd probably gone back and forth several times already… her timing for coming back from being away was perfect.

"By the way, what's the name of this town? It's my first time in civilization."

"It's called Tsudon. Says so on the map."

Ah, now that I knew the town's name, "Tsudon" was added to my map.

Incidentally, where Penpen had set up her Home was apparently "Demon Forest, Shallow Layer".

"So Penpen. Where's the Adventurers' Guild in Tsudon?"

"Beats me? Maybe Penpen-chan knows. Which way? That way? It's that way!"

Saying that, Penpen guided us this time. Though she seemed to be asking Penpen-chan.

The Adventurers' Guild was a wooden building that looked like it could appear in a Western.

Passing through a swinging door — the purpose of which I didn't understand — with a creak, the inside seemed to double as a tavern. It was lively with people drinking despite it being early. Several of them glanced at us, then looked away.

What? Isn't the Adventurers' Guild supposed to have an event where someone goes, "Hey hey, this ain't no place for little ladies"? Ah, we might also be seen as potential clients, so maybe that's why no one's approached us yet?

"Alright Penpen, let's do adventurer registration! So where do we go?"

"Hahaha, this is my first time here too, so I dunno, Tria-shi! But shouldn't we just ask at the counter? What do you think?"

"Ah, yes. This is the right place. Please, go ahead."

Ms. Receptionist at the counter smiled… Her ears are long! She's an elf!

So elves exist too. It really is fantasy, huh.

"Um, hello. You're Spirit-Possessed, I see."

"We're here for adventurer registration!"

"Me too!"

"Then please sign here… Done. Procedure complete. Here's your adventurer card. Don't lose it."

Yay — I received the card, and it vanished with a poof. Wait, huh? Did I lose it already!?

"Ah, apparently it comes out when you want to use it. You can also check it from the menu display."

"Oh, really?"

On the mobile device's menu, a guild card section had been added.

Tapping it displayed an F-rank card with Tria's photo.

"Ooh, F-rank adventurer. So now I can take requests."

"I'm F too! Now then, are there any nice tutorial-like requests?"

"In that case, how about goblin or kobold extermination?"

A classic. But that's good. That's how it should be.

"Alright, let's take it!"

"Hmm, not very great material-wise…"

Oops.

A mismatch in priorities with Penpen already.

"I'll take this herb gathering one! I'll pick extra for myself too!"

"Penpen. Don't you need to hunt monsters to level up?"

"Huh? Tria. Base level goes up from training production skills too, right?"

"… Seriously? Wait, what level are you, Penpen?"

"15. I've only fought slimes really. Haven't even hunted 100 total. What about Tria-chan?"

"21. From beating up turtles."

Level 15, huh. I blew right past that while beating up Baby Turtles.

"Maybe it depends on the character. Like, Tria-chan's combat class, and mine's production class."

"Hmm, maybe there's a hidden job parameter."

"The wiki doesn't have anything like that written."

The editing is still going around in circles, after all. Plus, I'm starting to suspect that Penpen and I are playing almost entirely different games.

Maybe that's part of why the wiki is such a mess.

"Well, let's split up here then. I want to do subjugation requests."

"Right. We have friend chat, so feel free to message me anytime! Ah, Ms. Receptionist, I'll take the herb gathering one, so please process it."

"Huh!? O-oh, yes. I'll process it."

And so, having completed adventurer registration at the Adventurers' Guild, we each decided to try taking on requests.

… Ah, we never got that "getting hassled at the guild" event. Shame.