Home Sweet Home

Logging in as Tria, I spawned at the Home I'd set up before logging out yesterday.

That said, it was still just a default ornamental shack and a field. A fancy house like Penpen's seemed a long way off.

Sure enough, the Home's field was full of tomatoes from what I'd planted yesterday.

Miitei-chan was staring at them while drooling, so I tried giving her one. She engulfed my whole hand in one big chomp, eating just the tomato with a juicy squelch. Whoa, she's sucking on my hand. What a novel sensation.

After Miitei-chan pulled away with a pwah, my hand was… not gross and sticky at all. If anything, it felt as clean as if I'd washed it and run it through a dryer.

"Tomatoes are yummy! They're red! And they go all squish!"

"Miitei-chan, are those really what make something tasty?"

"They're fun to eat, you know? Oh, and call me big sis? Mii-nee works too!"

"I'm the one in control right now, though."

"Oh, it's Spirit-sama! Ahaha, why isn't it me? If it were me, we could all play together! Pick me? C'mon? Tria-chan would prefer that too, right? Right?"

"Hmm, the begging is cute and all, but I'm in a Tria mood today. Gotta get my human senses back."

"… Then I guess it can't be helped? But I'm next, okay? Okay?"

The Slime body is fun in its own way, though.

Alright, let's spend today messing around at Home. Regarding Home-related operations, it seems like even if your second character is the one who got a Home, your first character can use its features too.

First up, it seems I need to gather materials to upgrade the shack.

Gather wood and stone… oh, they're included in the rewards for the 'Harvest Crops' mission. No wonder Penpen recommended it.

So I upgraded the shack, and it went from a storage shed to a log cabin.

"Spirit-sama, the shack got bigger!"

"I want to turn it into a proper house. Then I can really go to town on the interior."

"And I just need to do alchemy, right? Pen-chan taught me the basics, but I'd love an alchemy pot I can simmer all kinds of stuff in!"

"So it's either buy a pot or gather the materials to craft one, huh."

Tria-chan's adventurer earnings made buying one easy enough, but…

"Actually, I happen to have a pot Penpen gave me ahead of time. Ta-da!"

"Yaaay! Thank you, Spirit-sama! Love you!"

Apparently she'd been mass-producing them since just kneading and firing clay gave crafting XP. Getting hand-me-downs like this is one of the perks of being a latecomer.

And since Penpen prefers crafting over alchemy, she'd stopped at basic recovery potions and had no plans to go intermediate.

Meaning! Leave the potions to Miitei-chan! That's the gist of it.

In return, we're planning to help with Gin-chan's leveling. And the materials from that would feed into Penpen and Miitei-chan's production skill leveling… which would then loop back into even more leveling.

A perpetual motion machine has been completed!!

"So let's try turning these leftover herbs from Penpen into potions."

"Okaaay! I learned how to do it properly! … Stove?"

"We don't have one, so campfire it is."

I stacked some thick branches together. No lighter on hand, but the Home's 'Campfire' creation feature lit them right up. I placed a water-filled pot directly over the fire.

Miitei-chan started tossing herbs in to simmer them… or so it looked, but sure enough, she activated alchemy and, pop, a potion was instantly completed.

"Oh! I can do it at my own Home too!"

"Nice, a few Home-related missions just got marked as complete."

"Was I good? Was I good?"

"Yeah, you did great, Miitei-chan. There, there."

"Ehehe! Yaaay!"

I patted Miitei-chan on the head… Come to think of it, I wonder how far I could go touching Miitei-chan. She's a Slime, right? Her head, feet, and everything else shouldn't really be any different.

Everything else! Yes, everything else. I reached a hand toward Miitei-chan's torso.

"Uni?"

Schlorp. My hand sank right in… What looked like clothes was actually mimicry! In other words, this girl was actually completely naked… Maybe I should ask Penpen to make her some clothes.

"Ahaha, that tickles, Spirit-sama～! Nnyu, a little higher～"

"Oh? Here? Is this the good spot? Hmm? Something feels kind of hard?"

"Nn! Right there, right there… haah～"

Her expression went dreamy… or rather, her mimicry half-melted and her body started faintly dissolving. Oh, so this is her core.

"Spirit-samaa, more～"

"Okay okay, that's enough for now."

"Muu, if I make more, I'll get more pats…! I'll do my best!"

"Spirit-sama, Spirit-sama. Please pat Tria too."

"Hm?"

"Pat me please!"

"… U-uh, th-there there?"

I patted my own head. Was this even right?

"Mm-hm-hm… hehe."

I guess it was.

Well then, time to do some farming. Equipped the hoe I borrowed from Penpen yesterday, stood next to the field, aaand… click.

And just like that, field done.

"Man, game farming sure is nice and easy. In real life you'd have to actually dig up the soil and everything. Not that I'd know, though. How do you even use a hoe…?"

"You don't know? You swing it downward, yo. Can't you tell from the shape, yo?"

"Oh, Alto. Welcome～"

My coworker, Alto, had come to my Home.

Right, she'd logged in earlier.

"Here, I picked up some herbs while leveling Nika-chan. For you, yo."

"Thanks. Here, have a potion."

"I'll put it to good use, yo. I'll be heading to Penpen's place later, yo."

"Right. Let me store my Home first, then we'll head over to Penpen's."

By the way, my Home is currently set up away from Penpen's. She moved hers over by the ranch, and I'm using her old spot as a base for material gathering.

Why not just set up near the ranch too, you ask?

Tsk tsk tsk. Would you believe it, this spot comes with Penpen's Notes. A handwritten memo of where to find what in this area!

"Man, Penpen really is thorough about this stuff."

"Actually, wouldn't it be better to send Tria-chan out gathering on Auto Mode, yo? With Miitei-chan, you can use Fission to multiply your units, so it's effectively three-player gameplay. That's strong, yo."

"That's… well, you've got a point."

So I switched to Miitei-chan, used Fission, and sent Tria-chan off to gather materials.

Alright, time to try some alchemy!

"Alto-sama, Alto-sama. Tomato for you. As thanks."

"Oh? Thanks, Miitei-chan… as thanks? Did I do something, yo?"