The Big Dig

We came back to Penpen's ranch.

"Oh right, were we gonna dig holes too?"

"Gah! I got so caught up with the ranch I totally forgot!"

So, pickaxes we'd bought from the shop in hand, we headed to a corner of the ranch.

"Now then, what'll come out, I wonder～"

"Oil or gold nuggets, maybe?"

"Honestly, even if those showed up, there's not much we could do with them, right?"

There are no recipes for processing oil, and the only use for gold I can think of is making accessories. It might give good crafting XP as a high-value material, though… Oh wait, gold coins. Gold coins are a thing.

Not that we're hurting for money as long as we're doing quests.

I'd rather something interesting come out than something valuable.

"Dig here, woof woof～!"

"Did you call, Spirit-sama?"

"A dog showed up! A dog! Weren't you a fox!? Where's your beastkin pride?"

"Naturally, I've devoted all of it to Spirit-sama."

"Fair enough. Then help us dig too, Gin-chan."

Foxes are canines, if I remember right…

Anyway, we started digging.

First up, iron pickaxes and shovels! Whether we'd need upgraded ones to break through bedrock or if it was just an efficiency thing, who knows… In any case, we just kept digging and digging and digging away.

Going straight down would obviously be dangerous, so we dug in a spiral.

… Hm? Looking at it in VR, isn't this basically going straight down anyway? No wait, it's about as wide as a well. Not that I've ever seen a real well.

"Being able to dump the dirt straight into inventory is what makes this efficient."

"Once we fill up a stack, let's toss it to Miitei-chan. Eat as much as you want～"

"… Woo, it's all gritty and not yummy at all…"

Ah, she doesn't seem happy about it. She's gotten a taste for the finer things… but that's healthy growth, I suppose.

From a Slime's perspective, dissolving and absorbing anything and everything might be better for growth, but I get not wanting to eat stuff that tastes bad.

"Penpen, can you cook dirt into something tasty?"

"Cook… dirt? What does that even mean? I mean, I get it's for Miitei-chan, but…"

"Even with seasoning, dirt is just dirt, huh."

I guess you'd need at least some organic matter for that to work.

"Oh! Bedrock!"

"Raaaah! Roar, iron pickaxe!!"

CRACK! The iron pickaxe broke. The handle snapped and the head bent out of shape. So we need a higher-grade pickaxe…

"No worries, leave it to me! Charge… Rock Shoot!!!"

KABOOM! Alto fired at the bedrock… Bedrock, destroyed!

Wait… seriously? You can just break bedrock like that?

"Did that actually work…? Does this mean we don't even need pickaxes…?"

"Feels a little like cheating, but hey, saves us the trouble of buying a higher-tier pickaxe～"

"But you'll end up buying them anyway, right? You know you can't resist collecting stuff like this."

"Hmm, I'm the type who only buys what she needs～. I'll leave the collecting to you, Tria-shi."

As long as she's got the best one available, she's good. Penpen's apparently that kind of player.

"You might unlock an achievement from buying them, though."

"Let me know if you do～. I'll buy them then. If it's one of those systems where you can't buy the new pickaxe without getting the old one first, then I guess there's no choice, but that's a storage headache… Oh wait, this is a game, so it's not that bad. We've got Home storage too."

"Exactly. I'm gonna make a collection room in my Home."

It'd really just be a storage room, though… Heheh, lining them all up in order sounds like fun.

"Well, either way, we need a new pickaxe～. I'll go buy one."

"Shouldn't you stock up on a few?"

"One spare is plenty～. Once the next grade becomes available, I'll switch to that anyway."

"Ooh, since we're here, isn't it more fun to go all out on shopping? Splurging and wasting money like you can't in real life is part of the fun of games!"

"Hmm, the thing about that is… when you're playing in VR Mode, it kind of stops feeling like a game. I end up slipping into real-life thinking without even realizing it～"

"Ah. I kinda get that."

"You do?"

The sensations really are incredibly lifelike. It's more real than reality, even. Something like that?

"Speaking of which, Alto-shi, you spent half a year as Nika-chan, right? Doesn't that start making it feel less like a game?"

"A game's a game. I'm an adult, so I can keep things firmly separated!"

"Ah. Good on you. I mean, that's probably the normal response."

"Mine's fading a bit, actually. I've even started thinking of logging in as 'coming home' back to here."

"Tria-shi～! A kindred spirit～!"

Penpen threw her arms around me. Jiggling and swaying as she squeezed tight… solid. Damn you, Ethics Filter. If only it weren't there…! If only it weren't, things would be so much more…!

… A pleasant citrus scent wafted over me.

Then Nika-chan called down from above the hole.

"Everyone～, monster raid incoming～"

"Oh, on our way～"

"Good, I was just about ready to punch something that isn't dirt."

"Great timing. Let's take them out, then make some tea and take a break～"

A monster defense battle as a breather from digging.

Man, this is fun! Punching monsters really does suit me way better.