Fossil Fever

And what came out was a fossil.

It looked like a carnivorous dinosaur fossil, a tyrannosaurus or something. Only the head was showing so far.

"Dinosaur bones…?"

"This is another world, so it could totally just be dragon bones, yo?"

"Come to think of it, there's a theory that dragon legends originated from dinosaur fossils."

Huh. Looking at those fangs, they really did scream dragon.

Maybe it actually was a dragon fossil. Cool.

"Still, I got a little carried away while digging and smashed part of it, yo."

"That's par for the course with amateur miners. Anyway, the fossil… hmm, even appraising it only shows 'Mysterious Fossil.'"

Penpen got the same result, so I sure wasn't going to learn anything beyond "Mysterious Fossil" either. Hmm. We'd probably need to ask around to find out more.

"Think we could use it as a crafting material?"

"Well, it is called a fossil for a reason, so it's classified as stone rather than bone… Stone, huh. We might be able to make a Golem out of it?"

"Oh right, fossils aren't actually bone, are they?"

"They're bone that changed over time, yo. Apparently minerals from groundwater seep into them and stuff."

"… So does that mean there's groundwater here too?"

"There are mountains nearby, so this area might've just been underwater ages ago and got pushed up by tectonic shifts, yo."

A Fossil Golem… now that would be seriously cool.

"Oh! This is definitely going to be a Tower Defense unit!"

"Then it'd be a real asset, yo! … Sorry for breaking some of it, yo."

"Actually, I'd reinforce it with metal anyway, so no harm done! Assuming we can even make it, that is! It's gonna take damage in defense battles no matter what, so repairs are just part of the deal!"

Whether it'd be crafted through Alchemy or some dedicated Golem-creation spell, I had no idea. But for now…

"No clue if there's a full skeleton down there, but we need to dig it all out first."

"Right, yo! I'll be careful not to smash any more this time."

"All right, time to mine!!"

Leave the fine dirt removal to Miitei-chan! Pat-pat, munch-munch, crunch-crunch.

"Oh! Speaking of fossils, you know what this means? A museum! Big dinosaur fossils are always the star exhibit at museums!"

"Hm? Put it on display, yo? Come to think of it, there were games like that, yo."

"I think it's a great idea! We could find all sorts of other treasure too, or even capture live creatures to raise and put on exhibit!"

For the record, this was purely a collection feature with no money-making angle. Just displaying things for the sake of it. Admiring what you'd gathered, nothing more.

The kind of endgame content you'd find in the slow-life side of a game, basically.

"If we're building a museum, I wouldn't mind collecting every type of pickaxe for a complete display."

"You don't just want one of each tool at the highest tier?"

"A complete set looks way cooler when it's on display."

I could relate. Gaps in a collection just look wrong. The urge to complete a set is practically human nature.

Collector's items and secondhand book sets are valued for being complete, after all.

"Wait, but if it's on display, doesn't that mean we can't use it as a Tower Defense unit, yo?"

"Normally it's on display, but when monsters attack, it deploys! Fossil Golem!! Totally a thing!"

"That sounds terrible for preservation."

"It doesn't just sound terrible. It definitely is, Tria-shi."

Winning without taking damage against monsters strong enough that even Gin-chan couldn't solo them? Fat chance.

"I'd love to see the curator with Appraisal going, 'Ahhh! There's a crack in the fossil worth XX million!' and just completely losing it!"

"I can already picture the curator chewing us out every time it deploys, yo. A fighting exhibit piece. Having it transform into a humanoid form would work too, yo!"

"Let me dare to ask. Is that really necessary?"

"Absolutely!!"

Right!? Transformations are cool too!

If we could find a good curator, building a museum wouldn't be a bad idea at all! … Though having just this one fossil as the only planned exhibit would be pretty sad.

"We'd want at least double digits' worth of exhibits, right?"

"I'll look around for stuff, yo! Not just fossils, buying from somewhere would work too, yo?"

"Buy things… that means Merchant-san! Should we ask him?"

"Oh yeah, he had his favorite vases on display and everything."

He must be well-versed in cultural matters too, no doubt about it.

And so we managed to fully excavate the first fossil we'd found. One whole animal's worth.

By storing the fossil pieces in inventory, we could extract them without further damage, except for the parts we'd already broken while they were still buried underground. In other words, we'd roughed it up pretty badly.

"Laid out like this… it really is a dinosaur, yo."

"A tyrannosaurus, maybe?"

"No clue whether it or a dragon would win, but it sure looks strong. And it's huge."

Big enough to swallow Tria-chan whole in one bite.

If we could get this thing working as a Golem, it'd be a real powerhouse.

"Hmm, now I kinda want to make a Golem too… Is that on the Alchemy tree?"

"It's under the physical crafting branch of Alchemy. There seem to be Golem Recovery Potions on the magic potion side, so if Miitei-chan's going to help, brewing those would probably be best?"

Golem Recovery Potions. So those are a thing.

… Are there Slime-specific recovery potions too, I wonder?

Oh, mind if I have Miitei-chan try making a display stand for the fossil?

I want to raise my crafting XP a bit so I can learn to make Golems. Golems are just… the dream, you know…!