Fern and Erika left a few minutes ago.

“So, what new minions did you see, Akira?”

I showed her what I could see. It was still somewhat of a shot in the dark regarding what they actually did since I’d have to invest my points in them. After taking a glance at my phone, Sumire showed me the new abilities that she unlocked.

Reading through the names, they didn’t seem to give much away either, but the prices were also increasing exponentially.

“What do you reckon we do?”

“Just buy some of the minions and see what they do, I guess.”

That was the only real option anyway.

POINTS

Your current points: 132,582

Current Rank: #53,673

With my points, I first bought a [Bee Minion]. It had the best chance of being something to repay the investment, and it sounded like it could have a unique premise. It was also the latest one to be unlocked—and if there was some sort of progression, it would be the furthest one.

Sumire was looking down at me from atop my table, waiting for me to get the minions.

FIELDS

[Wood Minion] x1

[Poultry Minion] x1

[Star Minion] x20

[Lesser Bank Minion] x5

[Bee Minion] x1

I looked at its description.

[Bee Minion]

Inventory: 0x Honey

[BASE] Produces 1x Honey per day

10 Honey can be converted into 1 point. Bee Minions produce Honey at a greater rate the more Bee Minions you own. Every once in a while, a new Bee Minion may be spawned as long as you have more than one Bee Minion (does not stack).

Well, it did produce points at a rate 7x that of a [Wood Minion]. However, that obviously wasn’t enough to justify the price. Its ‘premise’ was just as ambiguous as every other, not giving any specifics and simply denoting a ‘greater rate’. Whatever the case, I wouldn’t be able to tell unless I bought another [Bee Minion] and waited to see the rate increase.

But just as a general rule, I’ve noticed that most of the minions in the SHOP are ‘fair’ so-to-speak. Which means that you can infer the value of each of their abilities. Ultimately, everything was supposed to be balanced.

“Here, Sumire, this is the [Bee Minion].”

“Ah, I guess this one wants to be purchased more.”

“I’m guessing that this would be a good minion if you were rich.”

After skimming through the description, Sumire went back to looking at her phone.

I guess I’ll buy another minion. There wasn’t much point investing in more [Bee Minions] at my current wealth. It was something that could only be fully utilised when you had a lot of points.

[Mining Minion]

Inventory: 0x Stone

[BASE] Produces 1x Stone per week

The Stone from Mining Minions can be crafted into various materials which can boost other minions. See [Mining SHOP].

***

[Mining SHOP]

[Steel] - 10x Stone

[Gold] - 15x Iron

[Ruby] - 3x Gold

[Amethyst] - 3x Ruby

[Diamond] - 2x Amethyst

Now this was a new premise. Hovering on the various materials, they gave buffs which ranged from [Steel] which increased a minion’s efficiency by 10% when used on a minion. The most expensive one, [Diamond], increased the points collected per click by +1.

Still, most of the materials would take literal years to gather on their own, so you’d definitely have to invest in quite a few. But at the moment, we didn’t have any minions which were really worth having buffs on, so it’d be fine for us to just wait. It took a long time for them to be produced anyways.

I showed Sumire the minion.

After taking a quick look, she sighed and put her phone down (still clicking it though). I decided to buy a few more [Star Minions] as a gamble for the future—there was a clear pattern with the way the school worked.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much we can do right now, Akira.”

“Yeah.”

“I want to have a shower now.”

“Good for you.”

“Don’t come in.”

Please don’t tell me you’re intending on showering in my shower.

“You’re going to shower at your place, right?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because that’s the socially-acceptable thing to do.”

At least, I thought it was the socially-acceptable thing to do. At this point, Sumire’s complete lack of self-awareness was rubbing off on me and I wasn’t even sure if maybe I was the one that was crazy. Her complete seriousness when making these statements could definitely fool a jury into thinking she was the sane one.

Still, surely, I was right in this case.

“Does that matter? It’s not like all the facilities we’ve stayed at ever cared about that.”

I guess that was true, but that wasn’t enough justification.

“Why can’t you just go to your own room.”

“It’s really far, you know? You’ve never come so you wouldn’t know how far I have to walk every time.”

Sigh.

To be fair, I hadn’t gone to the girls’ dormitories. But there was probably no distance that would justify this level of intimacy between two basically-strangers. Actually, maybe we were childhood-friends? I didn’t really know.

“Fine, you can shower at mine, I guess. I’m going to have a walk around outside though.”

“That’s fine with me~”

Well, it’s settled then.

As she made her way into my bathroom, I walked into the hallway and through the clean, well-kept halls. For the first time in a while, I saw a Servant Robot™ patrolling the area. Maybe it was increased security after the bowling incident? Or maybe it was something deeper—such as a set up for something else.

…

Waiting in front of the elevator, I saw Fern.

“Hi, again.”

“Oh hey, Akira! Where are you going?”

“Not sure. I’m just having a walk, I guess.”

“Ah, I’m just going to get some food. Want to come with me?”

I suppose that wasn’t a bad idea. I was starting to get a little hungry again.

“Actually, Akira, I’ve got something I wanted to talk to you about.”