Summer had finally come to the Valley, bringing with it tons of new crops to seed.

  Fortunately, I managed to obtain every item required for the spring bundles, meaning I didn’t have to repeat the grind in the next year. At the pace I was going, repairing the Community Center in the same year was possible.

  Speaking of which…

  I stood in front of the scroll in the worn building. The only thing that stood out in it was the enormous, broken vault in the corner. By now, I had planted everything that I wanted and was ready for the day. This also meant that I had sold all of the crops I didn’t need and made lots of money from it. So much so that I was now able to complete the final bundle of the Vault room.

  Five hundred hours in the game wasn’t for nothing, damn it!

  There was a lone Junimo in the corner, watching me with its cute, dark eyes. The little things really did look like apples.

  I pressed down on the scroll, accepted the 25,000g bundle, and waited. My breathing sped up, and right then, I started to hear popping all around me. At these sounds, more and more Junimos appeared out of nowhere, flooding the room and dancing cheerily. My vision slowly went white, and all I saw in front of me was a Junimo.

  For some strange reason, I felt like it was talking. What was even more strange was that I could understand what it said.

  “We’re happy to help… It’s not our house, after all.”

  I thought it should be the opposite – like, shouldn’t they be unwilling to help out a foreign house? It didn’t bother me too much, though.

  The vision disappeared, as if at a flash. Then, I looked around me.

  The old, worn-down room with a broken vault was replaced with a fresh-looking room, very well-taken care of as if someone had cleaned it the very same day. The steel vault was now fixed and looking shiny. A carpet appeared under it, the table that was lying in the corner was fixed, some new amenities appeared, and even a plant to top it all off. All of that, in what was probably mere seconds.

  I couldn’t really tell, since I had that vision and all. With a corner of my eye, I noticed a Junimo walking away from the room. I followed after it, and as I did, I checked the contents of my pockets. A few chocolate cakes appeared, and a whole Crystalarium.

  The Junimo stepped inside the fireplace or furnace or whatever it was, and came out holding a large, golden star above its body. Then, it walked up to the sign with the six stars, and the large star flew up to one of those. The empty star before was now replaced with a shiny, gold one.

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  Nice. One-sixth of the way here.

  Now, I already knew my next focus. The mines. Pretty much every other bundle could only be completed either by Winter or Fall. For now, I would just focus on the summer bundles.

  At this very moment, I realized that I forgot to bring torches. Well, that sucked.

  I got back to my farm and took in the sights all around me, including the fully grown Apricot and Cherry trees, which didn’t produce any fruit now that it was Summer. Now, usually, in the game, it would take the whole season to grow a fruit. How did I manage to make these trees grow so fast?

  Simple. I asked Rasmodius to help me out in exchange for letting him practice strange, magic rituals on me. He used some magic-fuckery to make the trees grow in an instant.

  I trusted the man enough not to kill me or permanently wound me physically or mentally, so it was all good.

  Not only that, but I also got some more barns. Two cows, two chickens, including Bi Di, a single goat, a sheep, and a duck all hung out around the massive barn. Garfield was hanging around them, sleeping on the sheep’s soft body.

  Marnie had given me discounts on the animals ever since I started hanging out around her. She was quite embarrassed by the whole Lucky Shorts situation, but, well, she was a fully grown woman. She thought it was an accident and all.

  But still, maybe… maybe I was a bit wrong to just go about embarrassing Lewis, or at least in that way. I would think about this later.

  For now, I took in all of the sights around me and breathed in the fresh air. The farm was mostly cleaned up, and a lot of space was used for the crops.

  With a smile, I took all the necessary equipment for mining and headed off. This time, I was planning to reach floor forty. I had made good progress on the mines, but still, it could have gone better. The best rewards came from the mines, and especially the Skull Caverns. Those, however, I wouldn’t deal with for a LONG time. I did not want to deal with the creatures that were in there until after I was as strong as possible.

  The mines proved to be as boring as always, except for the times when I fought monsters. I did not like those at all, just as much here as in the game. I reached floor fifty by the end of the day.

  And then, I came back home and headed off to sleep. I barely spent any time hanging around with people today, but it was fine once in a while. Sometimes, it was nice to just focus on one’s work.

  It was right after I fell asleep that I had yet another vision.

  I saw Junimos performing some sort of strange magic on the bus, which didn’t work before. After they were done, the engine of the bus revved up for a few seconds, before it turned off, and the Junimos disappeared one by one.

  When I woke up, it was the only thing I remembered from my night of sleep. Immediately, I headed to the bus.

  The fresh feeling of the summer morning was unlike anything else. Summer had the best mornings out of any season – they were both warm and enjoyable to step out so soon after waking, and they still had that unique feeling that came only soon after the night fell.

  The bus looked clean and newly-made. It wasn’t for me to use, however. There was someone out there in the valley who would appreciate getting back their job. Pam.

  And so, after completing the tasks on my farm, I headed off to town to notify the woman.

  The Calico Desert was now open.