Axel was a man who knew when to act, and when to stay still.
As such, considering the worst-case scenario, that is, that all the statements Navi said were true, he needed the ability to fight back.
"Is this tree fine?" He asked the floating penguin, tapping a fallen tree trunk.
In Axel's eyes, the entire trunk was glowing with a golden outline. It stood out so well that he could see it even when the trunk blended in with the reddish-brown, dry ground.
Just that point alone was enough to almost blow his suspicions about the System being his imagination away!
The little 2D penguin, Navi, nodded firmly as he replied.
[Yes, it is! Now, just hold it in your hand and leave everything else to me!]
"Like this?"
[Yes, yes... Then, Store!]
The moment the words echoed, the entire tree disappeared as if it had never existed. There were no sound effects, no flashes; it just vanished.
Axel, who was slightly leaning on it, almost fell face-first but regained his balance in the nick of time, stepping hard against the ground. Navi, on the other hand, didn't seem to pay attention to him as it placed a flipper to its chin... or where it should be... deep in thought.
[Hmm... Hmm? Mmmm... Yep, it's usable. But still far from enough. We need more logs!]
Navi appraised the log quickly before raising a thumb in approval. Though penguins don't have thumbs... he's 2D, so it shouldn't be weird, right...? In the first place, he's a talking penguin, so having a thumb wouldn't be the biggest "how?" Axel'll get.
"I see! Then, let's gather all the materials fast!"
Axel didn't waste time pondering useless things. Like a kid on a playground, he ran on cracked earth. He roamed left and right, gathering as many logs as he could. He didn't stop until he had gathered all the logs within a 500-meter radius of him... a lot of them.
Apart from those, he even gathered sticks and stones, and various other trinkets that fall under "materials" in Navi's eyes. Axel was like a newbie in a resource management survival game, collecting anything he could interact with.
"Phew, this much should be enough, right?"
As he wiped the sweat off his forehead, he smiled toward Navi.
By then, he had gathered over fifty trees' worth of logs. Based on the items he needed for the quest, he estimated it should be more than enough.
[Idiot! You gathered too much! I've been shouting at you to stop since earlier!]
And as expected, the little penguin yelled at him for overdoing it. Axel shrugged at Navi's nagging, explaining himself. "Well... Having too much is better than having too little."
Navi paused, convinced. [Well, that's true, but...] He trailed off before shaking his flippers.
[Anyway, the materials should be enough. Now, we should move to a flat space to build our base!]
"Then, isn't this place just fine?" he said, pointing around. "The ground is flat everywhere, anyway."
Like an AI Chatbot, Navi nodded several times, smiling at Axe's decision.
[Good choice! Then, I'll teach you how to make the quest items! First...]
Navi began a quick lesson on how to use the Harem Settlement System suddenly. Thankfully, Axel was keenly listening to him from start to finish, missing nothing from his long lecture.
First, he had to pull the menu.
He can do it with his mind or by swinging his right hand downward, as if operating a touchscreen panel. However, when he saw the panel, he cringed.
"The fuck is this user interface... MS-DOS?!" He cracked. "There's nothing but text, no buttons!"
The penguin, alerted by his shout, peeked at the interface and shrugged.
[Ah... The last time I sent someone here was roughly 30 years ago in your timeline. This was the interface that the person used. Let me update the UI real quick...]
Thankfully, Axel didn't need to adjust to using a text-only interface. After a few beeps and flashes, the interface changed, looking modern.
Now, the entire menu was available as a giant selection wheel option. Just touching and sliding it was enough to switch between controls.
"Huh... Inventory, Crafting, Settlement Management..." He saw a set of typical menu options first, before suddenly, "Conquest Tracker? Harem Members?! What the fuck is all this?!"
[What? Did you miss my name? It's written in bold at the top. "Harem" Settlement System! See?]
"Yeah, I get that, but... Ugh..."
Axel couldn't find the right words to say. After all, the concept of "harem" to him only existed in history books or for some religions that allowed polygyny.
As an "old" man, he wasn't that exposed to the anime or web novel culture much. But since he had played a couple of social games before, he wasn't so "unaware" of the term's current implication.
Still, thinking of making a plethora of women serve him didn't feel right. After all, he just got divorced a few hours before coming to this world.
Broken relationships... or any relationship at that... he felt tired of it all.
After some mental acrobatics, he finally settled on one thing: ignore those two tabs until he was ready, both mentally and emotionally!
'There's nobody but me in here now, anyway!' he thought.
With that out of the way, Axel moved to the Crafting tab. There, he could see a simple user interface.
A single slot with the word "Dismantle" on the button below it, and a group of nine slots arranged into a 3x3 square with the word "Craft" on its button instead. Further below, it displayed the current inventory, showing all the items he had on hand.
Following Navi's explanation, Axel began.
First, he placed the logs over at the Dismantle slot and pressed the button.
As he did, the single log was used, or rather, consumed, producing eight "planks."
Dismantling a plank produces eight sticks, and dismantling a stick produces ten small wooden cubes. Though he stopped at the sticks stage, as that's the one he will need.
Without delay, he moved to the 3x3 crafting area and muttered to himself. "Next, arrange the sticks in a straight, vertical line, three slots... and press Craft."
As soon as he did, a new item was added to his inventory.
Tapping on it, a small pop-up appeared, displaying a straightforward item description.
"Hoh... Let's see..."
Curious, he withdrew the spear from the inventory to get a feel of it.
It was neither light nor heavy, just right for his hand to feel like it's holding something. The length was slightly taller than he was. About two meters. It had a simple, sharpened tip, fragile-looking but deadly enough.
"So this is how crafting is done..." Axel smiled, excited.
Without wasting the momentum, he also did the wooden barricades. He placed one plank in the middle and below it, and that's it.
The barricades looked like sharpened logs formed into a triangle, then extended horizontally with multiple entities. Effective in blocking enemies charging over, but still too primitive.
However, this made Axel frown.
"Making one barricade cost the same as making ten spears...!"
It was way too "expensive" material-wise! Still, he couldn't do anything about it. He was required to make it to survive, after all.
Having no choice, he just finished the quest by pressing craft continuously until he had enough barricades to complete it.
Finally, he made a simple tent... Or the materials for it, at least.
To make it, he needs roofing and structural materials. The sticks were enough for the latter, but for the former, he still had to craft them.
Using six planks arranged in a straight line, middle and bottom, he made a board. For a simple tent, he needed two boards for roofing, at least. And that didn't take long to create. Seeing that he had finished everything, he nodded to himself while smiling proudly.
"Great!" Axel exclaimed in excitement. "I now have all the parts ready. Navi, do your thing!"
But... Navi's response wasn't what he expected.
[Huh? I can only help you craft. Setting it up and building your tent is a job for you alone. Good luck~!]
"...Eh?"
He looked over to the heavy-looking barricades, planks, and boards.
Axel's work was far from over!