The next morning Kit logged out and resumed his usual routine when he was home, he went to the market and cooked food for his sister. He caught up with Kat, searched for recipes on the internet and researched some more on town planning.
Before he even realised it was time to log back into CAL. As he watched the lid of his gaming capsule close excitement started to course through his body.
Kit blinked his eyes and the bedroom he had been staying in at the Travelers Bed came in to view. Out of habit he started looking around for Snowball, the small dog was nowhere in sight. Then Kit remembered that Snowball had stayed behind in Spartan Fire.
A feeling of loss at not being able to see his companion spread, it had been too long since he had seen Snowball. Kit could only comfort himself with the fact he would be heading back to Spartan Fire soon, then he could get some hugs.
Mars was already in the lounge when Kit entered talking to Tuna. “Kit your finally here! Tuna and I were just discussing how to get to the Cocoa fruit.”
“Good morning, Chef Kit,” Tuna beamed.
Kit was shocked at the man’s twinkling eyes, last time they met the man was only friendly towards him. He wondered what had caused this change to the adventurer. “I tasted your candy apples, they are absolutely amazing!” Kit now understood the change in Tuna.
“I’m glad you liked them, I will give you some as thanks for guiding us to the Cocoa fruit.” A bag of candy apples appeared in Kit’s hand, he passed them over to a delighted Tuna.
“Many thanks! Right are we ready to go? It will take over a week to get there on foot, so we should leave now so we don’t waste the day light.” Tuna got up from the chair as he spoke.
Kit paused for a moment debating if he should check on his market stall first. As he was about to postpone their departure Mars piped up. “I saw Milka this morning, she said everything was running well at the market stall. I also let her know we had some business to do before returning to Spartan Fire. She said she will help at the market stall until we get back.”
A smile spread across Kit’s face. “Then let’s go!” Kit felt a rush of anticipation spike at the thought of being able to obtain some Cocoa fruit soon.
As they approached the gates to leave Fairweather town Mars stopped them. “Wait, I just have to grab someone.” Before Kit could ask who, Mars had run off. A few minutes later Mars returned with Pint and a smaller horse.
“You have mounts? This is fantastic, we will reach our destination in no time.” Tuna was eyeing Pint with fascination. “Is this a Fire Spirits horse?”
Mars eyes zoomed in on Tuna. “Fire Spirits horse? What type of horse’s are they.”
“Is this not one?” Tuna frowned as he stared at Pint.
“He could be, the person we got him off did not know what breed Pint was.” Mars replied honestly.
“Well, it easy to tell if he is one. Just give him some alcohol and if he consumes it, then he is a Fire Spirits horse. They are the only breed of horse I know of that likes alcohol.” Mars was practically dancing on the spot after hearing Tuna’s explanation.
“Do Fire Spirit horses have any special talents?” Mars inquired.
Tuna scratched his head. “Well yes, but I only know two. They are sought after because of their speed and loyalty. The are ferociously loyal so any attack to their bonded partner they would retaliate with aggression. Their speed is also no joke, I heard if you could manage to increase a Fire Spirits horses level it could fly like the wind.”
Kit already became nauseous after riding Pint at his current speed. If what he just heard was true, then Pint was not even at the tip of his true ability. This made Kits stomach roll, there was no doubt in Kit’s mind that Pint was a Fire Spirits horse.
“Hot damn Pint, we can get you to go even faster!” Mars was hugging Pint around the neck. “Kit, we need to increase Pint’s alcohol intake!” Kit wanted to refuse, but looking at how happy Mars was he swallowed his words. All he could do was nod his head in agreeance.
“I know you are happy to find out Pint’s breed Mars, but this is a conversation we can have on the journey. Shall we get going now?” Kit was itching to get his hands on the Cocoa fruit. Mars chuckled at Kit’s words then gave Pint some beer.
Mars directed Tuna to take the extra horse and Kit and Mars mounted Pint once they left the walls of the town. They soon speed of in the direction of the Cocoa trees. The journey took three days on horseback, nothing eventful happened on the way.
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Kit even managed to experiment with some of his ingredients when they camped for the night. Unfortunately, he did not manage to create anything new. When they arrived just outside of their destination Tuna made them camp for the night because it was almost dark.
Early the next morning Kit woke to the sounds of Mars and Tuna talking. “We should leave the horses at the camp site. There are some Pink blind snakes in the grove of Cocoa trees.” Kit came out of the tent to see Tuna and Mars sitting not far from his tent.
Mars noticed Kit’s arrival and greeted him. “Good morning, Kit.” Kit returned Mars greeting and sat down next to Tuna.
“What is a Pink blind snake Tuna?” Kit wondered if the creatures would match what he just pictured them as, tiny pink snakes.
“Just like there name, they are pink snakes that can’t see. They should not pose a problem if we do not aggravate them. I have some wolf ant’s that I can release if we see any of the snakes. That is their favourite food.” Tuna took out a glass jar with holes in the lid, it was filled with large grey ants.
Kit was happy that he asked Tuna to take them instead of drawing them a map. He would have had to fight the snakes instead of distracting them with food. “This is great news! Thank you for preparing them Tuna. Let’s eat some breakfast then we can go.”
Three meals appeared and Kit handed them out, once nothing was left on the plates Kit took out a bottle of spiritual moon juice magic and poured them all a cup. Even if they had the ants Kit could not predict that everything would go smoothly.
All three of them downed the drink, Kit felt a little guilty that he did not tell Tuna about the side effects. But he learned from experience that no one would complain once they saw the stats benefits from the drink.
After all of them had recovered Tuna sat up straight with a furious glare. “Don’t look at me like that, check your stats first.” Kit laughed at Tuna’s glare.
The anger melted off Tuna and turned into awe. “Apologies Chef Kit. Next time I will trust your drinks.” Tuna then got to his feet and dusted down his clothes that had gotten dirty from rolling around on the ground.
Mars and Kit followed his actions, then Tuna lead them a short walk to the entrance of the grove.
Ding!
[CAL]
[Map Found: Cocoa Grove.]
Rewards: 50 experience, 1 Forsaken state reputation point.
Kit glanced at the notification then looked at the trees in front of him. The trees were small compared to other trees in the forsaken state, the average cocoa tree was only 8 meters in height. The bulk of the cocoa fruit grew on the trunk of the tree, this would make it easy for Kit to collect all the pods.
With the number of trees in the grove, it was going to be a long day. “Can we start collecting the fruit?” Kit turned to Tuna to get confirmation they could start. Tuna nodded and the three of them started to harvest the cocoa pods.
After half an hour Kit already had enough, he wished Grandpa was here to collect the fruits for him. Tuna ambled over to him when he noticed that Kit had stopped. “Are you ready to go back now Chef Kit?” Tuna looked at Kit hopefully.
A burst of laughter broke out from Mars. “Tuna, Kit won’t let a single fruit go, we will be at this for the rest of the day.”
Tuna turned horrified eyes towards Kit. “Chef Kit how will we take all the fruit back? Did you bring hundreds of spatial bags?”
“That’s correct Tuna, he is an ingredient glutton. Don’t worry he will make it worth your while to help.” Mars clapped Tuna on the back as he encouraged the man to continue harvesting. Tuna only let out a loud sigh then kept working.
Tuna’s simple comment about the hundreds of spatial bags solved one of Kit’s main concerns with Credula’s pouch. Although he did not have hundreds of bags, Mars had a few tucked onto his belt, people would just assume they had a large spatial capacity. He made a note to by some spare spatial bags so that he could use this reason in the future.
As they continued to work every now and then one of the pink blind snakes would appear. Tuna took care of it by letting out a small amount of the ants. The snake would then be busy chasing the ants and would pay them no mind.
By the time they had cleared out the grove of all the Cocoa fruits it was almost dark. Three weary bodies headed back to camp. Kit was glad that they had set up the tents not far from the grove. He did not even bother to cook he just took out some pre-prepared meals scoffed his portion down then flopped onto his sleeping bag.
He woke the next morning feeling the need for a shower. He left the tent to see if Mars had prepared the portable shower. To his delight he saw the structure off to the side of the camp. Kit came back feeling refreshed.
Mars and Tuna had packed up the camp while he had washed. “Mars I have not even had breakfast yet,” Kit grumbled.
“We should not delay out return Kit, did you forget we are already supposed to be back in Spartan Fire?” After hearing Mars words Kit shut his mouth. He was hoping Snickers would forgive him after she saw the Cocoa fruit, then again, she might not know the importance of the fruit.
The return trip to Fairweather town was as uneventful as when they left. The whole process of collecting the cocoa fruit had gone smoothly. This had surprised Kit, normally when he harvested ingredients there would be something he had to fight. This honestly had weirded him out, it did however make him very grateful towards Tuna.
He wished all his ingredients where that easy to collect. Tuna had been a great companion on the journey, he had even provided Kit with a map of other ingredients he collected around the Fairweather town region.
Kit made plans to contact Tuna next time he came to Fairweather town so he could show Kit some of the other plants he was interested in. Kit also did not forget about the deal he had made with Tuna about the fruit. Kit informed Tuna once he made chocolate it would be available at the market stall and Tuna could get his reward from Bree.
When they arrived at Fairweather town Kit bid goodbye to Tuna and headed for the Travellers bed. It was time to collect Kettle, Milka, and Finn so they could head back to Spartan Fire. Mars headed over to the town hall and Kit headed in the direction of his market stall.
He had a quick chat with Bree, everything was running well, and Chef Nutmeg had made no moves against the stall. Kit was glad to hear that Mars had scared the man from trying to sabotage his market stall. Hopefully Chef Nutmeg would continue to lay low in the future.
Kit bid everyone goodbye and left with Mika and Finn. They met up with Mars and Kettle at the gates of Fairweather town. Mars already had the extra horses needed for everyone to have a mount. Kit felt excited to see Snowball and his family in Spartan Fire, he had been away for too long.