Steve POV.

The moment after I entered the unisex bathroom, I found that the world around me became dark as a prompt appeared.

(Quest: create a yummy fruit salad.)

(Bonus quest: use at least 20 fruits to unlock a bonus prize.)

I found myself feeling confused as suddenly I was standing in the middle of what looked like an orchard. All around me were various trees and even some bushes that looks like they had various fruits growing. Most of which I recognized and knew you that could get from a local grocery store. However, the more I looked around, the more I found myself seeing various exotic fruits that I did not recognize and I began to wonder if I was in heaven. After all there were so many fruits that I had never tried right in front of me and I almost reached out to the one nearest me that looked like one I had never experienced before. Only I froze at the last second.

The warning I had gotten in the dive bar came forth from to my mind as I thought about the fact that they had warned me that the dungeon would kill me. I got enough adventures and trips around the world as I searched for rare exotic fruits to know that not all fruits were edible. Even some of the fruits that were edible were only safe to eat after preparing them correctly or knowing which parts were safe. So, as much as I wanted to try every single fruit that this world contained, I knew that doing so would likely lead to my death, so I instead thought about how to create a fruit salad with at least 20 fruits.

The first thing I did was look around me a bit more and found a workstation with a single knife, cutting board and a large bowl that looked big enough to fit two cut up watermelons in it. Next to that were a few different tools that would make picking fruit easier, to include an A-frame ladder and gloves. With these tools, I started to look around as I first gathered all the fruits that I knew were edible and delicious. This included bananas, grapes, red apples, and cantaloupe, which were the four most obvious choices, but also dragon fruit, passion fruit, lychee, jackfruit, and five others that I had eaten on my travels.

With that, I had 13 fruits that I knew were safe, though just how they would pair together was still up for debate as I looked at the other fruits that were available for me to explore. Some of these were ones that I knew were edible, but had no place in a fruit salade like bell peppers, durian fruit and tomatoes. Though I kept them in mind as it just said yummy and I could see a savory fruit salad as a possible twist to reach the needed 20 ingredients for the bonus quest. Still, I didn’t know if I wanted to risk myself as I was sure the 13 I had already would be fine and identifying seven more that were safe to add would be a major risk.

It would have been so much easier to just mix the fruits together and call it good, but I remembered what Dave had said about how the dungeon gave him what he wanted. As disgusting as his desires were, the dungeon had opened a path for him and I felt as if it was doing the same for me here. So, I focused on all the fruits that I had researched but never tried to try and find ones that I thought would be safe to use. The first I found had a smooth orange skin and when I tasted it tasted like a lemon and pineapple had a baby, despite looking like a tomato inside. That had told me it was a Lulo fruit, and I added it to the pile.

With that lucky find, I start to look around and use the knife to cut fruits open to inspect them. I quickly find four that I thought were poisonous and three that were edible, but only one that was tasty, at least to my palate. It was during this round that I realize that there was a partially ripe monstera deliciosa hidden behind its massive leaf. Carefully I make sure to only harvest the ripe portions, as I know that the unripe ones are poisonous as well, bringing my total fruits to 16 out of the 20 that I am searching for.

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However, it was getting harder to find fruits that I was willing to risk trying as I found one that reminded me of one that I had seen in a whole foods once. Sure enough, when I opened it, I found milky white flesh covering large seeds, as one taste gave me a very tropical feeling in my mouth. It was then that the name came back to me and I knew it was a cherimoya. This left me just needing three fruits to complete the bonus quest, and I felt like that even if I had to mix in a few of the milder flavored savory fruits that I was going to succeed. Only, I felt as if I wasn’t ready to give up on tasting a few more fruits and pressed forward.

Next I found a large bean and after opening it up I realized that it was an ice cream bean. With that, I continued the search for fruit number 19. It was then that I noticed a fruit that looked just like the one that had been on the wine bottle that Bob had offered me as I remembered him calling it a grumichama mirim. Leaving just one fruit left, but by this point, I felt like I had gone through everything around me. All that was left was ones I suspected were poisonous, tasted terrible or were complete unknowns to me.

However, I didn’t give up as I tried to remember all of the different fruits that I wanted to try as I noticed a tree with a ton of fruits on them that reminded me of coconuts. Only I knew that they weren’t as they were lacking the husk that I would expect a coconut to have as I broke one open and the fruit started to turn blue. Taking that as a bad sign, I moved onto a fruit that also made me think of coconuts for two reasons. First, they were crowing on a palm tree and second, it had a very hard exterior to it that required me to really fight to break into them, but when I did, I smiled. While it wasn’t the sweetest of fruits and in many ways it was more of a jelly than anything and tasting it reminded me of coconut as well. The refreshing flavor made me sure that it would be perfect as I returned to the workstation where I had my other 19 fruits waiting for me as I got to work.

While many would have just chopped them all up and added them together, I knew better as I really focused on balancing the flavors and textures. This saw me taking extra steps to make sure no pieces were too large or too small and nothing was mashed that shouldn’t be. By the time I was satisfied with each fruit, I began layering them in the order that I believed would be the best to eat them in, rather than just mixing them all together. This saw the last fruit that had a very mild flavor end up on the bottom, where the juices would all gather and mix with them as they were smashed by the weight of everything else. Then on the very top were the bananas, as I felt that to let them get mashed would have been a mistake and they were a fine point to start from.

So I started to eat it and once I had taken a bite of at least one of each fruit, a small dark orb appeared in front of me. I felt like I should pick it up, so I did and no sooner had I done that than I received three notifications one right after the other.

(Quest complete: dungeon cleared.)

(Bonus quest complete: receive one fruit of your choice after completing each dungeon. This fruit can be any fruit that you’re aware of and eating it within your next dungeon dive will offer you a boost of some sort.)

(Level up, congratulations, you have cleared a level 1 dungeon, you have reached level 2.)

A moment later, a door appeared in front of me as a new prompt asked me to pick a fruit as I considered my options. Part of me wanted to pick one of them many bucket list fruits that I had yet to try, but I felt as if I would eat them the moment I stepped out of the dungeon. Then there was also the need to keep it fresh while considering if I would dive again, unless I was going to preserve it somehow, if that would even work. So, I ended up picking an apple as I knew that it would last the longest before rotting as I opened the door and found myself walking into the middle of an argument as the core became a sticker.