The group all stood up and left the crying child, while Snowbunny told the kid to wait in his house.
"How did you decode that? The kid didn't even mention the colour purple." Alvira asked with a confused look on her face.
"When we go into the valley, I'll find you some of those berries, you'll understand how I made the connection pretty quickly," Merlin said, looking over his shoulder to see Snowbunny making her way to join the group.
"Alrighty, let's go save the kid's sister!" She said as she quickly skipped to the front of the group, taking the lead as the group wandered towards the valley.
As they were coming close to leaving the valley, Alvira caught a glimpse at the dog that the kids were chasing around earlier, it seemed to be resting underneath the shade of a tree.
"That's a pretty cute doggy," She muttered.
The dog breed was likely not the same as one from Earth, but the dog's face shape and medium-length black and white coat bore a striking resemblance to that of a Border Collie or similar breed of herding dog.
Merlin believed it likely had the role of herding livestock within the village at some point in time, but either grew too old to continue the role or the dog's owner died and the village adopted it to honour the dying wish of the previous owner. He had seen similar stories in the past about pets being left behind, so that thought floated to his mind almost immediately.
"Do you want to pet it before we leave?" Merlin asked.
"I would, but dogs don't really like me," Alvira responded.
"Alright, well then let's go," Snowbunny spoke up, leading the group towards the valley.
Merlin opened his inventory and started poking around as he walked, he was looking for any of the panther meat or spare boar meat he remembered he still had, thinking of feeding and befriending the village's dog.
It was at this point he realised that he should probably clean out his inventory at some point. Although a player's inventory started out needlessly large, and not only continued to grow as the player levelled up or could be upgraded with other means, it wasn't infinite.
Players who habitually sold their items, or those who stored them in guild banks, never came close to maxing out their inventories most of the time. Except for circumstances like storing loot after a dungeon raid.
But players like Merlin, who was famous in the previous timeline for being a hoarder among many other things, found that other methods to expand their inventory outside of levelling were as valuable as legendary weapons.
'I really should clean this out...' He thought to himself while staring at items such as a panther's bladder and the internal organs of a giant wild boar. He even had his original starting weapon, his gladius, and the horribly weighted cleaver that dealt extra damage against bovines.
His eyes glanced at the bovine butcher, and he tried to think of any reason why he didn't bother selling it.
'The only creatures this would even be useful against on this island are cows and bulls... It wouldn't even be that good against a minotaur due to the low damage, not that there even is a minotaur, this map is based on Arcadia, not Crete.' His thoughts continued as the group all walked out of the village and into a collection of large rock formations that served as an entrance into the valley.
"I mentioned this last time we came here, but damn that's cool," Alvira said while admiring the scenery, "I wish I could see stuff this cool on Earth... Oh, do you think this game would have floating islands?"
"Probably, It wouldn't be a proper fantasy game without flying islands," Ty spoke up, "But Earth has interesting rock formations too, ever been to Madagascar? There's the Tsingy de Bemaraha."
"There's also the giant vertical stone pillars in China, Wulingyuan." Ty continued, "Or wave rock in Western Australia if you don't want to travel overseas."
"Pass, pass and hard pass," Alvira muttered, "I didn't peg you for a guy who travels much."
"My mother loves visiting national parks and historical sites, and I ended up getting dragged around the world a lot when I was younger," Ty responded.
"You don't travel much now?" She asked.
"I try to avoid it as best I can..." Ty responded, "Although I won't have much choice at the end of the year, we're travelling back to Mexico for a couple of weeks to catch up with family and to attend Dia de los Muertos... And my mother keeps mentioning Teotihuacan, so we're probably going to be doing more sightseeing once the holiday is over, even though she's been there several times already..."
"Oh, Holly mentioned that her parents are probably going to be in Mexico around that time as well," Snowbunny said, only to realise after the fact that the group would immediately use that as fuel against her when they wanted to tease her again.
Snowbunny turned away from the group and began walking slightly faster, hoping everyone immediately forgot what she just said, but she knew she wouldn't be that lucky.
The group travelled through the lush valley while talking, they were somewhat relaxed for the moment, the only creatures they could see around them were a variety of wildlife that didn't seem too worried about the sudden intrusion from a group of somewhat rowdy humans.
"Oh, have you guys tried any of the fruit that grows in the valley?" Merlin asked while spotting a bunch of familiar banana-like fruit with a somewhat reddish-yellow skin covered in blue spots.
"We were offered, but only Mas-- Tiny took something," Nora said, almost leaking Mason's name in the game for the second time.
Merlin ran away from the well-trodden path they were walking on and dashed into the nearby shrubbery, he quickly scaled a tall tree, taking a bunch of the strange banana-like fruit off of a branch before dropping down from the tree and disappearing behind a row of bushes.
"What is he doing now?" Alvira muttered out loud, but her question was quickly answered when Merlin popped out of a bush with a handful of unfamiliar fruit.
"How do you know any of that is edible?" Ty asked him.
"Because I saw other people and animals eating them," Merlin responded, "I also found some of those berries I mentioned."
He started by tearing the banana-like fruit from the bunch and handing on out to each of the members of his group, without taking one for himself.
"Try that one first," He said with a cheerful grin.
Everyone seemed to go along with Merlin's request, but Ty gave him a suspicious glare as he unpeeled his fruit.
There was a clear mix of emotions in the group after the first bite, some clearly weren't sure what just happened, and others went in for a second bite to make sure, but there was one person who understood their opinion immediately.
"Why the hell is it spicy!" Alvira screamed as she threw the banana to the ground.
Merlin couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Alvira hold out her tongue and try to fan it with her hands.
He quickly picked a handful of the purple berries off their stems and held it out for Alvira.
"Wash it down with these berries, it'll help," He said while trying to maintain a serious face.
Alvira, clearly not paying attention to Merlin's evil plans, took the handful of berries and forced them all into her mouth. Fortunately for her, it seemed to have actually helped with the spice, the berries were oddly juicy and rather sweet.
"I dunno, I kind of like it," Snowbunny said, causing Merlin to turn towards her, only to see that she had already finished her spicy banana.
'Ah right, she did have that spice powder earlier,' Merlin thought to himself, 'I guess she really likes spicy food."
"Ahaha, it's the return of the purple people eater," Typhoeus said, turning Merlin's attention back towards Alvira.
Merlin saw that Alvira's mouth, teeth and hands were stained purple. The purple stain ran down her chin and dripped onto her clothes, staining both of those as well.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..." Alvira said as she stared at her hands.
"Right, so I guess you can understand how I made the connection earlier," Merlin said with a large smirk on his face, to which he received a rude hand gesture in return.
"That's fair," He muttered as he received Alvira's message.
The group continued into the valley while sampling the other fruits that Merlin procured, although a few of the group were somewhat hesitant now, requiring Merlin to test one before they tried it.
It was at this moment that the group heard a loud scream, it seemed to be coming from a young woman who was located a little further in the valley.
"Well, there's the sister..." Merlin muttered before sprinting in the direction of the scream.
The rest of the group quickly followed.
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