Bam came over to the bush. “ Oh these are those berries. They taste terrible, kind of like extremely sour grapes.”

  “ You’ve eaten these? They aren't poisonous?” Lance responded with excitement.

  “ Oh no I don't think so, it just tastes terrible. I looked them up online and they are very similar to gooseberries. They don't get sold in most stores because of being difficult to harvest in large quantities, and not suited for everyone's taste.”

  “ Hmm. Reilly, come over here! What do you think?” Lance said, interrupting Reilly who was handing Courage back his clothes.

  Reilly came over and listened to Lance and Bam talk about the plant. She then plucked one and ate it, as well as Lance. They both puckered, the after taste left an almost chalk like dryness in your mouth. Lance was about to decide against taking anymore but after taking a few steps away from the plant Reilly grabbed his shoulder.

  “ Wait… This taste… It's familiar. Lance, I think this is what the goblin liquor is made from!” Reilly began to blush. “ Take the whole plant. Fill one of these shirts with soil and I can put it into my crown. You’re just going to have to carry that spear til we can get back.” She said fumbling in her bag.

  “ Wait, I thought about it. I don't even know where I would put it, plus I don't have a pot.” Lance said, disgruntled.

  “ What? No. This is for King. He'll be so happy, and I can get free drinks! I'm not passing this up.” Reilly smiled wide.

  “ She has no idea about the gourd. Whatever, I'm sure a gift for King would be nice from her.” Lance thought. Lance and Bam helped pull the plant from the soil and put it in a shirt full of soil. Afterwards Lance went over to the rabbit and began to skin it. The pelt was ruined, burned and raggedy, blood stained and matty. The meat on the rabbit was very stringy and lean, even after death and without skin the rabbit looked formidable. Lance began to slice away the meat. He cut off its front paws leaving the nails intact. In his Discern Ingredients sight he could see a deep defined purple glow to them, as well as the hind leg achilles tendons. At its heart he found a gem nestled between its lungs that was long and slender like that of a half pencil. He gave the gem and materials to Courage. Courage then buried the rabbit in the holes it had dug.

  “Well you want to try again? I'm not so sure the blood made for a good target. Maybe we had a similar scent?” Courage said, pointing to the rabbit. “ This thing is called a Kabbit. I got a gacha from it and its praise tier. I can only assume these are pretty messed up to run into. With how horrid the smell of blood is, I think my idea probably ran prey away from us.”

  “ Up to you man, maybe these are better hunting? Plus look at all this meat, We should find a checkpoint to get this on ice. Imagine the meat of a bear. We’d be overburdened.” Lance said.

  “ I agree, Plus I'd like to unload all these clothes and refill our flasks.” Reilly said.

  “ Would it be a problem if I called it guys?” Courage said. Surprising everyone.

  “ Why? What's wrong?” Lance said worried.

  Bam and Reilly both looked at each other. Lance looked around and then back to Courage. He only just then noticed Courage was sad, likely holding back tears. Courage didn't respond.

  “ Oh.. yeah its fine, I get it. You can” Lance said.

  “ I'm fine, I gotta get over it. Sorry, just a tough little bastard.” Courage said, feigning a wide smile. Screech flew down and landed on his shoulder and began hugging his neck.

  “ No, it's fine. Let's hit a checkpoint, take a break and I can cook. We’re in no rush right? We're waiting for them to catch up. Are you guys good with that?” Lance said, looking at Bam and Reilly. They both nodded quickly. Everyone grouped up and followed the trail, eyes peeled for the next checkpoint.

  “ Well that will also give us time to look over this.” Courage said holding up a small rolled parchment. He unfurled it next to the group. They huddled around him.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “ Whoa, this is… so detailed, and it has our party and locations.. This is amazing Courage.” Lance smiled, patting Courage on the shoulder.

  “ Yeah it was in the hole, I thought it was a treasure map. Wait look, it has the checkpoints marked. This is magic right?” Courage said flippin it over and looking at its back. The scroll was a parchment roughly two by two squared feet. It was thick and tough like the paper had been coated with a wax that had been heated and dried a few times. The curl of the parchment was tight and made it uneasy to place, but holding it open worked well. The detail of the map showed natural landscape including trees, elevation, rock, and water formations as well. What they did notice is that the fallen tree bridge was nowhere to be seen on the map, which raised questions amongst them.

  They talked about it until they reached the next checkpoint which ended up being a small clearing with a rock pit and logs. Obviously it had been a previous campsite, but not for some time. After they all entered the clearing the small rock walled fire pit became alight with a gentle crackle on some small old logs within, not much was left to burn. The flames flickered and everyone exited the level via their menus. Lance sent them all invites and they regrouped in his tavern.

  Lance sat the small berry bush on a table in the front, “Hey make sure you take this back with you”

  “ What? No, just leave it here for King. We can worry about that later. For now take all this rabbit meat out of my crown. I don't want it to go bad. Also we didn't really get any gems yet, So should we just save the meat for later?” Reilly asked.

  Courage pulled out his rabbit gem. He rolled it around in his fingertips, shrugged then put it back in his pocket.

  “ Hey I thought you said if i showed you guys around the level i got to eat free? I don't have to pay, right?” Bam got visibly upset.

  Reilly looked at Lance half frowning. “ Bam you don't have to pay. Not yet. Okay.” Reilly patted him on the shoulder.

  “ Bam. You have to answer one question, I will still feed you but I need to know. Are you gonna join our guild? We won't be one by name for a long time, but this is the party that will level beforehand. Plus two more who you haven't met.” Lance said arms folded.

  Bam looked around the room. He looked over at the tables, empty. With a smile he put out his hand. “ Alright. I imagine this room full of people. Food from all over Wish Legacy. That's gonna be a heckofa’ menu.”

  “ Good. You're gonna be the first one to taste all the dishes then. I dub you the slop master. That comes with everyone's leftovers, well whatever violet doesn't have.” Lance said, holding back laughter.

  “ That's a good idea ladd. But what's this about Violet getting leftovers?”

  Everyone turned towards the kitchen doorway. Wellyn stood there, in much different attire. He was in a nice suit but it was deep red, he held his coat in one hand and Violet in the other. He used her like a lint roller across the shoulders of the coat. Once Violet noticed the others she wiggled free of his hands and bounced across the floor and up onto the counter. Atop the counter her little face formed and smiled at everyone. Everyone lit up happy to see her okay.

  Lance rounded the counter towards Wellyn. He smiled. “ You look a lot better. And sober. Well dressed.”

  “ We’ll talk later.” he whispered to Lance. “ From what I gather though you seem to have given Violet something rather peculiar. It's not often a slime levels up. Careful she's a special breed. She most certainly will NOT be a leftover eater. I won't allow it. I'll work for her meals. If you’ll have me.”

  “ Oh. Sure. I do have a couple things you could do. Like the trash, can you take it with you when you go somewhere.”

  Wellyn’s eyes squinted. Everyone was presenting their water skins to Violet and petting her in thanks to her filling them up.

  “ What are they doing? And also I'm not a trash boy, hire a goblin. I'll mind the bar and take orders. Violet, that's enough!” Wellyn walked off towards the counter stating his condition for employment with room for rebuttal. Violet turned around quickly and whimpered. Wellyn picked her up and snatched the water skins from everyone.

  “ That’s enough! She is not a COW. Lance, have you considered what it is she sacrifices to heal you?” Wellyn spun around with a brow raised. Lance shrugged, awkwardly feeling a bit small with how the events were unfolding.

  “ This is her vitality,” Wellyn said waving the waterskins around, ” Her lifespan for yours. Before her evolution you must quench yourself by other means. Do not take her giving nature for granted. We wanted to make sure you survived, You have, It's up to you now.” He then poured the “slime soda” back atop Violet who reabsorbed it. He let her go and she bounced back into the kitchen. He gave the group back their waterskins and began cleaning the bar mugs like usual.

  “ I’m sorry we didn't know it came at a cost.” Courage said.

  Wellyn glared at Courage with a tilted mug in hand. “ You should know more than the rest, boy. Everything has a cost .” He turned to Lance, “ What are you waiting for? You’ve got kabbit I hear? Get in the kitchen, 'Chef'.”

  Lance stood up straight. Reilly looked at him. Lance gave her a stern nod and stepped into the kitchen.