Elly and Velariah made several trips upstairs and brought down a wide collection of books. From thick to thin, from old to new-looking, everything that had to do with plants and fruits was laid on the large table.

Gray was running around the room excitedly, possibly from the commotion that was happening. Nira eventually picked him up and sat down at the table with the pup on her lap.

Draco and I started separating the books based on the topics and plant species they covered. I imagined a book on healing herbs would not contain information on cocoa plants; chocolate had no healing properties as far as I knew.

Well, perhaps it did in fact…

But it wasn’t the kind of healing that this book covered.

This wasn’t exactly how I imagined adventuring would go, but with no quests available, the forest being off-limits, and being semi-forced to wait in or near the village, this seemed to be something that could be worth my time.

I didn’t feel much like going to the dungeon today. We’d already lost a fair amount of time due to my… spider issues (gods, I hoped this wouldn’t be monthly).

At least I now knew how to get rid of the pain. Even if this was monthly, from a certain point of view, this could be seen as more desirable over multiple days of blood and pain…

Besides, it felt like the dungeon was starting to become… boring? Perhaps I should ask Arch if he was still able to provide us with Corium?

Maybe he knew if chocolate was a thing?

I wondered if he had the answer to that question. What answers did he have? He didn’t seem omnipotent, far from it, but he did seem to have some answers as to what my capabilities are.

Maybe he needed to have something close to him to make an assessment. In that case, asking him about chocolate would be a waste of his energy.

And so, we started digging through the books. My drawing of a cocoa pod was placed in the middle of the table, for all to see. If anyone found a picture of something that looked like it in the slightest, they’d show it to me.

The pictures in the books were quite detailed. I knew that some of the plants that were pictured in them were found back on Earth as well, which gave me hope. Some of them, however, were completely alien to me. There was a picture of a certain plant that had tentacle-like vines that, apparently, were used to slap insects out of the air. It excretes some slimy substance that would cause the insects to stick to it before being consumed by a maw that sat at the center of the plant, complete with spiky teeth and all.

Yikes.

A couple of melons got my interest. I was currently turning pages in a book about melons, some of which got fairly close shapes to what I was after. They also had pictures of a cut-through version of the fruits. Watermelons were among them. I turned a few more pages, hoping that someone had misidentified the cocoa pod as a melon but was disappointed when nothing else came up that looked like the fruit I was after.

I sighed.

“Any luck?” I asked.

The others shook their heads. Each of them was turning pages of their own.

I put my book away on the steadily growing pile of ‘read’ books.

All this for chocolate…

I started on a book on ‘Plants with unknown uses’. It sounded simple, yet mysterious.

The plants in it were, indeed, mysterious. I recognized none of them, they all had quite short descriptions too, that seemed to be limited to toxic, non-toxic, foul-smelling, and simple things like that. Their location was described as well, although most of these plants were considered ‘omnipresent’.

I was surprised to see the coffee cherries pictured in the book as well.

They knew about this plant, had they never bothered to do what I did?

I could only imagine they were extremely close to finding out the wonders of coffee themselves.

The book appeared brand new, which semi-confirmed my suspicion. There was little to no dust on the hardcover, and the paper hadn’t nearly colored as much as some of the other books I’d checked.

“I may have something here, Miss Elania.” Draco sounded from across the table.

He turned the book around and shoved it to me so I could observe. It was a picture of some kind of pumpkin. The outside looked something like what I was looking for, but there was a picture of the seeds inside next to it. The seeds were flat and white. Those were not cocoa beans.

I shook my head. “The pods I’m looking for grow on trees. The seeds I’m looking for are bigger and not flat. I’m not quite sure about the color, though. Cocoa beans need to be roasted too. I imagine they turn brown after that.”

“Hmmm,” Draco answered as he took the book again and continued reading through it.

I went back to turning the pages in my book until my eyes fell on exactly what I was looking for.

A pod that grew on a tree. The pod was described as being green before turning yellow and eventually orange.

The seeds seemed to be stuck together with some kind of white peel, or skin. I wasn’t aware that was a thing, but the seeds seemed to be the right size and shape.

I looked at the image of the pod for what felt like minutes. I was convinced this was what I was looking for.

All things together, It wasn’t hard for me to conclude this was what I’d been looking for.

“Is that what you were looking for?” Velariah’s voice sounded next to me.

“I am pretty sure it is, yes.”

“Zerdanian Jungle? Damn, that’s far from here…” She said.

“How far?” I asked.

She sighed. “About a month?”

Damn.

The concept of this world’s distances was going to take quite some time to get used to. It appeared they measured in days, rather than kilometers. Miles seemed to be used, but I wasn’t certain of the exact length of one. Even back on Earth, there were multiple types of miles…

How far would one day be?

I imagined one could walk 30 kilometers in a day over a period of seven to eight hours.

With that logic, the fruit we were looking for would be nine hundred kilometers away. That would be about Atlanta to Chicago in a straight line.

Funny how I could still remember cities and states, but not my own.

“You’re not calculating in Elania-speed, are you?”

Velariah shook her head. “That’s when we walk.”

That was some good news. If I recalled correctly, the Searing Peak was supposed to be a three-day walk. I believe when we returned to Dawnleaf, I did it in a couple of hours. Following that logic, I was certain I could bring down the travel distance to less than ten days, maybe even to a week.

“We need to cross a desert to get there, though,” Velariah added.

Oh.

I looked at her, expecting some elaboration.

“It’s the Zerdania region, home of the foxkin, all the way in the north. Beyond the desert is a savannah and, eventually, the jungle where these things appear to grow.”

I didn’t know how to feel, now that I knew we’d have to cross a desert to get to my favorite candy. I looked behind me, at my rear.

I didn’t think black would be the best color to have walking through a desert, either.

I sighed deeply and crossed my arms.

“Well, fuck.” I stated.

“What’s so interesting about this fruit?” Elly asked.

She had been helping us so far and seemed unable to contain her curiosity.

I looked at Velariah with my arms still crossed.

She nodded.

“Okay, you tell her,” I said as I started thinking about some kind of plan.

There was no way I was going to give up on chocolate so easily.

“Sit tight, Elly.”

The maid elf looked at Velariah with an incredulous expression.

“Elania isn’t from this world. She is from another world, called Earth. She was a human and suddenly found herself in our world as a half-spider.”

“Wha?”

Of course, there was no way she was going to process the information that easily.

Velariah shared all the information she could with the other elf, including the fact that I’d brought coffee over from my world. Several things were omitted on purpose, such as the fact that I could talk with a dungeon, the whole gunpowder story, and the anti-venom part, but Velariah told as much as she knew otherwise.

“This info is not to be shared with anyone. Only my father and we know about it.” She concluded.

“I don’t know what to say…” Elly looked dumbfounded. “Such a thing… it shouldn’t be possible.”

“You better believe it happened,” I said with a grin. “And I ain’t going back, your cooking is too good.”

Draco grinned and Seralyn straight up laughed at my joke. Nira smiled broadly and Velariah giggled. Elly still looked like she’d just entered a completely new world.

“Incredible…” She simply said.

“I wish I could give you some chocolate. You’d know why I’m obsessed with this.” I smiled.

“I believe you,” Elly said. “Coffee is already wonderful.”

“There are too many issues in getting our hands on those cocoa beans, though. First of all, I’d hate to leave the safety of the village. Secondly, this shouldn’t be a high priority for us. My top priority should be to get stronger to be able to secure a future in this world. There are several more issues, but I’m sure we can find a solution for those.”

“Understandable,” Velariah said. “But we could work around that, you know?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“There’s bound to be a dungeon between here and the Zerdanian jungle that is appropriate for our skill level.”

“That would be a worthwhile expedition,” Draco added to the conversation. “I’m eager to evolve my inherity after seeing you guys do it earlier.”

“I’d love to see what other dungeons have in store,” Seralyn said.

I had to admit I was at least a bit curious myself.

“You have your saddlebags. You can pull a cart. I imagine we can get something together that can pass through a desert while carrying plenty of supplies.” Velariah smiled.

“We still have our issues to deal with here, first,” I objected. “Let’s look into going on an expedition after we ensure Dawnleaf’s safety.”

“Then we have a plan,” Velariah concluded. “We find out about your inherity, have the mysteries in the forest unravel, and get rid of our goblin issue before setting out for Zerdania.”

She paused for a second. “Hopefully we will be able to cross the mysteries in the forest off our list soon. I wonder how my father is doing?”

“He will be fine, Lady Velariah,” Draco said. “One doesn’t easily best him.”

I had no doubt Draco was right about that. His power seemed insane. He could surely defeat the wolf and whatever caused it to look like that with a single blow.

“Yeah, you’re right. We should focus on our issues at hand… which is Elania’s inherity ritual. Besides that, there’s not a whole lot to do at the moment, even less now that we figured out where to get these famed ‘cocoa beans’.” Velariah spoke.

I sure hoped I was right about this fruit.

I looked at the drawing of the pod again.

There was no way it wasn’t what I was looking for. Them growing in a jungle only added to the feeling of certainty.

It did sound like I'd have to spend some more time in Dawnleaf, whether I liked it or not. If that was the case, I should optimize the time I have.

“Vel, do you know if there’s anyone I could train with?” I asked. I figured there had to be at least someone…

“Uh, quite possibly. I imagine there are quite a few people that would love to test their skill against you. Though, I believe you wanted to increase your speed first and foremost, yes?”

I nodded. “I meant my speed with weapons in combat, I don’t have the experience to properly parry yet. Blocking seems to be the best I can do.”

“Blocking should be good enough for you, but I see what you mean. Why don’t you try with Draco? Your weapons should be a good matchup against one another.”

“Draco?” I asked.

“I’d be happy to help you, Miss Elania. I reckon I can learn quite a bit from it myself, too.”

“Thanks, Draco.”

I paused for a moment and chuckled. “I guess I have to start weightlifting to build up some muscle too, huh?”

“Not a bad idea,” Velariah commented. “I’ve done that for a while too. Let me tell you, a two-handed sword gets quite heavy after a few swings, even if it has a featherlight enchant.”

I could feel it whenever we cuddled. She still had some traces of a six-pack. It wasn’t too noticeable without feeling her stomach, but it was there.

“That seems to be the least I can do. I could start with it soon.”

“Chill out, Elania,” Seralyn commented. “You’re taking this survival thing far too seriously.”

“Have you ever had a high-ranked adventurer try to roast you?” I asked.

“…”

Silence.

“That’s what I thought.”

I sighed and put away the books that we wouldn’t need anymore in a neat pile.

“So, our plans for the coming days consist of training while we wait for Valtheril and Ineus?”

“Seems to be that way,” Draco confirmed. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Staying in the vicinity that I had started to get to know well, may be a bit boring, but this seemed to be a necessary aspect of my life now. I imagined we could continue to kill enemies in the dungeon at times, too.

“My father still has a fair amount of weights upstairs, I imagine he wouldn’t mind lending you a few.”

I should have known as much from when I first saw Valtheril without his armor on. His muscles were very well defined. There was no way he managed to do all that with just swinging a sword.

“Now, I’m curious who can lift the most,” Seralyn said.

Oh no.

Velariah smirked. “Only one way to find out.”

I knew it.

Would using four arms be considered cheating? Hmmm.

“You only get to use two arms,” Velariah said sternly.

Fuck.

She’d read me again.

I crossed my arms and she giggled before walking upstairs.

I was about to be humiliated, wasn’t I?

Strength had never been one of my strong suits, nor had I put the time into it to improve. I had not put any effort into this kind of training since coming here, either. Maybe I should have done it. It seemed a simple enough way to improve my physical capabilities.

I looked around. Elly had a neutral expression on her face, Draco was smiling, Seralyn was close to giggling, Nira looked anxious. At least she understood my pain. I imagined she wasn’t one for strength training either.

The sound of footsteps coming from the stairs only built on my anxiety. Velariah entered the room with a barbell. It was less fancy than the ones I’d seen in my world, but its purpose was clear and simple.

She walked up and down the stairs several times to carry down adjustable weights.

I picked up one of the smaller iron rings and asked how much it would be in weight numbers.

“That one is four pounds,” Velariah said.

That didn’t help me. How much did a pound weigh here?

Metric sure sucked when it wasn’t a standard unit, or when I had nothing to compare it with. A kilogram could be easily interpreted as a cubic decimeter of water, but I had no idea how I’d measure 10 centimeters.

I could probably get close, but not as close as I’d like.

What a mess.

I guess this was somewhat close to two kilos?

I would have to completely throw out the system I had in my head and I didn’t like the prospect of that.

I had probably less knowledge than an elementary school kid from this world when it came to measurements…

“Do you have schools in this world, Vel?” I decided to ask.

“Schools? We have them, yes. What information are you looking for in particular?”

“Common knowledge, measurements, weights, distances, that kind of stuff?” I asked.

“Uh, there’s not one kind of school that everyone goes to. We have guilds for trades and they teach their apprentices all about their trade. Most of them include stuff like that but not all do. Then there are the schools for swordsmanship and archery etcetera in the bigger cities, where they focus purely on combat.”

I guess I could learn from her, then?

“Come to think of it, what did they look like in your world?” She asked.

“Uh, we had a fairly standard system for everyone up to a certain age, after which they could choose a direction of their own. There’s more to it than that but let’s just keep it simple for now. One would learn about a wide variety of topics such as math, geography, history, science, language until a certain age, before they specialized in one specific field.”

“That sounds like a hassle,” Seralyn commented.

“Huh, I guess you could look at it that way. Pretty much everyone knew distances and weights, though. At the moment, I am at a complete loss how much four pounds would be back in my world.”

“Does it matter?” Velariah asked. “If you can do math, you are already considered ‘gifted’ here, or at least smarter than a fair amount of the population. You will learn the basics over time, you already know how to apply them. There’s no need to go to any kind of school for that.”

“I guess…”

“Anyways,” She continued as she added some weights to the barbell. “Let’s see how much you can lift. Forty pounds. Sounds like a good start?”

I should be able to do that, right?

“Seralyn, you go first.” Velariah grinned.

“Wait, what. Why me?” She looked shocked.

Don’t tell me she couldn’t lift that much. I wouldn’t believe that, considering she used a bow. She had to have some strength in those arms.

“Fine.” She sighed and stood up from her chair. “Let’s get this done.”