Serenity woke up in the clearing he’d fallen asleep in. It was exactly time for breakfast. He wasn’t sure if that was from the Blossoms evolution, or just good luck and the added noise of people being up and around.

He was sore from sleeping on the ground. Tomorrow night, he really wanted to sleep in one of the beds - but that meant he’d have to stop doing things at a more reasonable hour.

Well, he was tired. Maybe he needed to not push so hard.

It was good to have breakfast with Rissa again. She teased him about his food choice - “All meat? Come on, have a biscuit!” It was good to see her cheerful, especially since the last time he’d had breakfast with her had been so difficult.

As they were about to get up from breakfast, Echo decided to get in on the fun. She brought over a hand-sized, spiky fruit he’d never seen before and set it in front of him. “You skipped the fruit! Fruit’s good for you!”

All he’d seen in the fruit basket was apples, oranges, and bananas. It was true he’d skipped it, but if she’d brought something he’d recognized he’d have been happy to eat it to play along with her. This fruit, though … he looked over at Rissa and saw that she was laughing at his dubious expression.

“What … is it?”

Lancaster was the one to answer. “It’s something one of the classes found out in the forest yesterday. Supposed to be safe to eat and extra nutritious. They’re calling it a spike-pear.”

They were all in on it. He bet they’d gotten together to plan this while he was in the dungeon.

“Have you had one?” Serenity stalled.

“Just a bite. It was pretty good.” Echo and Rissa seemed to agree with Lancaster, so Serenity knew it was time to give the odd-looking fruit a try.

As he was lifting it to his mouth, he sniffed the fruit. It smelled wonderful. He had to restrain himself from eating the entire thing at once, but managed to only take a large bite. It tasted just as good as it smelled, and Serenity gobbled down the entire fruit one bite at a time while the others looked on, a little shocked.

He was licking the juices off his hand when a notification appeared.

[Life Affinity increased]

You can gain Affinity by eating? I never heard of that. Maybe it’s a monster thing?

Serenity was checking his Status screen - it turned out he’d also gotten a little Ev, pretty similar to one of the small slime cores - when Lancaster said, “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to peel it, first. At least cut the spikes off?”

Serenity had eaten the fruit skin, spikes, and all. “I figured it was a challenge fruit … you know, a dare?” Actually, the smell had made him so hungry he just hadn’t cared. But - the outer surface really hadn’t been particularly difficult. “It wasn’t that spiky, really, just … ridges in the outer skin. Which was … well, a bit tougher than an apple but not too bad. Hey, Echo … don’t look so worried. It was really good, thanks.”

The happy, carefree mood was definitely broken.

“How about we find some water? My hands are all sticky!” Serenity held his hands up so the others could see. His antics seemed to relax the others, and they all headed outside.

Serenity noticed that his left hand was no longer crystal to the wrist - it was now normal skin partway up his palm. He took that as a good sign that the effect wearing off would probably not be harmful. Unfortunately, he’d probably lose the affinity-sight before it could really come into use, but he’d never counted on being able to directly see Affinities anyway.