"Huh?" Inox blinked before the sound of knocking on his door once again made him shake his head and quickly head over to it.
"Good morning, Inox," Dust raised a hand to greet him.
"Hello!" Darkness, Aqua, and Kazuma greeted with a smile and a raised hand, and after the prince stepped aside, the others were able to enter.
The others' first reaction was a slight gasp of surprise. "What the hell?!" Kazuma exclaimed as he looked at all the pots inside the house, "This smells..." he closed his eyes, feeling the aroma in the air, then his face relaxed and his body seemed to lose its strength.
The reaction of the others was almost the same, except for Aqua, who looked at all the pots on the shelves, the table, and a large pot in the center of the room, and felt a slight tingling in her hands.
"Inox, well, really, you are..." Dust didn't finish speaking when he set his gaze on the papaya plant, a wide smile spreading across his face upon seeing those fruits that were so small compared to a normal papaya.
"Actually, it's just a little bit of my effort, when I have some land to cultivate, you will see more amazing things," Inox puffed out his chest, knowing that the aroma the plants gave off was very relaxing and pleasant.
He walked softly and moved his hand nimbly, stopping Aqua's left hand that was close to plucking a papaya.
The goddess quickly turned her head with a frown and a blush on her face, "You..."
Inox's grip softened as he patted the girl on the head, "There's no need to steal food from me, in fact, these papayas are..." he stopped in the middle of his words when an idea came to his mind.
Aqua was about to reply when the prince let go of her hand, in plain sight of everyone he took a small knife from a table, plucked a papaya, and cut it, revealing the inside of the fruit.
The papaya was divided into four, revealing the pulp inside, seedless, giving off a tempting smell, and with the pulp shining with an orange hue while some juice spilled out.
"So, do you want to taste it?" Inox suggested, everyone nodded and took a small piece to bring to their mouths the very next moment.
ChewChew
Darkness stopped after taking a bite, she closed her eyes immediately, her red lips stained by the juice pursed as she let out a small "Hmmm," smiling, there was a sea of flavors inside her mouth, from sweet to slightly sour that mixed together, activating her pleasure sensors.
She licked her lips while swaying, and then after a moment, she opened her eyes to look at Inox with a particular blush, she looked like a tiger looking at its prey, or rather, a goblin looking at a gold mine.
But the prince wasn't paying attention to that look, instead, his sight focused on the progress of the "papaya party" quest in the system.
"Sure enough, the quest only asks for five people to taste it, without the need for them to eat a whole fruit," Inox nodded to himself, confirming one of his previous theories.
The quest that had 0, 5 now was marked with a 4, 5 indicating the progress. Besides Darkness, the others had similar reactions.
"After all, I only have 4 ripe papayas, if it were one fruit per person, wouldn't the quest be impossible to complete?" he smiled brightly as he watched Aqua tremble in front of him.
"Ah, this girl," he smiled, seeing in Aqua's left hand some of the fruit that was left over after she took a bite.
The goddess was about to bring a hand to her cheek and say something cute after tasting that delicious papaya when she noticed a warmth to her left.
Curious, she turned her head slightly only to shudder a few moments later.
Her cheeks tinged a deep red while her voice came out like the squeak of a rat, "Hyyyaa, Ino..." she couldn't finish speaking as she saw the prince take a bite of what was left of her piece of papaya.
She immediately lowered her head as she dropped the piece of papaya with some pulp, she covered her head with her other hand while whispering incoherencies.
"Ah, it's great, it's great, quest completed with a single fruit, hehehe," Inox, on the other hand, smiled upon seeing the papaya quest completed in the system.
The sight was wonderful, the prince smiling as he puffed out his chest proudly while Aqua had her head down with one hand covering her eyes and her cheeks blushing.
Darkness's smile grew wider upon seeing this, she hunched over while rubbing her legs and looking at the prince with shining eyes, "Definitely, definitely, my perception didn't fail me, this is a real man, an ogre, man who doesn't care about breaking a woman's intimacy..."
She began to fantasize while Inox snapped out of his proud state only to look at her, "A what man?" he tilted his head before softly patting Aqua's head.
"Never mind, Aqua is very cute after all, and besides, we still have a lot of things to do," he nodded to himself, thinking about testing more of his theories.
Aqua gritted her teeth, "Patting a goddess's head again?... You!!!" Aqua thought, but she didn't say it out loud, instead, she simply stayed in her same spot, blushing and unable to speak properly, "that, does that count as an indirect kiss?"
After a few moments and calming Aqua down by bribing her with a grade 1 carrot later when it ripened, Inox felt his body.
Although the increase in his strength and agility is slight, he doesn't think it was 10 percent, and after asking the others, he realized that the 10 percent increase in strength and agility depended on whether one ate the fruit entirely or not.
He quickly cooked a freshly ripened ear of corn over high heat, and before the hour of the slight physical increase effect could finish, he distributed it among everyone.
However, despite eating the random corn, none of them experienced any change in their appearance, strength, or anything else in particular. This led Inox to conclude that it was probably because the random corn could trigger a random effect, but the effect wasn't guaranteed.
Or perhaps the corn needed to be consumed by a person. In any case, Inox dismissed this possibility for the time being.
Once again, everyone's physical strength and agility increased slightly, but upon drinking the water in which the corn was boiled, Inox didn't notice any increase in his strength or agility.
With this he confirmed two theories.
The first is that the strength and agility increasing effects of the fruits and vegetables seem to be able to stack, he hasn't tested if there's a limit or a diminishing return.
The second is that boiled vegetables do not let their nutrients escape into the water, and they are preserved in the vegetable, or at least that's what happens with corn, Inox plans to cook more vegetables in the future to check if that's how it works with all vegetables.
The third is that the quests only say that one must taste, not eat the whole fruit, which makes his quests easier.
After knowing all that, Inox asked everyone to get ready for tomorrow where he would have all the papayas and ears of corn ready to consume, and that they would venture in to hunt more elite goblins inside the forest.
Inox made this decision after finding out that his tomatoes sold for 10 thousand Eris just because the buyers did it to try and hit on her.
And although the prince still had some thoughts of using Darkness's acquaintances so they would buy his vegetables for 10 thousand Eris, he shook his head after a few moments, "It wouldn't work after the first ones are scammed and spread the word," he said to himself.