Sandy let out a sigh of relief when she heard that, then looked Leon up and down before making a jab. “Honestly, I can’t see you as soone afraid of dying.”
“Nonsense. Have you ever seen deliberately courting death?” Leon shot back.
“No, but I can always catch glimpses of so old acquaintances in you. And those people were all battle maniacs,” Sandy continued.
“Then you’ve got it wrong. I’m no berserker. Even after eating a Starfruit, the ability I gained was farming-related, not so kind of combat skill,” Leon explained.
“The first one?” Sandy asked.
“Uh-huh.” Leon nodded.
“That’s interesting.” Sandy didn’t seem surprised that Leon had eaten a Starfruit. Instead, she looked at him with genuine interest, as though wondering about sothing else entirely.
“And you? How many have you eaten?” Rembering his old habit of ranking others based on the number of Starfruits they had consud, Leon naturally asked Sandy in return.
“Never had one.” Sandy shook her head. “I’m not interested in Starfruit.”
Leon said nothing. He suspected she might be lying, but if Sandy didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to press.
Sandy, clearly uninterested in pursuing the topic, steered the conversation toward life in Stardew Valley.
As they chatted, a young woman in a maid outfit approached, carrying a tray. She set it on the table in front of them but didn’t leave right away. Instead, she turned to Leon.
“Excuse , are you Mr. Leon?”
“That’s . What’s the matter?” Leon asked.
“This is sothing Mr. Qi asked to pass on to you. Please take it.” The maid confird his identity, then produced a small box from sowhere and handed it over.
Once Leon accepted the box, she left imdiately, heading toward the staircase to the second floor.
“You’re not going to open it?” Sandy asked, seeing him idly turning the box over in his hands.
“I’d like to, but it’s locked.” Leon shrugged helplessly.
The mont he took it, the System Appraisal marked it:
“Locked Box (???): A mysterious gift from Mr. Qi, said to contain sothing important. To open it, you’ll likely need a special key.”
After reading that, Leon gave up on the idea of forcing it open.
“Then you’ll have to find the key yourself. The boss loves setting up little mysteries for people to guess at. He calls it a sense of ceremony, but really, he just enjoys the entertainnt,” Sandy said matter-of-factly.
“Would smashing it work?” Leon asked.
“You can try,” Sandy said with a smile.
“Forget it. Probably won’t work anyway.” The strange patterns on the box, the faint purple tallic sheen under the light, and its surprising lightness all made Leon think it was probably made of Iridium.
“No fun.” Sandy sighed in disappointnt as Leon put the box away, then waved for him to start eating.
…
The al was exactly what Sandy had described earlier: stead sandfish fillet, cal milk bread, date pie, coconut jelly, and cold cactus salad. All desert specialties.
The taste was good—nothing life-changing, but enough to satisfy his curiosity for sothing new.
When the al ended, there was hardly anything left on the table. Sandy hadn’t eaten much; most of it had gone into Leon’s stomach.
Leon wanted to lounge a bit longer, but Sandy quickly urged him, “Ti for you to go.”
“You’re kicking out right after I’ve eaten?” Leon asked in exasperation, baffled by the sudden shift in her attitude.
“You’ve already cost an entire morning of business. Do you plan to ruin my afternoon sales too?” Sandy countered.
“I’m just sitting here. How does that affect your business?” Leon protested.
“You’ll see when you step outside. And don’t forget to flip the sign for ,” Sandy said, pointing at the Oasis Store’s front door.
Still puzzled, Leon stepped outside, then turned to look at the glass door—only to see a sign he didn’t know had been hung there:
“Entertaining a VIP Guest. Do Not Disturb!”
…
Leon hadn’t expected that. The thought that Sandy considered him a VIP made him oddly sentintal. She might look and sound like she was annoyed with him, but she clearly valued his visit.
Feeling cheerful, he flipped the sign to reveal the back: “Open for Business.”
Inside, Sandy glanced out the door at his retreating back and muttered, “I thought Emily was coming too. What a waste of a morning.”
Leon, of course, had no idea that the “VIP Guest” on the sign wasn’t him at all. Leaving the store, he wandered into the Calico Desert’s central oasis.
There was still over an hour before the noon bus arrived. With no way back to Stardew Valley for now, Leon decided to explore, get familiar with the area, and look for both the Skull Cavern entrance and the remains of the sand dragon.
He figured the locked box probably contained the Mr. Qi Club mbership card that would grant him access to the Oasis Store’s second floor. It was likely Mr. Qi’s way of letting him know he’d been noticed—and if Leon wanted to et him, he’d have to find a way to open the box.
Which ant the key was probably tied to Mr. Qi’s challenges. Maybe after completing the last step—feeding the sand dragon its final al—he’d find the key within its remains.
Still, the idea of doing the challenges in order sounded tedious. Leon decided to head for the sand dragon’s skeleton right away and see if he could bypass the earlier steps.
The central oasis was huge—far bigger than the two-screen map from the ga. The lush greenery made finding the sand dragon’s remains a tricky task.
Fortunately, Leon rembered they were on a hillside. As long as he aid for the higher slopes, he should spot them.
Sure enough, there weren’t many climbable slopes in the area. Before long, near a rocky cliff, Leon found the massive skeleton of the sand dragon.
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