Qwest!

Quest: What the world has to offer.

While out in the wilderness, there are lots of things you need to know, BUT the most important thing you need is food and water. You might have some on you, those will buy you time to procure more, but you need to be able to find it yourself. Out in the wilderness, however, not everything is edible or safe to eat. Your best bet would be to hunt or fish for safe food but you can't overlook plant life, it's the easiest thing to collect.

The number one rule about finding plants to eat, however, is that you should never eat something that you aren't certain about and things you might think could be a good idea might not be. For instance, mushrooms, unfortunately, can't be tested in the same way most other plant life can be for edibility, which is why we will look at these first.

I want you to bring me five different mushrooms you can find in the wild. Try to use your best judgement on if they are edible, but you will not be eating these. If you can bring me a mushroom you know to definitely be poisonous and identify it, I shall award bonus points. If you spot more of the same mushroom make sure to harvest those as well; you won't get anything extra, but more is better in most cases, especially if you find edible mushrooms as they can be dried for later.

There are definitely two kinds of edible mushrooms in these woods that can be identified relatively easily.
The first, morels, are peculiar looking mushrooms that stand out against other types. The caps look kind of like sponges, they are quite porous and shrivelled looking. I know that you've played a game called Stardew Valley and I am sure you are familiar with the looks of these mushrooms, so I want you to pick me at least ten of them, though more is better if you do spot them. You should check the base of trees for these mushrooms. (These will not count towards your five different types.)

The second are oyster mushrooms. They feed on dead trees so be on the lookout for rotting logs. The caps are oyster or fan-shaped and they are usually white to light brown in colour; if you look on the underside, you should see the gills of the mushroom run all the way under and running down the stem, though they might not have a stem. You will find them in clusters, so bring me 3 clusters of them. (These will not count towards your five different types.)

John began walking and stopped as he exited the small encampment. Just outside was a small red cart, like the ones kids run around with. He turned and looked at Hemet who didn't pay him any mind, opting to instead dunk his mug into the barrel once more. He assumed that he was allowed to use the cart, so he grabbed the handle and started walking.

The forest around him seemed quite similar to the one he found the Cullis Gate in. There were several beaten paths and the woods themself seemed to have plenty of greenery. He also spotted a lot of other colours due to the few flowers he passed as well as things that looked like berries.

He made sure to keep an eye out and would check the bottom of trees as well as under shrubs and ferns. This paid off when he found a small cluster of mushrooms. The tops were yellow/tan and looked almost like foam. As John picked them, he looked them over. The underside of the caps was spikey. He plucked four larger ones and three smaller ones before tossing them into the cart, pushing them all to one corner.

1/5 Mushroom Types Collected.

He continued to make sure to take in his surroundings; that's when he noticed the animal sounds. He hadn't really thought about it, but as his mind was on the strange survival quest Hemet had given him, he had been thinking of things he already knew. One of the things was that when the forest went silent there was a predator nearby. Now the forest wasn't silent and he'd seen birds and squirrels, but it did seem a little quieter, especially since he could hear animals in the distance.

John decided to not take a chance and found a branch that was comfortable to hold, and after making sure it was strong by bludgeoning a tree, he continued walking on while staying vigilant. John didn't know a ton about nature but when he spotted a small group of birch trees he decided to head towards them, and he was glad he did when he spotted some fan-shaped pancake looking mushrooms. John was sure he'd just found one of the types he was specifically looking for, so he pulled one off the tree and looked underneath to see it was almost smooth. He sighed but wasn't upset since he did still need four other types of mushroom and this would count towards it.

Just then John heard a metal clattering coming from behind him. He clutched his branch club and spun around. As he did, he spotted something extremely strange: a stout little green creature. It had a yellow underbelly and stood on two stubby legs. Its eyes were far apart with a large smiling mouth under them. On top of its head were two heart-shaped leaves pointing in opposite directions. The thing stood with one of the small mushrooms John had collected raised in the air, while its other handheld a small wooden sword.

The little creature tossed the mushroom into its mouth before reaching for another. "Oh no, you don't, I need those," John raised his voice and swung in the direction of the thing.

The green thing jumped back a little looking at John. "Q-q-qwest?" Its child-like voice quivered.

John swung again, "Go! Shoo!"

The small creature scampered out of the cart and quickly scurried away on its stumpy legs into the underbrush. John went back to collecting the pancake-like mushrooms. Three of the trees had clusters, so John collected sixteen of them in total, placing them into his cart before moving on.

2/5 Mushroom Types Collected.

A short while later, John heard rustling behind him. He turned to see a familiar and very badly hidden green creature. The thing was standing in a bush with its hands covering its eyes. John sighed. "I'm pretty sure this thing isn't going to try hurting me, though I shouldn't let my guard down just because it's a cute little plush thing; doesn't mean it couldn't be dangerous," he thought.

He gripped onto his club and continued on while occasionally checking behind himself. The thing never got any closer to him and seemed to be interested in what John was doing. John looked at it for a little while longer before putting one of the pancake looking mushrooms on a rock. As he moved away from it, he looked back a few times until he saw the little thing take hold of the mushroom and begin nibbling on it.

While the thing was distracted, John decided to pick up the pace, and soon enough, the creature was out of sight. Back to mushroom hunting, John continued looking for dead rotting trees and at the base of any tree he came across. Lucky for John, he spotted a small cluster of mushrooms that he was able to identify: three small red mushrooms with white spots that John knew were toadstools. After storing those with the others, he began walking again.

3/5 Mushroom Types Collected.

"The weather is nice, the forest is calm, and this quest is surprisingly relaxing," John mused as he walked.

John stopped and sighed as he barely heard, "Qwest," echo from behind him in the recognisable childlike voice. He rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking behind himself to see the thing had caught up with him.

"Are you going to follow me all day?" John called back to it.

The thing dropped its hands from its eyes and waddled out from behind the bush. "Qwest?" it said cautiously.

"Uh... Yeah? I'm on a quest, I guess," John answered.

Suddenly the small creature seemed to get excited and hurried towards John. "Qwest!" it cheered.

"Y-yeah? I'm looking for mushrooms..." he said. The green creature walked to the cart and grabbed one of the mushrooms out of it before offering it to John. "Yeah, that's one of the ones I have already collected, I need different mushrooms," John explained.

The creature nodded before putting the mushroom back and running away. John looked in confusion for a minute before continuing on. John's next find was at the bottom of some kind of pine tree or evergreen: four mushrooms that looked like prunes. They seemed to fit the description of the morels he was looking for.

4/14 Morels Collected.

John looked at the notification in confusion. "I could have sworn I was supposed to find 10 of those?" he wondered out loud. Shrugging, he assumed that Hemet had just decided to increase the number.

Walking through the forest, John decided to try seeing if he could identify anything he passed. Unfortunately, most of the plants he passed, he didn't know what they were. He managed to spot a bunch of dandelions, a lone willow tree and then a few oak trees.

He didn't find any mushrooms or anything around the willow tree, but looking at the base of the oak trees, he spotted a very strange yellow-orange coral looking thing. John quickly realised that it wasn’t one large mushroom but shelves of mushrooms that all grew together. Pulling them off he added twelve fan-shaped mushrooms to his cart.

4/5 Mushroom Types Collected.

John's luck continued as he looked at the base of the other oak trees to find more mushrooms he'd say would fit the description of the morel mushrooms, but they did look very different to the ones he'd already collected. The new mushrooms were dark on the inside but had light coloured ridges. Shrugging, John collected eighteen of them.

22/14 Morels Collected.

John spent another hour looking to find any more mushrooms, and he managed to find some more of the ones he'd already collected but nothing really new. After being out in the woods for what seemed like half a day, John began feeling a little hungry and thought he had a cart full of mushrooms he couldn't eat as he wasn't sure what was edible and what wasn't. He could eat the Morels as he had plenty to spare, but again, he wasn't sure if they were edible raw.

John snapped out of his train of thought as he heard a distant "Qwest!" called from behind. He turned to see the little green creature waving and beckoning him to follow.

John turned his cart around and headed in the direction of the small creature. During the walk to... wherever, John realised the thing could only say 'qwest' and briefly thought about naming it that. Then he realised that would be stupid, it wasn't a Pokémon even if it did look a little like one.

Eventually, John came to a large fallen tree, and on its side, he could clearly see several clusters of mushrooms. Moving over he plucked one and inspected it, fan-shaped with ridges down the underneath. Seemed to fit the description of the oyster mushrooms he was looking for.

He began plucking them from the log, managing to collect a total of thirteen.

13/10 Oyster Mushrooms Collected.

"Nice, just one last mushroom type to get and this quest is done," John smiled, "not bad for $10,000."

"Qwest!" John heard coming from inside the log. Curiously, he walked over to the base of the trunk and looked down into it to see the little green creature plucking what looked to be some kind of bioluminescent mushrooms. It pulled four from the inside of the tree and waddled out holding the mushrooms to John.

John took them from the little thing and looked at them. They reminded John of the little umbrellas you get in drinks. They had thin stems that led to wide, almost flat caps. The top of the caps was milky white and the underneath was glowing orange. If he was to guess, John would say it was probably poisonous.

He hadn't actually wandered far from the encampment but had spent a long time looking around the area. All in all, it only took John roughly fifty minutes to walk back, followed by his new little friend.

As he arrived back at camp, Hemet cheered, "Ah, lad, yer back. An’ it seems ya've brought a friend along with ya. Come, take a seat. We'll go through what ya brought." He motioned John over.

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