After some time, Marina and Heloisa joined the others near the treasure chest. Henrique and Ravi were discussing what the chest could possibly have, but Carlos was just looking at it with a serious expression.
Marina was walking normally and asked with a smile.
"Why so serious, Carlos?"
"Huh? Oh, Ma. Are you ok? How are you feeling?"
"Oh, it's fine. It was just a bruise. Nothing serious. But you… what troubles you?"
"That's good. I saw the way you hit that rock when you dodged. You were so brave in the battle… anyway, I was asking myself, why do these rats have a chest? I mean, they can't even open one to begin with…"
The other two guys had already stopped their banter and approached them in silence. Heloisa looked at Carlos, then stared for some time at the chest, pondering, before she spoke.
"This is too deliberate. It looks like someone is making an effort to make this feel like an RPG world."
"Well, if this is an amusement park, then it's the best amusement park ever!!!"
While the others laughed at Ravi's excitement, Heloisa simply glared at him before retorting angrily.
"You only say that because you weren't the one hurt. I doubt that you would be finding it this amusing if that giant rat bit a piece of your leg off!"
Ravi has a slender frame, and he is the shortest person in the group. His black hair has several bangs that are dyed red, and he always fixes his hair with gel to make them stand, which makes him look like an anime character.
Heloisa's words right now made him shrink and back down.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Marina, I didn't mean…"
"It's okay, Ravi. I know that you didn't mean what you sounded like you were saying. Anyway, the only way that we can learn more about the reality of this world is by moving forward. And forward, we have loot. Let's loot!"
Marina jumped straight to the chest, but Carlos' voice made her stop.
"Wait. Let's see the loot in these pouches first and leave the chest for the end."
"Okay… are they all with you? Good, open them."
Carlos emptied the pouches that appeared in the place of the rats' corpses one by one and took their contents out. The same way as before, the pouches disappeared as soon as there wasn't anything in them.
"Let's see… each rat yielded one portion of rat meat like that last one. Except for the queen, that yielded two. There are no gems like that one, but there are… five tails. Including the one of the queen, which is bigger. And that's all."
"Disgusting… do we really need to keep the rattails?"
"Marina, don't you know that they might be needed for quests later? Or maybe even potion ingredients."
"Ugh. I wouldn't dare to drink a potion made with rat tails, Ravi. How disgusting!"
"Marina, the potions always taste good after they are made. It's alchemy! They won't taste like actual rat tails."
"What do you even know about alchemy, Ravi?"
"Everything!"
"I'm sorry to interrupt that very edifying conversation, but I think that we have to open that chest. Because the loot from those rats has been really poor."
"Carlos is right. Marina, would you please do the honors?"
"Why me, Helo? Are you afraid of traps?"
"Of course not. It's just that you were the one who found the nest with your scouting abilities. So it's fair that you have the rights."
"Okay, okay. Here I go."
The chest was very ordinary, like something you would find in the basement of your great-grandparent or their grandparents. An unremarkable, old, and weathered wooden chest.
Marina was indeed very eager to see what the chest had, so she quickly opened it.
But, instead of having an open chest with a space inside, the interior of the chest looked more like a screen of a tablet that has been turned off.
It was like the chest had actually a false opening, without a cavity or space in which one could store stuff.
"What the…?"
"Ooooh, so cool."
"Hm…"
Marina, Ravi, and Carlos had very different reactions and then looked at each other.
"I'll try and touch it."
After saying that, Marina took a deep breath and put her hand on the chest.
The surface of where the opening of the chest should be was very smooth, exactly like the surface of a phone or tablet. Immediately her mind received information about the contents of the chest.
"There's a bag… coins… huh? A bottle? And this seems like a toy piece? Oh, I can take them out… Done."
She quickly noticed that there was a prompt about taking the items off or not, and she decided to do it. The chest disappeared, and in its place the items were on the floor.
In fact, the items on the ground were a leather bag that was small enough to hang on someone's belt, five metallic dark red coins, a small vial with a bright red liquid inside, and a piece that has the form of being one-third of a circle.
Everyone's bubble deflated immediately.
"Is that it? Only that?"
"Well, that's to be expected from a chest that is a reward for killing a few rats."
"Not a single weapon? Just a bag? What good is this bag?"
Carlos, Marina, and Henrique frowned and shook their heads. It was Ravi who first moved and took the bottle.
"This… isn't this a healing potion? This looks like a healing potion, doesn't it? Healing potions are always red."
"Don't drink it, Ravi. FIrst, we have no way to be sure that it is really a healing potion. It could be spider venom, or even just a strawberry drink, for all we know."
"I won't drink it. I'm not injured. If it's a healing potion, Marina should be the one drinking it."
"Hey! I'm not that injured, thank you very much. Well, let me see this bag…"
She took the bag, and her eyes immediately shone.
A prompt immediately appeared in her mind, showing six slots.
"Ravi, give me that potion, quickly."
"Okay, here. Didn't you just say that you aren't injured?"
But she didn't intend to drink it. She touched the potion against the bag, and the potion suddenly disappeared. In her mind, one of the slots of the bag was occupied with the potion. Sadly, it only had the image and not a name.
"Huh? What happened? Why did the potion disappear?"
Ravi widened his eyes as soon as the bottle disappeared, baffled by the situation. Instead of answering, Marina simply handed him the bag.
"Here, look at this."
Ravi took the bag and became even more surprised than before.
"This… storage space?"
"What? What's happening?"
The bag changed hands a few times before coming back to Marina.
"Okay, that was… weird. And interesting. We could put all the meat in that bag. It would solve the conundrum of how to handle it without dirtying the meat or the things on our backpacks."
Carlos said that and handed over the meat that he took from the rats. It was heavy, more than five kilograms of meat. Marina took it all and put it in the bag.
"It only occupied one slot. Oh, it says the exact weight. Four kilograms. Oh, and there's a number on the side, between parentheses… Three kilograms and two hundred grams. Wait, let me add the meat from that first rat."