Merri sheepishly laughed. "I-- I know, but... he must be so happy to have you back. I'd feel bad if I, well." He didn't know how to best finish that sentence, so he let it die on his tongue. "But if you're willing to help me, again, I'll happily accept! Please just let me know when you're free to!" While Father Luscini had been more than helpful in getting his Protect spell kickstarted and Sabina's remedial classes were sure to help improve his Esuna, Merri thoroughly believed that when it came to learning spells, one could never have too much help. After all, everyone had a different approach, and the more ways he could think about a spell the better he'd become at it.
Another blush covered his cheeks, and his eyes fell to the glass of water that had appeared before him. He looked up to the waitress and thanked her and placed an order of a panini and soup before returning to the conversation.
"We went to a jungle somewhere," he said, "but I don't really remember where exactly it was. I was just excited to be going on my first adventure, you know? I think it was Ordalia though. But it... didn't really end well for me. I wound up with jungle fever by the end of it." Even though all the white mages assured him -- repeatedly -- that it'd been nothing more than his imagination, Merri recalled how he felt immediately after battling the giant scorpions; if it hadn't been jungle fever, it'd been something else, but fortunately, one white mage finally acquiesced to give him some potions to help.
"But even with that, the captain kept taking me on more adventures, even if I'm not the most useful person he brings along. Once, recently, we went to a desert to visit a tomb." His first real encounter with the undead, before the invasion that occurred not a month later. Unrelated incidents, he knew that much for certainty; they'd been in Ordalia, after all, and the undead in the city had been summoned, not the result of a curse on an ancient grave in the middle of the desert. "And about a month ago, we went to hunt a Garuda. I can't always go with him, of course, because of my job, but... I go when I can." And when he couldn't, he missed Wil dreadfully every second.