"Is this all the soy sauce there is?"

"Ah, I already gave one bottle to Roland. It will probably take a while before more is ready... perhaps we should go get some more. This time, everyone can come together."

And so they ended up visiting the dungeon once again.

This time, the entire family had come along, giving Qiong Xing an overwhelming sense of security.

Mayo was simply too large to move around properly inside the dungeon, so he had been left at home.

Perhaps later, Qiong Xing would ask Fenrisúlfr if there was some way to make him smaller.

"Cari, Lian, Rui, Yue, do not leave Papa and the others’ sides, alright?"

"Okayyy!"

"And you too, Qiong Xing."

"Hm?"

Qiong Xing had just nodded happily at the children’s cheerful response when Cari suddenly addressed him from the side, causing him to turn around in confusion.

"Did you already forget? What are you going to do if you fall into the water again all by yourself?"

"But everyone would come rescue me, right?"

Surely they would find him immediately.

"That is true, but that is not the point..."

Cari seemed like he wanted to say something more, but in the end he fell silent, so Qiong Xing decided there was no problem and continued onward with everyone else.

Even Joa and the others alone were already strong enough, but with Cari and Fenrisúlfr charging straight into enemies while shouting, "I will do it too!", the thought of losing never even crossed Qiong Xing’s mind. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

While admiring Leander and the others’ brave fighting as well, they had Raon dismantle the monsters they defeated before stuffing everything into their bags.

They also managed to safely obtain soy sauce from a treasure chest, which was a huge relief.

Since they were there already, Qiong Xing suggested catching more of the fish they had found before, and Fenrisúlfr happily guided them there.

Along the way, they kept opening treasure chests they encountered, but...

"...Why is it a bag?"

Everyone tilted their heads at the unexpected sight of a bag appearing from the chest.

It was the perfect size to wear over the shoulder, but it seemed a little shallow for carrying many things.

Since they already owned far more convenient bags, Qiong Xing decided he would just let the children use it for now and stored it away.

Pulling himself together, he decided to aim for wasabi next and opened more treasure chests, only to find...

"...A towel."

Not this.

The fluffy towel felt wonderfully soft, which was nice, but it was definitely not what he had hoped for, leaving him visibly disappointed.

"Bad luck, huh? Well, that happens sometimes."

Joa told him to just hope for better luck next time, and perhaps he was right.

Maybe Qiong Xing had simply been too lucky until now.

Rohen had warned him before that treasure chests did not always contain what you wanted, so this was probably what he meant.

"But a towel...? This feels like some consolation prize."

Feeling depressed as though he had received a losing ticket prize, Qiong Xing still gratefully packed it away and continued onward.

In the end, however, he never found another treasure that truly felt like a jackpot to him after that.

"Another towel, and now even a blanket. What exactly are these treasure chests worried about?"

Did they want him to stay cleaner?

Were they worried about him catching a cold?

Qiong Xing no longer understood what the treasure chests were trying to tell him by giving him these things.

All of them were beautiful and clearly made from high quality materials, but they were definitely not the sort of things he wanted popping out of treasure chests.

Thinking perhaps they had simply been unlucky this time, Qiong Xing gave up on the treasure chests and headed off to catch fish instead.

Next time, he would definitely find wasabi!

"Mama! Fishies!"

"That is right. Go catch them together with Fenrir."

Rui happily shouted about the fish, and Fenrisúlfr immediately became enthusiastic as well.

When Qiong Xing told them to go catch some, Fenrisúlfr, Rui, and Yue all splashed into the water together, laughing cheerfully.

"Elias."

"What is it?"

Qiong Xing beckoned him over with a wave of his hand, and after Elias sat down, Qiong Xing climbed onto his lap.

The underground dungeon might not bother beastkin like them, but it felt a little chilly to Qiong Xing.

Warmed by Elias’s body heat, he watched Rui and the others enthusiastically catching fish one after another.

"I wonder what we should do with all those fish."

"We already made a ton of dried fish the other day."

Even without wasabi, perhaps sashimi would still work.

Besides, the children were probably still too young to handle the spiciness of wasabi anyway.

Sushi might be difficult, but perhaps chirashi sushi could work instead.

Though the colors would probably end up looking rather wild.

"Maybe fried fish would be good too. In that case, tartar sauce... or maybe mayonnaise would be nice. Well, salt would probably work too."

"Tartar? Mayo-naise?"

Qiong Xing knew mayonnaise was made from eggs and oil, but he vaguely remembered hearing that mixing it without separating was difficult, so he was not confident he could make it properly.

As he thought over what to do, Elias’s warmth felt so comfortable that drowsiness slowly overtook him.

"Sleepy? It looks like it is going to take a while longer, so why not take a little nap?"

Qiong Xing tried to resist because the children were still working hard, but the growing sleepiness was impossible to fight off.

Feeling a little apologetic, he decided to sleep for a bit after all, though before that he rummaged through his bag to at least take out the towels for the children.

No matter how warm their body temperatures were, staying wet would still make them catch a cold.

"Hehe, maybe those towels from earlier were actually for this exac..."

"Qiong Xing?"

Elias looked at him in confusion when Qiong Xing suddenly stopped speaking mid sentence, but Qiong Xing was too distracted by the thought forming in his head to answer.