Descending into the area behind the island, Kaito walked around for a short while and casually caught a few solitary wild rabbits.
He hadn't expected to find rabbits here; this was a surprise.
But his luck didn't hold. He couldn't find any more food. The earlier rabbits were caught because there was still some grass around their warren. Elsewhere, it was just barren.
"It seems this parent-child activity isn't as simple as I imagined."
Trap.
This single word surfaced in Kaito's mind.
Through this, he understood something.
That was, the parent-child activity might lead you to believe it's simple, but as you delve deeper and time passes, you'll find it only gets harder.
And in the end, you might not even know if you can complete the tasks.
With success comes the possibility of failure.
With survival comes the possibility of death.
The chat group neither makes tasks extremely easy for you nor extremely difficult. It's just that you didn't allocate resources properly from the start.
If it were a truly ordinary, mundane parent-child activity, like a picnic or hiking, maybe there would be no difficulty.
But beyond that, not necessarily. Seemingly simple, it is simple, yet within that simplicity lie difficulties, even greater ones.
The difficulty level could keep increasing.
"It looks like we'll have to conserve food. There's probably nothing edible here. Instead of searching here, it's better to go over the previously explored area again."
"As for the rest... we'll just tough it out until the last few days! At worst, we'll eat fish every day!"
When you're hungry enough, even things you're tired of will taste good.
If only they had some leftover rice. But all the rice was used for making oyakodon, and the leftovers were deliberately given to the children's group. The adults didn't get any.
After exploring further, even jumping into the sea and swimming for a while, then searching the other side of the island again without even seeing a trace of a wild boar, Kaito returned disappointed.
Back at the rock house, Kaito stored the rabbits he'd caught, then gathered everyone to discuss the food situation going forward.
Exploration would certainly continue. Besides that, they needed to conserve food.
This included the children's group.
Why did Kaito say this? Look at his soaking wet clothes.
In the sea on the other side of the island, he hadn't seen a single fish.
Such clear water, and not a single fish!!
Furthermore, when Kaito tried to swim further out towards the deep sea, he was stopped.
Alright, he thought of something else.
Perhaps, apart from the really ugly fish, the fish that generally looked edible would gradually become scarce.
Once the fishing task was complete, they might also disappear.
Whether the ugly fish would remain was unknown, along with other seafood like crabs, shellfish, etc.
After planning, the schedule was: explore in the morning, practice swimming in the afternoon, and sleep early at night.
Kaito could go without food for a short time, his stamina and such remaining ample, but Shodai and some others were ultimately ordinary people. Their food rations also had to be adjusted.
He also had to reluctantly advise them to sleep early at night and not waste unnecessary energy.
The meeting ended. Kaito went back into the sea and, in one go, caught as many edible fish as he could, one after another.
Sure enough, the more he caught, the visibly fewer fish there were.
After completing the fishing task, he went back into the sea. Fish were nowhere to be seen, only the occasional rare small shrimp or crab. The ugly fish were still there, but eating them was out of the question.
He didn't know how to prepare them, didn't know if they were even edible, and the key point was, he really couldn't bring himself to eat them.
Kaito even killed one to check. Its flesh was a strange purplish-black, matching its rough, ugly skin.
It seemed not all fish were anglerfish.
"Sigh, time to ration!"
When Kaito returned and announced this, everyone gradually became serious. They would no longer treat the parent-child activity as a fun game.
If they participated in this activity again in the future, they would definitely make proper plans.
Luckily, Kaito had noticed this early on. Otherwise, even if everyone could clear it together, the process would have been very painful.
In the following days, they went out to explore in the mornings. Thankfully, there were still a few wild vegetables and bitter wild fruits to be found.
At the same time, Kaito also found the cave.
Why? Because there was a 'mission location' marker right at the cave entrance. What else could it be?
Kaito tried to go deeper, but was blocked by a huge rock. He attempted to use his ability to get in early.
Trying to exploit a bug? How about waiting until the night of the eighth day?
So, everything Kaito probed was solid rock. There was no maze at all.
And so...
Time came to the eighth day. By now, everyone could swim. As long as they could manage a little, it counted, so the swimming task was completed.
Speaking of the task to catch wild chickens and rabbits, apart from Kaito getting the full 200 points, the others only scored a few dozen points. The numbers they caught were nowhere near the full 200-point value per person.
It seemed there was still some competitiveness. Luckily, no one really minded.
Looking at the task list now, the only personal task left was killing the wild boar. The team tasks left were the cave adventure and the final Day 10 conclusion task.
In the afternoon, everyone went to sleep early to conserve energy and focus.
Waking up at night, they had dinner. In the middle of it, a slight earthquake suddenly occurred, and everyone knew the activity had begun.
Picking up simple wooden torches for light, they advanced, also carrying the rock weapons Kaito had made on their backs.
This time, the children weren't brought along. Under the assurances of Mikoto and Eriri, they would look after the remaining kids.
"Whew... Let's go in. Since everyone's decided to participate, there's nothing to fear."
"Besides, I've layered shields on all of you. That should be enough to block many dangerous attacks."
Ten shields per person. On each person's arm were ten [Geo] attribute runes. If it weren't for reaching the limit, Kaito would have given them even more.
It wasn't that Kaito had run out of elemental energy, but it seemed there was a limit to how many he could bestow.
Strange, but understandable. If there was no upper limit and he could paste runes all over their bodies, that would truly be too invincible.
The huge boulder blocking the cave entrance was gone.
In its place appeared something like a portal effect, clearly indicating that teaming up inside was impossible; inside was an individual instance.
Kaito watched as each of them entered, then he went in last. As he did, he realized he no longer needed his torch for light.
After sensing with his ability, he also understood that this was a completely independent space.
"Ha... Alright then. Since that's the case, let's see what opportunities and dangers await me."
Hopefully, he wouldn't be disappointed!