"Did you sense anything?"
Inside the wooden cabin, Carl suddenly stopped doing squats with Hopp on her back.
The special power granted by the Dragon Mark had allowed her to sense a strange fluctuation sweeping over the area just now.
"No, I didn't sense anything unusual. What happened?"
Seeing the solemn look on Carl's face, Hopp twisted her body and flipped down from Carl's shoulder.
"I'm not sure either, but some kind of strange power just flew over from that direction."
With some effort, Carl raised her hand and pointed toward a certain direction, her brows deeply furrowed.
"My danger sense didn't react. It looks like it isn't some disaster that's about to happen immediately. Could it have something to do with your Scouting Dragon Mark? I remember that thing can even sense Dragon Crystals."
The Scouting Dragon Mark Family's largest industry was helping search for various Dragon Crystals.
As crystallized manifestations of the power of the three Creation Dragons, Dragon Crystals could not be marked by detection magic.
However, holders of the Scouting Dragon Mark could discover Dragon Crystals through a special sense.
"I'm not sure. The fluctuation just now didn't feel quite the same as the Eberron Dragon Crystal produced by the Bioluminescent Mushrooms."
Rubbing the spot between her brows, Carl tried to rule out the effects caused by fatigue.
"It could be a Khyber Dragonshard. After all, this is a dungeon. Finding a Khyber Dragonshard here would be normal."
Hopp shrugged and put her hands on her hips, her tone carrying a hint of unconcern.
"But I still feel that the fluctuation contained malice. Let's go investigate that area after we reach level three. Hopefully it won't be too much trouble. If it really is something dangerous, we'll have to consider moving."
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Carl walked over to the lounge chair and dropped onto it.
"Don't sit down right after exercising! Stand up straight first and wait for your heartbeat to calm down before sitting!"
Hopp grabbed Carl by the collar and pulled her up. Ignoring Carl's groan, she made her continue standing.
Standing helplessly to the side, Carl watched Hopp wipe away the sweat she had just gotten on the lounge chair, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly.
"Hmm~ Should we heat some water for a bath tonight? It'll relieve our fatigue and clean our bodies. We've been rained on several times lately, but we still need to bathe."
Looking down at the sweat covering herself and Hopp, Carl propped herself up and suggested weakly.
Although they still had no suitable container for heating water, Carl could carve a few more stones with Flame Runes and toss them into a basin filled with water.
That way, the two of them could still get a basin of hot water.
The basin used for soaking the Giant Lizard Hide happened to be suitable for this.
At the mention of bathing, anticipation appeared in Hopp's eyes.
Although she had always lived from one uncertain meal to the next in Zhuomu, she still paid great attention to personal hygiene.
But since coming to the dungeon, she had yet to take a proper bath.
"Then what are we waiting for? Is there anything I can help with?"
"Hmm~ Could you help me carve some Flame Runes? The same kind I drew on the stone slab before."
"Of course!"
Taking out the flint dagger she had ground earlier, Hopp sat down beside the stone slab and began copying and carving the runes on it.
Carl, meanwhile, emptied the last batch of lizard hides soaking in the wooden basin, splashing the plant ash and liquid outside together.
Afterward, Carl used the rainwater to rinse the wooden basin and placed it outside, waiting for it to fill with rainwater.
By the time Hopp had carved two samples, Carl tried injecting spirit into them, only to find that just one could be used normally.
After teaching Hopp a few precautions, Carl brought the wooden basin back inside while the stones had yet to heat up completely.
In only a few minutes, the wooden basin was already more than half full of water.
This rainfall is far too extreme. Where does all this rainwater eventually go? If this phenomenon occurs periodically, this dungeon should have been flooded long ago!
Analyzing the excessive rainfall, Carl picked up the stones and tossed them into the wooden basin.
She did not toss in the stone slab used for eating. Although high temperatures could indeed kill bacteria, some things were better kept separate.
Before long, Hopp had carved several more Rune Stones. Given her learning progress, Carl felt that she might be able to pursue the Rune Carver feat in the future.
Injecting spirit into the newly carved Rune Stones again, Carl found that three of them worked this time.
She tossed those Rune Stones into the wooden basin as well, then carried it to a corner of the room and used a clothes-drying rack and the Giant Lizard Hides to set up a curtain around it.
"The water's gradually heating up. Hopp, you go first."
After testing the water temperature with her finger, Carl left the Alchemy Jug beside the wooden basin and walked out of the makeshift bathroom.
"Then I won't hold back!"
Hopp stepped into the makeshift bathroom, quickly took off her clothes, placed them on the rack, and happily began bathing.
The Giant Lizard Hides, which had soaked in the plant-ash solution for a long time, were somewhat translucent because they had not fully dried in the shade.
This discovery left Carl somewhat restless.
But in the end, she said nothing and merely watched quietly.
After all, she would be going in to bathe soon too...
No one knew how much time had passed when Hopp poked her head out from behind the curtain.
"Carl, could you bring me those few Giant Lizard Hides that have dried in the shade? My clothes are completely soaked, so I need something to wash them."
Only then did Carl remember that both their clothes had been completely soaked with sweat. Since they had no spare clothes, they could only use the few Giant Lizard Hides still drying in the shade as bath towels.
"Just a moment. I'll go take a look."
Carl ran her fingers over the hides. The dry hides were already sufficiently suitable for making clothes.
However, because they had lost their moisture, the hides were not as soft as before.
"Try wrapping this around yourself. It isn't as soft as we initially thought."
Carl handed Hopp a relatively large hide and stood outside the curtain, waiting for her.
"It's a little troublesome, but it's not bad."
Before long, Hopp emerged from behind the curtain, using leather as a bath towel.
She now looked as if she were wearing a tight-fitting leather dress.
After being thoroughly washed, her red skin had taken on a faint sheen. Partially concealed beneath the leather bath towel, it gave her the air of a shy beauty half-hiding her face.
Hopp's red tail swayed restlessly behind her, clearly showing that its owner was not as calm as she appeared.
"Then I'll go in and wash too. Could you wash my clothes as well? We can make spare clothes together afterward."
As she spoke, Carl also took off her clothes and placed them on the rack.
The next second, Hopp snatched the clothes away from outside the curtain and took them to be washed.
Why do I always feel that the way we get along is developing toward that of an old married couple?
Shaking her head with a sigh, Carl bent down to scoop up some water from the basin, only to discover that, aside from several stones, there was nothing else left inside.
"Where's the water?!"
That day, Carl deeply understood one principle:
Never bathe after a woman when hot water is limited, because you never know whether she'll leave any hot water for you.