The newly updated photo album, now proudly displaying the cheerful, smiling faces of their Mondstadt friends, had become Klee's new favorite obsession. But to her, it was a work in progress, a story with several, glaringly empty, chapters.
"Pixie prince!" she declared the next morning, her crimson eyes shining with a new, grand, and slightly dangerous, ambition. "We have pictures of the city, but we don't have any pictures of the adventure part of Mondstadt! We have to go outside! To the Whispering Woods! And Starfell Lake! We have to take pictures of slimes, and treasure, and maybe a big and sleepy Ruin Guard!"
Ren, who had been secretly longing to see the beautiful, open landscapes of the nation of wind, was immediately on board. He had gone on one adventure before, but that was just hillichurl extermination, and he had been weak back then. Now though, things were different. But their grand, expeditionary plans were brought to a screeching halt at the city gates.
"Whoa there, you two!" a cheerful, but very firm, voice called out. It was Amber, her arms crossed, a look on her face that was a perfect, practiced blend of a friend's amusement and an Outrider's professional concern. "You can't just go wandering off into the wilds on your own. There are still Hilichurl camps out there, you know."
Before she could even volunteer to be their official, and very responsible, escort, another, far more dramatic, voice cut through the air.
"Hmph! It seems the winds of destiny have once more called upon this Prinzessin to guide a fateful expedition!" Fischl appeared, Oz perched regally on her arm, her single, emerald eye gleaming with a theatrical, adventurous light. "To venture forth into the untamed lands without the sovereign gaze of royalty would be a folly of the highest order! I shall accompany you!"
Oz sighed softly. "The Prinzessin would like to come along."
Just as the party seemed to have found its new, and slightly more chaotic, chaperones, another figure came stumbling, and nearly tripping, towards them. It was a young man with a shock of pale, ash-gray hair, a pair of adventurer's goggles pushed up on his forehead, and an expression of pure, earnest, and slightly unlucky, enthusiasm. It was Bennett, the famously star-crossed leader of "Benny's Adventure Team."
"Hey! I heard you guys were going on an adventure!" he said, his voice full of a hopeful, boundless energy. "Can I come too? Maybe with all of you, my luck will finally turn around! We could find some really lucky treasure!"
Ren looked at the assembled, eclectic, and wonderfully, strange, group of adventurers, and a warm, happy smile spread across his face. He simply nodded. The more, the merrier.
And so, the strangest, most powerful, and most potentially calamitous, adventure team in the history of Mondstadt set out, their destination the wide, open plains east of the city, towards the ancient, mysterious Thousand Winds Temple.
Their adventure quickly fell into a strange, but surprisingly effective, rhythm. They would reach a new area, and the group would split. Fischl, with her dramatic pronouncements about "delving into the shadowed corners of this forgotten domain," and Bennett, with his cheerful, optimistic cries of "I have a really good feeling about this spot!", would take one half of the area to search for treasure.
And Ren and Klee would take the other.
And then, a strange, wonderful, and statistically impossible, thing began to happen.
Fischl and Bennett would return, an hour later, completely empty-handed. Bennett would be covered in a fine layer of dust, having accidentally triggered a trap that had dropped a bag of flour on him. Fischl would be dramatically lamenting the "fickle, cruel whims of a treasure-less fate."
And Ren and Klee would be sitting on top of a small, literal pile of newly discovered, and very full, treasure chests.
It happened again, and again. Ren and Klee would wander off in one direction, and they would, with an almost magical, unerring certainty, stumble upon a half-buried common chest, an exquisitely hidden precious chest, even a luxurious chest that had been cleverly concealed behind a crumbling wall. Ren, for the first time in his new life, was experiencing the simple, pure, and deeply satisfying, joy of a true, open-world treasure hunt. The chests were full of mora, of strange, interesting artifacts, of delicious-looking apples. It was wonderful.
Klee, of course, attributed their incredible success to a single and irrefutable, fact. "It's because you're here, pixie prince!" she declared, her face a mask of pure, logical conviction. "You're a good luck charm!"
Bennett, for his part, was not in the least bit jealous. He was ecstatic. "Wow! You guys are amazing! This is the most treasure Benny's Adventure Team has ever found in a single day!"
Amidst their treasure-hunting, Ren, of course, was diligently, and happily, fulfilling his true mission. He took beautiful, panoramic photos of the ancient, windswept ruins of the Thousand Winds Temple, and a dramatic, low-angle shot of the mysterious, time-worn Sundial.
He even got his picture of a Ruin Guard. They found one, silent and dormant, sitting in a field of flowers, and Ren, with a cautious, steady hand, managed to get a beautiful, close-up shot of its single, unblinking, mechanical eye.
They even, to Ren's slight, internal panic, managed to find a Cryo Regisvine. Bennett, in his usual, unlucky way, had practically tripped over its hidden, underground bulb, causing the massive plant to erupt from the ground with a furious, roaring hiss. The ensuing battle was a quick, chaotic, and very chilly, affair, as Ren and Klee worked together, Ren creating a massive, continuous wall of ice to shield them while Klee, with a happy, triumphant giggle, tossed a series of very powerful, and very pyro-infused, "bouncy-bombs" that she had apparently been saving for a special occasion.
Their final photo of the day was a group one. They set up the Kamera, using a rock as a makeshift tripod, and posed in front of the now-smoldering, and very defeated, Regisvine. It was a perfect, triumphant picture: Ren and Klee in the center, smiling, Fischl and Oz striking a dramatic, victorious pose on one side, and Bennett, on the other, giving a cheerful, and very proud, thumbs-up.
But as the Kamera's timer clicked down, a new, unexpected, and very furry, face poked into the frame from behind a nearby bush, a look of pure, curious confusion on its masked, Hilichurlian face.
The flash went off, capturing the perfectly, photobombed, moment.
And then, Klee, seeing the unexpected intruder in their victory photo, let out a small, indignant squeak. "Hey! This is our photo!"
And with a final, happy, and very loud, KA-BOOM!, the adventure, and the unfortunate Hilichurl, came to a very explosive end.