When the feeling of the last adventurer leaving the dungeon came over Violet, she was rather surprised to see several notifications more than she had expected. Violet looked it over and saw a few herbs she already had, which gave her 3 DP. However, the more confusing part was the rest of the notifications that listed things like blue dye, copper, pepper, wind magic, and wind magic crystals being added to her [Base Resources] list. Meanwhile, a blue robe, leather belt, coin purse, wooden magic staff, leather satchel, boar jerky, wind magic crystal, hardtack, waterskin, and blood had been added to her [Items] list. There was also another 13 DP from repeats, which meant she had gained 241 DP from one round of tribute.

When Violet reviewed the list in confusion, she started to get the feeling that someone had died in her dungeon. Not only that, but it would seem that their companions hadn't retrieved their body or most of their belongings. That seemed rather unfortunate for them, but it was certainly Violet's gain! Wait, that wasn't right...

Violet frowned as she thought that over. It felt like a normal part of life and as if she could accept it as easily as the fact that she had to breathe air to live. However, her memories of being human dictated that it wasn't normal to feel such indifference towards others dying. Violet started to breathe heavily as she panicked. However, even that didn't seem to last long as she almost felt the dungeon pulse around her and she began to calm.

Was the dungeon forcing her to remain calm? Violet had also calmed down rather quickly from the extreme trauma of being forced to die repeatedly as well. While her first death that had brought her into this world and the nightmare of finding her beloved husband dead had been almost unbearable, as she lay on the ground in a panicked and terrified state, the feeling had dissipated now.

Violet still felt sad about it all and she still felt like she loved her husband. However, the feelings that would otherwise cloud her judgment and make it difficult to function were nowhere to be found. Sure, Violet had always bottled up her feelings until a bigger event pushed her over the edge, but this somehow felt different.

Shaking her head, Violet pushed the thoughts from her head. She couldn't make heads or tails of this and it wasn't helpful to stress over things. Violet knows she has no guarantee that more adventurers won't show up. It wouldn't be good for her full mana to go to waste!

Violet quickly spent the 50 MP on a spawner for her new water room and placed it at the bottom of the pool. Then she asked,

"Can I research slime evolutions that would allow them to easily move through the water and jump up out of it to attempt to knock adventurers off of platforms?"

Violet hadn't actually set up the wooden platforms yet, but she could always do that later.

Would you like to research slimes using [Base Resources] water and wind magic to create slime evolution aqua slime for 250 DP?

Yes

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No

Violet selected the [Yes] option. It was a tad expensive, but she would still have 372 DP left, so it wasn't like she couldn't afford it. Violet did find it interesting that wind magic was involved in the evolution. Perhaps it was similar to the idea of a balloon where the slimes could switch between a heavier and lighter density using wind magic?

Regardless, the more important thing to find out was how much it would actually cost Violet to evolve her basic slimes into aqua slimes. Violet pulled up her basic menu and then selected the [Monsters] option. She noted that she now had a new option available.

Monster Options:

Summonable Monsters

Contractable Monsters

Monster Evolutions

Violet selected the [Monster Evolutions] option.

Available Monster Evolutions:

Name:

Evolution Cost:

Info:

Aqua Slime

25 DP

Requires a slime to evolve. Requires a suitable environment with a significant amount of water for it to live in. Does very little combat damage, but is capable of evolving into larger varieties of slime.

Violet found it interesting that the definition now clarified the slime could evolve, but specifically into larger slimes. Perhaps they could only have one specialty evolution, but were able to evolve into larger sizes as a separate consideration? Of course, it was also pretty interesting to note that the evolutions required dungeon points instead of mana. That would make things much more convenient since Violet could still have 5 slimes for a 50 MP spawner, even with the evolved versions.

Outside the dungeon, Emerald Dawn and Cirdan Wynstone had gone to the local tavern. It was much quieter than they were used to. Most drinking establishments had adventurers who were loudly telling stories and celebrating their recent successes. Here, there were few patrons and most were quietly drinking by themselves.

"I don't know what he was thinking wandering off by himself. He better not blame us for leaving him in there! We don't have all day to wait around for him."

Emerald complained. Cirdan just gave a polite smile as he replied

"I'm sure he will be fine. It isn't like it was particularly dangerous. We even spent several hours on that puzzle without being ambushed by [Monsters]. I doubt there even was anything besides slime on that floor. It's a real shame there weren't, at least, more of them. It would make a fine dungeon for beginners if there were more [Monsters] to fight."

Emerald nodded, but seemed to sober up considerably as she asked in a hushed voice

"What if he does die, though?"

Cirdan shook his head as he replied

"It matters not, adventurers die every day. Besides, my people believe that death is a natural part of life and human don't tend to live very long lives anyway. They live even shorter lives when they choose a life of adventuring."

Emerald nodded in agreement. She hadn't been particularly fond of Gale anyway. She changed the conversation to discussions of what to do from there. Whether it would be best for Cirdan and her to part ways or stick together and look for new party members. While they didn't know each other that well either, a healer was always valuable and Cirdan was easygoing enough that Emerald didn't mind remaining in a party with him for a bit longer.