Tobias looked nervously at the space between the platform he was on and the grass in front of him. After several days of everyone practicing, he was finally so close he could almost taste the victory. They had skipped a few days of doing the slime parkour, but he had still been practicing hard to get better at the parkour challenge.
Since they were renting a home instead of staying at an inn, they had even set up a practice parkour course. They set up platforms to jump to and from and those who were feeling more daring, like Tobias, even had one of the others throw rocks at them to try and dodge while they practiced jumping. The rocks were far less dangerous than arrows and didn't require them to purchase equipment they wouldn't normally have use for.
The others were still making slow progress and could only make it halfway through the slime parkour challenge before failing. However, that was, somewhat, to be expected. Mirabella was an entire two ranks lower than Tobias and Thodin was at a disadvantage due to being a dwarf who had a significantly shorter gait when compared to the half-giant siblings. He still tried his best and always had a good attitude about things, even despite how frustrating it likely was.
Still, Tobias wanted to finish this challenge for his party members. They only had to complete each challenge once and then they needed to submit the challenge reward alongside the information so that both could be analyzed. What they planned to learn about a loaf of carrot bread or a candy apple, Tobias wasn't sure, but his party was being fairly compensated for it so they could hardly complain. Besides, any extras they picked up they were free to keep for themselves or sell to others.
Tobias took a deep breath to steady himself then quickly ran to the edge of the platform and jumped across to the other side. The landing was not all that pleasant and he landed face-first on the grass. He started to slip off of the edge and immediately he began to grasp desperately at the grass, pulling himself further onto the land before he could fail the challenge. Luckily, when he managed to make it onto land and checked the results, he was successful!
He immediately accepted the challenge reward. A singular wild violet and honey lollipop materialized, looking very small when compared to Tobias's large hands. Still, he happily cheered as he called out
"We did it! I got the challenge reward!"
Mirabella and Thodin both immediately cheered, happily jumping into the water and swimming the rest of the distance over to Tobias before pulling themselves out of the water. The challenge was so frustrating that they'd rather just be done with it than bother to continue to attempt it any longer today. Perhaps they might return one day to attempt the challenge again, but right now they were just all so relieved to have it done and over with.
Mirabella looked at the reward Tobias was holding and frowned before saying
"Is this what a lollipop is? It just looks like a fancy hard candy on a stick. I'm guessing those small bits inside are wild violets?"
Tobias shrugged before replying
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"You know as much as I do. We don't exactly have any extras to try for ourselves, so we only have the system message to go by. Should we attempt a different challenge today or do you all just want to go to the tavern and celebrate?"
The three shared a knowing look before heading out. They'd have to stay a long while just to solve the other challenges and were likely to fail them today as well. It was better to celebrate this victory and spend the rest of the day relaxing before they got back to work. It would be better both for their morale and for their constitution. Overworking themselves would just lead to them being too exhausted to properly explore a dungeon, which was something that should be avoided at all costs.
With Tobias's party gone, Violet noted that she had received a decorative ceramic pot as a tribute. The pot had been worth an entire 35 DP by itself, which had brought her total up to 242 dungeon points. However, she still didn't have anything she was ready to spend the points on, so her mana was more important.
While Tobias's party had remained in the dungeon for a shorter time than they usually did, it was still enough to fill Violet's mana up. It only required seventeen minutes with three people in the dungeon to get fifty mana. So, it wasn't that difficult to get enough mana from a proper party. It was only when people explored the dungeon solo or as a duo instead of as a party that it took a significant amount of time for the mana to accumulate. Of course, even then, most people would spend, at least, an hour in the dungeon at a time.
When Violet's mana increased and she had more floors, it would take longer for the mana to reach full capacity. However, if her dungeon was interesting enough, it wouldn't matter. There would be enough adventurers in the dungeon to ensure she rarely ran low on mana. Well, on the second floor, she still might run into times when she was low on mana, but there would still be less mana going to waste. A two-floor dungeon wasn't likely to be nearly as exciting as a twenty-five-floor dungeon, after all.
Shaking her head, Violet tried to concentrate on the matter at hand. She needed to install a 50 MP spawner in her pond room before anyone else could visit the dungeon. While she wasn't planning to put any [Monsters] in the room, it would still be good for her [Critters] to be able to respawn. Both the jade tree frogs and koi fish were considered safe to consume, after all. So it was likely that there would be plenty of people who would be interested in capturing her [Critters], which would lead to them dying. Without a spawner, they would have to be replaced, which would be a far sadder result.
While Violet normally would have been a lot more emotional about her [Monsters] and [Critters] dying, the dungeon core was affecting her sense of morality. She now felt like it was a normal part of life for things to die in the dungeon. If anything, it was the [Monster]'s duty to die to protect the dungeon and draw adventurers in. The entire reason adventurers visited the dungeon was to grow stronger and to chase after fame and wealth, after all. As for her [Critters], most would be fortunate to rarely have to die while others would likely die so often that they'd need to be replaced more often than the [Monsters] would.
The more time Violet spent as a Dungeon Master and bonded to the dungeon core, the more her sense of self was blurred. Even if she realized that she would have had a different viewpoint just a few short weeks ago, she no longer felt the need to panic. Only the most traumatic and emotional events of her past life could hold any sway over her now. The rest may as well have happened to someone else for all they seemed to matter.
Luckily, the dungeon core couldn't force Violet's will too much. She was still able to hold onto her love for her husband Lee. She even had happy dreams of their time together whenever she slept. If the dungeon core ever tried to take away that part of Violet, it was likely that she would no longer be who she was, which would be bad even from the dungeon core's limited perspective. The dungeon core had carefully selected her to be the one to be bonded to, after all, so it was important that the core of who she was always remained.