Later that day, David brought Violet some apple jam as a tribute. Since all of the good apples still had to be turned into dried fruit, jams, and other more shelf-stable goods, there was plenty to spare. While it wasn't entirely necessary to do so, David and Alice both helped Gregory's family with the preparations for winter. They had plenty of time to spare and they both appreciated having somewhere to stay. Besides, Gregory's family had been quite good to them and so they felt happy to help.
Violet wasn't informed of any of this, however. David didn't like to talk to Violet more than he had to and Alice was a rather quiet and shy child. She was always polite to Violet and greeted her each time they entered the dungeon as well as answering any questions directed at her, but she mostly just preferred to spend time with Luna. David tended to glare at Violet whenever she tried to get too friendly with his daughter, though, so it was rare that Violet tried to engage Alice in conversation.
No matter how much time passed, David didn't seem to be warming up to Violet and she was already growing tired of trying. While it wasn't exactly normal to expect people to like you after only a few days of being around one another, things just felt different here. David and Violet were spending a lot of quality time together, not just simply being in the same room with multiple others. If they were going to become friends instead of merely having a contractual agreement, it was likely that it would have already happened by now.
So, Violet just accepted the few blessings that she did have. She could now defend her dungeon quite well between her new boss [Monster] and her beginner swordsmanship skills. Plus, she had an entire 100 MP to spend on upgrading her dungeon between the two rounds of spending she got during the time David would visit her each night. Both would likely end up as valuable assets for the future, so she couldn't complain too much about the rest of it.
David completed the slime parkour again, but didn't make much progress on the flower hunt challenge. That wasn't much of a surprise since he seemed to be using the process of elimination to do so. Violet wasn't sure if his wax boards would even be enough to record all of the possible combinations. That was just how abysmal the chances of solving the puzzle that way is.
Alice almost always completed the slime jigsaw puzzle and tonight was no different. While the two also spent some time working on the capture-the-slime challenge, they were still struggling too much with it. As for why the two always seemed to change their mind about which challenges they wanted to stop doing, Violet wasn't certain. Perhaps they just kept getting frustrated with how difficult they were, but then didn't want to give up on an entire challenge reward because they were too tempting. Well, maybe that was being a bit generous about the value of the challenge rewards, but it was the best guess Violet had.
When David finally left to take a break, Violet got to work spending her mana. The apple jam and the jar it came in gave her an entire 60 DP, bringing her total up to 302 DP. It was nice to see the amount slowly increasing, but the progress still felt slow. Oh well, not every day could be like the one when she exchanged goods with David, she needed her mana for other things right now anyway.
Now that she had a spawner, it was time to summon some [Critters]. 10 MP was spent on five jade tree frogs while 40 MP was spent on twenty koi fish. The main point of the room was for it to be a relaxing pond with fish swimming in it that could double as a fishing pond. It wasn't an ideal fishing spot since there were only koi fish, so Violet wasn't going to bother making it a challenge. However, it still felt like a lovely place to relax and it added some value to her dungeon.
The koi fish came in a lot of different color variations. They could be black, white, metallic, gold, silver, red, orange, or yellow. Plus, they had a lot of different pattern variations. It was a lot of fun for Violet to watch the fish swim around in the pond and see how many different patterns and colors she could spot. With the addition of the willow tree and the sound of her jade tree frogs splashing in and out of the water, it felt incredibly peaceful.
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It felt disappointing when David entered the dungeon once more and she had to return to swordsmanship training. However, she had all of eternity left to enjoy the sights in her dungeon. David would only live so long and would certainly only be around to teach her for a short time. It would be a shame to waste the opportunity that she had now for something she could do whenever.
Violet fought fiercely against David in mock combat, failing quite frequently as she was knocked onto her butt and had her sword go flying. While her sword could be replaced easily enough, it still felt like a shame to have her sword thrown into the dirt every few seconds. However, swordsmanship was something people spent years getting better at, so there was no way she could master the skill in a few days.
Well, someone who had a swordsmanship class could become good at it much more quickly, but it wasn't like David or Violet had such a class advantage. David had the guardian class and all of his skills were based around controlling [Monster] aggro and shielding his party from danger. All of his sword skills had been learned through hard work and consistent practice. It wouldn't make sense for anyone to enter a dungeon without something that could be used as a weapon, so he had chosen to wield a sword and cover himself in an extra layer of protective armor.
By the time David left for the night, Violet felt exhausted. Her muscles ached and her palms were a puffy red as the skin was clearly on the verge of forming blisters. If it weren't for her rapid recovery rate, thanks to her bond with the dungeon core, she'd likely have a hard time with practice the next day. Instead, after a good night's rest, she would be in perfect condition again.
Violet dragged her tired body to the dungeon core room before starting to work on the dungeon upgrades she needed to make. Entering the building view, she spent 5 MP to build a 5-Units hallway to the right of the wildflower meadow room. She would be building her next room there, but that could wait until the next round of mana she had. For now, she had other interests to take care of.
Another 20 MP was spent to build a 20-Units straight hallway that connected the pond room and flower hunt room. This wouldn't help anyone get to the dungeon core room any faster since they'd still have to go through the same minimum number of rooms to reach it. Instead, it just offered another alternate route where adventurers could skip the slime parkour room while also increasing the chances someone might get lost in her dungeon.
With the last little bit of mana she had, Violet spent 5 MP on a leather satchel, 3 MP on leather boots, 10 MP on one lesser healing potion, and 5 MP on a wild violet and honey lollipop. The bag would give Violet somewhere to put [Items] she didn't want the dungeon to absorb right away as well as to keep any dungeon-created [Items] she wanted on her person. It was annoying always having to carry things in her hands or to leave them lying around. Adventurers used satchels and there was no reason she couldn't as well.
As for the leather boots, Violet felt like they would be more appropriate for someone who was fighting with a sword. Her purple cloth slip-on shoes didn't tend to be good about traction and she slipped far too often. It wasn't like she got to choose what she was wearing when she was reincarnated into this world, but she could easily afford to make some custom equipment for herself using the unlocked [Items] from that one adventurer who had died in her dungeon. So, she put her cloth shoes into her satchel and the new leather boots on her feet.
With her new leather belt and scabbard from Matthias, the leather boots, and the leather satchel she now felt much better equipped. Perhaps she was still a far cry from being dressed as a proper adventurer, but she wasn't exactly meant to be one anyway. Most of her life was meant to be spent relaxing and managing the dungeon, not in combat. Violet just needed to be able to have clothes that could be used in a larger variety of situations and could make things easier for her.
As for the health potion, Violet felt like it would be a good idea in case anything bad happened and she needed one. The situation with the elderly farmers came to mind as one issue, but it could just as easily happen that a child or Elivyre could get hurt and then she'd want a healing potion on hand. Plus, for the same reason she wanted the lollipop, it might be nice to have dungeon-made items.
Violet was a Dungeon Master, but she could just as easily function as a merchant in the same way that Elivyre does. Heck, it could be like a special event to meet her and haggle prices to buy useful equipment or challenge rewards without having to complete the actual challenge. Maybe Violet could even draw in more adventurers with such a gimmick? Only time will tell…