"I brought you a lily pad and a dried lotus flower like you wanted. It took quite a bit of travel to find what you wanted and I had to ask everyone I knew if they had ever heard of such a thing. They especially seemed confused by the lotus flower, I don't think we call it that here. I don't mind doing this much for you, but I might have to get some more information from you the next time you make a similar request."

Theodore explained. Violet felt a bit guilty, but still smiled gratefully up at him as she replied

"Thank you! I'm excited to put them in my pond room. I'm probably just going to wait until I've unlocked the next floor, though, since I'm trying to focus on that right now. It costs an entire 1,000 DP to do that. Since I tend to spend most of my dungeon points on research and upgrades, I'm pretty low on them right now."

Theodore nodded, looking unsurprised as he replied

"That sounds about right. There aren't a lot of Dungeon Masters who bother decorating their first floor so thoroughly. Well, most Dungeon Masters also started as [Monsters] or beasts, so that should go without saying. Still, even Dungeon Masters who are more like yourself tend to prefer to keep things simple on their first floors until they have a few floors built. They tend to be more afraid of dying and want to unlock a few mana capacity increases. It becomes easier to build once you aren't so limited by your mana.

Still, I like what you've done with the place. With how fast your dungeon has been growing, it seems like a lot of adventurers must like it as well. It'll likely take a few years before you can get a steady flow of adventurers in here, though. Things take a lot longer to be built in the outside world and most adventurers aren't willing to go without a proper bed and a roof over their heads.

However, that does bring up another point I wanted to talk to you about. It's going to be wintertime soon, which will likely mean you won't see as many adventurers visiting your dungeon, certainly not as many new ones anyway. Also, you likely won't be getting any more dungeon points from your contracted [Monsters]."

Violet furrowed her eyebrows as she asked

"Why would that be a problem?"

Theodore looked at Violet in confusion, taking a moment before replying

"Are you not aware of how difficult it is for your kodama to get in and out of the dungeon? It's too small to open and close the dungeon doors by itself. It likely has to wait until adventurers open the doors before dashing outside. Then, I imagine it just throws anything it does manage to forage into the dungeon before going out to look for more things. Then, it has to decide when to call it a day before sneaking back into the dungeon. With the snow, it'll be much more difficult for it to traverse the outside world and there will be fewer adventurers to let them in and out of the dungeon."

Violet hadn't put much thought into how the kodama had been going about getting the tributes. She knew that she couldn't personally approach the dungeon entrance, so she couldn't help it get in and out, but she wasn't exactly watching the kodama come and go. Now she felt guilty for expecting the small spirit [Monster] to do such hard work.

Perhaps she should look into whether she could make contracted [Monsters] from the second floor do the foraging. They'd have to go down to the first floor and then traverse the dungeon just to reach the entrance, but, hopefully, they'd be larger creatures who could open the doors by themselves and travel a lot further a lot faster. Maybe they could even bring back more [Items] at once so they wouldn't have to work as hard to get the same amount of tribute.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I didn't realize that was what was going on. I'll talk to the kodama I have collecting tribute now and let them know that they don't have to do that anymore."

Violet said. Theodore shrugged, not having an opinion on the matter. It was a dungeon [Monster's] job to protect the dungeon. Considering the kodamas couldn't even do that much, it seemed obvious that they should contribute by foraging for items, no matter how difficult it might be. If the kodama wasn't willing to do that much, they wouldn't have accepted the contract offer in the first place. They would be lucky to end up with such a generous Dungeon Master as Violet.

After reaching the dungeon core and checking it out, Theodore asked

"Do you have any other questions or concerns you'd like me to address before I leave?"

Violet nodded eagerly before inquiring

"Yes! I was wondering about how easily I'll be able to continue building rooms on the first floor after I unlock other floors. I know right now people tend to not stay in the dungeon too long so they aren't preventing me from further upgrading the dungeon and risk upsetting me. However, that seems like it won't be the case anymore after I unlock more floors."

Theodore easily answered

"That shouldn't be too big of an issue. The dungeon traffic will always be reduced in the wintertime. Even once more people live nearby, it is still a bit too long of a trip for many to want to make when it's snowing and cold outside.

However, even during the rest of the year, there should be opportunities to build on the lower floors. Most adventurers tend to clear out of a floor at night so that the dungeon resources can respawn. Unlike [Monsters] that respawn at set intervals, things like flowers and trees only respawn when the room has been empty for a long enough time. That is difficult with multiple parties occupying the same floor, so most tend to just leave at night and come back the next morning.

There are cases where higher floors will have people stay overnight, but they never stay on the highest floor for too long. Plus, most adventurers tend to offer extra tribute to make up for the inconvenience of staying overnight. Most adventurers are pretty good about respecting dungeons and the Dungeon Masters who oversee them. It is only a small handful of bad apples that you have to look out for. Still, if your dungeon is popular and you live long enough, I'm sure you will see plenty of those sorts of people as well."

Violet and Theodore talked for a short while longer before he left. There were plenty of small details regarding unlocking her next floor that Violet wanted to confirm, but most of it could be left until later. Theodore would immediately come to visit her when she unlocked the next floor since that was part of his job. She could always ask him anything else that she thought of between now and then at that time.

The lotus flower and lilypad gave Violet another 45 DP, bringing her up to 214 dungeon points. That was already a fifth of what was needed to unlock the next floor. So, Violet felt quite satisfied with her progress. So long as she was successful in trading her dungeon-made [Items] for some extra tribute, she would likely be able to make her goal in no time at all. It would certainly be nice if she could spend most of the winter setting up her second floor in preparation for the next spring when more adventurers were likely to visit.

Before going to relax once more, Violet spent her mana on some more items. 40 MP was spent on two mana potions while 10 MP was spent on one lesser mana potion. She'd only need a few more before she could feel like she had a comfortable amount of potions on hand. Then she would likely move on to buying other items. Well, it would help to know what the adventurers currently visiting her dungeon were even interested in. If they all wanted to buy potions, she would happily invest her mana in more of them, but, if they wanted something else, she'd certainly have to stop buying potions.