The next morning Violet awoke to 13 regenerated mana points and no additional dungeon points. Since she had told her kodama not to go out anymore, this was the expected amount, so Violet wasn't surprised. Deciding to buy something different today, she spent 10 MP on two loaves of iced carrot bread. To keep them from being damaged, Violet made sure to place them at the top of her bag and to be careful moving around.

She had to be pretty careful because of the glass potion bottles as well. So, she was already used to needing to be careful about things. Violet wasn't sure what the optimal solution to such a problem was, but she was considering investing some mana in some squirrel or rabbit fur to wrap things in. The only reason she hadn't done so previously was that the furs were bound to be rather small and she'd end up having to invest a lot of mana into it just to have enough to cover all of her bases. Plus, the furs would be bulky and take up a lot of space in her already fairly crowded satchel. Neither was ideal since she needed the space to ensure she had a decent variety to tempt adventurers with, but it also wouldn't be great if the merchandise ended up broken due to a lack of care on her part either.

While she was considering all of this, a person suddenly appeared in her dungeon entranceway. They quickly left and then, a short while later, Theodore came in with Avorn and Camellia following behind him. Violet had been a bit confused by a person suddenly appearing and then immediately leaving, but was reassured when she saw Theodore. Violet remembered him mentioning how he could teleport between dungeons to her once, so it was likely that it had just been him the whole time.

"Hello, Violet, how are you today? I hear you wanted to sign another dungeon contract?"

Violet nodded, reassuring

"Yeah, it was my suggestion this time, so no need to worry about anything."

Theodore nodded, looking a good bit reassured as he replied

"Alright, well, I'll have to go check on the dungeon core before I can sign off on anything. You don't mind if they come with us, do you? They can also just wait here, if you prefer."

Violet shrugged, replying

"I don't mind, but won't my boss room lock and the boss [Monster] attack these two if they come with us?"

Theodore looked the two up and down for a moment, sizing them up before replying

"Perhaps you're right. Most [Monsters] can be told to stand down and you can always unlock the doors, but these two look too weak to fend off any accidental attacks. What are you? F-rank? Maybe D-rank?"

The two looked nervously back at Theodore and Violet only nodding without offering much more information. Theodore sighed before telling them

"You know, you won't make it very far in your adventuring careers if you are always cowering. Violet is relatively harmless as far as Dungeon Masters go, but even the scary and temperamental Dungeon Masters prefer people not to cower. They want you to be polite and respect their property and their right to exist, but they'll just get mad if you do nothing but cower and refuse to answer their questions."

With that, Theodore walked off with Violet following close behind. He tried to take some calming breaths, clearly feeling worked up. He could sense it in the air that Violet and, as a result, the dungeon hated it when people acted afraid of them. Violet wanted to be seen as a person, not something to be feared. Finally, feeling more calm, Theodore asked

"Are you sure you want to form a contract with those two? They seem mostly harmless, but it hardly seems ideal for you. What are you even agreeing to anyway?"

Violet sighed as she explained

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Those two tend to act afraid of me, but they tend to be pretty polite. They answer my questions, willingly trade with me, and bring me nice tributes while enjoying everything my dungeon has to offer wholeheartedly. However, they seem to be struggling due to being beginner adventurers who don't have much money. With it being winter, they were debating what to do and I offered to make a deal with them.

I said they could stay the night in the dungeon from sunset to sunrise, save for when David was here since I need to do dungeon things, and all they have to do is provide me with tribute for it. Once I unlock my second floor, I don't mind if they are here at the same time as David, it shouldn't be too long now, actually. I've already earned a lot of dungeon points from trades I've made."

Theodore nodded, looking thoughtful, before replying

"That doesn't sound like too bad of a deal for you. I'll have to add in some stipulations about them not trying to attack the dungeon core during their stay, a time limit of only this winter, and some things about your [Monsters] not attacking them unless they attack them first. How much rent do you want exactly? If I specify an amount in the contract, they can just submit the amount to their system menu each day. It will automatically transfer the [Items] to you when they leave and it will ensure they know if they have submitted enough to cover their rent."

Violet's eyes lit up as she exclaimed

"Oh, wow! Really? That would be awesome! I was only asking for 100 DP per night, but I don't know how to or even really if I'm allowed to explain how dungeons work to them, so I just said 100 small items."

Theodore shrugged before replying

"Every dungeon works a little differently, but it's up to you what you want to tell people. Most Dungeon Masters don't like to talk with people and certainly don't trust them enough to get into the intimate details of how their dungeon works. A lot of human don't care about all the work that goes into managing a dungeon, though. They just want to know enough to get what they want from their experience in the dungeon.

The system menus the adventurers see are a little different, so it will likely just show up as whatever amount out of 100 points submitted, but not specify anything about how the points are calculated or that they're dungeon points. So, it isn't like the dungeon cores tend to communicate everything to the class systems adventurers and craftsman use either."

Violet almost felt like it was silly that more wasn't known about dungeons by people, but she supposed it couldn't be helped if they were willfully ignorant of it all. She was a bit curious about the whole matter of the dungeon systems being different from each other as well, but she had other things to focus on. Soon enough, they had returned to the wildflower meadow where Avorn and Camellia were waiting.

Theodore ran through all the stipulations for the contract and had both people agree before finalizing everything. Just like the first time, Violet received a notification about a new contract being registered with the system. She dismissed the notification, for now, since she already knew what all was covered. It would be useful to be able to review the terms should the need arise, but, for now, it was unnecessary.

Before leaving, Theodore removed a bag he had slung over his shoulders. It looked much like the satchel that Violet was wearing, but she was surprised when he offered it to her, explaining

"Since you wanted to play merchant so badly, I decided to purchase this magic bag for you. It holds 50 Units of weight, that's nearly three times as much as a normal satchel. Also, [Items] disappear into the bag so you don't have to worry about [Items] becoming broken if you fall or whatever else. You likely don't have to worry about anyone stealing the bag from you since that would be difficult, but it looks like an ordinary satchel so it is difficult for others to tell what it is."

Violet felt touched by Theodore's kind gesture and promptly said

"Thank you so much!"

She hugged the bag to her chest, fighting back tears of happiness. She'd also be able to produce new magic bags after the dungeon absorbed the bag, so it was a pretty big deal to get such an [Item] as tribute. Even Camellia and Avorn had wide eyes as they knew a bag that held that amount was worth an entire ten pieces of gold. Considering they were lucky to earn even a single gold piece a month between the two of them before they moved here, the amount could be considered a lot of money. Of course, their earnings potential was much higher now, but it was still quite valuable.

Avorn and Camellia promised to come back later that day, but left their tribute of three teaberries and a bunch of wintergreen for Violet. They had gone out of their way to forage for them after leaving yesterday afternoon. However, they wanted to make a good impression on Violet and give her an extra nice tribute as a thank you for helping them out. While they could have stayed in an inn, it definitely would have been expensive to do so for an entire season. That money was much better used to buy some new equipment that would allow them to explore higher floors later on. Maybe, one day, even they would be able to afford magic bags of their own.