Camellia was quite happy as she walked through the entrance to Thornkeep Sanctuary. It was an interesting name for a dungeon, but she wasn't exactly one to judge. She was certain she wouldn't know where to begin if asked to name a dungeon. Besides, the name somehow felt fitting given how the dungeon functioned. The first floor was fairly safe and almost felt like a home away from home after so many days camping in it. Yet, she could never quite escape the uneasy feeling that the dungeon brought, as if something dangerous was waiting to ambush her at any moment.
"Are you excited, love? We're supposed to get our very own magic bags today! One for each of us even!"
Avorn asked in a rather chipper tone. Camellia smiled down at her husband as she answered
"Of course! It honestly feels just as good as discovering a rare and hidden treasure. I'm glad we got someone to help us process everything into individual parts as well. I was a bit worried we would have to cut down on our leveling up at night just to make time to do it ourselves."
Avorn nodded in understanding. It was certainly true that they wouldn't have had any other time to do so. The tavern owner wouldn't have been happy if they did it at one of their tables, even if they did buy some ale to drink while they worked.
During the daytime, Avorn often went around trying to forage things in the forest, but that could hardly be done for very long with how cold it was. So, they had to find other things to do to keep them preoccupied until they could return to the dungeon. Selling some of the loot they had earned from the dungeon could oftentimes be drawn out for a while so they could remain in the warmth of the stores in town. However, they always inevitably ended up at the tavern where they could stay for a few hours so long as they kept buying new pints of ale or splurged on the occasional meal.
Luckily, now they would be able to afford such an expense more easily. They had hardly been planning on buying magic bags as they were much too expensive, but they were going to need proper backpacks so they could invest in better camping gear. Now they had magic bags, so they'd be able to fit everything they needed in them and also have plenty of room leftover to carry away more loot from the dungeon. That, in turn, would also make it easier to earn a larger sum of money in a shorter period of time so that they could buy new armor and weapons more quickly.
After coming to the koi pond room, the two looked around uncertainly. Avorn was the first to speak, though, as he asked
"David should be here by now, right? Where do you think he'd be?"
Camellia wasn't entirely certain, but she still answered
"I know he usually seems to wander around a bit. Maybe he likes to complete the dungeon challenges?"
Avorn nodded before noting
"You know, we haven't actually tried any of those out for ourselves yet. Do you think maybe we should set aside some time to try one or two of them?"
"Since we come here every night, it almost seems like a waste not to."
Camellia answered. The conversation was left at that as the two started to wander around the dungeon.
It was a bit surprising for the two to see just how much had changed in the dungeon. There were now six basic slimes in the wildflower meadow where there had only been one before. Avorn almost felt bad for the kodama who seemed to be in a much more crowded space now, but he was hardly going to say anything to Violet about it. Still, he hoped that the situation would be sorted out soon.
They passed by a few puzzle rooms while they were walking around. Their systems notified them of what all the challenges entailed as they passed by, which made it easier to decide which of them would be better for them to attempt. The rainbow ball maze and jigsaw challenges both seemed to be good options. While they were unfamiliar to them, the concept seemed simple enough, if a bit time-consuming. Still, it would hardly be a big deal if they had to take their time to figure out the mechanics behind the puzzles.
By the time they found David, he had just finished up his training with Violet and was heading elsewhere to work on some challenges. Camellia smiled as she spotted Alice who was carrying a basket full of various plants. David still felt a bit uneasy about letting someone he knew so little about talk to his daughter, but he decided to keep things amicable. It wouldn't do to pick fights where it wasn't necessary.
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"Here, I'll get out the [Items] you asked for. I'm not entirely sure what you're planning to use these for, but, if you're hoping to trade with Violet, she doesn't seem to be interested in that today. I already tried and got told that she needed to finish up her current project before she was willing to do anything like that."
David wasn't exactly blind. An adventurer who was taking the time to meticulously prepare something that wasn't edible seemed to suggest they were trying to trade with Violet. He wasn't exactly about to complain since the firewood and knowledge he was gaining was far more useful than mere hopes Violet would be in the mood to trade with him. However, he still felt the need to warn them that their endeavors might be fruitless.
Avorn just smiled, thanking him for his help as he and his wife took the [Items] off his hands. They weren't entirely sure what sort of project Violet might be working on, but they weren't going to give up so easily. It wasn't like they were trading for her usual merchandise, they had struck a deal with her and already informed her ahead of time that they intended to trade with her today. So, while it was always possible for her to put it off, the chances of her going through with it also seemed quite good.
Of course, Violet didn't know anything about their conversation or concerns. When she had mentioned being busy with something to David, she had also been merely referring to her deal with Avorn and Camellia in a rather vague manner. It was none of David's business who else she traded with anyway, so he hardly needed to know the finer details. All that mattered was she found carrying around three magic bags, two of which were loaded to the brim with firewood, to be more of a pain than she liked. She just wanted to get rid of the extra baggage before even attempting to dig out all the bits and bobs she had in her primary bag.
Violet waited a while before going to approach the couple. She wanted David out of the way so she could talk to them in a more private setting, which meant waiting for him to go home for the night. Still, it wasn't too bad of a wait since she could happily spend time enjoying the new scenery on the second floor. The room filled with roses had quite a pleasant aroma and the addition of the strange trees made for quite the strange sight.
Eventually, though, it was time for the trade. Violet tried to make her presence clearer by walking with more intentional footsteps, instead of as quietly as she usually did, as well as announcing her presence when she entered the room they were in.
"Hello! How are you all?"
However, this didn't seem to help matters all that much. Adventurers were still rather wary, constantly worried about [Monsters] or other adventurers ambushing them. So, Avorn still ended up pointing his bow at her with an arrow drawn. Camellia was the first to catch on to what was happening and gestured for her husband to stand down who ended up looking quite embarrassed.
"I apologize about that. You usually approach so quietly that we don't even have time to worry about whether it's a friend or foe. We didn't mean to threaten you."
Violet narrowed her eyes, feeling a bit uncomfortable, but after a moment she relaxed. She reminded herself that these two were trustworthy. If they had meant to harm her or her dungeon, they would have done so by now. As an extension of this wish to show more trust for the two, Violet decided not to make things difficult for them when it came time to trade the goods.
While it was tempting to demand they leave the [Items] in the dungeon and then leave so she could tally things before giving them their stuff, it wasn't exactly a show of good faith. Besides, if they truly respected Dungeon Masters, including herself, as much as they acted like they did, then it was unnecessary. There was no way they'd ever think of betraying her, especially not unless they planned to never return to the dungeon again, which seemed unlikely.
It also wasn't like she had as much to lose from this deal as they did either. She already had the magic bags unlocked and the firewood had only cost 50 DP. The mana could be easily forgotten about and it was pretty easy to eyeball if there was 50 DP worth of [Items] being given to her or not. So, she was more than likely going to make her investment costs back, if nothing else.
"Here, they're both full of firewood. You won't be able to put anything else in them until you remove the firewood, but I don't recommend removing it before you leave the dungeon. It might get absorbed once the dungeon is empty if you leave things lying around."
That wasn't exactly the whole truth. Anything created by the dungeon that had yet to leave the dungeon wouldn't be absorbed without her willing it to happen. However, explaining the nuances of such things seemed unnecessary.
Even Camellia seemed shocked that Violet had trusted them so easily. However, all she could really do was to give the [Items] they had prepared to Violet while explaining
"We separated the various parts so they would count as a single [Item] for the points. You'll probably have to take them out of the mason jars first, though. There should be more than 1,000 points worth here since we also included samples of various barks and such for you. We weren't sure whether they'd count as a single point or more, so we just made sure we had enough leaves and needles to account for the 1,000 by themselves."
Violet nodded in understanding before bidding them farewell. It wasn't until the next morning that she saw her new total was 1,598 DP. They hadn't been lying about providing more than enough to fit the criteria. She had been given a mixture of pine, birch, spruce, and fir bark as well as spruce needles, pine needles, fir needles, birch leaves, wood, and some mason jars. It was interesting to see that the dungeon just considered the stripped wood as the same as any other wood with only 1 DP being given for each of them. Of course, there was also some twine that the wood had been bound in, which had given her a nice bit of extra dungeon points. All in all, it felt like it was quite worth it to make such a deal with those two.