Another two weeks passed much as the first two had after Violet unlocked her second floor. The only ones who showed up day after day were those who had signed contracts with her. David was just as hot and cold as ever and Avorn and Camellia were quiet and caused no issues for Violet whatsoever. It wasn't a bad life and it certainly allowed her to have more time to think out how she wanted to build her dungeon, but Violet still couldn't help but worry about what was going on outside of the dungeon.
Sure, she could have tried to ask David about why no one else was showing up to the dungeon, but she got the feeling that would just lead to him giving an aggravating answer that was more likely to sour her mood than actually be helpful. As for Camellia and Avorn, they hadn't approached her to talk or trade and Violet could only assume they enjoyed having their space. She didn't quite enjoy the unpleasantness of Avorn's fear of her either. He had been slowly, ever so slowly improving, but giving him time to process things seemed better than exposure therapy in this case, not that Violet was much of a psychologist.
Elivyre not showing up to the dungeon was the most disappointing thing of all. They were supposed to be friends and Violet didn't get the impression that her friend was afraid of her. So, unless there was genuinely something wrong, why hadn't Elivyre shown up for nearly a month now? If it were a lack of being able to carry through on her promise to trade for the potions, Violet would rather her friend just ask her for more time than avoid her completely.
A surge went through the dungeon and she felt a sense of calmness wash over her. This was a common occurrence lately as Violet couldn't help but worry about the state of things. When the dungeon was so empty after seeing so much success, she couldn't help but worry that she had done something wrong, that she was at fault for the empty dungeon. It was even becoming difficult to feel up to developing the dungeon when it just felt like all her efforts were for nothing.
Well, Violet had already slowed down her building by quite a bit. She had used some of her excess mana at night to invest in a small coin pouch to store paper, ink, and a quill as well as lots of sweets and tea to enjoy with the pixies each night. The tea still had to be brewed by leaving it out in the sun, but it was still just as tasty. The nights were peaceful and the pixies were always so eager to hear about her plans for the dungeon. Jasmine and Daisy were especially excitable as they loved to point to her various sketches and ask what things were, offering up their opinions on things quite freely.
Lily was still as shy as ever, but she did stop hiding behind Cedar long enough to wave hello to her now. It would seem she was slowly, but surely warming up to her, which made Violet feel relieved. Lily's behavior wasn't aggravating like the adventurers since it was clear she was just super shy rather than being afraid of Violet. Still, it would be nice to see her come out of her shell and relax as the others do.
Feeling the familiar feeling of someone entering the dungeon, Violet knew it was time for her nightly swordsmanship training. Violet let out a heavy sigh as a thought occurred to her. David's tributes had been rather low-effort lately, even to the point of seeming passive-aggressive. She could easily guess what he had brought tonight was likely to be the same.
Violet wasn't entirely wrong either. David felt frustrated by how infrequently Violet wanted to trade with him. After the initial long wait for her to be willing to trade with him, she had ended up limiting him to only having the opportunity to trade with her once a week. Considering this was throwing off his plans to feed his family delicious food during the cold season and get rich in the long-term, he couldn't help but feel frustrated.
Of course, there were other factors at play as well. There was a distinct lack of merchants coming through the town to trade with and the only one he could depend on buying the goods from him right now was the local tavern owner. The new alchemist would purchase any plants that he brought her, but there weren't many options for selling luxury food items. That also meant that it was difficult to get anything worthwhile for trading to Violet as well, much less bringing new and interesting [Items] for tributes on a daily basis.
Despite all of this, Violet really wasn't doing too bad. She had received 1,400 DP in rent payments and 14 DP from David from his daily tributes. Then there was the matter of the dungeon points she had earned from their weekly trades. Last week, David had bought all of the soups she had as well as the mason jars full of powdered milk tea. The [Items] had a value of 2,240 DP, but she had ended up earning far more than that.
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As she took her stance and prepared to begin their nightly duel, Violet continued to think things over. It was no longer worth her time to practice sword swings and form while with David. Besides which, it felt a lot more vindicating to be able to channel her frustration towards him by going at him with all she had, even if she knew she was still a bit far off from being able to overpower him. It wasn't like he was a weak adventurer, after all, he had reached a pretty decent level even before he had 'retired' in order to start his own family. Violet wasn't sure that was such a bad thing, though, since that meant she never had to hold back.
After they finished with their hour of training, Violet would go ahead and handle this week's trading session with David. Last week he had brought oak leaves, oak bark, apple tree leaves, apple tree bark, and mason jars. She had been impressed by the number of leaves that could be stored in one magic bag, but that was mostly just because she wasn't aware of just how light they were, even in mass quantities. Apparently, 1,492 leaves only takes up a single Unit of space.
David had chosen to bring these [Items] as a bit of a gamble based on his interaction with Avorn and Camellia. He had to assume their trade had been successful after he had noticed they were carrying new bags the next time they met. So, he went into the dungeon and chopped down an oak and an apple tree and then dragged them out of the dungeon and back home. A normal man might have struggled to do such a thing, especially without help, but this was easy enough for David, it was just a shame how much of a mess it left in the process.
The dungeon repaired itself when he left, but he had to go back through the forest and local town area and clean up after himself as best he could. Gregory had offered to help him or to send one of his younger sons, but David had turned them down, assuring them he could handle it by himself.
Since the apple tree and oak bark wasn't one of the ones Avorn had mentioned as being possible to turn into bark flour, he had just packaged it up into mason jars to trade away to Violet. The sticks and wood itself had been bundled or chopped into firewood and stored in Gregory's family's barn so that it could, hopefully, dry out before the end of the winter season. They were fine, for now, thanks to the 50 Units of firewood they had received from Avorn, but it was unlikely that amount would last them the entire season.
Violet had accepted the [Items] David offered her easily enough, but she was entirely too unwilling to sit there and count out the leaves required to pay for the rest of the cost. Instead, she told David to do it while threatening that she would never trade with him again if there was even one leaf missing. This had resulted in David just giving her all of the leaves he had brought with him, which had made Violet quite happy thanks to the profit she made. However, it worsened David's impression of her. Even though he was happy his gamble had paid off, he didn't like the threat to his livelihood.
In the end, Violet had ended up making an entire 7,496 DP from the trade. While she had dumped the bark out of the mason jars before they were absorbed by the dungeon, she had only received 10 DP for each, which was mostly due to them being added as new [Items]. The apple tree leaves were also new, but she only got 10 DP for the first one and then the rest were worth 1 DP each. Despite David having a magic bag, he hadn't exactly filled it to the brim with things for trading, some of the space had to be used for his other equipment. So, while she had made off like a bandit, it wasn't as over the top as it could have been.
Violet enjoyed the extra dungeon points since it meant that she could invest in her dungeon more. However, she wasn't so greedy as to take advantage of anyone, even David, so she informed him the next day that the same purchase only required just under 2,250 leaves, in case he wanted to make the same purchase again in the future. David was appreciative of her help, even if it did still sound like a pain to count all the leaves out.
He didn't even have to chop down any more dungeon trees for a while. Since one oak tree could easily have 225 Units of leaves or 373,134 leaves, he could likely afford to pay for the same purchase every week for the rest of the winter season and then some.
As David wasn't aware of just how much under 2,250 leaves it would cost, he just brought that exact amount for this week's trade. There wasn't much point in changing his order either since nothing had changed for him and Violet hadn't added any new [Items] to her stock. The soups were good options for feeding everyone at their household while the teas could be sold to the tavern owner for a bit less than he'd like, but a decent price nonetheless.
Once Violet parted from David's side to head back upstairs she thought about how she really wished Elivyre was here once more. It would be good to ask her about any merchants who might be interested in signing a contract with her. Either that or some sort of charity organization that could ensure the goods made it into more hands and could help more people.
Violet didn't really like the idea of selling goods too often to normal adventurers or even most merchants. She didn't want people to treat her the way David clearly was trying to. Neither she nor her dungeon were there purely for adventurers to get rich or otherwise take advantage of them. Violet wanted to help people, but her merchant hobby was otherwise just a means to an end.