The next day, Tobias's party returned to the dungeon once more. Before doing anything else, they attempted the giant Jenga tower once more. It didn't end up going to plan this time either, but they were definitely making progress. They were hopeful that they would be able to complete it before the week was out.
The next room ended up being another new challenge room. This time it ended up being a 3D slime-themed jigsaw puzzle using dyed wood. However, if they thought the traditional jigsaw puzzle was confusing, this one was worse.
They had to start by unlearning everything they had learned previously. The pieces were no longer flat and so they had to be put together differently. 3D wasn't really a concept they had heard of before, but it was still simple enough to see they would be creating something more statue-like in nature rather than a flat image.
Unfortunately, the dyed wooden blocks did not make things easier for them. The shades of blue were too similar to one another, so only the eyes stood out as being significantly different. The pieces also curved and interlocked in strange ways that just made the whole process that much more frustrating for them. Luckily, this puzzle was one that could be attempted until it was completed. However, by the time they finished the challenge, they ended up needing to take a break.
They got something called "pecan kisses" from completing the puzzle, but that wasn't really going to do much for their mental or physical exhaustion. The puzzle didn't exactly require acrobatics, nor did it require brute force, but they had still been standing on their feet for several hours.
Since there wasn't an easy way to start a fire in the dungeon to heat anything up, Tobias just put together a salad of sorts from the plants they had gathered along their trip through the dungeon. Some watercress and plantain leaves for the greens, some thinly sliced oyster mushrooms and cattails, etc. and they had something edible. Maybe it wasn't the best tasting or composition for their meal, but it wasn't the worst either. Technically, they had some hard tack, jerky, and dried fruit in their bags as well, but that was better to save for emergencies. They wouldn't be able to stock up as easily once they left the dungeon if they ate their emergency rations now. Besides, it all washed down just fine with some water from their waterskins and the sweet taste of the candies they had just earned made it a tolerable enough meal.
Getting back to work, they moved on to the next room. The dandelion meadow was a new type of [Monster] field they hadn't seen before, but it was still relatively easy to defeat the basic slimes in the room. The strange seeds blowing in the wind were a bit distracting. Even if Mirabella did insist they were pretty, Tobias just couldn't find himself agreeing with the sentiment. It was rather annoying to have them constantly getting stuck to his clothes and occasionally trying to fly into his eyes. The fact that such a minor amount of wind could cause this much floating debris was likely due to the sheer number of dandelions in the room, which Tobias really couldn't see the point of.
Unfortunately for Tobias's party, they didn't have much luck in the next room. Much as they had struggled with the giant Jenga tower, the giant pick-up sticks were also frustrating. They required one to collect the sticks without disturbing the rest, but they would only get one attempt per day. The minimum of three sticks being collected was the same as the other challenge they were struggling with as well. It would seem these two challenges would become their biggest obstacle to overcome before they could return home to their families.
The next day, they attempted the challenges once more and, this time, one of them managed to be successful with the pick-up sticks. They had ended up being rewarded less than they had hoped, though, as they only received a single paper full of something called "candy buttons". It was a strange candy with lots of different colors, but they wouldn't be getting the opportunity to try them since they had to send these ones off to the guild.
The next three rooms were all new to them as well. A slime-themed sliding image puzzle was the first new one they came across that day. The repetitiveness of the slime-themed puzzles was interesting, but, honestly, Tobias could tell his party members were just getting tired of having to complete so many different puzzles. He could only hope they would finish with their job at this dungeon soon.
Since the sliding puzzle could be attempted endlessly, they ended up completing it the same day, but they struggled with it even more than the jigsaw puzzles. The concept was simple enough and they could grasp what the image was much easier than the other slime-themed challenges. However, trying to unscramble the puzzle without getting the pieces they had already sorted out rescrambled was more difficult than he'd like to admit.
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Thankfully, they all got the reward this time around since they all participated in the challenge at the same time. A giant rainbow lollipop wasn't that easy to split evenly between their group, but it was still nice that they would get a chance to enjoy the reward. Having to complete a challenge only to not even get to keep the fruit of their efforts was the worst.
Where they had found the chameleon slimes in the hay meadow annoying, the ones in the next room were twice as bad. Having so much fog to obscure their vision on top of having enemies, even weak ones, jump out at you from nowhere was as frustrating as could be. They ended up quickly giving up on the concept of Mirabella killing any of the slimes, just trying to make it through the room as quickly and as safely as they could.
There, they came across the last room the dungeon had to offer on the first floor. It was another challenge room, which had... two kodamas? This was the only challenge room on the first floor that had any [Monsters] in it. There used to be the flower hunt challenge, which seems to have been removed or moved elsewhere in the dungeon. That one had basic slimes in it, but none of the others had ever had anything in them.
Now knowing that the kodamas were peaceful creatures, Tobias tried to ignore them. That was a bit difficult when he couldn't help but study their movements as they ran past. Initially, he hadn't even noticed their presence, but he certainly did after Mirabella pointed them out. Now their creepy faces and the strange rattling noise they made were almost distracting.
"Looks like this is the last one we need to figure out. It looks like the system prompt is calling this one a wooden lock puzzle. I've never heard of anything like that before, but, I'm assuming, it's this strange contraption?"
The puzzle sat on a round stone altar in the middle of the room. It was quite small and would very clearly only be able to be worked on by one of them at a time. That didn't sound very ideal at all. They'd likely be stuck here until late at night...
They ended up deciding to just return on a different day. They didn't want to be stuck in the dungeon too late in the day and risk upsetting Violet. She seemed fairly reasonable, but it still just seemed plain rude. So, they arrived early the next day and promptly attempted the Jenga puzzle. Managing to just barely complete it, they were rewarded with eight pieces of saltwater taffy, all in a different flavor. Unfortunately, that meant they also wouldn't be able to enjoy any of these ones either as Tobias just knew the guild researchers would want one of each.
Still, the joy of their victory carried them through as they went to work on the lock puzzle. Just as they had feared, it took them quite a while of passing the puzzle off to someone else, to attempt to get the next piece free, before they could complete it. Luckily, that ended up counting as all of them completing the puzzle and they were all rewarded with sixteen slime-themed gummies each. That helped their team morale by quite a bit. They could just send four of them off to the researchers and keep fifteen for each of them.
As they went to leave the dungeon, enjoying their recent reward, Mirabella noted
"It's a shame we'll have to leave the area soon. I kind of like it here."
Tobias nodded in response as he replied
"I know, Violet seems a lot nicer than the other Dungeon Masters. I wish we could stay longer, but you know we'll likely have to take a new job once springtime comes."
Thodin guffawed as he noted
"I doubt anyone at the guild will believe that, though! A reasonable Dungeon Master with a dungeon as nice as this one? It's almost too good to be true!"
Matthias glowered at the stout man. He didn't like having death flags dropped like that. Now he was going to worry they wouldn't even make it out of the dungeon alive, which would be a real shame since he really needed to make it back to his family.
Tobias sighed, turning back to look at the dungeon one last time before they left. They were standing outside the dungeon now and it already felt like it was too soon. Cautiously he asked
"Well, we can probably stop by one last time to thank Violet before we leave. She was rather cooperative with us and it might be good to show our appreciation. We'll hopefully end up with future jobs involving mapping her dungeon at some point, so we should leave a good impression."
Even Matthias could agree with that sentiment. It was why he had gone as far as buying a fancy engraved steel scabbard and personally gifted it to Violet before he left to visit his family. Seeing his party members were perfectly healthy when he returned made it seem like a worthwhile investment. Finally, they left for the tavern, Tobias none too eager to get started on the extensive report he would soon have to turn into the guild.