The next day, Violet was surprised when someone showed up fairly early in the day. When she checked her [Guest List], she saw Elivyre had, finally, returned to the dungeon. Feeling excited, Violet raced through the rooms on the second floor and first floor until she finally reached her friend's side. Of course, this took a while, so Elivyre had already moved quite deep into the dungeon.
Elivyre had started off at the entrance of the dungeon and slowly walked through each of the rooms, one by one, as her raven, Diva, flew overhead. She was happy to see that Violet now had a tribute room, which she had noticed right away thanks to the magic lanterns hanging on the wall of the hallway. The first hallway was the only one with such lights, but it still helped quite a bit.
The tribute room felt much like a very empty store or an oversized storage room of some sort. However, Elivyre still found the decorations quite interesting. The way the sun shone through the cloth material overhead and the grass peeked through the stone brick pathway was interesting. It was more than a little obvious that the room had still been a meadow room before Violet had filled it with items.
Leaving behind her tribute, some dill and 'greek' oregano, Elivyre moved onwards. Of course, Elivyre didn't know that Violet's system would refer to the oregano by such terms. Instead, she knew it by a different name that was unique to the world she lived in. Normally, though, she would just refer to it as the bitter variety of oregano. Neither herb was particularly fancy, but it was something she hadn't brought for Violet quite yet and she wanted to ensure her friend had something nice to celebrate her recent achievement.
Next, Elivyre went through the threshold to the next room where she found the altar to the goddess of love and beauty. She couldn't help but comment
"I always knew Violet was something special, but this is certainly something else. Don't you think so, Diva?"
The bird made a cawing sound in reply, but otherwise seemed quite bored with the room. Unsurprising considering there was nothing of interest for a raven such as itself. The room was quite unique as it was the only room she had seen on this floor that seemed like she was truly indoors. Even the stone hallways were more like she was walking through a strange, carved-out section of a cave.
By the time Violet found Elivyre, she had already managed to make it to the garden meadow room where she chose to stop for a while to collect herbs. While the herbs were definitely needed, she also wanted to stop and wait for Violet, knowing very well that she usually showed up not long after she entered the dungeon.
Violet panted as she sat down on the floor near Elivyre. She just waited patiently for the poor girl to catch her breath. Then, when Violet said
"It's been a while since I've seen you. I was starting to worry."
She chuckled before explaining
"I'm sorry for making you worry so much. Originally, I was planning on popping in as soon as I could. I doubt you or your [Monsters] would harm me, but the town leader has been so antsy about everything. He likely never expected to have to deal with a dungeon showing up. It's been difficult to earn his trust, so I was trying to observe the usual one-month waiting period for when a dungeon upgrades.
Unfortunately, my father sent me a letter not long ago letting me know that he planned to send a wagon out to collect more herbs from me. I've been pretty low on both herbs and potions myself because a minor illness has been passing through the area and this winter has been especially harsh. The sheer lack of firewood, food, and other supplies had been really rough on everyone.
I ended up putting in a job request for the adventurers asking them to collect more of certain herbs so I could purchase them. Then I had to spend some time packaging them up for transport as well as renewing my own stock. A lot of healing potions, antidotes, and cold-resistance potions get used this time of year, unfortunately. Your dungeon has a lot of useful ingredients, but certainly not all of the ones I need. Luckily, my father sent me the others I needed, among other things."
Violet frowned, this was hardly the first time she had heard about the locals having a hard time with things lately. Still, she decided to start with the more immediate issue before considering anything else.
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"I still have those potions we talked about. I'd be more than happy to sell you what I have."
Elivyre smiled knowingly as she reassured her
"Don't worry, that was one of the things I asked my father to help me with. He sent me a few varieties of specialty potions in the lesser and normal varieties. I also had him help me gather any bad potions and herbs from his shop and those of his friends to send me. I figured you would likely be able to make use of them, even if they aren't top quality. You're going to feed them to the dungeon, right?"
Violet wasn't sure she would have put it that way. However, it most certainly wasn't too far off the mark. The dungeon most certainly would be absorbing the items, so she nodded. Elivyre smiled as she dug some of the [Items] out of a bag at her side as she explained.
"I'm pretty sure all of the herbs and potions are just the super common things. I doubt there is anything new among that. However, I remembered you said you need a lesser stamina potion, so I brought one of those for you. I also have one each of the lesser and normal quality of about half a dozen different potions."
Violet tilted her head in curiosity, but Elivyre just let Violet gather the potions, looking them over, before explaining them one at a time.
"That one's an antidote. The lesser antidotes can only cure weak poisons and status effects. Meanwhile, the antidote version can cure most types of poisons and status effects. Greater antidotes are only needed for truly vile poisons and such, most of which are quite lethal.
That one's a fire-resistance and that one's an acid-resistance potion."
Elivyre said, pointing at each in turn, before continuing
"The fire resistance helps prevent you from getting any nasty burns, but it won't exactly prevent someone from dying to lava. I've not personally had any experience with using it, but I've heard some stories from adventurers. The acid-resistance doesn't prevent issues with poison, but it does keep your skin from dissolving due to attacks from [Monsters] or acid-based poisons. Oftentimes, the acid-resistance has to be paired with an antidote, though."
Violet found this information fascinating. She picked up two others Elivyre had yet to explain and said
"What about these ones?"
Elivyre pointed to each as she explained
"Those ones are heat-resistance and cold-resistance potions. They are limited in what they can do, but can help you be less bothered by temperature changes in dungeons or otherwise. A hot day can still cause dehydration, but you are less likely to get heat stroke or feel unbearably comfortable if you drink a heat-resistance potion. Similarly, the cold-resistance potion won't prevent you from getting frostbite if the temperature is too extreme. However, it is effective at preventing you from constantly shivering, thus wasting your energy, and prevents you from being as likely to get colds."
Violet had to refrain from noting the fact that cold weather didn't cause sickness. It just affects your immune system, making it more likely that you could get sick. It wasn't exactly helpful to the conversation, nor did she want to have to get into the topic since she was hardly an expert.
Since Violet wasn't saying anything else, Elivyre pointed to the last two potions she had yet to identify and explained
"The last two are a night vision potion and a water-breathing potion. The first one makes it easier to see further with minimal light and can temporarily affect the way one's eyes look visually. Similarly, the water-breathing potion can cause you to grow fish gills that aid in breathing underwater for a set amount of time. The better the quality of the potion, the longer the effects last. Considering some dungeons have underwater levels or utilize the darkness to increase the danger level, the potions can be quite useful to adventurers."
Violet was quite excited about her new potion options. She happily dug out the five lesser healing potions, three healing potions, six lesser mana potions, two mana potions, and two stamina potions she had and gave them to Elivyre. It seemed like a rather one-sided trade, no matter how she looked at it. Her potions were expensive to produce and the ones she was giving Elivyre had cost her 250 MP to make, valuing them at 500 DP. Yet she had received fifteen potions and a rather large amount of expired potions and herbs in return. Violet wasn't sure she liked the way it felt like she was taking advantage of her friend. However, when she went to apologize, Elivyre was quick to dismiss her.
"Don't worry about it. This will help me too, anyway. If I end up unable to make some of these potions for myself, I'll be able to trade with you for more of the ones I need. In fact, it might, honestly, be good to arrange for you to make some healing potions for me. I don't know if I'll be able to give you any more potions or herbs for them, though. We'll have to figure out something else instead."
This just made Violet think more. The community around her needed help and she was most certainly in a position where she could offer it. Finally making up her mind, Violet decided to speak her mind.
"Elivyre? I was wondering if you could help me with something..."