Dungeon Status:
Current Mana 100 / 100
Current DP: 5,204
Current Floors: 2
Current Rooms: 36 (18+18)
Monsters
Construction
Research
Missions
Violet reviewed her [Dungeon Status] menu as she carefully thought over what to do. Since she had set the room theme in the mad tea party challenge room, four days had passed. This meant that she had already received 400 DP from Avorn and Camellia and she'd soon be receiving another 100 DP from them since it was almost night time again.
When Elivyre had visited to have tea with her, she had brought her some foxglove beardtongue as a tribute. Apparently, they were a white flowering plant that was at home in a meadow environment. This was perfect for Violet who didn't actually have very many plants that were specific to a meadow environment, even if she had added quite a number of flowers and herbs to her first floor.
Not that long ago, Elivyre had also stopped by briefly with the two Dungeon Diplomats to pick up the goods for the charity event. Despite them only staying for a brief moment, they had all still left her a tribute. However, it was all repeats and had only netted her 3 DP. Still, Violet couldn't complain about the random woodland plants and stones they had plucked along the way since they were doing her a favor by coming here in the first place. It would be greedy of her to even expect a tribute, much less anything decent.
Still, even with her friend's generosity, Violet was starting to worry about the amount of dungeon points she had and whether it would be enough to unlock the third floor when the time came. She no longer had David here, so she was no longer guaranteed to earn 2,500 points each week from selling him food. That was a small problem in the long-term and certainly worth it since she was now rid of him. She didn't like the stress and discomfort he brought along, much less being used.
Still, Violet knew that she needed to be more proactive if she wanted to ensure she'd be able to unlock the third floor before spring arrived. There were only about two weeks left at this point and time certainly isn't going to pass by any slower than it is now. Of course, if Violet knew for certain that the cost would be the same as it had been for the second floor, she wouldn't even bother concerning herself. 1,000 DP was only a fifth of her current amount and 4,000 was certainly enough to take care of the rest area and boss room for the second floor.
The main reason she was theorizing the cost would increase was because of how everything else within her system worked. The dungeon spawners had gone from costing 100 DP to unlock a 25 MP spawner to 200 DP for a 50 MP, doubling the cost. However, the most recent spawner had been even worse at 500 DP for a 100 mana limit. That meant the price had increased by more than double for the third one. Even her [Monsters] had increased in cost when she unlocked the second batch. 10 MP slimes and 30 MP kodamas had turned into 20 MP horned rabbits and 50 MP pixies. While the cheapest option had doubled, the most expensive option was less than double. There wasn't exactly a ton of consistency in what to expect a cost increase to look like, so she had to prepare for the worst case scenario in order to ensure she'd meet her personal deadlines on time.
That's why, as soon as Avorn and Camellia arrived in the dungeon, Violet made her way downstairs. It was a bit of a pain to lug three magic bags with her, even if they weren't as heavy as their contents suggested they should be, but she still made her way downstairs, feeling like a pack mule as she did so. One of her bags was full of merchandise to sell while the other two were for firewood and shelf-stable goods for charity. The charity bags were mostly empty right now since she hadn't had the opportunity to buy new goods to fill them with just yet. However, her merchandise bag was packed to the brim.
Since Violet had sold off all of the potions she had stored in the bag, she was able to use that space for other [Items]. The potions had freed up about 4.5 Units of space, but it was still enough for her to add four tins of black tea, two jars of honey, one jar with twenty five lavender meringues, one jar with twenty five chamomile shortbread cookies, one jar with eighty saltwater taffy, one jar with eighty pecan kisses, and four bars of unscented lye soap. Since most of the other merchandise was things like dried produce, soups, and milk teas, it seemed like a good idea to balance it out with some normal tea, sweets, and even a basic necessity like soap. Besides, food seemed to sell the best and it didn't seem ideal to take chances with anything new.
"Oh, Miss Violet! It's been a while since we've seen you! We were starting to wonder if we'd get to see you at all before spring came."
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Camellia enthusiastically greeted her. Avorn gave her a nod in acknowledgment, clearly looking a bit awkward. He didn't seem as afraid of her as he once was, but he certainly seemed unsure of what to do with himself. Violet laughed as she replied
"Well, I've not exactly been hibernating like a bear or anything, as tempting as that might be. I just don't want to bother you all. I know some adventurers certainly don't like me being around since it distracts them from the task at hand."
Avorn sounded thoughtful as he agreed.
"That's certainly likely. We spend most of our time just relaxing around the campfire while we're here now, but it certainly would be bad timing if you had visited us while we were fighting a boss or something."
"Oh? Have you tried fighting my emperor rock slime already then?"
Violet asked in surprise. Camellia shook her head vehemently as she replied
"No, not yet. We've made some good progress on leveling up, though, thanks to your generosity. We've also made enough profit that we can afford to buy some new equipment when spring arrives and we can travel to the next town over. We were hoping to tackle the boss then and, hopefully, start working on the second floor after that."
Violet nodded as she continued
"That seems like a good plan. Depending on what you need equipment-wise, though, I wouldn't mind helping you out with some of it. You wouldn't even have to worry about the sizing since the dungeon takes care of all of that. I don't have anything on me today, I mostly just brought food goods and some soap in hopes you might be interested in some of that."
"That's alright, we're probably better off looking at the local shops at our levels. While our classes determine a lot about our fighting style, a lot of it is still up to personal preference. We haven't quite figured out what types of gear we want to use in the long-term, though. For example, Avorn is an archer, but there are actually a lot of types of bows out there and many of his class skills would also apply to crossbows or things like dart blowing.
We'd hate to put you out when we don't even know what we want to use. If we go to a shop, at least, we can take a look and try out some of the equipment to see how it feels before making a choice. Are you planning on having equipment for challenge rewards in the future? I know many of the people we've met say that it's a good way to try out new equipment and they can always sell something if it doesn't fit their personal preferences. It can lead to blacksmiths not wanting to do business in the area, though, as it can end up being too much competition.
I mean, you're free to make your own decisions. Don't take this as me telling you what to do!"
Violet could tell Camellia was clearly worried about breaking the dungeon accord restrictions on influencing how a dungeon progresses. However, she just waved her hand to dismiss the woman's worries as she reassured her
"Don't worry about it. I understand what you mean well. I don't know what I'm going to do in the future, but I wasn't planning on having anything like that for dungeon rewards anytime soon. The second floor is pixie-themed, so many of the rewards are based on that. There's a little bit of everything from silk scarves to flower-flavored foods. Actually, I moved many of the rewards from this floor to the second because it didn't seem as suitable flavor-wise for this floor."
Camellia's eyes widened in surprise as she listened to Violet speak. They had only recently begun to complete the challenges on the first floor, but they had already been enjoying the rewards quite a bit. If it weren't for how much effort they were exerting to complete the parkour challenge and defeat slimes, Camellia was even fairly sure they'd have put on significant weight from all the sweets they had been enjoying.
Still, the second floor sounded even more tempting! Silk scarves were likely to sell for a small fortune to noble ladies and she was fairly certain she'd enjoy having one or two for herself as well. It wasn't like she always dressed in armor and carried around daggers, after all. She did like to go home to visit her family or her in-laws. Plus, if she was successful enough in her class, there was always the possibility that unique social opportunities would arise in the future. Even A-rank individuals had a small chance of becoming a lower noble while S-rank almost guaranteed you'd be chosen for a noble ranking.
If the kingdom you were in didn't have any positions, you could issue an official challenge to take their position or you could try your chances in another kingdom. After all, adventurers were integral to a kingdom's economy and success in war times. There was no place for nobility who weren't strong enough to protect their positions in the kingdom. It was really only because it was too difficult to become such a high-ranking person without the long-standing security and unique opportunities a noble family would have that it wasn't common for them to be replaced.
Still, even a C-rank or B-rank was likely to be offered better jobs by the adventurer's guild or receive an invitation to social gatherings held by rich merchants and local nobles. So, Camellia definitely liked the idea of getting ahold of some of the unique treasures mentioned. In fact, that was about all she could think about for the rest of the time Violet visited with them.
Avorn ended up having to handle the rest of the trade process. They had been stocking up on acorns and other small bits and bobs around the dungeon in case the opportunity to trade arose again. So, they bought some black tea, a jar of honey, a bar of soap, and a few different soup options to enjoy in the coming days. With their new magic bags they could certainly have bought a lot more, but they preferred not to use up all their space on such luxury goods and they didn't want to take advantage of Violet's generosity.
Still, being 172 DP richer was still better than nothing. It would at least cover the cost of researching a few new things. Violet would just have to put in a bit more effort to also sell things to anyone else who might wander into her dungeon and, otherwise, hope for the best.