It was now afternoon, which meant all of the inn guests had finally left their rooms and Veronica's system menu was available again. While she had been previously just straightening beds and refilling firewood, she decided now would be a good time to invest in some better cleaning supplies.
Would you like to spend 6 DP to research leather cleaning gloves using the [Base Resources] leather, undyed thread, and brown dye?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 30 DP to research a luxury green washcloth set using the [Base Resources] undyed cotton cloth, undyed thread, and green dye?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 10 DP to research a bottle of all-purpose cleaner using the [Base Resources] glass bottle, cork, lemon, rosemary, vinegar, lye soap, and water?
Yes
No
It really sucked not having modern-day materials like plastic. It would have been nice to have a spray nozzle as well, but Veronica wasn't sure that she could piece together enough of how it worked for the dungeon to allow her to make an alternative version of it. She'd just have to uncork the glass bottle and pour the solution onto the washcloths whenever she wanted to clean something.
She had decided to stock the larger inn rooms with luxury towels and so she figured now would be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. If she made luxury washcloths, she could put them in the rooms for bathing while also having something to clean with. Veronica wasn't sure if she actually needed to clean dirt from the inn rooms or not, but she figured she was better off safe than sorry and the nice scent of the cleaner would certainly help things smell more fresh for guests. The inn always earned far more than she'd ever get from tributes, so it was important for her to keep guests happy anyhow.
The leather cleaning gloves and washcloths couldn't exactly be cleaned and they'd have to be carried around in her tote bag, but she wasn't really bothered by it. She could always have the dungeon reabsorb them and then create new, clean versions. That was one of the good things about having something unlocked under her [Items] menu. It was unfortunate that she didn't earn any mana from things she reabsorbed, but it wasn't like she was struggling to earn enough mana to the point she'd have to worry about it.
Since her [Tavern] system menu displayed lots of useful information, she was well aware of which rooms had been recently rented out. The night before had seen two of the large rooms and three of the smaller rooms rented out, which was more than usual. She was hardly going to complain about an increase in rentals, though, and would happily accept the 130 DP from it. The rest of the week had been a mix of highs and lows with another 790 DP being earned on the other nights. She was now sitting at 7,075 dungeon points and it was certainly helping her to feel more generous. Maybe it would even be a good time to add some other luxuries to the inn rooms to help increase her guests' satisfaction.
Walking into the first room, she began by removing the sheets, pillow cases, and quilt from the bed, having the dungeon absorb them. Then she created a new set for 35 MP, which took her next to no time to earn. If it was just Seraphina in the dungeon, it may have required her to wait an entire half an hour to earn that much, but that hadn't been the case since she first transmigrated to this world. There were already about a half dozen people in the dungeon to generate mana for her, so she barely had to wait five minutes to make that amount, ensuring she'd have plenty to replace the bedding in all of the rooms she was cleaning and then some.
Next up, she wiped down all of the surfaces in the room with her new cleaning supplies. Since this was one of the smaller rooms, that only amounted to two end tables and a corner desk. The larger rooms would take far longer to attend to, but it wasn't like she had anything better to do with her time anyways. After checking to see if more firewood needed to be summoned for the room, she moved on to the next. While she couldn't exactly feel temperature differences in the dungeon, Seraphina had once mentioned to her that the tropical rainforest tended to be hot while the inn side was perfectly cozy. That made it so people rarely used the firewood for more than cooking, but it was easy enough to provide, so Veronica still restocked it every day.
As she was walking out of the last small inn room, a young woman came hurrying over towards her in a panic-stricken state. Noticing that she had just walked out of the inn room behind her, the young woman seemed confused as she asked
"Are you the housekeeper or something? It's good to see the Dungeon Master has found some help, it was rough for the month when there wasn't anyone. Did you happen to see a necklace in there? It was my mother's and I seem to be missing it..."
Veronica frowned as she took in the tall woman's expression. This one was very chatty, even despite how worried she seemed. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she replied
"If you left anything in your room, it was probably absorbed by the dungeon. I can check and see if that is the case, but you'll have to leave this half of the dungeon long enough for me to do so. Anyhow, it seems we skipped greetings. I'm Veronica, can I ask for your name?"
The young woman blinked in surprise before replying
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"Oh! Sorry about that! I'm Amelia. I'd really appreciate it if you could do that. You must have a good relationship with the Dungeon Master if you can ask them about something like that. I'd really appreciate your help. You know, that's a funny coincidence. Your name is just like the one used in the dungeon name!"
Veronica gave the young woman a flat look as she waited for it to click. When she just stared blankly at her, she sighed as she explained
"That's because I am the Dungeon Master. I don't have anyone on staff to take care of things. Well, maybe the one will-o'-wisp in the reception room, but I don't know how much they do."
Amelia backed up in surprise, seeming a bit panicked, glancing back as she seemed to consider running away. Well, that was just great. She was actually trying to be friendly, for once, and the one person she had talked with since arriving in this world, besides Seraphina, wanted to run away from her. With an irritated tone, Veronica reassured the half-giant woman
"I'm not going to harm you. I can't access my dungeon system to check for your necklace, though, so long as you, or any other adventurers are in the area. So, I'll need you to come back later. However, I was wondering if you could do me a favor in return?"
Veronica watched as Amelia visibly relaxed, her posture straightening and her gaze more steady, as she replied
"I'm not sure how much help I could be, but I'm happy to help however I can. Do you need something passed on to the local guildmaster or maybe you need to get a hold of the local Lord? I can also see about having your dungeon diplomat summoned to your dungeon, if that is the problem."
Well, that hadn't been what she was expecting. Was it considered normal for Dungeon Masters to ask adventurers to pass on information on their behalf in this world? That wasn't really what she was looking for, though. Shaking her head, she replied
"That's not actually it. I was hoping you could ask a local craftsman if they'd be willing to help me with a project. I need a special cart made to make cleaning rooms easier for me. I can't make one myself, but I'd be happy to compensate them with anything I am capable of making in exchange for them crafting one for me. Of course, since you'd be playing messenger for me, I'd be happy to create a copy of your necklace for you, assuming it has been absorbed by my dungeon. If it isn't on this half, it's possible you lost it on the other half, but I'd have to wait until that side clears out before I'd know."
Amelia looked thoughtful as she considered her proposition. After a moment, she asked
"Do you have any notes or blueprints for what you are wanting made? It would be easier to see if anyone is interested if I had something like that to show the craftsmen. I'm not sure they'd be willing to come to the dungeon without an escort, so that would take longer and they'd likely be hesitant about doing so if they weren't confident they can fulfill your request."
Veronica hadn't thought of that. She didn't have any paper or ink to draw such a thing with. Shaking her head, she answered
"Not yet, I don't have the materials needed to write with or draw something up. I'd need to make some paper and ink first. I can try to have that by tonight, if you can come back around then? I should know for sure if your necklace was lost here or not by then."
Amelia quickly agreed and then left to rejoin her party. That wasn't as bad as Veronica had been expecting. As it turned out, she did have a necklace among her tributes. It was labeled as a tiger's eye pendant necklace. Hopefully, it was the right one, but it wasn't exactly expensive to make a copy of it. Just 5 MP since it was just a carved bit of tiger's eye stone on a cord. A tiger's eye stone was 2 MP, so that wasn't exactly surprising.
Would you like to spend 4 DP to research paper using the [Base Resources] wood and white dye?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 10 DP to research an inkwell with charcoal ink using the [Base Resources] glass, iron, charcoal, honey, and water?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 4 DP to research duck feather quill pen using the [Base Resource] duck feather?
Yes
No
Veronica didn't actually know anything about making ink from scratch, but it seems the dungeon system did. Made sense since this world likely has had it available for some time. 18 DP to research everything and 9 MP to create a set of everything wasn't bad either. Still, that would have to be saved for until after she finished cleaning everything. She still had to take care of a few of the large rooms as well as the public bathrooms.
It was almost hysterical just how far her dungeon points could go when she wasn't building new challenges. Everything she had researched, thus far, today was so cheap that it barely felt like a drop in the bucket compared to her total. As she was in a really good mood after meeting Amelia, she decided to splurge on a few more luxuries for her inn patrons to enjoy.
Veronica researched cardboard so she could research rolls of toilet paper for the bathrooms. That just required wood for everything, funnily enough. Wood pulp was used to make cardboard and paper products. While she didn't know all of the specifics of how it was processed, she knew just enough for the dungeon system to make it work. For the women, she also researched boxes of pads, which were nothing like the modern-day version. She didn't know how to make adhesive and it was pretty much just a cotton filling sewed into a cotton covering. Well, before the 1970s pads were held in place with safety pins or a sanitary belt anyways. A fact she only knew because she had researched it out of curiosity one time.
In order to store the toilet paper and boxes of pads, she had to place a wooden cupboard above the toilets in the public bathrooms and large inn rooms. Between the two, she ended up having to spend 60 DP plus a whole lot of mana, but she knew well how important such things were, even if she no longer required them herself. It really was a weird thing for her body to be capable of consuming food without needing to use the bathroom. How was that even possible via physics? Perhaps, her stomach was like a dungeon, absorbing things into nothingness. It was impossible to know.
Lastly, she spent 12 DP to research peppermint lye bar soap. Unlike other soaps, lye soap can be made from animal fat, hardwood ashes, water, and any aromatics you want to use. Her mother had tried a number of projects over the years and her father had been supportive as he made a space for her to sell them in a mini gift shop section of their bed and breakfast. The guests seemed to really like all the kitschy homemade guests, so Veronica couldn't exactly blame her father since everything turned out just fine and her mother was happy.