It was taking longer than Veronica had been hoping to figure out what she wanted to do with the tavern and inn than she'd like to admit. Perhaps she was overthinking things and making a bigger deal of it than she should be, but she still preferred to take her time getting it right than to waste her resources on things she'd regret later. Dungeon points were starting to get harder to obtain than they used to be with tributes mostly being repeats rather than constantly unlocking new [Items] and [Base Resources]. Even her inn room usage had hit a plateau with the numbers no longer growing the way they used to.
Still, she couldn't complain too much, over the last two weeks she had still managed to earn 3,360 DP from room rentals, 276 DP from repeat tributes, and another 55 DP from new tributes, which included apple cider wine, pomace wine, and burdock root. All of that had allowed her to reach a total of 10,903 dungeon points. As she still had yet to build her boss room on the first floor, she wasn't sure how much it would cost to unlock her next floor. However, she had the feeling that anything as much of a game-changer as a new floor would cost quite a bit. That, of course, meant that no matter how much she was able to save up, she wouldn't be satisfied until she knew for sure that she had enough.
That wasn't going to keep her from having some fun, though. In fact, that was exactly what she was planning to do today. Now that her inn rooms were all done being built, with no extra DP cost at that, she planned to invest in some activities to keep her occupied. She still had yet to make some new outfits, which she most certainly needed to do. After absorbing the outfit she had been wearing when she transmigrated into this world she hadn't unlocked them under her [Items], as she had been expecting, meaning the outfit was just gone. So, now she only had one outfit to wear, which was boring, even if she could summon a clean set anytime she wanted.
Would you like to spend 50 DP to research Manacala using the [Base Resources] wood, steel, glass, and blue dye?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 60 DP to research Checkers using the [Base Resources] cardboard, wood, red dye, black dye, and white dye?
Yes
No
Would you like to spend 100 DP to research Sorry! using the [Base Resources] cardboard, wood, paper, glass, red dye, green dye, yellow dye, blue dye, black dye, and white dye?
Yes
No
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The costs seemed to scale according to the complexity of the games she wanted to research. There had also been a momentary disorientation as some annoying message about synching her memories with the system passed by. Veronica recovered quickly, annoyed once more by the way the system never gave her space. She really didn't care that the board games didn't exist in the system's database as common knowledge and that it needed the information in order to make what she wanted. She was just pissed off that it was messing with her head again.
Still, she couldn't deny that the final products were nice. The Mancala came in a nice wooden box with shiny blue fish tank style marbles and the main wooden board all secured inside. The checkers had a cardboard game board with its checkered pattern, dyed wooden chips, and another wooden box to hold everything. The 'Sorry!' game was the most complex, of course. There were dyed glass pawns in red, blue, green, and yellow as well as a cardboard game board, thick paper cards with numbers on them, and yet again, another wooden box to store everything in. The system had even been kind enough to engrave the name of each game on each of the storage boxes, making it easier to tell them apart.
Veronica's plan was to store the board games in one of her empty kitchen cupboards when she wasn't using them. That would keep them out of sight of adventurers and ensure she didn't accidentally knock them over when she was walking around her own room. It would have been more ideal if she had a bookshelf or a closet to store them in, but that was fine since her current space was only meant to be temporary living arrangements.
She still wasn't sure which floor she wanted to settle on in the long run. However, one thing was for sure, she wanted to be as high up in the tower, that was her dungeon, as she could be just so she could have space from everyone. It would be impractical to have to travel down to the first floor every day, but she was hopeful that she'd be getting more help for her inn and tavern when she unlocked the next floor anyhow. After all, it would be just as impractical to travel from the lower floors to the top floors to clean rooms and serve customers every day and Seraphina was right that it was less likely that people would agree to remain on the upper floors than they were to accept employment on the lower floors. No one wanted to have death looming over their head, constantly living in fear of their lives being cut short.
Funny that, she never had a choice in the matter of becoming a Dungeon Master. She now had her life tied to that of the dungeon she was tied to. If she chooses not to build up the defenses in the dungeon, then she may as well lie down and wait for death to claim her. Even better, she, apparently, had someone who was meant to help her off herself when the time came. Jeeze, that really put a twisted perspective on her relationship with Seraphina.
Veronica chuckled bitterly to herself. She really did need to work on having a better relationship with the elven woman. It wouldn't be long before they would be parting ways, only meeting for brief encounters forever more. Hopefully, the new board games would be helpful when it came to developing a more amicable relationship. So long as Seraphina didn't turn out to be some competitive nutcase, it would, at least, give them both some entertainment and allow them to get used to each other's presence.
They certainly hadn't been spending any more time with one another than they had to in recent times. Veronica usually spent a few hours training with Seraphina until she tired and decided she wanted to retire for the night. It was always the elven woman who called the shots on that as Veronica didn't care if she pushed herself past her limits. The dungeon would heal her and she wouldn't even be able to tell that she had trained the night before by the time the sun arose. Despite Seraphina's lack of affection, it was still more than clear that she respected that much about her attitude. It was one of the few things the two of them seemed to see eye to eye on. If only that was enough to build a relationship from, but, alas, it was unlikely they'd ever be friends.