While the tavern still needed plenty of work and she needed to finish the preparations regarding the menu, there was also other work to do. Elora was hard-working and willing to do the work as she eagerly learned everything Veronica had to teach her. However, that would only go so far as they needed a space to properly store the supplies needed to do the work in the long-term.
Most establishments in the modern world had a storage closet where things like a washer and dryer as well as extra cleaning supplies would be held. The mop buckets on the carts could be filled with a cleaning solution at the push of a button and dirty cleaning cloths could be disposed of in a laundry hamper. Both the start and end of one's work day as a janitor or housekeeper would start in this room as that was where carts that weren't currently in use would be stored. That was exactly what they needed for their tavern as well.
Luckily, Veronica had the perfect space set aside for such a room already. Beside her public bathrooms and directly on the opposite side of the wall from her dungeon core room, she still had an empty room. By making it nothing more than a janitor's closet she could ensure it was far too boring for her inn guests and adventurers to mess with. Whether it was possible for them to smash through a proper dungeon wall had yet to be seen, but the trees on the dungeon side were certainly vulnerable to it. As it turned out, Bo wasn't exactly smart enough to complete the hedge maze, but he could most certainly charge right on through the bushes and then use a magic tool to cut apart the vines and continue forward without a worry. It was more than a little annoying, to say the least.
In one corner of the new cleaning closet, Veronica added a sink. It wasn't quite as fancy as the modern systems that included hoses for more easily filling mop buckets while mixing the soap solution for you, but it would certainly get the job done. Next to it, she filled the area with extra housekeeping carts. While Elora was only one individual, it wasn't like Eldrin and herself couldn't help with managing the rooms should it become necessary. It would be good to have extra carts ready in case it ever becomes a problem.
Would you like to spend 10 DP to research wooden shelving using the [Base Resources] wood and nails?
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No
Would you like to spend 10 DP to research wooden bins using the [Base Resources] wood and nails?
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Most of the room had to be filled with shelves while bins took up the center-most space. There were plenty of cleaning solutions and folded cloths that needed a space to be stored while the dirty laundry would need a space of its own. Veronica couldn't exactly make the dungeon absorb the dirty sheets and quilts until the inn side was empty and it was likely the tavern would only decrease the time she had to act. That, of course, wasn't even to mention how rude she felt shooing the kids away every time she needed to use her system menu. Worst case scenario, though, she could always make Eldrin carry things back and forth from the dungeon side at night when things were empty. There wasn't always a guarantee everyone would clear out as the challenge rooms could [Trap] people in them, but most people knew better than to continue forward past the first six rooms by now.
While she had a lot of mana coming in on a constant basis, it still took several days to get the cleaning closet stocked with all the bottles of cleaning solution, clean bedding, towels, cleaning cloths, and toiletries. Things like pots and pans that could be stolen from the larger rooms would have to be replaced on a case-by-case basis. After spending some time getting familiar with her system, she now knew she could set rooms as locked to all but staff, set them as rooms for rent, and as bathrooms for a set group of individuals. Her own room was now marked as locked to all but staff as was the janitorial closet, which meant nothing could be stolen from them.
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Elora and Eldrin's recent trip to the market to fetch ingredients for her was being used as the room rental payment for the large room they were staying in. That only lasted a few days before they got locked out again, which meant she had to personally let them in and out of the room. Luckily, she could now set the room as locked to all but staff, which only included the three of them plus Seraphina. Apparently, as a Dungeon Diplomat, she was both considered part of the dungeon system the way [Monsters] were and also not part of it. It wasn't ideal, but she doubted the Elven woman would steal from the children.
Would you like to spend 10 DP to research cork board using the [Base Resources] wood and cork?
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Would you like to spend 4 DP to research thumbtacks using the [Base Resources] wood and iron?
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Would you like to spend 6 DP to research charcoal pencils using the [Base Resources] wood and charcoal?
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The corkboard couldn't exactly be hung up on a dungeon wall the way you would normally do so. The wall was too strong to hammer nails through it or anything similar. However, the building system did allow her to choose where she wanted things and the corkboard was able to be hung up as if by magic. Once placed, it couldn't easily be removed either. Someone would have to try and destroy the corkboard in its entirety in order to do so. Still, it was perfect for the purpose Veronica had in mind, which was for Elora to write notes about supplies she needed to be replaced for her to read later. Veronica wasn't exactly going to hang out on the first floor every day once she unlocked new floors, after all.
Despite how expensive her tavern preparations were getting, it wasn't like it was all bad. She had started to calm down and peace had begun to return to her dungeon once more. Between the siblings and being preoccupied with tavern preparations, she was too busy to worry about Bo. Besides which, it would seem he had gotten bored of challenging her and was preoccupied elsewhere. Perhaps he didn't like the easy win and her lack of progress on the dungeon side of things meant there wasn't an increase in challenge for him to look forward to there either.
She had managed to scrape together 4,200 DP from room rentals, 563 DP from repeat tributes, and 260 DP from new tributes, including: miso paste, pickled radishes, raw oysters, plate of little fishes, potatoes, and chestnuts. As all of the new ones were food-related, Veronica could only hypothesize that Elora and Eldrin's trip out to purchase ingredients on her behalf had led to adventurers wanting to gift her with even more food than they had previously. She was now sitting at 16,590 dungeon points total, which was a huge relief. It meant she'd be able to keep plenty in reserve and finish preparing everything for the tavern without worrying too much.
Over the time she spent preparing the cleaning closet, Veronica spent a lot of time working closely with both Elora and Eldrin. Mornings were spent building up the cleaning closet and teaching Elora how to clean properly while nights were spent with Eldrin carrying over supplies for the tavern's kitchen. It was a pain to carry things from the first dungeon room to the kitchen, even with how close to the dungeon entrance the tavern was located in comparison to everything else.
Immediately off of the inn side entrance was the reception, of course, and a hallway was just outside of that, but the tavern connected not long after that. So, it was only a few minutes of walking from one section to another, but it was still hard work to carry so many heavy things. Eldrin was mostly optimistic as he made jokes about how he was going to grow muscles from all the heavy lifting she was making him do. It was good to see him starting to come out of his shell, but she also felt a bit guilty for making children do such hard manual labor. Well, they were teenagers who'd soon be adults by Human standards, but still.