Chameleon Slimes

After David left to take a break, Violet noted that she now had 489DP. This was finally enough to finish researching the chameleon slimes, so she spent the 250DP to unlock the evolution. Then, Violet spent 10MP to summon the last of five slimes for the hay meadow as well as 125DP to evolve them into their chameleon variations.

The blue slimes immediately turned into a scaly green version, much like a chameleon. After watching the slimes for a short while, Violet was also able to observe as they changed colors to blend in with their surroundings. Mostly green since that was the color of the grass, but some streaks of orange were also mixed in thanks to the butterflyweed flowers. Violet felt satisfied with her new slimes. Even if they weren't stronger, they were bound to take plenty of adventurers by surprise.

Violet now only had 114DP to play around with. 20DP was put towards researching wooden fences, which ended up costing 10MP / 100 square meters. After walking to the floodplain meadow room, Violet built a small fenced-in area in one of the corners on the opposite side of the river from the apple trees. 

As Violet originally wanted to have berries so she could make berry bushes for the floodplains room, she ended up spending 20DP three times over to research the bushes. Then, the remaining 30MP was spent on planting three blackberry bushes. However, Violet had to wait until after David left again before she spent another 50MP on three raspberry bushes and two blueberry bushes.

While the apple trees were all on the same side of the river, the bushes and rabbit holes were spread out across the floodplains meadow room. It was necessary for the basic slimes in the room to have plenty of places to hide in for the challenge Violet wanted to set up. Luckily, the challenge could be set without the room theme being set. She just couldn't apply any room upgrades to challenges and puzzles until the room theme was set. However, that would have to wait until the morning since Violet only had 14DP left.

The next morning, Violet was happy to see her kodama had brought her a pecan as well as two repeats. So, she now had 51DP, which was enough for her purposes.

"I'd like to research candy apples using the apples, sugar, water, red dye, and wood [Base Resources]."

[Would you like to spend 10DP to research candy apples using the [Base Resource] apples, sugar, water, red dye, and wood?

Yes or No?]

Violet selected [Yes] and then spent another 10DP to set the candy apples as the reward for her new challenge. In order to complete the challenge, adventurers would have to capture the five slimes within the floodplains room and put them in the fenced-in area. However, this would be difficult with a river to cross and plenty of hiding places for the slimes. While it wasn't exactly a very good defense for the dungeon, it wasn't like the slimes couldn't attempt to protect the dungeon if it became necessary. Plus, it would be a good way to keep adventurers busy and there were plenty of resources to draw adventurers in.

Now that Violet was nearly finished working on the six rooms she had in the dungeon, she only had a few more rooms that she'd have to add to meet the building requirement for unlocking the next floor. Of course, she'd have to save up dungeon points for a bit if she was to have any hope of paying the cost for it, not that Violet actually knew how much it would end up costing her.

With only 31DP and no more mana available, Violet went to relax in her wildflower meadow. She needed time to think about next steps and it would be good to have some peaceful scenery while she did so. While the mana and dungeon points were consistently increasing each day, it was still difficult to manage everything. The dungeon points had a habit of being spent faster than the mana since there were so many big purchases to make. 

Meanwhile, Violet felt like she'd soon have to start building rooms in quick concessions just to ensure she wasn't wasting her opportunity to spend it. However, she didn't feel like it was a good idea to build haphazardly. She'd want to build something in every room just to personalize it and she needed a plan of action so she could build a suitably sized room. Sure, there was plenty of space to build things now, but that wouldn't always be the case.

Plus, from what little Violet knew about unlocking floors, she was likely to have a new theme for each floor. This would be the only chance to make rooms themed around meadows as it would be time to move on to a different theme soon enough. Of course, there was also the matter of this first floor being the only one safe enough for young children like Henry and Alice. Others were likely to have various [Traps] occasionally included just to ensure the safety of the dungeon.

So far, only weak [Monsters] had targeted her dungeon. However, Violet had a feeling that this wouldn't always be the case. Perhaps it had something to do with the dungeon's ability to convert aether into mana? Violet's mana cap was rather low right now, but it would be much higher later on. If free-roaming [Monsters] could detect the amount of mana, then it was possible that it would lead to stronger [Monsters] invading later on. Of course, there would also be stronger adventurers to contend with as well.

While Violet was thinking things over, Gregory and Henry entered the dungeon. This time, Gregory had brought an onion and a zucchini for tribute. While he felt bad about bringing such cheap tribute every time he entered the dungeon, crops were the only thing he had in any sort of abundance. He was a farmer who could grow food for his family and earn money, but he wasn't exactly rich. What little money he could make from gathering resources from the dungeon was sold in the hopes of saving up enough coins to buy a proper sword for his son.

Gregory was grateful that a few merchants were already looking to set up shop in their small town. It made it easier to find a buyer for both the dungeon resources and the crops his family grew. However, he was still hesitant to explore the dungeon any further, no matter how much his son begged and pleaded. Dungeons were known to be dangerous and they were lucky that even this one room was safe enough for his son to train his sword skills. It would be too much to expect their luck to continue to hold out.

"Greetings mistress Violet."

Gregory gave a small half-bow as he spoke. The young woman smiled at him and Gregory felt relieved. So long as she continued to look happy to see them, he wouldn't have to worry about entering the dungeon. Upsetting a dungeon master never was a very smart idea and Gregory certainly didn't have the strength to guarantee his and his son's safety if he upset Violet.

"It's good to see you! You really should stop by more often. I've been building some more rooms in the dungeon and several of them have more slimes than this one. There are also quite a few with challenges set up. Even without a class, you two should be capable of completing a few of them."

Gregory gulped nervously as he looked at Violet. He wasn't sure if he could turn down her offer without upsetting her, but he also wasn't sure that going along with her wishes would be a good idea. 

"I'm sorry, mistress Violet. I don't think Henry and I are strong enough to challenge a proper dungeon. My family needs me and it would be too difficult for my wife to raise our other children by herself. I'm just a poor farmer, after all."

The dungeon master frowned and Gregory flinched, sure he had upset her. However, she just gave a sad smile as she replied

"It's up to you, but it isn't that dangerous. There are only [Traps] near the dungeon core room and I can only summon a few varieties on this floor. All are suitable [Monsters] to train with, even for someone like Henry who has yet to find out if he has a class or not."

Violet wasn't able to convince Gregory to do anything this time around. However, she had dropped the subject after the second time of asking. It wouldn't be good to scare him away for good. Then she would lose her chance to help him and his son.