Escapism

Violet was quite happy when she discovered her friend had brought her some nice items as a tribute today. She now had both witch hazel and snowdrop flowers, which she didn't know much about, but they did give her 70 more dungeon points than she had before. She now had 826DP and was so close to reaching her goal that she could almost taste it. Considering she was guaranteed 100DP from Camellia and Avorn when they came to spend the night tonight and David still needed to visit, she was likely going to be able to upgrade the dungeon the next morning.

It was certainly good news that she'd soon be able to get rid of the excess potions that were taking up space in her bag. Even if she now had a magic bag, potions still weighed quite a bit and were a waste of space if they weren't going to sell very well. Of course, that still left the question of what she should invest her mana in. Sweets and tea seemed to be selling well, but there were only so many cookies and tins of tea that she could stock up on before it started to seem excessive.

So, this time, Violet decided to try something new. She could purchase 0.5 kg or 1 lb-sized glass jars, so she spent 25MP to purchase five of them. The other 25MP was spent to create 2.5 kg or 5 lbs of maple syrup to fill the jars. She had been given the maple syrup on a plate of pancakes, so she hadn't unlocked them as an item that could be created in a jar, it was just loose maple syrup. Other items, like honey, milk, or butter could also be summoned outside of a container, but they also had a container option since they had been absorbed into the dungeon while inside a container originally. Still, realistically, the maple syrup and the honey cost the same amount. It just took an extra step since she had to create the jars first and then fill them with maple syrup.

While honey was more traditional for putting in tea, Violet was still hopeful that the syrup would sell well as well. It could just as easily be used in tea or it could be used on pancakes, in glazes for meat, or baked goods. It was sweet and likely wasn't super cheap in the outside world. Even in the modern day, maple syrup took a lot of work to harvest and refine, so it was expensive. In a medieval-esque world like this one seemed to be, it seemed likely that maple syrup would be even more valuable.

After storing her new merchandise, Violet went off to the dungeon core room to nap. While she had been trying to sell things the day before, today wanted to do something else. Since she was likely to reach her goal regardless of what she did, she wanted to take the chance to stock up on merchandise. Considering she'd need her mana to build, there was only so much time that she'd be able to stock up on such items left. Only when Violet started to run low on dungeon points would it be worthwhile to invest in any more merchandise after she unlocked her next floor.

While she was resting, Tobias's party came to the dungeon to do their daily visit. Once again, they had stopped by the local tavern and bought an extra dish to use as a tribute for the dungeon. Today, they had brought a venison apple stew made with deer meat, dried apples, raisins, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and white beans in a rich brown sauce. When they had eaten their bowls of the stew, they had eaten a nice crusty bread and drank some alcohol with it, but they had kept things simple when it came to their tribute.

As it was, the tavern owner tended to look suspiciously at them whenever they brought the food away. Even if they had paid a fair price for it, food was scarce during the winter. It was frowned upon to waste food when others might not be able to afford to eat well for most of the season. Tobias's party didn't have that sort of problem and they much preferred to appease the dungeon master by bringing her new tributes to enjoy. However, that didn't change the fact that their decision was certainly controversial.

Their group was once more attempting the capture-the-slime challenge today. Only this challenge and the jigsaw puzzle remained. They had gotten close to finishing the jigsaw puzzle the last time, but they were still struggling with the slimes by quite a bit. Since the jigsaw puzzle seemed doable so long as they set more time aside for it, they decided to set it aside for when they needed a break from the frustration of the capture-the-slime challenge.

Their teamwork for the challenge had improved by quite a bit as they already knew what their roles were and were used to the challenge. Thodin would babysit the slimes in the bag where they had captured them, ensuring none of them managed to escape.

Meanwhile, Tobias and Mirabella would do all the chasing after the slimes and try to coax them out of the rabbit holes. Unfortunately, while they had succeeded in making progress, it was difficult to predict which rabbit hole the slime would pop out of after entering one. They all seemed to be connected and there were ten holes, but only three of them.

Thanks to dedicating all of their time in the dungeon to chasing after the slimes today, after several hours of aggravation, they managed to capture four of the five slimes. It was so tempting to stay longer and hope they could capture the last one, but there had been no sign of Violet and they were still worried about overstaying their welcome. They had been hoping she would visit them again today and let them trade for more things, but it had been hours and there hadn't been even the faintest sign she'd show up. So, they packed up, after reluctantly freeing the slimes, and left.

Violet was very happy with the 155DP from her most recent tribute, which easily brought her total up to 961 dungeon points. Tobias's party always seemed to bring nice tributes to her and she was very grateful. Although, this led to other thoughts such as how disappointed Violet would be when she unlocked her next floor and spring came. There would likely be more adventurers, but she wouldn't know much about them and it would be harder to differentiate them. She'd have to wait for them to approach her before she'd be able to tell if they were friend or foe. It was likely to exacerbate her loneliness as well as change the dynamic of the dungeon for the worse.

Feeling upset, Violet spent her 50MP on twenty-five bread rolls, stuffed them into her bag, and went back to sleep. She wanted to return to her pleasant dreams where she didn't have to feel lonely. She could relive her happiest memories with her husband, as if she were reliving them and she could feel loved once more. There was nothing sweeter than the comforting embrace of her husband and it always took a lot to convince herself to wake back up again. However, the draw was even stronger at times like this where she couldn't wait to escape the reality of her new life.