New Friend

Elivyre was surprised to see a young girl sitting amongst the flowers in the wildflower meadow room. With her dainty features and beautiful purple dress, Elivyre couldn't help but be reminded of the drawings of pixies she had seen. Violet lacked the wings and small stature of a pixie, but she was otherwise very picturesque.

Diva cawed threateningly as she flew off of Elivyre's shoulder and to the sky above. This caused Violet to look up in alarm as she grasped her sword, ready to fight off the raven should it become necessary. Elivyre pursed her lips as she looked up at her friend exasperatedly.

It wasn't uncommon for multiple adventuring parties to be in the same dungeon at the same time. Although, Elivyre had the feeling that the woman in front of her was not an adventurer. Perhaps she was a noble's daughter or the dungeon master?

"I apologize if we frightened you. Diva had a habit of being a bit dramatic. I'm not sure why she is acting like this, but I'm sure she means no harm."

Violet looked warily at the raven flying overhead as she replied

"I'm not so sure about that. Does your pet not like dungeons or something?"

"That's not quite it. She just likes to warn me of anything she thinks might be a threat. She isn't much for combat, but she is, usually, quite useful. You wouldn't happen to be the dungeon master, would you?"

Violet looked at the black-haired young woman in front of her. Deciding to attempt to be friendly, for now, Violet introduced herself.

"I am dungeon master Violet. What about you?"

Elivyre frowned, had she not introduced herself?

"I'm Elivyre, it's lovely to meet you! I'm a druid, but I'm not much of an adventurer. I'm actually planning to set up an alchemy shop in the nearby town to sell herbal remedies and potions."

Violet nodded before replying

"It's nice to meet you as well. Are you always this friendly to strangers?"

Elivyre looked aghast as she replied

"I'm sorry! I don't mean to make you uncomfortable or to be rude."

Violet shook her head as she explained

"No, that's not an issue. I'm just not used to adventurers being so friendly. Most tend to keep their distance while trying to behave respectfully. I think my presence tends to make them uncomfortable."

Elivyre looked sad for Violet as she replied

"I'd be happy to be your friend, if you'd like? It sounds awfully lonely to be treated like that. I'm only a half-elf so I won't live nearly as long as full elves, but I'm sure I can keep you company for a few centuries."

Violet smiled, happy to hear the offer as she graciously accepted.

"I'd like that. Are you here to collect herbs then?"

Diva was finally starting to calm down, so Elivyre called her back down before addressing Violet's question.

"Ah, yes, that is what I'm here for. I've brought you some allium roseum as tribute, though. It has lovely flowers, but is related to onion and garlic, so it is also edible. I figured it would go quite well with the aesthetic you have so far. Plus, it isn't easy to obtain just from foraging."

Violet found the gift quite thoughtful and it was true that the small pink flowers did look quite pretty.

"It'll be a lovely addition to my new garden meadow room. I'll be sure to make good use of it."

Elivyre was happy to hear that Violet approved of her choice in tribute. It was often a gamble trying to figure out if a new dungeon had a lot of herbs because the owner actually liked them or if they were just what they had the most access to.

Many dungeons started out by collecting what they could from outside their dungeons through their contracted [Monsters]. So dungeons that spawned in an old mine might end up with more stones and useful resources like coal early on while those that spawned near an ocean could end up with a lot of aquatic plants and sand. However, quite often the dungeon masters would end up changing their themes later on as they got more access to a wider variety of choices. That made it quite difficult to know what sort of tribute to gift a newer dungeon that was still developing.

"Will you be keeping us company while we are in the dungeon today? I don't mind, if that is what you prefer. I'll make sure Diva doesn't bother you either, so no worries there!"

Violet didn't usually follow adventurers through the dungeon. Gregory tended to stick to just the one room and David was a special case. So, she was a bit curious about what it would be like to follow Elivyre. As such, she nodded as she replied

"I don't normally get to watch people traverse my dungeon, so that could be a nice change of pace."

Elivyre was used to making small talk since she had grown up a merchant's daughter. As such, it was easy for her to make small talk with Violet. She spent much of her time in the dungeon harvesting the various plants, but she made sure to ask questions or make comments as she did so.

Violet found it quite strange as she watched her slimes bouncing around without giving Elivyre any mind. She knew that the slimes in her floodplains meadow room had been nicer to Alice. However, she figured that was because she was a young child who was less threatening than an experienced adventurer like David.

"Why don't you attack the slimes? Are they too weak to give much experience? I don't really know how that sort of thing works."

Elivyre glanced up at Violet as she replied

"I'm still fairly low level, so they would still give me some experience, but I'd have to spend a few hours killing them to be worthwhile. I don't have any intentions of getting in your way of developing the dungeon, so I try to keep my visits short. As an alchemist, it is more worthwhile to collect herbs.

The slimes don't attack anyone who doesn't have the intent to harm them, the dungeon, or are at a high enough level to be a casual threat to the dungeon. Since I'm not even at C-rank and have no intention to harm the dungeon, I can just collect things without worrying. 

Although, it also helps that I'm a druid and half-elf. Elves have an affinity for forests and the living creatures that dwell within them. Similarly, druids have an affinity for beasts and earth magic. [Monsters] aren't quite the same as beasts, but there is likely still a sense of peace for certain [Monsters].

A skeleton or other undead would be a different case, but pixies, dryads, and even slimes tend to enjoy the company of druids like myself. Plenty of higher-level druids will even return to some of the dungeons they've already moved on from just so they can revisit [Monsters] they have a particularly good relationship with."

Violet found this interesting and had to wonder if that was part of the reason Elivyre felt comfortable around her as well. If druids and elves could feel some affinity towards even dungeon [Monsters] and [Critters], perhaps it made them more open-minded to befriending even her. Of course, it was also possible that Elivyre was just a strange one who wasn't worried about Violet trying to kill her off just for being in her dungeon.