Slime Parkour

No more adventurers showed up that day. Instead, Violet just spent the remainder of her time, until David showed up for their nightly training, practicing with her sword. There was plenty of time to practice swinging the sword through the air as a dungeon master. Really, Violet was likely to become quite skilled, even after David no longer showed up to train her. She did have all of eternity to practice, after all.

"I see you are taking your training seriously."

David's voice called out across the wildflower meadow as he entered the dungeon. Violet smiled as she said

"Yes, well, there isn't much else to keep me busy in here. Gets a bit boring and it is good to have something to focus my mind on."

David nodded as he replied

"Yes, well, swordsmanship training is a good way to spend your free time. The more you practice, the sooner you will make progress."

The fact that David would no longer have to remain in this city once he finished training Violet to a satisfactory level went unsaid. However, it was more than obvious to Violet that this was the case. As much as Violet would rather David become her friend so that she could have someone to trust in this world, she couldn't force it.

Sure, David had traumatized her by killing her repeatedly, but the painful memories of that were already starting to fade away. Now, Violet was just left with other, more mild feelings. She could more easily see that David had just been trying to help her and that he was too clueless about how dungeon masters worked to be trustworthy. Well, maybe people, in general, didn't know much about how dungeon masters and their connection to the dungeon functioned. However, that didn't mean that they all had bad intentions.

"I brought ginger for you today. Do you have anything in particular that you need me to bring for you?"

Violet thought it over for a bit before replying

"I could use a variety of berries. I'd like to make some fruit bushes, eventually."

David nodded in understanding. Berries would be cheap enough to obtain that it shouldn't be an issue.

"Alice wants to see that puzzle you were talking about the other day. Is there any way that we could move our training to that room for the day?"

David clearly no longer had any reservations about exploring more of the dungeon now that he knew there wouldn't be any [Traps] until they got close to the dungeon core room. Violet nodded before heading off towards one of the entrances.

"I'll take you through the side where I haven't built anything yet. The other side is still under construction and would be more difficult to traverse."

David held Alice's hand and Luna walked on Alice's other side. Violet's heart ached at the sight as she was reminded of her desire to have children with her own husband. That was no longer possible now, but it didn't keep Violet from finding the pair adorable together.

Alice's black hair contrasted with David's blonde hair quite a bit, but they shared the same blue eye color. They were also very clearly a happy family. Violet wondered if Alice's mother had black hair. However, she wasn't about to ask about it since there was every possibility that the mother could be deceased. Violet would hate to make the young girl sad by asking such a personal question.

"Alright, this is the puzzle room. Since Alice will be the one completing the puzzle, I'll be nice and give her a hint on how to complete the puzzle. You have to join the pieces together and lay them out flat within the puzzle frame."

Alice smiled happily as she went off to complete the puzzle. Luna was quick to chase after her tripping over itself as it did so. Violet wasn't sure if the quest reward would show up for Luna, even if she did complete the puzzle successfully. She knew Alice had the beast-tamer class, but she didn't know if she had a system the way other adventurers were supposed to. Of course, for all Violet knew, it was the dungeon's system that showed up to adventurers to issue the challenge and quest rewards.

"That was nice of you, but don't do that too often. She has to learn just how difficult it can be to figure out dungeon puzzles. Some of them have [Traps] built in and she can end up dying, if she isn't careful. I don't want her to end up handicapped by having things too easy now."

Violet nodded while looking at David with wide eyes. She hadn't intended to cause issues. Violet just knew that the other adventurers had struggled so much with the puzzle that it was likely too difficult for the young girl to figure out as well. She'd have to be careful in the future to not give out hints so easily.

Since Violet was still too inexperienced with swordsmanship, most of their training session was spent going through the motions rather than on mock combat. Apparently, it could take years to master the skill and most children started practicing with the sword at a rather young age. They'd be given wooden toy swords when they were still in the single digits and then be gifted a better sword when they were twelve years old.

While having a swordsmanship class or similar would make it more sensible to continue training with a sword. Apparently, many adventurer's children and children of nobility would still get some training, even if they never awoke a class. Violet supposed this made sense since this world was a dangerous place with both dungeons and free-roaming [Monsters]. It was important to be able to protect oneself.

Of course, this only highlighted just how weak Violet truly was in this world. The fact that she couldn't even wield a weapon to protect herself, much less not having monster abilities or a class meant she was a rather pitifully weak dungeon master. However, Violet wouldn't let this handicap stop her. She could always just work hard to make up for her weaknesses and ensure they wouldn't continue into the future.

Filling in the first floor of the dungeon more would also likely help a great deal. With enough puzzles, monster fields, and [Traps], her dungeon would be able to protect itself more and more every day. While the limitation on [Traps] on the first floor was a bit of a handicap, it wasn't like Violet couldn't slow people and [Monsters] down, if not kill them, through other means. There had already been one adventurer death in the dungeon, after all.

After David left for the night, Violet rested for a short while. She rubbed her shoulders, feeling sore. It was likely that a short nap would fix that, since the dungeon had incredible healing properties, but there were other things to take care of first.

Violet headed to her room with the water pool and spent 40MP on building eight wooden platforms. She made sure to space them out well so that it would be possible to cross the room without going for a swim, but it would require a good bit of skill to do so. Then she spent 10MP and 25DP to create an aqua slime for the room.

While there were still other slimes to purchase for the room, Violet felt the room was complete enough to finally set the theme for the room.

"I'd like to set this room's theme as 'slime parkour'"

[Would you like to set the theme for this room? This will cost 150DP. You will no longer be able to change the room's theme and all [Items] added to it in the future must match the set theme, but upgrades will be unlocked for the room.

Yes or No?]

Violet selected the [Yes] option.

[Is the current theme correct?

Theme: Slime Parkour

Yes or No?]

Violet once more selected the [Yes] option, happy to see the system actually used the theme she wanted the first time. However, this was only part of what Violet needed to complete for the room.

"I'd like to research wild violet and honey lollipops using the violet, honey, sugar, water, and wood [Base Resources]."

[Searching database for 'lollipop'...]

[Unable to find 'lollipop' in database. Now searching host's memory.]

Violet groaned as she began to feel a piercing headache begin to build up in her mind. However, while her vision swam, she didn't pass out. Violet was grateful as she'd have hated to end up drowning in the water of her slime parkour room.

[Would you like to spend 10DP to research wild violets & honey lollipops using the [Base Resources] violets, honey, sugar, water, and wood?

Yes or No?]

Violet selected the [Yes] option once more before spending another 10DP to set the lollipops as a challenge reward. The challenge for the room would require the room to be crossed without swimming, touching, falling, or otherwise interacting with the water. Since the slimes would be attempting to knock adventurers off of the wooden platforms the entire time and could easily take people by surprise, Violet imagined this would be quite difficult to do.