Loneliness

After David left the first time, Violet quickly got to work spending her mana. After absorbing his tribute, she now had 182DP, so it wouldn't be possible to do anything too crazy just yet. Instead, Violet just spent 50MP on a new spawner for the other side room she had yet to do anything with. Then, she spent the rest of the time David was away swinging her sword around. No use in wasting precious time doing nothing and there was no time for a nap anyway.

David returned, looking around curiously, as if trying to figure out what had changed in the short time he was away. However, due to the monster spawners not actually being visible, in normal circumstances, there was nothing to see. Shrugging it off, David began to spar with Violet while Alice gathered plants.

"You're starting to improve, it seems like. A few more years of practicing your swings and engaging in combat against enemies and you'd likely be just as good as me."

Violet gave a small smile in response. She didn't say it aloud, but she knew it was also quite possible she could even surpass David thanks to her unnaturally long life. Which would be ideal for Violet since it was always good to add another layer of protection to her dungeon. If a particularly powerful enemy invaded the dungeon, it would even be better to risk her core corrupting from dying repeatedly than to risk dying permanently.

Violet still wasn't sure how she felt about living such a long life, especially when she would always have a sense of lingering loneliness. She didn't want to move on and forget her husband, Lee, and she'd rather spend eternity alone than to love another man. However, it wasn't like Violet had to give up on all of her dreams altogether. She could always help the children of this world to grow stronger and ensure they could live longer lives as a result.

It wasn't quite the same thing as becoming a mother, but it would be as close as Violet could get. Maybe a dungeon was too much of a dangerous place for it to be considered comparable with being a teacher. However, there was clearly some value for the residents of this world in Violet's dungeon being a place where children could train, level up, and grow stronger.

Violet's distracted thoughts made it difficult to concentrate on the fight at hand. She was lucky it was just mock training and that David had to treat her much more delicately. Otherwise, she was likely to not only end up hurt, but she'd be putting the dungeon core and her actual life in danger. Violet noted that she'd have to be careful about that in the future.

After a while of training in the wildflower meadow, they switched to the hay meadow room. Alice struggled with finding the new plants, at first, due to how tall the grass in the room was. However, her wolf tame, Luna, was very enthusiastic about helping and would bark excitedly to let Alice know whenever she found something useful.

Violet was careful not to let the barking distract her, trying her best to keep her mind from wandering too much. As cute as Alice and Luna were, it was important to practice fighting with a clear mind now if Violet was going to be capable of it in the future. It was only a few short hours after that David and Alice called it a day and left the dungeon once more.

Violet returned to her empty side room and got to work sculpting the room. First, she created a narrow diagonal river across the room. This took up 40 cubic meters, but it was 5 meters deep, amounting to 20MP to dig out the 200 cubic meters and another 10MP to fill it with water. That left 20MP, which was promptly spent on two apple trees on the side of the room closest to the dungeon entrance.

The river water didn't really move and it only took up, roughly, a third of the room. However, Violet felt it would be a nice start to a floodplains meadow. Perhaps she could even, eventually, research a way to make it resemble a more natural river? Violet wasn't really sure what limitations she really had, but it would certainly be a nice addition to the dungeon. So, she remained hopeful.

While Violet didn't necessarily need sleep, she still preferred to sleep at night. It helped to pass the time while the exhaustion faded away and any injuries healed. Even if David was careful with her, it didn't prevent blisters and bruises from practice. Violet wasn't sure if she was fortunate to not have calluses form. Her hands would always remain soft thanks to the dungeon's restorative properties, but that also meant any extensive training would hurt her hands for a while afterward.

Violet decided to enjoy a nice bath in the new river, even washing her clothes and setting them out to sun dry while she did so. While the dungeon was very convenient when it came to most things, that didn't mean Violet would magically be clean as well. Her dress didn't seem capable of being damaged, but it wasn't dirt-resistant. 

The first few days in this world were fine to go without bathing and washing her clothes, but Violet was a modern woman who was used to enjoying luxuries like showers and clean clothes. She couldn't stand the idea of only bathing a few times a year the way people in medieval times did. Violet couldn't really say if this world was the same when it came to hygiene as she didn't exactly run around sniffing people and getting in their personal space. 

It was entirely possible that they just had magic technology that did much of the same things that modern-day appliances did, but it was also quite possible the world truly was entirely medieval in nature. Violet couldn't exactly go out and explore the world and she didn't really feel that comfortable with David or Gregory to ask such questions. Not only were they men, which made it more embarrassing, but they didn't exactly think of her as their friend. As such, it was difficult for Violet to feel a real sense of companionship with them.

After her bath, Violet put her mostly dry dress back on and went to the puzzle room to sleep. It was the only room that got dark enough to make sleep easy without the possibility of it raining. Violet didn't exactly regret making the wildflower meadow follow springtime weather patterns, but it certainly didn't change the fact that she didn't want to sleep in the rain.