The Raven & The Druid

Elivyre had come to the town of Millstone at her father's behest. Apparently, he was willing to fund her opening a new alchemy shop so long as she was willing to move to this quaint little farming town.

Bramouth city was a large and well-established city built near a dungeon that was several hundred years old. There was a fair number of plants spread across its twenty-five floors, but there was also a lot of competition to contend with. It simply wasn't practical for new merchants to try to compete with long-standing businesses with merchants who were far more experienced than Elivyre. As such, she was sent off to Millstone to investigate.

From what little Elivyre had heard, a new dungeon had recently formed in the area and it was supposed to be relatively safe for a dungeon. However, the main thing Elivyre cared about was that the dungeon seemed to have an abundance of flowers, herbs, and other plant life to harvest. Such easy access to the plants would mean easy business for Elivyre. It was likely she'd not only be able to produce potions in abundance, but she'd also be able to sell her father the herbs adventurers brought to her for a bargain.

That was the deal for paying the startup costs for Elivyre's shop was that she had to send a free crate of herbs every month and that she sold the rest to her father for a good deal. However, so far, all Elivyre had to go on were rumors. That and the fact that some adventurer named David and his daughter kept selling her the same plants every day. Mostly acorns and wildflowers, but they were still quite useful.

Since the dungeon was supposed to be safe enough, anyway, Elivyre decided to check it out herself. As a D-rank druid, she really wasn't strong enough to enter most dungeons, but she figured it should be safe enough if slimes were the primary monster. Elivyre gave her gear one last look over before stepping into the dungeon.

After a short walk through a hallway, she came to the first room. The artificial sun, slight breeze, and the peaceful scene of a wildflower meadow were rather surprising. It almost seemed too peaceful to be a dungeon. However, Elivyre's half-elf nature made it easy to tell that the scene in front of her was not quite as abundant with life as it really should be. It was hard to become fully immersed in the beauty of dungeons as an elf, or half-elf, since one's affinity for nature gave things away way too easily.

Elivyre was sure that the experience the slime would give wouldn't do much for her levels. Maybe if she killed it repeatedly, she might get a level or two today, but it didn't really seem worth the time and effort. Instead, Elivyre headed for the oak tree where she began to pick up acorns and place them into a basket. So long as the slime left her be, she'd be happy to leave it be as well. It wasn't like it could do that much damage anyways so it would be a waste to spend her mana on summoning earth magic.

Diva, Elivyre's pet raven, flew off of her shoulder and Elivyre just continued to gather acorns. As a druid, she had even more of an affinity for beasts than most elves. Diva had a habit of being dramatic, but was also a very proud bird. Still, Elivyre enjoyed her raven's company and would happily bring it wherever she went. Today wasn't any different and she was grateful to know Diva would watch over her while she harvested the plants available.

The rumors had certainly been true and it was difficult for Elivyre to stop collecting the wildflowers, acorns, and even honey that was available in the dungeon. However, it was possible that there would be more to collect in other rooms and her basket was already full. She'd already have to switch to filling her satchel with the plants.

Elivyre looked at the two directions she could go thoughtfully before finally moving forward. Diva cawed as it circled above her before gently coming to a stop as it landed on her outstretched arm. Together they continued through the doorway and down a short hallway. When they got to the small roundabout, Elivyre remarked

"The dungeon master must be smart to use this method. Most dungeon masters use hallways that are really long with many twists and turns to confuse adventurers, but I think I prefer this. Those who aren't paying attention can still get confused, but we won't fall prey to that so easily, will we?"

Elivyre talked to Diva who made small noises in response. Elivyre dropped a flower in front of the entrance they had just left and walked around the hallway. When she arrived at a new entrance, she continued forward. While it was possible that the dungeon could play tricks, this was the easiest way to tell where one had been whenever things were simple. It was a shame to leave the wildflower on the ground, but there was plenty more where it had come from. So, it was no big loss.

"Hmm, this room is empty. I guess that should be expected with such a new dungeon. Let's continue on, shall we?"

Elivyre continued forward, using the same trick at the next roundabout hallway. The next room was also empty and this caused her to frown. It was starting to look like a waste of energy to keep continuing forward. However, it wasn't like Elivyre had anything better to do today. She could afford to spend a bit more time exploring.

Once more going through a roundabout hallway, Elivyre came to the next room. This one brought up a system message about some sort of challenge.

"Let's see here... It wants us to cross the room without swimming, touching, or otherwise interacting with the water, but it is raining. It'll be difficult enough to cross in such a dark area while it is raining. However, it would be even more disappointing if we were automatically disqualified just because it is raining."

Elivyre decided to just return back the way she had come. She hoped the dungeon master wouldn't be upset by her ignoring the challenge. However, Elivyre hadn't brought a magic light and she was worried that her basket of flowers would be lost. The torch supplies Elivyre had brought in her satchel wouldn't help her if it was raining. The rain would just put the torch out and she'd just end up wasting supplies that would be better used elsewhere.

While there was another room Elivyre could go to, she had the distinct feeling that it was where the dungeon core room was. She had no intention of upsetting the dungeon master, so Elivyre just returned to the second room where she entered the room she had skipped previously.

This time, Elivyre found the challenge much easier to accept. The artificial sun and lack of a proper weather system meant that the environment was more suitable for completing a challenge. However, Elivyre wasn't sure what a jigsaw puzzle was. The fact the notification specified it was slime-themed did give her a clue, though.

Elivyre looked around the room as her raven companion flew off once more. Picking up a few of the large puzzle pieces, Elivyre noted that the pieces were flat pieces of smoothed wood with different-shaped bits sticking out from the sides. Perhaps the puzzle pieces needed to be combined somehow?

Elivyre gathered up more of the pieces and brought them to the center of the room where a large wooden area created a divot in the ground. It seemed likely that this part of the room was related to the puzzle. From what she could gather, Elivyre figured she needed to combine the puzzle pieces together to form a slime somehow. However, this was easier said than done.

The pieces did not combine together so easily and they didn't really seem to want to be combined at an angle. So, it would seem that it was unlikely that the puzzle required any sort of depth to the slime depiction. This led Elivyre to the conclusion that it was likely that the puzzle needed to be filled in as a flat layer on the puzzle board. However, Diva's cawing made it clear that it was time to go.

"Alright, girl, let's go. I'll get you a nice treat when we get home."

Violet was pleasantly surprised to find she had a rather nice tribute once those adventuring in her dungeon left. She had become more sensitive over time and could now tell the number of adventurers who were visiting the dungeon. It was strange, but it felt like different sorts of energy. So, when a large weak mass of energy and a small weak mass of energy entered the dungeon, Violet correctly guessed that a single adventurer with a pet of some sort had entered the dungeon.

Yet, despite this, she had been left with three new [Items] as tribute. Rosemary, sage, and yarrow were added to both the [Base Resources] and [Items] lists as well as giving Violet 105DP. This put her at a total of 357DP as well as having a full 50MP from the recent visitors.

Violet quickly headed to her slime parkour room and spent 30MP and 75DP to purchase the last three aqua slimes for the room. Then, she headed to the room she wanted to turn into a hay meadow monster field.

"Is there any way to make slimes that blend into the surroundings? You know, kind of like chameleons?"

[Error! Missing required [Base Resources] to complete research.]

Violet frowned at that as she asked

"Is there any chance you can give me an idea of what I'd need to accomplish that?"

The system didn't answer Violet. She sighed as she opened her [Base Resources] list. Either she'd need some sort of magic or she'd need some other way to allow the slimes to change their colors. It was a long shot, but Violet had recently received blue dye as a [Base Resouce] so, perhaps, researching more dye colors could work.

"I'd like to research white dye using white clover flowers, red dye using beebalm flowers, and yellow dye using dandelions."

[Would you like to spend 10DP to research white dye using the [Base Resource] white clover flowers?

Yes or No?]

[Would you like to spend 10DP to research red dye using the [Base Resource] beebalm flowers?

Yes or No?]

[Would you like to spend 10DP to research yellow dye using the [Base Resource] dandelions?

Yes or No?]

The notifications came up one after another and Violet selected the [Yes] option for each. Then, she tried to think of a way to create the color black. She didn't really have a way to make charcoal or any naturally black [Items] like ink.

However, Violet had been a graphic designer and had taken a few art classes in school. She knew how to make black paint by mixing colors together. Mixing red, yellow, and blue together could result in brown, but it could also make black, depending on how much of each color was used.

"I'd like to research black dye using red dye, yellow dye, and blue dye."

[Would you like to spend 20DP to research black dye using the [Base Resources] red dye, yellow dye, and blue dye?

Yes or No?]

Violet selected the [Yes] option. It was unfortunate that the cost was higher, but Violet suspected that had to do with both the number of resources involved and the complexity of the item she wanted to make. Finally, having all the basic colors, she asked

"Can I research a camouflage slime evolution using red dye, yellow dye, blue dye, black dye, and white dye?"

[Would you like to research slimes using [Base Resources] red dye, yellow dye, blue dye, black dye, and white dye to create slime evolution [Chameleon Slime] for 250DP?

Yes or No?]

Violet selected [No] since she didn't have enough dungeon points to do so.