The Dangerously Cute Dungeon Diary

Entry Thirty Six

Dear Diary,

I'm starting to feel frustrated and lonely by the lack of dungeon traffic. No one visits but David, Alice, Avorn, and Camellia. It's like clockwork as they always show up at the same time and leave at the same time. While I enjoy having more time to rest without worrying about anything else, it's frustrating not knowing when things will change. I can't even sleep until people start to arrive in the dungeon again because David has to show up every day for swordsmanship training, according to our contract, so he will not leave me be until that happens.

Speaking of David, he has been more and more passive-aggressive of late. He has always glared at me when I interact with his daughter, Alice, and seemed annoyed whenever I make requests for specific tributes, but I've, mostly, stopped doing that. I just let him bring in whatever he wants since I know the winter season has to be difficult for him. I really want to interact with his daughter as she is so sweet and I've always loved children, but I've even been keeping that to a minimum to avoid making him angry.

For the most part, his anger seems to manifest when we are sparring. He has become rougher in how he goes about it and I end up roughly shoved to the floor with less time to recover when I stand back up before he gets back to it. It isn't that bad since I can heal from the bruises and scrapes before the night is through, but I just wish I knew what his problem was. As far as I know, I haven't done anything to make things worse between us. I'm not a mind reader, though, so I doubt it will be easy to figure things out any time soon.

I will say, though, that he has been asking me about buying more merchandise from me. I don't really want to play merchant right now, though, and I don't like the implication that it's my job to provide wares to buy constantly. I do that as a hobby and I'm not so clueless that I'm not aware of just how good of a bargain I sell my wares at. People can literally gather acorns from my dungeon, leave the dungeon, come back, and then trade them for things like tins of tea, honey, or lavender meringues, which would cost them quite a bit more outside the dungeon.

From what I've heard, this world uses copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins as currency. Most people are lucky if they ever see even a single gold coin in their lifetimes, especially if they don't awaken as an adventurer or craftsman class. Even then, it seems a good bit of luck, hard work, and time is needed to get to a level where you can earn enough to add up to a gold coin. Someone like Mirabella, who has a rare navigator support class, is able to earn a few gold coins for mapping dungeons with her party. However, that can take anywhere from weeks to months and she has to split it with three other people. So the fact that I'm more interested in quantity and variety rather than the traditionally valuable items from outside the dungeon means that everyone can afford my goods so long as they are willing to put in the effort.

Anyhow, I'll get back to you some other time.

-Violet