Dear Diary,

So, it’s been four days since I wrote last. Today we killed all the kobolds. Well, I say killed, but I’m including in that the sixty or so that I put to sleep.

It took just about all our strength, so when the kobolds were gone Lewis the dragon killed us instantly. We wonder if next time they’ll let us just fight Lewis, or if we’ll have to fight all the kobolds again, too. Not gonna lie, if we have to fight the kobolds too, that’s gonna suck. At the rate we’re going, it’ll take us until just before the players show up to beat the level.

Which, I was really hoping we could get to lvl 100 this cycle.

Oh well. It’s not like the reset button is going anywhere. Not like I’m going anywhere, either.

One of the things Kimi has in her shop is coffee. I don’t have it in my ingredients inventory, because my restaurant is supposed to serve lunch and dinner. But the players will buy coffee (it’s in a can, for some reason) and drink that when they wake up.

Anyways, I’ve been getting black, unsweetened coffee from her, boiling it down, and adding it to chocolate milkshakes to make mocha. And it’s my new favorite thing. I can’t boil the coffee down enough to make decent ice cream without giving it a burned flavor, but it works perfectly as a syrup for making milkshakes.

Mo came in last in the race today. That’s the first time he’s been last. Which, since we’re halfway done with the tournament, I’m not mad about. I told him that we all have bad days, and no one can expect someone to win all the time, and he’s been doing great so far, and I’m proud of him. Hopefully tomorrow he feels better, and can at least get a bronze.

Staab’s marble, Green Eye, is doing pretty good. I’m glad that for Staab’s first tournament he’ll probably get a championship medal. I mean, he probably won’t get gold, since that will (if things keep going like they are) go to me and Mo, but getting silver or bronze is still exciting.

After the races and dinner, since Staab basically lives here (coughwithLillycough) he’s been teaching us how to play poker. I… am really bad at it. Apparently my ears just spin around, showing all my emotions, no matter what. Aya is great at not showing emotions, but she kinda sucks at actually playing the game. So we’re the worst players. Staab has been playing for a long time, so he’s good by default. But holy cow, Kimi is great. She’s by far the best player. She has this grin that, you can’t tell if she’s grinning because she’s bluffing, or grinning because she has a great hand, or if she’s grinning because she’s imagining setting the inn on fire.

Mika is pretty good, too. She’s still learning, and is always hesitant about betting large amounts, but she has this constant slightly worried face that she puts on, and no one can tell what the worried face means. I think that by next cycle she’ll be either on Staab’s level or better.

Meanwhile, Lilly just… She does fine, but she’s not interested in winning so much as interested in flirting with Staab to make him mess up. Honestly I think she won’t keep playing very long. She says cards in general aren’t her thing.

Well, that’s it for now, I need to sleep.

Goodnight, dungeon!