Seraphina looked down at Veronica's sleeping form. It had already been two weeks since she had been forced into hibernation by the dungeon core. Things had been, mostly, quiet save for that annoying Bo fellow. He was always trying to storm into the dungeon core room and demand a fight with Veronica, not that she ever let him cross the threshold. She couldn't risk letting him tell others that she wasn't awake or the dungeon core might feel threatened enough to wake her.
Either way, Seraphina didn't want to deal with the annoying dungeon politics that would arise from such a thing. She ended up telling the temperamental young man that he would have to best her in a fight before she would allow it. That felt a bit hypocritical considering she had previously willingly allowed Veronica to die at his hands, but it was the best she could do now.
Technically speaking, it wasn't smart to have Veronica die too frequently as it could cause her to suffer from PTSD and cause the dungeon core to corrupt. Seraphina could remember how cross Theodore had been when he had to report a similar issue that happened to one of his clients. The poor girl had required therapy that she didn't end up receiving until half a year later, which was nothing to most immortal beings, but likely felt like a long time due to it being in the early days of her career as a Dungeon Master.
Veronica, luckily, seemed like a more resilient, if stubborn, young woman. She was already causing problems of her own that Seraphina would have to report to the council, once the young woman awoke. Still, she was glad that she didn't have to walk on eggshells around her. Most Dungeon Masters evolved from [Monsters] and beasts, so they didn't tend to need all of the emotional coddling. In fact, the less you interfered with the natural processes of the dungeon, the better in those cases. There were some Dungeon Masters who were originally adventurers too, of course, but even they tended to be hardened from their years working in the field, so Seraphina still would have been enough for someone like that.
Well, there was a reason she had been the one chosen for Veronica instead of someone like Theodore. He was kinder, gentler, and more willing to do whatever it took to help those he was responsible for. Seraphina was more by the book, neither unwilling to help Veronica, should she ask, nor willing to go against her training. The council wouldn't bat an eye at the young redhead dying to Bo once or twice, even if she was around to stop it. She wasn't allowed to stop anyone from entering the dungeon and challenging it, after all. Her only responsibility was ensuring the dungeon core was safe in order to give the young woman a chance to build a thriving dungeon.
Really, the thing she wasn't looking forward to having to explain to the council was the fact that the dungeon had put Veronica to sleep in the first place. Even though she wasn't at fault as she wasn't allowed to tell her clients what to do or how to run their dungeons, it was still quite possible that Veronica could demand she be replaced by someone else. Seraphina winced at the thought of having to go through the bond-breaking ceremony.
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It was a rather rare thing for a dungeon diplomat to have their bond with a dungeon severed. It could very well kill her. Seraphina was only one woman and having the bond break would be hard on her body. Veronica and her dungeon would survive since the burden would be shared, but she would be lucky to say the same. That could mean that her other Dungeon Master might have to accept being assigned a new dungeon diplomat as well, she doubted they would be happy.
Of course, no one knew who would replace her. The bond was decided by the dungeon core based on who was the most fitting of those who had already awakened as a true member of their race. There were children born to Dungeon Diplomats that were closer to elves with long lifespans, but without the ability to teleport between dungeons or bond with them. They didn't have as much supernatural strength and could awaken class like normal adventurers. Seraphina wasn't an adventurer, so she didn't have a ranking, she was neither part of the dungeon system, nor classified as wholly a non-dungeon entity. Still, it would take, at least, a B-rank adventurer to best her as she had come into her powers several decades ago and was more than capable of holding her own against an enemy.
Honestly, that was part of why it was so laughable that Bo kept trying to challenge her. The first time, he had been in pain with his feet bare and scorched badly yet he had seemed almost spurred on by the pain, ready to go to battle. The subsequent times, he hadn't been in as bad of shape, likely having purchased some sort of magic tool to chop down the trees in his way instead of bothering with going through the challenge rooms. That was one of the problems with an open floorplan hybrid dungeon, the trees acted like walls with how thick they grew, but they weren't nearly as sturdy as proper dungeon walls would be. Even then, she had heard a few tales about S-ranks with classes specializing in strength busting down walls when they were in a hurry or if they were just simply annoyed by one of the challenges. The trees in this dungeon were just easier to destroy is all.
Seraphina sighed as she pulled an apple from her bag and began to consume it. Veronica could, honestly, use quite a bit of advice from someone who knew what they were doing. She didn't lack creativity or talent when it came to building challenge rooms and inn rooms, but she just didn't seem to know what she was doing when it came to everything else. She had an open floorplan hybrid dungeon and she was wasting its potential. Seraphina couldn't say much for sure since she didn't have access to the dungeon system, but it was likely that the tree lines could be removed to create a more open space after the room's were defined for the purpose of territories. The dungeon just needed to have a limit for the [Monster] spawners, after all. It wasn't even like [Monsters] traveling between rooms was considered a problem, so a combined space would be better strategically while showcasing one of the more unique aspects of the dungeon.
That would certainly be something she'd have to discuss with the council when she returned to their secluded village. She wasn't about to risk getting in trouble, so she'd have to get everything she wanted to tell Veronica approved by the council first. Ensure they didn't find it to be against the dungeon accords or the even stricter code of ethics and laws they lived by, then pass what knowledge she could onto Veronica and hope for the best. That was if she'd even still be welcome when Veronica awoke, she still had her doubts on whether she'd end up blamed for this whole mess. Seraphina couldn't control the dungeon core and the regulation of the dungeon would happen with or without her here.