Lord Sylvar Goldenleaf set down the report he was reading, sighing as he massaged his temples. He had been hopeful a few months ago when the new dungeon had appeared in his territory. It had even seemed worth the damage to the city while the casualties that had happened as a result of the tsunami had been an unfortunate, but unavoidable loss. The fact of the matter was that Bluelight Cove City simply couldn't hold on for more than a few more decades without having to be abandoned due to the aether from the ocean quickly closing in, not to mention the effect of losing their main source of income and resources had on his people.
When the last dungeon had retired, he had done his best to offer relief to the people under his care. He allowed people to move, disregarding their previous housing contracts without invoking the penalties detailed in the contracts. Donations were made to the local orphanage to help increase the resources they had since many children lost their parents when the dungeon fell. He had even reduced the taxes for a few years in order to allow merchants and citizens alike to recover and make alternate plans since they had lost their livelihoods overnight.
However, as more time passed, things only grew worse and his family no longer had the money to offer their people the relief they so desperately needed. Sylvar knew there were many people who were homeless and that many of the buildings in their city were falling apart. Even the defensive wall outside the city had some areas that were still unable to be repaired, even despite how important it was for the safety of their city. There just wasn't much he could do unless their local dungeon brought enough attention to their city for him to collect the taxes needed to start taking action.
Things had looked good on that front when he received the initial reports on the dungeon and had confirmed everything was functioning properly. They didn't have any anomalies that would lead to a failed dungeon right off the bat. The inn and tavern in the dungeon had even given him hope that some of the homeless population might be able to take advantage of the situation to get back on their feet. He hadn't bothered with setting up guards to collect a toll for the dungeon, even despite it being an excellent opportunity to gather the funds to fix up the city, just so his people would have a chance to better their own lives without his interference.
When he got the report from Eliath about how difficult the challenges on the first floor of the dungeon were, it had caused some concern. That hadn't lasted too long, though. As more reports came in on the situation, they found that the challenges weren't particularly lethal. Even if they weren't really what they had come to expect from the first floor of a dungeon, it wasn't much different from the dungeons that created entire obstacle courses full of [Traps] and treated that as a challenge. If you could survive and make it to the other side unscathed then you'd get an extra reward.
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Admittedly, the 'firewalk' challenge had been of the most concern. The deep trenches and fiery path that had to be walked on could lead to severe injury and even death if it was mishandled. However, it hadn't taken long for the adventurers to figure out that walking slowly over the coals while balancing carefully would allow them to cross over them without any harm coming to them. The information had begun to spread as the information was sold and exchanged freely. The rest of the challenges were odd, perhaps, but hardly unheard of, and could be dealt with easily enough.
No, the thing that was causing him the most stress lately was actually the fact that the dungeon was steadily becoming more and more unstable. Whoever was angering the Dungeon Master didn't seem to be discouraged by the tremors throughout the dungeon. Since no one had personally witnessed and reported the culprit, nothing could be done about it either. Of course, if the Dungeon Diplomat in charge of the dungeon knew anything about the situation, she wouldn't be forthcoming about the information. The only thing she seemed to have to say about the situation was to warn him against doing anything that might go against the dungeon accords.
There weren't really a lot of things he could do to stop someone from angering the Dungeon Master, it was true. Everyone and everything that wanted to challenge the dungeon had to be allowed entry. However, there was some leeway to take action. Adventurers were allowed to kill the wild [Monsters] that would otherwise attack the dungeon so long as it could be claimed that it was in self-defense or otherwise unrelated to their desire to challenge the dungeon. Similarly, it wasn't like the person responsible couldn't be assassinated or given an offer too good to pass up that would take them away from their city. They just needed to know who was responsible in order to make a move.
In the meantime, there were resources going to waste and more of the homeless population was dying on the streets. Too many people were more willing to risk freezing and starving to death outside the dungeon than they were willing to risk what felt like certain death at the hands of the dungeon. The fear of the dungeon collapsing on top of them due to the tremors or the [Monsters] getting the best of them was too high. It really made Sylvar feel hopeless as he truly wanted his citizens to recover their likelihood and for their city to once more flourish.
Perhaps, the only solace he had was the fact that their local Dungeon Diplomat, Seraphina, had confirmed numerous times that the dungeon core wasn't corrupted. So long as the core wasn't corrupted, it was unlikely that anything too dangerous would occur, but it didn't mean it was impossible. There were still rare instances... no better not to think about that.
Standing up, Sylvar decided to leave his office. He could use the break and it wasn't like there was anything he could do right now to fix the situation anyways.