Seraphina's breathing was shallow as she stepped into Dargrath Kherek-Nor Dungeon. It had once been considered a very impressive place, even if the Dungeon Master, Grishnok, was a goblin. She didn't exactly have any prejudice against the man, but his tendency to decorate the dungeon with blood and skulls more often than plant life made it a rather unpleasant sight. Today, though, the dungeon was most certainly worse.

The air on this floor was now toxic and she had to keep her breathing shallow as well as use an enchanted cloth to ensure she wouldn't breathe it in. It felt cold and unsettling to be here as well. Something about it just didn't quite feel right. Her companion, a Half-Beast Dungeon Diplomat named Fenris, seemed to be in even worse shape than she was. That wasn't surprising considering the dungeon had been reported as corrupted. That was only further confirmed when Fenris's connection to the dungeon allowed him to feel just how bad things were.

It had taken some time for the council of elders to decide what to do, but they had still ended up settling with forcing the dungeon to retire. There would likely be repercussions for Fenris, if they even made it out of here alive. Elder Kenric was with them, so she hoped, for all of their sakes, that they didn't die today. It would be a shame for the only elder she was particularly fond of to lose his life and she could only imagine how it might affect the politics of their village.

"Careful! Watch your step!"

Elder Kendric admonished as he held his arm in front of her. Seraphina looked down, grimacing as she noticed the out-of-place puddle on the ground. It was likely some sort of acid now that the dungeon had corrupted this badly, rather than the water it had likely once been. Everything in the dungeon was now twisted into an unnatural state that she doubted the Dungeon Master or dungeon core actually wanted. It was a clear sign that the dungeon core had reached a level of corruption beyond seventy five percent. If it reached a hundred percent, it was likely that things outside of the dungeon would start going wrong as well. The dungeon might start absorbing mana and releasing massive amounts of aether or even release plague-riddled goblins. That would be a real tragedy.

"How did you even let it get this bad?"

Seraphina snapped as she once more had to avoid a puddle of acid. She glared up at Fenris as she waited for his reply. He whimpered before replying

"I don't know what happened! Everything was fine when I last visited a few months ago. He had finally found a wife and they were on their way to having their first child. There was steady progress being made on the dungeon and no sign of any issues in or out of the dungeon. If I had known something was going to happen, don't you think I would have done something about it?!"

Elder Kendric sighed before reprimanding

"That's enough, you two. We need to concentrate on the task at hand. A formal investigation will be done once this is resolved."

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They went silent after that until they reached the boss room. This particular dungeon was already well-established, even if it wasn't completed yet. Really, it was a shame to see such a successful dungeon have to retire long before it should have. The boss [Monster] made it clear, though, that there really was no saving the dungeon. The massive troll was much larger than it should have been with boils all over its skin while its limbs were strangely misshapen. It wailed as it fought, as if it were in pain and its existence was merely suffering.

Seraphina clutched her head in pain, feeling exhausted and sick to her stomach. She hadn't exactly volunteered to go on this mission, but, rather, she had been assigned to go help. It didn't help that she didn't have as many dungeons to attend to, so she had more free time than some of the others did. Well, there were some younger individuals who only had one dungeon, but they lacked the experience needed to handle a task as difficult as this one.

Looking at her long staff, she felt tempted to dip it into the puddle of acid. It was now covered in blood and filth after the boss fight. It had been easy enough to take down the boss [Monster]. They wouldn't have any difficulties with making it to the dungeon core since they were all old enough to have fully come into their powers and had many years of refining their combat skills. Elder Kenric was likely stronger than even S-rank individuals, which was a necessity since he had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. If an S-rank broke the dungeon accords or one of the dungeons he was bonded to ever corrupted, he'd have to be strong enough to handle the situation.

Honestly, Seraphina hoped that she too would one day get to take her place among the council. The only problem was that her line of work tended to have a rather high risk of death. She could die today or she could die a thousand years from now and no one would question it. It was only those who were strong enough and capable enough to defy the odds who would live long enough to join the council of elders. The council didn't really have any other heavy restrictions, just a minimum number of years serving as a Dungeon Master and a minimum of one successfully completed dungeon to show for your efforts.

That last one wasn't exactly something she had much control over. If Fenris was to be believed, he had been doing everything right and this dungeon had, somehow, still ended up corrupted. Other times, wild [Monsters] would overwhelm the dungeon's defenses and the core would end up destroyed. Even more rarely, someone would try to take advantage of the dungeon or they'd be stupid enough to break the dungeon accords and destroy the dungeon core for some stupid reason or another.

"They took her, smashed her like a bug! Now I've got nothing but the screams in my head, and they won't stop—won't stop until I break something too!"

They were getting close to the core room now and Seraphina could already hear the Dungeon Master shouting, but she wasn't sure at what. Elder Kendric sighed as he said

"I suppose that answers what happened. This is hardly the first time I've seen a Dungeon Master lose it after having a loved one die. It's usually less common in [Monsters] and beasts, though."

Fenris opened the door, taking the lead while they stood back. He tried to approach Master Grishnok as he said

"Hey, are you okay?"

"They crushed her, made her gone! Now there's only empty, only rage! I'll tear the world apart until it's all as broken as me!"