Aria walked into the conference tent with her three friends. Unlike tents used for camping, this shelter was just a canvas held up by multiple steel poles like the ones used in country carnivals. There was endless chatter in the temporary shelter since there were nearly a hundred people gathered. Plastic chairs were laid out for the S-Rankers to use, but only a few of them bothered to claim a seat. Confusion was the predominant emotion in the air.
"If you would please settle down, the President is ready to talk," announced the secretary through the microphone system. There were a few disgruntled faces that chose to remain standing, but the majority hurried to the nearest chair and sat their asses down. It took thirty seconds for the commotion to die down and eventually, an elderly man walked onto the stage with four familiar faces in tow.
Arius, Kama, Rhykius and Minerva, the four group leaders, had expressionless faces. They weren't smiling in the slightest after that victory, and some might argue that they seemed rather forlorn. The Association President had a similar grimace. Aria could tell that he was trying his best not to show his despondency. Still, the S-Rankers present weren't fools.
'Something must have happened during the interim...'
That was the universal thought shared among the S-Rankers. Six hours had passed since they beat the first floor. The scouts that had been dispatched to examine the lower levels would have returned, or at the very least, news of their investigation would have been beamed up. They were all wearing body cameras and would live stream their findings, after all. So, the lower floors must have had a nasty surprise for the Association President to behave this way right after an overwhelming victory.
"Firstly, I thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know that this time is reserved for you to rest and recuperate, so we're grateful for your prompt arrival." The President began with a simple expression of gratitude to lighten the mood. However, the S-Rankers weren't having any of that. They all folded their arms in akimbo, ready to hear the real reason why they were called for a meeting.
Looking at those tense faces, the President sighed. "Look, I won't waste your time. Let's get to the reason why I called all of you here at this late hour." The old man snapped his fingers, and the projector started to play. An image of an empty chamber was blasted on the twenty-metres long screen. Other than a few abrasions and dust marks, there wasn't anything spectacular about the hall. It slideshow continued on for a few dozen more images, all bearing the same characteristics of the first picture.
"What's going on?" Yvette asked Aria, confused to the bone. And she wasn't alone. Many other S-Rankers were questioning the purpose of the President showing pictures of an empty hallway.
"I don't know..." Aria stroked her smooth chin. "Though those hallways look quite familiar… Unless..."
The Archmagus didn't have the opportunity to put her investigative mind to the test before the President stopped the slideshow and tapped on the microphone. "You must be wondering why I'm showing you all of these pictures, particularly in a time like this."
"..." The crowd remained silent.
"You might think that these pictures are irrelevant to you, but it's the contrary. Those fifty-nine pictures are what Kama and his team of scouts had taken… Of the second floor."
"WHAT?!?!"
Many voices were raised. Some even got off from their seats. They were all taken aback by the revelation. S-Class Dungeons were always filled with monsters, traps and sometimes even boasted unfriendly terrain. For instance, the S-Class Dungeon that appeared in Gondor just a few years back had a floor that was entirely made out of magma, with deadly fireballs whizzing about. Even if it was just an ordinary brick walled dungeon, there should be traps or mazes to throw of the dungeon invader. It didn't make sense for a dungeon to be so clean without a single blemish.
"That's right… Not only did Kama not find any new monsters, but the entire second floor is entirely cleaned out." Everyone's eyes landed on the Rogue Lord, who was just standing there with his head down. "His report also claimed that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. No traps or mechanisms to ward away invaders. Other than the astronomical montgen levels on the second floor, it was just like any other hallway."
"That can't be true!" One S-Ranker heckled. "It's an S-Class Dungeon! How can there be nothing on that floor?!"
"You're right… But that's not the only problem..." The Association President waved his hand, and his secretary continued the slideshow. Audible gasps filled the crowd as they got to see the next few pictures that the scouts had taken.
Thousands of stone guardians, many in the same form of the fifteen they had spent so much time to take down, were broken into pieces on the third floor. Aria counted at least two dozen of those pesky phoenixes, three-eyed ravens and angelic doves broke down into pieces. It wasn't just limited to the birds. There were at least a hundred gargoyles, fifty Dragon-Bear hybrids, eighty ancient crocodiles and two hundred spear-wielding humanoids, this time with their heads intact. Aria was confident that during their day, the stone guardians would make one of the world's most dominant armies. However, as they were now, the guardians were nothing more than broken down statues that could be placed in museums.
"This is the third floor..." The President said grimly. All of the S-Rankers shut their mouths, and those that were standing fell down to the floor with a loud thud. They had expended so much to take down fifteen of those guardians. Yet, the dungeon actually had thousands more?
"We don't have to worry about them… They're all destroyed, Kama checked. I also suspect that what we fought on the first floor are the remaining guardians that survived the onslaught. However, it does bode the question… What could have possibly destroyed them? And so… The scouts went deeper into the third level, and found this..." On his cue, the secretary brought up an image of the very end of the third floor.
"Hiiiiiii!!!" The entire tentage gasped. Be it young or old, male or female. They were all pale as blood was drained out of their system. Why?
"Elder Dragons..." Aria muttered. Five mummies. All of them fully intact. Perhaps it was due to the low exposure to nature, but the dragon bones that had been soaked with intense amounts of mana still managed to stand firm, free from decomposition.
"That's right… Looks like this dungeon was present during the Age of the Dragons." The President confirmed the Archmagus mutter with a wrinkled forehead.
Modern history, the history of the civilised world began with the bronze age about ten thousand years back. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, vampires, giants… There were many races in the world, each one bearing unique blood and talents. However, throughout history, there was one race the mystified others more than anything else.
Dragons.
There weren't any living dragons today, and they were considered to be from a much more ancient age, perhaps over a million years back. However, archaeologists were able to excavate fossils and old bones, giving the modern world much more insight into the time now called the Age of the Dragons. Dragons, as similar as they were to beasts, were actually lifeforms that came from the Blood of Demons and were mostly similar in DNA with giants. They had the intelligence to form a society, they had their own culture and arts, and they were considered to be the strongest recorded race that ever existed.
If the accounts were right, Dragons were B-Class at birth and had the opportunity to reach S-Class by adulthood. A scary thought considering how all humans were born F-Class. Elder Dragons, which could be easily identified by their elongated horns on their skulls, were said to go beyond S-Class and were on a realm of their own.
However, for some reason, they all vanished inexplicably. The Age of the Dragons, the one race that was said to be the strongest ever, was just gone. There were many theories. Some speculated that an asteroid collided with earth. Others claimed that it was a supervolcano that erupted with the force that could knock the world off its orbit. Some have even suggested that an incurable plague was the culprit. No matter what, one thing was for sure. The Age of the Dragons would forever remain an enthralling topic of study for the modern world.
"Wait… So the dungeon had been cleared up by the Dragons of old?" One S-Ranker raised her hand shyly and asked.
"That's what we think," replied the President. "It's not just the third floor. Kama had reached all the way until the twenty-third floor, and all of them told the same story." He continued to flash through the pictures, all of them showing broken down stone guardians and many more dead dragon corpses. Oddly enough, there were only Elder Dragon remains, possibly hinting that the S-Class Dungeon that they were facing occurred during the height of the Age of the Dragons.
"The stone guardians on the later floors are all different from the ones we faced on the first. Based on how typical dungeons would go, I would assume that the ones on the lower floors are much stronger than the ones we faced." The elderly man made a bold assumption. However, the majority of the S-Rankers in the conference tent nodded their heads in agreement. They shuddered as they saw the pictures of the thousands of destroyed guardians. If they had issues taking down fifteen of them, how could they take on thousands of stone guardians?
"Wait… Did you say that Rogue Lord Kama only reached the twenty-third floor? What's after that?" Aria was the one to raise her hand and ask the question.
The moment she heard that the dungeon was from the Age of the Dragons, the lifelong researcher's heart began to pump wildly. There were so many specimens, so much for her to learn from the S-Class Dungeon now. In her eyes, clearing the dungeon was no longer a chore, but an expedition to collect as much information as she possibly could.
"..." Instead of directly answering her simple question, the President shifted his eyes, as did the four group leaders. Evidently, that was the main problem that set Yudonia's Ranker Association back.
"Hah… We can't avoid this forever… Jessica, show that picture."
It was a short order. The secretary gulped as she searched through her computer for that one menacing image. Tap, tap, tap… It wasn't long until she pressed the final key, and the forbidden picture was broadcasted for every single soul to see.
"That is!!!"
This time, half of the S-Rankers jumped to their feet. On the screen was a tall opened gate that splits down the middle. The gate had ancient hieroglyphs, similar to the ones at the entrance, on each one of its doors. There were images of dragons, angels, demons, and monsters all gathered around a central tree. It really was a marvel of the ancient world. However, the gates weren't even on the afterthoughts of the S-Rankers. What really shocked them, were the two stone guardians within the thick stone chambers.
A twelve-winged angel and a horned demon knelt down at the centre of the room completely stationary. The twelve-winged angel had no gender. There weren't any voluptuous breasts or bulging groin. However, based on its lifelike, soothing expression, one could feel the embrace of a mother just by watching the stone guardian. On the other hand, the horned demon looked like a biblical image of a Fiend from Hell. One black bovine horn shot up from its human-like face, and it had a harpy's claws, dragon wings, and hellion goat's legs.
They were both menacing stone golems, but there was one shining ray of hope for the S-Rankers. Just like the previous guardians before them, the two intimidating golems were severely damaged, either by time or the previous raiders of the dungeon. The twelve-winged angel had lost eleven of its wings, leaving only one intact. Its halo had been blown off and revealed the upper part of its head. Finally, there were hundreds of cracks flowing out of its torn torso, as its lower body had been utterly decimated into dust.
The demon was in no better condition. Both of its dragon wings had been torn apart, and there was a gaping hole running through its chest. Though the rest of its body was intact, it seemed like it was about to break apart at any moment. Aria thought that the demon's body resembled that of a shattered bathroom's mirror, and just the slightest push would tear it down immediately.
"It looks like… We've found the boss room..."