Just as the Association President had briefed, Yudonia had been gathering much more information about the S-Class Bosses. One day became two, two days became four. It wasn't until the fifth day that the Ranker's Association felt confident of their execution plan. Evidently, they had been doubly meticulous, making sure not to rush into any false assumptions about the abilities of the Angel and Demon Guardians. Every bit of information counts. If the President could increase the survivability of his Rankers even just by one percentage point, all of the effort he had poured in would be more than worth it.
Gathered right inside the conference tent where they first gathered, the S-Rankers were all bustling with excitement and a tinge of anxiousness. Who could blame them? If all went well, by the end of the day, they could add the achievement of S-Class Dungeon conquerors into their portfolio, a feat rarely accomplished by any ranker alive. Of course, there were a few oddities amongst them that had already held that title.
"So, Aria… If you clear this dungeon, you'll be a two-time conqueror of S-Class Dungeons. How do you feel about that?" Yvette softly elbowed her roommate's ribs in the hopes of riling her up.
"Titles like that don't matter to me." The Archmagus coldly replied, her gaze never leaving the empty stage where the President was supposed to make his entrance.
"Eh, you're no fun!" Luke attempted to back up the blonde elf with his own teasing methods. "Two-time S-Class Dungeon conqueror… I wonder how many people have that title. I doubt that your master even has that accolade."
Aria rolled her eyes at the constant harassment she was getting. "No researcher worth his or her salt would care about that title, Luke. Even if that old geezer was here, the only thing he'd be interested in is stealing those Elder Dragon corpses away from Yudonia." The Archmagus scoffed as she thought about the eccentric teacher that she had.
Back when she was still a budding magician, the Association President had hired a world-renowned Archmagus to mentor the ignorant Aria. Though she was grateful for all of the lessons that the illustrious magician had imparted onto her, Aria wished that she would never see that dreadful face ever again. How many times was she pushed to the brink of mental collapse by her master's idiosyncratic behaviour? Sometimes, she even wondered if the man saw her as a disciple at all. Most of the time, Aria was made to be a coolie and a maid, and it was rare for the Archmagus to actually sit down to personally teach her.
'Whatever… It's not like he'll be coming back to Yudonia anytime soon...'
The last Aria saw her master, the madman was beginning an expedition to the South Pole to test a new theory that he had. Even the allure of a new S-Class Dungeon wouldn't force the eternal researcher to leave his subject alone.
As the four young S-Rankers were joking around, all of a sudden, the murmurs in the room began to fade, and six figures rustled into the vast tent with quickened steps. Jessica, the secretary of the President, rushed to set-up the computer to the relevant slides while the five leaders slowly got onto the stage. The Arcane Warlock Rhkyius had his cheeks hollowed out, and his hair was a little greyed out, throwing a wrench into his celebrity good-looks. Guardian Paladin Arius and White Sorceress Minerva were in a similar state, though not as extreme as their fellow group leader. Only Rogue Lord Kama retained his neutral face among them all. However, there was one person who beat them all flat...
"Good morning, my fellow rankers..." The Association President weakly said, his voice half as powerful as it usually was. His wrinkled face was as dry as can be, and the man was reminiscent to that of a walking skeleton, borderline ghoulish. Aria saw that the robe he wore was a little loose and was on the verge of slipping off his shoulders. Evidently, he had lost a tonne of weight quite rapidly.
Before the elderly man took an executive role in the highest office of the rankers, the President was once a famous S-Class Martial Monk, specialising in hand-to-hand combat. Even though he had put that life behind him, the man's constitution, strength and dexterity could easily top the charts within Yudonia. So, for the man to be this macabre, he must have been working non-stop, without sleep, rest or food, over the past five days.
'I did ask him to be more cautious, but isn't that overdoing it?!' Aria gasped inwardly. She started to feel a little bad for the old man and didn't dare to look him in the eye. Fortunately, Aria wasn't even on the President's radar. He had spent five days, working tirelessly, stressed out of his mind. No matter how strong one's constitution was, they couldn't fend off the mental toll that anxiety could weigh on one person.
Still, the President had a job to do. "Thank you all for coming. Our team has been examining all of the abilities that the two bosses have. It was a hard task, no doubt, but our efforts had paid off..." Pointing his laser pointer at the screen, the President gestured for Jessica to begin the presentation. Then, an image of the first boss, the Angel Guardian, was displayed for all to see. Specifically, the picture was zoomed in on the final wing that it had.
"Based on our investigations, each wing of the twelve-wing Angel Guardian represents one magical ability. Summoning, maelstroms, illusions, space manipulation… The list goes on… However, we're fortunate… There's only one angel wing remaining..." The President didn't bother to mention the Angel Guardian's halo which could heal any broken parts that the two Bosses had since it had been torn off its head. A smart move, in Aria's opinion. There was no need to alarm the S-Rankers even more.
"After much analysis, we have deduced that the final wing allows the Angel Guardian to use nature magic," he pressed on his pointer to change the slide. Then, an image of the Boss Room being covered in thick roots and vines was displayed. Even though its lower body had been blown to bits, many creeper vines dropped down from its torso, making it look like a hybrid between a human and an octopus.
"The roots are magic resistant to a certain degree, and only S-Class magic could potentially harm them. Furthermore, they have the unique property of absorbing any sort of mana it comes into contact with. So we can't tank it face on. All S-Rankers, particularly magicians, who have high-tiered fire magic will be littered around to protect the less mobile Rankers. Flame Thaumaturge Nassisa would be flying around and monitoring the situation."
At the President's signal, a red-haired lady, who seemed no older than forty, stood up and waved her hand. Draped in a thin crimson robe, the ponytailed woman waved her hand with a jovial smile, warming the tense hearts of many in the room.
"The Angel Guardian is weak to physical attacks but extremely resistant to magic attacks. Unless it is S-Class magic or above, don't bother to strike it. Martial artists from Group C!!! Work with the fire magicians in opening a straight path towards the Angel Guardian. DO NOT OVERCOMMIT!!! Hit it with your strongest attack and immediately retreat!!! To help with that, I have a little gift for all of you." With two claps, the President summoned a legion of his associates to hand over ornate wooden boxes to the S-Rankers. Apparently, everyone participating in the raid was given the new present.
"This is!!!" Aria gasped, as did much of the audience. She carefully took out the micro chest's contents and shone it up against the light. It was a white gold bracelet with a diamond engraved in its centre. One would wonder, why did the President procure a gorgeous accessory for all of the S-Rankers, even though they were headed towards the most dangerous place on planet earth? Well, there was a reason, of course…
What the S-Rankers had gotten was an S-Tier Blink Bracelet, a hyper-rare accessory that allows the user to activate [High Teleport] without being a magician that had Higher Space Magic. Although it had a cooldown of ten seconds, the S-Tier Blink Bracelet was one of the most sought after survival tools among Dungeon Delvers. On the market, one of these could easily fetch ten million dollars.
The S-Rankers had guessed that the gift was going to be an expensive one, but not to this degree. Since all eighty-seven of them were given one, Yudonia had spent at least eight hundred and seventy million dollars on the Blink Bracelets. A staggering figure for a country of Yudonia's size.
"Remember, safety is your foremost priority! If any of the team leaders give the order to retreat, you retreat!"
"Yes, sir!!!" Many of the S-Rankers hearts warmed up at the care that Yudonia and the Association President were putting into their security. Before, the S-Rankers were looking at the S-Class Dungeon as a way to increase their portfolio and overall wealth. However, with the goodwill from the government, they now felt like warriors about to serve their country in the war to come.
"Good, now let's move on to the next boss!" Short on time, the Association President rushed to the next slide. There, an embedded video was plastered onto the presentation, and the secretary hurriedly played it.
The Association had gathered a variety of information from the memory of the Elder Dragon corpses using Arcane Magic, but in the end, they didn't have accurate details of how powerful the Bosses were in their current state. So, they employed the use of a few humanoid robots to test the water. The footage that was being shown was the recordings from that attempt.
"We used Dungeon Dummies to attack the two Bosses. As you've seen, the Angel Guardian used Nature Magic to completely wipe them out. However, the Demon Guardian is a little odd..."
The audience watched in earnest as the Dungeon Dummies bolted forward towards the twenty-metre-tall giant. Yudonia had employed the use of a drone to spy on the Demon Guardian and astonishingly, it was the highest definition one could obtain on the market. It was as if the S-Rankers were really in the Boss Room to witness the exchange.
The Demon Guardian was blinded, had both its wings torn out, its horn was falling apart, every single inch of its invincible body was littered with cracks, and most importantly, there was a gaping hole struck through its chest. Maybe it was due to the thousands, if not millions of years since it was last discovered, the Demon Guardian moved at a sluggish pace at first. For a moment there, it looked like the Dungeon Dummies, who were at most as strong as a B-Class Marauder, were capable of landing a hit on the S-Class Boss. Alas, at the final moment…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…
The five Dungeon Dummies that were sent in had been thoroughly wiped out with a single roundhouse kick. Those among the crowd who knew the price tags of one Dungeon Dummy winced in agony while the rest simply dropped their jaw in absolute awe.
Ignoring the tense atmosphere in the room, the President continued. "The Demon Guardian is as fast as an S-Class Cyclone Swift, dances with the dexterity of a Rogue Lord, possesses the power of a million elephants and still retains its near-invincible body, which resists all forms of magic and physical attacks, even though it looks like it's on the verge of collapse. And since it's a golem made of stone, we can assume that it's immune to poison, mental attacks and paralysing debuffs."
"What? Does it mean that we can't defeat it?" One S-Ranker raised his hand and spoke for the crowd.
"No, that's not it…" The President shook his head, grimly. "As you'd all expected, the entity that attacked the Boss Room before it was sealed up had managed to strike down the Demon Guardian's Magic Core, the object that keeps the inanimate stone guardians moving."
Stone golems that didn't possess life needed a Magic Core to operate. That was the rule. Yet, the Demon Guardian was still capable of moving. "We suspect that it's the Angel Guardian that's supplying the Demon Guardian the mana to keep up its drastic movements. Just like the birds and the gargoyles that we'd fought earlier on, if we destroy the Angel Guardian's Magic Core, we believe that the Demon Guardian would cease to exist as well."
"I see..." There were universal nods among the audience.
"Of course, if the Demon Guardian still exists after the Angel Guardian is destroyed, I would hope that you'll retreat to safety so that we can go back to the drawing board. Remember, your lives are still most paramount. I don't care if it takes you one, two or even ten days to clear the dungeon. Make sure you DO NOT OVERCOMMIT!!!" The President's voice continued to echo through the conference tent, prompting some of the S-Rankers to sit up straight and salute.
"YES, SIR!!!"
"Excellent!!!" Gone was his weariness and complete fatigue. Now, the President was akin to that of a general ready to mount his prized steed and lead his troops into war.
"The dive will commence in fifteen minutes! Good luck, and Godspeed!!!"