A-Rank Dungeon

The A-Rank dungeon would be an entirely different beast than the B-Rank dungeon. The leap in difficulty was, as always, exponential- and on top of that, there were fewer A-Rank hunters alive in the world than B-Rank ones.

While the B-Rank raid parties I'd been in for the last few days consisted of generally around forty hunters, more or less, the A-Rank team today only had twenty-five excluding myself. To make up for this, as well as the immense strength of the boss monster, an S-Rank calamity, rather than only one commissioner leading the raid there would instead be three S-Rank hunters taking charge.

Despite this, it would still be a high-risk endeavor. Of course, for me, who possessed a great S-Rank defensive skill, I wasn't immensely concerned for my safety. As long as all went to plan, even A-Rank hunters would survive just fine; the structure of the teams were made to ensure as such. And I, at this point, had significantly greater survivability than an A-Rank hunter.

A-Rank dungeons have historically been one of humanity's greatest problems, barring the few existing S-Rank dungeons scattered around the world. This was due to the scarcity of hunters capable of challenging them. A large number of A-Rank hunters had already perished over the last seven years.

Before proper structures were put into place, as well as the collection of solid intelligence regarding the contents of the dungeons, humanity's only choice was to throw ourselves against the wall and blindly rush into them. This caused a lot of unnecessary death.

Now, every A-Rank raid had to be carefully planned with teams rotating globally on a tight schedule to maintain monster populations within. It was a tenuous solution at best, but we really had no other option. Destroying the dungeons completely was a grand challenge for virtually anyone besides The Oracle herself, and she seemed hesitant to get rid of too many, particularly the high-ranked ones, presumably out of fear of eradicating a steady and large source of Polarium.

I looked around me. The three S-Rank hunters were all sitting across from me, glaring intently and directly towards me. I sighed. All three of them recognized me, of course. There would be few S-Rank hunters in the world, let alone The Order, who didn't.

When I'd gotten onto the train, they had already been on it, and promptly started cursing me out and threatening me. However, I sternly reminded them of my sole remaining privilege to access any dungeon, and even they were forced to back off somewhat. I'm sure they were all under the impression that I would die in the dungeon, anyway, but the animosity they showed towards me was really souring my mood.

But whatever. It was fortunate that they'd be too occupied with clearing the dungeon to pay any attention to me. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be able to spend much time inside without being harassed. Ha... these motherfuckers. I'll at least get to steal their skills.

The train came to a stop, and stepping out, the dungeon's entrance was clearly within view; a shack with a moon carved into its door. It resembled a worn-down outhouse. This was the A-Rank dungeon, Glade of the Evernight. As the door was swung open by one of the S-Rank commissioners, the interior of the dungeon was clearly visible. 

The other side existed within a clearing in a forest, a thicket of tall, winding trees with coiled wood like ropes. After a brief review of positions and strategy, the commissioners ushered everybody in one by one, slamming the door shut behind me. I sighed deeply and rubbed my forehead.

It was like middle school bullying all over again. How truly childish for S-Rank hunters to be behaving this way. Of course, I just opened the door myself and walked through, trying my best to ignore their obvious provocations.

Within the dungeon, the parties started to form their battlements and took their places. The air was much more tense than it was within the B-Rank dungeon; there was no real back line to fall to here. If you were to advance through the enemy lines, you would have to do so within the thick woods, your vision obscured by the darkness and your sense of direction skewed from the strange environment. 

Not only was everything here significantly more powerful than most of the present hunters, but the environment worked against them as well. It was truly treacherous. I, however, did not intend on sitting back and relaxing like I did before. Frankly, it wasn't even a choice here. Instead, I employed some A-Rank skills I'd collected from the commissioners of the B-Rank dungeon.

"Air Tile."

I started walking up into the air as though there was a set of stairs before me. It wasn't too dissimilar; dissipating tiles were appearing beneath my feet as I walked, allowing me to gain elevation until shortly after I stopped and stood above the raid party. Nobody paid me any mind.

Then, I cast a series of three barriers, each of which I could either easily manipulate or directly fire skills through. Finally, I prepared each of my B-Rank defensive skills as well as two remaining A-Rank ones, and finally, had the S-Rank Bunker skill I'd taken from Elliot on standby in case of emergency.

I set aside my mana batteries, too. I'd managed to prepare thirty-five this time, and even had another ten brewing in my pocket. I knew it was a little reckless to ramp up production to this degree, but I really felt as though my mana supply was severely lacking. As much as I wanted to practice using mana bombs with a greater excess of power, it was simply irresponsible as I ran out of mana too quickly and would ultimately lose out on practice. I would actually have to tone it down. 

It was unfortunate, but it would still be helpful. I would only use five mana batteries for now. Combined with my defensive skills and elevated position, this should allow me to focus on truly condensing a single mana bomb down as far as I possibly can with a smaller amount of mana.

I really would have to increase production even further though. Tonight I would go for forty five... no, fifty mana batteries. This would be getting close to half of my total Joker count. Um... now that I think about it, efficiency really is the most important thing, isn't it? I need Jokers to hold skills, too...

Well, I guess today is going to be all about spending an excessive amount of time refining a single bomb, then. Let's see how far I can take it. By now, I could observe the battlefield while simultaneously creating the first stage of the mana bomb- the initial condensation, the removal of the mana from the battery and the collection into a sphere.

This is precisely what I did. Slowly gathering mana, I watched from above as the hunters below me prepared for an attack. I had a rough idea of what was to occur. Inky black shadows would soon slither through in between the trees and strike at them from every angle. It was quite horrifying; not only were they powerful, but they looked disgustingly scary, too.

So we all waited on bated breath for the monsters to arrive, until eventually, they did. It looked like black honey being pressed between the trees by a violent force behind it. However, as the substance split and materialized, it revealed various forms, each bearing spiny, dripping limbs and inelegantly strewn together torsos with no discernible weak points. 

As slowly as they had come, the battle began at breakneck speed, with shadowy fluid being spilled and splashed and thrown around as hunters cut into their bodies, blew them up and burned them with spells.

Of course, they did have a weak point. Each shadow had a brain which it could freely mobilize through its body. If the hunters could isolate and destroy it, the monster would be slain. However, it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

I was fortunately ignored by them for the most part. My barriers had to protect me from the occasional stray splash, but no attacks were thrown at me directly. Of course, I was high up in the air and there were greater apparent threats to the monsters below me, so I was probably of a low priority to them. 

It was pretty nice. I got to calmly focus on my mana bomb. I'd already drawn out all the mana from five cards into the ball hovering above my palm. At this point, that much was child's play. The next step would require greater focus, but I could still maintain my vision. I would just have to keep what I was seeing in the background of my concentration. I had a process, now- I was working it down to a science. The next step was to create a channel through the sphere's core where I could push more energy through.