(Leo's POV)
Leo studied the terrain map for a few minutes, contemplating who to assign to each location, but after some thought, he decided to abandon the idea altogether.
"Alright, listen up," he began, as he addressed the group.
"Here's the terrain map. I know Raya told me to assign you all based on my judgment, but I'm going to trust that everyone gathered here is a capable adult. So, I'll let you four decide amongst yourselves, as to where you wish to be–" Leo said, as he tossed the information scroll to the ground, with the others gathering around it.
There were four guardian rooms in total, each designated by cardinal direction: North, South, East, and West.
The North room featured rocky terrain with a sandy surface and large, jagged rocks scattered around, providing ample cover. It was a challenging battlefield, as the terrain limited the effectiveness of area-of-effect (AOE) attacks, favoring enemies with superior numbers who could use the rocks for cover.
The South room, by contrast, was a maze-like cave system, with interconnected pathways that created a claustrophobic and tricky environment to fight in.
It posed its own challenges, but fortunately, the event's design prevented enemies from bypassing the guardian and entering the central chamber, which would otherwise be an easy feat through the labyrinth.
Thankfully, the event was designed in a way where the central chamber only opened after the guardian was defeated, which leveled the playing field for the guardians.
Compared to North and South, the Eastern room was the simplest of the four—as it was a simple wide, open grassy field dotted with small, palm-sized rocks.
There was no place to hide, no cover to use for protection in this room, and it was a straightforward battleground where warriors who excelled in dishing out high damage would thrive.
Finally, the Western room was the most dangerous. It consisted of a magma pit, with floating islands that shifted unpredictably.
Aside from the solid rock where the guardian would stand, every other platform floated above molten lava, creating a treacherous and constantly changing battlefield, as the ever-moving islands made this room the most volatile and unpredictable terrain of them all.
With the map laid out, the choice of where to stand was now in the hands of the four guardians as they each expressed their views over it.
"I want the open grassy terrain, I feel like it's the most advantageous map for me" said PinkLotus who went first with her selection.
"Agh, your voice is as beautiful as your face" said Andheri, as like a true simp, he flattered PinkLotus at every chance that he got.
"Let's keep our focus here" said Cervantez, clearly annoyed by Andheri's antics, as he immediately drew the group's focus back to the task at hand.
"Does anyone have any problems with the lady choosing the East?" he asked, as nobody raised any objections.
"Thank-you" said PinkLotus, as Andheri winked at her with a wicked smile.
"Ladies first honey–" he said, as both Luke and Leo simultaneously rolled their eyes at this comment.
"I'll take the lava map….. I feel like the limited room for maneuverability will benefit me and my fighting style" Luke said next, as both Cervantez and Andheri seemed glad that he chose the more problematic map on his own.
"That's fine by me–"
"And me"
The two of them said, as with that Luke confirmed his spot as the West Guardian.
This only left Cervantez and Andheri to make their decision, however, this was the point where maturity took a nosedive for the worst.
"I'll take the south–" said Andheri, as Cervantez shook his head and said "No I'll take the South"
Both of them seemed to want to avoid the more problematic North map, and began vehemently arguing over it.
"Brother I'm a combat mage. Those rocks are doom for me. I can fight within a cave, but I can't fight in a terrain full of rocks.
Don't be stupid, this gives us the maximum probability to succeed as a group" Andheri argued as Cervantez shook his head and did not seem convinced.
"Well I'm a magic swordsman and the Rocky terrain is complicated for me to fight in too, so there's no way I'm accepting it–" said Cervantez, as at this point it was Leo who stepped in.
"Look guys, to be honest, I don't care for any of you. I alone am enough to take on 10,000 other rankers and even without this enhanced HP and all these other buffs I have the confidence to beat them all alone.
So it simply doesn't matter if you go north or south or don't fight at all, because both of you are irrelevant.
So relax and rock paper scissors for it and stop giving me a headache" Leo said, as in true 'TheBoss' fashion he made the most domineering statement in the most badass way possible.
"Rude–" muttered PinkLotus under her breath, but although Leo heard it, he didn't bother reacting to it, while Andheri kept opening and closing his mouth as if at a loss for words.
On one hand he wanted to tell Leo that he needs to stop boasting so much, however, on the other hand he was 'TheBoss', and Andheri wasn't sure if he was boasting or what he said was actually true.
So in the end, he simply decided to do as told and rock paper scissored Cervantez for it, and to his dismay, he lost.
In the end, it was PinkLotus to the East, Cervantez to the South, Luke to the west and Andheri to the North, as Leo assigned them all to their rooms and they teleported out of the central chamber where he was.
According to Raya, it was going to be 24 hours more before the first group of adventurers reached any of the guardian rooms and until then, Leo decided to sit back and watch the livestream of the event, like millions of other players were doing right now.