Classless Ascension

The soldiers were plenty, the air was heavy, the faces were filled with worry, and the Black Squad members were gripping their weapons nervously. They were all pointing their guns at a lone man that didn't seem afraid in the least.

Was he just a fool? Was he a madman having a death wish? He was slowly advancing toward them, one step at a time. He did so nonchalantly. One would have expected him to be trembling, sweating, and perhaps even downright panicking. No, he was simply walking.

Yet, at this very instant, the pressure wasn't on him but really on the soldiers. They knew they would lose credibility should they let him pass through. However, they also knew they would be in Hell instantly should they decide to stop him. Right at this very moment, Josh Malum was about to render them crazy.

How had Josh managed such a thing? Well, two points, really.

The first one was a coincidence. Someone on their side had recognized Josh. How many had driven two investigators to desperation before leaving the Black Squad Headquarters peacefully smiling? Not only that but he had also been escorted out by Ronan of Draconic himself!

Josh hadn't missed the man subtly informing his commanding officer about him. That made the commander have great reservations about ordering his take-down.

But really, the second reason was where the dilemma stemmed from. Josh had simply claimed something very simple but that they had no way to verify. Josh had learned from Kasha herself that inspecting another's status was hard to do with precision.

Thus, Josh had simply mentioned that he was a Fallen about to kick the bucket. Were they to stop him, he would die from the curse. This meant that he had nothing to lose. Of course, it was all a bluff, but would they take the chance?

This event was covered live by many reporters, after all. Would they "execute" a man in front of the eyes of the entire world? As representatives of the government, they really couldn't. It would have caused an enormous backlash from the entire international Fallen community.

Sure, the Fallen were not that numerous, but they were 100% Climbers. This made them powerful. Did this small Metropolis C commander dare to offend the world itself? Hell no! Then when you counted the possible backing from an S-Class Ranker, this whole thing became a nightmare.

So how many Black Squad members did one have to kill to access the Tower? The answer was none, for Josh at least. He even had the leisure to calmly observe his surroundings while walking.

He gave a thumbs up to that one reporter lady that now wore her shirt properly. What a quick learner she was! She was so happy from this small praise that her entire face flushed red.

He gave a small nod to that one Black Squad member that had recognized him. This guy's assist had been truly great.

In the background, he could hear the crowd heatedly quoting him: "I'm already a dead man, so what if the Tower is dangerous? Today I am going in no matter what."

How impressionable were they? It wasn't even a good sentence. He had just improvised that boring line. Oh well, people could be weird.

That is how Josh swaggered all the way inside Floor 13, completely unobstructed. He hadn't suffered a single scratch, and the whole journey had been accomplished completely relaxed.

For him, it had been easy, but it had marked the minds of the spectators left behind. Unbeknown to him, some had even promptly wanted to reproduce his feat. They stepped up to the soldiers, declared loudly that they were Fallen, and vowed not to be stopped.

Then they shat themselves. Quite literally at that. All of them. That claim was easy to make but hard to go through with. The Black Squad were professionals. They were used to operating in small squads, but they were true elite soldiers.

Now that they were grouped as a small army, the sheer killing intent they sent their targets was unbearable. All of the bluffing smart-asses not only soiled themselves, but some also fell unconscious, unable to endure.

It is at that very moment that everyone present unconsciously looked at the Tower. They were all remembering that incredible hero that had not even flinched once. Soon enough, there were messages appearing on forums.

Some were praising him. Others were praising him. Some more were praising him. Tons of forum posts were created by various men and women offering their services as boyfriends and girlfriends. Many guilds became interested in recruiting the mysterious man, if only for PR.

Still, so many had witnessed the event. The identity of the Dead Man was very soon uncovered. He turned out to be a Fallen, a low-level one according to experts, and also Classless.

At that moment, most threads professing their love to the dashing hero disappeared. Instead appeared countless "professional" analyses. They cleverly spelled the "truth" out. The Dead Man was not one to be envied. He was a Newbie about to kick the bucket. He wasn't courageous. He was desperate.

Once that news came out, the few remaining love confessions were finally deleted. Who would want a soon-to-die husband? Actually, many gold-diggers. The problem was that Josh was clearly broke.

How many would have coughed blood had they known that the low-level Josh had over 100 000 Credits? That was almost enough for a set of Ranker-level equipment. But, only the members of Draconic were in the know, and they weren't about to share it.

They obviously realized the trouble this could bring him. After all, he had way more wealth than the average Climber but without the level to go with it.

So since Josh was considered a broke soon-to-be-dead man, the hype died down quickly. It didn't help at all that Metropolis C's MTA released an official statement about Floor 12. This single news was akin to a bomb: Floor 12 Possible had been cleared!

Instantly, the whole world went crazy. Everywhere there had been countless deaths. Not a single party had come back from attempting it. Yet, the veil of mystery enveloping this new challenge was about to be pierced.

Many were doubtful. Many even thought this to be a joke at first. They insisted on receiving proof, and various organizations began requesting detailed clear strategies. Their whole argument was that the high number of deaths made it a concern for the world itself.

Was this all an excuse to request information without paying for it? Oh, yes. Most indubitably. But they weren't exactly wrong either. How was Metropolis C supposed to handle that?

Well, they opted for an easy solution. They published an official statement announcing that the deed had been done by Draconic without any help from other guilds. This promptly shut up every of the wannabe lechers. They were ready to pressure an MTA, but not a guild full of crazies.

After that came the serious inquiries. They were from organizations that knew key information had to be bargained for, not begged. This put the gold members of Draconic in a very peculiar situation.

They all knew who cleared it, but they didn't want to antagonize Josh. Plus, they had no fucking clue how he had done it, especially solo.

He had been so very casual about it. In fact, the way he said it made it sound like a trip in the park. He had said something about fighting a thousand spiders? That was a crazy number of enemies, especially at that level!

They were offered many good deals, and yet they had to put them all on the back burner simply because Josh was absent. This, in turn, greatly confused the various powers. Why were they stalling?

Every one of them thought Draconic was trying to play them. Were they waiting for more deaths to increase the value of that knowledge? Were they in the process of negotiating with others? What was their angle exactly?

Meanwhile, the Draconic members didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The MVP of it all didn't care. At all. He was simply Climbing Floor 13. He was totally ignoring the whole Drama going on.

Thanks to this single incident, Draconic got some worldwide renown, some potential investors, and some enemies that felt ignored.

This sparked many discussions online. Why was there so much secrecy on the actual clear? How was the MTA convinced that Draconic was telling the truth? Would the various governments force Draconic to spill the beans? Would another guild manage to clear it too?

There were so many threads about it but no concrete answers. All people knew was that this new challenge at least really was Possible. This reassured them about the abilities of humans in general and set aside the tense and anguished atmosphere.

With the MTA's reminder that it was an optional challenge, people finally calmed down.

That is how a legend started about Josh, only to die instantly. After all, who had time to dig into a Classless low-level's life when there was more interesting news out there about Floor 12.

Actually, there was one thread that popped up about the possibility of Josh being the one that had cleared the Possible challenge. It was written by a certain Hegel. But, it was soon banned for lack of research and for starting false rumors.

Would Josh care about any of that even if he were to know? Most probably not. Either way, he had a Floor to clear. He was currently observing the system message curiously.

[Mission: Escort the old Campestris back to safety.]

An escort mission?! That was new…