Classless Ascension

If an external observant had looked at the topmost floor of the auction house tower, he would have seen …jack shit!

There was now black smoke everywhere, and it smelled so bad! Strangely, this thing was rising up as if trying to reach the sky. It was surprising because of how heavy the smoke appeared.

There were flashes of light, spurts of blood, and various cries from time to time. This combat was almost blind, and it was so damn confusing!

The participants were trying their best to:

1. Kill their enemies

2. Not kill their allies

As for whether they were succeeding, this was hard to tell. After all, they couldn't even see a meter in front of them! As for the whole floor? It was the size of a small football field. It was like paying blindfolded donkey game, but with weapons.

But, sadly for them, the guards were actually losing. This was because of the horrible uniform they had been forced to wear. In normal circumstances wearing orange didn't matter much.

But in such a chaotic fight where sneaking was possible, they were akin to movable lighthouses. Well, instead of guiding boats to them, they guided the weapons of their enemies. It was pretty bad! No, even worse than bad.

They wanted to curse this unfair situation loudly, but they didn't dare utter a peep. Their only saving grace was that their enemies didn't know where their own target was.

They were familiar with the layout from seeing the plans of the building, but the vaults were made in a manner that they would automatically move around over time. Why? No one but the owner knew!

But at this moment, this peculiar choice sure was being a pain to the invaders. They had a method to find their target, but it would still take a little while. An ally was already cracking this place's database to steal the info. They just had to sit tight and wait.

It made for an odd fight with both parties actually trying to buy time. The guards awaited reinforcements from the MTA, and the invaders were waiting for more information. At that moment, two men arrived on the scene, none the wiser.

Josh and his blacksmith partner had also climbed the same elevator shaft slightly later. They were then confronted with the echoes of an invisible battle.

The crafter couldn't help but shake his head as he very slowly murmured;

"There's probably a few dozen people fighting in there, plus we can't see them. We should reconsider trying to help." He sighed, picturing them dying in there.

"Who says that I can't see anything?" Josh chuckled lightly.

The others were relying on their human eyes to navigate the fog, and it was clearly not very efficient. As for Josh? He had other means. There were his piercing eyes and something else even more suited for the situation.

That's how he disappeared inside the fog with a grin on his smile. So what he couldn't see? He could feel it all! He could feel all the idiots' killing intent! It was wonderful how he was the only seeing man amidst a group of blind people.

He would for sure exploit this golden opportunity! He began to approach the combatants one by one slowly. The flashy orange suits were now slowly turning to an advantage as it told Josh to spare their owner.

That's how he began his work. He was akin to a reaper slowly stalking its next customer. He approached one enemy and pounced at the guy! But suddenly, his would-be victim twisted its body at the last moment.

That's when Josh realized that these guys weren't chumps. They were pretty damn good! Were they able to defeat him? Not in the current circumstances for sure. What they could do, however, was resist him for a while.

Heck, he gave up after a few attempts. That guy was so damn agile. How could he evade everything?! He then targeted a new one, only to feel like crying. This guy had a humongous shield: he was a tank!

What were the chances of Josh murdering a tank Climber quickly? Pretty damn low! He could only turn to the next one…then the next one…and the fucking next one! It was as if they had all been chosen for their survival capabilities!

Actually, this was precisely the case. They were the ones who had strong offense power yet would be hard to kill for various reasons. They were prime mercenary material, and their employer had paid extra for them.

Josh did manage to kill a few of them, but the thieves quickly realized that there was an assassin lurking in the shadows:

"Regroup! There's some bastard sneaking in there. He just attacked me!" their leader (?) shouted.

From that point onward, Josh became utterly incapable of striking. Well, he could, but it was far too dangerous.

The guards tried grouping in reaction too, but their numbers were now lacking, and the entire group became visible, even in that atmosphere (too orange). At that moment, the guards had utterly lost— or were about to.

Josh had to do something, but what? Risking his own life wasn't worth it, and he couldn't make allies appear magically. Nightmare was weak outside the tower, and the Orc King had been left at the daycare.

How could he possibly overcome this?! But as he looked at the fog, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration. Whether it would work was out of his control.

He quickly went to find his crafter friend. Luckily he was still near the entrance, so Josh managed to find him easily. He quickly explained his plan, with the man showing a perplexed expression before he began to grin widely.

It was worth a try!…

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

The guards were going crazy. They had already lost half their numbers. At this rate, they would soon perish to their opponents. Was it too late to surrender?

But just as they were despairing… there happened something that made them despair even more. Out of nowhere, a monster spawned. How?!

It wasn't just any monster either. There was now an abomination that seemed to have crawled out of hell! Guards and invaders felt how doomed they were at that moment.

The thing was a large flaming horse with spikes and tentacles. Then there was its aura. A single look was enough to render them scared shitless!

As if that wasn't enough, the whole freaking thing was on fire and smelled of death! They felt like calling for their mother right then.

"What the fuck is that!"

"Oh my god, who the hell called this demon over?!"

"We're screwed! How are we supposed to complete our mission now?!"

They could only reassure themselves with empty words:

"Wait, perhaps it just looks scary?"

Little did they know this was the absolute truth. But this would remain a secret as Nightmare suddenly stomped on the ground. They couldn't see what had happened, but they felt it.

— Clang! —

That single stomp had destroyed most of the Floor?! This was madness! That's when everyone in the room suddenly realized how dead they would be if they tried going against this monster!

"Men, screw the mission! We're getting the fuck out!" A mercenary said, but the guards felt the message resonated with them too.

At this moment, a wonderful moment of peace was attained. The humans ran away from the hellish creature, not caring about anything else. Hell, they were united in their fear.

Josh was left behind, along with Nightmare. Weren't they exaggerating a bit? But just as he was pondering, the reinforcements arrived.

They were just in time to witness the Nightmarish monster….