Classless Ascension

Josh felt something strange as he gripped the weapon. It was as if it was entering his soul, but he felt no danger.

He couldn't help but jump in surprise at the unfamiliar feeling. It was as if he had just linked with the item? Was this the soul of a weapon described by the old teachings? Perhaps?

He willed the morphing weapon to change shape, and it quickly did. It was completely different than before! It had always taken a lot of mental effort and focus whenever he did this in the past. Now? None!

It was as if the sword / mace / spear / dragon dildo were all extensions of his body. Grinning, he even played with it more creatively. In the dark room, he successively made keys, balloon animals, and even a fucking mask!

This thing was so damn versatile! No matter what he pictured, he could easily realize it. Well, of course, there was a limit to it. He couldn't become Sephi-Josh just yet. He was missing a few inches for that.

But he didn't despair. After all, what mattered wasn't how long one's sword was but how well one could use it— or at least that is what he believed.

This crafting session had been a resounding success! He couldn't wait but to show off…brag…no, showcase his new weapon to his friends. How jealous would they be! It had cost more than 1 million Credits, but it was a great investment.

He then turned toward the blank-looking blacksmith:

"Hey, great job!" Jack gave a thumb up.

But the man remained completely motionless. His breathing was slow and steady, his eyes were closed, and he was even muttering softly. Was he sleeping while standing up?

A shoulder chop later, the man was gently awakening:

"W-what?! Where am I?! What happened?! Where's that rock?!" He seemed utterly confused and lost.

"Hey, great job on crafting the weapon. It's perfect." Josh praised him without holding anything back.

"W-weapon? What weapon? Ah, where's the alloy for the morphing weapon?! I need to hammer it quickly and—"

"Relax, you've already done it, see? When I came down, you had already crafted it. I think your spirit was too weak to wield it, so you fell unconscious."

"Really?!…Nice! It means I managed to craft a really strong weapon! I succeeded, finally, hahaha! From now on, everyone will know Morpheus as an accomplished blacksmith hahaha!!"

"Morpheus? Good name."

"Of course it's a good name, but what matters is that it proves that my theories were right! Honestly, I'm surprised that it worked so well the first time. I was expecting it to fail a few times!" He laughed, relieved.

"Wait, you were?! -_-" Josh wasn't sure how to feel about that one.

"Well, you see…." Morpheus twisted his fingers shyly.

"Whatever, you succeeded. What do you say that we celebrate?"

"Now? Where do you want to go? I still need to clean this place, or my master's gonna be mad and…." He shook his head.

"You know, someone once told me that one should celebrate all achievements. Otherwise, what's the point? If we don't have a party to look up to when working hard, then aren't we just settings ourselves up for failure?"

"I don't think that's how it works. You succe—"

"Shhh, just go with the flow." Josh shut him up and hurriedly left, gesturing the man to follow.

"We still need to run some tests on the weapon to make sure everything is alright! There could be remnant energy that—" Morpheus spoke up.

"That's perfect. You can do the tests at the bar. Let's gooo!" Josh shouted.

For some reason, he was in a very good mood. The new weapon played a very large part in it, but he inexplicably felt especially jovial. Oh well, this was a good thing in any case.

The blacksmith could only give a helpless smile as he trailed behind. He was 100% going for work, is what he repeated to himself. Yep, this was a valid reason not to clean the forge right away!

"We're going to a sunny bar. It's nothing out of the ordinary, but it has a cool hologram dance floor with pretty sick beats." Josh shared on their way.

As they got there, the blacksmith couldn't help but feel that this establishment was unexpectedly normal. From hanging out with this guy, he was almost expecting him to bring him to some restricted area.

"Oh, right. I should get my pet back before we go. I'm sure he'll be happy to tag along." Josh said before he went to knock on a door right next to the bar.

"Pet? Do you have a dog?"

"Something like that. He's a big green guard dog." Josh remarked.

He, not it? Also, what kind of dog race was green? Could it be that its fur had been dyed? Either that or it was some kind of mutant. It wasn't like these were too rare nowadays. But as the door opened, he almost shat his pants.

"That's my pet," Josh said with a teasing smile.

What the fuck was that?! Gaurd dog?! This was very clearly an orc— and a powerful one at that! The creature was built like a goddamn tank and had an aura that screamed of violence.

Then there was the gaze. One look from the monster was enough to make one realize who stood at the top of the food chain— spoiler, it was the orc.

Morpheus stood there, his mouth opening and closing faster than a nutcracker. He seemed as if he had seen something unbelievable, but then he suddenly regained his cool a second later.

"Oh? Your nerves aren't that bad." He chuckled.

"Well, one thing helps for sure. I just thought to myself: coming from him. It could be crazier than an orc. Then the fear went away." The blacksmith shared.

What kind of trick was that?! Sure, it's fearsome, but it could e worse? What did that even mean? That's when the orc began to chuckle.

"You're goddamn right, buckaroo!" The orc king said.

"Wait…what did you just say?" Josh couldn't help but freeze.

"It's just an expression. I've been gathering information on that shivering guy's HUB. Anyway, we should talk about the Tower. I roughly understand our situation, and I think the next Floor will be very troublesome." The orc solemnly uttered.

Josh's orc had not only been watching TV but also researching?! Also, what kind of trouble? So much for celebration time…