Classless Ascension

Before long, Josh was back in front of the awesome building with the holographic swimming snake!

Side note, Josh was wearing the gray cosmetic suit and fedora he had gotten in the Alter Dungeon, for his clothes had been trashed by the Rats.

There was a huge crowd and in front of the building. The entrance was guarded by fully equipped Climbers working as security guards. There were also many U-Bots patrolling, and even one guy with the Black Squad uniform.

To enter the shop, one needed to pass in front of some kind of big scanner. Some people were waiting to be granted access but the majority was simply here to watch the show. Josh turned to a passerby: "So, what is even happening here?"

"What you came here without even knowing?!" the man shook his head.

"You should really keep up with the News concerning the Tower. Not to brag, but I'm a D ranker myself. My guild will even get some of these <Fairies>! Impressive isn't it? I'm sure you've heard of <Legionnaires>, right?!"

"Is that a guild's name? I can see these people are all showing their UW to the scanner. Is it using the guild application to prove one's identity?"

"Exactly, people in big guilds just show it and…." The man saw Josh heading to the front.

"Hey come back! There is no way they'll grant you access! This is not somewhere a bumpkin like you should…! Ah, never mind, I don't know you!"

Josh was pretty sure <Draconic> would have the right to buy some. A stern security guard snorted as he approached. "This isn't a place for broke people, not right now at the very least. Go back once you can afford decent clothes."

Please! How many even had cosmetic clothes from the Tower! Well, Josh had no way to know. Still, he could understand the man. The <Tower Protocol> had designed the clothes based on a typical Mall. Let's just say the suit was the cheap kind that one could find in a general clothing store. It did look decent just…simple.

Josh didn't even bother replying to the man. He simply scanned his UW. When the scanner showed a green light to indicate that Josh had the right to enter, the man's expression went from stern to stunned and finally flustered.

Would Josh reprimand him in the least? No, he was above that. Josh simply glanced playfully at him, then intently at the man's name tag, before looking him straight in the eyes while smiling brightly.

That is when a store employee came out to personally greet Josh. They visibly had a way to figure out that he was from an S-Rank guild.

Seeing this, the security guard instantly quickly started thinking about worst-case scenarios. His brows furrowed in worry, his hands started trembling and then he dropped to his knees and started to beg Josh to forgive him.

Josh didn't bother answering and simply followed the guide inside. The man seemed to understand the situation. Before long they were inside. In fact, the man guided Josh to a small reception room in the back and even served him some coffee. "Sir, do you have any particular request concerning that one employee?"

Josh could see that the man was gaging him. At first glance, he seemed to be taking Josh's side but he was probably trying to glean more information about his personality. Josh couldn't help but wonder if they could see his white gold guild rank or not.

Josh smiled "Tell him that he may get fired, that the decision will be taken in two weeks. Other than that, don't do anything."

"Ah, so you want us to ask again for your input in two weeks?" he conscientiously asked.

"What part of 'other than that don't do anything' was unclear?"

"Ah, I see! So simply the fear of possibly receiving a punishment shall be his punishment? Thank you for your magnanimity"

Josh scoffed "Even if I wanted him fired would you have done anything?"

"Of course we would have fired him from this branch! We do not tolerate people disrespectful to our customers!"

Josh couldn't help but smile, having seen through the man. Fire him from 'this branch' was what he had said. Meaning another Ouroboros branch may have very well coincidentally recruited him right afterward. Still, there was no need to point it out.

"Alright, now. How about you introduce this <Fairy> to me? Do a complete pitch sale as if I had never heard a single thing about it."

"Yes, Sir! As you know technology doesn't work in the Tower. It is a closed environment that seems to disable anything coming from outside. The only exception to this is the items crafted using Profession Classes assigned by the Tower itself. This sort of crafting requires materials from the Tower to be performed and special tools dropped in the Tower."

"Like this one you mean?" Josh simply dropped the Blacksmithing Anvil out of his inventory while intently watching the man's body language.

The man quickly identified the anvil as one dropping on Floor 10. That was a huge hint toward Josh's real strength. The man showed a faint trace of surprise, but quickly went over it and resumed the same appearance as before. That is when he made eye contact with the smiling Josh that was observing him.

Was Josh a low ranker with extreme potential that had been hidden from the media? Was Josh actually a high ranker already that was simply dropping an E-Rank item to test him? Was Josh here simply to buy, browse, or did he have a deeper purpose behind his inquiry, one possibly even related to rankers?!

Many thoughts clearly swirled in the man's head. A simple meeting had become so much more in his eyes. Josh could somehow feel the man's aura change slightly. He was clearly overthinking this haha.

Josh simply waited for the presentation to resume. He truly had no clue what was being sold after all.

"This is why we started researching ways to recreate our technology using the crafting methods found in the Tower. At first, we tried to reproduce modern weapons. Sadly there was always one thing or another going wrong. That is when a group of a few researchers tried to recreate something similar to a UW."

Oh? It was becoming quite interesting. Josh figured that meant they had succeeded.

"We used an item that drops on Floor 38 from the Bronze Golem. We figured out that it actually has the ability to learn. While not being sentient it seemed like a basic AI. Using its core, it was then possible to create a basic system that allowed information retention and learning. After that came the hard part. Honestly, I don't understand the specifics myself since I am but a salesman, but they have managed to connect it to the Net!"

"Alright, now then. What about the product itself?"

"Here it is Sir, the <Fairy>!" The man took out a small box. In it, a small white prism was contained. "Feel free to activate it!"

Touching it, the item started levitating. Then it started glowing. In front of it appeared a screen. <Please input a name> Oh? This was quite nice. Josh wanted to name it Navigation at first but felt it would be too weird sounding so he simply inputted <Navi>.

The Fairy then started to hover around his head. Lightly dragging it toward him, Josh realized that it didn't seem strong nor fast. "We are supposed to bring that in the Tower? It will get destroyed instantly…"

The man waved his hand toward the Fairy, but it evaded it with impossible speed. "That is how it will react to monsters. It can be used to give in real-time advice about any Floor based on information found online from trusted sources. There are also many voices available and the color is changeable."

"Pretty nice, alright I'll take one." Josh felt it was worth it. That would stop him from trying to scour doubtfully useful forums with outdated information.

"Perfect, I'll even give you a 50% discount on it! Thank you for your patronage!"

"50%? Nonsense! I'll pay it fully!" Josh was rich after all with a staggering 20 638 Credits!

The man smiled brightly. "Alright, that will be 50 000 Credits."

What?! This little thing was 50 000 Credits?! One had to know the E-Rank gear Josh was wearing was only worth 1k Credit a piece! Then again it made sense considering it required materials on Floor 38…but still.

The man noticed Josh's expression changing. "What is it?"

Josh couldn't help but be embarrassed. Then he went: "That….can we do 60% instead?"

"…."

"…."

Not long after, Josh was exiting the shop, quite broke but with a new <Fairy> neatly tugged in his inventory. Now, there was something he wanted to do, something called training.

Josh had a plan to deal with the rat Boss. There only remained to see if it would work or not…