Classless Ascension

****(POV)

In this world, there was only one thing that mattered: power. Damien of Dominion had understood this early in his life. One could either exploit others or be exploited themselves.

With the Tower appearing, he had relentlessly trained until he had become one of the most powerful Rankers. This power had allowed him to become the left hand of their guild leader, a true conqueror.

Sadly, the current world was too peaceful for them to make a move. It would only end up with them being destroyed, their enemies ganging upon them. It made him sick to see all these weaklings believe themselves to be his equal.

Today especially infuriated him. They had sent a fucking weakling to welcome him! He had almost killed the bastard, but he had managed to rein his urges in. He had to remain low-key for now.

Still, those Climber School peeps could go fuck themselves. It deserved to be destroyed, especially with how weak most of their students appeared. To him, anyone who wasn't a Ranker didn't deserve any attention.

Entering the Alter Tower, he had been ready to vent and commit a massacre. But what the fuck was this?! It seemed to be a somewhat modern scene, but one that was so backward! There weren't any U-bots or even holograms.

[Mission: Find all the stones of infinity!]

What kind of bullshit training was this?! People were paying for this crap?! A part of him still hoped that a powerful Boss would guard each stone, but he was disappointed as he reluctantly accomplished it.

[Mission Completed! Reward: entry ticket!]

< Entry Ticket >

- Allows one to access a random Floor in the Infinite Tower. Excellent training opportunity! One can also select to challenge all Floors at once.

Somehow, this first mission was only a facade to the real thing. The "why" didn't matter much, for he would clear it. "Let me destroy their Training Tower! Launch all Floors!" He confidently used the ticket, grinning heroically.

He would discover this place's secrets and reveal them. Soon everyone would turn against that greedy Josh guy. This would teach him to ignore someone of his status! Damien didn't care about the plebeians: they could get scammed for all he cared but ignoring him was unacceptable.

He found himself standing in an elevator. Was that shit on the wall?! Either way, it wouldn't faze him. When he saw the monkey with the jacket, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"What the fuck are you?!" But no matter what he tried, he still had to eat shit— and he eventually did. He instantly felt the danger as he was about to lose his mind! He immediately used a life-saving measure, an incredibly hard-to-produce pill worth 100k Credits!

What the fuck?! How were ordinary people supposed to clear this?! He felt the pain. This was such a waste! Luckily his guild had made sure he had plenty of consumables for emergencies.

Then came the office challenge. Somehow this place was making him so tired! It was as if the decor could affect both the mind and body. He almost overdosed on rejuvenation drugs, but he finally made it through the month.

This second challenge had cost him about 70k worth of drugs! At this moment, he realized that something was very wrong with this Tower. "How many more Floors are there?!" he asked himself.

When he saw the worms, he had no choice but to use an extremely hard-to-come-by Magical Formation artifact to hide. He was a valiant warrior. Even for him, these level 80+ Worms were too much! He couldn't even defeat the weakest ones!

He began to regret entering as he had obviously fallen into a trap. Still, it was only a question of time before he escaped. He would make them all pay! He dragged his body around, cowering every time he felt a vibration or heard a screech.

He eventually did complete the mission. Except it had cost him about 120k Credits in artifacts. He was using everything he had!

Luckily the next mission was easier. He managed to barge into the dog village and steal their bone back. The only issue was that he had to use plenty of attack consumables to create confusion in the village. The total cost was about 40k credits.

The war was even worse. He used everything that he still had left. He had made the enemies retreat but at what cost? He could only cry as he observed his empty inventory. About 150k wasted! He dragged his feet toward the elevator, cursing relentlessly.

He finally arrived at the maze. He felt despair as he would have preferred to fight instead! He had a terrible sense of direction, but he tirelessly kept exploring nonetheless. It took him an eternity, but he finally managed to reach the monkey at the center.

But it wasn't the end?! He now had to look for bananas?! Fine, he would do it! It was just a matter of memorizing the shape of this maze! Anything was possible with enough effort, right?

But, he soon discovered in horror that the bananas themselves were dangerous. As soon as he touched one, he failed the challenge and had to restart.

Then he faced another problem. He didn't have the scouting capabilities to find the bananas fast enough! Why did this thing need to be time-based?! It was so unfair to be stuck there after coming all this way!

The issue was that the bananas would keep changing position and he would need to start from zero every try! Slowly learning the layout of the maze barely helped.

He felt rage poison his heart as he swore to get revenge! He wasn't one to be so easily defeated!

Still, he could only come to the harsh realization that he would be stuck there for a long while, an extremely long time…

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

On every Floor, there were people violently dying. They didn't have the protection of the Tower, and neither were they as prepared as the Ranker from Dominion.

"What the fuck are these insane snakes?!" — Eaten.

"Fine, I'll eat this dubious thing! Gulp!" — Never woke up

"I just need to survive a month here, right?! No biggie!" — Killed himself after three weeks, completely forgetting that this was only a test.

"Let me show these dogs who's boss!" — Stoned to death while trying to flee with the ancestral bone.

"What the fuck is this?! An army?! No way I'm fighting them!" — Tried to escape in the Savage Land and ended up as Dino poop.

"I need to find bananas? Fine, bring it on! This is my specialty!" — Touched a banana and lost consciousness forever.

There was one individual that only selected the 1 Floor option that managed to survive. He had luckily ended up on the last Floor, and was also a scout. He had also happened to be a germophobe and would never touch things directly.

He somehow managed to clear it after trying for weeks inside, barely registering his reward. As he came out, he couldn't help but freeze as there was something incredibly wrong with the scene he saw.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The visitors couldn't help but shake in fright and relief. It hadn't taken them long to clear the little Mall mission. As they received their prize, they had realized the incredible danger they had avoided.

< Entry Ticket >

- Allows one to access a random Floor in the Infinite Tower. Excellent training opportunity! One can also select to challenge all Floors at once.

*Visitor hint: 99% death rate inside. Students can challenge it safely but won't receive any reward.*

What the hell?! 99% death rate?! How crazy was that?! Wasn't this akin to committing suicide! No matter how great the rewards were, it simply wasn't worth it! They were better off Climbing the regular Tower.

This simple line had changed everything! Without it, they would have gleefully thrown their lives away without even knowing it. Was this what had happened to all the unruly Climbers that had barged in?! Most definitely!

They felt cold sweat drench their backs. They longed for that student safe-challenge option. This would mean the ability to face deadly challenges regularly. It would be an incredible vector for growth!

There was currently the Climber's World VR game that was trying to accomplish this very same task. But here was an actual Tower! Chances were that it would beat the simulation. At the very least, it would feel more real!

They now understood how every student kept leaving in low spirits. They had just died inside! Of course, they would feel bad!

The first thing they saw upon leaving was a smiling Frank. "How was it?"

"E-eye opening!" They awkwardly replied.

All of them were pensive, their thoughts running at an incredible speed. This simple revelation changed everything! This wasn't as simple as designing a Tower regiment for an existing Tower. Nope!

How the fuck had they changed the Tower to follow their whims?! It didn't make any sense! This wasn't the power of a human. It was the power of a god! But, this would be an extremely closely guarded secret.

"Hey, how did you guys manage to create the Training Tower?" Someone tactlessly asked. What if he was silenced for his impertinence?!

But, no one was angry. Instead, a few students even chuckled as they replied. "It's simple. Josh Motherfucking Malum!"

"What?!" They were all taken aback. What did this even mean?!

Their leader had realized this miracle alone?! No, that ought to be impossible. That's when many "realized" what was happening. This had to be the mysterious guild Dimensional Legion's doing!

What kind of insane power did that feat even take? Probably enough to conquer a good portion of the world easily. Then, why were they unknown until recently?! Had they been pulling the strings in the shadows all along?!

Perhaps they didn't care about this world at all. What if their goals lay in the Tower itself? They probably knew way more than them all combined about the Tower. Once more, they all felt ignorant and insignificant.

Many couldn't tolerate such a feeling as they decisively begged. "Sir, I want to join the school! Money isn't a problem! Please let me join!"

As soon as one kneeled begging, many others followed suit. At this instant, the one lucky survivor came out and was taken aback at the scene.

The unruly Climbers were nowhere to be seen, and the ones that had chosen to visit were begging to join?! What the heck had happened here?!

That's when someone turned toward him. "Hey guys, there is someone that came out alive! The first from a batch of 300. So far, the death rate is even higher than the advertised 99%!"

"What?! 99% death rate?! What's this about?" The survivor asked in shock.

"The ticket. People with visitor status get the warning that it has a very high death rate…." One magnanimously explained.

"Even the Rankers didn't make it out?!" He cried out fearfully.

"Nope, you're the first to come out." (OS)

"This can't be..." The survivor could only gulp as he shuddered.

He had avoided death by a hair's breadth! For what? The clear reward hadn't even been worth it! This place was a nightmare! All because they hadn't paid that silly 100 Credits...