Classless Ascension

As they both exited the room, the Dragon hollered Liam that was nearby.

"You show him the guild facilities! I need to go and share the content of the contract with the higher-ups."

"Yes, Boss!" He approached with a young man. The one that was in the VR room the other day. "Welcome, Josh! By the way, this guy is Luca. He's pretty weak but he's a good guy!"

"What kind of way is that to introduce me! You barely won a few times over me! Also, I have a better Palace ranking than most! *Sigh* Anyway, pleasure meeting you Josh. If you have any questions, you can ask me.", Lucas seemed friendly.

"Thanks, guys. Right, what benefits does this place give exactly?"

"It depends on your rank in the guild. In order, there are bronze, iron, gold, and white gold. It goes up the more you contribute to the guild. For instance, white gold can even do stuff like borrow gear without even a deposit. But as a newcomer, you mostly save the 5% commission on sales and also get free access to the VR training.", Liam patiently explained.

"Oh? Is there only VR training? I've found it to be hard to actually learn in there."

Lucas chipped in "Wait! I remember, you were the one with that really bad Palace score, right? Let me check again, JustBuyingSoySauce, right? …How the hell do you have a 10%-win rate only?!"

Josh rubbed his head in embarrassment. "I'm getting outclassed is all."

Liam was simply looking at Josh with a smile. He could guess what had happened.

"Right, how is access level even verified?" Josh inquired.

"Follow me!" Liam guided them to a small machine that looked like…. a white rectangle sticking out of the wall.

"Scan your UW there and it will install our guild's app on your UW. It can only be installed here since your whole body is scanned to verify your identity. Also, it will automatically uninstall itself should you be compromised, for example getting kidnapped. In such a case it would send us a distress signal. Of course, none of this works in the Tower either."

"Full body scan?"

"Don't worry about it. Since the moment you entered the building, you've been scanned. The only reason you could even take the elevator with me was that you were given temporary clearance since you were meeting the guild leader."

Josh approached his hand until he heard a BEEP. Looking at the screen he couldn't but smile. The app contained a few functions:

-Guild messaging (Basic function)

-Party Searching (Request for helpers to clear a Floor)

-Personal information (Access rank for instance)

-Official guild guides (With a warning about incomplete information)

-Draconic Palace section (Ranking and sharing personal videos)

-Official Complaints (With a warning not to abuse this feature)

Josh had to pick a username. This time, he went for his real name since he figured this was a private network.

"So, Liam. Where does one go to borrow equipment?"

Liam gave a disbelieving expression while Lucas scoffed about how a bronze like Josh would only get a discount.

Before long, they reached a counter where a bored-looking lady was sitting. She seemed the lean muscular type. Her brown hair was tied in a ponytail for ease of movement. She was wearing sportswear. She was simply idling watching videos on her UW. It seemed to be some kind of monster analysis rendered with 3D models.

"Hey big sis, we are here to get gear for my friend!" Liam greeted.

"Go away, I'm busy.", she grumbled.

Liam couldn't help but give a helpless look.

Josh figured he may as well deal with this himself. "Hey there, I'm here to borrow gear."

To which she didn't even bother replying.

BEEP. Josh checked his UW, it was a message from the nearby Liam: That's Kasha, one of the best scouts in the guild. This is probably some sort of punishment we should leave and not antagonize her. Your call anyway haha ^_^v

"Kasha, right? I'd like to borrow some gear please."

"Can't you see I'm busy, dumbass! Don't you have eyes?! Can't you see how pretty I am?! You should call me gorgeous sis Kasha at the very least! Now, go roll somewhere else!"

Yep, an annoying girl for sure. Josh fixed her intently. "If I have eyes? Slim, white-skin, nice looking face, perky medium-sized breasts, but definitely a wild aura. Pretty? Sure, I'll admit. Still, what's the use if the personality is bad?"

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

-Liam the Ultimate Samurai: Brother! Are you trying to die?! This is crazy!

-Lucas the Lancer: I kinda wanna see where this is going. *Insert coffin dance*

And in the guild chat…

-Lucas the Lancer: @Everyone this newcomer @Josh is spicy as hell! He just told Kasha to her face that she had a bad personality, oh but he did compliment her breasts.

-Healer Ronan: Even I won't be able to save him.

-Just Damien: Please! Your specialty is killing! But yeah, he's dead hahaha!

-Dragon Daddy: Human interactions are hard *Sigh* But even I know better. RIP.

- Serene Brings the Heat: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

-Liam the Ultimate Samurai: This is a serious matter guys! Also Kasha's in this chat! Are you trying to have him die without a complete corpse?! @Lucas the Lancer

-Lily of the Frontline: Well, he just wants to see the world burn as usual.

-Friendly Terry: I could try and save him…

-Usain Dash: I'm sure you can save him, but you'd kill a dozen in the process. How about no?

-Gorgeous Kasha: I'm going to murder this prick.

-Peaceful Joe: I have only one thing to say …F

-AIYA: F

-Minor, no Flirting: F

-Emsee Hammer: F

"""On Josh's screen appeared a series of F announcing his impending doom. Apparently, everyone wanted to get in on the message chain. How bored were they? Then again, a newcomer probably wasn't joining that often.

-Josh MF Malum: Hey @Everyone. A pleasure to meet you all! ^_^/

-Lily of the Frontline: Nice to meet you too! Hope you don't die! You probably will, however.

-Just Damien: Don't worry newcomer, I'll put flowers on your tombstone!

-AIYA: HAHAHAHA I love the username! It is straightforward for sure! Well, try to survive!

-Lucas the Lancer: Josh?! How the hell are you here?! This is the gold rank only chat!!! Right?! Yeah, it is! You joined like 5 minutes ago!!!! Even that monster Liam just made it in yesterday!!

-Everyone: ….?!? 0_0

Josh couldn't help but chuckle at these guys' antics. They didn't seem professional at all, but that didn't matter to him. He had seen Liam's attitude. Playful, but extremely serious once it came to fighting. That is the feeling he was getting from all of them.

On the other side of the counter, Kasha's face was turning darker and darker. She had seen most of the notifications all until the F spam. Then she gave a forced and ominous smile.

"Now, newcomer. How do you wish to die? You sure have guts, eh!"

"What? You asked me if I had eyes and if I could see how pretty you were. I simply answered. Anyway, I want to borrow gear. Will you help me or…?"

"Or what?! Are you trying to threaten me?! Do you think I'm just some lowly salesgirl?! Is that what you think?! Hahahaha."

"Of course not! A salesgirl would be way more useful than you!"

In the background, Lucas kept looking between his UW and Josh while Liam was heavily gesturing to stop.

"Y-you you!"

"Me? Name's Josh by the way."

"Fine! I'm going to get you kicked out of the guild! We'll see how cheeky you can be afterward!"

Liam intervened! "How about we all calm down and… Sis, what are you doing, right now? Are you filling an official complaint?! Please stop! You were both at fault here!"

"Kid let's see how you deal with this hahaha!"

Josh couldn't be bothered to reply. He was busy filling a complaint form of his own.

"Name, Kasha. Complaint, not doing her job even after multiple requests. Send!"

"You prick! Did you send a complaint about me?! HAHAHA We'll see who gets punished hahaha!"

-Lucas the Lancer: Holy shit! It's going down! They both filed official complaints! You guys wanna bet on what will happen?

-Dragon Daddy: Please the result is obvious.

-Peaceful Joe: That Newcomer is gonna be fine, right? Otherwise, I'll do a peaceful protest!

-AIYA: Please don't! The last time you did a "peaceful protest" we had to repair half the guild!

After about a minute there was finally a notification appearing. Right in the gold rank chat.

-Dario the Dragon: @Gorgeous Kasha is now demoted to iron rank. Reason: refusal to accomplish her given tasks and insubordination.

#Georgous Kasha has been kicked from this chat.

-AIYA: What the hell?! Wait…insubordination?!

-Lucas the Lancer: @Josh MF Malum Are you the Dragon's illegitimate son?! You are, right?!

-Liam the Ultimate Samurai: Nope, he was summoned with me!

-Serene Brings the Heat: @Josh MF Malum spill the beans! How did you do that?!

-Josh MF Malum: Oh. Apparently, it's a perk of white gold rank. Pretty neat.

That is when reverberated across the entire guild sonorous shouts "What the Fuck!?!!" The top echelons of the Draconic guild sure had powerful voices.

It wasn't that bad for the ones in the guild hall. It was pretty awkward for the ones in public spaces. Especially for a certain man that called himself Aiya.

He was on a date with an amazing woman, a ranker from Eclipse. One as pretty as the Moon itself (or so the polls said). He couldn't help but think that just sitting next to her made even eating soup awesome.

He was playfully telling her about the drama in the guild, about a newcomer that had angered Kasha. That is when he saw the last message from Josh.

*SPURT! *

Her pretty face got drenched in carrot soup…This date was officially over. She left angrily even as he was trying to apologize.

But seriously, what the hell was happening at the guild?!