Classless Ascension

At this moment, every living creature turned toward the human in complete shock. What the fuck was that?!

The human had just…devoured a gauntlet?!

Not just any gauntlet but a magical one to boot?! It had even been protected by magical glyphs and a barrier. How?!

The orc king's face changed from happily smirking to twisting horrendously. As for the panthers, they, too, were confused. But seeing the orc's reaction, they understood that this development was good for them.

At this rate, they would be able to get their revenge on the creature who had killed their target and confined them for so long!

As for Josh, he was contently burping on the side. This stuff was so delicious! Hell, at this rate, he would get addicted to eating enchanted gear.

Then again, this sure was weird. Why was it that this devouring ability only seemed to activate at times? Not everything smelled good to him, only a few items. Was it a matter of compatibility?

Either way, he now felt a warm current inside his body as he ate. It felt amazing! What was this?

Opening his status window real quick, he smiled in satisfaction:

Ability Power —> +10

Eating could make him stronger?! At that very moment, the way he gazed at the orc king changed. This preciously impossible mountain to overcome now appeared to be made of delicious candy. So what if it was big? He would devour it all!

The orc king gulped loudly, sensing that something was wrong with the situation, but he then recomposed himself.

Without waiting, he charged straight at Josh!

— Woosh! —

In his eyes, there was cold murderous intent. Playtime was now over as the glowing red giant swung his ginormous hammer at him.

Holy fuck!

Could Josh even evade?! No fucking way. He would need to use his cloak to survive the hit at this rate…but what about the next one?!

In his food-induced bliss, he had been a beat too late to react. But just as he braced himself for impact, a savior arrived!

— Whoosh! —

— A wild panther appeared! —

Then happened a clash between the two titans, with Josh trying to make himself as tiny as possible.

— BANG! —

— THUD! —

The panther flew away, with the other already pouncing on another armor piece. This was Josh's cue to get the fuck out! He activated his spider set and charged straight at the wall as he began to climb it.

The orc king watched his prey scale toward the ceiling with his eyes bulging. What the heck?! What kind of ability was this?!

He didn't wait and sent his hammer flying with the speed of a professionally thrown baseball— except it was freaking elephant-sized! This was madness!

Josh felt the killing intent locking onto him and had no choice but to throw himself downward. As he was free-falling, the orc king smirked and charged his way, readying his mountain-like fists.

But before the king could deal the finishing blow, the panthers were once again attacking him. Plus, he didn't have his weapon anymore and had to fend them off with only his fists. This allowed his enemies to send some more armor pieces flying.

The orc quickly used his spell to summon back his armor…only to realize in complete horror that one more piece already wasn't responding. How was this possible?!

That's when he saw Josh. He held some kind of item in his hands that allowed him to change his gear at the speed of a magical quick-changer.

Zoom set for the speed.

Big Chungus set to devour.

Spider set to scurry back to the safety of the ceiling.

He was using three sets he had gotten from Hellish as if his own abilities. He was fighting OP gear with OP gear!

Never had the orc king felt his belly so full of fury…but what could he do?! This was a goddamn nightmare! The more the fight progressed and the more cornered he began feeling.

It was all that damn human's fault! He always stayed in the back or ran on the fucking ceiling! What kind of fighting technique was this?!

"Human! How cowardly are you? Will you just hide behind the big cats all your life?"

"Yep, that's exactly the plan. Glad we're on the same page!" Josh replied, void of any shame. So what if he was acting cowardly? Honor was utter bullshit.

Fighting a monster stronger than him head-on wouldn't be a sign of courage but of stupidity. How many times had he repeated that same thing to his students at the D.L. school? Okay, pretty much never since he had abandoned them…

The orc king was getting so annoyed that he even resorted to trying diplomacy:

"Can't you two see that he's using you?! What do you think will happen once we're all almost dead? He will betray you, skin you alive, and devour you!" He bellowed toward the cats.

Yes….toward the cats. You know you've hit a low point in your life when you're negotiating with cats.

The panthers were getting pretty bloodied by now. One had to admit that the orc was impressively mighty. He would inflict lots of damage on his enemies for every piece of armor that he lost.

By now, the big cats were limping, their fur redder than black from all the blood shed, and some of their claws were broken. They really made for a sad picture.

But even then, they didn't hesitate. They 100% wouldn't be able to fight the orc without the human, but perhaps they would stand a chance against the human even injured. It was actually a pretty logical choice.

With that last refusal, the orc king finally lost the last piece of his armor, and his coarse green skin was now exposed to the air. Muscle enthusiastic gals would have absolutely adored this!

He loudly growled at them:

"Enough! The fighting stops now! Otherwise, we all die here!" He spat out, rolling his shoulders and displaying his mighty aura.

Josh couldn't help but recoil in shock as he realized where the orc was: right next to the exit. He was blocking their only way out and seemed Hella serious! This was no empty bluff!

Should Josh negotiate to have the curse on him removed? Then he'd be able to leave this place using the dimensional belt in a few days when the cooldown on it was over. He could then come back better prepared in the future.

But, he didn't have much time to ponder over it.

It turns out that the subtleties of humanoid non-verbal communication weren't the panthers' strongest suit. They charged forward to inflict the killing blow without even considering the option.

The orc king knew that he was fucked and got ready to activate his trump card.

Josh knew that they were all fucked seeing this.

The panthers were still happily pouncing.

That's when the orc's heart began glowing red. It was so damn bright that it was discernible even through his skin and flesh!

Josh instinctively understood what was happening: he was sacrificing his life force for one last attack.

The monster's entire body began glowing red, and then happened something truly horrifying. His whole body began to inflate. He kept growing so fast until his head almost reached the damn ceiling!

He made a green superhero look like an adorable kitten compared to it!

This combat was over. The colossal orc swung his fist akin to a hammer. The panthers tried their best to evade, but he kept swinging relentlessly.

In the process, various pillars, walls, and even the damn ceiling were wrecked. But the attack did eventually connect. One panther turned into nothing but a bloody mess, no clue about the creature it once was.

The orc king began laughing:

"Hahahaha. One does not go against the orc king and survive!"

But that's when a rumbling sound was heard. The cracks in the walls suddenly began enlarging thanks to gravity and all the damage done previously.

Holy fucking shit. The entire fortress was falling!!

It seems the orc king had been right….they were all gonna die there.

"HAHAHAHA! How fitting, my domain leaving this world with me!" The laugher of the king and the cries of despair from the surface mixed together.

Then it all came crashing.

— Rumble! —

— Crash! —

— Rumble! —

— Crash! —

— Rumble! —

— Crash! —

— Rumble! —

— Crash! —

The air was filled with dust, so much dust that nothing could be seen.

As it slowly cleared, anyone would have been shocked beyond belief. Of the majestic and impregnable-looking fortress, there remained only rubble.

No, it was even worse than that. Where it once stood, there remained only a crater filled with debris. This was a scene of complete destruction.

The once lively area was now only filled with weighty silence and the aura of death.

But suddenly, a rock began to tremble slightly before being pushed aside. A handsome face gasped for air. He had survived? How?! It seemed like he had been lucky. The rocks had crushed most of his body, but he was still alive.

He sighed in relief as he began laughing lowly.

"I'm alive! I'm alive, haha! Fuck the panthers…and fuck that human!" The orc king happily cackled.

Gosh, this had been a close call! Everyone else was dead, his people, his enemies, and his lair were destroyed, but it could always rebuild as he had done before!

But then he suddenly froze as he slowly began pondering aloud.

"As I did in the past? How did I even build this place before? Why can't I remember?!" The orc felt a huge headache coming.

What the heck was this?! Why couldn't he remember his past?! This didn't make sense! But that's when a low, calm, and poised voice was heard.

"Because you never had a past in the first place."

Creator's Thought

An NPC becoming self-conscious opens the door for so many possibilities. But, no matter what, I still had the mission to kill the Orc King. What was I supposed to do? What about the morality of it all? Me not caring about it doesn't mean that I won't ponder over it.