Classless Ascension

Josh could see the shadow of death above his head.

Quite literally. The enormous arm of the Boss was about to crush him completely, blocking the sun while at it. Yet, Josh was not worried in the least. He even closed his eyes as he waited for the system message.

[Mission Failed: Punishment, trip to mirror realm.]

That is when the world rippled around him and then he was instantly gone. As soon as he had removed the burger mask, the friendly shroom had obviously come back and died from the poison mist.

Thus, Josh had failed the mission and that brought him to safety. He quickly swallowed a healing dan while wearing the healing dryad necklace. He could feel incredible energy start to course through him as it began to repair his damaged body.

He would soon be perfectly fine. But there lied the issue, time. Around him were plenty of nightmarish shrooms eying him hungrily. Would they let him rest? Obviously not.

Josh resolved himself to sacrifice the ring he had gotten from the Evolved Mutated Zombie. Surely, undead soldiers would buy him enough time to at least recover slightly. But then he figured he'd at least try something.

Had the enemies' behavior been reset? He equipped the burger mask. How goofy was he looking right now? Probably more than words could ever express. Yet, seeing such a sight, the monsters stopped dead in their tracks.

Oh my god. This was OP! Josh began laughing in relief. His tensed body relaxed as he kept healing by the second. He had no idea why this was happening but he just enjoyed the moment. How many could say they had successfully intimidated the Tower monsters?

Before long, he was back on his feet. As they say: what doesn't kill you…gets healed with a healing dan. Talk about 500 credits well invested! So cheap! Then again that was half the price of an item of his own level. He resolved himself to always have a few on hand from now on. It was that useful.

His body was now in top shape and his armor had repaired itself with the ambient mana. He began menacingly walking toward the enemies in an attempt to scare them away, but they all jumped him at once.

It seemed like he was a far way from attaining a Conqueror's Aura that would prompt all beings to bow before him. At least, their reservations to fight him had saved one of his trump cards.

Ensued a fight to the death that unsurprisingly ended up with Josh as the sole survivor. He then kept progressing, quickly returning to the other realm where the friendly shroom almost had a heart attack when it saw the Burger-Man spawn in front of it. It jumped in fright and instantly ran away.

He then returned to the Boss for revenge. He made sure to equip the white spider set then he started fighting once more. He kept dodging, killed a few assassins, waited for the poison, and also prepared himself for the demonic teeth attack.

As soon as it began, Josh retreated backward. Then he did the unthinkable. Just as the deadly blade-looking appendages were almost fully extended, he charged forward!

This in turn made it so the creature's teeth began entangling with one another as they all tried veering toward him. Activating the set instantly, he began scaling the gigantic monster directly. As he ran upward on its body, he kept repeatedly stabbing it over and over again.

Came shrill screams of distress and anger, but he ignored it all. This monster had to die. Its crime was nothing more than to have blocked a tiny decrepit wooden bridge. It stood between Josh and his mission.

How many stabs does it take to finish off one such creature? Exactly 458. Eventually, it finally fell and stopped moving entirely. Weirdly enough, as soon as the monster disappeared the entire forest began to transform.

A refreshing wind began softly blowing. The vegetation began to recover. The soil started to sprout life. Even the lazy river nearby seemed more alive suddenly. Soon it looked similar to the scene in the alternate realm.

But that is when the world seemed to ripple violently. Suddenly the entire space became filled with monstrous shrooms. They were everywhere as far as the eye could see. But Josh didn't despair. He'd keep fighting until they all died. He'd slaughter them all to the very last one!

But there was something weird about them. They were all standing still, not moving in the least looking at the horizon. It looked as if there was an event about to happen and Josh was the only one that hadn't been informed.

That is when the friendly cowardly shroom waddled over. Somehow it seemed changed, but how? Then it spoke. It wasn't the same dumb shroom it had been. "Thank you." It curtly did so, as if that was the only thing it knew how to say.

That is when it genuflected its mushroom cap downward as if bowing to express his thankfulness. That is when all the other "assassins" did the same. As they bowed their long and nightmarish teeth suddenly began receding. As if they hadn't been there in the first place.

No wonder the mushrooms all looked similar. They weren't long-lost cousins. They were the same species. It was just that something had happened to these ones. It looked like a case of corruption.

It had all seemingly stemmed from that one Boss. Somehow Josh felt there was something very wrong with the situation. What kind of last Boss's name was Big Fungus?! Well, to be fair this was only on Floor 13, but still.

It was nice and all, but Josh suddenly realized an issue. The Boss's corpse was nowhere to be seen! How was he supposed to loot it?! No matter how he looked around, there was nothing that had dropped. What kind of bullshit was this?!

He could have just proceeded to Floor 14 after having completed the normal difficulty! This was cheating.

"System! Come out and explain yourself! Where is my victory chest!" That's when it came.

[Congratulations on Completing Floor 13 Hellish Mode!]

[CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS On cOmPlEtInG FlOoR 13 hElLiSh mOdE!]

[₵Ø₦₲Ɽ₳₮ɄⱠ₳₮łØ₦₴ Ø₦ ₵Ø₥₱ⱠɆ₮ł₦₲ ₣ⱠØØⱤ 13 ⱧɆⱠⱠł₴Ⱨ ₥ØĐɆ!]

What kind of breakdown was it having?

|~??? ????????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ????????~|

What the hell?!…