“Wait up, brother! Explain yourself! Also, did you say you are part of a guild? Is it better than Flaming Phoenix? Are you guys recruiting?!”

The man turned around: “I’m in <Familia> and I don’t think we are recruiting at the moment. I can always ask our leader, however.”

“Please do so! I want to join a good guild!”, Josh begged.

“Alright, simply follow me. I’ll bring you to our headquarter.”

Josh could see Lou send a message to his superior announcing their imminent arrival. Of course, Josh wouldn’t join but he’d try to get to the bottom of the situation. Trying to figure out how a happy youth had suddenly turned so cold and unfeeling. At least figure out if it was of his own volition or not. This much would be an easy way to repay Dale for his help.

Lou guided him toward the H district, all the way to a small building. One that seemed pretty plain on the outside. Apparently, the guild had an entire floor to them in the building, the second one. Before long Lou was pushing the door gesturing Josh to enter.

The interior was vastly different than the exterior. It looked cozy and warm. The walls showed a retro brick appearance. The kind that had a certain charm that modern-looking buildings lacked.

Across the place were various paintings showcasing different Tower Floors. The lighting was just perfect to create a pleasant mood. Across the room were many sofas, fridges, pool tables, and even old-school pinball machines.

“Pretty nice, right?” Lou said it in an almost deadpan voice as usual.

“Indeed, it is.” No matter how this operation turned out Josh wanted the name of whoever decorated the place.

The man gestured him to take a seat before giving a call to his chief who arrived not long afterward. The first impression Josh had of Lenny was that of a tall, handsome, and graceful man. Brown hair, grey eyes, a magnetic gaze. Combined with his peerlessly white smile it gave people the impression of a jovial refined individual, one that inspired trust.

“You must be Josh, right? Lou told me about you. Well, more like Dale was sending him so many messages that it was disturbing our meeting haha.”

“He wrote about me? What did he say?” Josh acted surprised yet curious.

“Only good things, he seemed mostly angry at Lou for leaving them.” Lenny sighed. “It would be better if he simply let him leave. Objectively there is no future in <Flaming Phoenix> they can’t even put together a full party.”

“Wait, they just need 1 more for a full team, right?”

“Well, yes. But it’s never that easy. For a short period, it would be fine. But what happens when one member has something to do? It sets the whole guild behind. Of course for an elite party, it would be fine but you only find those in the top guilds. It takes a lot of training to achieve a point where one team is so solid that the members cannot be rotated.”

“I understand. So for unranked guilds and beginner Climbers like me, it’s better to join a bigger guild to make sure it is always possible to join a group?”

“Precisely. I had the feeling you were smart, Josh. Now, I heard about your circumstances.”

“You did?!”

“Yes, I know that you are Classless and that you have been having trouble soloing the Tower. Honestly, if you ask me most ranked guilds are snobs. Most of their members would have trouble solo clearing yet they scorn you. If you want, you can join us. I won’t lie to you what you see here is all we have, well that and many members. They are all busy in the Tower at the moment.”

Josh overlooked the place, “That’s a lot of cool stuff actually. I like the ambiance.”

“Haha, I do too. But honestly, everything here can be bought fairly cheaply. We don’t have any discounts for members, we don’t have any VR training, we don’t even have skilled craftsmen! As a guild, we are pretty basic. All we have are motivated members that are not afraid of working hard.”

“Skilled craftsmen? Can you explain that point more in detail? I’ve seen materials drop but…”

“Haha, don’t worry about it. This is normal. So far, we know about four crafting professions. Blacksmith, Jeweler, Cook, and Alchemist. Note that there is much I ignore about these but I can still give you a rundown.”

“Please do!”

“Blacksmiths are mostly useful for creating, modifying, and enhancing armor and weapons. The biggest reason they are sought after is for a good weapon. You can get some in the Tower, but there is never a guarantee it will fit your fighting style.”

“I see, so it’s mostly for specialized classes?”

“Yes. Jewelers are the ones that craft necklaces, earrings, and rings. Half the slots are filled with those, so the demand is extremely high for their work. Jewelry doesn’t dop that often either so it’s even more popular. Now the downside is that it takes about as much time as forging a weapon yet is individually is less useful.”

“Ah, so demand is really high but if they charge too much, people will just spend more time in the Tower, right?”

“Precisely. Cooking is the most straightforward. They cook and it gives a buff. The duration and strength of the buff both depend on the skills of the chef and the quality of ingredients.”

“Like the <Devouring Panda>, right?”

“Of course. The last one is the most situational yet vital one. Alchemists mostly create pills to heal and cure various statuses. They are the go-to for emergency situations. For each of these crafting professions, there is the opportunity to Climb as they get bonuses for using the things they crafted themselves.”

“That’s neat. Kinda like the special test for healers on Floors ending with 5?”

“Yes, in a way the Tower is fair to all, it’s just that…”

“The Heaven is fair but the men aren’t?”

“I like the sound of this, Josh. So how about it? What will you do?”

“Hm, can I join as a trial period for now? I’d like to meet all the members. So far, I’ve only seen you two, no offense by the way.”

“None taken, don’t worry haha. Joining a guild is something serious. It is not to be taken lightly at all. Now, what’s the highest Floor you have completed?”

“Floor 8.” Answered Josh honestly for he could guess what would happen.

“Alright, how about we go clear it so we can see the difference in clear speed?”

Josh simply nodded, before long they were heading for the Tower. All the while Lenny told him tidbits about the Tower. He was pretty much doing small talk to keep Josh entertained with Lou staying as quiet as a rock.

There already awaited 3 more members. They seemed ready to go in anytime. The 3 men smiled and politely welcomed Josh, there was no sign of any drug used so far. At this point, it was too early for Josh to render a verdict. Lou had been described as a coward. The chances he had taken some Firgone voluntarily were high.

“Let’s head in everyone!”

Josh touched the Tower, there was an option to join with the nearby members. It was peculiar, Josh could see a red aura surrounding them, but it seemed to be only visible to his eyes for he had never noticed anything similar before.

“Haha, don’t worry. That’s just a visual indicator from the Tower. You know to make sure you aren’t going in with the wrong party. It registers once with the closest members to you then you can either accept it or refuse it.”

Then they all teleported in. It was the same usual barren land and sky. The team got to work. A man brought a pickaxe out of nowhere, Josh couldn’t help but stare wondering what the Hell was happening.

“Haha, you’ve never seen mining before? You know how monsters drop materials? Well, it is also possible to get the clay cores directly from the ground. This is our main source of revenue. Quantity over quality mostly.”

They were putting the cores inside a small bag. Josh couldn’t help but curiously ask: “What’s with the bag?”

“A material bag, this one is F Rank. It allows collecting 1 type of F-Rank material at a time in great quantity. It stacks. You can get those on Floor 10, there are better ones later on too in the Tower.”

“Right, I heard that these things can be used to summon the Boss, have you guys ever defeated it?”

“Of course, but honestly it’s not worth it most of the time. It takes too much effort to kill. Against it, melee classes can barely do a thing. It has a big AOE attack that sends clay shards everywhere. So, the strategy to beat it is to go in, do a few hits, then run far away out of reach. Rinse and repeat. Even then it doesn’t drop much loot. It is only if you are lucky that you’ll get an item. We usually kill it once only per run.”

Josh could attest to that. He had killed it enough times to level up just from that and had only received armguards. Said armguards were F-Rank and totally useless to Josh now.

So, they started killing the golems. The strategy they were using was to have one member draw the aggro while everyone else focused on one creature. It worked wonders. Surprisingly, even as a group, the clear rate was worse than with Josh alone.

That was easily explained by the fact that Josh was hiding his power. He was showing about half his true skill and not using the power brought by his equipment at all. These two factored in made it so he was way slower. Even then he impressed the others.

“Damn, you are good! How the Hell did no guild accept you? Also, is that a Floor 12 spider leg? That was smart of you to buy that!”

“Yeah, I used all my savings for that. Before I was using the dagger from Floor 1, but it couldn’t pierce far enough against some monsters…and since I don’t have any special skills…”

“You know what? If you want, we can kill the Boss real fast. This is something that can’t be done alone for sure.”

“That’d be awesome!” Couldn’t be done alone my ass, Josh thought.

Before long they reached the stone pillars. After placing the offering came the ever so familiar rumbling and trembling as the huge monster took form. Then started a game of cat and mouse. One attracting the Boss’s attention while the others were coordinating to destroy the crystals.

About 10 minutes later, all external cores were down with the ultimate attack part beginning. They got a few hits in before retreating to safety. As soon as the attack was over, they came back on the assault. All in all, it took more time than Josh needed alone to beat it, by far. The only good thing was that their tactic was definitely easier to implement.

Soon enough they exited the Tower victoriously. Overall, having collected about 100 cores. That was the equivalent of selling two F-Rank items. Josh couldn’t help but wonder if it was really worth it. After all, a single E rank item would give way more.

The difference was probably that there was no danger associated with just selling materials. While it could be a nice added income it didn’t really fit Josh’s style. Simply because it required a team to do so efficiently and even then, the payout was lacking. They had split the profit with Josh getting a profit of 15 Credits for a few hours of easy work.

Lenny approached him. “So Josh, what do you think? It’s more efficient than going at it alone, right?”

….