Classless Ascension

Chapter 275: Giant Eagle King!!!

On Floor 21 appeared a humongous giant eagle.

< Giant Eagle King Lv 34?>

Just its wingspan alone was about 40 meters! Every flap of its wings generated a mighty gale, one even reaching Josh on the ground.

— SCREECH!!!—

It turned its gigantic head toward the shattered remains of their peak before turning it toward Josh. The creature was mad!

— SCREECH!!!—

Without waiting, it prepared to dive at him as it began glowing green. Oh crap! What were his odds of victory against such a predator in a direct fair fight? Fucking nil!

Josh bolted toward the closer debris, activating his white spider set. There was plenty of big rocks strewn about everywhere: he would hide in them. But, there still remained an issue: there were so many goddamn eagles!

His only saving grace was that the rocks were clustered enough, forming paths similar to mining tunnels. Yes, he could work with this! What were flying creatures going to do indoor? Come one after the other to die!

They looked akin to a bird sea as they kept pushing each other in, losing control of their bodies in the process. Josh kept retreating deeper and deeper into the natural rocky maze.

—BAM BAM BAM!—

It sounded like the eagle king was grabbing at the terrain and cleaning it up forcefully. Every time it threw an enormous rock aside, it sent tremors into Josh's current hiding spot.

His time was limited. Eventually, he wouldn't have any cover at all. No, this wouldn't work. He needed to assassinate the king if he wanted to have a chance, but how? As long as he could scale its gigantic body, everything should be okay.

Josh waited until the banging sound was right above him, found a new exit, and ran outside. He charged toward the king, only to have the shock of his life. The banging hadn't been done by its claws, but with magic!

It kept throwing wind blades all over the place as it flew high above. Fuck! This monster was a goddamn mage! Just reaching it would be an extremely high hurdle! The only good news was that mages were usually squishier— if one could fucking get near them, of course!

Josh hurriedly returned to the safety of the rocks, slaughtering normal eagles over and over while running. If only he had a grappling hook or something!— wait…maybe he could make one.

He still had lots of spider thread. While it wasn't that sturdy, it would be hard to notice the thin thread from a distance. As long as he could get a small window of opportunity, it could work.

Josh re-summoned Nightmare. "I'm gonna need a great diversion once more." The poor horse could only shake its head in despair. It had to go against so many annoying birds?

Josh found another exit, sending the poor Nightmare on its quest. As soon as it left, it was instantly barraged with deadly wind blades. Barely dodging it all, it galloped for its life! It seemed like it had managed to grab the Boss's attention.

Now that the Boss was distracted, it was time for part B. Josh grabbed his trusty lifeless rat and threw it in the air with as much force as he could.

The Eagle King was intently focused on the fleeing creature, trying to find the one that had killed its kind. Was it hiding below the horse's belly? Suddenly, a rat appeared next to its beak. Instinctively, it gobbled it up— wait, was was that?!

It didn't notice the line attached to its meal, now stuck in its beak. Without waiting, Josh scaled the spider thread as quickly as he could! Then, he finally reached the giant eagle's back.

The spider set would allow him to remain still on the flying creature! So anyway, he started slashing! The eagle realized that something was wrong as sharp pain coursed through its body, but Josh was relentless and ruthless.

Josh tried cutting its neck, but it protected it with a heavy layer of magical energy. If he couldn't destroy this, he'd target the wings instead! He was fine with destroying either, but he had to hurry!

He was under a time limit, after all. The regular Eagles were already gathering toward him. He needed a bit more time, just a bit more. Without hesitating, he quickly activated his newest set, the smelly one!

An invisible cloud spread all around, one that felt akin to a biological weapon. As the birds approached, they would get surprised by the horrendous smell and forget to flap their wings, crashing to the ground stunned.

"Holy shit, this thing is nice!" Josh cackled.

Birds didn't have the most sensitive of noses, but they also weren't used to strong odors. After all, in the sky, the wind would quickly scatter the smell of most things. This wasn't the case for this magical fog at all!

— SCREECH!!!—

The creature screeched in a mix of fury and suffering. But, it was too late. Josh had managed to destroy its wings entirely. It fell to the ground akin to a malfunctioning Boeing. Then came the landing…crashing would be more accurate.

The huge body of the Boss slid all over the ground, creating a long depression in the ground. In the end, it could only twitch as it threw up blood from its beak— and the mutilated wings, more precisely the blood feather part.

The regular eagles had by then finally come back to their senses, but so what?! Their leader was nothing more than a sitting eagle right now! Josh retreated toward the nearby rock debris, hiding while killing his pursuers.

Every other minute, he would rush out and hit his nemesis. He had to dodge wind blades, but it wasn't that hard. Then, he would fall back toward the safety of the rocks and wait for another opportunity.

It seemed like the birds sucked at protecting a target resting on the ground. They were too used to attacking ground targets and falling back. It took him a while, but Josh finally managed to extinguish the life of his prey.

As their leader weakly screeched its last, the eagle flock dispersed. Without anyone to order them and seeing all their brethren dying one after the other, they chose to retreat. They would save their species at the very least.

Josh finally could catch his breath. Inspecting the loot, he had killed so many eagles that there were tons of feathers, eagle meat, and random loot. As for the Eagle King, it had dropped something that made his balls tingle with excitement.

<Shattered Emblem of the Eagle King (1/50)>

- Legends say this emblem increased the Eagle King's magical power tremendously.

Was this for real?! Was becoming a human wind blades generator possible?! For a short moment, the eagle had also used its wind magic to protect its neck! This could have so many applications, especially increasing his speed! Who wouldn't desire this?!

[Mission completed! Managed to survive!]

Right…Josh had totally forgotten that he was only supposed to run. To be fair, he had seen a method to kill his adversary, so of course, he would go for it! He wouldn't be Josh Malum if he cowered against a birdbrain.

[Please select 1: Wind Extract | Wind Stone | Blood-Feather | Wind Blade Manuscript]

What the heck was this?! There was lots of wind for sure! Then there was the Blood-Feather…what could this be? Why would he want a growing feather? Could this thing contain a bloodline? Perhaps…

Also, what was the difference between wind extract and wind stone? The extract could very well be a consumable or a crafting material. As for the stone, perhaps a piece of equipment …or it could be used for crafting too.

The only one that sounded straight-forward was the Wind Blade Manuscript. This would potentially increase his versatility by giving him magical attacks. Actually, were the arrows from the gnoll bow considered magical attacks?

"System, can't you tell me what these rewards entail? Pretty please." Josh pleaded.

[Please select 1: "Wind Ex—]

"Fine, fine. I understand!" Josh grumbled. What to pick? Ah, whatever. It was pointless to overthink this.

"Give me the Wind Blade Manuscript!" Josh requested.

A few seconds later, an old parchment-like book appeared in his hands in a flash of red light. Upon closer inspection, it contained tons of drawings of a stickman breathing in a precise manner.

Overall it seemed like there were a few steps:

1. Feel the wind energy in one's surroundings by sensing the breeze.

2. Associate it with one's own energy via breathing.

3. Generate the magic by using one's mana.

4. Visualize the intent of the wind blade and throw it at one's enemies with conviction.

5. Profit as your adversaries are diced into pieces.

While there were many steps, it didn't appear too complicated. Josh instantly sat down cross-legged and began training amidst the remains of the birds. From time to time, he would munch on raw bird meat.

All the Floors dropping directly consumable food ingredients were the best!

As he kept focusing, the seconds turned into minutes, the minutes into hours, and the hours into a huge fucking waste of time!

Was there something Josh wasn't doing right?! He was following the exact directives from the manual. This was bullshit!

He took a deep breath and calmed himself. This was to be expected as he didn't have memories of past heroes. He had finally managed to control mana, but now it was the wind element that eluded him.

How was he supposed to fix this issue? Perhaps he should have started with something a bit easier.

Perhaps an element-less spell? Another option was to find magic that worked similarly to killing intent. Maybe he could try summoning too? After all, he could still remember the feeling from using the Skeleton Summoning item vividly...

Oh well, for now, he would farm the shit out of this Floor for the emblem. He teleported out...only to find that a certain bodyguard had been waiting for him...