Classless Ascension

A giant creature was wriggling atop the golden dunes in the most confused-looking manner. The colossal worm would head in one direction, just to suddenly do a sharp turn without apparent reason. This happened over and over again. 

Someone extremely attentive would have noticed a man standing on the creature's back. Josh was very carefully scanning his surroundings. Oftentimes he would feel slight killing from the ground ambushes and guide the worm away from danger. 

He was akin to a driving instructor assigned to a catastrophically failing student. He would often be exclaiming at the worm's shenanigans: 

"No, turn here! You're heading right into a Snake! Fuck!" 

"Can't you see that dragon on our right? It's literally roaring at us!"

"Why are you stopping?! Monsters are chasing us!" 

"Motherfucker, nononono! Please don't try to hide and — Dammit!" 

Sometimes the worm he was directing would dive right into the sand, and he would have to throw himself off hurriedly.. Otherwise, he would get crushed by the pressure. It was a non-stop cycle of failures. 

He had to admit that this Floor was pretty damn frightening. Monsters could erupt from the sand anytime to devour people, unavoidable with their vast mouths. This was the kind of situation that would freak anyone out. 

But, there was one good point. After every failure, he would get better at the task. By now, he was akin to an old driver that could bend these soft creatures to his whims. He could even recognize the signs of sand diving, announced by a subtle twitch of their bodies. 

He could control the small worms easily, but the big ones were still a challenge. They wriggled so intensely that he was afraid to get thrown to space! 

He'd ride a small worm and slowly guide it to its brethren. That's how he slowly amassed an army of worms, only to have them all crumble when a single dragon managed to get close. This was so frustrating! 

That's when he realized something. For his army to have a chance at resisting the intimidation effect, he would need to be riding snakes instead. But, there was an issue. These creatures weren't as stupid. 

He wouldn't be able to ride them that blatantly. At the very least, not the way he was. That's how he designed a plan. He slowly gathered an army of worms once more and led them to glory, aka their death. 

"Charge my wriggly troops! Defeat this big bad snake! Show some spine!" Then again, perhaps it was a good thing that the worms were spineless. 

< Small Earth Snake Lv 53 > This was their current target. It was just an uncommon enemy, but it felt like a boss. 

The monster's scales were so damn sturdy! Every time a worm tried to sink its teeth into its body, there would be a CLANG! sound. Even when they managed to pierce through, the damage was minimal. 

Next, the most ridiculous of fights ensued. Josh had about of dozen of worms under his command, but only six were fighting valiantly. The others were wriggling by the side, not even bothering to flee.

The huge snake would slither in and out of the crowd, dodging most attacks simply with its speed. But, one had to admit that the worms had great vitality! In a 1 v 1 fight, wriggling around in the enemy's mouth was useless, but it was the perfect distraction here!

That is how the group finally managed to defeat the snake. Josh crossed his fingers, hoping for material to drop, especially scales. But he couldn't help but stare at the corpse: it wasn't disappearing! 

The worms began feeding on it gleefully while he managed to grab a few scales. The only issue was that he couldn't put it inside his inventory as it wasn't considered an item. He could only smile wryly as he personally carried his loot. 

He was soon riding once more, but this time with a scale behind his back, like a big tower shield. He then guided them to another snake, waited for it to be slightly damaged, and jumped onto its back when it was distracted by the worms. 

Josh then made his way toward one of the injuries that looked like a small crater in the creature's skin. He then hid inside and used the scale he had been carrying to close the exit. At first glance, no one knew that he was there. 

That's how he upgraded from small worm guide to small snake tamer. From time to time, he would peer outside by raising the roof-like scale. This position also allowed him to protect himself even when the creature dove into the sand by sealing the exit. 

The rest was the fun part. He guided his snake to survival and to gather allies. All until they finally stumbled upon a Small Dragon. An epic snake versus dragon combat began. After lots of scales shattered, flesh maimed, and blood spilled, the dragon died! 

Josh wanted to hug them, celebrate and cheer…but his troops would have probably eaten him. That's why he kept pulling the strings in the shadows. The snake he was guiding had somehow managed to become the leader of the pack. 

All these monsters had been roaming alone, but they now understood that by staying with that one snake, meat would be on the menu! It was a very primitive organization, but as long as it worked. 

He also realized something. The creatures were not all diving without a purpose. There were, in fact, tons of caves and tunnels under the sand. How it didn't all cave-in was a complete mystery!

There were also many access wells on the surface that he had initially missed. Perhaps the mission was related to this underground area?

But, josh felt that clearing the desert of the monsters wouldn't necessarily be wrong either. Hell, it could even lead to a higher completion rating! That is how he challenged stronger and stronger foes with his ever so growing army. It went from a few snakes to now dozens of them. 

But, there was an issue. His current troops were obviously insufficient to accomplish his target. Would he stop now in front of such a challenge? Hell no!