[Congratulation on First Clear! Gluttony Bloodline Detected. Optional Reward Available!] 

"Optional, how so?" 

[Please Select one Reward!] 

This was probably for having killed the Awakened version of the Boss. The Tower rewarded the hardworking for sure! 

[ Class Item Box | Floor 16 Item Box++ | (+) Bloodline Pearl of Gluttony ] 

Talk about a hard choice...or not!

Class item box would be a completely random reward once more. Josh could picture himself getting another godly rat. If he repeated that a few times, he could look like the Pied Piper soon enough. Talk about ridiculous. 

Floor 16 item box seemed like a decent option. But would the ++ afterward mean an increased loot quantity or quality? In any case, he would probably outlevel it fast anyway. 

Naturally, he picked the Pearl option. In a flash of red light, it appeared in his hands. It was small and completely blood-red. Without even waiting, Josh instantly used it.

That's when he felt a warm current enter his stomach. Then, it slowly propagated across his entire body in waves. The fatigue that he felt and the few cuts he had all slowly disappeared. Ah, this was the Boss's ability! Holy cow! 

"Hahahaha, this is amazing!" 

Take the feeling of being freed from all worries. Combine it with the most relaxing activity you can imagine. That's how he felt. It felt as good as resting under the covers on a cold, peaceful winter morning. 

Josh simply stood there, enjoying that sensation. It's only a while later that he came back to his senses. He now had a new addition to his Status. 

#SKILLS# (34)

-D Weapon Mastery

-E Great Gnoll Bloodline: Piercing Eyes 

-U (E) Gluttony Bloodline: Endless Stomach, Devouring 

His bloodline had ranked up, but most importantly, it now had a straightforward use. He would regenerate as long as he had energy. This was a great survival ability for sure! 

There was also the great-looking golden femur that dropped. Josh grabbed it, backtracked to get his zombie skin, wore his comfortable gray suit, and grabbed a few ghoul claws. Then, he happily teleported out. 

The Tower plaza was surprisingly full. There were people waiting around the premises, careful not to block the way but there to stay. 

"Is there an event of some sort?" Josh asked a random Climber that seemed to be waiting for his party. 

"Oh, them? They are all hunting for a unicorn. Ah, actually, maybe unicorns are real now…." He said while shrugging. 

"What are they here for exactly?"

"They are hunting for 'Dimensional Legion.'" 

"?!?" Josh couldn't help but wonder what had led them here. They didn't seem to recognize him in any case. 

"You know about the VR tournament? Well, the victors were almost all from a hidden guild. The MTA tried to contact them, but it seems they failed for some reason." He began his explanation. 

That reason would most likely be because it was fake in the first place. Josh thought to himself. 

"Now, everyone and their mother are hunting for their members. They are searching for anyone leaving the Tower with awesome and unknown-looking gear. There is a rumor going around that Hellish drops completely different gear."

"Seriously?!" Josh faked extreme surprise. 

"I know, it's hard to believe, but it seems to be the truth too." 

"So why are they looking for these Dimensio…." Josh made it sound like he had already forgotten the name. 

"Dimensional Legion. Well, for some, it's to join a strong guild. Others are just after the information bounty. It goes up to 50 000 credits for their leader, Zebra. Crazy, am I right?!" He seemed impressed. 

"Seems like a waste of time to me." Josh honestly answered. 

"Yes and no. It may open the door to opportunities. Have you ever watched Zebra fight?"

"Nope." He had mostly slept. What was there to watch? 

"Then that's why. Ah, my party members are here. Gotta go, take care!" He waved him goodbye too. 

Josh couldn't help but internally chuckle as he passed next to all these people, none the wiser. Good thing he had Equipment Holders to carry his stuff around. Otherwise, he would have been busted easily. 

He sold the claws and grabbed a bite…okay, many bites before returning to his room. That's where he observed the Godly Rat intensely. It was still lifeless, but it was also completely intact.

There was no sign at all of any injury, and even its fur was totally fine. How crazy was that?! It may have been for only a few seconds, but it had taken the brunt of the Boss's devouring ability head-on. 

Was it time for a durability test? How would one usually do this? Sadly, Josh didn't have access to a Hydraulic press. He would have to forego Earth tradition and improvise. 

Still, he changed his morphing weapon into a hammer and carefully started hitting the rat. Very gently at first, but he progressively increased the power until he was using all his strength. Even then, the pet was intact! 

This was probably the godly effect at work. It was both extremely impressive and also relatively useless at the same time. 

It could be used as a shield, but it would be tiring, and it wouldn't block the actual power behind the attacks. 

It could be used to throw in the mouth of a monster, but the effect would be limited. Any monster that was big or had other means of attack wouldn't care. 

Technically even the Ghoul King barely relied on its bite attack. For once, Josh rejoiced about possessing this pet. How strong would it become if he managed to give it a consciousness?

That's how he went back to the Tower, skipping in joy. Many looked at him weirdly, but so what. Entering Floor 16 once more, he kept going with the intention to farm the heck out of it.

He disrupted the peace of the ghouls, eradicated the population of three crypts, participated in the exodus, and finally arrived in front of the Boss once more. 

There it stood: Claws as black as ebony, lips as red as ros—blood, skin as white as snow. It was sleeping, awaiting a prince charming to awaken it with a kiss— a scimitar in the head. 

"Ghoul King, I have come to challenge you. Awaken for me!" 

Apparently, declaring it theatrically in advance worked too. Thus began an epic battle between the undead creature and the deadly Josh. They were madly exchanging blows. 

Soon enough came the first devouring phase. Ever heard the French expression to have a cat in one's throat? Well, right now, there was a rat in that Boss's mouth. 

No matter how it kept trying to get rid of it, the rat was nicely stuck. Its presence singlehandedly disabled that fearsome devouring ability. 

That is how the rest of the fight just progressed without the enemy being able to heal. That made it a simple endurance fight. Josh kept slashing until the creature finally fell. 

Then, in a flash, it turned into particles of light, the rat finally being freed. Any creature would have been traumatized by such an experience, but not this lifeless one. 

At last, Josh Received an Item Box. It looked like it was made of skin and smelled ghoulish enough to assure one of its material. As Josh opened it, two items came out. 

The first one was a ghoul claw fragment and the other a ghoul leg. Josh pocketed it all but then realized an issue. The initial part was taking too long. He needed to somehow optimize it.

Wait, how did it all work again? One needed to exterminate three crypts and then….He felt like trying something.

Josh relaunched the Floor. There was a way to win this all by sneaking. What if he just needed to kill the three chieftains to summon the Boss? 

It was a stretch, but perhaps that would work. He knocked on a crypt, killed the chieftains, then ran away, chased by close to 300 ghouls. Good thing they had a similar speed. 

Then, he repeated that two times. The hardest was to locate his targets somehow. Soon enough, a golden mark appeared in the sky. Now, remained only one last step. 

Josh had to somehow run through thousands of ghouls. He smiled as he activated the big Chungus Set ability. That's when his entire body became bigger. Then, some amazing parkour display began. 

Josh was jumping from ghoul to ghoul, somehow dodging all their attacks. Well, that was only possible thanks to Navi distracting them. The ones further in front were busy watching the flying golden watch. 

Then when they would realize that Josh was passing through, it would already be too late for them to catch up. Eventually, he reached the vast dueling circle, entering it with the speed of a comet. 

He couldn't help but sigh in relief as he saw that the ghouls truly weren't following inside. How awesome! Then he turned toward the Boss.

"You, me, 1 V 1. Winner gets all the lunch money!" 

That is how their epic duel began once again. He tried using a very questionable line and it worked.  That is how Josh kept going over and over. Every time he would come up with a new ridiculous sentence. 

"May I interest you in a duel, Sire White Ghoul King?"

"Fight me, u Lil' bitch. I'll destroy your white ass. #No homo."

"Wanna dance?" 

"Bruh, fight me." 

"PVP?" 

"You, me, Potato." 

"Your place or my place? Your dueling arena it is…."

"It's time to d-d-d-d-duellll!"

"Let's cook! On today's menu: Sliced Ghoul King with a side of ass-whooping."

"Leave a line in chapter comments if you want it added ;)" 

After too many repetitions to count, Josh finally obtained a weapon: 

<E+ Ghoul Claw>

- Applies ghoulish poison to the target. The higher the target's vitality, the more effective the poison. 

And also the full <White Ghoul Item Set>: 

<White Ghoul Set Effect (3)>

Metabolism of the White Ghoul: Reduced chance of food poisoning (passive) 

<White Ghoul Set Effect (5)>

Whitening of the White Ghoul: White ghoul skin. Cooldown 1 hour. 

<White Ghoul Set Effect (7)>

Aspect of the White Ghoul: Embrace the ghoul lifestyle and start eating. (Cost/Healing) 

Now, there was only one issue. How was he supposed to get all that loot out of the Tower without getting noticed? 

"Navi, is there any other set in the database that looks similar to this one?" 

<None.> 

Goddammit! Did he really have to leave all of this behind? Right now wasn't the best time to get famous. After all, it could interfere with his plan to learn skills. It was vital!

He couldn't help but feel a pinch to his heart looking at how valuable all this seemed. He would need to test it to know for sure about the potency of the effect. 

That's when Josh suddenly started smiling. He had just thought of something that could potentially work. It was time for an Oscar-worthy performance!...

Creator's Thought

That moment when someone is just telling you about how amazing your own fake persona is. Still, sometimes the people get hyped about the weirdest things. Sure, 50 000 credits were a lot to some but didn't they realize that collecting it meant making an enemy out of us? As for the others, why would a strong guild want people wasting their time so much?