Ever felt like life wasn't exactly what you expected it to be? Sometimes you're just doing a job and wondering how you got to this point. Well, this was how Josh felt at this instant:
[Mission: Steal the Golden Femur.]
What kind of crazy guy would steal a femur? Actually, what kind of nut-job would have a golden femur in the first place? But that wasn't the worst.
[New Tower Policy: Rewards diminished if Floor has been cleared on any other lower difficulty beforehand.]
That really sucked. The only saving grace was the information available online about the normal and hard difficulties. It wasn't actually that surprising. The Tower had done it for the duels already. Josh hesitated for a few seconds before resolutely selecting Hellish.
[Hellish difficulty selected. Have fun!]
That's when the surroundings changed. It all became even gloomier. It only lacked Boss music for the perfect 'Get ready to die' ambiance.
Everything seemed to suddenly take a purplish poisonous-looking hue. The barren earth began to crack. Evil-looking but tiny centipedes crawled out of the ground. They had tons of legs, sharp mandibles and seemed extremely venomous.
The wind began blowing, but it was cold and unnatural. That's when Josh realized why. It didn't make his clothes flutter at all. It was as if an illusion or perhaps a promise of death.
He began wandering aimlessly. He could hear the insects scurrying around, but that was all. From time to time, one would sneakily approach him and go for a bite.
How regretful would it be to perish from a centipede's attack? It would be extremely easy to miss one sneakily approaching in an intense fight. That would prove especially true for support classes that usually lacked mobility.
Soon enough, Josh found a weird dark rectangular human-sized structure sticking out of the earth. As he approached, he could see a small inscription on it: <Here we lie, not because we are sleepy, but because we are bored.>.
This thing was the entrance of a crypt, one that was the first step required to progress in this realm.
"Navi, what do you suggest here?"
<Split up and coordinate to clear the three crypt's sections at once.>
That was the official clear strategy. It was a test of teamwork. One needed to wipe out three specific monsters at the same time for it to work. Otherwise, Hell would be unleashed.
Was it Game Over if one failed this phase? Not necessarily; it just made the upcoming Boss-Fight close to impossible. Oh, and that was just on Hard. One could only imagine how insane it would be on Hellish.
On this Floor, there was a saying: You successfully clear the crypt part, or you'll need one yourself. That was because the Boss-Fight was the only way out, for it possessed the golden femur.
Josh took a deep breath to calm his madly beating heart. Even he realized how crazy this plan was. The analyst had even come up with a new saying after hearing it:
"There is a fine line between a genius and madman, but both will agree that Josh Malum is utterly insane."
It was time for some fun.
"Knock-Knock!" Josh heavily hit the crypt's entrance.
A deep sound reverberated. It traveled underground, being amplified many times over, sounding like the deep roar of a gargantuan beast. A few seconds of silence ensued, but then it started.
"That's where someone would say: who's there?" Josh remarked.
He could hear the sound a rain droplet would make upon crashing on a window. Except, there was a motherfucking storm incoming. It did sound like one too, but it was the distant sound of footsteps.
It became louder and louder as Josh waited. There were a few centipedes that tried biting him, but he crushed them without even looking. That's when came the sound of an explosion.
*BAM*
The crypt door got flung away, shattering in pieces that flew everywhere. Josh tilted his head slightly, dodging debris and avoiding death calmly.
"Now, this would be the end of the Knock-Knock joke."
Out of the dark tunnel, the creatures were exiting! The newcomers were tons of blemished ghouls. They formed a steady and smelly white stream.
<Withering Ghoul Lv 20>
These undeads were similar to zombies but way deadlier. Where a Zombie was relatively slow and rotting, these creatures' corpses were fully intact.
They were tall, skinny, had long limbs and small glowing black eyes. But behind their skinny frame resided incredible power.
They had long purplish-dark sharp claws. A hit would likely tear through the flesh as if paper. A scratch would likely poison one to death too. They had a maw filled with devilishly pointy teeth. They would devour anything with ease.
They kept screeching as they charged at him. They were quick, deadly, and hungry. Oh, and also seemingly endless. For every one that Josh killed, a dozen exited the crypt. Just this sight alone was despair-inducing.
It got worse. Having a single crypt wake up meant that sneak attacking any other would become impossible. Well, not that Josh had planned to in the first place. It was because of these guys:
<Withering Ghoul Chieftain Lv 20>
There were three per crypt, and they had already sent a warning signal across the entire realm. This meant that the ghouls in the other crypts would be slumbering no more.
Right, there was one last characteristic that wasn't well-known about these ghouls. They loved gold. Why? No one really knew. But, they didn't care about the mortal gold. It had to be a golden item from the Tower itself. Bunch of vain bastards.
"I'll be counting on you, Navi."
It's at that very moment that the poor Fairy became live bait. It began flying to the best of its abilities, a golden watch hanging onto it. Who knew that a cosmetic item from the Alter Tower would see some use again.
The ghouls were watching it with keen interest. That didn't mean that they stopped attacking. Far from it even. But, it did reduce the fervor of the onslaught against Josh. The ones that were farther would just stare at the flying Fairy.
Thus began a long fight. Josh had to evade attacks from tons of ghouls coming from all directions. He was especially wary of the poison. It was a very perverse one that he wasn't confident in taking head-on. He'd have to test it first.
The whole scene reminded Josh of …Never mind, these were white. He was doing something that many would have felt was suicidal. He engaged in what looked like an endurance fight with undeads, slowly chipping away at their numbers.
About 300 ghouls and a day later, Josh could finally put his weapon down. He also had to put his foot down to squash some centipedes that relentlessly tried to bite him.
He approached a dead ghoul, getting himself scratched right before it could disappear. That's when came the pain, unbelievable pain. Well, that was actually tolerable. But, the numbness that came along wasn't. It would have slowed him down.
"Great work Navi. You totally deserve a promotion. Is there anything you want?"
But it remained silent. Funny how Josh was low-key jealous of Dario's pet. He had gotten himself a lizardman that was at least responsive. Meanwhile, Josh had a lazy AF rat.
"Ah, whatever, let's keep going, I guess…."
Josh kept walking until he encountered another crypt. Except that this time all the undead were gathered around the entrance in a huge circle. They seemed perplexed as to why they weren't sleeping.
As soon as they noticed Josh, they began screeching while raising their arms in the air. Then they saw Navi with the flying golden watch, and many became distracted. That left a few small squads charging at him.
This time the fight was shorter. Josh had gotten used to their attack patterns. Swipe and bite were their default moves. The tricky part was guessing their movements.
After they were all dead (for real), Josh headed to the next target, repeating the same. Defeating a group took time, but at least he could relatively easily accomplish it alone.
As the third group fell, the ground began rumbling. It was as if the Floor itself was announcing what was to come. The Boss had spawned. The world was suddenly filled with a golden light that slowly gathered toward one point.
That is when the symbol of a golden femur appeared in the sky on the horizon. Josh glared at it for a second before he began walking toward it. Well, he had one last thing to do…
This golden light acted as a beacon. It was akin to an exodus. All the ghouls in the entire realm were leaving their crypts and following that mark.
Soon, thousands of ghouls could be seen migrating in packs. From the sky, it would have looked like a huge patch of white in movement.
If one looked extremely carefully, a single black dot could be seen. Countless ghouls surrounded one lone man.
Josh could sense everything around him. He could see the countless ghouls dragging their feet forward. He could smell the scent of death. He could hear the occasional screeches and the many grunts. He could sense how easily they would all overwhelm him.
How was he so calm? Well, there was one peculiar thing about the current him. He smelled like death too. His whole body was wrapped in Zombie skin. That's how he was journeying alongside thousands of enemies.
Still, this did not mean he was invincible. Should he show any hostility, he would die. The ghouls were dumb but not that dumb. How marvelous it would have been otherwise. It would have been like activating god mode.
How many would have thought of such a strategy? Many, but there was a difference between theory and practice. It was hard to explain, but Josh could feel the aura coming out of them. It was extremely vile.
This aura didn't bode well with the human instinct. Josh could feel in him the strong urge to either run away or attack them in a mad rampage. It wasn't logical, and he could control himself, but it was not easy.
That's how Josh slowly advanced all the way until he saw a scene that would have scared shitless any human being.
In the distance, there was a sea of ghouls. It had been one thing with rats, but it was another with these creatures. However, there was something even worse. All of the monsters were assembled in a vast circle.
Josh knew what awaited him in the middle. It was right underneath the golden femur projection. Now would be the decisive moment.
The upcoming fight would determine if Josh's plan was genius or madness...
Creator's Thought
This is something everyone should experience at least once. There is nothing like being surrounded by a legion of flesh-eating undead to remember how precious life is. Make sure you try it on the early floors because later it's way harder to do so without dying. Mostly because they get smarter...
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