The entire area was fully packed with ghouls. To proceed, Josh had to push his way forward. Every time he touched one, he had to refrain from wincing in disgust. 

He could feel his palm sink slightly into their wrinkled skin, and the smell was atrocious. The sheer proximity of all these creatures somehow made their auras even stronger. It felt like it became liquid anguish, and he was almost drowning in it. 

Josh could feel his hands tremble as he kept getting the urge to kill them all. But, he kept lightly pushing them aside as if afraid to hurt them. Well, he kinda was. 

As he finally exited the pack, he was welcomed by a golden light that slowly drifted toward the middle of the circle. It then entered the Boss that was standing there, eyes closed. 

<Withered Devouring Ghoul King Lv 26☠️>

The Boss was a 3 meters tall ghoul. It had long and sharp claws that one could have mistaken as weapons. Its right leg was softly glowing gold. This probably was the mission's objective. 

As he approached, he could see it start sniffing the air. It was salivating while it did so. It then slowly turned its head toward Josh while it slowly stretched, its bones creaking. 

That's when the world seemed to come to a halt. The Boss stopped moving, and so did the thousand ghouls in the surrounding. The wind halted, and the centipedes stayed in place. It was freakish! 

[Lone Player Detected in the Dueling Ring. Would you like to Challenge the Ghoul King?] 

"What does that even imply?" but the system didn't bother to answer. 

Josh hesitated only for a moment. IF he was right about his plan, chances were it would work with a slightly higher difficulty too. 

"Activate the challenge!" 

As soon as Josh accepted, the world returned to its normal state. That is when the Ghoul King slowly opened its eyes. In these, there was something frightening: a tinge of intelligence.

<Awakened Withered Devouring Ghoul King Lv 30☠️>

It had gained four levels just like that?! No, the worst was the new affix. Awakened? It really was. The creature could be seen giving a wide ugly smile. Then it gestured at Josh to bring it on. 

He carefully approached it. That's when it suddenly darted toward him. It was fast! But not fast enough. Well, it was more that its intent was too obvious. Josh sidestepped it, dodging the sharp claws. 

The creature composed itself and sprung back toward him. There was no downtime at all. It was simply an endless onslaught of slashes. Josh waited a while until he had the opportunity to counter-attack. 

He swung his scimitar (morphing weapon) at the creature as hard as he could. CLANG! He had expected the creature's skin to be thick, but he couldn't help but be startled by how hard it was. 

Feeling itself taking very slight damage, the monster turned even more serious. That is when it began using feints! It would seemingly attack right but swipe left or pretend to swipe and bite instead. 

A monster showing technique was a Climber's nightmare. A straight dash could be noticed from miles away, but not a subtle change in the trajectory of an attack. 

As monsters were generally stronger than Climbers, one would need to either dodge or block. Feints were feared because it was arduous to get the timing right. A mistake meant death. 

At that moment, Josh's face was a mask of fear. It seemed obvious that he was extremely nervous and about to have a nervous breakdown at any moment. The ghoul was laughing to itself. 

But, he was seemingly very lucky. Yes, he would awkwardly dodge every attack. After every exchange, he would sigh aloud in relief for having survived another clash. This luck of his also made it so he kept landing hits after hits. 

Of course, the ghoul didn't care about all that. After all, it just needed a single hit to win the fight entirely. Thus slowly kept going a fight in which the human was slowly losing steam. 

But, little by little, the damage did accumulate. Eventually, the skin began rupturing, and the flesh of the creature began to show. Josh's face lit up because of this, clearly happy about having a chance at survival. 

But that's when the Ghoul King grinned before growling loudly. GRRR! Instantly, a dozen ghouls broke away from the surrounding circle heading inside. Their eyes were lacking the glow they usually had. 

They seemed almost hypnotized as they were sleep-walking closer. The nearest of these approached the Boss. That's when it came maw forward to devour it. This was what made this Boss extremely troublesome.

This ability was called Devouring by the Climbers. By devouring its own subordinates, the Boss could heal all the damage it had taken in an instant. This was also why sneakily clearing the crypts beforehand was vital. 

With no ghoul out, the Boss wouldn't have a single subordinate to sacrifice. But it was already too late. Anyone would have agreed that all Josh could do now was to kill the dozen of them before it was too late. 

Was Josh able to do that alone? No. He lacked the attack power to do so. Was it time to despair yet? Close, but not yet. He kept following the Ghoul King as closely as possible as if he wanted to become its shadow. 

Then it opened its maw wide, ready to chomp and regenerate. The creature exuded exaltation. It couldn't wait to witness the face of the human once he saw it heal completely. Then it would slowly toy with him until it became boring. 

*CHOMP* 

*CLANG* 

But, something went wrong. As it bit hard, it could feel its teeth come into contact with something foreign and very sturdy. Josh had waited for the perfect timing to make his move. 

That's how the Boss was now munching on an anvil while Josh was busy running around killing the regular ghouls. Funny how these were considered useless in the Tower itself but were incredibly resistant. 

Normally obtaining a similar result would be extremely challenging. Monsters wouldn't just go along with it. One would need to be at close range and activate the item literally in front of the creature's maw. 

This was close to impossible in normal circumstances, but this Boss was an exception. Even then, it would need a melee fighter with impeccable battle sense. Plus, a single mistake and the target would recover all its health. It just wasn't viable for most. 

That's how Josh managed to pass the first devouring phase. The creature somehow got rid of the anvil, then resumed some more 'lucky' dodges and slashes. At times the creature seemed to suspect that something was wrong, but it forgot about it when it finally managed to draw blood. 

Josh's bright red blood just reinvigorated its spirit. It kept attacking over and over. The more feints it did, and the more Josh would subtly cut himself to make it believe it was achieving something. 

Of course, he avoided the claws since there was poison on them. He couldn't afford any numbness right now. As for the creature's attack patterns, he knew them by heart at that point. 

Eventually, even the flesh became wounded thanks to Josh's relentless assault. That's when the Boss growled again. This time there were two dozens of ghouls. It took Josh longer, but he did manage. Well, he had to use three anvils this time around, and he only had a few left. 

The fight once again resumed. Now, the Boss was seriously considering changing its strategy. But then it saw the human's face. He was clearly at the end of his rope. He was panting, dragging his feet, and his strikes lacked power. 

The Ghoul King was about to win, so it just kept going. In fact, it kept fighting long enough until its very bones became chipped and its condition precarious. Without waiting any longer, it did the strongest Growl it could. 

This time around, there were three dozens of ghouls. Josh seriously felt like this was torture. He had to run all over the place and put anvils in the Boss's mouth while dodging plenty of attacks. 

Anyone else would have probably given up already, but not Josh. He kept placing and replacing anvils until he completely ran out. That's when he really started to become nervous. 

The fight resumed once more. Josh gave up the charade and just went all out. He didn't even bother to try and make the Boss believe that its attacks were working. 

The next time the Boss tried devouring would be Josh's demise. 

He hacked at it, and he hacked again, and he hacked some more. But, it was still barely hanging on to its un-life. Josh couldn't believe how resistant that bastard was.

That's when it seemed to change its stance entirely and dashed toward the ghoul sea outside.

He needed to stop it! Now! Driven by instinct, Josh made his godly rat appear before throwing it right in the way of the Boss, trying to trip him.

That's when he realized he had fucked up. The Boss picked up the rat and tried munching it. But, nothing happened. I was almost as expected of that weird pet. 

With the Boss busy, Josh used all his power to deliver blow after blow until it finally stopped moving and toppled over. That's when all the ghouls began running away in fright. 

There was something weird. The Godly rat was perfectly intact. No bite mark whatsoever. Josh couldn't help but sigh in relief. 

This fight had been pretty tumultuous. First, Josh had freaked out with the level increase. Then he had cheered when the Boss had tried using feints before spending the rest of the fight acting meek. Then there was that finish. 

He couldn't help but smile to himself. That is when he got a system prompt that not only startled him but made him delighted. 

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

That sounded nice!…

Creator's Thought

A feint seen through is just wasted movement. That's why raw power and speed transcend all techniques at times. I won, but honestly, I got really lucky on that Floor. I also honestly screwed up. I shouldn't have thrown the rat. It turned out well but...