Atop a pillar, a man was slowly contemplating. editing atm

"Master, this orc suggests you pick the blood essence! I think you could assimilate it and grow stronger!"

"Hmmm" Josh couldn't help but hesitate.

He was actually hesitating between the manual and the wings. Summoning a Blattagriff seemed so goddamn OP. The only question was whether he would be able to master it or not.

As for the wings, anything giving the ability to fly would be OP. Just in this previous fight, they would have been in trouble if they hadn't tricked the creature into landing.

"Master, embrace your inner cockroach! Having fought against you, I'm sure you'll fit right in! After all, you're as tough as a cockroach already!"

"Can it!" Josh grumbled.

"It was a compliment."

"System, I've decided, give me the Blattagriff summon manual!" he really couldn't pass this one.

A book seemingly made out of a carapace appeared in his hands. Josh nervously began reading it. It described in detail how to use one's mana to call upon some Blattagriffs resting in another world.

He sat closed-legged and moved his mana as described in the manual. There was a page showing a picture that he had to visualize. Apparently, the whole thing was supposed to make the process easier.

Josh focused, his face twisting as he exhausted his mana, remembering how he felt facing the creature. That's when he suddenly felt a connection. It was working!

He felt his mana gettign exhuasted:

[Do you wish to learn Summon Blattagriffs?]

"Mark me for ma resounding yes! There's no way that I'll turn this down!" Josh happily commented.

Soon he would have a new powerful summon, one that could even fly! How OP was that!

A blackish light suddenly appeared as a being slowly materialized into the world. It had a sharp beak, deadly claws/legs, and looked incredibly resilient. But there was one issue: why was it so goddamn small?!

In front of him, there was one of the insects the monster had kept summoning. Wait, were they blattagriffs too?! Josh couldn't help but sigh. So much for an incredible summon! What was he supposed to do with this?!

"Wow! How powerful-looking, master! Good thing you haven't picked the essence!" The orc commented sarcastically.

How powerful? The thing wasn't even the size of one's hand! Josh had to say goodbye to his dreams of riding a colossal Blattagriff to combat. Then again, maybe it could grow? Was this even possible?

The thing moves its legs rhythmically, seemingly gesturing to him. What the heck was this? He could only unsummon it as he sighed.

"Master, what's this about reinforcement?" The orc asked, puzzled.

This instantly reminded Josh of his own arrival here. Back then, Floor 25 had felt so distant. All he knew back th4en was that some chumps had decided to summon them to this world.

Now he was the one t0o choose. Would he condemn innocents from other worlds by summoning them?

"System, screw reinforcements! What's the point of calling for help when I'm already here?! Just watch me go. I got this!" Josh declared with confidence.

The orc couldn't help but chuckle. As expected of its master!

"Good job today. We've cleared yet another floor. Considering the difficulty, this is worth celebrating. Then we have to prepare for the next Floor slowly."

The two exited the dungeon, once more causing a commotion. The orc had long lost his clothes and didn't have any shame. This made it so he was swinging his green sausage for all to see.

"You should probably cover yourself up," Josh advised.

"Master, don't worry. I've searched the topic, and it seemed like humans like to gaze at naked bodies. A thing called porn is apparently very popular. I'm sure they won't mind too much.

So much for his diligent researches! He was now shamelessness strutting all over the Tower Plaza in his birthday suit. How could he mistake this with reality?!

"This isn't how this works. This isn't how any of this works." Josh felt like facepalming as he looked at him go. "Buddy, wear this before you get jailed." He promptly covered his pet, a morphing weapon blanket.

"I'm sure of it, master! Humans love this stuff! As I kept surfing the web, I even received plenty of messages from hot milfs in my area for"

"Just shut up, alright? Those were ads for sure." He quickly ushered him out as he saw MTA members that were slowly making their way over.

But when they saw that the offender was Josh, they promptly decided to play dumb, p;assing right next to him without saying a thing. Meanwhile, there was some random Climber complaining:

2Ar3e you fuckig blind?! He's right there!"

Yrd. Yes, they were, as long as it concerned Josh at least. They had suffered so damn much from the damn insects that even Josh wanted to take a small break. The two quickly retreated back to the bodyguard's house for a well-deserved rest.

The man went livid as they appeared:

"Can't you guys crash at a hotel or something? Aren't you loaded?!" The bodyguard was overreacting ever since he knew they wanted to fight gods oh, and that Josh was in the LoA.

"Yeah, but your place is nice. Don't worry about it." Josh quickly commented as they invaded his dwelling.

They then forcefully joined him for dinner, ordering and devouring enough pizza for a shop to make its weekly sale volume in a day. After an intense fight, nothing beats calmly relaxing over a nice warm meal.

The bodyguard finally resolved himself to his situation and enjoyed eating too. As for the orc king, he was bragging on the side:

"You should have seen me! With every smash of my hammer, I was destroying so many wings! It was amazing! There was a moment when I thought I'd die, but orcs never surrender no matter what!"

Meanwhile, Josh watched a nice show involving killer robots and humans trying to survive them inside a labyrinth. It reminded him of a show on earth, just way more bloody!

But the warm and nice atmosphere was suddenly shattered as Josh's show was interrupted by a news emergency. On the screen was a man wearing a suit and showing extreme worry as he began his speech:

"Newsflash! Something big happened in a remote region near Metropolis-M! It all started when some Climbers suddenly went missing. We tried to get satellite images of the area, but this is what happened!"

Next, there was some very short footage showing a mountain peak. On the snow-covered peak, there was suddenly some movement as a small green creature slowly appeared, scurrying around.

But a few seconds after getting the image, the creature suddenly raised its head straight at the satellite. Anyone watching instantly jerked up in shockthis was a fucking goblin?!

A few seconds later, it fiddled with some kind of cylinder, pointing it straight at the camera. That's when the screen went dark as it ended.

The two humans and the orc looked at one another. They could see the same confusion in the others' eyes.

"Did our world just get invaded by goblins?!"

"How did this happen?!"

"What?!"

Josh sighed as he slowly uttered:

"There have been goblins in the Tower, but they didn't look like that at all. This one was able to disable a satellite. It's way too smart."

"Then if it didn't come from the Tower." The bodyguard sucked in a deep breath.

"There's most likely from a new Tower entirely. Still, how the heck did everyone miss it? What about the commotion whenever one spawned?!" Josh couldn't understand that point.

That's when the bodyguard chimed in:

"I've read about that place. It has earthquakes all year long. What if a tower appeared in the depth of a mountain? No one would know!"

"Tch It seems that the pace of the Towers spawning in the world is increasing. It went from 1 to 3, and that's just the ones that we know about." Josh grumbled.

"Master, how about we go on a crusade and conquer the goblins? They could be a nice addition to rebuilding the orc army." He proposed.

"It is worth looking into it, but their technological level seems hella high. One does not simply disable a satellite easily! Just having green skin probably won't be enough to sway them."

"Green skin? I'm more valiant than anyone! I just have to convince them that following me is worth it, right! Just think about it, master!"

"I have the feeling you'll get your ass kicked. Modern technology mostly doesn't work in the Tower, but here it's king. The wars aren't fought with swords and shields but blasters and spaceships." Josh explained.

"True" The orc appeared so dejected.

This news didn't augur well. He suddenly felt like he had to increase the Climbing pace. Josh devoured another piece of bacon pizza before turning to his new pet.

"For now, let's farm the shit out of the Tower. Once we're stronger, we'll deal with these otherwordly invaders. Actually, if technology is involved, I do know one lady that could be of great help."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, but Metropolis-M isn't anywhere nearby, so just forget about it for now."

The rest of the dinner was spent with them, mostly researching about the next Floor before they headed back to the Tower.

The two actually wanted to farm the last two floors some more but the Tower just showed them this message.

[Already gotten the reward from this Floor, proceed anyway?]

Since they couldn't get any reward, they had no choice but to keep pushing. This next Floor was the one that Josh had been told required magic to complete. It had seemed so distant back then, but he had now reached it.

[Welcome to Floor 26!]

[Mission Catch the Wraith King!]

Catch? Not kill? How peculiar.