Chapter 76: Floor 12: 0% Clear Rate? Meet Josh MF Malum! (3/3)

As Josh observed it all, he couldn't help but be amazed. There laid on the ground many white pieces of equipment and also a small white box that stood out, radiating a white glow.

On it was the caption: <Placeholder reward as per rules. Chance to be claimed = 0%>. "…..Wow, just wow!" What kind of thing was this? A self-note from the Tower Protocol itself?! Also, this confirmed that there were rules these AI-sounding beings needed to abide by! What were they? Knowing them would help Josh so much!

Josh couldn't help but laugh at that 0% calculation, but then he realized the possible issue. The main difficulty wasn't the Boss itself, but rather the tons of enemies that came before. They kept shooting sticky webs everywhere.

Had Josh not had the brilliant idea to use their brethren as shoes, he would have been quickly driven to a corner. There was also a question of timing. What if the Boss happened to be summoned while one was fighting an army of spiders?

The shadows would probably get overrun easily. Indeed this could very rapidly turn into what a knowledgeable scholar would have called a "shitshow". When gangbanged by a plethora of spiders throwing white stuff at them, any scholar would probably resort to swears too.

With trembling hands and sparkling eyes, Josh gently opened the box. Out of it came…a goddamn cocoon! If it contained some more "fellow humans" Josh would for sure file an official complaint. How? He'd figure it out somehow. He then slowly approached his hand touching it.

[Binding in progress 1%, 27%, 62%, 100%]

Then it disappeared. "Tower Protocol, hello? What the hell just happened?" There was no answer. Maybe such a process was automated? Josh looked everywhere on his status screen before finally figuring it out. Next to the <Cosmetic> section of the menu was now a <Special> one.

Josh quickly realized that said cocoon had one function and one function only. It was to store spider materials. Was this a fancy and oddly specific material bag that didn't take an inventory slot? He could summon it and unsummon it at will instantaneously at least.

Still, how was he supposed to use that concretely? Just to gather materials here? Josh didn't plan on staying too long. It would help his current situation but that was about it. Well, it was better than nothing at least.

Josh then checked the remaining items. That is when he stopped breathing for a second. This had insane implications! In front of him were three items. The appearance was kind of cool, the stats were ordinary (similar to what he already had) but there was something very peculiar about the names of the items.

<Rank E+ – White Spider Gloves>

<Rank E+ – White Spider Bracers>

<Rank E+ – White Spider Pants>

All had matching names! All truly had matching names! Important things had to be repeated twice! Josh's gamer soul was quivering with excitement. He already had an inkling of what would happen. He wore it all while crossing his fingers.

Then it happened. It fucking happened! It was as if a new world had just opened for Josh. On his status screen, there was one line, one very easy to miss.

<White Spider Set Effect (3)>

Crawling of the White Spider: White and Sticky (5 min) Cooldown 1 hour.

Josh wasn't sure what it did, he felt the name of the ability was a colossal joke, it was only usable for 8% of the time and it was only on E+-Rank items. However, this wouldn't dampen his happiness as he could already picture the possibilities.

Was 3 pieces the set limit? What if it was possible to get even more? Would there be an even stronger set effect? Was this set easy to farm? Josh clearly knew how to easily beat this Floor but there were two big issues.

One, the boss spawning relied on luck. Two, he couldn't afford to spend too long here. Josh then looked at his lifespan. He now had 30 days to live. Apparently, completing this challenge had earned him 5 days in one go.

That is when his eyes caught the cocoon just lying on the side. Was it possible to…? Josh unequipped the Spider set and….instantly it got sucked in by the cocoon! Josh could make it come out with a simple thought!

Oh my god! This was amazing. This meant that he'd be able to bring the set everywhere with him without cluttering his inventory. He had to get this set at all cost! He'd check if it was possible to have a higher set bonus and he'd get spare pieces!

But for that, he needed a plan. He could sleep in the Tower, but he clearly needed to eat something. A badass killing machine couldn't work well without fuel after all. There was also the issue of the luck he promptly needed to fix.

Should he bring a teammate in? Ah, but then he'd have to share the loot. Also, would anyone be comfortable with running all around the place in a sea of spiders and webs? Perhaps the people in Draconic would agree.

But even then Josh could remember vividly how shocked Lily had been when he had told her he had been sleeping in the Tower. Obviously, this wasn't an accepted practice even for them. One couldn't simply learn to sense danger in one's sleep that easily. It had taken Josh months of training to manage that single thing. He didn't believe that magic would help much on that one.

The other option would be to use magic to perhaps create a defensive camp but once more it would waste so much time and energy. Josh believed that at least. Plus all this relied on getting a team in the first place! Josh knew Climbers couldn't be more than 3 levels apart in the same party.

There was probably no one available for such a Floor between the Gold rank members of Draconic he was familiar with. He could always ask the regular members but that would be a pain. Recruiting mercenaries or random people was even less of an option.

Somehow, Josh could already see it coming. People would die like dumbasses under his watch and then he'd take the blame for the wipe. Hell, he was already getting blamed for causing the demise of the MythBusting idiots.

It wouldn't be that bad if it happened once, but he needed to farm this thing over and over for a little while as efficiently as possible. After weighing the pros and the cons, Josh swiftly decided on a plan of action.

Of course, before leaving he had something to accomplish. He ran all over the place collecting the majority of the loot. He had already made mountains of it, after all. Now, he wouldn't worry about funding for a while.

Josh then nodded, satisfied, while carrying way too many Spider Legs in his hands (the E-Rank weapons). He also chucked tons of spider threads in his cocoon. This would come in handy for sure! Need to climb and set effect is on cooldown? Spider thread! Need to tie an enemy up? Spider thread! Bondage? Spider Thread! Fun fact, the last one could be used on both allies and enemies.

In his eyes, there was a glint of confidence, of greedy expectations, and of resolve. An impossible difficulty was it? He'd clear the shit out of it and would keep doing it until the Tower Protocol completely broke down!

"Teleport out!"...

IMPORTANT: On WN, cost of a chapter = Automatic based on word count! You have been warned. Spreading of misinformation will not be tolerated! Thank you. (Posting this to preemptively avoid further misunderstandings. Thank you for your attention)