The way the golems went about with their bombardment made him think back to the Ratman launching its nails. By human standards, they were forcefully discharging the rocks attached to their arms and using the surrounding rocks to replenish their losses.
âSeems like if you take a wrong step here, itâll be the end for you.â
Lee Shin Woo muttered, as he dodged the raining rock shells and drove his axe into a golemâs body. If he had come here by himself, he wouldnât die, but he wouldâve had to put in a lot of effort to clear out all of them.
But that âendâ had now become an impossible proposition. Compared to Jinâs level, no, even compared to his own level, whilst riding on Jinâs back the golemâs bombardment was incredibly slow. Even if they shot the rocks point blank, they would be able to dodge them quite easily.
âSo it seems like if thereâs a large difference between agility, then ranged attacks almost become completely ineffectualâŠâ
[Ceasing⊠operationâŠ]
While he was fighting against the golems, he suddenly realized how important agility was. The Acid Ghoul was able to intercept his shot without much difficulty because of its agility as well.
So long as it doesnât swerve along the way, and one can read the trajectory of the shot, one could avoid it without much difficulty; when he considered that the one dodging the projectile had more of an advantage than the one doing the shooting, if one wanted to kill someone with a long range attack, then he concluded that they would have to be much faster than their opponent.
Fast enough that they canât read the trajectory of the shot, and fast enough that they canât grasp the timing of the shot.
âIf we were to say something like this on our home worlds, we wouldâve been subject to ridicule.â
âIs that something you should be saying? Iâm the one dodging all of the shells coming from everywhere!â
The first condition for surviving in this world was to accept that they had become a member of this world, and their preexisting common sense was invalid and couldnât be applied to this world. Based on that criteria, the two of them had passed those conditions with flying colors.
âAh, there arenât any more.â
Had they crushed all of the golems? Once heâd taken care of the golems that had first responded to him and looked up, there werenât any more rocks in the entire area. Once broken, they were neither golems nor boulders anymore, and it seemed only natural that only the considerably large boulders were golems.
âWhat should we do now? Should we go across from there?â
âThe region that these guys are in charge of seems to be strictly divided.â
If Lee Shin Woo walked for around a minute, he could reach an area with normal rock formations. But if he stepped one foot in, those rocks would immediately emerge as golems.
Even now, that area wasnât very far off. It certainly felt strange, the golems seemingly being measured and divided, as only the golems of a fixed area had responded to them. It felt like someone had decided that âyou guys are in charge from here up to here.â
âFor starters, are these guys really formed naturally?â
âThatâs what we have to figure out now.â
Even with the shells flying towards him unceasingly, he could still fight, but the same couldnât be said about the loot; he had to leave them behind. He lead Jin around the whole area, and collected the sprawled cores and Perium off the floor.
[You have acquired 3,200 Perium.]
[You have acquired a Autonomous Defensive Type Bone Core.]
âThough theyâre level 3, they donât leave much Perium behind unless theyâre elites.â
âWhere do you even use that?â
âWell, I completely understand where youâre coming from since youâve never gone to the secret shop before.â
Heâd acquired 3,000 Perium from the golem, but it was only a third of what heâd gotten from the similarly leveled elite Great Slime. Of course, it was difficult to find even one Great Slime, but the Stone Golems were comparatively easy to find, as they were spread across the plateau area, so they made up for their quality with quantity.
After heâd raked in all of the Perium from the entire area, he checked how much total Perium heâd collected.
[Total Perium â 445,870]
âHoo.â
Was this what it feels like to be amazed at how much has changed in such a short period of time? It felt like just a few days ago he had unhesitatingly told Pleine his story in exchange for a 20,000 Perium discount, but now, he had already amassed 445,870 Perium. Of course, there were a few special circumstances that helped in that.
âShin Woo, thereâs something over here.â
âAh.â
[Lv2 Stone Gloves]
It looked like it was armor. The gloves looked like they were made of stupidly tough rock, and he wondered whether this would actually be effective in fending off his opponentâs attacks; but on the contrary, he had his suspicions that these would actually cause more harm to his hands. At the very least, Lee Shin Woo didnât really want to equip them.
[You have acquired Lv2 Stone Gloves. Through Bone Reinforcement, the item is changing. Your compatibility with the item is high, causing a special change.]
However, the moment Lee Shin Woo touched the gloves, something strange happened. It was a message he had never seen before, and whatâs worse, it was a message he hadnât even seen when his Melting Bone Double Axe had risen in level!
[You have acquired Lv3 Fossil Gloves (+5).]
ââŠâ
But when he saw the outcome of that change, his (nonexistent) eyes naturally narrowed. Rocks and bone had come together, and had become a fossil; he wanted to tackle the Bone Reinforcement ability itself.
âBut fossils arenât technically bonesâŠâ
âWhy do you need scientific knowledge all of a sudden?â
âNah, itâs fine. Itâs good for me, anyway.â
Even if teeth or nails were regarded as bones, he just decided to let it go. Lee Shin Woo decided not to nitpick on each and every aspect of his ability. In any case, not only had his item leveled up, it had also been reinforced to +5, so he was satisfied.
âŠThough he still didnât have any intention of equipping them.
âGood, then thereâs only one other option.â
âYouâre doing it again?â
Lee Shin Woo didnât answer Jinâs question, and quietly raised the Fossil Gloves (+5). In his other hand, he held not his axe, but his sword, the Bone of Thunder Lasting (+8).
It wasnât an item he would equip, so he didnât consider it to be a stupid gamble. While trying his very best to ignore the other option of using the equipment to reinforce his own bonesâŠ!
Something happened the moment Lee Shin Woo was about to use his Bone Reinforcement. One of the bone cores he still hadnât stored into his inventory seemed to shine brightly, and a message appeared in front of him.
[If you consume a bone core and then attempt reinforcement, the success rate increases. If you use the bone core as a material for an equipmentâs reinforcement, it will increase even further. It is possible to use several at once in the reinforcement.]
âHuhâŠ!?â
When he thought about it, he remembered reading that normally monstersâ cores are used to produce weapons, or manufacture medicine. However, it turned out that the core itself had the power to reinforce equipment. Perhaps the equipment reinforcement permit also functioned by using the power of a core?
Just a little while ago, he felt like he had wanted to âtry it outâ, but now that heâd read that message, he trusted that the success rate would increase significantly by using the cores, though he had no basis for that. Lee Shin Woo put aside the Fossil Gloves for now, grabbed a bone core in one hand, and used Bone Reinforcement!
[Bone Reinforcement has succeeded.]
[Bone of Thunder Lasting +9]
[Lv3]
[Durability: 1,120/1,120]
[Attack Power: 300 â 400]
[Options: Strength +21, Agility +21, Power of Bursting Thunder skill +19%]
âOh, OooohâŠ!â
It had really succeeded with just one try! Lee Shin Woo was moved and embraced his weapon. However, Jin spoke calmly by his side.
âShin Woo, on the ground.â
âHuh? âŠNoâŠâ
It was at that time that Lee Shin Woo finally realized that every single one of the bone cores heâd gathered in one place had disappeared.
There were a few inside his inventory that were still safe, but the rest disappeared. There were more than ten of them there, and the moment he used his reinforcement, they had resonated without his consent!
ââŠâ
He gained new knowledge again. If he used bone cores to reinforce his equipment, the cores would resonate as they pleased! It had increasedâŠ!
Fortunately, the price came cheap. It was such a relief that he hadnât attempted to reinforce his equipment while he had 100 bone cores laid out!
Especially since, if he hadnât gathered the bone cores and attempted the reinforcement, he didnât know how long heâd be stuck without being able to succeed. So this was fine. It was fine.
âShin Woo, are you crying?â
âIâm not crying.â
He replied bitterly, removed the final remaining level 3 equipment reinforcement permit from his inventory, and raised it.
Even if he inspected his Bone of Thunder Lasting one more time, it was still at +9. He grit his teeth and used the reinforcement permit. Then, radiant light spewed out of the weapon and a tremendous amount of mana surged. This dense mana seemed to be able to change the very material of the weapon, and heated up the air.
[The Lv3 Bone of Thunder Lasting has evolved into the Lv4 Lightning Tooth!]
[Lightning Tooth]
[Lv4]
[Durability: 1,500/1,500]
[Attack Power : 450 â 480]
[Element: Lightning Lv4]
[Options: Strength +25, Agility +25, Power of Bursting Thunder +20%]
âThis isâŠâ
Seeing his completely transformed weapon, Lee Shin Woo interjected. It was a completely different weapon from the level 4 weapon, Thunder Lasting, that heâd acquired from the zombie turned hero.
By coming into his possession, it had deteriorated into bone in the past, but at least, the current Lightning Tooth didnât seem inferior to the Thunder Lasting; there was no mistake that it was actually much stronger than Thunder Lasting. Thatâs because two tremendous powers had collided, ultimately harmonizing, and the outcome was its evolution.
âWow, even if you compare it to the axe, the energy coming off that thingâs no joke.â
âYou have considerable talent in mana as well, huh. Youâre right. Theyâre both level 4, but this weaponâs exceptional and is incomparable to the axe. Itâs not an exaggeration to say that this bone contains Godâs power.â
âAt any rate, itâs a bone, huhâŠâ
The blade consisted of a bone gleaming in blue light, and was longer, and sharper than before; the fact that there was a slight power of lightning within had surfaced, and began to spark.
He was excited thinking about what would happen if he held this weapon and used an intermediate level of Bursting Thunder. Thus, Lee Shin Woo was spurred on to train his Bursting Thunder even more diligently than before.
âAcid and lightning. Flames⊠Then, this makes me want to use the other elements a bit.â
If he only had one element out of three, that would be plenty to represent him as a hero, yet he was still greedy for more even though he had three. He still hadnât realized at this point that he possessed abilities that would more than shock his senior heroes.
â Gugugugugu
However, when Lee Shin Woo was fascinated with the power of his weapon, the once silent plateau area suddenly vibrated. Whatâs worse, the vibrations gradually became worse!
Did the golems wake up? If thatâs not it, was it a natural earthquake? Both of those were wrong. The golems were still quietly staying in their places, and it obviously wasnât an earthquake. Then, what was it?
[Goooooooooooh!]
âMm, as I thought.â
Lee Shin Woo heard the faint cry from afar, nodded his head, and spoke, as if he had expertly anticipated it. Around now, it started to feel like a traditional event.
He quickly put the Fossil Gloves and his sword into his inventory, and cleanly used up the two remaining bone cores to reinforce his bones. His health increased by 1, so now he only needed 1 more stat point before he leveled up.
âWhat the hell is this? Itâs like thereâs a huge monster on the move, but I canât tell if itâs actually coming!â
âCalm down, Jin. Since I already know what it is.â
âYou canât even see it yet, so how do you know?â
âI just know.â
Around the time Lee Shin Woo calmly answered Jin, who was even more flustered than when he had fought the Acid Ghoul, the enemy revealed itself beyond the horizon.
It was rushing towards them, yet the golems didnât stand up and attack it. It seems like it wasnât considered a trespasser.
âWhat kind of monster could it be!? Donât we need to run away!?â
âThereâs no way to completely get away from it once itâs picked its âtargetâ. âŠThough itâs level may be different, I have experience fighting them, so wait for now.â
Of course, he didnât really have any memories of fighting it from the front. This time too, he didnât plan on fighting it face-to-face. There were a multitude of ways to kill an enemy besides slicing off their head.
Around that time, Jin was able to confirm the identity of their enemy with his own two eyes, and spoke in vivid horror.
âLv5âŠ!? Can we win!?â
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ââŠEven if we canât, we have to fight. Thatâs what the Empireâs all about.â
âThatâsâŠâ
Lee Shin Woo comforted the confused Jin and checked his opponent. It had less than a couple hundred meters to go, and the appearance of a monster filled his eyes, one which he was familiar with to the point that it felt slightly tedious.
[Lv5 Treasure Eater]
Steve, who he hadnât seen in a long time, was here.