When Lee Shin Woo declared that he would leave immediately, the Dryadsâ reactions were quite the sight. There were those who grabbed his hands, and there were those who acted like they were parting with their lover, as tears streamed down their cheeks.
Their initial reactions of him being a skeleton and being astonished were nonexistent at this point. This is usually what happens. While a first impression seemed like it was of utmost importance, they had ultimately forgotten all about it.
âI said Iâd come back.â
[You have to come back!]
[Since we want to repay you for introducing us to such lovely trees!]
âYeah. I promise to come see you again.â
Though he had established his relationship with them through a false name, Lee Shin Woo suddenly thought that perhaps his relationship with the Dryads was actually more âtruthfulâ than his relationship with the heroes he conversed with in the chatting channel.
[Paul Zero, whenever you need our help, just give us a call.]
Sinea, as the representative of the Dryads, stepped forward, softly embraced Lee Shin Woo, and said her farewells. He softly tapped Sineaâs shoulder with his bone hand.
âYeah, Iâll do that. I promise.â
[Take this.]
She said, and simultaneously passed Lee Shin Woo a small grapevine branch. As it possessed Sineaâs magic, who had been reborn as a Dryad Princess, he thought it might become the material for an artifact, but fortunately him grabbing the branch didnât transform it into bone.
[If you break this branch, Iâll come to your side, no matter where you are.]
ââŠThanks.â
He felt like his lie had worked almost too well, but Lee Shin Woo obediently took the branch.
Sinea looked relieved when she saw Lee Shin Woo pocket (into his inventory) the branch and then kissed his forehead⊠his frontal bone, and whispered so that only he could hear her.
[An undead whoâs not undead; without the energy of death. I hope that one day I can return to you your true appearance that has been hidden by the appearance of a skeleton.]
ââŠâ
Lee Shin Woo was slightly surprised, but his reply didnât really give that away. It seemed like his silence was enough for her, as Sinea smiled softly and stepped back. She had instantly gained a commanding appearance upon absorbing the spirit stone and being reborn as a Dryad Princess.
âGood for you.â
âAh, knock it off.â
Jin was jealous that Lee Shin Woo monopolized all of the Dryadsâ attention, and left the orchard whilst inwardly quarreling with him. Of course, they werenât going above ground immediately. They were using the railway to travel to the winery and leave through that exit instead.
And by doing so, Lee Shin Woo wouldnât have to worry about the Dryads for some time. They had everything they would need underground already, so as long as nobody disturbed them, they should be able to stockpile energy and grow from within.
Moreover, their leader, Princess Sinea, had promised to aid him unconditionally, so he couldnât ask for a better result. If he was a human, he probably wouldâve sighed refreshingly right now, but it was quite unfortunate that he couldnât.
âIn any case, weâre finished with this.â
âWhen Iâm with you, everything becomes so hectic that I canât even remember what we were originally trying to do.â
Jin pointed out, and that resonated with Lee Shin Woo a bit. When he thought about it, he hadnât originally set out to save the Dryads. Heâd just gone to the forest using the knowledge of Vitasâ troops to level up his Acid Resistance.
However, even when he thought about it himself, he couldnât really give a good reason as to how the situation had become like this. He could only say that he had acted according to his instincts and this was the result that followed!
âBut you were able to rest a little because of the Dryads, as weâve been fighting all this time. Plus, you were able to see some beautiful women too.â
âIf this constitutes âtaking a breakâ, then how much do we have to move around for it to be called âhecticâ? âŠBesides, all those beautiful women were flirting with you!â
âHaha.â
It seemed like Jin had accumulated a lot of stress from acting like a normal horse in front of the Dryads. Moreover, they had spent almost two months training their Acid Resistance skills, so they had managed to escape the throes of death. Maybe heâd achieve the feat of being the first undead that died from overworking himself.
âI got it. You used your curse absorption on them, and youâve been working really hard lately, so letâs take our time for now.â
âThatâs not what I wanted to say, but⊠you said it, not me, so no take backs.â
âAlright. We wonât do anything regarding resistances or dungeons for now.â
ââŠHmm.â
Jin sounded quite satisfied! However, as soon as Lee Shin Woo relayed his next destination to Jin through Assimilation, he soon uttered in a stiff voice.
âHey. This is where that senior who turned into an undead is.â
âYep.â
Lee Shin Wooâs destination was an area that was somewhere between a danger level 2 zone and a danger level 3 zone. It was also the location where Shino Rendu had died and been reborn as an undead! It had been some time since, so he wanted to see if Metafel had left as well.
âYou said we wouldnât do anything regarding resistances or dungeons!â
âWhile weâre taking it slow and sightseeing, I wanted to see how our senior is doing.â
âAnd hunting him.â
âWhy do you have to say it like that? I just want to inherit my seniorâs will. If I can, his abilities as well.â
âYou cruel bastardâŠâ
Though Lee Shin Woo responded sarcastically, he didnât actually feel all too good about this. There was no way he could be happy about fighting against his undead-turned senior when he had never treated him badly. Although he was both a swindler and an actor, he wasnât a psychopath.
ââŠEven so, itâs not something I can avoid. And itâs not something I should avoid.â
Especially because it was highly likely that Shino Rendu had encountered the Mercenary King, Metafel in his final moments. If those memories are intact, he had to acquire them no matter what. He didnât have time to waste on pointless affection.
âYouâll go, right?â
âFine, you asshole.â
âI wasnât joking when I said we should go slowly. You donât need to go full speed.â
âWhatâs the occasion?â
Jin inclined his head, looking for the direction the sun rose, even though no such sun existed in the Underground Empire. Seeing that, Lee Shin Woo just shrugged his shoulders.
âSince weâve been growing too rapidly thus far. We need the time to examine and get used to our abilities.â
âThat really doesnât sound like something you would sayâŠâ
Even though Jin snorted in astonishment, he did as Lee Shin Woo said and began moving slowly. Though he was still moving so quickly that others couldnât even see him, this speed was walking slowly for Jin.
âGood. Right now my abilities areâŠâ
Lee Shin Woo had become comfortable on Jinâs back, as if it were the living room of his house, and examined both his stats and skills.
Thus far, heâd encountered similar enemies and fought similar battles in the Forest of the Dryads, and had concentrated on using his skills. If he didnât meditate over his skills and adapt to them at times like this, he might destroy himself [2] from using those skills over and over again.
âIâll forget about Acid Resistance for a while. The same goes for the Acid element as well⊠However, the method I figured out at the end of my training wasnât bad.â
Since he was thinking about it, he decided to summon some weapons into the air. If he excluded the armor set he was wearing right now, he could summon four pieces of equipment. All of the summoned weapons were the Lightning Tooth.
When he fought in the Forest of the Dryads, the axe was the most appropriate weapon as it was of the Acid element, but in normal situations, the Lightning Tooth was the best, as it emitted powerful lightning. On the other hand, the Drake Horn Lance was⊠obviously an impressive weapon, but it bothered him that it didnât possess its own element.
âYouâre not going to throw those somewhere, are you?â
âDonât worry. Just look forward.â
Magic. The mysterious energy that inhabited all existence. It could possess an infinite number of properties depending on the wielder. However, one such property of magic was that those properties couldnât be maintained for very long when magic is poured into something from the outside.
âHowever, that rule isnât applied to my bones, which are both my equipment, as well as my body.â
To be more exact, Lee Shin Woo made it so that rule didnât apply. It sounded easy, but it required a substantial amount of willpower, as well as concentration.
As he split his magic into four different streams and inserted that mana into his weapons, he absorbed the outside surrounding mana within him, replenishing his magic. It wasnât easy, but if he was able to do this naturally, his combat ability would increase as well.
âRather than trying to explode the weapons with the infused mana, I need to become proficient in collecting that mana back and using it.â
If he did so, his Bone Armory wouldnât be just a simple storage house, but an extension of his body. And if it did become an extension of his body, Lee Shin Woo could gain âpower that couldnât be measured strictly through levelsâ!
âNow that I think about it, my stats are already at a total of 3,093. I only need to raise my stats by 107 to get to level 6âŠâ
Heâd bragged that he could get to level 6 in just a month when he was still level 4, and ever since heâd reached level 5 to now, heâd made the best choice he could in most situations, so it would be strange if Lee Shin Woo hadnât grown by this much.
Unfortunately, there was a huge gap between Lee Shin Woo and Jin now. When they had first met, Jin had been a higher level than Lee Shin Woo, but now, there was a difference of about 500 stats between them. Still, at the very least, Jin possessed the Child of Light skill, which increased his agility stat gain by three times, so the disparity hadnât grown any larger than this.
âThe number of skills we have are way too different.â
Jin only had a few skills he could use (Steel Heart being the main one) and concentrated on those few skills, whereas Lee Shin Woo trained the variety of skills heâd gained from Bone Reinforcement as much as possible.
Most low rank skills wouldnât increase oneâs stats very much even when they leveled up, but when they reached the intermediate level, even the most lousy looking skills would increase oneâs stats by at least 5, so there was no way there wouldnât be a gap between the two.
âIt doesnât seem like Jin can obtain as many skills as me, even if I reinforce him with the same amount of bones as me⊠It canât be helped. This might be the directions of our respective karmas.â
There was only a fixed number of bones that Jin could absorb, so there was a difference in the amount of bones the two could absorb; it would probably be better if he gave up on equalizing their stats.
Of course, it wasnât like Jin wouldnât be helpful if his level dropped below Lee Shin Wooâs. Jinâs sprint related skills, his body designed for running, and above all, the imbalance of his high agility stat with his other stats that resulted in his speed, would certainly increase Lee Shin Wooâs strength.
âShin Woo. Shin Woo!â
âYeah?â
âLook over there.â
Lee Shin Woo, who was thinking far into their future, was awoken by Jinâs voice. Because of their connection, Lee Shin Woo immediately knew what Jin was pointing at. It was a city. The amount of death energy being released from the city confirmed that it hadnât been purified by the other heroes.
âWhat do you think? Should we stop by?â
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ââŠYeah. I suppose we could stop by and then continue.â
It should be ok, as it had nothing to do with resistances or dungeons. Lee Shin Woo shrugged his shoulders and followed Jinâs offer. Both Lee Shin Woo and Jin were unaware of this, but Jin had been considerably corrupted by Lee Shin Woo.
Exactly three hours later, they managed to purify the city. Anyone hearing that theyâd purified a level 2 danger zone city within three hours would be shocked, but unfortunately, the two skeleton heroes had already forgotten what it meant to be ânormalâ.
[1] T/N: Crying sound.
[2] E/N: His identity as a Joker and/or his adaptability.