Lee Shin Woo and Jin got off the final golem train that passed through a level 2 danger zone, and rushed into the city, clearing it of the undead, as well as exploring the sewers.
After they were done fighting in the final level 2 danger zone city (there werenât any hidden facilities), Lee Shin Wooâs Combat Sense skill leveled up, as if it were waiting for this very moment; thus, his stats had surpassed 3,200.
âOnce we level up to 6, we can move on to the level 3 danger zones.â
ââŠYeah, right. Itâs about time we move on. I was kind of spacing out for a bit wondering what we should do once we hit 6.â
The moment Lee Shin Woo heard Jin talk about level 3 danger zones, he thought he mightâve been living comfortably for way too long.
Itâs not like heâs been resting thus far; he was doing everything that needed to be done, yet he thought that perhaps somewhere along the way, heâd adapted to that calm and risk-free everyday life.
âNo. Itâs not like we havenât been in any sort of dangerâŠâ
Jin thought Lee Shin Wooâs response was absurd. Though they hadnât fought higher leveled enemies that often, they had fought more than thousands of enemies, and they had even been surrounded by level 5 elites before. Since a level 2 danger zone area wasnât really safe for 2 level 5 heroes in the first place!
But the problem was that their abilities, especially Lee Shin Wooâs abilities, had grown so much that these enemies no longer posed any sort of threat to them. Didnât the message say so? That he was more than qualified to level up.
âJin, youâre still not there yet, right?â
âIâm at around 2,950. I caught up quite a bit though, right?â
âYou caught up because I gave you most of the bones. âŠIn any case, Iâll level up first.â
âDonât talk like youâre leaving and not coming back.â
Lee Shin Woo chuckled at Jinâs curt voice, and disembarked from him. They had completely cleaned up the vicinity, so there werenât even any level 1 skeletons. There wasnât any better place to level up.
ââŠAlright, Iâll accept all my karma now.â
The moment Lee Shin Woo decided to accept his karma, blinding light burst from his body. His currently equipped equipment were released all at once, and his body began to noticeably develop!
[You have become a level 6, Powered Elemental Bone Joker. In the pursuit of countless changes, your strengths have been maximized. Your control over nature has become more powerful and diversified; as a result, you have successfully broken free from the limitations of being a skeleton.]
[You are no longer restrained by the title of skeleton, a low rank species. After training a variety of ways of handling bone, you have become the one and only swindler, the Bone Joker, to both yourself and to the world. All stats increase by 20. The Intermediate Mana Bone skill has become Lv8, and Magic has increased by an additional 20.]
[All elements grow. Intermediate Fire has become Lv2, Intermediate Ice has become Lv3, Intermediate Lightning has become Lv5, and High Rank Acid has become Lv2. Magic has increased by 110.]
So am I a skeleton or not? Lee Shin Woo inwardly complained. While complaining, his bodyâs bones became larger, thicker, and glistened with mana, resulting in a whiter light than before.
It was truly ironic. His bones had continuously gotten darker until he turned level 4, but starting from level 5, it went in the opposite direction!
Lee Shin Woo took a look at the magic that glistened from his bones. Mana which possessed the potential to change in an infinite number of ways⊠that blinding and resplendent mana could harmonize no further with his Joker karma.
[You have become able to handle mana more broadly and diversely than before. The Disguise skill has become Lv3. You can disguise yourself well with even less knowledge of your target.]
His growth to level 6 affected almost all of his skills and was complete. Lee Shin Woo was still an undead composed of all bone, but the harmonization of the mana that made up his bones was vastly different from before.
âWho the hell cares? Iâm still made up of bones. Are they messing with me or what?â
âSomeone said you werenât made of bones?â
âNo. Apparently, theyâre saying Iâm not a skeleton anymore.â
âBut you are a skeleton.â
âNo oneâs arguing with you.â
Lee Shin Woo complained, as if enthusiastically agreeing with Jin, and checked his status; it had been a long time since heâd checked it. Though it was true that his body had undergone some fundamental changes, he still needed to check his status.
âSo I need 3,000 more stats from here to get to level 7, huh⊠Itâs starting to feel really far off.â
âYou know, you said something like that when you were level 5. Moreover, you got a 200 stat increase once you hit level 6, so youâre really making a big fuss over nothing.â
âThe problem is that most of that stat increase is in magic.â
Compared to the others, only Lee Shin Wooâs magic stat increased incredibly fast. That was because most of his skills used magic as their foundation.
But even so, he needed his other stats as well; it was troubling for him that his magic stat was almost double that of his strength or agility stats.
âHoo. No choice but to divide the bones evenly from now on. For now, youâll take care of the magic bones.â
âWhat!?â
That wasnât all. Another problem was that heâd only been training the skills that increased magic thus far. Of course, he didnât really have many skills that didnât increase magic, which was a problem, but if he looked amongst themâŠ
âThatâs right. Thereâs this.â
âAh⊠that.â
Jinâs goblin fire blazed subtly, watching two horns protrude from Lee Shin Wooâs head. Thatâs right. It was the skill that heâd acquired from absorbing a bone from the shop: the Twin Horn Charge.
It was certainly a close combat skill, as it increased the force of a charge, as well as increasing attack power through the horns. Twin Horn Charge was also a skill that heâd only been able to level up by 1 these past two months as there werenât any strong foes to use it on.
âLetâs get moving after I get this to the intermediate level.â
âJust saying, werenât you not using that on purpose?â
ââŠThatâs true.â
There was only one reason for that. It was because Lee Shin Woo didnât have any horns. Because of that, he couldnât effectively make use of the Twin Horn Chargeâs increase in attack power, and couldnât hastily increase the skillâs level to the intermediate stage, causing him to worry.
âBut Iâve been training my others skills, so I have a rough idea of how it works. Moreover, as I leveled up, my mana senses further developed as well, so itâs time I try it out.â
What were horns? They were a means to attack. And in situations where charging is required, Lee Shin Woo had the lance. In that case, the answer was simple.
âI just need to use the Twin Horn Charge in tandem with my lance.â
âSorry, but I donât get it, so do what you want.â
Jin retorted, distanced himself from Lee Shin Woo, and began to run by himself. Jin knew that studying the skill would take some time, so heâd given him some space beforehand. That was also its own type of skill training, so Lee Shin Woo didnât stop him.
âTch.â
In the past, Jin would stand next to him, almost with a question mark above his skull, and genuinely listen to him, but now⊠Lee Shin Woo wished that Jin was like that again, and began to study, no, remodel his skill.
Heâd already told Jin what he wanted to do: he wanted to combine the Twin Horn Chargeâs horns with the lance. In other words, he would be changing the release of magic, as well as the intrinsic pattern a bit.
âTwin Horn Charge aggressively speeds up the mana, and pushes the body in the direction of the attack. In the process, the twin horns naturally jut out. The twin horns form at the target destination thatâs designated by the accelerated mana⊠In other words, if Iâm able to change the direction of the skill to my lance, thenâŠâ
When that charging technique is combined with Jinâs speed, its force would be beyond his imagination!
Lee Shin Woo was sure of himself, nodded his head, and began to study the skill immediately. Heâd taken out the Drake Horn Lance simply because they were both horns; thus, he thought that maybe they could work together somehow, but there wasnât really any meaning to it.
âHey, monsters are coming! Iâll take care of them myself and come back, ok?â
âDonât forget to bring back the bones.â
In a sitting position, Lee Shin Woo repeatedly activated and cancelled his skill a few times, and studied the change in mana upon the skillâs activation, as well as the flow of mana. Between these two, he would probably have to keep the change in mana the same, and control the flow of mana. HoweverâŠ
âItâs not hard.â
Lee Shin Woo was quite surprised. He seemed to grasp the changes in the mana upon activation of the skill, and was likewise able to figure out how the special flow of mana was created without difficulty. The only thing left to do was to change the structure slightly, but even that was way too simple.
âIs it because itâs still a low rank skill?â
No, that wasnât the issue here. It was just Lee Shin Wooâs extraordinary ability of handling magic. While he was at it, he added another skill as well. It was Shadow Sprint, which was treated like a charging type skill.
Shadow Sprint had the special ability of adding a shadow to the charge, whilst also increasing oneâs secrecy as well as their speed. It was certainly lacking in terms of destructive force. He was attempting to fill in that weakness with the Twin Horn Charge, but it wasnât very natural to use two similar types of skills at the same time.
âShall we combine them?â
Though his skills had combined with other skills on their own in the process of evolving, Lee Shin Woo had never actually tried to fuse the characteristics of two skills on his own before. It was clear by his face that the thought had never even occurred to him before.
âBut I feel like I can do it now.â
Lee Shin Woo focused on controlling his interior mana. He activated both Twin Horn Charge and Shadow Sprint simultaneously, and tied both their mana properties together. Stealthily, yet sharply. Agile, yet weighty. All of those characteristics were fused into one to create a forceful thrustâŠ!
âI got all of them. HuhâŠ?â
âHooâŠâ
Jin, who easily swept away the group of level 4 monsters, saw Lee Shin Wooâs body engulfed in a dark red energy and stopped in place.
The two horns that burst from his head slowly receded, and a giant horn appeared on the lance in his hand, as if engulfing it. And soon, the lance was covered in a black mana, causing its form to become unclear. Even though he was staring at the lance with both of his eyes, he couldnât tell exactly what it looked like!
âShin WooâŠ?â
ââŠI did it.â
Immediately after Jin carefully called for Lee Shin Woo, Lee Shin Wooâs eye sockets blazed with dark red goblin fire. The dark red energy that tinged the lance blended together, and covered the lance.
[The Low Rank Twin Horn Charge skill has become Lv10 and is evolving! Absorbing the Intermediate Shadow Sprint skill. You have learned the Intermediate skill, Shadow Horn Lv1! Strength and Agility have increased by 10.]
âAh, crap.â
âWhatâs wrong? Didnât it turn out well?â
But the moment he created a skill that would overpower anyone, Lee Shin Woo lamented quietly. Jin, who couldnât tear his eyes off the completed Shadow Horn, asked why and Lee Shin Woo sighed deeply and replied.
âIt became a combat skill like Bursting Thunder rather than a sprint skill. Itâs a skill that accelerates the speed of the thrust itself, not the chargeâŠâ
ââŠSo you focused too much of the charging force into the weapon, huh?â
âShit. I should turn it back into a charge type⊠forget it.â
Read Latest Chapters at wuxiaworld.eu
Lee Shin Woo could feel it instinctively. That this skill he made might actually be amazing, and with this amazing skill he might be able to grow!
He had succeeded in combining the two skillsâ charging force, stealth, and attack power into one skill. Lee Shin Woo thought it might be better to leave the skill as is. If thatâs the case, then thereâs only one answer.
âIâm going to go visit the secret shop.â
After clearing out all the bones in the secret shop, he didnât really feel like he needed to go there, even if he leveled up.
He had no choice but to find a new charging skill in Godâs secret shop.