Lee Shin-Woo and Jin boldly entered the snow-covered mountain. The god-awful icy air clearly had a great impact on the surrounding grassy plains. It looked noticeably different from the rest of the area.

"The mountain's surroundings suddenly getting so much colder shouldn't be a natural phenomenon. This must stem from the excessive mana concentration as well, right...?"

"Hmm, could be..."

Lee Shin-Woo tread along the seemingly infinite precipice; the cliff seemed to go on and on... With a single glance, he was able to see the mountain range and felt the flow of mana being drawn and sucked somewhere. Would there be giants, or something even more ferocious awaiting him there?

"I'm sure the core that's causing these changes in space is somewhere in the mountain."

"That bastard's expanding space thing is here too, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but if we want to escape that mana flow, we'll probably have to just leave."

The moment they stepped onto the mountain’s path, a frigid wind blew on them. It was incredibly cold. Fortunately, Lee Shin-Woo and Jin both had Ice Resistance, so it didn't trouble them that much. But Rem was a different story.

[Sensing intermediate level 3 cold air. Consuming mana to resist.]

"Oh, I forgot about you. Mm... Would you come over here?"

[I understand, Master.]

Lee Shin-Woo brought Rem to his wrist and activated a skill with his gaze fixed on it. It was none other than Assimilation.

I was thinking of taking Assimilation in another direction anyway.

Assimilation was originally Horseback Riding, and as the communion part of Horseback Riding developed to its very limit, it affected the skill itself and allowed it to evolve into something that transcended the original.

It wasn't a simple agreement of both hearts and minds, but rather a sharing of mana and skills. The scope of its application was quite wide even though he had only been using it on Jin until now.

But as Intermediate Assimilation leveled up, he began to think there was no reason to restrict Assimilation to only Jin. It mattered not who or what his target was, but how close he was to that target!

And I was somewhat successful last time.

Just a short while ago, he had used the skill differently when they ran into Prince in the training facility.

Thinking Rem wouldn’t be able to escape Prince’s notice, Lee Shin-Woo had used Assimilation and Disguise to hide it. His instinctive activation of those two skills was quite effective and ended up completely hiding Rem's existence.

Still, that was nothing more than a temporary measure to conceal Rem's presence, so the application was poor in several areas. After that, Lee Shin-Woo came to the realization that there was untapped potential to Assimilation and decided that he'd train it further sometime.

If I hadn't awakened the Darkness element, I wouldn't have been able to even try it...

Darkness mana connected one individual with another and homogenized all entities under its umbrella. If he could use darkness mana and Assimilation together, it should be possible for him to communicate and connect with his subordinates. He might even be able to use it on several of his subordinates at the same time!

That's just wishful thinking at this point though.

If for no other reason than to achieve that dream someday, Lee Shin-Woo had to train the use of Assimilation on Rem. He sensed and focused on the unbreakable link of darkness mana between him and Rem, all the while gradually activating Assimilation.

His connection with Jin was inevitably weakened in the process, but fortunately, the link wasn't severed.

[Mm...]

Rem made a sound resembling a program being loaded. Lee Shin-Woo concentrated even further and tried to share his level 7 Intermediate Ice Resistance with it.

If his Assimilation succeeded, it shouldn't be difficult to share his Ice Resistance.

It would work as long as everything went according to plan! And for a split second, while he was concentrating, he felt the link between him and Rem become even firmer.

[I sense unknown energy flowing into me from you, Master. Analyzing... It is level 7 Intermediate Ice Resistance.]

"Oh!"

[10%... 20%... Assimilation rate currently at 67%...]

He'd succeeded on the first try! At this point, he was getting scared of his own talent. Lee Shin-Woo was so excited that he focused even harder on Assimilation.

Lee Shin-Woo was unaware of the black mana flickering across his body. His darkness element was reinforcing Assimilation!

[100% Assimilation successful. I am now able to resist the cold air without consuming mana.]

"Nice! As I thought, as long as they have a strong connection with me, I can use Assimilation on other people!"

"...Tch."

Jin seemed a bit displeased for some reason, but unfortunately, Lee Shin-Woo was preoccupied with the revelation of Assimilation's new latent potential and didn’t pay Jin’s reaction any mind. While he was at it, he decided to figure out how far he could take Assimilation, so he was in his own little world testing out the possibilities.

How much time had he spent analyzing his Assimilation? When Rem was able to fly safely regardless of how cold the winds became, Lee Shin-Woo’s skill leveled up.

[Intermediate Assimilation is now Lv9, and Agility and Magic have increased by 5. The range of Assimilation widens gradually, and you can now maintain your skills with less concentration.]

Lee Shin-Woo instinctively made a fist. Once Assimilation evolved to high rank, he might be able to maintain a connection with several people at the same time. Combined with Command, he would be able to strengthen his subordinates to the limit!

"Rem, could you go scouting for me?"

[Yes, Master. I believe I can now sense other entities' energy even if they are not Golems.]

He wasn’t certain if it was his imagination, but Rem seemed to be speaking to him more positively now. I'm probably just misunderstanding, he thought, but he felt great about it.

[Please maintain the connection.]

"Alright. I'll leave it to you."

Rem fluttered its wings and flew away. The deeper into the mountain range they went, the colder the winds became. Now, it felt like they were continuously being attacked by intermediate level 4 ice magic, but because Lee Shin-Woo had completely shared his Ice Resistance with Rem, Rem didn't have any problems. Instead...

"Mm... It feels like I'm doubling my resistance training," said Lee Shin-Woo.

"Could you not say scary stuff like that?"

"Now that I think about it, it's the same when I activate skills through you. Maybe I've discovered an amazing training method!"

He didn’t expect the skill he shared to others through Assimilation to improve his proficiency as well. He'd hit the jackpot!

Lee Shin-Woo momentarily imagined bringing the army of more than 1,000 Pauls to this mountain range and training his Ice Resistance by sharing it with them all, but he soon discarded that idea. Not only was he unable to maintain his connection with hundreds of targets yet, he didn't want to give Naruto a bad name.

"So how is it? Can you share its vision too?" asked Jin.

"Yeah. As I thought, it was the right move to use Assimilation on Rem."

"...Tch."

Seeing what Rem was seeing was quite an unusual experience. He was physically walking on the ground, yet his eyes were looking down from the sky. This was exactly what would trigger motion sickness, but it would help train his senses too.

[I believe I can go up even further to check.]

Alright. I'm counting on you.

If Lee Shin-Woo's assumption was correct, they had already entered the Giants' domain. It wouldn't be strange for them to meet completely different entities at any time.

With Rem's eyes, Lee Shin-Woo collected information on the ground and its geographical features. He picked out the pertinent information and relayed it to Jin, which was the most optimum route for information sharing. Lee Shin-Woo felt like he'd become a navigating device. But while doing so, something strange came into Rem's sight all of a sudden.

[Master, are you seeing this?]

"Yeah, I see it..."

They saw a Giant on the snowy plains, which they could reach by going up one more hill.

It was undead of course, but that wasn't the issue here. The real issue was the other entities fighting that undead. Rem took it upon itself to focus its gaze.

"What is this? Is it the Imperial Army by any chance...?"

"What are you talking about...?"

Lee Shin-Woo concentrated even further. He hadn't been mistaken. The Imperial Army was fighting an undead giant, and they were all at least level 3 elites. Obviously, the undead giant was on the winning side, and the soldiers were helplessly pushed back.

However, from another direction, knights leading more elite troops joined to attack it together. They were obviously all undead, but he felt a strange sense of deja vu as he looked upon the highly disciplined force. It felt like he'd seen this force somewhere before...

Ah.

He suddenly figured it out. He had seen some of the knights from someone else's memories... They were knights he'd seen in the memories of Metafel's troops!

But why did they come here? Moreover, why are they attacking the Giants?

The gears in Lee Shin-Woo's head began to spin quickly. He was sure that it wouldn’t be easy for the undead to access this snow-covered mountain.

Metafel became one of twelve generals because of his ability to gather all the mercenaries in the Empire under his command. Not only was it impossible for him to have such knowledge in mana, he didn't even have a reason to lead his troops here.

In other words, it might be an imperial command that sent him here. He was probably helped by someone who could read the flow of mana and find the right path...

At this point, it was hard to infer anything else. What was the best way to figure this out? Lee Shin-Woo didn't have to think very hard. He just needed to kill those guys and check their memories!

Plus, if I am to achieve my original goal... I must try to rescue that Giant!

Given its level and size, the Giant should've been able to overpower the Imperial Army, but because of the level 4 and 5 knights swarming it from all sides, it was forced to take the defensive.

If it was level 6, it would've been able to easily take care of them, regardless of how many came, but it seemed like the Giant was only a high rank level 5. Even if things didn't go as Lee Shin-Woo wanted, he wouldn’t lose anything in trying!

"At this rate, that poor guy will die. Hurry, we’ve got to save James!"

"You're doing it again, giving out names without thinking..."

"Let's hurry!"

Jin knew Lee Shin-Woo must have formulated a new plan; he did as he was told and rushed towards the Giant.

While running, Lee Shin-Woo changed his armor into a sharp scalemail, and draping over his back was his bone-powder robe, which had changed its form to look like a cape. Henceforth, this would be Paul Zero's default appearance!

"Freeze, all of you!"

[Keuk!?]

Lee Shin-Woo rose atop the hill and yelled with a booming voice. The attacking undead force was shocked and turned to look at him. He had no intention of hiding his strength, so their response seemed only natural.

"How dare you attack a Giant... I won't forgive you!"

[Do you...know about us...?]

The Giant took notice of Lee Shin-Woo as well. With one of his eyes completely gone and the other half rotten, he looked like a zombie.

Bolstered by all of them shifting their attention to him, Lee Shin-Woo said excitedly, "I am the wielder of the Titan's Pride, Paul Zero! All of you, get away from my brother!"

Thus commences ‘Paul Zero - The Legend of the Giants’!

...Though of course, it was all a lie!