Lee Shin-Woo gritted his teeth at the frustration welling up in him.

"That bastard, did he lie to me...?"

"They might have received two calls for help at the same time and gotten confused."

Kratia made a valid point. Lee Shin-Woo accepted it with a nod and said, "...Yeah, they'll probably be here soon. Let's just collect everything that's hidden here."

"Over here, Shin-Woo."

They were in the midst of looking for any hidden artifacts or Perium within the castle, while Rem kept watch as covertly as possible.

"It's all useless stuff so far."

"Yeah, but I’m sensing something great. Ah, this is it."

There was a well-hidden storage house within the castle. Upon analyzing and opening it, they found a huge quantity of Perium inside. To be exact, it contained 25 million Perium. It was a substantial amount of money, but Lee Shin-Woo wasn't excited in the least for such a 'small' sum. He asked Kratia if she wanted him to split it between the three of them and give her 8.4 million, but she shook her head.

"Aren’t you studying Perium, Kraita?"

"I haven't gotten started yet. Moreover, Perium didn't exist in my original world."

"Really?"

Surprisingly, levels and skills did exist in Kratia's original world. In that case, was this world more developed than her own? If not, then was the reverse true?

"Surplus karma that cannot be calculated comes in the form of Perium,” Kratia explained succinctly to the inquisitive Lee Shin-Woo. “In other words, you receive karma in different forms in different worlds. It's no better or worse than any other worlds' karma."

"Surplus karma, huh..." Lee Shin-Woo collected the Perium and muttered.

Surplus karma. It was through this surplus karma that Shino Rendu gained new equipment. In other words, Perium responded to Shino Rendu's new karma and transformed. If Lee Shin-Woo was able to direct its transformation...

[Master.]

Rem reported back while Lee Shin-Woo was thinking about how he would approach Perium. The Golem brought intels on the long-awaited enemy forces.

[I see a giant flying monster from afar. It's moving incredibly fast, and there was an undead riding on top of it.]

"Oooooh!"

A Monster Rider had appeared! Lee Shin-Woo hadn't encountered any monster riders aside from some goblins riding atop wolves. There was no way he wouldn't be excited at the news.

"Jin!"

"No matter how hopeful you sound, I'm not going to sprout wings."

"Can’t you just create a pair? After all, you’ve been making springs out of steel."

"I can't!"

Well, even if he could make wings out of steel, Jin wouldn't be able to fly in the sky. After all, Steel Wing was an attack move in Pokemon.

"You've given me pretty much all of the flying monsters’ bones thus far, yet nothing has happened. Give it up already."

"Tch... Rem, how's it going over there?"

[It's strange. There's only one coming our way. It seems like a scout. What would you like me to do?]

It was easy to forget, but Rem was a level 6 elite. Although Rem was focused on support skills that relied on stealth, Lee Shin-Woo had reinforced it with thousands of bones, granting it combat abilities befitting its level. Taking down a scout wouldn't be an issue for Rem.

"A scout... Alright, take it down."

[Understood.]

Nothing good would come of their opponent getting info on them before they even fought. Lee Shin-Woo ordered Rem to take it down. Rem charged forward, piercing through the monster's body while maintaining its stealth.

[Kuhahk!?]

Lee Shin-Woo watched as the flying monster's corpse and the undead rider fell from the sky. He shot one of his floating swords at it and, of course, hit the mark perfectly.

"What will they do now? Will they send more scouts, or will they attack us right away? How exciting."

They must think there was no way Lee Shin-Woo would find out and intercept their scout. He grinned as he imagined the Vulture General's flustered expression. Leisurely, he collected the corpses of the flying monster and the scout.

"You're going to give me that bone, aren't you?"

"You never know what can happen. Take it. Think of it as taking a tonic."

"I told you, I'm not going to sprout wings..."

Lee Shin-Woo gave Jin both of the two bones the flying monster dropped, as well as the scout's bone. He was acting like a test-taker who submitted his application to Seoul University despite knowing he would never get in. [1]

However…

"Huh...?"

"What is it? Are your shoulder joints feeling itchy?"

"No, that's not it."

Jin looked embarrassed. Lee Shin-Woo stared at him in anticipation, as though he was absolutely sure that it would work this time, but unfortunately, his wish still wasn’t granted.

"Stop deluding yourself and just focus on the coming battle, you dumbass."

"Damn it, I guess it didn't work this time either..."

Another 30 minutes passed. Lee Shin-Woo had the Titans man the catapults, while the level 7 elite, Ellata, was prepared to take off with her ability to manipulate earth.

[Arogan, you're ready, right?]

[Of course I am... They're really making us wait...]

They'd even formulated a plan that involved launching Arogan into the air. Once Arogan was there, he would taunt the enemy forces, acting like a magnet to pull a large number of them down to the ground.

[Master, they've arrived.]

[We've come as you've commanded, Sir Paul Zero!]

The Pauls arrived after completing their mission. Lee Shin-Woo ordered them to prepare for aerial warfare as well. If need be, Lee Shin-Woo would Instigate their flying mounts to control them.

The Vulture General. Is he going to be level 7 or level 8? If he's level 7, there's nothing to be afraid of. But if he's level 8, we'll probably struggle a bit... Even so, I don’t think we’ll lose. Our current forces will secure our victory even if the unexpected happens.

Of course, Lee Shin-Woo was far from reckless. He made all the preparation he could make for the coming battle. Seven fully charged Breath of the Lightning Gods sparked as they hovered around him, as though waiting for the moment Lee Shin-Woo would shoot them out.

"Ugh, my Lightning Resistance is going up again."

"But seriously, when are they going to get here?"

Despite their scout being dead for close to an hour now, he didn't see anyone in the sky. There was no way the scout was so far from the main force that it would take them an hour to get here. It would make sense for them to send another scout or a follow-up squad, yet the sky was empty.

"They're not traveling underground while pretending to come from the air, are they?"

"I looked just in case, but I don't see any signs of that."

Perplexed, Kratia tilted her head. At that moment, their second scout appeared. They knew that their previous scout had been taken out, yet they sent one that looked similar and was also similarly leveled!

Lee Shin-Woo was speechless. He ordered Rem to intercept the scout.

"The hell are they doing? Are they looking down on... Huh?"

[Keeeeehk!]

But the moment the scout helplessly fell from the sky, Lee Shin-Woo realized that he'd made a mistake. The scout was holding a crystal ball close to its chest, knowing it would die.

"Heup!"

Lee Shin-Woo thought it was some sort of communication line, so he immediately sent one of his swords to destroy it. The moment it shattered, he belatedly wondered whether it was some sort of explosive item and regretted his action, but fortunately, it wasn't.

The crystal ball turned out not to be a communication line like he'd first thought; Kratia recognized it upon collecting a shattered shard.

"This is...a visual transmitter."

It was a term Lee Shin-Woo was unfamiliar with, but the name conjured a clear enough image.

"Does it transmit what it’s observed?"

"Yeah. It's way more expensive than a communication line, and because it's a one-way street, it's not used very often. However, when it's difficult to relay something in words, there's nothing better than an image, so there's still a demand for it. Honestly, I didn't think a scout would carry around such a precious item..."

"And by sacrificing that transmitter, the enemy knows the condition of our troops..."

Lee Shin-Woo smiled bitterly. It was indeed a different world from the one he knew. He’d thought he'd gotten used to it here, but he hadn't expected such a method of surveillance to exist.

While they had intercepted the scouts from afar, the crystal ball must've gotten an image of his army and relayed it back to their enemies; the scouts had fulfilled their duty. He should've destroyed the transmitter right when he saw it. He was being punished for being so laidback when he saw that there was only one scout.

"There's a jammer that blocks this type of artifact, but only a nation’s government uses them. The fact that they're able to use image transmitters means that...there might be a jammer in the capital."

"Does that mean we can't use Huginn's Eye?"

"Huginn's Eye is a level 8 artifact, so most jammers won't be able to stop it. Especially if we limit its range and increase its output. There shouldn't be any way for them to block it then."

Good. They got him good this time, but Lee Shin-Woo would pay them back with Huginn's Eye later. I should learn more about different types of magical devices from Kratia, he thought as he turned around.

Now that the scouting was done, the general and his army would surely come at him one way or another. It wasn’t time to be angry; he should be encouraging his troops and perfecting his preparation for the upcoming conflict.

"...But why aren't they coming?"

Three more hours passed. Lee Shin-Woo wondered if he was wasting his time. How can flying enemies be so slow? Were they getting a feel for him right now? Were they waiting for his troops to be exhausted from their preparation?

"They should already know that our forces consist of undead and have endless endurance… And there's no way they’d know I'm a hero."

Although Kratia was human, she was not only covered in a robe, but also hiding her energy well. With her surrounded by undead, it should be difficult to notice that she was a human just by seeing an image of her. Lee Shin-Woo couldn't comprehend what their enemies could possibly be doing. He tilted his head in contemplation.

"What should we do? Should we just keep waiting?"

"...No, they're not going to show up even if we keep waiting. They're either waiting for us to slack off, or they want to move somewhere else. Either way, just staying here won't accomplish anything… Let's go."

"Where to?"

"Here."

Lee Shin-Woo opened his minimap and pointed to a particular location in the level 3 danger zone. It wasn't very far from here, and of course, it was situated in the Intermediate City, so there wouldn’t be any hero there. At the same time...

"If they won’t make a move, we'll just have to go around breaking stuff. We'll go from here, all the way to here... We've already conquered two cities, so let's make it our primary goal to conquer five total. If we do that and they still don't show up, they must have come to fight someone other than us."

"Shin-Woo, this..."

"Yeah."

The five dots Lee Shin-Woo had marked on his minimap—two of which had already been conquered—made a particular shape when connected.

"In order to draw them in, we'll conquer five cities in the shape of a cute star," declared Lee Shin-Woo.

Unfortunately, Lee Shin-Woo seemed to have gotten his hopes up for nothing. They had gone around and destroyed the three cities without even concealing their presence—given the size of his army, he wouldn’t be able to conceal them even if he wanted to. He could only hope that if they were unlucky enough to run into a hero, they wouldn’t attack unprovoked.

In the process, Lee Shin-Woo's title of Commander of Terror evolved into Commander of Fear, which granted a 15% buff to all subordinates under his command. And after purifying the three cities, he was rewarded with permits to Goddess’s Secret Shop, stat bonuses, and more Perium. However...

"Why the hell aren't they coming yet!?"

"Wow, it really is in the shape of a cute star!"

"Kratia... No, never mind."

In the end, he never got to clash with the Vulture General's forces.

1. T/N: Seoul University is considered one of the best universities in South Korea. ☜