[We're finally outside!]

[Kek. Look at that mist; it was formed with concentrated curse... The outside world has gotten worse.]

[If you feel like you can't handle it, you have to get close and grab onto Paul Zero immediately!]

[Ahhh, we can't even find traces of our mothers anymore...]

The Dryads seemed elated at first when they got outside, but soon became depressed upon realizing how appalling the situation was. The Underground Empire was completely shrouded in the curse.

And the forest was actually a lot cleaner than the other areas, since undead couldn't make it deep into the forest!

[Eww, this wasn't the world I was looking forward to.]

[It's so unfortunate. You can't call it a world when all living beings are dead.]

[Is there nothing we can do for this world...?]

[Paul Zero, let's hurry up and go.]

Sinea spoke as the representative of the Dryads spiraling into depression. It was difficult to even offer any words of comfort, so Lee Shin-Woo simply nodded.

"Yeah. Follow me quickly."

[Okay...]

[I want to hurry and see living trees.]

[Me too...]

They ran silently. As Dryads couldn't live without trees, the strength they could exert was diminished, yet they were able to follow Jin while he ran at full speed. Jin had worried if he should slow down, but both he and Lee Shin-Woo ended up shocked by the Dryads’ speed.

[This horse is really fast!]

[I didn't think it'd be able to run as fast as a spirit!]

Despite their heavy hearts, they marveled at Jin's speed—Jin seemed happy about the attention even though he didn’t show it. The conversation got the spirits talking, and after a couple of them had said something, they changed the subject of their conversation to Lee Shin-Woo.

[Why is Paul Zero special?]

[What did you do before you died?]

"I was just a wandering knight."

[You're an Elementalist too, right? Right?]

"Actually, I'm not an Elementalist."

[That's impossible!]

Lee Shin-Woo explained himself to the Dryads with the personal profile of Paul Zero he had come up with. They were absolutely shocked when he said that he could use the elements directly without an intermediary, but they eventually came to a conclusion.

[Is Paul Zero actually a spirit?]

[A skeleton spirit...!]

[How cool! I knew he didn't feel like a stranger!]

"..."

It was getting troublesome to continue the conversation, so Lee Shin-Woo decided to let them think what they wanted. He would’ve preferred it if some undead monster appeared, but with a force of level 5 Dryads following him, it seemed the undead had instinctively sensed the danger and avoided them.

Hours passed as they ran. When they were close to the vineyard, Lee Shin-Woo performed a final check on the Dryads for the curse. It would be best if they were completely clean before entering.

"If you feel any discomfort caused by the curse, come over here."

[Okay. Excuse me.]

Sinea immediately approached him. While she hadn’t been corrupted thus far, it seemed she wasn’t immune to the curse once coming outside. When Lee Shin-Woo actually checked Sinea's condition, though, he couldn't help but be surprised.

"You seem pretty clean to me..."

[...Really? That's a relief.]

Is Sinea special amongst her people? Lee Shin-Woo thought as he completely extracted what little curse she was afflicted with.

Perhaps Sinea could tell what he was thinking about; she tightly gripped his hand and gazed at Lee Shin-Woo's skeletal face.

"We're here."

[This is it? I don't feel anything though.]

[You idiot. There's no way living trees would be above ground.]

[Oh, I see!]

Lee Shin-Woo arrived at the entrance he and Erian had used to leave the vineyard. It was quite far from the winery.

"Here."

[Ooooh!]

[It’s a dungeon!]

With a bit of controlled use of mana, Lee Shin-Woo opened the dungeon's entrance; the Dryads cheered and scrambled to get inside. As more than 300 Dryads entered instantaneously, Sinea turned around to look at Lee Shin-Woo and tilted her head.

[Paul Zero, you're not going in?]

"I'll go in after setting up the safety measures."

[Okay. Thank you.]

As soon as all the Dryads went into the dungeon, Lee Shin-Woo crouched down and tinkered with the entrance. Threads of mana branched out from his hand.

"What are you doing?" Jin asked.

"Nothing much. I'm just trying to copy the winery's security measures."

"...You can do that?"

"Why not?"

Jin looked dazed. While Lee Shin-Woo exceeded his expectations all the time, he felt as though the man had reached a height he couldn’t even begin to comprehend after undergoing various experiences with him.

"You said you didn't know how to use magic."

"It's simple once you learn the trick to it. You can't even call it magic. It's more like intuition."

Jin had his own hunch the moment he heard that response. The 'intuition' Lee Shin-Woo was talking about was definitely different from the intuition he knew about!

"Done... Now most people won't be able to harm the spirits inside. Good, let's get going."

"I have no idea what you just did, though..."

As soon as Lee Shin-Woo and Jin entered, the entrance softly shut and was camouflaged with the surrounding landscape.

It would be impossible to discover it unless someone like the twelve generals got involved. Even Lee Shin-Woo wasn't aware of it, but his magic abilities were growing at an incredibly fast rate.

[Waaaah!]

[They're really grapevines!]

[It's filled with trees! It's overflowing with life!]

By the time they went down, the Dryads had already sensed the overflowing life energy and found the orchard filled to the brim with grapevines.

The two sources of such refreshing energy met, permeating the room with brightness. To be more specific, the Dryads' voices assaulted his ears so hard that it was almost unbearable.

[They're really alive...!]

[Ah, there really are living trees left...!]

Upon discovering the lines of trees emitting such vigorous energy within the vast, underground orchard, the Dryads each cradled one of the trees and expressed joy with their entire bodies. The grapevines that had been graced by the Dryads radiated with even greater vigor than before.

[These children are so healthy!]

[How could they be so pure again when they were dirtied by human hands? This is...]

[An elf. It's an elf!]

As expected, these Dryads quickly figured out what had happened to these trees as tree specialists. When they saw Lee Shin-Woo come down, they latched onto him and bombarded him with questions.

[Paul Zero, were you an elf before you died?]

[I had that feeling about you!]

"No, I’m not. This place was already like this by the time I found it."

[I see...]

[There might be an elf still living in the Empire.]

[I want to meet that elf!]

But that elf wasn't born in the Empire... Lee Shin-Woo smiled wryly and approached them. He was going to weed out any remaining curse within them just in case.

The Dryads obediently allowed Lee Shin-Woo to do so and eventually, he purified them completely.

"Now we're finished."

[We're all done?]

"Yeah. You guys can just keep living here now."

[Ah...]

Lee Shin-Woo had safely moved them to their new home, and just like he promised, provided them with living trees. He'd also blocked off the entrance so that most wouldn’t be able to enter, and had absorbed the curse from them in its entirety. For all that, they had been ready to do whatever he wished in return.

[Thank you so much for helping us, Paul Zero.]

[But we don't know what we can do for you.]

[We could've been a lot more helpful back when there was much more of our kind.]

Lee Shin-Woo had explained to them what he had done outside—with a healthy dose of lies, of course—and his noble intent of purifying the Empire and destroying the undead. Again, that was disingenuous. The Dryads were understandably impressed, while Jin looked at Lee Shin-Woo like he was a swindler, which didn’t really bother him.

[Paul Zero.]

Sinea stepped forward. She had picked the toughest and most vigorous grapevine as her own, and perhaps because of that, the grapevine was already starting to radiate a brilliant energy.

[You're our savior. We can never fully repay you for that, but we want to repay you in any way possible. We must.]

"...Mm."

They would probably look favorably upon him if he said he didn't want a reward, but Lee Shin-Woo didn't respond like that. If he lied too much, there was a chance the Dryads would get suspicious of him.

"To be honest... There is something I wanted from you."

[Just tell us. We'll do anything in our power to help you.]

Sinea seemed happy that he told her he wanted something. The Dryads truly were gullible; it seemed that just anyone would be able to fool them. Lee Shin-Woo wasn’t going to complain, of course. He was the one currently fooling them while receiving high praise.

"I told you that I was trying to purify the Empire, right?"

[Yeah. To be honest... I think it'll be difficult.]

"There are people who are helping me. They're fighting somewhere else right now. Some of them are undead, and some of them aren't."

[...]

They weren’t really surprised since Lee Shin-Woo himself served as an example. Hearing that, Sinea momentarily stood still before she slowly nodded.

[You're saying that there's still hope in this world... Like these living trees that have survived in this seemingly dead world.]

"Yeah. And I want you to be a part of that hope."

[Mmm.]

He wasn't asking something from them, but was asking them to stand alongside him. Sinea murmured to herself. It wasn't an easy decision to make as the representative of the Dryads. However...

"Just staying here is enough for now. Nevertheless, there may come a day when I need your help. I would like you to give me a hand then."

[...Hoo.]

Sinea agonized over it, but ultimately, there was only one way for her to respond. It was something that all the Dryads wanted anyway.

[I...as well as everyone else, would like to purify the Empire.]

"I appreciate you thinking that way."

[I'm the one...who's thankful.]

Lee Shin-Woo extended his hand first, and Sinea grabbed it firmly. It was truly a surreal sight.

"Ah, now that you mention it."

After they finished shaking hands, Lee Shin-Woo took a step back; he suddenly remembered something and searched through his inventory before taking out a stone radiating a turbid green. It was the spirit stone that contained the power of the Dryads.

[T-That's...!]

"I know how you feel, but just give me a sec."

When he'd first acquired it, he thought he wouldn't be able to do anything to it, but it was a different story now that he could suck out the curse with Jin's ability. When he glanced at Jin, Jin shrugged and nodded.

[Does that contain our mothers' strength...?]

[Look. The light's gradually becoming clearer.]

It might've been difficult for Lee Shin-Woo and Jin to do this had the spirit stone been an ordinary item, but because it was an item that contained the power of spirits they'd encountered already, it was much easier than normal to extract the swirling curse within.

'Wow, Blessing of Death has gone up again! Now I can die five times!'

'That's nice.'

Though the darkness permeating the spirit stone was quite strong, once Lee Shin-Woo gained momentum, he was able to vigorously draw out the curse. In the end, the spirit stone returned to its perfect, pure state in less than a few minutes.

[Spirit Stone holding the power of the Dryads]

The item's description had changed. The vividly green spirit stone was filled with so much elemental power that it felt like it would explode at any moment!

While Lee Shin-Woo had a feeling that he could absorb the power himself...it would be better to give it to someone who could absorb it best rather than wasting it just to increase his magic a little.

"Here, take it."

[You're giving it to me...?]

"Of course. It belongs to your people."

[Ah...]

Sinea accepted it with trembling hands. As he expected, the magic within the spirit stone harmonized with Sinea at that moment, and the stone burst into brilliant light!

Lee Shin-Woo watched closely as Sinea absorbed the magic from the spirit stone and was reborn. The other Dryads also silently approached and bore witness without saying a word. They seemed to know exactly what she was going through.

[Lv6 Dryad Princess - Sinea]

When the light subsided, and Sinea could be seen once again, the spirit stone was no longer in her hands.

But the fact remained that her level and title had changed, as well as her power; her presence was completely different than before, proving that the spirit stone hadn't disappeared in vain.

[Thank you so much, Paul Zero.]

There wasn't much change to her physique, but she possessed much more mana than before, and her mana was much clearer now. As a being composed of mana, her dress had become more splendid as well. He supposed that signified her higher level than the others.

[We're... We will keep our promise to you. Always.]

Her voice was trembling with enthusiasm and happiness, which made clear how she was feeling. As expected, these spirits really are messed up in the head, Lee Shin-Woo inwardly muttered.

[Even if we die at the end of it, we will always...] Sinea declared while gazing deeply at Lee Shin-Woo.

In a noble tone, Lee Shin-Woo interjected, "No, it'll be pointless if you die. You don't have to go that far."

Everything is going as planned.