[Paul Zero, you have to come see us again!]

[Heuk, heuk[1]. Paul Zero, don't leave.]

[Bye, Paul Zero!]

When Lee Shin-Woo said that he would depart immediately, the Dryads' 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 with tears streaming down their cheeks.

Their initial shock and indignation of him being a skeleton were nonexistent at this point. That was usually how things went. While first impressions seemed to be of utmost importance, they were ultimately long forgotten now.

"I said I'd come back."

[You have to!]

[Since we want to repay you for introducing us to such lovely trees!]

"Yeah. I promise to visit you again."

Though he had used a false name, Lee Shin-Woo suddenly thought that perhaps the relationship he had established with the Dryads was more honest than his relationship with the heroes he conversed with in the chatroom.

[Paul Zero, whenever you need our help, just give us a call.]

Sinea, as the representative of the Dryads, stepped forward and gently hugged Lee Shin-Woo as she said her farewells. He softly tapped on Sinea's shoulder with his skeletal hand.

"Yeah, I'll do that. I promise."

[Take this.]

She handed Lee Shin-Woo a small grapevine branch, which was infused with the magic of a Dryad Princess. It might prove useful as a material for an artifact. Fortunately, the branch didn’t transform into a bone when he took it.

[If you break this branch, I'll come to your side no matter where you are.]

"...Thanks."

He felt like his lie had worked almost too well, but Lee Shin-Woo meekly took the branch.

Sinea looked relieved when she saw Lee Shin-Woo pocket the branch—put it in his inventory—and kissed his forehead...his frontal skull. In a voice only he could hear, she whispered, [An undead who's not undead; an undead free of the energy of death. I hope that one day I can return to you your true self that has been hidden by the appearance of a skeleton.]

"..."

Lee Shin-Woo was slightly surprised, but he didn’t give it away. It seemed like his silence was enough for her, though, and Sinea smiled softly before stepping back. She had instantly gained a commanding presence upon absorbing the spirit stone and being reborn as a Dryad Princess.

'Good for you.'

'Ah, knock it off.'

Jin was jealous that Lee Shin-Woo was monopolizing all of the Dryads' attention, and he quarreled with him inwardly as they left the orchard. Of course, they weren't going above ground immediately. Instead, they followed the railway to the winery and left through that exit.

By doing so, Lee Shin-Woo wouldn't 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 accumulate energy and grow there.

Moreover, their leader, Princess Sinea, had promised to aid him unconditionally; he couldn't ask for a better result. If he were still human, he probably would've sighed in satisfaction right now; it was quite unfortunate that he couldn't.

"In any case, that’s the end of it."

"When I'm with you, everything becomes so hectic that I can't even remember what we were originally trying to do."

Jin’s comment resonated with Lee Shin-Woo somewhat. When he thought about it, he hadn't originally set out to save the Dryads. He'd just gone to the forest using the knowledge he gained from Vitas' troops to level up his Acid Resistance.

He couldn't really tell how he ended up in this situation. He had only ever acted according to his instincts. Things just turned out this way!

"But you were able to rest a little because of the Dryads after we've been fighting all this time,” Lee Shin-Woo said. “Plus, you got to see some beautiful women."

"If that constitutes 'taking a break', how much do we have to move around for it to be called 'hectic'? ...Besides, all those beautiful women were flirting with you!"

"Haha."

It seemed like Jin had been bottling up 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, which allowed them to escape the throes of death. Maybe Lee Shin-Woo would become the first undead to die by overwork.

"I got it. You used your curse absorption on them, and you've been working really hard lately, so let's take our time for now."

"That's not what I wanted to say, but…” Jin mumbled. “You said it, not me, so no take-backs."

"Alright. We won't do anything related to our resistances or dungeons for now."

"...Hmm."

Jin sounded quite satisfied! However, as soon as Lee Shin-Woo relayed his next destination to Jin through Assimilation, his voice turned stiff again.

"Hey. That’s where that senior who turned into an undead is."

"Yep."

Lee Shin-Woo was going to make his way to an area that was somewhere between a level 2 danger zone and a level 3 danger 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 check if Metafel had left as well.

"You said we wouldn't do anything regarding resistances or dungeons!"

"While we're taking it slow and sightseeing, I wanted to see how our senior is doing."

"And going after him."

"Why do you have to say it like that? I just want to inherit my senior's will. If I can, his abilities as well."

"You cruel bastard..."

While Lee Shin-Woo had responded flippantly, he didn't actually feel all too good about this. There was no way he could be happy about fighting his now undead senior when the man had never treated him badly. Although he was both a swindler and an actor, he wasn't a psychopath.

...Even so, it's not something I can avoid. And it's not something I should avoid.

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 didn't have time to waste on pointless sentiments.

"You'll go with me, right?"

"Fine, you asshole."

"I wasn't joking when I said we should go slowly. You don't need to go full speed."

"Why?"

Jin inclined his head, looking for the direction the sun rose even though no such sun existed in the Underground Empire. Lee Shin-Woo just shrugged.

"Since we've been growing too rapidly thus far. We need the time to examine and get used to our abilities."

"That really doesn't sound like something you would say..."

Jin snorted in disbelief, but he did as Lee Shin-Woo said and began moving slowly—it was still too quick for others to even see him, but it was a leisurely stroll for Jin.

Good. Right now my abilities are...

Lee Shin-Woo got comfortable on Jin's back as if it were the living room of his house. He examined both his stats and skills.

Thus far, he'd encountered similar enemies and fought similar battles in the Forest of the Dryads, and had concentrated on using his skills. If he didn't 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.

I'll put Acid Resistance aside for a while. The same goes for the Acid element as well... The method I figured out at the end of the training wasn't bad, though.

Following that thought, he decided to summon some weapons into the air. Outside of the armor set he was wearing now, he could summon four pieces of equipment. All four weapons he ended up summoning were the Lightning Tooth.

When he fought in the Forest of the Dryads, the axe was the most appropriate weapon with its Acid element, but in normal situations, the Lightning Tooth was the best for the powerful lightning it could conjure. Meanwhile, the Drake Horn Lance was obviously an impressive weapon, but it bothered him that it didn't have an element.

"You're not going to throw those, are you?"

"Don't worry. Just keep your eyes to the front."

Magic. The mysterious energy that inhabited all existence. It could possess an infinite number of properties depending on the wielder. However, one characteristic of magic was that those properties couldn't be maintained for very long when mana was poured into something from the outside.

However, that rule isn't applied to my bones, which are both my equipment as well as part of my body.

To be more exact, Lee Shin-Woo made it so that the rule didn't apply. It sounded easy, but it required a substantial amount of willpower and concentration.

While splitting his magic into four different streams and injecting that mana into his weapons, he absorbed the mana from the environment into his body to replenish his magic. It wasn't easy, but if he was able to do this naturally, his combat ability would improve as well.

Rather than trying to detonate the weapons with the infused mana, I need to become proficient in collecting that mana back and using it.

If he did so, his Bone Armory would be more than a simple storage and become an extension of his body. Then Lee Shin-Woo could gain power that couldn't be measured strictly through levels!

My total stats are already at 3,093. I only need another 107 points to reach level 6...

He'd claimed that he could get to level 6 in a month when he was still level 4, and ever since he'd reached level 5, he'd made the best choice he could in most situations, so it would be strange if Lee Shin-Woo hadn't 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 level higher than Lee Shin-Woo, but now, there was a difference of about 500 stats between them. Still, at the very least, Jin had Child of Light, which tripled his agility growth, so the disparity between him and Lee Shin-Woo hadn't grown any larger.

The number of skills we have are way too different though.

Jin only had a few skills he could use—Steel Heart being the main one—and had been concentrating on those few skills, whereas Lee Shin-Woo had trained the variety of skills he'd gained from Bone Reinforcement as much as possible.

Most low rank skills wouldn't increase one's stats very much while leveling up, but entering the intermediate rank, even the most lousy looking skills would increase one's stats by at least 5, which would explain the stats gap between Lee Shin-Woo and Jin.

It doesn't seem like Jin can obtain as many skills as me even when I reinforce him with the same amount of bones... It can't be helped. This might be the direction our respective karmas are going.

Moreover, there was a difference in the amount of bones the two of them could absorb with Jin being able to take only a fixed number at once; it would probably be better if Lee Shin-Woo gave up on equalizing their stats.

Of course, it didn’t mean Jin wouldn't be helpful if his level dropped below Lee Shin-Woo's. His sprint-related skills, the way his body was designed for running, and above all, his outstandingly high agility compared to his other stats would all contribute to Lee Shin-Woo's strength.

"Shin-Woo. Shin-Woo!"

"Yeah?"

"Look over there."

Jin’s voice broke Lee Shin-Woo out of his rumination about their future. Because of their connection, Lee Shin-Woo immediately knew what Jin was talking about. It was a city. The amount of death energy coming from the city confirmed that it hadn't been purified by other heroes.

"What do you think?” Jin asked. “Should we stop by?"

"...Yeah. I suppose we could stop by before continuing our trip."

It should be fine since it had nothing to do with resistances or dungeons. Lee Shin-Woo shrugged and took Jin's offer. Neither of them realize how much Jin had already changed under Lee Shin-Woo’s influence.

Exactly three hours later, they managed to purify the city. Anyone would be shocked to hear that they had cleared a level 2 danger zone city in such a short amount of time. The two skeleton heroes, however, had already forgotten what it meant to be 'normal'.

1. T/N: Crying sound. ☜

2. E/N: His identity as a Joker and/or his adaptability. ☜