Did the Great Slime (+3) already wipe out all of the Slimes as it passed by? It was so silent that his noisy fight earlier with the Great Slime felt like a fever dream.

And it’s too clean here. Ah, was all the filth melted by the acid?

A Slime’s acid would become more potent after it evolves into a Great Slime. It would melt solids and evaporate liquids; it was only natural for the sewers to become this clean after a Slime spewing such horrific acid had crawled through them. That, however, begged the question of why the passageway was completely intact.

I know it’s far-fetched, but for the sewer system to accommodate the Slimes so well… It’s almost as if the Slimes are meant to be here.

He wondered what the Empire had looked like while it was prosperous, and he couldn’t get the thought out of his head. He might never find the answer to his question… A wistful smile would’ve tugged at his lips if he had lips. He went back to exploring the sewers.

"...Hmm?"

There was an indent on the left passageway, which, upon closer inspection, was a square that would comfortably fit the palm of his hand. He found traces of hidden mana at its center. It felt extremely old.

Is this perhaps...

This looks like those fingerprint scanners in movies. Lee Shin-Woo didn’t ponder for long before placing his hand on the square. To his surprise, the square began to glow and protrude out of the wall. Beyond any doubt, it was a lock!

"Hoo...!"

Lee Shin-Woo was excited. He must have found a secret in the dungeon! Immediately, he pushed his mana into the square, but things didn’t unfold as swimmingly as he thought. The square turned red suddenly and glowed ominously, but that was all it did. Nothing else had changed. Of course, it wasn’t beyond what he had expected. It was a lock, so there was no way it'd open just because he’d put a little mana into it.

Be that as it may, Lee Shin-Woo could tell that the structure didn’t respond to only a certain individual’s mana. He could sense faintly, very faintly, mana left by different humans who had once stood before this very lock.

Then… does it require the mana to flow in a certain pattern?

Unlocking it now was difficult. It had probably been dozens of years since this lock was last activated, and it was so terribly worn out that it'd be difficult to ascertain the origin of the fading traces of mana.The saving grace was that there were countless impressions left, and their strands of mana all overlapped; he believed he would be able to get some meaningful result if he analyzed the flow of the mana.

It'll probably be a lot of work, but... shall we?

There should still be some time left before the Great Slime cleaned this dungeon up completely. Lee Shin-Woo concentrated on the door lock and began to thoroughly analyze the faint traces of mana.

Figuring out a starting point is important. Yeah, here it is... No, is it this part?

From what he could gather, he had to fulfill a few conditions to open the lock: draw the mana to the center of his palm, and use that mana to create a specific pattern. Not only does the pattern need to be precisely the right one, the starting and ending point of the mana flow would also have to be correct. He extended his senses in earnest and analyzed the lock’s design, identifying and eliminating the false traces purposefully left on the lock. He had fun; it felt like he was playing some sort of puzzle game.

[Low Rank Magic Accumulation is now Lv2. Magic has increased by 2.]

"Ah, it goes up."

The process of opening the lock was the same as opening a dungeon. Perhaps carrying out similar tasks would always improve his proficiency in magic related skills. Occupied with his pursuit of skills and stats, Lee Shin-Woo didn’t even realize what he was doing was something amazing. With a single-minded focus, he continued to analyze the lock. Finally, he was able to determine the pattern.

[Low Rank Magic Affinity is now Lv8. Magic has increased by 5.]

"It's a skull. That’s some poor taste."

He had a rough understanding of what the people gathering here had come for. However, choosing a skull as the pattern for the lock… Lee Shin-Woo couldn't help but laugh at the irony. It made sense that the lock should be difficult to open, though.

In any case, I just need to find the starting point and the end point now.

They had gone to amazing lengths to hide the doorway in the sewers and even maintain the security over it thoroughly, so he probably wouldn't get through scot free if he got this wrong. Lee Shin-Woo took a deep breath and concentrated even harder on the pattern. To be exact, he concentrated on the flow of the mana traces left by those who had been here dozens of years prior. However, there was no way it'd be that simple.

Damn it...

He gritted his teeth. Lee Shin-Woo thought he might've been too arrogant to attempt this since he hadn’t been handling mana for very long. However, never for a moment had he thought about giving up. It had been nothing short of a miracle for him to identify the right pattern. Now he had no choice but to have faith in his talent and concentrate.

Ah!

Lee Shin-Woo concentrated hard on the pattern, even harder than when he was taking the national college entrance exam, and at that moment, he miraculously grasped the faint mana flow. It was an almost imperceptible trace, but he could sense it getting absorbed into the pattern. Lee Shin-Woo could even go as far as to guess the owner of that mana trace—he had experienced a fragment of the person’s memory earlier. It was none other than the mage Gerrit, who had burnt and killed his zombified teacher.

Wait, I’m confusing the cause and the result. I was able to identify the mana trace only because it was left by Gerrit. And I’ve had the experience of inhabiting his body. More importantly, the fact that Gerrit had been here means that this facility is related to General Seagald.

He knew that Gerrit wanted to meet with General Seagald from the memory he had acquired from the bone. This facility had been built within the sewers to perform some form of research. And Seagald and Gerrit… Lee Shin-Woo didn’t know exactly what had happened between them, but in his mind, he could come up with a pretty convincing story.

"Let's uncover their secret."

Once he identified one of the mana traces left, he was able to easily identify the rest. In his head, the different streams of mana came together to form a cohesive whole.

I got it!

He inwardly yelled with delight and placed his hand carefully on the door lock; and after going through the simulations in his head several times to make sure he got it right… He reproduced the flow. Blackish mana slowly and carefully traced the pattern of a skull. Eventually, the pattern was completed, and rather than heating up, the lock glowed gently of blue and retracted back into the wall. At that moment, a larger square pattern appeared. It was a door that would allow him to enter the secret room!

[Releasing door lock.]

It was a miracle; he had revived something from several decades ago... A part of lost history had been revived due to Lee Shin-Woo, and as if in response, the mana within his body intensified, surged, and exploded. The innumerable fragments of knowledge connected with his intrinsic talent, causing a big bang that he couldn't contain!

[You have acquired the passive skill, Magic Tracking Lv1! Magic has increased by 3.]

[Low Rank Magic Affinity, Low Rank Magic Accumulation, and Low Rank Magic Tracking have compounded and evolved.]

His ability to sense, absorb, and track magic came together as one. In his mind emerged a method that would allow him to produce, circulate, and utilize mana more effectively. It was something he couldn't have even dreamed of until now. It was absurdly complex and headache inducing, but... it was now within his reach. Lee Shin-Woo nodded and accepted the mysterious feeling, ingesting the knowledge and applying it.

[You have acquired the special passive skill, Low Rank Mana Bone Lv5! Magic has increased by 30.]

At that moment, mana spread through his body, leaving no bones untouched and triggering a fundamental change in him!

[Low Rank Mana Bone Lv5 (Passive)]

[Originally, humans were organisms that did not welcome mana. Through their strong tenacity as well as their talent, they came up with a method to harmonize with mana. In order to better handle the mana throughout their body as they pleased, the mana is absorbed, created, and circulated by an imaginary organ that covers the heart. They called it the mana heart.]

[However, you are a skeleton without a heart, so you have done something outrageous and substituted the mana heart with your entire skeletal body. That is an unbelievable leap, and impossible to even attempt if you did not have a considerable understanding in handling mana.]

[By finding a common ground between the vast knowledge you’ve acquired, your talent in magic, and the special condition of your existence, this astonishing skill was born, and no one besides yourself knows its potential for growth.]

It was truly an odd feeling. It felt as though he had taken off some unnatural clothes and gotten thrown into a world filled with mana naked. Mana was integrated into all 206 bones of his body, and each individual bone was now more closely connected to one another.

Of course, controlling all 206 bones simultaneously while controlling his mana was certainly not easy. Even though he was aided by the skill, there was way too much to focus on all at once, and he was afflicted with a pain that felt as though he was being split apart. It wasn't a joke; his bones might shatter if he lost control and got flooded by his mana. He would have to constantly exert himself to adapt to the skill from now on.

[The invigorated flow of mana increases the body's reaction speed.]

[The invigorated flow of mana shortens the activation time of all skills.]

[You have successfully absorbed some outside mana and stored it. Magic has increased by 1.]

However, enduring the pain was bound to lead to sweet rewards. He'd only tasted a portion of it, yet it became clear that the effectiveness of his mana had made a considerable leap. Even the process of manifesting, collecting, and producing mana had been improved! For the first time, Lee Shin-Woo felt like he had the right to call himself a hero. And… there was something else adding to that qualification.

[At only level 3, you have acquired a portion of the qualification necessary to walk the path of an Archmage, one who naturally commands nature and changes the world. Magic has increased by 20. You have acquired the Archmage's karma token.]

[Quest complete! You have acquired a Lv6 Weapon, Trickster's Arm Bone.]

[You have acquired the Trickster's karma, but you are merely at the level of a toddler. The more personas you acquire, the more your strength grows. That is the path you have chosen, as well as the karma you have been bestowed.]

"Hoo..."

He had just been trying to find the secret room, yet had experienced a sudden change, one that he couldn't dream of; even after calming down the rushing mana, he momentarily stood still in order to get a hold of himself. Lee Shin-Woo kept control of the mana and circulated it. He could sense the mana his bones generated as well as the external mana resonating with his. The feeling was so very strong that he believed he would get nauseous with the slightest slip. It felt like riding a roller coaster.

I'd rather just vomit, but these damn bones won't let me.

It wasn't an issue that could be dealt with in a short amount of time, though thankfully it wasn’t impossible. Just like how human beings could breathe and blink naturally without any awareness, he was training his Mana Bone to operate unconsciously.

That’s easier said than done, though...

Lee Shin-Woo smiled bitterly and stayed in place for the moment. He didn’t know how long it had taken him, but by the time he was able to move as usual despite his headache, Lee Shin-Woo sighed in relief and checked the bone he had gotten as a quest reward.

[Lv6 Weapon, Trickster's Arm Bone]

[A Trickster's arm bone. It was used as a weapon to cajole their enemies. Herein lies a rich reserve of experience that would reform one's existence.]

"Huh..."

It was overwhelmingly distinctive compared to the other bones he had absorbed thus far; he couldn't suppress his admiration as he inspected the bone. It had an awfully large amount of mana within; it was incredibly sturdy, and most noticeably, each of the finger bones was shaped differently. Perhaps the Trickster didn't need a weapon. He decided that it would be important to figure out how this weapon was connected to the Trickster; for now he’d reinforce...

[The skill activation has failed. You are not prepared to receive the strength within the bone yet.]

...Ah, finally something like this happened.

He had predicted this to some extent, but it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. He wanted to complain about being given a mouth-watering bone when he couldn’t make use of it, but thinking about it in another way, wasn’t it amazing that he had cleared a quest that was clearly far above his level?

Well, I’ll be able to absorb it soon.

Since Bone Reinforcement didn’t work on the arm bone at the moment, he would put it aside and forget about it for now. Lee Shin-Woo inspected the bone with a deeply regretful expression, and in the end, put it into his inventory. Well, he already had his hands full adapting to and applying Mana Bone, the skill he had just awakened. This may actually be better for me, Lee Shin-Woo said to himself as he looked up.

The secret door that had revealed itself for the first time in decades looked worn out.

Alright.

Lee Shin-Woo firmly resolved himself and placed his hand on the door. The door silently rose up. It moved so smoothly that it was difficult to believe the door had been undisturbed for decades. Records about General Seagald and research related to Gerrit... Thinking about the secrets he would unveil excited Lee Shin-Woo. However, what awaited him on the other side of the door was…

[Keuhaaaaaaahk!]

A skeleton without an inch of flesh on its bones attacked him out of the blue!