[Low Rank Combat Sprint is now Lv8. Agility has increased by 2. Your instantaneous acceleration as well as dynamic visual acuity increase proportionally to your agility.]

[Low Rank Horseback Riding is now Lv3. Agility has increased by 1. By communicating with what you're riding, you can control it more easily.]

How long had he been holding out on top of Jin's back? At the end of this short but rigorous training period, his Low Rank Horseback Riding had risen to level 3; Lee Shin-Woo's and Jin's senses were gradually becoming one as a result.

"Huh!?" Jin gasped.

"Hoo, finally, I don’t feel like I’m going to faint anymore."

Since their senses had started to overlap, Jin had no choice but to slow down. If he ran at a speed beyond Lee Shin-Woo's capacity, he would start to feel dizzy as well!

"Wouldn't it be better if your skill didn't level up!? It’s slowing me down."

"No, you've been running like you’re lugging around a package on your back. I’ll liken you to a freight train. And now you’ve evolved into a trolley at best. You got my drift?"

Jin slowed down for the first time to a speed that Lee Shin-Woo was able to endure. To be honest, it would still be too fast for him without pushing Combat Sprint to its limit, but in any case, it was important that he was able to endure it.

"It's too slow. I'm bored..."

"For me, everything is still passing by a little too fast..."

By the time he noticed it, they were near their starting spot. In other words, they had managed to run a full lap around the city in a few hours!

...Actually, it might've even been a few laps.

"We haven't found anything yet. Let's take another lap."

"I guess we’ll have to..."

Jin began to sprint again. For the first time, Lee Shin-Woo felt like he was riding a horse and galloping away. He started to survey his surroundings.

Ever since he acquired Mana Bone, his mana senses had become more sensitive. By scanning the area with his senses, something stood out to him immediately. It was coming from behind them.

"Hey, the undead are following us!"

"It's only natural that they'd be following us around like that,” Jin said. “After all, we've been running around in the same city, and along the same route. I’ve actually shaken off a few of them earlier."

It was clear from Jin’s calm response that he had experienced this before. Well, he had been doing nothing but run until now, so it made sense it wouldn’t be the first time he had undead chasing behind him.

By running around the city, Jin had gathered all of the undead and managed to herd them all into one group; such control was amazing.

"Hey, have you thought about talking to them?"

"What kind of conversation could I have with those monsters!?"

This won't do. This guy isn’t right in the head! He's been running away from them like an idiot even though they’re both undead. If he had just lied to them, he would’ve been able to pass by without incident!

Lee Shin-Woo shook his head. He didn't realize that he was in fact the strange one. After all, not everyone could obtain the Acting skill.

"There's no good way to kite the mobs... Wait. Kiting the mobs?"

"...I don't really know what that means, but why does it sound so ominous?" Jin asked.

Kiting mobs was a term commonly used in RPG settings; when it was too troublesome to hunt down monsters one by one, a nimble player would aggro all the mobs in the area and gather them into one group.

If they worked with a class with access to area-of-effect skills, they would be able to deal with the mobs with dramatically better efficiency. Right now, Lee Shin-Woo had...

"Alright, let's take care of them and move on," said Lee Shin-Woo.

"Ugh, I knew it..."

Humans could always turn danger into an opportunity to grow. Lee Shin-Woo turned to face the mobs—To be exact, he had thought about turning around, and with his will conveyed to Jin, Jin had instinctively turned around. The effects of the leveled up Horseback Riding were definitely showing.

"Gah, this feels really weird."

"Sorry, but try to bear with it since it'll help in battle from now on."

As he spoke, Lee Shin-Woo thoroughly surveyed the area. Jin had skillfully drawn all the mobs while he was busy making sure that he wouldn’t fall off Jin’s back, and all the monsters were crowded in one place; the undead chasing after them amounted to at least several thousand.

They were mostly skeletons, but there were quite a few Ghouls mixed in, as well as animals and monsters which had died and become undead. Since zombies were slow, they had been lagging behind in the back.

"You’ve drawn all the undead in this city, huh."

"It seems to be part of the undead’s nature. As a group begins to gather, they cause a commotion, and that commotion further compels other undead to join; they end up forming a huge group when they manage to get a hold of themselves."

Seeing how unfazed Jin had been, Lee Shin-Woo blurted out after a stunned silence, "If a newbie hero was unlucky enough to get caught in the group, they would've died then and there."

"T-That's... I didn't think there'd be any other heroes besides me..."

"No, it's fine as long as you don't do it again from now on. You won't need to."

Lee Shin-Woo raised his hand, extended his index finger, and aimed at the undead swarming toward them.

"I know how powerful your skill is, but can you hit them with it...?” Jin asked with doubt. “You’re still at least 1 kilometer away. Should I get closer?"

"No, it's fine. I have something to prep before I shoot."

The first skill Lee Shin-Woo had to activate wasn't Catapult, but Acid Poison Spray.

Of course, he wasn't planning to spray his Acid Poison everywhere. He recalled how the Acid Ghoul and the King Slime had concentrated their Acid Poison into a single point, and focused his attention on the tip of his index finger. The poison, which had been generated by his mana, began to gather at his fingertip!

[Guwoooh...]

"They're getting closer."

"I'm almost done."

Mana Bone had been incredibly helpful to him in manipulating the mana permeating his bones. If he hadn’t acquired the skill, it would've taken a considerable amount of effort to complete the task. As it was, it was much easier for him to control his Acid Poison.

"Good."

Lee Shin-Woo pushed all of the Acid Poison he could gather into the tip of his index finger. Then he activated Flames of Revenge. Poison on the inside, flames on the outside!

With the experience he had gained, Lee Shin-Woo concentrated his flames until they became compressed and darkened to the maximum; It felt like his finger was burning with dark matter rather than fire. The visible flames covering his hand then disappeared, as if the middle section of his index finger had been cut off.

[Low Rank Flames of Revenge is now Lv2. Magic has increased by 3. The diffusion force of the flames has increased.]

Was it because he had concentrated the skill to one single spot? It had been a long time since his Flames of Revenge last leveled up. At the same time, the flames blazing at the tip of his index finger intensified. At that moment, Lee Shin-Woo figured out a new way to train his skill.

"I don't have flame resistance," Jin said.

Jin started to feel a growing heat from atop his back and shuddered uneasily. Because of the skill book he received from Lee Shin-Woo, he had acquired Acid Poison Resistance and was able to resist Acid Poison to some degree, but he wasn't resistant to fire of such intensity!

"It doesn't burn allies, so don't worry... I'm firing it!"

"Ugh..."

Lee Shin-Woo's index finger was launched with an almost imperceptible sound. Jin grimaced just by looking at it, but Lee Shin-Woo was accustomed to this kind of pain now, and didn't even flinch.

He checked the trajectory his index finger was drawing in the air and nodded in satisfaction. It was flying towards the center of the group of several thousand undead.

"How many of them do you think you'll kill with that?"

"All of them."

"All of them?"

"Yeah. As long as I take one more step."

"What step..."

Jin thought Lee Shin-Woo was out of his mind, but when he tilted his head, Lee Shin-Woo's Grenade had landed at the center of the group of undead; with the command to self-destruct, it exploded grandly. A fearsome force of flames and poison burst out instantaneously!

[Kuaaaaahk!]

[Kihiiiiiiiiiiiiii!]

Hundreds of level 1 undead at the center disappeared without time to scream, and even the level 2 and higher level undead took significant damage. Moreover, since the poison and the flames had the quality of diffusing into the surrounding area, they were quickly expanding to encompass all of the undead within range!

Lee Shin-Woo marveled at his own work. "Oh jeez, even the mana leaking from that is no joke."

"That attack was definitely incredible, but what are you going to do now!? Even if they're low leveled, there are several thousands of them!"

"So what we're going to do now is..."

Lee Shin-Woo measured the distance between them and the monsters. They were roughly 300 meters away. It wasn’t that far even by human standards, so more agile monsters would be able to reach them within a few seconds.

"Cover your ears."

"I don't have any ears, and I don't even have hands to cover them."

"Well, I guess it can't be helped. Tough it out."

And sound could travel the distance within a second.

"Kill yourselvessssssssssssssssssssssss!"

[You used Low Rank Shriek of the Dead, and the enemies in the entire area have fallen into a state of frenzy and fear!]

[You have succeeded in using the skill while engaging more than 1000 foes! Your proficiency in the skill improved dramatically. Low Rank Shriek of the Dead is now Lv5. Magic has increased by 3. The skill’s effect has become stronger, and its area of effect larger.]

"Urgh!"

Jin screamed in anguish from Lee Shin-Woo's brief, horrific shriek. However, since Jin was Lee Shin-Woo's ally, he wasn't affected by the skill in the least. It thus took him a bit of time to find out the effect of the skill.

"What the hell were you doing all of a sudden... Huh?"

Jin stopped short and quickly scanned his surroundings. The group of undead that had been furious and ready to tear into them immediately were no longer after them. They weren’t focused on Lee Shin-Woo or Jin at all.

[Enemies. So many enemies...!]

[My body is made of bones...!]

[Haha, I'll kill all the enemies of the Imperial Army!]

[Kyahaaaaahk!]

While making peculiar noises, they swung their swords and clubs at each other, which caught Jin completely off guard.

"That's... What the hell is this?"

"The best tactic for not getting your hands dirty with blood is to turn your enemies against each other. This will show up on the test, so make sure you remember it."

"..."

While Jin was still reeling from the shock, the monsters began to fight intensely amongst themselves, confirming Lee Shin-Woo's statement.

Furthermore, the monsters stayed put during their fight, so the flames and the poison soon covered the entire battlefield. The DOT damage continued to harm the thousands of monsters.

"It probably wouldn't be very effective against high level monsters, but it’s possible for me to slaughter a mob of lesser monsters now. As expected, you can only do it with a large-scale ability."

"A large-scale ability..."

Why does a level 3 skeleton have so many frightening abilities!? Jin didn’t ask the question, because he knew Lee Shin-Woo would just tell him it was all due to Bone Reinforcement, and that he should work harder, so Jin kept his mouth shut.

Meanwhile, Lee Shin-Woo had been concentrating on absorbing the surrounding mana to recover what he had used to maintain Flames of Revenge. The mana entered and left him instantaneously, so it was as if his entire body had become a passageway for mana.

[Gu...aah...]

[My... wife...]

Lee Shin-Woo was busy harmonizing with the mana, so he didn't notice the passage of time, but it all ended in 20 minutes.

The group of zombies that had arrived late joined the group and ended up caught by the flames. After they died horribly, they dropped Perium and bones. Once all the undead had completely disappeared... a message appeared in front of Lee Shin-Woo, one he hadn't expected at all.

[You have eliminated all the undead within the city 'Derita'. Though you haven't removed the curse, all the energy of death in the entire area has faded, so no more undead will spawn here.]

[You have acquired 1 permit for Goddess’s Secret Shop and 10,000 Perium. The proficiency of all your combat related skills increases.]

[Beginner Avenger is now Lv8. When you meet the target of your revenge again, all abilities will increase by 36%. Beginner Power Slash is now Lv9. The power of the skill increases.]

Out of all the messages, Lee Shin-Woo's attention lingered upon the message that appeared last.

[You have proven your qualification as a hero who serves the goddess’s will and lifts the darkness permeating the underground. You have acquired the Hero's karma token. The growth rate of all skills have increased by 10%. If you gather 10 of these tokens, you will become a true hero... But what a shame, it seems like this would be impossible for you.]

"Impossible, huh..."

"What's wrong?"

It seemed that Jin hadn’t received the same message since Lee Shin-Woo had been the one to ‘purify’ the city.

"It's nothing. It seems like I can't be a hero."

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

Lee Shin-Woo just shrugged and smiled. He had been getting stat points whenever he got a karma token up until now, but this time, he received a blessing that would increase his skill growth by 10% instead. He couldn't hold back his curiosity of what would happen if he obtained one more token.

However, was it good or bad that it had become impossible for him to complete the karma...? Even though he felt a little conflicted, he moved on to collect all the loot with Jin. Right now, he needed to focus on what he could do.