[Lee Shin-Woo: I'll get going now. Talk to you later.]

[Lloyd H.K.: Alright. Don't die, Lee Shin-Woo. Hmm... Anyway, let's talk later.]

[Erian Ruparte: Are you leaving already? Jin-Jin will be disappointed.]

[Prince Altania: Just putting this out there, but don't try to start anything romantic. If your relationship gets too deep, and one of you dies first, the other will go crazy.]

[Lee Shin-Woo: Romance? Hahaha...]

It seemed that his seniors had come to the wrong conclusion after hearing that he’d saved a hero of the opposite sex, but…so long as Ye Jin-Jin didn’t have a extremely niche fetish, he didn’t think they had anything to worry about.

What would his seniors think if they knew that he was an undead? Lee Shin-Woo couldn't stop laughing at the thought. As soon as he left the chatroom, Jin called out to him.

"We’ve arrived, Shin-Woo."

"Wow."

It had only been a few minutes since he started talking to his seniors, yet the landscape around him had completely changed. They had been traveling through a flatland only a moment ago, but right now, they had reached the edge of a plateau.

"The view's nice."

"You think the view's nice? It's terrible compared to the natural environment in my world... Looking at this place makes me nauseous."

Lee Shin-Woo snorted. Jin wasn’t wrong. There was nothing natural about the underground empire. The curse had withered all the grass, flowers, and trees, leaving the Empire a barren land of rock, dilapidated buildings, filth, and undead. Still, he could appreciate the view while looking down from this vantage point; it actually looked quite nice.

It felt like the moment Charlie Chaplin won 1st place again. It was natural to find beauty in the hard battles fought when looking back at one’s life. Even the dirty and barren underground empire looked nice from afar.

"You'll have to survive in this Empire from now on, so try your best."

"I'm really jealous of that mentality of yours."

They looked over their shoulders at where they had come from. They had departed only a short while ago, so they could still see the city in the near distance; strangely, while the surrounding area was completely covered with a black mist, the city was left untouched, which might have resulted from them clearing out all of the undead occupying the area.

"Hmm...?"

At that moment, Lee Shin-Woo discovered something peculiar. He wanted to see what lay beyond the city, but there was a gargantuan wall that obscured his vision. He gasped, wondering how far the wall extended.

Upon closer inspection, he spotted a huge hole at the bottom of the wall. It was a passageway that allowed access into the city.

"That’s...the external passageway leading to the surface. Is that where the Empire’s territory ends?"

"How do you think they built a wall like that...?"

“That’s the opposite of what has taken place. They dug through the ground and created the Empire, so they probably weren't the ones who built the wall. The Empire must have reinforced the wall, though."

In a sense, that was even more amazing. They had dug down deep and wide enough to fit the Empire, and reinforced the structure so that the ceiling and walls wouldn't collapse... Lee Shin-Woo’s response made Jin realize something. With a vacant look on his face, he said, "I can't imagine something like this in my home world."

"Huh, so your world doesn’t have magic, either."

"I'm more surprised that you came from a world without magic."

Lee Shin-Woo chuckled and turned around. They couldn't marvel at the scale of the Empire forever. Rather than figuring out the magic used to create the Empire, it was more important to improve his stats right now.

"Then... Huh?"

Lee Shin-Woo looked around and wondered where he should start his conquest. However, all he could see was the plateau they were standing on, and there was no undead in sight.

The explanation was simple: at the end of the day, undead were born out of living beings, and thus generally appear in environments that could foster life, rather than a place with only rocks and boulders.

"I don't sense any undead here."

"You were looking for monsters. I never said anything about them being undead."

"You're right, but...aren’t most monsters moving around in this underground undead?"

Lee Shin-Woo recalled the truism about the curse covering the Empire that had remained unchallenged: the curse would kill all living organisms and transform them into undead. It had already been several decades since the curse had emerged, so there shouldn't be any other living organisms within the Empire aside from the heroes.

The only exception would be the living organisms living in isolated habitats cut off from the Empire, namely the dungeons. Even so, cursed individuals would end up becoming undead after they die in the dungeons. Like the Pauls who were in the secret facilities.

"Nope. Some aren’t."

Jin stubbornly disagreed. Lee Shin-Woo sighed. He didn’t know what to do with this newbie, but soon, he found out that Jin was right.

[Sensing mana from living bodies. Initiating action.]

[Stopping outside entry. Automatically removing trespassers unless directed otherwise.]

[Lv3 Stone Golem]

[Lv3 Stone Golem]

"Oh..." Lee Shin-Woo gasped.

"See, what did I tell you?"

The rocks and boulders Lee Shin-Woo had previously overlooked converged to form a couple of giant figures. He gaped at them, too dumbfounded to say a word. Instead, he simply nodded as Jin crowed about being right.

They weren't alive per se, so there's no way they'd be affected by the curse. Even so...

He didn’t think that he'd see Slimes and then Golems so soon after being dropped into the Empire; both were regular monsters in fantasies. He would love to add goblins, elves, and dragons to the list of creatures he’d run into, but the chance of that happening would probably be zero.

Ridiculous thoughts ran through his head as he raised his weapon to face the Golems. He wasn't wielding his usual weapon of choice, the Bone of Thunder Lasting; instead, he was holding the Melting Bone Double Axe, since a weighty weapon seemed more effective against huge and crude enemies like Golems.

[Removing trespassers.]

[Beginning attack in order to identify the enemies' magic patterns.]

The roughly 3-meter tall Golems announced politely before rushing towards them, stomping on the ground with tremendous force. Their presence was truly formidable, but Lee Shin-Woo didn't back down. With his hands tight around the axe that was almost as tall as he was, he tapped into his reserve of strength. His eyes would be gleaming if he had them.

"Identifying my magic pattern... Well, I'm doing the same."

Seeing them run was enough for Lee Shin-Woo to tell that their agility was low for level 3 monsters. They definitely had an advantage over him in terms of strength and endurance. However...

"Shall we?"

"I just heard you say you’re weaker than them," Jin whined.

"Let's take down the leftmost one first so that we won’t get surrounded. Charge!"

"Ah, seriously!"

Despite his complaints, Jin followed the command and rushed towards the leftmost Golem, sprinting at such a ridiculous speed that the Golem couldn't even react!

Lee Shin-Woo desperately held onto Jin so that he wouldn’t be flung around like a package again. Instinctively, he activated Combat Sprint and concentrated on what was before him. Their surroundings blurred. The Golems seemed to be moving extremely slowly... Soon, they were facing the Golem they had chosen as their first target!

I knew Jin was fast, but wow, Jin’s reeeeally fast! And he’s moving so precisely at the same time… It’s giving me goosebumps...!

Indeed, Jin's speed was astounding. His agility alone far exceeded that of the Stone Golems, and his control was superb, which allowed him to get close to the Golem without touching it.

Even though their communication was still poor, Jin had more than made up for it with his amazing speed and control, which was impressive considering he’d never received any special training for how to move as a horse.

[Tress...pass...!]

Is it because I’m connected to Jin? Not only was Lee Shin-Woo’s dynamic visual acuity enhanced, he was also hearing things at a slower pace. It was funny how the Golems seemed to be uttering one syllable at a time, making them sound like they were malfunctioning.

The end came quickly. One breath was divided into ten, and then further divided into another ten; when he counted to six, he saw the perfect opening to strike! At the same time, he was surprised by his ability to match Jin’s shocking speed and respond to it.

Now! Power Slash!

The moment Lee Shin-Woo passed by the Golem on the left, he attacked it with his axe in perfect coordination with Jin. The strike was as quick and powerful as lightning!

Although it was his first time wielding the axe, Bursting Thunder proved to be a supreme martial arts technique yet again. While the strike wasn't sharp, it allowed him to pack the weight of the axe into the attack.

[Critical Hit!]

The moment his axe struck the Golem's flank, the slowed passage of time instantaneously returned to normal. An absurdly powerful roar rang through the plateau.

The outcome was truly brutal. The Golem wasn't able to bear the force of his attack and crumbled right on the spot. Still, Lee Shin-Woo and Jin couldn't yet relax. A great counterforce hit them and shook them to the very core, making it difficult for them to even stay upright for a moment.

[You have defeated a Lv3 Stone Golem.]

"Oh."

Lee Shin-Woo hadn't expected this. He thought it would've taken at least two or three hits to beat the Golem, but he’d managed to kill it with a single hit. Moreover, he had moved so fast and taken care of the enemy so quickly that the other Golems hadn't figured out his location yet.

"You... you're so overpowering," Jin said.

Lee Shin-Woo peered at him. "From my point of view, you're the overpowering one."

The two heroes looked at each other in amazement. They knew that they made up for what the other lacked, but this was still ridiculous.

Jin had played a big role in Lee Shin-Woo’s success in taking down the Stone Golem, which was known for its high defense. It was common sense that the faster one moved, the more powerful their attack. And Jin's speed had made a normal attack a killing blow. Nevertheless, it did require Lee Shin-Woo to adapt to Jin’s speed and maintain control as he attacked to make the most of the momentum.

If Jin's contribution accounted for 60% of the success, then 30% went to the weapon. The Melting Bone Double Axe was an intermediate weapon good for concentrating one’s strength and making a fatal blow, and being a level 4 weapon, it was a level higher than the Stone Golem.

Furthermore, since the weapon granted him 25 points in strength, it was his best weapon in terms of destructive power alone. Its ability to deal acid damage also helped. Even if he had failed to kill his enemy in one hit, the Acid Poison that came after would spread in the area and finish the job.

The remaining 10% obviously went to Bursting Thunder, which allowed Lee Shin-Woo to use both Jin’s speed and the weapon properly and land a hit on his enemy.

The skill allowed the practitioner to properly wield a weapon they've never used before, to maintain their center of gravity while swinging the said weapon, and even to identify the enemy's weaknesses; if he didn't have this skill, it didn’t matter how amazing the individual elements were; he wouldn't have been able to finish off the Stone Golem in one hit.

[Confirming the destruction of 1 Autonomous Puppet.]

[Adjusting the assessment of enemy's strength.]

[Impossible to respond to enemy's speed. Initiating long-range bombardment mode.]

During Lee Shin-Woo’s moment of distraction, the Golems had recognized the severity of the situation and changed gears. Lee Shin-Woo felt a little anxious when he heard that, but Jin remained confident as ever.

"Their long-range attacks are also slow. Don't worry."

"Right, you said you’ve been here before."

If that was the case, then they had the time to collect the loot. Lee Shin-Woo bent down to pick the items from the ground. He really wanted a pet that would collect loot for him like those in video games, but it would never happen.

[You have acquired 3,700 Perium.]

[You have acquired an Autonomous Defensive Type Core. The core is transforming. You have acquired an Autonomous Defensive Type Bone Core.]

"A core, huh..."

"Is this another material for Bone Reinforcement by any chance?"

"Of course it is. Plus, I don't even need to burn the Golems one by one. This is much easier than dealing with the Slimes."

"Burn them? Slimes?"

Lee Shin-Woo had been nervous when facing the Golems on the plateau, but he thought differently now with the bone core in his hand. He didn't have time to waste when the fodder for his growth was right before him!

[Firing...]

"Hah!"

Lee Shin-Woo counted the number of Golems that had revealed themselves in the entire area, and the moment he raised his axe for the second time, Jin rushed forward without even needing a signal thanks to the connection between them.

Before the Golems could even fire at them, Lee Shin-Woo and Jin had already closed the distance. Lee Shin-Woo immediately swung his axe with all his strength.

[Critical Hit!]