The way the Golems bombarded them reminded Lee Shin-Woo of the way the Ratman launched its nails. To describe it in human language, they were essentially shooting their arms out and replenishing their losses with the rock nearby.

"It’ll be the end of us if we make one single misstep," Lee Shin-Woo muttered, dodging the rock bombs raining down on him while swinging his axe at one of the Golems.

If he had been here alone, he could still keep himself alive, but he would’ve had to put in a lot more effort to eliminate all of the Golems.

As it was, the Golems’ bombardment was incredibly slow by Jin’s standards—and to him as well, as he was riding on Jin’s back. They were able to dodge the rocks quite easily even if the Golems had attacked them from point blank.

"Ranged attacks are ineffective when there’s a large gap in agility..."

[Ceasing... operation...]

Fighting the Golems showed Lee Shin-Woo just how important agility was. The Acid Ghoul had been able to intercept his shot without much difficulty because of its higher agility as well.

It wasn’t difficult to avoid an attack as long as its trajectory was clear, and the projectile didn’t have the ability to change course midair. The one dodging the ranged attack almost always had an advantage over the one launching the attack. To conclude, one would have to be much faster than their opponent in order to kill it with a ranged attack.

They had to make sure the speed of the projectile would be too fast to track, and the attack too fast to grasp.

"In our home worlds, we’d be ridiculed for making such an outrageous statement," Lee Shin-Woo said.

Jin retorted, "That’s rich coming from you! I'm the one dodging all of the bombshells coming from everywhere!"

The first rule to survive the underground empire was to accept that they had become part of a new world, and that their preconceived notions were no longer applicable. The two of them had passed the particular criterion with flying colors.

"Ah, I don’t see any more rocks coming this way," said Lee Shin-Woo.

Had they crushed all of the Golems? Once he'd taken care of the Golems that had first spotted and attacked them, he looked up to find the area free of any large boulders. With the boulders broken, the Golems ceased to exist. And it made sense that only the large ones would transform into Golems.

"What should we do now?” Jin asked. “Should we go across the plateau?"

"Each group of the Golems seem to oversee a pretty defined region."

If Lee Shin-Woo had continued walking forward for about a minute, the regular rock formations around him would immediately transform into Golems once he entered their range of detection.

It was strange. The Golems seemed to have been divided and assigned to their own jurisdiction, and only the ones stationed in the particular area would react when they entered. It was as if someone had artificially split the region for the Golems.

"For starters, are these things really formed naturally?" Jin asked.

"That's what we have to figure out now," said Lee Shin-Woo.

Lee Shin-Woo had been able to keep fighting while rock shells rained down on him, but the same couldn't be said about the loot; thus they had been left on the ground. He steered Jin around the battlefield to collect all the cores and Perium dropped by the Golems.

[You have acquired 3,200 Perium.]

[You have acquired an Autonomous Defensive Type Bone Core.]

"Even though they're level 3 monsters, they didn’t drop a lot of Perium since they weren’t elites." Lee Shin-Woo observed.

"Where do you even use Perium?"

"Well, I understand your confusion since you've never been to the Goddess’s Secret Shop before."

Lee Shin-Woo had acquired 3,000 Perium from the Golem, but it was only a third of what he'd gotten from the similarly leveled elite Great Slime. Of course, It had been difficult to find even one Great Slime, while the Stone Golems were much more common. They were everywhere on this plateau. What they lacked in power, they made up for with their sheer number.

After collecting all the Perium, Lee Shin-Woo checked the total amount he had accumulated.

[Total Perium - 445,870]

"Hoo."

He marveled at the difference a few days could make. It hadn’t been long since he had eagerly told Pleine his story in exchange for a 20,000 Perium discount; he had now amassed a total of 445,870 Perium. That was the result of some special circumstances, of course.

"Shin-Woo, there's something over here."

"Ah."

[Lv2 Stone Gloves]

It seemed to be armor made of stupidly tough rock. Lee Shin-Woo wondered whether they would actually be effective in fending off his opponent's attacks. He had a sneaking suspicion that the gloves would actually do more harm to his hands than protect them. At the very least, he didn't really want to equip them.

[You have acquired Lv2 Stone Gloves. Bone Reinforcement is transforming the item. Since your compatibility with the item is high, a special change has occurred.]

However, the moment Lee Shin-Woo touched the gloves, something strange happened. A message he had never seen, not even when his Melting Bone Double Axe leveled up, popped up before him.

[You have acquired Lv3 Fossil Gloves (+5).]

"..."

He narrowed his nonexistent eyes. Rocks and bones had come together to form a fossil; he wondered about the nature of Bone Reinforcement again.

"But fossils aren't technically bones..." muttered Lee Shin-Woo.

"Why are you talking about science all of a sudden?"

"Nothing. This is good."

Both teeth and nails had been treated as bones as well. Lee Shin-Woo decided to let it go instead of nitpicking on each and every aspect of his skill. In any case, not only had the item leveled up, it had also been reinforced to +5, so he was satisfied.

...Though he still didn't have any intention of equipping the gloves.

"Alright, there's only one other option."

"You're doing it again?" Jin asked.

Lee Shin-Woo quietly raised the Fossil Gloves (+5) over his head in lieu of a response. His other hand was now holding the Bone of Thunder Lasting (+8) rather than his axe.

This wouldn’t be considered a foolish gamble since he was using an item he wasn’t going to equip to begin with. He tried his very best to ignore the option to reinforce his own bones...

Something happened the moment Lee Shin-Woo was about to use Bone Reinforcement. One of the bone cores he hadn't put into his inventory shone brightly all of a sudden, and a message quickly followed.

[If you consume a bone core before attempting reinforcement, the success rate will be higher. If you use the bone core as a material for reinforcement, the success rate will increase even further. It is possible to use several cores at once for a single reinforcement.]

"Huh...!?"

He then recalled reading about how monsters' cores were often used to produce weapons or medicine. However, it turned out that the core itself had the power to reinforce equipment. Perhaps the reinforcement permits worked similarly.

He had planned to test his luck, but the message seemed to be telling him that the bone cores would increase his chance of success pretty significantly. Although he had no point of reference for how much the cores would help, he had to try. Putting aside the Fossil Gloves, Lee Shin-Woo grabbed a bone core in one hand and used Bone Reinforcement!

[Bone Reinforcement has succeeded.]

[Bone of Thunder Lasting (+9) Lv3]

[Durability: 1,120/1,120]

[Attack Power: 300 - 400]

[Options: Strength +21, Agility +21, Power of Bursting Thunder skill +19%]

"Oh, Ooooh...!"

He had succeeded at the first try! Moved, Lee Shin-Woo wrapped his arms around the sword to hug it.

"Shin-Woo, look at the ground," Jin piped up.

"Huh? ...No…!"

It wasn’t until then that Lee Shin-Woo realized every single one of the bone cores he'd gathered in one place had disappeared.

There were a few safely stored inside his inventory, but the rest had all disappeared. There had been more than ten cores on the ground, but the moment he used Bone Reinforcement, they all responded to his will and vanished as sacrifice!

"..."

He’d learned something new today. All bone cores in the proximity would respond to his use of Bone Reinforcement! They would be spent to improve the equipment he was reinforcing!

It was fortunate that he hadn’t suffered a great loss to learn the lesson. Thank heavens there hadn’t been 100 bone cores laying around!

Moreover, there was no telling how many times he would have to try before he successfully reinforced his sword. This was fine. It really was.

"Shin-Woo, are you crying?"

"I'm not crying." He spat, taking out his last level 3 equipment reinforcement permit from his inventory.

The Bone of Thunder Lasting didn’t magically level up beyond +9 even after he inspected it another time. Lee Shin-Woo gritted his teeth and used the reinforcement permit. A radiant light shot out of the weapon as a tremendous amount of mana surged, which seemed to be changing the very material of the weapon and heating up the air as a side effect.

[The Lv3 Bone of Thunder Lasting has evolved into the Lv4 Lightning Tooth!]

[Lightning Tooth Lv4]

[Durability: 1,500/1,500]

[Attack Power : 450 - 480]

[Element: Lightning Lv4]

[Options: Strength +25, Agility +25, Power of Bursting Thunder +20%]

"This is..." Lee Shin-Woo sucked in a breath as he inspected the transformed weapon. It was completely different from the level 4 Thunder Lasting he had acquired from the zombified hero.

The sword had turned into bones and suffered a level drop when coming into his possession, but the Lightning Tooth he was holding now didn't seem inferior to the Thunder Lasting at all; in fact, it seemed much stronger than Thunder Lasting. Two tremendous powers had collided before harmonizing and triggering an evolution.

"Wow, the energy is tremendous even when compared to the axe," Jin marveled.

"Huh, you have quite the talent in mana as well. You're right. They're both level 4 weapons, but the sword is leagues beyond the axe. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it contains the goddess’s power."

"At any rate, it seems to be made of bone..."

The blade consisted of a bone gleaming in blue light, and it had become longer and sharper than before; its lightning attribute was evident in the sparks crackling along the blade.

Lee Shin-Woo was excited thinking about what would happen if he wielded the sword with Intermediate Bursting Thunder. Lee Shin-Woo vowed to train Bursting Thunder even more diligently than before.

Acid and lightning. Also flames... I want to try the other elements as well.

Being in possession of even one of the three elements would qualify him as a hero, but Lee Shin-Woo yearned for more than the three elements available to him. He hadn’t realized at this point that the abilities he had at his disposal were more than enough to shock the more senior heroes.

- Gugugugugu

His fascination over his weapon was interrupted by a tremor passing through the once silent plateau. The tremor was growing increasingly intense!

Did the Golems wake up? Is it a natural earthquake instead? It can’t be either of the two. The Golems are still quietly staying in their places, and it obviously isn’t an earthquake. What is it then?

[Goooooooooooh!]

"Mm, as expected," Lee Shin-Woo nodded after he heard the faint cry from afar, acting like he had expertly predicted the turn of events. It had started to feel like a tradition rather than a surprise now.

He quickly put the Fossil Gloves and his sword into his inventory and used the two remaining bone cores to reinforce his bones. His endurance had increased by 1, which put him 1 point away from leveling up.

"What the hell is that?” Jin exclaimed. “It feels like a huge monster on the move, but I can't tell if it's actually coming!"

"Calm down, Jin. I know what it is."

"You can't even see it yet, so how do you know?"

"I just do," Lee Shin-Woo said calmly, but Jin was more flustered than when he had fought the Acid Ghoul.

At that moment, the enemy revealed itself beyond the horizon. It was rushing towards them, yet the Golems didn't rise to attack it. They didn’t seem to consider it a trespasser.

"What kind of monster could it be!? Shouldn’t we run away!?"

"There's no way to get away from it completely once it's picked its 'target'... Even though its level is higher, I have experience fighting them. Don’t panic."

Of course, Lee Shin-Woo had no experience of fighting the particular monster head on, and he didn’t plan to do that now. There were a multitude of ways to kill an enemy besides slicing off their head.

Finally, Jin was able to confirm the identity of their enemy with his own eyes. With abject horror, he blurted out, "Lv5...!? Can we really defeat it!?"

"...Even if we can't, we have to fight. That's what surviving in the Empire is all about."

"That's..."

Lee Shin-Woo observed his opponent as he offered the dumbfounded Jin some reassurance. It was less than a couple hundred meters away from them. The emerging monster came into Lee Shin-Woo’s view. It was such a familiar sight that it felt almost tedious.

[Lv5 Treasure Eater]

Another Steve, which he hadn't seen in a long time, had arrived.