[Unable to resist. Requesting reinforcements.]

[Blocking enemy until reinforcements arrive.]

The Golems on the highlands could only execute the simple commands given to them beforehand. As a result, Lee Shin-Woo was able to easily exploit their limits. As soon as they realized that they weren’t Lee Shin-Woo’s match, they switched to a defensive position and waited for reinforcements to come. They were a lot different from the undead and monsters that were only able to follow their instincts and attack everything in sight.

"Unfortunately, your timing is all wrong."

[Ceasing function.]

With a smirk, Lee Shin-Woo shattered the Golems one by one with his axe. Since they had taken a defensive stance, the fight couldn’t be more boring. The problem with the Golems’ plan was simple: there would be no reinforcements no matter how long they waited.

Aid might have come when the Golems were first built and given the commands, but a long time has passed. There’s unlikely to be any reinforcements left, or the line of communication between them might have been severed.

With a single swing of his axe, Lee Shin-Woo broke apart the Golem. While training the skill he had just acquired, ‘Steel Body’, Jin tilted his head and responded to what Lee Shin-Woo had been thinking in his head, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, there are heaps of Stone Golems out there, and they should all have an emergency call feature, shouldn’t they? But none have ever responded to the call."

[You have acquired 3,100 Perium.]

[You have acquired a Lv3 Stone Golem’s Bone Core.]

Lee Shin-Woo picked up the loot and surveyed the area. Although they had returned to the highlands less than an hour ago, there were now less than a quarter of the Stone Golems remaining.

"I feel like there's a new dungeon here,” Lee Shin-Woo said.

"Why don’t you ask about it in the chatroom?"

"I did. Some of them didn’t even know about the area, while others have been here before but found nothing."

Some of his seniors had felt the same suspicion as Lee Shin-Woo. They were sure that there must be a dungeon nearby, and told Lee Shin-Woo they had disassembled a couple Golems and analyzed the cores, as well as investigated the mana in the area. When all that had failed, they resorted to digging through the place they felt suspicious about and searched thoroughly. However…

[Prince Altania: There's neither a secret facility nor a dungeon. Definitely not. If it's something that even the extraordinary Fire Magician Altania couldn’t find, then there’s unlikely to be anything there. No, I’m sure there isn’t anything to be found. End of story.]

Apparently, all his seniors had failed to find anything. However, Jin softly gazed at Lee Shin-Woo and asked, "You're going to look for it, aren’t you?"

"Yep. How did you know?"

"You're easy to read."

Truthfully, Lee Shin-Woo was feeling pretty confident. Even if he disregarded his record of finding the secret facilities in the sewers, he had an ability that his seniors didn’t have access to: Bone Reinforcement.

"Bone Cores... Will you be able to gain memories from them?" asked Jin.

"The last time I absorbed one, there was definitely some information recorded within."

But there was a problem: the memories were incredibly vague and difficult to discern. It was like reading a letter written in computer code. Lee Shin-Woo uphill foresaw the battle the effort would be, but he had faith in his ability. He already had an idea of what he should be focusing on.

"I simply have to keep absorbing them until I understand. It's not impossible."

"What exactly did you do in your world before all this?" Jin asked.

"I was just a normal salaryman."

"You're kidding me."

Lee Shin-Woo clicked his tongue. He wouldn’t say that if he knew how difficult it is to become a normal salaryman in South Korea.

Lee Shin-Woo hadn’t been sitting idly during their conversation. Whenever he discovered a Golem, he would immediately dash over to shatter it, either by swinging or throwing his axe... It was only possible because his strength had increased by leaps and bounds after leveling up to level 4.

Moreover, Rule of Bone reinforces the bones that make up my body. And I’m able to absorb mana at the same time to replenish what I’ve used to reinforce myself...

Rule of Bone was more than a skill that could launch bones and control them at a distance. It was a cheat skill that buffed all of his bone-related abilities.

The buff wasn't that significant right now, but the more he leveled the skill, the more he'd be able to get out of it. Rule of Bone might turn out to be something like Avenger, which allowed him to overcome the limit known as levels. The thought made him feel suddenly grateful to the Treasure Eater.

"Have you sorted everything out now?" asked Jin.

"There's nothing else here, so... Probably?"

Three hours had passed. Lee Shin-Woo and Jin maintained their incredible speed and searched the very outskirts of the highlands, all while taking down every Stone Golem they ran into with ease. Regardless of where they went, the Stone Golems always called for 'reinforcements', but they never appeared.

The Stone Golems in the adjacent area would never respond to the call. Lee Shin-Woo was absolutely sure by now. Their command system had stopped working altogether. It was either discarded, or abandoned.

That leaves only one question. Why are so many Golems left here when there’s nothing around? It's unlikely that they had moved here from elsewhere, or that their previous owner had told them to come. There must be something in the area that is deeply connected to the last command the Golems received.

Lee Shin-Woo looked up at the highlands. He hadn't yet absorbed the Bone Cores that he'd collected. He had to first study them to figure out what effect they would have on him. There was a possibility that he would get a better outcome if he collected more Bone Cores and absorbed them all.

"You said there would be level 4 Golems if we went to the centermost area, didn’t you?"

"Yeah, but they seemed really rusty. Apparently, they were called Bronze Golems."

Stone Golems, Bronze Golems. Wouldn’t it make sense for level 5 elite Iron Golem to appear next? The prospect excited Lee Shin-Woo somewhat. He entered the central area of the highlands.

[Ceasing function...]

[You have defeated a Lv4 Bronze Golem. You have acquired 5,120 Perium.]

[You have acquired a Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Core. The Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Core has transformed into the Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Bone Core.]

The Bronze Golem was definitely a lot sturdier and heavier than a Stone Golem, as befitted a level 4 monster. However, they ran out of steam very quickly even though each of their strikes were powerful. As Jin had said, they were rusted.

[Eliminating... Trespasser...]

"They're so slow."

[Ceasing function...]

And while they were more powerful than Stone Golems, the Bronze Golems were just as much slower; they actually seemed easier to kill than the Stone Golems.

To make things worse for them, the Bronze Golems' bodies were composed of bronze, so they couldn't pick up nearby rocks to heal themselves like Stone Golems. Likewise, they couldn't bombard them like the Stone Golems, either!

"Huh!"

"Ugh, I can feel the recoil..." Jin complained.

"Endure it with Steel Body. This is all part of the training! Let's go again!"

"Urgh..."

Since the Bronze Golems were a lot thicker and tougher, Lee Shin-Woo had to attack them with his axe at maximum strength, and sometimes he had to make a second strike before the Golems would collapse. As a result, his weapon ended up worn, but whenever the axe became unusable, he could easily detonate it and summon a new one.

Lee Shin-Woo was starting to like Bone Armory more and more. At the same time...

[Bone Armory is now Lv2. Endurance and Magic have increased by 3. The number of equipment you can create and maintain at the same time has increased to 3.]

"Nice."

Lee Shin-Woo immediately summoned the Dire Wolf Bone Armor and equipped it. If he leveled up the skill again, he would probably be able to put his lower body armor back on!

Jin grumbled that it was better for Lee Shin-Woo to cover his lower body first, but Lee Shin-Woo ignored him entirely. Nakedness meant nothing to skeletons.

"This way, kids!" Lee Shin-Woo yelled cheerily.

[Eliminating... Trespasser...]

[Surrounding and eliminating...!]

"Nice... Synapse, burst!"

"Just what the hell do you mean by that!?"

[Critical Hit!]

As Bone Armory leveled up, Lee Shin-Woo began to use the skill more actively in his excitement. He would gather the slow Bronze Golems in one spot before throwing his axe at them and detonating it.

While the explosion itself was tremendously powerful, what made the attack deadly was the level 3 acid contained within the axe, which burst into a highly corrosive cloud of Acid Poison as the axe exploded.

[Outer gloves... have disappeared. Need to... swap parts.]

[Impossible... No reinforcements...]

[Ceasing... function...]

The acid and the explosion engulfing the entire area compounded each other’s effects. The Bronze Golems melted away without a fighting chance as they didn't have any resistance to acid. As long as Lee Shin-Woo gathered the Bronze Golems properly, it was really easy for him to take ten of them down at once.

"And it consumes a lot less mana than blowing up Lightning Tooth," Lee Shin-Woo said.

"How much further are you going?"

"Hmm, you mean with the Bomber concept?"

The moment Lee Shin-Woo took a step forward to collect the loot, a message he'd become familiar with finally appeared.

[You have defeated several powerful enemies with a horrific explosion. You are adept at waiting for an opening as well as making split second decisions. Above all, you have the impressive ability of blowing up whatever you want. You have acquired the Bomber’s token. Strength and Magic have increased by 5. The Joker’s karma has absorbed the Bomber’s token.]

"I'm speechless. I didn’t do anything spectacular."

Jin glared at him. "Are you saying that on purpose to make me feel ashamed of myself?"

Lee Shin-Woo snorted in response and collected the rest of the loot. However, the moment he held more than one Bone Core in his hand, his skill seemed to have misunderstood his intent, and an unexpected message popped up.

[Would you like to reinforce the Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Core by consuming a Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Core?]

"!?"

An idea struck Lee Shin-Woo suddenly. This could be a hint for solving the problem he was facing!

Normally, Bone Reinforcement would consume a piece of bone or bone equipment to either reinforce his own bones, or reinforce his bone equipment. Lee Shin-Woo didn’t realize that he could reinforce a Bone Core with another one...!

Would it be better to bet on this?

Lee Shin-Woo was conflicted. He knew a piece of equipment would transform when reinforced to +10, but what about cores?

He might not succeed, so he wondered if it would be better to use the Bone Core separately or combine them first. Would a reinforced core show some sort of new property? Lee Shin-Woo considered his options for a long, intense moment before nodding.

Let's take our chances.

That was just his style. He had never been let down when he followed his intuition since coming to this world.

But now wasn't the time. He needed to first investigate further into the Autonomous Defense Type Bone Core and the Reinforced Autonomous Defense Type Bone Core, and he wanted to try absorbing a few more of them. After that, he'd get on his Bone Core Reinforcement Plan in earnest.

"Alright, Jin. Let's go a bit faster."

"I've always been running at full speed ever since we met."

Jin sighed and pushed himself further. He'd already decided to help Lee Shin-Woo, and he never shied away from going faster!

With deft skill, Jin kited around and gathered the Bronze Golems at the heart of the highlands. If any heroes who could use magic saw them, they would be jealous of Jin’s ability to gather mobs! Here on the outskirts of the Empire, the ability was bearing fruit.