Lee Shin-Woo found himself in an extremely dark underground chamber. It had the same vibe as the Anti-Skull secret facilities he'd found.

"You're a disappointment, Gerrit."

"Senior..."

He could hear two men talking. One of them sounded familiar.

"Senior Betadorn... Did you really have to go this far?"

"It would've been better if we had just taken it easy."

At that moment, Lee Shin-Woo's consciousness cleared up. He quickly realized what kind of situation he was in since this was his second time. The same thing had happened back when he absorbed the bone of the level 4 mage, Gerrit.

It was a playback of memory due to Bone Reinforcement's resounding success! Upon receiving exceptionally clear memories and experiences, he felt a sense of unity with the bone's original owner, to the point that he became one with them for a moment!

Gerrit's here too.

It was strange to look at the owner of one of the bones he’d absorbed before. Gerrit seemed heavily injured, and the strangeness abated. His attacker was...the one whose consciousness he was inhabiting: Celon Von Betadorn.

"Take it easy… You don't understand the true nature of your research, senior!"

"You're the one who doesn't understand, Gerrit."

Celon sighed and tapped into his mana. Lee Shin-Woo felt an immense reserve of increasingly powerful magic spreading and circulating through Celon’s body before concentrating in his hand. What ended up manifesting was a high-ranking magic, one Lee Shin-Woo couldn't discern at all!

"That—Kuhahk!"

As soon as his fingertips shone brightly, Gerrit collapsed to the floor like he had been bound, unable to even resist. The magic seemed to have restricted both his body and his mana; his mana stopped responding to his will thereafter.

"Senior! Do you really have to go this far!?"

"I don’t want to kill one of my precious juniors... So I'll ask you one last time."

Celon's voice was ice cold. Lee Shin-Woo could sense the torrent of mana amassing in his palm so well that he trembled. Kratia had also made him feel this way before—his mana truly fell short when compared to a level 6 mage.

"Tell me what you know about Anti-Skull in detail. Who's in charge?"

"Urgh, don't you already have an idea as to who... Ugh!"

A portion of his mana extended like an arrow and severed one of Gerrit's arms. Celon's eyes were burning with spite.

"You're missing the point, Gerrit. You're a mage."

"You're the one who's missing the point, senior."

"...Is that really what you think?"

"Can you really say otherwise!?"

"You fool...! You only think about yourself!"

For a fleeting moment, Lee Shin-Woo felt an unbearable amount of loathing and contempt from Gerrit. Even whilst groaning in pain, Gerrit suddenly yelled, "I'm not thinking of only myself! You'll kill not just me, but the entire Empire! Everyone's crazy! Eternal life? That's nothing but a pipe dream!"

"We know that already! If it were easy to attain, it wouldn't be eternal life!"

"Then why!?"

"...Hoo."

Gerrit's throat was congested with blood. However, Celon wouldn't speak on Gerrit's terms any longer. Was it because he'd decided that there was nothing he could gain from speaking to Gerrit? Once more, Celon pushed mana into his hand.

It was unfortunate that the pattern he used to control his mana wasn't anything special; however, experiencing his smooth and masterful technique of handling mana would help Lee Shin-Woo for a long time to come.

"I didn't really need to get any information from you. I was trying to give you an opportunity, as we were once alumni... You have only yourself to blame, Gerrit."

"You're making the wrong choice..."

Celon's mana shot in a straight line. The spell aimed to burn the opponent’s magic and overpower them with the sheer volume of one’s mana. Unable to resist the spell, Gerrit vanished into thin air, leaving only two pieces of glowing bones behind.

"This is...a keepsake of your teacher… He sacrificed himself for the Empire. You respected him so much, yet you joined an organization like Anti-Skull..."

Celon mulled over whether he should incinerate the two bones, and ultimately decided against it, putting the bones in his breast pocket instead. Lee Shin-Woo recalled that Gerrit had collected his teacher's bones and realized something.

I might've absorbed Gerrit's teacher's bone.

Lee Shin-Woo's consciousness became dim after that final realization. Even till the very end, Celon was gripped by anger and bitter regret.

What exactly had infuriated Celon to such a degree, and why did he cooperate with the Emperor when he didn't think that eternal life was attainable? Unfortunately, Lee Shin-Woo couldn't find the answers to these questions before he got dragged back to the present. He didn’t have the information necessary to piece together a coherent story.

[You have become skilled in drawing your mana without any waste. Intermediate Mana Bone skill is now Lv5, and magic has increased by 20. You are now able to more adeptly absorb the mana around you.]

Celon Von Betadorn was definitely talented, as proven by how Lee Shin-Woo’s Mana Bone had leveled up again soon after reaching level 4 thanks to his exchange with Kratia!

However, Lee Shin-Woo’s happiness was fleeting. Witnessing Gerrit’s death and the confrontation between Anti-Skull and the pursuit of eternal life unnerved him. Furthermore, everything that Celon had said bothered him.

At that very moment, a quest appeared like his mind had been read.

[A quest has begun!]

[Anti-Skull's objective]

[The horrific curse has come about because of the Emperor's struggle for eternal life. Anti-Skull did everything they could to stop it, but ultimately failed. You have successfully caught a few glimpses of their efforts.]

[However, that's not enough. Somewhere in the Empire, the organization is still waiting for the time to strike. Find a member of Anti-Skull who is an executive or higher to get closer to finding out the Empire’s secret.]

[Quest rewards - 3 permits to Goddess’s Secret Shop, a corresponding amount of Perium]

"...It's been a long time since I got such a quest."

This quest was much more vague than the quest he'd begrudgingly accepted from the goddess, and the wording was cryptic. It didn't even tell him where the Anti-Skull members were located, nor did it tell him what to do once they met; the quest was really unhelpful.

Lee Shin-Woo went over the quest description again with a sour expression. Jin had stopped rolling on the floor at this point. He picked himself up and shook dust off his body before walking up to Lee Shin-Woo.

"You got a quest, didn’t you?" Jin asked.

"Yeah. You’re able to sense the mana flow now, huh? I'm proud of you."

"You know, that tone of yours kind of pisses me off..."

However, Jin’s magical abilities were nothing compared to Lee Shin-Woo's; plus, Lee Shin-Woo was the reason he was able to improve his magic this much, so Jin’s retort came out a little weak. Finding no alternative, Jin promised to get revenge by shaking like crazy the next time Lee Shin-Woo got on his back.

"You don't have to worry about it too much. It's a quest that I can't really do anything about right now. This bone is more important at the moment."

The secret to the Empire's curse? That's important. Anti-Skull? That's important too. Level 5 Intermediate Mana Bone? That's obviously an important goal. However, Lee Shin-Woo was holding something more important than all of those—the single level 7 elite bone he'd bought from the Secret Shop!

"When you think about it, that probably means there aren't many high-leveled heroes," Lee Shin-Woo said.

"Didn’t you say most heroes only go after monsters a level lower than them? Doesn’t that mean there’s at least a level 8 hero?"

"I was told that the bone entered the shop decades ago."

"Ah..."

That probably meant there weren't any level 8 heroes right now. Of course, Lee Shin-Woo recognized he couldn’t draw a straight conclusion like that. There might be a level 8 hero who simply hadn’t run into any level 7 elite. Or they might have defeated one, but didn’t get a bone in return. Or they might have decided against fighting it because there was no need to do so.

"Well, in any case, this bone is the important thing now."

"I respect your bravery."

Jin saluted Lee Shin-Woo’s attempt to absorb a level 7 elite bone; it was already difficult to absorb a bone that was one level higher, yet Lee Shin-Woo was absorbing a bone two levels higher.

Lee Shin-Woo chuckled and grabbed Fenno's bone. Befitting a Giant, the bone was enormous; it was about 4 meters in length, longer than the Drake Horn Lance, and it was incredibly tough with a horrific amount of mana concentrated within!

"My consciousness shouldn't get sucked in again, right?"

Lee Shin-Woo resolved himself. After calming himself down as much as possible, he executed Bone Reinforcement. At that moment, the shin bone broke into pieces and pervaded his entire body... Not just his shin!

[The shin bone of the Giant Fenno reinforces your entire body. Strength has increased by 30, Endurance by 20, and Magic by 15. Absorbing a significant portion of the target's memories and experiences!]

What a relief. He didn't get a playback of the Giant's memories. The Giant was much too detached and overpowering for Lee Shin-Woo to share his senses with. Absorbing his memory was therefore more similar to watching a movie.

Perhaps it was because it was a level 7 bone, the memories within were almost completely intact when Lee Shin-Woo absorbed them. Lee Shin-Woo thought about the Giant’s frightening physique and mana, and wondered whether it would be possible for him to reproduce them.

A Giant's mana... Their bodies are built larger and sturdier, which is probably some type of authority. I don't know what the basis for it is, but their mana is concentrated solely to reinforce and enlarge their bodies. There's a certain harmony between their physical body and their mana at work...'

A huge body saturated with overpowering mana. Giants infused their weapons with these two powers and swung them. Such was the way of Giants!

Lee Shin-Woo committed everything to mind: the powerful flow of mana circulating their bodies, the properties of said mana, as well as the reaction that occurred as the mana touched the body. Lee Shin-Woo couldn’t compare to a Giant in physical form, but he would at least be able to use that mana someday.

[I am Fennos, a descendant of the Titans!]

A descendant of the Titans. He didn't know what exactly that meant, but for some reason, that line was engraved deep within his mind. The piece of memory marked the end of the Bone Reinforcement. As well as...

[Inheriting the will of a mortal who attempted to reach the realm of gods. Low Rank Avenger has been replaced with the special passive skill, Lv1 Rebellion. All stats have increased by 5.]

"...Huh?"

He'd acquired a skill he hadn't expected at all.