This was a world where skeletons and Golems walked the earth and rats could speak. Therefore, Lee Shin-Woo wasn't surprised in the least that trees could use Acid Poison.

"Ugh. The energy coming from the forest is no joke..." Jin muttered.

"Hmm, guess not."

"What?"

But when they arrived at the forest that had killed half of Vitas’s troops, Lee Shin-Woo had to correct his assumption. The forest wasn't just filled to the brim with trees. There was something else there.

"Maybe Erian would've known..."

"Wait, why are you talking about the elf? Because it's a forest?"

"It just feels like an elf would be more accustomed to dealing with things like that."

Lee Shin-Woo looked at the vast forest before them and shrugged, observing the area secreting rotten and withered mana. Undead who weren't entirely sentient might have thought they were suddenly attacked by the trees, but Lee Shin-Woo saw differently.

"There are things on the trees. I think they’re spirits."

"Ah, now that you mention it, it definitely seems that way..."

The spirits were extremely pale and resembled old ladies with an impassive expression; the ones stuck to the tree didn't seem to be in healthy condition.

[Lv5 Corrupted Dryad (Elite)]

[Lv5 Acid Great Tree]

"Ah, as I thought."

Lee Shin-Woo was given further information after ascertaining what they were. They were Dryads, or spirits that resided in trees! If Dryads were to become undead, that's exactly what he thought they'd look like.

"Are the Dryads like that because they’ve latched onto trees that should’ve withered and died and were supplying them with mana?"

"If that's the case... That's kind of sad."

In their attempt to save the trees, the Dryads ended up becoming ghastly as well. Jin’s expression turned bitter. Lee Shin-Woo patted him on the back to comfort him.

"But because of that, we can kill both the Dryads and the trees. That's all karma."

"..."

There were a ridiculous amount of trees within the forest, while there weren’t that many Corrupted Dryads managing the trees. That meant that the Dryads were skilled enough to transform all the trees in the forest into level 5 monsters, despite being low in number!

"If they're that skilled, we'll get a better reward for our trouble. Plus, they seem rare."

"I was going to tear up, but your cruel way of thinking dried my eyes."

"Good. Let's cry after sending them off!"

"Seriously, what color is your blood!?" [1]

Lee Shin-Woo activated Assimilation prior to entering the forest, and shared his Acid Resistance with Jin to the best of his ability like he'd done when he first fought Kratia.

Back then, his connection with Jin came from Horseback Riding. Now that his Assimilation had developed significantly, he was able to completely share his level 9 Low Rank Acid Resistance with Jin.

"The effectiveness of your own Acid Resistance should go up as it levels," said Lee Shin-Woo.

"You're not planning on pushing it, right?"

"Yeah. I'm going to cut them down one by one. Just think of the acid as a 'mist sauna'."

There probably weren't a lot of people who would call immersing their body into acid the same as a mist sauna. Jin sighed and took a step towards the forest.

Lee Shin-Woo performed a final inspection of his gear before they entered. He was obviously wearing the Acid Bone Full Armor since there wasn't a better alternative. The full armor would provide protection for his entire body while increasing the effectiveness of his acid type abilities by 40%, including his Acid Resistance. Lee Shin-Woo was all set.

I’ll be wielding Melting Bone Double Axe.

The Melting Bone Double Axe likewise buffed the effectiveness of his acid type abilities by 20%. Even though Lee Shin-Woo knew that the acid within this forest was more powerful than the Acid Ghoul's, he entered without hesitation, ready to train his Acid Resistance.

"I can further offset the acid damage with other tricks, but I'll make that call after seeing their acid attacks."

"Yeah, you're so amazing."

None of the enemies they would be facing were low-leveled; in fact, each and every tree in the forest was a level 5 monster. Still, Lee Shin-Woo didn't think of them as anything more than part of the training ground for his skills!

Could we really go on like this? Lee Shin-Woo asked himself, but there was no alternative. He continued to ride forward. The moment they entered the forest, a Corrupted Dryad latching onto a giant tree noticed them, seemingly acting as the chief gatekeeper here!

[Ggyaaaaaaaaaahk!]

"Huh!? It's not a banshee!"

The sudden shriek made Lee Shin-Woo's goblin fire contort. The attack was no joke; someone with eardrums would've sustained considerable damage!

"These senile old bags, how dare they try to teach me a lesson in screaming..."

Lee Shin-Woo gnashed his teeth together, thinking about how he should make his first strike, but he soon changed his mind. He hadn’t come to improve his abilities as a Joker, but to train his Acid Resistance and Regeneration.

"Shin-Woo, they're coming!"

"Yeah. I see them too!"

The Dryad's scream was the signal; all the trees began spewing out their Acid Poison all at once. Rather than being a simple poison, there seemed to be a suspicious compound mixed in. Fortunately, It didn’t have much of an effect on Lee Shin-Woo and Jin since they were undead.

[You are hit by a high-ranked Acid Poison that has spread throughout the entire area. Reducing the damage of Acid Poison by at least 70%!]

That wasn’t the end of it, of course. After spewing out poison, the trees reached out to Lee Shin-Woo like sentient beings, swinging their flexible branches as if they were whips!

"Hah!"

However, Lee Shin-Woo was well aware of how they would attack because of the skeletons' memories. With skillful swings of his axe, he cut down the bundles of branches flying towards him.

The tree branches possessed a powerful Acid Poison as well and were supposed to corrode any weapon at contact. However, the Melting Bone Double Axe's element was acid, so its blade remained intact even after cleaving through dozens of branches.

"Ugh. The poison's getting worse...!"

"Concentrate on our connection!" Lee Shin-Woo exclaimed.

"Got it!"

While Lee Shin-Woo cut down the branches, the Acid Poison liquified once more and shot out. The acid coming from the cut branches was especially great in volume.

The tree’s Acid Poison was perhaps at a high intermediate level, and with dozens or even hundreds of them attacking at the same time, the stacking effect was horrific, making the damage even more devastating! If this was the level of attack coming their way as soon as they entered the forest, Lee Shin-Woo shuddered to imagine what awaited them once they went deeper.

"Shin-Woo!"

"Yeah, I know. It's okay."

Jin wasn't the only one suffering. Even Lee Shin-Woo’s reinforced resistance couldn't completely block the poison, and his armor started to slowly melt away.

Lee Shin-Woo calmly cleaved the branches through the acid and inspected the condition of his armor. Gingerly putting his hand on his armor, he muttered, "Regeneration."

Regeneration was an ability that restored his body. However, like Lee Shin-Woo had expected, the skill activated properly and regenerated the melted armor as well. At that moment, his Regeneration leveled up after a long period of disuse.

[Low Rank Regeneration is now Lv8. Endurance and Magic have increased by 2. Regeneration speed increases.]

Good. As I thought, it does work.

Normally, Regeneration could only be applied to the body. Thus, he had un-equipped all of his gear when he trained his Acid Resistance and Regeneration with the Slimes.

That was how it had been in the past. No, it was still the case even now. However, something had changed in this situation—the nature of his equipment.

Rule of Bone can be applied to equipment formed through Bone Armory... That meant equipment summoned with data stored in Bone Armory are all considered part of my body.

In that case, it was only natural that Regeneration would be applicable to the conjured equipment, wasn’t it? Lee Shin-Woo believed so, and he turned out to be right on the mark. As a result, Lee Shin-Woo started training with a full set of armor.

“That’s unfair!” Jin screamed when he witnessed Lee Shin-Woo’s cheat of a healing ability even while he endured the Acid Poison, his goblin fire quivering.

"You can protect your whole body with Steel Heart."

"Eek..."

The Acid Poison improved their respective resistance, and at the same time, Lee Shin-Woo's Regeneration and Jin’s Steel Heart grew stronger. Since the skills used mana, Lee Shin-Woo’s Mana Bone saw progress as well. He was effectively killing three birds with one stone.

[Ggiaaaaaaaaahk!]

"Shut... up!"

The Dryad’s enthusiastic command sent the branches flying toward them in unison. Lee Shin-Woo cleaved through the branches before they could reach them, and in the spur of the moment, he decided to train his defense zone as well. He was no longer killing three birds with one stone, but four.

Lee Shin-Woo hectically swung his axe with both hands, clearing the branches and nodding inwardly to himself in approval. With branches flying in every direction, this place was perfect for training his defense zone with Bursting Thunder applied.

It's not perfect yet, but...this is good enough. It's much better than when I had to use my fists!

Lee Shin-Woo recalled his past training and suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia even though it hadn’t been more than a few months. Level 5 seemed so far away back then, yet he'd already reached it. Things had become a lot better in comparison!

Above all, what he was most proud of was the fact that he hadn't died even once since then.

"Hah!"

[Gguaaaaaaaaahk!]

[Ggiiiiiiik!]

He cleaved through the tree branches that flew from various angles and proceeded 1 cm forward every minute. As if answering the old Dryads' screams, Lee Shin-Woo forcefully swung his axe and finally toppled one of the trees.

He'd verified before, but they were indeed normal level 5 monsters; with Rebellion in effect—which granted him a 10% buff to his stats—as well as reinforcing his axe with Rule of Bone, the trees couldn't withstand a few blows and ended up toppled to the ground.

[Ggiaaaaaaaaaaaaahk!]

As soon as he cut through the rotted tree, the nearby Dryads let out a truly horrific scream. While they had turned into hideous beings, they seemed to have retained their love for trees. They had screamed out of genuine sadness, and even Lee Shin-Woo felt a stir in his heart.

[You have acquired an Acid Tree Root. It is transformed by Bone Reinforcement. You have acquired a Melting Bone Root.]

[You have acquired 17,560 Perium.]

"Ugh. I'll purify you all so that you don't have to suffer any longer...!"

"I saw you smiling, you asshole!"

Lee Shin-Woo couldn’t help but smile as countless tree branches and Acid Poison bombarded him once more. His goblin fire blazed as he swung his axe with renewed vigor. It was time for the skeleton lumberjack to begin his felling operation in earnest.

1. T/N: I could've just interpreted this as "are you really human!?", but it could also be a reference to the Japanese series, Hokuto no Ken. It's very similar to Rei's line, "what color is your blood?" E/N: even though he has no blood…