Chapter 94 – The Beginning of a Corps (3)

There was something shared by his subordinates that allowed them to instinctually find each other. Lee Shin-Woo had become certain of it after observing the Pauls, and sure enough, Shino Rendu didn't really need to ask where Lee Shin-Woo wanted him to go. He was able to figure out where the Pauls were on his own.

[There are quite a lot of them.]

"The group will only get bigger from now on."

[...What do you wish for?]

"The purification of the Empire."

[Like the heroes.]

"...Perhaps."

Lately, Lee Shin-Woo had been thinking about a different end than the purification of the Empire, but he didn't say it out loud. Even he himself thought it was unreasonable, and he felt like he would be ridiculing himself should he voice his thoughts.

"Are you okay with just that?"

[Originally, I fought mostly with my fists. There were times where I fought with a greatsword as well...]

Fists and greatswords; those definitely fit his image of Shino Rendu. Besides, with a fist like his, he shouldn't have needed another weapon.

[Moreover, the moment I was reborn as an Avenger, all the karma within my inventory disappeared and was transformed into this armor... Because of that, I'll be able to better use my authority.]

"Huh?"

Lee Shin-Woo tilted his head, and Shino Rendu seemed to assume that Lee Shin-Woo didn’t understand what he meant by inventory. He started his explanation by describing what it was.

[The inventory is exclusive to heroes. It's like a storage house existing in the subspace... I lost access to my inventory when I became an undead, and all of the karma within my inventory turned into this armor. All my accumulated Perium thus far… The bones I hadn't sold... Equipment... Everything.]

"Huh...!?"

Lee Shin-Woo couldn't believe his ears. Then he realized he didn’t have ears, which made him shudder.

He hadn’t heard wrong. Shino Rendu was saying that not only were his bones used in the formation of his armor, but also all the karma he possessed!

Has that always been possible? Well, it probably is.

Pleine had told him that it wasn't possible for Lee Shin-Woo to convert Perium into a different type of karma at that point in time, which meant it was possible so long as one had the ability to do so!

[It's strange for me as well. It doesn’t seem to be something that should occur normally.]

"It happened the moment your karma evolved from a simple zombie to an Undead Avenger, so I don't think it's that weird."

[...Indeed. If you think about it that way, it's not hard to understand.]

Seeing Shino Rendu calmly nodding at his explanation, Lee Shin-Woo pledged to examine every type of karma he acquired from now on.

Especially Perium! There weren't any more bones he could buy at the secret shop, but he might be able to create something more effective than just weapons or skill books!

[I'll get going immediately.]

"I’ve told you this before, but do try to avoid heroes as best you can. They won't believe that you're Shino Rendu."

[I'll keep that in mind.]

His expression made it clear that he didn’t really understand, but so long as it was a direct order from Lee Shin-Woo, he had no choice but to obey.

That was also the reason Lee Shin-Woo had formed a master-servant contract with Shino Rendu. In this world, contracts were absolute! He was probably the one most informed about contracts amongst his fellow heroes.

"Good. He left."

"Ah. In the end, another Paul was created."

Jin only spoke up after Shino was out of their sight. He wasn’t really trying to hide his identity. He simply found conversing with undead awkward. Even more so with a former hero! Talk was cheap; no one would even think of conversing with the undead, unless they were Lee Shin-Woo, that was.

"Are you going to do that for every undead hero we meet from now on?"

"That sounds interesting, but I'm not sure I can do that every time."

Lee Shin-Woo still wasn't very sure how he had made Shino Rendu his subordinate. He should be able to figure it out after meeting a couple more Undead Heroes.

Shrugging, he changed the subject.

"Shino Rendu definitely said that once they figured out he was a hero, one of the twelve generals was summoned, right?"

"Still, it's a relief that whoever summoned the general had been taken care of."

"...It feels kind of disappointing to get out of here like this, so let's take a lap around the city."

Unfortunately, after being trampled by Metafel’s troops, there was nothing left in the ruined city to do or explore.

Lee Shin-Woo had ridden around the city on Jin and searched his surroundings with mana, which was something no level 5 should be able to do. However, his keen senses found nothing of note. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t figure out how the troops in the city had contacted Metafel.

"The sewers...are just regular sewers,” Lee Shin-Woo said. “Indeed, it doesn't seem like the right place for Anti-Skull to hide."

"It's possible that they awakened on their own without our intervention and joined up with Anti-Skull."

"That's probably what they did, but still, I wanted to find those traces and follow them to Anti-Skull's headquarters."

"Headquarters, huh..."

Lee Shin-Woo had been given a quest to find an executive from Anti-Skull. Sooner or later he would complete the quest, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to search for them and locate them when given the chance.

The faster he found them, the better his plan would play out.

"...Plan? What plan?"

"You’re asking that now?"

Lee Shin-Woo reprimanded Jin for not realizing what his plan was.

"There's an organization resisting the Emperor amongst his troops. They'd be useful. They are our best bet, in fact. You didn't know that the quest was given to me as a hint that I should use Anti-Skull to my advantage?"

"That's what it meant!?"

"Oh, so you didn't know about it."

Lee Shin-Woo softly patted Jin's neck, as if saying that he should work harder. Pissed, Jin started shaking like a horse doing a rodeo; now that Lee Shin-Woo had gotten used to the rodeo like a cowboy, though, he was able to stay on Jin’s back. In the end, Jin could do nothing but accept his defeat.

"It's an organization that's involved with one of the twelve generals, Seagald. There's a lot we could get from them."

"You're... You're always looking so far into the future."

"Now that you mention it, let's start moving actively, shall we?"

This was their first time entering a level 3 danger zone, but the way things unfolded weren’t actually that different. Before they went any further, though, there were still plenty of sewers that they hadn't cleared within the level 2 danger zones. They had only cleared most of the sewers in the level 1 danger zones.

There should still be several Pauls waiting to be rescued, and before he earnestly moved on to the level 3 danger zones, Lee Shin-Woo planned to finish saving—brainwash—them all. And he would level up in the process if he could.

"What about undead heroes?"

"Aside from Shino Rendu, most of them are beyond the level 3 danger zones... Of course, there are some in the level 1 or 2 danger zones as well, so I'm planning to do both at the same time."

"It'd be quite the sight if you make all of them your subordinates and gather them."

Jin recalled Shino Rendu bowing to Lee Shin-Woo and snickered, finding humor in the sight. Lee Shin-Woo sighed and shook his head.

"Even I think that’s too much, so let’s leave well enough alone. And it makes me feel ticklish when you laugh like that, so stop."

"What?"

Once they were finished with their very short break—if one can consider entering a level 3 danger zone and fighting a level 6 undead hero a break—they went back to the danger level 2 zones. Riding on the remarkably fast Jin and the Golem train, they began to visit every city in the Empire.

"What about dungeons?" Jin asked.

"Ah... I don't think those will really be helpful to me, so I'll leave them be. I have to leave something for my future juniors."

"Since when are you thinking of your juniors..."

Of course, there weren't as many hidden facilities in the level 2 danger zones as there were in the outskirts of the Empire. However, every time they found one, there would always be a considerable number of Pauls that hadn't awakened yet.

[Pauls 118 - 150 will follow your commands, Paul Zero!]

[We're not Anti-Skull, but we'll try to become even greater than them!]

"Oh... R-Right."

After a few misses, Lee Shin-Woo managed to acquire 33 level 4 Doom Factors as subordinates, which made him realize that this entire region was an endless gold mine. As expected, the higher the danger level, the higher quality the Pauls would be!

[Paul Zero!]

[Paul Zero! Paul Zero!]

He ran around searching through the level 2 danger zone cities; as he went through the sewers where the Anti-Skull hidden facilities were located, he accumulated more and more research materials, detailing Anti-Skull's history, their test methods, as well as the location of each hidden facility!

The chance of finding nothing dropped, and it became increasingly easy for Lee Shin-Woo to find the most hidden of facilities, as well as exponentially growing his collection of Pauls.

[How can this be... This man must be a hero sent by the goddess to purify the Empire!]

"Somebody already said that before."

[I was touched by your iron will. Why... Why have we been cowering within this dark storage house!?]

"Probably because there was a giant level 5 venomous snake lurking outside."

Of course, there weren't a lot of monsters that could threaten Lee Shin-Woo and Jin in the level 2 danger zones. While their progression had been a little slow since they had to split the bones they acquired, Lee Shin-Woo had been training his skills every chance he got without wasting even a second, which allowed him to grow stronger nonstop.

[Paul Zero, that's too much for us!]

"Tch. Watch and learn. Paul 807."

[How can this be... That's...]

[Lightning. It's lightning. Lightning just came down from the sky...!]

He had been moving gradually and precisely. While he was making less progress than during the time of his explosive growth, everything he had absorbed and learned thus far gradually connected and fused together; they harmonized, reforming his abilities once more.

"Your... Your name is...!"

[I'm... I'm... Keuk, Kuhaaaaaaaahk!]

"Tch. As I thought, it doesn't work on all of them."

"How unfortunate."

"I don't know who you are or where you came from, but... Rest in peace, Senior."

[You have acquired 2 permits to Goddess Secret Shop and 1,275,910 Perium.]

[You have brought peace to a comrade who had gone past the point of no return. You have satisfied a portion of the quest's conditions, and have acquired 1 additional permit to Goddess’s Secret Shop. The maximum level of Invisible Heart increases by 1.]

Perhaps he had always needed this. When constructing a tower, wasn’t the foundation the most important?

Because Lee Shin-Woo had only been fighting higher leveled foes, he was accustomed to irregularity; in the process of killing monsters weaker than him or at a similar level, he was able to train his abilities from the ground up and further strengthen them.

[Silene Viesa - It's been a long time, Senior!]

[Lee Shin-Woo - Oh, it's a relief that you're ok.]

[Prince Altania - You act like he has the highest seniority around here.]

[Silene Viesa - At the very least, I feel like Senior Shin-Woo is more experienced than you, Senior Altania.]

[Prince Altania - What did you say!? By the way, why are you calling me by my last name when you're calling him by his...]

[Ye Jin-Jin - Please congratulate me. I've finally reached level 5!]

[Lee Shin-Woo - Oh, that’s really fast. Congratulations.]

[Ye Jin-Jin - Hehe...]

[Erian Ruparte - Ha... It really does sound like Shin-Woo is more experienced than Ye Jin-Jin.]

[Prince Altania - I've had enough of this. You guys are just outright ignoring me now!]

Since parting ways with the now undead Shino Rendu, Lee Shin-Woo and Jin had been on the road for two months going through the level 2 danger zones; it had only been half a year since Lee Shin-Woo had come to the Underground Empire.

In the meantime, Ye Jin-Jin had become level 5, and another extremely talented newbie entered the world after Kratia. None of the other heroes had died, and they were all enduring in this dangerous Empire. It would be odd to describe living in this awful empire of undead as something as mundane as everyday life, but the other heroes were all growing at a leisurely pace.

And...

[Intermediate Combat Sense is now Lv7. Agility has increased by 5.]

[Your stats have surpassed 3,200. Your preparations for the level-up are slightly, no, largely, perhaps even unbelievably perfect. It seems disrespectful to even ask if you are ready. Would you like to accept your karma now?]

Shin-Woo was finally qualified to become level 6.