Chapter 11 Part2 (1/2)

<chapter 11.=”” lightning=”” tooth=”” -=”” 2=””>

The way the golems went about with their bombardment made him think back to the Ratman launching its nails. By human standards, they were forcefully discharging the rocks attached to their arms and using the surrounding rocks to replenish their losses.

”Seems like if you take a wrong step here, it'll be the end for you.”

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo muttered, as he dodged the raining rock sh.e.l.ls and drove his axe into a golem's body. If he had come here by himself, he wouldn't die, but he would've had to put in a lot of effort to clear out all of them.

But that 'end' had now become an impossible proposition. Compared to Jin's level, no, even compared to his own level, whilst riding on Jin's back the golem's bombardment was incredibly slow. Even if they shot the rocks point blank, they would be able to dodge them quite easily.

”So it seems like if there's a large difference between agility, then ranged attacks almost become completely ineffectual...”

[Ceasing... operation...]

While he was fighting against the golems, he suddenly realized how important agility was. The Acid Ghoul was able to intercept his shot without much difficulty because of its agility as well.

So long as it doesn't swerve along the way, and one can read the trajectory of the shot, one could avoid it without much difficulty; when he considered that the one dodging the projectile had more of an advantage than the one doing the shooting, if one wanted to kill someone with a long range attack, then he concluded that they would have to be much faster than their opponent.

Fast enough that they can't read the trajectory of the shot, and fast enough that they can't grasp the timing of the shot.

”If we were to say something like this on our home worlds, we would've been subject to ridicule.”

”Is that something you should be saying? I'm the one dodging all of the sh.e.l.ls coming from everywhere!”

The first condition for surviving in this world was to accept that they had become a member of this world, and their preexisting common sense was invalid and couldn't be applied to this world. Based on that criteria, the two of them had pa.s.sed those conditions with flying colors.

”Ah, there aren't any more.”

Had they crushed all of the golems? Once he'd taken care of the golems that had first responded to him and looked up, there weren't any more rocks in the entire area. Once broken, they were neither golems nor boulders anymore, and it seemed only natural that only the considerably large boulders were golems.

”What should we do now? Should we go across from there?”

”The region that these guys are in charge of seems to be strictly divided.”

If Lee s.h.i.+n Woo walked for around a minute, he could reach an area with normal rock formations. But if he stepped one foot in, those rocks would immediately emerge as golems.

Even now, that area wasn't very far off. It certainly felt strange, the golems seemingly being measured and divided, as only the golems of a fixed area had responded to them. It felt like someone had decided that 'you guys are in charge from here up to here.'

”For starters, are these guys really formed naturally?”

”That's what we have to figure out now.”

Even with the sh.e.l.ls flying towards him unceasingly, he could still fight, but the same couldn't be said about the loot; he had to leave them behind. He lead Jin around the whole area, and collected the sprawled cores and Perium off the floor.

[You have acquired 3,200 Perium.]

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

”Though they're level 3, they don't leave much Perium behind unless they're elites.”

”Where do you even use that?”

”Well, I completely understand where you're coming from since you've never gone to the secret shop before.”

He'd 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 was difficult to find even one Great Slime, but the Stone Golems were comparatively easy to find, as they were spread across the plateau area, so they made up for their quality with quant.i.ty.

After he'd raked in all of the Perium from the entire area, he checked how much total Perium he'd collected.

[Total Perium - 445,870]

”Hoo.”

Was this what it feels like to be amazed at how much has changed in such a short period of time? It felt like just a few days ago he had unhesitatingly told Pleine his story in exchange for a 20,000 Perium discount, but now, he had already ama.s.sed 445,870 Perium. Of course, there were a few special circ.u.mstances that helped in that.

”s.h.i.+n Woo, there's something over here.”

”Ah.”

[Lv2 Stone Gloves]

It looked like it was armor. The gloves looked like they were made of stupidly tough rock, and he wondered whether this would actually be effective in fending off his opponent's attacks; but on the contrary, he had his suspicions that these would actually cause more harm to his hands. At the very least, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo didn't really want to equip them.

[You have acquired Lv2 Stone Gloves. Through Bone Reinforcement, the item is changing. Your compatibility with the item is high, causing a special change.]

However, the moment Lee s.h.i.+n Woo touched the gloves, something strange happened. It was a message he had never seen before, and what's worse, it was a message he hadn't even seen when his Melting Bone Double Axe had risen in level!

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

”...”

But when he saw the outcome of that change, his (nonexistent) eyes naturally narrowed. Rocks and bone had come together, and had become a fossil; he wanted to tackle the Bone Reinforcement ability itself.

”But fossils aren't technically bones...”

”Why do you need scientific knowledge all of a sudden?”

”Nah, it's fine. It's good for me, anyway.”

Even if teeth or nails were regarded as bones, he just decided to let it go. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo decided not to nitpick on each and every aspect of his ability. In any case, not only had his item leveled up, it had also been reinforced to +5, so he was satisfied.

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

”Good, then there's only one other option.”

”You're doing it again?”

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo didn't answer Jin's question, and quietly raised the Fossil Gloves (+5). In his other hand, he held not his axe, but his sword, the Bone of Thunder Lasting (+8).

It wasn't an item he would equip, so he didn't consider it to be a stupid gamble. While trying his very best to ignore the other option of using the equipment to reinforce his own bones...!

Something happened the moment Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was about to use his Bone Reinforcement. One of the bone cores he still hadn't stored into his inventory seemed to s.h.i.+ne brightly, and a message appeared in front of him.

[If you consume a bone core and then attempt reinforcement, the success rate increases. If you use the bone core as a material for an equipment's reinforcement, it will increase even further. It is possible to use several at once in the reinforcement.]

”Huh...!?”

When he thought about it, he remembered reading that normally monsters' cores are used to produce weapons, or manufacture medicine. However, it turned out that the core itself had the power to reinforce equipment. Perhaps the equipment reinforcement permit also functioned by using the power of a core?

Just a little while ago, he felt like he had wanted to 'try it out', but now that he'd read that message, he trusted that the success rate would increase significantly by using the cores, though he had no basis for that. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo put aside the Fossil Gloves for now, 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]