Chapter 5.2: Trickster's Karma - 2

[Level 1 dungeon - You have acquired a permit to enter the Tainted Sewers. All stats increase by 10 inside the dungeon. Info on the dungeon is added to your minimap. All of your actions in the dungeon are buffed.][Beginner Magic Affinity has become Lv10 and has developed into Low Rank Magic Affinity. Magic has increased by 10. The higher the skill, the more your magic permanently increases while the effectiveness of mana recovery increases proportionally.]

"There we go."

The moment Lee Shin Woo acquired the permit, he confirmed that his Magic Affinity had grown and yelled delightedly. Of course, whenever he obtained a dungeon permit, there would be an intense flow of mana, and this mana helped improve his Magic Affinity; so he had anticipated that his skill would level up. Still, he was happy. It wasn't just a simple level up. Rather, it had risen to the low rank stage.

'That's because there are about three insurmountable four-dimensional walls between a beginner skill and a low rank skill.'

The instant the skill had been reborn as a low rank skill, he felt the flow of the surrounding mana change and he laughed satisfyingly (though he's a skeleton, his ribs didn't even budge), and checked his status.

[Lee Shin Woo][Skeleton Avenger Blessed by God][Treasure Hunter][Lv - 2 (Status Effectiveness 110%)][Strength - 94 Agility - 91 Health - 93 Magic - 86][Passive skills - Invisible Heart Lv3, Acting Lv4, Beginner Avenger Lv1, Low Rank Bursting Thunder Lv3, Low Rank Magic Affinity Lv1, Low Rank Stealth Lv3, Beginner Command Lv3][Active skills - Bone Reinforcement Lv3, Low Rank Sprint Lv2, Beginner Shriek of the Dead Lv9, Beginner Regeneration Lv7, Beginner Catapult Lv8, Beginner Flames of Revenge Lv3, Beginner Power Slash Lv5]

He currently had three skills that had started at the beginner stage and had grown to be low rank, and these skills were Magic Affinity, Stealth, and lastly, Sprint.

Ever since his encounter with the Giant Zombie, he had been using Stealth at all times, so it was natural that it had grown. He used Sprint the most since he possessed the Undead's characteristic of never tiring, and on the back of that, it had risen to the low rank level.When these skills became low rank skills, he had obviously gained some stats, and if he were to compare them to when they were at the beginner level, their performance was completely different; they were supplementing his fighting ability.

[Low Rank Stealth Lv3 (Passive)][You hide your presence and move such that your opponent doesn't notice you. You can conceal any signs of your presence as well as your mana.]

Amongst those skills, Sprint was especially amazing. It had a huge effect in increasing his speed regarding his travel, evasion, and of course his attacks as well, but when it rose to the low rank stage, it became much easier to put that speed into his attacks. With just that, it felt like his fighting ability had increased by 30%.

Aside from that, Power Slash infused magic into his weapon, from which he would then forcefully slash; it was usually a skill learned at the very beginning by warrior classes in games and felt like it was their exclusive active attack skill.It was a skill he had learned from the memories and experiences of the Skeleton Warriors; despite having several skills, he hadn't had a truly powerful one hit kill move until then, so Power Slash was like rain after a long drought for him. Of course, it had particularly good compatibility with Sprint.

However, if he were to ask if he could win against the named Giant Zombie, Edward, head to head, now that he'd gotten stronger, he would say he definitely couldn't. It had already been four days since he had encountered and run away from the Giant Zombie, but even now, when he thought back at its strength, his bones quivered. Even when he had encountered the Lv3 Treasure Hunter, he hadn't felt such vast despair...It was probably close to a Lv4 elite. Basically, a monster amongst monsters. Despite that, he felt a murderous intent towards the zombie from time to time, so it may be an effect from accepting the Avenger's karma.

'But it's still too early. My magic rose by 10 this time, so my stats total 364, but... they said that my stats have to total 400 to get to level 3. For now, I'll think about it after getting to level 3.'

He heard that information from the chatting channel. It was the result of secretly throwing out a question to Lloyd, who had been complaining that he still needed 2,000 more stat potions before he reached level 7.He didn't even need to suspiciously ask until he got an answer. Since even his seniors who didn't usually talk complained at the talk of stat potions and told him the whole story. To get to level 2, one needed 200 stats, for level 3, 400 stats, and for level 4, 800 stats... each subsequent higher level requires double the stats. Honestly, when he saw his seniors just chattering away that they were level 6, he thought that they may all just be lousy, but when he realized that they had reached at least a total of 3,200 stats, he completely discarded such thoughts. Right now, they could break him with one flick of their fingers.

'I lied to my seniors that I was level 4, so I gotta move faster.'

He organized his thoughts and his sight was fixed upon the giant manhole in front of him. It seemed like it was a ladder that only he, who had acquired the permit for the dungeon, could use. He took a short deep breath and started to go down the ladder.

"Umhp..."

He had become quite accustomed to entering dungeons now, since he had gone through five dungeons in the past four days. Though they were only level 1 dungeons. And the last level 1 dungeon in the vicinity was this one.

'I'll quickly finish up with this dungeon and then go to the shop. It'd be great if a lot of Perium came out.'

His anticipation for the dungeons had cooled off compared to his first time. To be honest, he didn't think the regular mobs would give him a good skill, but he did have some anticipation that the boss might; but it ended up being a bust. Even if they had a skill, he had already absorbed a lot of skills, so it only ended up increasing his proficiency. The bosses in the Rural Rat Nest were the only special ones. It wasn't common for a monster to use its nails or attack by birthing monsters. He could now conclude that.

"They said it was the sewers, and it's truly, really dark in here...'

He probably wouldn't be able to gain many stats or skills in this dungeon as well, but he'd get Perium here. Lee Shin Woo planned to go to the secret shop soon after and buy a bone. He didn't know if it would be possible to level up by buying the bone, but he didn't plan on putting off going to the shop any further.

"Hoo."

At around the bottom of the ladder, he jumped off and nimbly landed on the ground. He jumped from 2 meters high, yet his landing was truly light as if he were moving like a cat. It hadn't even been 10 days since he'd been dropped onto this world, yet he felt a certain degree of dignity. It showed just by the fact that as soon as he landed on the ground, he ensured he was safe and checked his surroundings.

- Seureureuk

"Huh...?"

Lee Shin Woo heard something sliding towards him and his (nonexistent) ears pricked up. In certain dungeons, he would have to explore for about an hour before he would encounter any monsters, while in other dungeons, mannerless monsters would be guarding the entrance. It seems that the dungeon was the latter this time.

[Gureureureureu]

At that moment, an opponent appeared from the darkness, one whose identity was difficult to ascertain. It attacked him, accompanied by the sound of a strange cry that made it even more difficult to figure out what it was.However, because it was so slow, befitting a level 1 monster, Lee Shin Woo struck with his Bone of Thunder Lasting and slashed the monster's body without much difficulty. At that moment, he felt a strange sensation, like he was cutting apart a warm and tough jelly, making him shiver.

[You have hunted a Lv1 Sewer Slime.]

"Wow, it's truly...?"

The slime monster that had been split into two pieces emitted a bubbling sound and instantly evaporated. Lee Shin Woo, who had been watching that, looked really awful. Indeed, if it's fantasy, there have to be slimes, and if there are slimes, it has to be fantasy. Lee Shin Woo had expected them to show up at some point. However, he didn't want to meet them. That's because slimes didn't have any bones.

"It's not even worth my time to kill them... Huh?"

[You have acquired a deteriorated Skeleton Soldier's arm bone.][You have acquired 12 Perium.]

So it was worthwhile after all. He didn't know why, but a Skeleton Soldier's arm bone had popped out where the slime had died!Lee Shin Woo was momentarily puzzled but he soon figured out the reason. In exchange for the slimes not having any bones, it seemed like they would spit out any bones that they had ingested before!

"Yeah, isn't this really profitable...?"

He felt somewhat uneasy that the bones were deteriorated, but it couldn't be helped. Lee Shin Woo was about to put it into his inventory, but it felt awkward so he just decided to use it to reinforce his bones.Though he may die and die again a hundred times[1], he had gathered more than enough bones to restore himself.

[You have reinforced your arm bone. Absorbing the Skeleton Soldier's memories and experiences.][Gugeugaaaaahk, I'm melting, I'm melting! My C3 cervical vertebrae...! - Nameless soldier]

"..."

He didn't think he'd gain the memories of a skeleton's last moments dying to a slime. Isn't this memory going in a new direction?!Lee Shin Woo was seriously seized by an uncomfortable feeling. However, since he had gotten plenty of Skeleton Soldier's memories, he thought that it didn't matter whatever happened.

"Good, now shall we explore in earnest... Ah, before that."

He needed to choose a concept if he wanted to receive a karma token from this dungeon. Last time, when he had run away from the Giant Zombie, he had safely acquired the Avenger's token. After that, whenever he went into a dungeon, he would wring his (nonexistent) brain and would go through the dungeon with a completely different concept. Amongst those, the successful ones were the NINJA concept (the Assassin's token), where he moved covertly and killed his opponents one by one, and Lelouch Lamperouge's concept (Mastermind's Token), where he used his Shriek of the Dead to make his enemies kill each other. Right now, he had the Slaughterer, Trickster, Fighter, Avenger, Assassin, and Mastermind tokens, a total of six karma tokens.

'...However.'

He only needed to get four more tokens from now on! Well, there was a time when he thought so positively. However, that great situation was nothing more than a delusion. Getting those four tokens was extremely hard.

"The shield warrior concept... no, I failed at this last time. Then how about the berserker concept... I failed at that too."

He had tried the Lee Bong Ju[2] concept, where he ran through the dungeon fighting as few monsters as possible, and the Gandhi concept, where he similarly went through the dungeon as peacefully as possible without fighting, but they had failed. He realized after that they both weren't concepts that should be used in the dungeon. Since it's come to this, it might be better to try the Emperor concept. It was demanding 100 bones of the same race from his enemies in exchange for their lives. He had promised that he would use that later when he found monsters that he could actually talk to.

'Hoo, then I have no choice... Since my magic has increased, let's go with the Sniper concept.'

Lee Shin Woo didn't have any alternatives, so he went with the concept that he had held back, the Sniper concept. Due to the mana he used to regenerate his fingers whenever he used Catapult up until now, he hadn't been able to focus entirely on the Sniper concept, but since Magic Affinity had become a low rank skill, it felt like it might be possible now.

'I really hope that a usable skill comes out here.'

Lee Shin Woo made up his mind and after putting his sword into his inventory, pointed his finger and slowly walked into the dungeon. Up until now, no hero had dared enter a sewer dungeon (it was way too dirty); the moment the first explorer had appeared...

[1] T/N: Famous Korean saying from the Goryeo dynasty. It describes something that remains unchanging. In this case, it's the fact that he'll have enough stockpiled bones, regardless of how many times he needs to use them to heal himself.

[2] T/N: Lee Bong Ju is a South Korean marathoner.