Stop, Friendly Fire!

<Chapter 17. Disguise - 3>

If he had just one more permit to God’s secret shop, he would’ve used it without any hesitation.

However, Lee Shin Woo only had one permit right now, and he didn’t know how much he could sell this wine for, so he couldn’t take the risk so easily. Lee Shin Woo clicked his tongue and muttered.

"Senior Seira is a prophet. A prophet."

"You seem to be getting along with our seniors."

"If you’re jealous, then why don’t you enter the channel too?"

"D-Don’t want to."

Whenever he told Jin, who was jealous of his relationship with other people, to do something about it and go into the chatting channel, he would always say that he didn’t want to; Lee Shin Woo just laughed.

He could roughly understand how he felt. Normally, the less self-confidence one has, the more passive they become in terms of maintaining relationships with other people. Needless to say, since Jin was a Skeleton Horse, it was obvious how low his self-esteem was.

"For starters, let’s pack all of the wine into our inventories. Since we don’t need to pack food in our inventories."

"It might’ve been a waste of space if we hadn’t leveled up to 5."

As the two rose to level 5, their inventories suddenly doubled in size. They, who didn’t really have any necessities in their inventories, possessed inventories that were uselessly large; they managed to fill at least half of their inventories with the wine barrels in the ripening room.

"This one’s 25 liters, and this one’s 47 liters... It wasn’t a problem with the ripening magic, but there was a difference in the fermented wine’s condition at the beginning of the ripening process. Because of that, they all taste different, despite being produced in the same year and being the same age. This might be some sort of craftsmanship as well."

"So how many liters in total?"

"1,965 liters."

"Wow."

Though they weren’t bottled, it was a truly large amount of wine. If his seniors saw this, they would’ve fainted. Since they would cheer whenever they found a single wine bottle intact in a dungeon or a city.

This was all due to Lee Shin Woo, who miraculously found this dungeon, and him nonchalantly releasing the seal, which was a highest rank lock that could only be released by those of the Kerr Century Winery. Of course, Lee Shin Woo trusted that this was something that all of his seniors could do as well.

[Steelworker, we’ve found other areas as well.]

"Oh? Wow..."

He had expected them to be here somewhere, and one of the Iron Golems scattered around, looking out for any potential danger, had found a location that stored bottled wine.

Though they weren’t stored as perfectly as in the ripening room and there were several that couldn’t be used, Lee Shin Woo and Jin marveled at the fact that they could recover 30 bottles of luxurious wine. He’d only suffered ever since being dropped into the Empire, yet only now did he feel like he was actually performing the task of a hero. Isn’t it a hero’s duty to clear out an empty home?

"I wonder if there’s more stuff here."

"Probably not. We checked all the facilities outside of the winery."

"Yeah, you’re right. We checked all the fermentation facilities. But..."

The businessmen had set such tight security on the entrance, so how would the grapes have gotten in? Lee Shin Woo briefly thought about it, and his goblin fire swayed unconfidently.

"The inventory?"

"The inventory isn’t part of this world; it only belongs to the heroes."

"Did they use assassins?"

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"The businessmen raised assassins to protect the wine?"

"...Then a secret passageway?"

"Yeah."

It was highly likely that they brought the grapes in through a secret passageway, as the security at the entrance was so tight. And hypothetically speaking, if the secret passageway was a direct link to the orchard...

"The orchard might be a dungeon too. Though it shouldn’t be as impenetrable as this place."

"...How do you even grow grapes underground?"

"This entire empire is underground. Why couldn’t they if they had the skills?"

"Ah, that’s right."

Lee Shin Woo led Jin and the golems, searched the winery, and ultimately succeeded. He released a few more hidden locks and examined the clearing’s wall; he broke through the wall, and though it wasn’t the size of golem’s railway, it was a quite bright and clean underground railway.

"It really did exist!?"

"Definitely."

Though there was only a single wall dividing the underground passage and the winery, the air was quite different. There were several layers of magic applied to the winery to act as a smokescreen so that it couldn’t be found, but the railroad, which was outside of the spells’ range, wasn’t largely protected.

"What do we do if there are monsters or people aiming for the wine?"

"Take a look around."

"Alright... Huh?"

Jin looked back and was shocked. The winery they had just left had disappeared, and the railway just kept going on and on. Jin trembled and Lee Shin Woo explained firmly.

"This railroad probably goes through other facilities. They went so far as to make a smokescreen, so normally, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was a winery. Rather than impenetrable security, they chose to just to hide it naturally."

"You saw through that? What the hell were you before all this?"

"Just a normal salaryman. Let’s go. You guys, get smaller and follow behind me quickly."

[I understand.]

[Reducing body size.]

Lee Shin Woo ordered, and the golems compressed their bodies. Though they were a lot smaller than when they had first entered the dungeons, but now they were shorter than two meters tall: a small-size mode!

Through this special mode, which sacrificed their bulk and weight to reduce the size of their tough bodies, their destructive power that came from their weight would be reduced, but their speed would overwhelmingly increase, and was better when they needed to move quickly, like right now.

Of course, this wasn’t originally a command from the Limited Order Bone Core, but Lee Shin Woo possessed a senior administrative authority and was able to unlock the command.

"There are a lot of forked roads."

"This way."

They went as far as to so seamlessly hide the location of the winery, so it wasn’t surprising that there was an absurd amount of forked roads; however, whenever they came across one of them, Lee Shin Woo would boldly choose a path. Jin couldn’t help but be curious as he followed behind him.

"How are you making a decision so quickly?"

"There are periodically some traces of where humans and vehicles went. Actually, to be exact, there are traces of mana being used to erase those tracks."

"..."

The traces were erased by magic to conceal the tracks, but what did it even mean to grasp the traces of that very mana being used to erase those tracks? It felt as though the businessmen several dozens of years ago were playing in the palm of his hand.

’Compared to finding the traces of Anti-Skull, this is nothing.’

Ten minutes of running and following Lee Shin Woo’s perfect navigation through the railroad, Lee Shin Woo suddenly stretched his palm towards the sky.

The Lighting Tooth appeared, spun round and round, and shot forward. The Lightning Tooth flew through the darkness and for a few seconds remained silent; then, for a moment, sparks scattered through the air.

[Gguahk!]

[You have hunted a Lv3 Root Eater.]

Far-sight was affected by agility, so Jin could see it this time too. There was a large and hideous insect stuck to the ceiling, several kilometers in front of them; the insect emitted an unpleasant sound and approached them, but the Lightning Tooth cut through it and it fell to the ground.

However, that was only the beginning. After it cleaved through the monster, it easily turned directions, and whilst maintaining its full power, found a new target and rushed towards it. The insects that came crawling towards them fell one by one; he began to hunt them resolutely.

[Kihik!]

[Shaah!]

As the group dashed towards him, they emitted a sound; aside from that, the underground passage had been completely quiet before, without even the sound of a rock rolling on the floor. However, the underground passage was soon filled with screams. Lee Shin Woo remained focused on the battlefront, and Jin wondered whether he should start running or not, and eventually half-heartedly ran. At that moment...

"Jin, stop!"

"Ok!"

Lee Shin Woo ordered, and at that very moment, the final forked road appeared. It divided into three paths and while nothing came out of his objective, the middle path, monsters poured out of the left and right paths as if they were waiting for him.

He felt repulsed from the sight of these insects, which he’d never seen on Earth and were bigger than humans. They were all level 3 or 4. He also saw some elites.

[Kiheeeeeehk!]

[Kik, Kihiiik!]

He’d never absorbed their bones before, so he wasn’t sure, but it seems like they were uneasy. They weren’t even humans they could eat, but bones, so they must’ve been uneasy that nothing good came.

The moment when those picky eaters gathered in the middle passageway, he burrowed the Lightning Tooth in the middle of their group. It pierced through a few gigantic insects and burrowed deep into the ground; intense sparks were discharged from it, paralyzing all of the bugs in the area.

’Lightning and acid; they both have their advantages.’

Lee Shin Woo thought and willed the Lightning Tooth; at that moment, without giving the bugs a chance to recover and move... the Lightning Tooth exploded fiercely!

[Critical Hit!]

[The Rule of Bone skill has become Lv5. All stats have increased by 3.]

The lightning cloud engulfed the passage. Various parts of the passageway collapsed and emitted an awful sound; fortunately, the ceiling didn’t collapse. Since so many bugs screamed at once, it sounded like dozens of blackboards being scratched at once.

"Charge! Just keep the right side open!"

[Following your command!]

[Assault mode!]

Lee Shin Woo commanded the golems to charge, summoned the Drake Horn Lance, and gripped it. He targeted the insects that were still intact and running out of the explosion, and charged with a force that would rip them to shreds!

"What about your mana!?"

"I’m fine!"

The weighty, cone-shaped lance discharged dark blue sparks. The entire weapon was clad in a fierce lightning. He couldn’t do anything about the weapon’s element, but Lee Shin Woo was already able to comfortably wield the lightning element, so doing this much was extremely easy for him!

The weapon tinged with lightning established an even greater harmony with Bursting Thunder, and was naturally able to release more destructive power. This was what it meant to wield the power of an element with one’s own effort.

[Preparing for collision. Switching to thorn gloves.]

[Destroying all enemies...]

[In front!]

Around the time Lee Shin Woo had finished his preparations to attack, the three golems simultaneously dashed into the front. Regardless of what lay before them, they pushed through it and lived up to their name; as level 5 golems which were more powerful and tougher than other level 5s none of the bugs could pierce through them.

[Kihiiiiiik!]

[Shaaahhk!]

The insects, which were running around flusteredly due to the explosion, weren’t able to avoid the golems properly.

Because of that, the bugs escaped to the right corner, the only location which the golems couldn’t cover. But naturally, Lee Shin Woo rushed over there. He used the Iron Golems, which were akin to an impregnable fortress, in order to lead the bugs into one place.

[Kushaaaaaaaaaahk!]

[Ggureureu, Ggureureureu!]

"Heuuuup!"

Compared to when he had pierced through an Iron Golem in a single blow, this group of bugs was nothing. Lee Shin Woo grabbed the Drake Horn Lance, which was roughly discharging electricity, with both hands and thrust forward, speeding forward with Jin. It was lightning that ran atop the earth: Ground Lightning!

[Critical Hit!]

The primarily discharged sparks made it so that the bugs couldn’t move very well, and the following lance thrust brutally tore through their bodies. The blue sparks that came from the cone-shaped lance’s cutting edge made them look like a falling star!

Then, they followed behind the golems and pushed through the passageway. The passageway was filled with the sound of screams, sparks, and reeked of a nutty smell. He’d never been so relieved that he could stomach this. [1]

[We have destroyed all of the enemies in the area.]

[Releasing thorn gloves.]

The golems said mechanically, and right after they stopped, Lee Shin Woo and Jin stopped as well. He thought there might be more, so he turned around, but all he saw were the bugs’ corpses.

"Why did you throw your weapon at the beginning if you were just going to go through them?"

"I wanted to provoke all the guys on the ceiling. There’s no reason to do the same thing twice, right?"

But after saying that, Lee Shin Woo clicked his tongue.

"I guess we do have to do the same thing twice. Golems, collect all of the bones and Perium."

[I understand.]

[Following command.]

"You..."

Seeing Lee Shin Woo treat the golems like slaves, Jin’s goblin fire narrowed. However, Lee Shin Woo actually muttered something even more brazen.

"Should I bring along a few golems, even though they’re a bit slow...?"

There were insects hidden within the remaining passageway as well, but Lee Shin Woo and the golems thoroughly trampled them. Even if pest exterminators went at it, Lee Shin Woo was sure that they wouldn’t do a more perfect job than them, and Lee Shin Woo ultimately ended up arriving at his destination.

It was a vineyard.

[1] E/N: Even though he doesn’t have a stomach.