When Lee Shin-Woo came to, he was no longer in the Empire, but somewhere else. The room was enclosed by four silver, gently-glowing walls, one of which was the 'secret shop'. He was given a special permit to enter.

"Why are you just staring at me? Unfortunately for you, I'm not for sale."

Lee Shin-Woo tilted his head to see the woman behind the counter looking back at him with a bewitching smile.

"... Have we met somewhere before?"

"Oh my, are you hitting on me? Unfortunately, I’m not into bones."

"I'm not hitting on you. Even if I were, it wouldn't matter."

She punctuated her point with an obnoxious laugh, and Lee Shin-Woo lost his temper. He had accepted that he was an undead by now, but he needed more time to come to terms with his impotence! And yet the shopkeeper had the audacity to start giggling.

"Ah yes, you're right. Aw, how sad."

The shopkeeper was a remarkable beauty with burning red hair. Fiery, curvy locks trailed down to the bottom of her neck, shimmering and swaying gently like actual flames. Yes, Lee Shin-Woo had seen such lively red hair before; in fact, he had seen it recently.

"Are you the goddess?"

"There's no way a goddess would have the free time to man a shop. Are all redheads deities in your eyes?"

"Ugh..."

Indeed, she looked different from the goddess  Lee Shin-Woo remembered. By Earth standards, the goddess had a remarkably strange set of facial features resembling a mix of all races, and she looked like a 10 year old girl and a 60 year old lady at the same time. The woman in front of him was different. She gave off an energetic air about her, and looked to be in her early 20s. Her facial features resembled those of a caucasian woman. Her hair was shorter, and her red eyes were different from those of the goddess, which seemed to glimmer with five different colors. One thing was for certain, though: she was an undeniable beauty. That was her only similarity to the goddess.

"If I were to explain... Well, I suppose you may think of me as a priestess. My god-given duty is to supply my customers, the heroes, with what they need at an appropriate price. I follow the goddess’s orders, which makes me a merchant and a priestess at the same time."

"If a hero needs something, you should just give it to them for free."

"Hehe."

She'd probably heard that a lot from the other heroes. She narrowed her eyes and explained.

"You know the term 'karma', right? Karma exists in everything in this world. Whether you’re accomplishing a special feat, perfecting a special skill... or even killing others, you gain karma."

"Then are levels and stats a kind of karma, too?"

"It's nice that you catch on quickly. You're right, They are a type of karma. And by using your karma as currency, my dear customer, you’ll be able to receive a different kind of karma in return. The karma I accept in exchange for my items is... Perium."

The explanation was long, but it boiled down to two simple points: First, achievements, skill training, and killing would allow him to raise his levels and stats. Second, the Perium he received from killing monsters could be used to buy items. As soon as Lee Shin-Woo heard that Perium was also a type of karma, he took out a portion of it from his inventory and looked at it thoroughly, but as expected, he couldn't make sense of it. 

Seemingly accustomed to such a reaction, the woman continued to say, "Dear customer, you don't have the ability to process or use Perium in another way yet. It will be much more helpful to you if you buy items from me."

"...One more question. You said that levels are also a type of karma, but why haven't I leveled up yet even after killing so many monsters?"

The merchant’s smile deepened. Levels represented one’s rank and served as the absolute standard of strength in this world. She looked at Lee Shin-Woo with pity for bringing it up so offhandedly.

"I don't know how you perceive the concept of ‘levels’, but in this world, one’s level isn’t something that can be raised that easily. You have to accumulate an appropriate amount of karma to level up. And the most typical example is stats."

"Then to become level 2..." 

"All your stats combined must reach 200, and stat bonuses from items and temporary buffs are excluded. It's easy to understand, isn't it?"

200? How am I going to get that many stat points, and when would that happen? He was going to voice his misgivings, but then he did the math and realized his total stats were already at 186. That meant he only had 14 more stat points to gain before he leveled up.

"But you don't need to be in such a rush. You see, what you did to get to that level is just as important as the level-up itself. Other forms of karma are important as well, be it special feats or skills. Well, you'll see once you've experienced it yourself."

Level-ups seem to entail more than a simple change of number. Perhaps…I’ll be picking up a different class? In any case, it would happen soon enough. As the merchant had said, he'd find out for sure once he experienced it himself. 

After a short while, the merchant tapped on the counter to break him out of his reverie..

"I think I've explained enough. Back to the point that I accept karma in exchange for goods. Would you like to buy something now, dear customer?"

"What do you sell?"

"I sell everything except for what I don't have. First off, potions."

"Hmm..."

He really didn't feel like he needed potions even if he set aside the question of whether a skeleton could drink one. All his injuries could be healed through Bone Reinforcement.

"Next are magic books."

"Hm..."

Magic books, huh. Perhaps he might need them later, but not now. He barely had enough mana to use Shriek of the Dead once, so what good would learning new magics do? If he hadn't learned Shriek of the Dead, he might've thought about it, but since he already had a skill that could turn the tides of battle, magic books didn't feel very appealing to him right now.

"You wouldn’t have enough Perium to buy them at the moment, though. Of course, we also have equipment that you can wear."

"Equipment, huh. As expected, I'd really like to see tho..."

"Ah, and last but not least, we have bones."

"Bones!?"

"Bones."

Lee Shin-Woo, who was ready to shop for equipment, froze and fell silent. They sold bones? What if his guess was right? What if they were the kind of bones he was thinking about?  He wondered why the shop would sell such things. He tilted his head at the merchant, while her expression remained as calm as ever.

"There are bones scattered around the Empire. It’s only natural that our shop would sell them. The other heroes don't have Bone Reinforcement, so most of them sell me bones they found at a cheap price."

"Of course."

It didn’t mean much to him since he didn’t have anything worth selling at the moment, but the knowledge might come in handy one day. He had an inventory that could store pretty much anything now. Lee Shin-Woo nodded to himself, silently making the decision to pick up stuff he didn't immediately need in the future.

"Please show me the bones."

"Hehe, I knew you'd say that, dear customer, so I had them prepared."

He had debated between the equipment and the bones, but most of his strength came from Bone Reinforcement, so he went with the bones in the end. His reasoning was simple: bones were a better choice for him since they would increase his strength permanently, while equipment would have to be replaced eventually. Most importantly, his experience with Bone Reinforcement had shown him the variety of boosts and bonuses bones might grant him.

There's, of course, the possibility of gaining skills, but I also can't deny that the original owner's memories within the bones are greatly beneficial to my combat abilities.

As someone who hadn’t learned any martial arts back on Earth, Lee Shin-Woo knew very well that he was only able to get this far and put up a decent fight against the Treasure Eater because he had gained the combat experience of the Skeleton Soldiers from their bones.

Bone Reinforcement was about far more than simple stat increase or skill acquisition; its true value lay in the unique, innate experience and memories the owners of the bones possessed! By absorbing more and more bones, he would be able to make the experience and memories his own until he became a peerless battle master.

"Oh my, dear customer. You have 3,420 Perium on you right now...? I honestly didn't expect anything from you, but you’re quite loaded, aren’t you? Let's see, a bone that you could buy with that much money... here, you can buy one of these two."

"...Huh?"

The merchant took out two pieces of bone and placed them on the counter. He couldn’t tell where she had taken them out from at all. Both of the pieces were large, so he couldn't even guess what part of the body they were originally from. One of them was reddish, while the other had a blue tint. Lee Shin-Woo couldn’t help but retort, “What is this, The Matrix?”

"You won't wake up from a dream by choosing the red bone. This is reality."

"Wait. Can't I buy a lot of less valuable bones instead? I want to acquire as many different experiences as possible."

"You can only buy one bone with the money you have. Our shop doesn't sell level 1 monster bones. I won't stop you from buying bones cheaper than these two, but you'll regret it."

Ultimately, it seemed like he had no choice but to pick one of the two. If so, he wanted to at least glean as much information as possible before buying, but the shopkeeper shook her head and wouldn’t budge.

"Item information is also karma. You don’t have enough Perium to buy both the information and the bone of your choosing, dear customer.."

"Eeek..."

At this point, the woman seemed more like a scammer than a priestess helping heroes under the goddess’s order, but he could tell she wouldn’t give him any information on the bones no matter what he did. If both bones cost the same, their potential should be the same as well... Then...

"Of the two, which is more expensive?"

"The blue one's a bit more expensive. It costs 3,350 Perium."

He would only be left with 70[1] Perium once he bought it... And there would be no going back on his decision, whatever it was. He nodded stiffly.

"Please give me that one."

"A manly choice. Here you go."

The Perium disappeared from his inventory without him needing to pass her the money. Seeing the blue bone showing up in his inventory made Lee Shin-Woo feel some degree of relief. Then the merchant clapped.

"Now, it's time to part ways. If you work hard on quests, you'll probably see me again soon. I'll tell you one thing. You just made a very good decision, dear customer. The foundation is important."

"The foundation...?"

"I'll see you next time."

She said with a grin. Even though he was still incredibly confused, she didn’t explain further, but instead put on a beautiful smile and clapped again. The space he was in immediately broke apart, and Lee Shin-Woo  returned to the place he had been before entering the shop.

"..."

To be honest, he was a bit disappointed. He hadn't been able to hold a proper conversation with someone else over the past few days. Regardless of how similar she looked to that cheeky goddess, it had brought him great comfort to talk to her. Only after that did Lee Shin-Woo realize how starved he was of human contact. "No... Don't be negative."

He needed to stay positive in order to keep pushing forward. If he wasn't positive, he wouldn't be able to do anything. He shook his head so much that his neck joint creaked. Then he took the bone out of his inventory.

"Bone Reinforcement."

[Would you like to use ???'s bone to reinforce your own bones? You can reinforce your skull.]

He had a good feeling about this. It was his first time reinforcing his skull. He had a feeling that it wasn't a body part that could be reinforced easily.

"Alright, reinforce."

He proceeded with the reinforcement without hesitation, and then the blue bone in his hand disappeared without a trace; simultaneously, he felt a dull shock to his head.

"Ugh..."

[You have reinforced your skull. Magic has increased by 7. You have gained a portion of ???'s memories and experiences.]

[I can't understand you people. This research will lead us to ruin. - ???]

He realized what the shopkeeper meant by ‘foundation’ as soon as the incomplete memory of the bone’s original owner rushed into his mind. Earth might be a different story, but here, the foundation of all beings was their ability to wield energy.

[You have gained the passive skill, Beginner Magic Affinity Lv1. Magic recovery rate increases.]

After overcoming the migraine with great difficulty, Lee Shin-Woo looked up to observe the world. He had thought there was only death in this world, but there was still something that contained life here—mana.