Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 168

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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168. Temple of Slaughter (3)
-The 3rd Floor has opened. The Butcher will appear on the 5th Floor. The true Slaughter Festival begins.
Because I entered the 3rd Floor through Leap, The Butcher appeared on the 5th Floor.
To be honest, it was quite a rapid progression. We were given three days inside the Gate.
The hidden space was located somewhere that couldn’t be easily found without spatial awareness.
It’s a given that descending even one floor would take at least several hours.
‘Even if The Butcher appeared as quickly as possible, he wouldn’t show up for at least six more hours.’
About an hour had passed since we entered the Gate.
It seemed like fewer than five people besides us had made it down to the 4th Floor.
The ones on the 5th Floor were probably panicking right now. Well, what happened to those above wasn’t my concern.
After all, weren’t they all lunatics recognized by the insane God of Slaughter?
‘It’s a shame that the ones who could draw The Butcher’s aggro are disappearing.’
What’s done is done. That was their problem.
Thinking about it again, from this perspective, Spatial Awareness and Leap were undeniably broken skills.
Most of the hidden areas we discovered were found through Leap and Spatial Awareness. You could see it just by looking at the Previous Princesses.
Well, they probably prepared successors after reaching a certain position, but they didn’t climb that high for nothing.
“Well, that’s neither here nor there.”
What was done was done, and what mattered now was what was right in front of me, more than The Butcher appearing before these lunatics.
I used Leap to get this, after all. I grabbed the dagger and immediately used Leap to return to my guild members.
“Hye, you saw that just now, right?”
“Yes. It seems to be because of Leap. It looks like only the floor of the person in the lead is protected.”
“For a certain time, anyway. They said The Butcher appears if you find it too late.”
Han Chul responded to my words.
“Either way, we were the first to descend to the 3rd Floor, even if it was brief.”
“We can tell how fast the others are from this, right?”
It was Min-jae speaking, and Mister laughed.
“There’s no one faster than us, I’d wager?”
“Well, because we have Hye hyung, right?”
“We have someone who can see the answer within 40 meters of our surroundings.”
Mister pointed upward.
“And those on the upper floors are almost dead by now. Even if the lunatic who killed people first could have reached the 4th Floor ahead of us, it’ll be hard to stay ahead now.”
“Because there’s no one left to kill?”
Min-jae nodded calmly. He was right.
The Slaughter Festival.
From the start, those who opened this festival were probably aiming for us to kill each other as we descended.
They probably envisioned us dying to The Butcher in the end, lost in a difficult path. But now that was impossible. The Butcher appeared on the 5th Floor the moment I reached the 3rd Floor first.
Even if they wanted to find the path, it would probably be hard without anyone left to kill.
“By the way, it was down there?”
“Yes. Everyone, take a look.”
At Mister’s words, I held out the dagger. Only then could I examine its specifications.
[Slaughter Festival Dagger (Grade C)]
-A dagger used to sever sacrifices offered to the God of Slaughter.
-When harvesting something, there is a probability that quality will improve.
-Agility +2
“Oh?”
“Not bad at all, is it?”
At the same time, the Guild members who examined the dagger smiled. A Grade C dagger—finding something this decent with just one pull was quite fortunate.
“This should be used for purposes other than combat.”
“Right.”
The second option was crucial. It meant there was a probability that quality would improve when harvesting something.
Even if the probability was low, improved quality meant a rise in grade.
“Usually, it seems like it’d be used for mining mana stones or something like that…”
“Well, it should work fine against monsters that drop important items, like when we hunted the Earth Dragon last time.”
From the dagger’s description, it was clear that it worked best when dismantling things with flesh.
If I’d obtained this earlier, the Earth Dragon’s horns and scales I’d acquired last time might have risen by one grade.
“For something we got for free, it’s quite good.”
“Yes. The timing of acquisition isn’t bad either.”
Our level was 46. Once we surpassed level 50, the probability of encountering monsters like the Earth Dragon would increase.
When that happened, the dagger would raise the grade, even if the probability was low.
“I’ll register this as Guild property.”
Since no one specifically used a dagger, I simply stored it in the Subspace.
Even if it was an object used for a mad god, the object itself bore no sin.
“Since we found a Grade C on the 3rd Floor, there might be Grade A or B items on the 1st or 2nd Floor?”
“Exactly. We’re off to a good start.”
At Mister’s words, the Guild members’ eyes gleamed. For any hunter, obtaining good items was a pleasant thing.
“Then let’s descend quickly to the 3rd Floor for now.”
* * *
The 4th Floor had a slightly different atmosphere. It felt more dreary and unsettling than the 5th Floor.
The musty smell had intensified somewhat, and the scent of blood wafted from somewhere continuously. It felt like stepping into a horror film.
Moreover, the number of torches placed along the corridors had decreased. Still, searching was simple. Unlike when we roamed the 5th Floor, we encountered few people.
It was likely that a bloodbath was unfolding above because I’d entered the 3rd Floor.
‘They’re dead.’
I couldn’t sense The Butcher through spatial awareness, but I clearly recognized the corpses lying above.
The lighter ones seemed like people fighting each other, but the completely decomposed ones bore The Butcher’s handiwork.
Skill aside, given that The Butcher had earned that name, it was certain that creature was far from normal.
I encountered several people other than those I’d seen initially.
They were the people hiding in alleys and rooms that I’d sensed from above. As expected, they were Fanatics.
They wore something like crimson priestly robes.
“Kek!”
We had nothing to fear. Even if they hid in darkness, behind walls, or inside closets, spatial awareness caught them all.
I’d taken down about three of them, but they weren’t skilled enough to pose any immediate threat to us.
“Found it.”
“Already?”
“We got lucky this time.”
And surprisingly, we managed to find the passage down to the 3rd Floor in no time at all—less than thirty minutes.
This time, there was a hidden Corridor in the wall. I felt a gap behind the wall’s space and along the bricks beside it.
Click.
When I pressed the brick, the wall rotated smoothly and revealed a hidden passage descending downward.
“Easy.”
You could say my spatial awareness was on a winning streak.
“How do we close this…”
Han Chul, who came down last again, paused briefly to consider it from above, but we didn’t actually need to close it ourselves.
The moment Han Chul gazed at it for a moment, the door naturally rotated shut on its own.
“Let’s go.”
The 3rd Floor was considerably darker. The torches were spaced further apart. But that didn’t matter to us.
We could conjure flames with magic to secure our vision, and my Subspace was packed with light-emitting objects, including flashlights.
But that wasn’t the only difference. There were far more traps, and the frequency of hidden Fanatics had increased.
They weren’t just hiding—they’d wait in groups at corners and rush us.
“We still have way too much room to spare?”
Naturally, they were no match for us.
“These guys aren’t the real problem.”
The original Gate’s challenges would have been three-fold.
First, finding the path down to the lower floors. Second, the psychological warfare and combat against madmen. And third, The Butcher.
The first one was genuinely a problem.
If you couldn’t find the path and grew impatient, you’d end up searching for people to get hints.
Ironically, by overcoming that first challenge, we’d distanced ourselves from the second and third.
If the Previous Princess had entered in the previous world, she probably would have cleared it just as quickly.
-I’m starting to feel foolish for worrying.
‘You didn’t have the information.’
Even Chun-bae, who’d been quietly observing the situation, was saying things like that.
We were also feeling slightly deflated—things were flowing easier than expected, and all our preparation and anticipation seemed a bit wasted.
“The real threat hasn’t shown up yet.”
Still, what we’d prepared for was The Butcher.
“If we’re going to face The Butcher, we should probably find the exit on the 1st Floor and wait a bit?”
“Is that so?”
At Mister and Min-jae’s words, a thought suddenly struck me. If this had escalated to a Gate Break, there had to be a reason.
“Maybe The Butcher will come rushing down from above the moment we arrive at the 1st Floor.”
“Right away?”
“Yes. A Gate Break occurred—surely there were people who got lucky, right?”
“So assuming The Butcher comes down immediately, is the structure designed so we have to find the exit in that critical moment?”
I can’t be certain right now. This is merely speculation on my part. There was only one reason I brought it up.
“If I happen to sense an item on the 1st Floor, I think we should go down and search for it.”
If I went to the 1st Floor while the Guild members were on the 2nd Floor, it could cause unnecessary complications.
“Found it.”
And as we continued our conversation, we were able to locate the path leading to the 2nd Floor.
It took less than three hours to reach the 2nd Floor.
-Pop!
And once again, a crimson figure materialized.
-Revel in the festival! The 2nd Floor has opened. The Butcher shall appear on the 4th Floor.
The message was similar to before.
Well, I wasn’t sure how many people survived on the upper floors since I rushed into the 3rd Floor so quickly.
* * *
“Was that first showing a complete dud?”
“Apparently so.”
We continued exploring, but decent items were still nowhere to be found. Of course, it wasn’t as if there were none at all.
Nothing had been sensed on the 1st Floor yet, but we did discover something on the 3rd and 2nd Floors, and I did use a leap ability on the 2nd Floor to jump to the 4th Floor.
[Smoke Bomb (D-Rank)]
-A smoke bomb capable of temporarily shaking off pursuers.
[Recovery Potion (E-Rank)]
[Sleeping Draught (D-Rank)]
[Toxic Explosion Bomb (E-Rank)]
I never even encountered The Butcher on the 4th Floor, and most of the items I obtained were consumable junk.
I could sense the intent behind how the items were placed.
“These items seem meant to be used against The Butcher…”
“The rest appear to be for healing or using on companions who came with us.”
Offensive items meant for enemies in a structure where we had to scatter and search for hidden Corridors while sharing the same space as potential adversaries.
I collected them anyway. My Subspace always had spare capacity.
In any case, the 2nd Floor was similar. As we descended, the traps became more elaborate, and the Fanatics grew stronger.
I actually drew my sword to face them, and Mister used his spear as well.
‘It didn’t help much.’
Perhaps because they were madmen who believed in the God of Slaughter, they came with the mindset that they’d stab me even if their own hearts were pierced…
Once I realized they were truly insane, I simply ordered Min-jae to use magic to dispose of them.
“Wait a moment!”
It was at that moment as we pressed forward. I could sense something below, on the 1st Floor, within my spatial awareness.
“What is it?”
“There’s something below. It’s a shield?”
To be precise, there was a stone statue. And the statue was holding a shield.
I knew the shield wasn’t part of the statue because I could sense they weren’t connected.
“If it’s on the 1st Floor, is it A-Rank or B-Rank?”
“Probably? It should be at least B-Rank.”
I wanted to use Leap right then and there, but as I’d thought before, I needed to prevent any unforeseen threats.
The Butcher would be our opponent either way, but I couldn’t yet guarantee how powerful it would be.
If we ended up in a situation where we had to flee, we might have to expend an escape Secretary.
The most certain thing was that I needed to start mapping out the space from here on.
“We need to create a map starting from here. That way we can find our way back quickly once we go down.”
I had to map out the space below and secure the shortest route to the shield.
“First, I should search for a circular descent path from the point where I can sense the shield.”
And I discovered that path within about five minutes of searching.
“Phew!”
The Guild members’ eyes gleamed with anticipation—there might be at least a B-rank item, possibly even an A-rank one.
“Let’s head down.”
And the moment we reached the 1st Floor.
A crimson figure materialized once more with a soft pop.
-The 1st Floor has opened. Now The Butcher shall engage in slaughter without restriction… savor the final act of the festival!
The crimson figure spoke in a voice that sent chills down my spine.
But it didn’t matter to us right now. Who cared?
“Let’s move!”
Whether it was The Butcher or whatever else, the possible A-rank item came first.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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