Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 182

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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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182. Coma Abandoned Mine (2)
-Hunt the mineral spirits infesting the abandoned mine to cleanse the cavern. Time remaining…
Even with the highest-tier spirit awakened, the Gate’s mission remained unchanged, which meant the Gate itself hadn’t been warped.
Hidden dungeons inherently carried dangerous variables, so this backlash was likely the price of discovering one.
“S-rank Gate Metal?”
“Really?”
When I relayed Chun-bae’s words, the Guild members looked equally astonished. Though Gate Metal was treated as pretty garbage, S-rank specimens were extraordinarily rare.
Most were managed at the national level.
That was the weight of S-rank materials. Since no one knew when rare jobs might emerge, nations stockpiled them for the future.
“But if it’s a highest-tier spirit, isn’t that way too brutal?”
Mister expressed some concern. I agreed with him.
“It certainly is. The advance teams were terrified of highest-tier spirits too.”
When I’d obtained Scorching, I’d once encountered a high-tier flame spirit. I’d handled it with an advantageous matchup strategy, but it had been quite troublesome.
Naturally, a highest-tier spirit would be even more difficult to face. Chun-bae provided the answer.
-Even if it’s a Hidden dungeon, the difficulty should be adjusted accordingly.
‘Really?’
-Affirmative. Highest-tier spirits are inherently entities suited to level 70 and beyond.
True. Hidden dungeons are difficult, but they rarely reach impossible levels. Of course, there’s always the danger like when I encountered the Red Dragon.
The Gate hadn’t been warped either. It would probably feel similar to when I’d faced slightly weaker Ogres or Trolls before.
-Even if the main body appears, I believe it will be manageable.
‘Really?’
-Affirmative. You possess both Subspace and Scorching. The opponent is a mineral spirit. It should be far easier to handle than other spirits.
Chun-bae said that blocking the enemy’s heavy charges with Subspace and burning it with Scorching would make it relatively simple.
Of course, being a highest-tier spirit, it would have various attack methods. Even lower-tier mineral spirits had made metal surge from the ground.
But unlike other spirits with fluid forms, I could deal greater impact using Subspace’s walls.
Moreover, since it was a mineral spirit, it would be even more vulnerable to Scorching, which burned mana itself.
“So we have good matchup compatibility.”
“Exactly.”
“With Hye around, we’re in good hands.”
With Chun-bae, a walking strategy guide, we had no trouble preparing.
“Min-jae might summon something from the ground like sand spears, or metal could rain down like shrapnel.”
Despite our preparations, the highest-tier mineral spirit didn’t rush toward us immediately.
“Nothing’s happening? The ground isn’t even trembling.”
When the initial message appeared, the earth had shaken violently with a deep rumble. It was heavy enough that we immediately recognized the highest-tier spirit’s arrival.
After that, there were intermittent small tremors for a while, but now there was nothing.
“It seems we’ll need to seek it out ourselves?”
I thought if we ventured deeper, we’d find a space suitable for combat. The highest-tier would be larger than any mineral spirit we’d encountered so far.
It would find the narrow space inconvenient for fighting too. As we advanced a bit further, we discovered something peculiar.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“There’s a young spirit here. I can sense the cavern, but the spirit itself is gone. It’s like someone took it out.”
“Huh?”
I could sense the space where the young spirit had been, but unlike before, the interior was now empty.
“Did they take it while we were gone?”
“Yes. It seems like a supreme-tier spirit gave some kind of order. Those intermittent small vibrations we heard after the initial tremor—I think they were caused by these creatures.”
Though young spirits had a higher yield than mineral spirits, I wasn’t particularly disappointed.
S-rank Gate metal was far more important.
“Wait, does that mean you lost the bet, hyung?”
“Huh?”
Mister tilted his head at Min-jae’s sudden remark.
“Since you can’t do the treasure hunt anymore, shouldn’t you be the one buying us dinner since you didn’t find even one?”
I burst out laughing at Min-jae’s words. The treasure hunt bet was what we’d been doing earlier, after all.
I hadn’t expected him to bring it up now that the supreme-tier spirit had arrived. I nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. You should buy us dinner, Mister.”
“…It’s not over yet.”
“Come on, if they took everything, it’s over.”
“Who knows? There might be more inside.”
Mister insisted with an aggrieved expression, but no one sided with him.
Eventually, Mister shook his head in resignation.
“Then let’s go to Yong-yong Beef Restaurant.”
“What? That doesn’t count. We should go somewhere else. Somewhere where you can actually spend money, Mister.”
I cut him off immediately.
Of course, it would still be Mister’s money at Yong-yong Beef Restaurant, but there was a difference between that and him treating us directly.
“Sigh. Fine. You all pick what you want.”
Faced with our resolute expressions, Mister finally threw up his hands in surrender.
“Since Shin-hee came in first, she should choose the menu.”
* * *
As we moved forward, we felt something was off. The mineral spirits that had appeared one or two at every junction were nowhere to be seen.
They say it’s always calm before the storm. This silence felt suspicious.
“These creatures… they seem to be gathering and waiting somewhere, don’t they?”
“Yes. It really does seem like the supreme-tier spirit gave them orders.”
About thirty minutes later, we confirmed our suspicion was correct.
In a cavern that had been dug wide and high—as if there were a major ore vein—the supreme-tier spirit awaited us, exactly as we’d anticipated.
The enemies hadn’t discovered us yet. Ever since I sensed something amiss, I’d taken point and conducted reconnaissance.
I’d returned to the group after spotting them.
“So? It doesn’t look like they’re all here.”
There was indeed one aspect that defied our expectations. Our prediction that they’d be gathering and waiting proved incorrect.
There were only four creatures in the cavern.
The supreme-tier spirit was unmistakably distinctive at a glance.
It was about two meters in size, with an aura that felt completely different, and its body was composed of a remarkable metallic substance.
-I assumed it would be significantly weakened given its level, but it’s stronger than I anticipated.
‘Is that so? Are you struggling?’
-Not to that extent. You should be more than capable of handling it, Han Hye.
‘So it’s manageable? Understood.’
A weakened enemy to some degree posed no problem. It was simply stronger than Chun-bae had predicted.
And beside it were three spirits with slightly less vigor—according to Chun-bae, they were high-tier spirits.
-The positive aspect is that high-tier spirits and above have a high probability of possessing Gate metal as their core bodies.
In other words, they were treasure troves. When I relayed this fact to the Guild members, they showed reactions similar to mine.
“A quadruple Gate metal event?”
“At minimum B-rank, surely?”
“Could it be A-rank?”
Having conquered difficult Gates before, confidence naturally bloomed among them.
“If the highest-tier hadn’t appeared, these would’ve felt like the real threats of this Gate.”
“Still, only strong ones around. It’s almost like they’re protecting something. Can they even communicate?”
“Probably. Spirits are living beings too.”
Mister scratched the back of his head.
“Why do we feel like the villains here? It seems like they’re trying to protect each other, excluding the weak and young ones.”
“Well….”
It wasn’t wrong. I could feel sympathy, but there was no helping it. This was our job, after all.
If we showed mercy, wouldn’t we be the ones dying?
Strictly speaking, Yong-yong was also something I’d essentially kidnapped.
“There’s no other way.”
“Right. We have to take what we can.”
Mister was just speaking his mind. If he’d harbored such weakness from the start, he wouldn’t have made it this far anyway.
-I’ll restrain the highest-tier. I’m counting on you for the rest.
-Understood.
“Don’t worry.”
With four enemies total, we quickly formulated a strategy. Surely Mister, Han Chul, and Min-jae could handle high-tier ones.
Since the Cavern was wider than expected, releasing Yong-yong would prove helpful too.
“Let’s go.”
The moment we stepped into the Cavern, the mineral spirits began to move as well.
There was no exchange of words between us. Though the mineral spirits had no mouths….
Unlike lower-tier spirits, they possessed eyes. Their fierce gaze seemed to express fury.
The instant our eyes met, they charged toward us.
Thud—thud—thud—. Heaviness emanated from their ponderous footsteps.
My task was to restrain the highest-tier, so after using Leap, I rushed forward without hesitation.
.
.
.
Pop—! Pop—!
Han Hye appeared before the mineral spirits with a single leap, drawing their attention, then used another leap to reposition herself behind them.
It was to catch them in a pincer movement.
The mineral spirits were massive and durable; if they charged head-on with their full weight, it would be difficult to block them.
Even if I deployed my Subspace, there were four of them, so I couldn’t stop them all.
‘I can’t leave the main force in danger.’
Even with a Guardian present, these were at least high-tier mineral spirits. They were fiercer than a typical Ogre’s charge.
That’s why my goal was to redirect some of their attention backward. Especially the highest-tier spirit.
Since the enemies could target me but I could escape with a leap, my plan was to divide their focus and take them down one by one.
However, the effect was better than expected. The moment Han Hye used her leap to get behind them, all the spirits reacted in unison and turned around.
“…!”
It was as if they were startled. The eyes that had gleamed with rage now flickered with urgent panic.
Han Hye tilted her head in confusion.
‘Why? What’s behind…. Oh?’
Beyond the Cavern they’d been blocking, there was now a passage directly behind Han Hye. Suddenly, I remembered the spirits that had vanished earlier.
Han Hye’s eyes lit up.
‘There are other mineral spirits beyond that passage.’
They’d withdrawn them like protecting their young. The reason the spirits hadn’t been visible on the way in was because they’d been pulled back.
Seeing their protective formation, Han Hye let out a bitter laugh internally.
‘It’s like I’m invading someone else’s home.’
But there was no hesitation. It was something I’d thought about many times before. Monsters were enemies, after all.
If these spirits came from an uncontrolled Gate, they would hunt humans.
And besides, I wasn’t an evil person. They were probably similar. If anything, the real problem was the mana corruption that created this situation.
To stop that, I had to stop them.
“Explode!”
Because Han Hye had drawn their attention, the Red Dragon’s breath and Seo Min-jae’s magic came flying from behind, yet the spirits didn’t look back at the main force.
Instead, they simply charged toward Han Hye.
Charges from different directions.
Han Hye considered blocking with her Subspace but changed her mind. At this distance, she could only block two of them anyway.
She could set it up right in front of her, but she’d have to give up space. Even with support, four was too many.
Moreover, high-tier spirits had intelligence, so she wanted to save her Subspace technique for when it truly mattered.
Whoosh!
She leaped and evaded the spirits’ charges. Despite their massive frames, the mineral spirits controlled their speed well and turned around smoothly.
“….”
In that moment, Han Hye sensed a shift in mana. It seemed they were communicating through mana.
Then one high-tier spirit positioned itself to block the passage behind them. The remaining three kept watch over Han Hye and her party.
‘They won’t let anyone go deeper?’
In the end, it was a decent outcome. At least one of them was taken out of the fight.
Suddenly, a different thought occurred to Han Hye.
If I could communicate with these spirits…. Might there be a way to subjugate the Gate without fighting?
Of course, I’d need to receive appropriate compensation, but there was nothing to lose by trying.
“Wait. You’re trying to protect your other spirits, right?”
Han Hye spoke, but the mineral spirits only advanced cautiously, gauging the situation.
They kept their gaze fixed more on Han Hye, conscious of her earlier leap.
“I know I’m not in a position to say this after attacking first, but there is a way to keep your spirits from getting hurt any further.”
At Han Hye’s words, the elite-tier spirit hesitated. Did it understand her? Han Hye quickly ignited scorching flames at her fingertips.
“You sense something’s off, don’t you? Honestly, if we keep fighting like this, you’ll all take heavy damage. The spirits below feel it too, even if they can’t quite grasp it.”
If things unfolded as Han Hye intended, this could become a “hidden within the hidden” situation like before.
The guild members were bewildered by her approach, but Han Hye spoke with anticipation.
“There’s a way we can get through this without casualties. But there’s a condition.”
Perhaps because of the safety of the spirits below, they paused for a moment. The elite-tier spirit regarded Han Hye.
Han Hye continued.
“Two S-rank Gate metals, and you need to leave this mine. What do you say?”
Even if it understood, whether it was possible remained uncertain. In the brief silence that fell, Han Hye steadied her breathing.
And the elite-tier spirit answered her.
“Huh? Just a moment….”
But since it had no mouth, that answer was not in words.

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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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