Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 19

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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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19. Guild (2)
Jo Ji-hyuk, the Guild Master of Daeup Guild, frowned at the name displayed on his smartphone screen.
It was a call from the Association President—an old nemesis.
“What the hell is this?”
The moment he answered, an unpleasant voice burst through, prompting a deep sigh.
“What’s your problem?”
“You called the Space Mage who has priority entry to Gates and asked him to yield the Desolate Ruins Gate?”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“Are you seriously making excuses right now?”
To be honest, Jo Ji-hyuk genuinely didn’t know. But as he listened, irritation gnawed at him.
“But is that even wrong?”
“What?”
“How did the Space Mage even get priority entry to the Desolate Ruins Gate in the first place? That’s supposed to be a higher-ranked guild’s privilege.”
“Chulbyeok transferred it to him.”
So that’s how it was. Jo Ji-hyuk pieced together the situation.
When two guilds used Gate entry priority, allocation was determined by guild ranking.
Daeup, which had applied for the same Gate but been pushed to a lower priority, had seen an opportunity and asked for the Gate entry to be yielded.
“So what?”
“What?”
“A promising team from the 3rd-ranked guild. Isn’t it more likely they’d safely subjugate the Desolate Ruins than a two-person guild, and wouldn’t they obtain better rewards?”
That was the reason the Association granted differential benefits based on guild ranking—to encourage guilds to subjugate more Gates.
“That’s what you call an argument? It wasn’t given by the Association; it was given by Chulbyeok.”
“Chulbyeok is on your side anyway, so that’s not your opinion?”
“It’s none of my business.”
“Right. I don’t know either. But even so, is this a reason to call me and make a fuss? Did we forcibly take it? Didn’t we just ask if you could yield it? Can’t we even ask?”
“Stop spouting sophistry. You think I don’t know you subtly probed a hunter you didn’t know much about?”
The Association President on the other end of the line was equally irritated.
“Keep it moderate. I’m not ignoring you because I don’t know you’ve built connections with the Association.”
“Then what?”
“I leave you alone because you’re subjugating Gates while only thinking of yourselves. But there are things you shouldn’t touch.”
“Is that an order?”
“It’s a notification. A warning. If something like this happens again, I won’t stay quiet either.”
With those words, the Association President hung up abruptly. Jo Ji-hyuk cursed under his breath and lit a cigarette.
“Crazy bastard. What does he mean he won’t stay quiet? Who touched first?”
Before Saebyeokbit emerged, Daeup had been the 2nd-ranked guild, receiving benefits similar to the 1st-ranked guild.
When Chulbyeok split off Saebyeokbit, Daeup was pushed down to 3rd place.
They’d missed out on considerable profits until just before the law was amended through a favor. The bad blood with the Association President had started back then.
“Idiotic bastards.”
Jo Ji-hyuk cursed his subordinates in a low voice. It wasn’t that their actions were wrong. The method was wrong.
The Space Mage and Dragon Knight were quite prominent figures; they needed a more intelligent approach.
My incompetent subordinate had made a phone call regarding guild recruitment before I could even issue orders, and it had created a problem.
He’d thought he could impress me by recruiting the Space Mage on his own initiative, but it was an act of sheer stupidity.
I’d demoted him just recently, and now another fool had apparently tried to take revenge for that rejection by stirring up trouble like this.
Or perhaps it was the independent action of a subordinate who wanted to explore the Desolate Ruins. Jo Ji-hyuk let out a sigh.
‘How irritating.’
Jo Ji-hyuk suppressed his anger. In about a year, it would be time to elect a new Hunter Association President.
When the discharge-type Gate erupted, Daeup didn’t go to a politician’s private residence instead of the Gate for no reason.
There wasn’t much time left before he could achieve what he desired.
But as I finished the cigarette, irritation surged again.
‘Because of that Space Mage bastard, I ended up cursing at that asshole….’
.
.
.
-You don’t need to worry about the Desolate Ruins. We’ve handled it on our end.
“So I can go in?”
-Yes. First, I sincerely apologize. We had an employee with connections to another guild. We’ve terminated them immediately.
As expected, it seemed an employee with connections to another guild had made that call to me. I could also understand why they’d contacted me instead of the old man.
Unlike the experienced old man, I was a former non-awakened hunter and younger besides. They probably thought I’d be easier to manipulate.
“Do you happen to know which guild it was?”
-It was Daeup.
“Daeup?”
Hmm. That name again. It wasn’t surprising. Daeup had always been that kind of place.
Was this revenge for blocking their call last time? Even so, resorting to such a shallow tactic….
Questions arose, but I felt they were pointless. Not everyone in the world thinks rationally.
Especially after the Gate incident, society has lacked common sense.
The hunter industry in particular had many who despised the weak.
While it’s true I’m a promising prospect, objectively speaking, I can’t compare to Daeup right now.
They’ve already achieved considerable success, and as the third-ranked guild, they have promising talents and exceptional hunters of their own.
‘My future is promising, but it’s not guaranteed.’
Perhaps Daeup had probed to see if they could stumble upon the Desolate Ruins by chance, hoping it would fall into their hands.
Betting on my slip of the tongue, of course. Naturally, my mood was terrible.
An old grudge had surfaced once more. I made sure to remember this moment clearly. I settle debts properly.
-The Association President spoke with the Daeup Guild Master and issued a warning. There won’t be any incidents like this in the future. If anything similar occurs, please contact me anytime.
-Also, if you need anything at all, feel free to reach out without hesitation.
The fact that the Association was on my side played a significant role in suppressing this irritation. The Association President’s support—could anything feel more reassuring?
It seemed the Association was the type to think about the future.
No matter how I thought about it, I was grateful the Association President was a decent person. He’d been that way even before his retirement.
Former Chulbyeok Guild Master.
He, who had been the vanguard of the advance party, lost one of his legs while blocking a discharge-type Gate.
‘If he had been someone like the Daeup Guild Master….’
I honestly wondered if I’d been a bit dizzy about it all. With such generous treatment, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sign a contract anyway.
“What did you say?”
When I hung up, the old man asked with a curious expression. He’d been angry when he heard the conversation earlier.
“No problem. The Association President warned them. He apologized to us, and the employee who called was fired on the spot.”
“That’s refreshing. I thought he’d just ask for understanding. There’s nothing more to complain about?”
“I’m a Space Mage and a Dragon Knight, so of course they should be considerate.”
“That’s true.”
Ever since Yong-yong hatched, the old man’s confidence had grown considerably. He’d truly become a Dragon Knight.
The hesitant demeanor he’d shown at the Training Facility before had vanished.
“Let’s go create a guild. We need to register quickly.”
* * *
A guild could be formed with two or more members, and the Hunter Association actively encouraged hunters to join or establish guilds.
It was to increase the survival rate of hunters.
This was because the mortality rate of individual awakened hunters was significantly higher than those operating in teams.
It made sense. There was a reason teams were structured with job balance in mind.
The vanguard could do what the rearguard couldn’t, and the rearguard could do what the vanguard couldn’t.
This was also why most rare jobs were overlooked.
Due to personnel limits in Gates, teams lacked the flexibility to bring along less optimal jobs.
For instance, Bards had buff skills, but Healers also had buff skills.
‘Bards are better in raw performance, but….’
The difference wasn’t enormous. The mainstream opinion was that it was awkward to include someone solely for buffs.
It was better to bring a Healer who could also heal.
Of course, if someone had exceptional individual combat ability, they could use their skills as support and work as a hunter. That was my case.
Of course, there weren’t many people like that.
It wasn’t self-praise. Ten years had passed since the Gate incident, but we were still modern people.
The world was changing, and recently more people had been trained in combat from childhood, but it wasn’t the same as real experience.
In my case, I’d gained stat advantages from surviving the Red Dragon and obtained secret techniques in the Subspace.
“What should we name the guild?”
“Yong-yong?”
“….”
The old man looked at me with a pitying gaze.
“Why not?”
“I said you couldn’t name things, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Yong-yong was a temporary name to begin with.”
“Wasn’t that what we decided on?”
“When did I? I said ‘let’s just call it Yong-yong for now.'”
“It’s too late now. Yong-yong has already recognized that as his name.”
“Sigh….”
The old man sighed.
“You’re just as bad at naming as I am. You’re not keeping quiet because you’re afraid I’ll mock you, right?”
“It’s not that I’m good at naming—it’s that you’re too terrible at it.”
I wanted to object, but even I had to admit that “Yong-yong Guild” was subpar, so I had nothing to say.
Something flickered across my mind in that instant.
“What about Dinosaur Guild?”
“Dinosaur?”
“The Space Mage and Dragon Knight, right? A public guild sounds a bit odd, so we’d go with Dinosaur instead. We have the Red Dragon too.”
“That’s not bad, is it?”
The old man’s eyes lit up.
“What about something like Brachiosaurus or Tyranno instead of Dinosaur?”
“….”
This time, I grew serious.
“‘Brachio Guild’? ‘Tyranno Guild’? What kind of nonsense is that….”
“Isn’t it better than Yong-yong?”
“You should compare it to Dinosaur Guild.”
“…Those are the two dinosaurs Min-seok likes.”
Well, I suppose that’s fair enough….
But no matter what, Tyranno Guild just doesn’t work. Dinosaur Guild isn’t exactly inspired either, but at least it has some meaning to it.
Well, we can always change the name later if we want. Anyway, we paid the guild establishment fee and founded the Dinosaur Guild.
It was only natural that we added the Gates the old man and I had cleared to the guild’s Achievement record.
It was an outstanding achievement relative to our level and abilities, but for now we were still a bottom-tier guild.
The benefits weren’t particularly substantial, but since we founded the guild with an eye toward our future and our freedom anyway, it didn’t matter.
“Now the issue is recruiting talent….”
The old man pondered. I was thinking the same thing. A mage and a healer would be useful to have.
“Don’t you know any decent mages in your circle, sir?”
“In my circle? How would there be?”
“That’s unfortunate. If I knew someone whose character was verified, I could invest in them.”
The old man’s eyes lit up at my words.
“Invest? You don’t mean a grimoire from the Subspace?”
“Yes.”
I use swordsmanship. I still had grimoires from the Subspace left over. If the person was trustworthy, I could invest in them.
Moreover, there was a good chance better grimoires would come out in the future. It meant I could cultivate a mage, even if not a healer.
“Well. The people I worked with back in the day—they fall into one of three categories. Dead, retired, or high-level.”
That made sense.
“What about you? Don’t you have any connections from when you were an unawakened hunter?”
“I do, but not enough to give them a grimoire.”
There were a few who’d contacted me after awakening—hunters who used to make me carry their luggage when entering Gates.
They were ordinary hunters. I had goodwill toward them, but not enough to share secrets.
“We can think about that later. For now, let’s file a residential relocation request.”
In order for us to buy a house, we had to register with the Hunter Association. Regardless of financial means, hunters’ freedom of movement was restricted.
It was to effectively contain unpredictable burst-type Gates. Hunters were distributed by region.
Of course, they couldn’t distribute equal strength to every region, but they maintained at least a minimum balance.
Since there are also on-call duties to prepare for emission-type Gates on normal days, hunters must schedule their Gate entries in advance.
“Phew. I’ve heard the Association Vicinity is really difficult to get into.”
After the Gate incident, the Hunter Association Vicinity became the most popular residential area. Gangnam had lost its appeal, and since a Gate appeared in the Han River, Han River views were no longer preferred.
The Hunter Association was relatively safe because high-level hunters took turns standing by on-call to prepare for emission-type Gates.
“Still, with the Dragon Knight and Space Mage, wouldn’t they accept us?”
I didn’t care where we went, but the old man wanted to move somewhere safe for his sister-in-law and Min-seok’s sake.
.
.
.
“The Space Mage and Dragon Knight submitted a residential relocation request?”
“Yes. Near the Association.”
Park Seo-ung nodded at the Association President’s words.
“Those houses we use when calling foreign hunters for Gate subjugation cooperation—give them those.”
“Yes?”
They weren’t normally used anyway. There were spare units available, and they were more than sufficient to provide to the Dragon Knight and Space Mage.
Besides, there was something I wanted to ask of them.
“When you talk to them, don’t forget to make the request for a level-restricted survival-type Gate at the same time.”

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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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