Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 212

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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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212. Garden of Mist (3)
‘Suddenly?’
Han Hye’s confusion stemmed from two main reasons. First, weren’t we in the middle of a fierce battle?
Chun-bae wasn’t the type to chatter loudly during combat. Yet he’d spoken as if he’d discovered something, his tone slightly excited.
Moreover, this Gate was saturated with toxic spores—a place that transformed humans into mushroom creatures.
I couldn’t easily understand how lingering here for long would be acceptable.
-First, in this Gate….
‘Later. After the battle.’
Chun-bae continued, but I cut him off mid-sentence. Resolving the combat came first.
-My apologies.
Chun-bae apologized quickly, and I refocused on the battle.
“Face me-!”
Kim Han-chul’s roar echoed across the battlefield. However, he hadn’t drawn aggro as efficiently as he would against ordinary monsters.
‘Is it because they’re mushroom creatures?’
I tilted my head. Still, the effect wasn’t entirely absent. The enemy vanguard had charged toward Kim Han-chul after all.
It seemed less about the skill’s effect and more about their intention to eliminate the isolated target first.
“Two rogues behind you, Mister! Rogues!”
“Don’t worry!”
The twelve mushroom creatures consisted of three mages, three rogues, five warriors, and one archer.
I’d eliminated one rogue, but we were outnumbered two-to-one.
Moreover, five warriors had rushed Kim Han-chul, and since they retained human forms, they weren’t easy to handle.
Their coordination was exceptional—far superior to ordinary humans.
“Ugh!”
I could tell from the way Kim Han-chul’s shield snapped back and he was driven backward. I was about to rush to his aid.
“Water Torrent!”
Min-jae shouted. It was a coordinated tactic we’d drilled in guild training.
I halted my charge, and Kim Han-chul pushed the enemies back with his shield before throwing himself backward.
-Whoooosh!
Water cascaded down upon the enemies. 0.2 seconds after the deluge—a powerful lightning spell fell.
-Crackle!
The Sea’s Heart combined with lightning magic. The perfect image Mage Seo Min-jae had envisioned unfolded before us.
Moreover, it was magic amplified to its fullest through the mage’s skill.
Of course, the mushroom creatures hadn’t remained idle. Sensing something amiss, they immediately threw themselves aside. Still, the effect was decisive.
One warrior caught in the direct hit at close range was charred black, and the others were electrocuted, unable to move for a moment.
-Slash!
Kim Han-chul and I charged forward as if on cue, swinging our blades. Two more warriors fell in an instant. It was a moment that showed the fruits of our guild training.
Yellow-tinged spores spread out, but I deliberately didn’t incinerate them. Kim Han-chul’s eyes widened.
“Guild Master! Is that alright?”
“Chun-bae says it’s fine!”
I wasn’t sure of the exact reason, but Chun-bae was the type to speak only of what he was certain about. Kim Han-chul nodded in agreement.
-Whoosh!
Behind us, Yong-yong was breathing fire at a rogue, while Chul-gi clashed spears with another.
“Pierce through!”
The mushroom-man mages weren’t just standing idle either.
-Boom!
However, when Seo Min-jae assisted Han Hye and left an opening, Lee Shin-hee blocked it with a protective barrier. Perfect coordination.
The mushroom mages hurriedly prepared their spells again, but…
Seo Min-jae, who had already cast, intercepted their attacks once more with three spells from the sky.
-Explosion!
Han Hye charged through the colliding spells that detonated mid-air, rushing toward the enemy’s rear.
‘Min-jae’s role is crucial when facing humanoid enemies.’
A mage. By focusing on casting speed and destructive power, he could respond effectively when the enemy had mages.
He could support the front line while simultaneously pressuring their mages.
Of course, Seo Min-jae’s capabilities were excellent in multi-enemy combat too, but I felt it even more acutely now.
-Slash!
Han Hye, leaping forward, cut down the archer first. Originally, I’d planned to deal with it after the rogue using stealth.
It was troublesome because it fired arrows accurately even through the mist.
In fact, the moment combat started, Chul-gi took a hit. An arrow that pierced his flank without warning.
I immediately extracted the arrow and used a healing spell, so fortunately there was no serious damage.
“Phew.”
In any case, once the enemy warriors fell, the battle began to wind down.
* * *
“Min-jae! Water, quickly!”
After the battle ended.
The uncle, covered in yellow spores from the rogue encounter, shouted urgently.
Since the color differed from the green the mushrooms had been spewing, concern was natural.
Min-jae tried to use the Heart of the Sea, but I stopped him.
“It’s fine. Leave it.”
“Fine?”
The uncle asked back with a startled expression.
“This? It doesn’t look fine at all?”
“Chun-bae says it’s fine.”
“Ah, then it’s fine. What’s the reason?”
“That’s what I’m about to ask.”
“What?”
The uncle, who had briefly felt relieved at my words, furrowed his brow again. But he didn’t panic.
There was no one more trustworthy than Chun-bae when it came to Gate incidents.
‘So what is it? Why did you say there’s no need to burn it, and that it’s fine to stay?’
-First, I’ve confirmed that this mist and these spores have no effects beyond simple toxicity.
‘No effects beyond poison?’
-Affirmative. I could tell from observing the humans who became mushrooms and Han Hye’s body entering a state of addiction.
Chun-bae’s following explanation was straightforward.
In other words, becoming a mushroom human happens after we die. It’s not something that occurs just from spores accumulating in the body.
“Ah, so even if we get hit by it, we won’t become mushroom humans?”
“Correct. Of course, if left alone without the ring, you’d lose consciousness, collapse, and die eventually….”
The poison Chun-bae analyzed was similar to paralysis toxin. The mind becomes hazy and the body stiffens. Once you collapse from addiction, your breathing gradually stops and you die.
However, the crucial point was that becoming a mushroom human didn’t happen from just slight poison addiction.
“It seems we don’t need to rotate the ring in a panic like before.”
I conveyed the facts to the guild members.
“What was that different color from before?”
“During the fusion process of animals and mushrooms rather than plants, the toxicity becomes somewhat stronger, or so he said.”
“So it’s a more potent poison in a way?”
“Yes. That’s why Chun-bae recommended staying in this Gate longer.”
“Longer?”
The Mister who had tilted his head soon widened his eyes.
“Poison resistance!”
“Yes. If we endure to our limit and rotate the ring, we can raise our poison resistance skill level considerably.”
“Now that I think about it, there was no time limit, right?”
That’s right. The reason Chun-bae said staying longer was good was because this Gate had no time limit.
It’s not easy to raise poison resistance in relatively safe conditions.
Well, even wearing the ring and directly consuming poison would help the skill…but there are ambiguous aspects.
In fact, most skills level up better inside Gates.
‘Whether it’s poison resistance or flame resistance. If the value is the same, it levels up better inside a Gate than on Earth.’
That’s why hunters enter Gates. The Mister tilted his head.
“Will the rank not increase? I’m disappointed we put the ring on too quickly. The others are all F-rank too.”
“There’s a possibility. It seems we could reach around D-rank. The others should reach E-rank.”
The poison the Garden of Mist emitted wasn’t a deadly toxin that would kill you or make you collapse after a single breath.
Because of that, even with continuous exposure, anything beyond D-rank was difficult.
“That’s fine. Even if the rank doesn’t increase, just raising the skill level is enough.”
It was Han Chul’s words. From what I know, he possesses D-rank poison resistance, and when we acquired the skill, the skill level increased.
“Should we take off the gas masks?”
It was the Mister’s suggestion, and according to Chun-bae’s advice, it wasn’t a bad idea.
If we’re going to raise poison resistance anyway, wouldn’t it be better to get poisoned a bit faster?
“Then I’ll rotate the Heart of the Ten-Tailed Fox slowly.”
Support skills tend to be more important the higher-level the hunter, and we were somewhat lacking in that regard. Actually, the same went for other skills.
Given how rapidly we’d grown, it was inevitable that our skill levels lagged behind other pioneer hunters.
At least we were fortunate to have obtained cold resistance skill at the previous Snow Field Gate and recently acquired flame resistance skill.
After visiting the Trial of Flames Gate, we’d gained quite a lot in various ways.
‘In any case, I definitely need to raise poison resistance too.’
With that decision made, there was only one thing we were deliberating on.
“How about we wait here for a bit before moving on?”
We’d already decided to spend time in this Gate, but the location was the issue.
“If the mushroom boss monsters here see us, won’t they just charge at us and force us into a fight?”
“But we can’t just stay like this forever, can we? I think we should at least confirm what kind of enemy we’re dealing with. It’s a self-evolving Gate, after all.”
The fact that this Gate had become self-evolving was largely due to the dead Hunters being transformed into mushroom humans.
But beyond that, it could also be because the mushrooms themselves posed a high level of danger.
“You’re right, Guild Master. We should at least scout out what the enemies look like.”
“I agree. Just in case, we might need to strike first.”
Han Chul and Lee Shin-hee backed up my opinion.
“To be safe, let me scout ahead a bit in case the mushrooms attack first.”
* * *
There were two more battles. The mushroom humans didn’t seem to be some kind of final defensive line.
Plant-type monsters covered in dangling mushrooms burst forth.
“Ugh, this is exhausting.”
The battles weren’t easy. There were enemies shooting poison spikes from a distance, and they were stronger than before. On top of that, our condition wasn’t great either.
Following Chun-bae’s advice, I was using as few rings as possible to increase poison resistance.
Fighting while feeling slightly dazed and my limbs stiffening was no simple task.
But putting on rings now would defeat the purpose of all this endurance.
“Want to put on a ring?”
“What are you saying? Shut it, you demon!”
Just from the Mister’s playful response, I could tell. These actions were definitely having an effect.
[The level of the skill ‘Poison Resistance (Grade E)’ has increased.]
The steady rise in my Poison Resistance skill level was proof of that.
“But let’s rest for just five minutes before we go on.”
“Won’t the poisoning just get worse if we rest?”
“It actually gets worse when you move.”
The Mister spread out a blanket on the ground and flopped down on it, then took a deep breath before coughing loudly.
“Do you think I’ll need to take a half-bath in lava when we go to the Flame Zone?”
“In lava?”
“Then your flame resistance level would skyrocket, wouldn’t it?”
“Isn’t that way too insane?”
“And what we’re doing now isn’t insane?”
I had no comeback to the Mister’s counterargument.
In truth, someone with my level of flame resistance could probably submerge themselves in lava without much issue. It wouldn’t be a problem—it might even be warm.
I was tempted to actually try it someday, but I figured I’d think about that later.
“Huh?”
After resting a bit and moving forward, we noticed the color of the mist changing.
“This is something different?”
“Green mist mixed with purple hues…”
“Looks like we found the right place.”
“Let me take a closer look.”
It seemed I’d ventured into a deeper region, so I moved forward alone. Chun-bae had already confirmed that this violet mist didn’t significantly affect the mushroom infection either.
-It only strengthened the toxicity, but it doesn’t turn people into mushroom humans.
After advancing for a brief moment, I finally could see the source of the mist in the Garden of Mist.
A mushroom larger than most houses stood right before my eyes.
‘This is incredible.’
What was visible on the surface was far from everything. Beneath the ground, within my spatial perception, thousands—no, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands—of mycelial threads extended from the mushroom as their center.
Could this be the mycelial network Han Chul mentioned?
-Fwooosh!
Moreover, the massive mushroom ceaselessly exhaled spores mixed with green and violet light.
It was on an entirely different scale from what the smaller mushrooms occasionally produced.
Still, it didn’t seem to attack first. Even within 50 meters, it remained motionless. Perhaps it couldn’t move at all.
I couldn’t be certain. When I directly collided with the main body itself, there was no telling what would happen.
‘This is dangerous.’
The toxicity near this creature was quite potent. Incomparably so compared to other areas. Within mere moments of entering, my body stiffened and my mind grew dizzy.
After observing it a bit longer, I quickly retreated with a leap.
“So? What’s there?”
“Give me the ring, please.”
As I put on the ring with a slight cough, I felt my body rapidly purify itself.
“Is it that bad?”
“Without the ring, I don’t think I should go in there.”
“That severe? Should you go burn it down?”
I could now clearly understand why this was a 51-55 level Gate, even without the mushroom attacking first.
The abundant toxic mist, plant-type monsters, and mushroom humans. Moreover, the central region had extremely severe toxicity.
And wouldn’t the mushroom humans continue to increase the more hunters failed?
Just as Chun-bae said, it was a self-propagating Gate that could become an unstoppable calamity.
“What do you think?”
“For now, it doesn’t move. If we observe carefully, we could probably raise our toxin resistance?”
That was the moment.
‘Wait.’
A brilliant idea struck me.
‘The toxicity around here is incredibly strong, but if it doesn’t attack first….’
If I stood nearby wearing this ring, couldn’t I raise my toxin resistance at an insanely rapid pace?

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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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