Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 22

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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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22. Decaying Temple (1)
Narrative-type Gates.
One of several Gate classifications, and the reason for the name “narrative-type” was straightforward.
People who could communicate appeared inside the Gate. Of course, they weren’t actually real people.
They couldn’t exit through the Gate’s entrance. They didn’t even perceive Earth or the concept of Gates.
They were like NPCs in a game, I suppose. Since they moved like characters in a story, they earned the designation of narrative-type Gates.
Scholars on Earth interpreted this as “events occurring in another world.”
‘Since the inside of a Gate was essentially another world.’
Because there were narrative-type Gates where one fought monsters, the hypothesis was that this represented an incident from another world that had experienced Gate phenomena before us.
The moment I summoned the past time within this space proved that hypothesis was fact.
“It’s transformed into a narrative-type Gate.”
That didn’t change anything fundamental. Even with the Gate’s transformation, the fact that this was Ruins remained unchanged.
The item we were searching for was probably something that had remained here long ago.
It likely still had some connection to what we were looking for. In any case, the flow of narrative-type Gates varied widely.
One could cooperate with the people encountered, or fight them instead.
‘Which means that Priest is the key to this Gate.’
I met the old man’s gaze.
He was someone we’d encountered in the Temple at the center of the Desolate Ruins, which had been teeming with Ghouls.
I couldn’t predict how this Gate would unfold.
“There should be Ghouls outside, so how did you manage to reach here?”
Fortunately, the Priest spoke first.
“The Red Dragon drove them away.”
“Traveling with a Hatchling—you brothers are truly heroic indeed.”
The Priest nodded upon seeing Yong-yong. One thing I learned was that there had been Ghouls outside even when this Priest was present.
“What’s going on? There are Ghouls everywhere outside, yet there’s a person in the Temple—it’s bewildering.”
The Priest spoke with a sorrowful expression.
“They were originally inhabitants of this place. They were cursed and transformed into the form of Ghouls.”
“All the Ghouls outside were human?”
Hmm. The Ruins we’d visited were in a state where considerable time had passed. Could those Ghouls be descendants of the ones here?
Though spacetime had changed, the Ghouls outside remained unchanged—that was also worth noting.
“Yes. Only I, who served in the Goddess’s Temple, could escape the curse.”
The Priest said this and released a deep sigh.
“They were human? We nearly committed a grave mistake by killing them. Did Yong-yong recognize that?”
“Hardly.”
Yong-yong, who chased the Ghouls, had no such intention. She seemed merely displeased by their stench.
In any case, the old man seemed to believe the Priest’s account to some degree.
But I didn’t.
“How are you even alive? There are so many Ghouls surrounding this place.”
“Thanks to the Goddess’s protection, the cursed humans cannot enter the Temple.”
The Priest spoke with a forlorn expression.
“I too have been surviving on the provisions left in the Temple. I thought my days were numbered…”
Indeed, the Priest was gaunt. His skin clung to bone as if he hadn’t eaten in far more than mere days.
Perhaps because of the faint aura surrounding him, he appeared even more sacred. The Priest smiled thinly.
“Seeing that you’ve come here, it seems the Goddess has not abandoned me after all.”
“Would it suffice if we rescued you from these Ruins?”
“I apologize, but would you help lift the curses afflicting the others?”
“Is there a way?”
“There is a sacred relic in the Temple Underground that can dispel curses. You need only bring it to those who are cursed.”
The Priest’s lips curved upward. It appeared to be an innocent smile.
“Simple enough.”
As I nodded, the Priest gestured toward the right.
“You must be exhausted from your journey to the Temple. Shall we have some water first before heading down?”
I made eye contact with the old man and walked forward. The moment I took a step, I paused.
The old man looked at me with confusion but continued ahead.
When we were several meters from the Priest, I stopped and grabbed the old man’s forearm as he tried to take another step.
“I’m curious about something.”
“What might that be?”
Though I spoke casually, the Priest still wore his smile.
“Are you certain you’re the only one not cursed? You didn’t curse these people yourself?”
The old man looked at me with bewilderment. His eyes suggested suspicion was warranted, but perhaps I was being too sharp.
“What do you mean by that?”
The Priest responded calmly. A faint laugh escaped him. He was quite the actor. It simply didn’t work on me.
I let out a scoff.
“Then why is there a pit trap right in front of us leading downward?”
“…!”
“And there’s a passage behind the Goddess statue.”
“H-how did you…?”
How? Spatial awareness, you bastard.
I’d grown suspicious upon seeing the name “Decaying Temple”….
Without my ability, I couldn’t have confirmed that this man was a villain.
Of course, he couldn’t even guess how I’d discovered it.
‘He’s even set up barrier magic to make detection difficult.’
I could sense artifacts placed around the trap. They seemed installed to evade detection magic.
With such artifacts present, detection magic couldn’t easily perceive them.
Of course, my situation was different. My spatial awareness wasn’t in the realm of ‘magic’ but of ‘sense’.
I had no choice but to perceive it instinctively.
“Damn. No wonder the Gate’s distortion was so easily undone.”
The old man clicked his tongue and stood behind me.
No further explanation was necessary. He’d traveled with me long enough to know my abilities better than anyone.
We leveled our weapons at the Priest.
“It doesn’t seem to be the Priest. A Dark Mage, perhaps?”
Dark Mages do exist among hunters. They’re a rare class, but not a particularly favored one.
It’s because of their skills. While each person acquires different abilities, Dark Mage skills tend to be unethical, come with numerous conditions, and lack sufficient destructive power.
“You’re quite perceptive.”
The Dark Mage, now exposed, laughed with a bitter edge. He’d seemed flustered before, but now he appeared confident.
“I would have preferred to part ways peacefully….”
The Dark Mage never finished his sentence.
I swung the Wind-Flow Blade. A sharp gust of wind erupted forward. The Dark Mage hastily raised his hand.
Clang!
The wind slash collided with a semi-transparent black barrier. The Priest’s brow furrowed.
“That would have been preferable….”
I swung the Wind-Flow Blade again. The moment the wind surged forth, the Priest lifted his arm to form a defensive barrier.
“You bastard! Let me just say——”
No, disappear.
Since my opponent was a Dark Mage, I had no intention of giving him the luxury of conversation.
“There are traps covering about 2 meters ahead.”
I immediately kicked off the ground and advanced. I could easily leap over 2 meters.
“I shall grant you a taste of hell!”
The moment the Dark Mage shouted his grandiose declaration, I tensed slightly.
“….”
He vanished before my eyes in an instant.
Magic? Teleportation? My Wind-Flow Blade slashed through empty air, its target lost.
‘He fled?’
I’d expected him to attack, but instead he ran. It was utterly absurd.
“That’s unexpected.”
“Where did he go?”
“Probably below? There are stairs behind the Goddess statue—this area is trapped.”
The pursuit path seemed fairly complex, but it didn’t matter.
I had a map hack, after all.
* * *
“There’s no passage here?”
The older man who’d moved behind the Goddess statue tilted his head in confusion.
My spatial sense detected stairs leading underground behind the Goddess statue’s base.
However, the entrance was sealed by stone flooring.
“It seems there’s some kind of mechanism, like a secret door. How are we supposed to find this?”
The older man began searching around the stone floor, looking around and tapping the ground, even touching the Goddess statue.
I simply focused on my spatial sense and discovered something.
“Wait a moment.”
“Did you find something?”
“It seems like it can be opened from inside.”
A low hum resonated through the air.
I opened a Subspace passage directly toward the staircase leading underground. The old man couldn’t enter, but that didn’t matter.
I could open the way for him.
As expected, there was something like a button on the wall of the staircase—faintly perceptible through my spatial sense.
The moment I pressed it, the stone wall groaned and began to shift.
“Please, come through.”
“Ah, truly the work of a Space Mage.”
The old man clapped his hands in delight.
Well, if anyone else had been here, they would have torn the Temple apart searching for the mechanism to open this door.
For me, it was as simple as opening a Subspace passage.
“Is the creature down there?”
“I haven’t sensed it yet.”
We descended the stairs rapidly and found ourselves in a decrepit corridor. Judging by the walls, it appeared to have been constructed during the same era as the Temple.
Why would they build something like this beneath the Temple? An emergency escape route, perhaps?
As we walked, a musty stench began to fill the air. Suddenly, a green miasma came pouring from deeper within.
“Poison!”
In the same instant I opened a Subspace passage and thrust Yong-yong inside, I drew out a gas mask and antidote.
“Catch this!”
These were items I’d received from the Hunter Association during Gate training and had been storing in my Subspace. For most people, even these would be burdensome.
But I could carry as much as I needed.
“Phew, I owe you my life.”
After drinking the antidote and putting on the gas mask, there was no problem. True to form for a Dark Mage, even his methods were crude and despicable.
And that suspicion transformed into certainty as we moved forward.
The space that appeared next bore unmistakable traces of experimentation.
More precisely, traces of those who had suffered from that experimentation.
“This is severe.”
Chains hanging from the walls, human bones, unidentifiable drugs and flasks scattered about.
It was clear that the Dark Mage had indeed transformed humans into Nol.
“Worse than monsters. To turn people into beasts.”
The old man’s jaw clenched in fury. At the far end of the chamber was another door. I could sense through my spatial awareness that it led to a much larger space.
When I opened it, an enormous cavern revealed itself. It was roughly half the size of the Ruins above ground.
I couldn’t believe such a space existed beneath the Temple.
The atmosphere was somewhat oppressive, and at its center stood a stone statue approximately five meters tall.
It appeared to be a fusion of Nol and human form.
Nol themselves are humanoid monsters resembling a blend of humans and hyenas, but this statue bore an even greater resemblance to human features.
And the Dark Mage kneeling before that statue suddenly spun around to face us.
“Wh-what? How are you already here?”
I could see the shock on his face. He had been preparing something before the statue.
The flow of magical energy was ominous.
Whatever this ritual was, if it reached completion, something catastrophic would unfold.
‘I’m not about to treat anyone like a fool.’
I had no intention of waiting for his transformation to complete.
“We have to stop him!”
The moment the thought crossed my mind, I kicked off the ground. The Dark Mage’s face twisted in rage.
“You faithless wretches…!”
“These unbelievers…!”
He reached out his hand toward us. No problem. Spellcasting takes time.
I’m faster.
“Hellfire!”
But then something unexpected happened. Whatever technique he used, he skipped the casting entirely and unleashed the spell instantly.
A triumphant smile spread across his face as if he’d just revealed his trump card. Was this what he’d been preparing all along?
‘Wait. Hellfire?’
Could it be Hellfire?
The skill name I’d only seen in games sent a chill down my spine. Already airborne, there was no way to dodge properly.
Whoooosh—.
I hastily opened a Subspace portal, but it hadn’t fully expanded yet. I managed to block half of it, but the other half reached me.
Crackle—!
His technique exploded against my body.
I quickly tried to contain the damage by….
“?”
But why is this warm?
I stared at him with a bewildered expression, while he stood there in shock, his mouth hanging open.
“H-how did you survive Hellfire?”
Yeah, well.
This is what A-rank flame resistance looks like.
I brushed the black flames clinging to my body away with my hand, but since they were just fire, they refused to go out easily.
“Put it out if you don’t want to die.”
I decided to find a solution elsewhere. When I brought the Windflow Sword to his throat, he frantically extinguished the black flames.
My clothes were singed a bit, but my body was unharmed.
“You bastard. Want to die? How is this even Hellfire?”
“It’s not Hellfire, it’s Hellfire….”
“It’s the same thing.”
“It’s different….”
“A Dark Mage talking back?”
He dared to surprise me.

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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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