Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 243

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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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243. Ja-tan (4)
The situation had grown dire. While not quite on par with the Catoblepas in Australia, Ja-tan was a formidable monster that had emerged from the ultra-giant tier.
Such a creature had undergone a Second Awakening. For the Hunters present, it was a sight that could only leave their jaws hanging open.
-J-Ja-tan has undergone Second Awakening!
-What’s the status!
-The worms on its carapace, they’ve all developed hard shells….
-Damn it, can we even pierce through?
-The Dragon Guild managed to strip away the legs and head carapace, but if all those worms become like that….
Indeed, the field reports were bleak. It made sense. The reason they’d been able to damage Ja-tan’s legs and back carapace was….
Because the worms that emerged from the carapace were soft and easy to eliminate.
They regrew quickly, but at least they’d bought some time. But now things were different.
Those hard shells were what I had shattered with my full-power Segmentation. Now dozens of worms were covered in such shells.
-T-This looks really difficult!
An objective assessment from those observing the battlefield. It was clear that the regeneration rate would outpace the destruction rate.
However, I didn’t see it that way.
‘This is manageable.’
I was observing the situation with greater clarity than ever before. Unlike the others engaged in a short-term decisive battle, I had been fighting for days.
More time had passed as I traveled back and forth through the Subspace to shatter the carapace.
More than enough time to grow accustomed to fear and tension. I was momentarily startled and my irritation toward the God of Play flared, but my mind remained calmer than it had ever been.
It meant I could observe the situation with cold rationality.
‘The cracks are still there.’
The cracks I had shattered with all my power just before it underwent Second Awakening remained intact.
The only change brought about by the Second Awakening was that the worms protruding from the holes in the carapace had hardened.
-Crack!
The crucial point was exactly that. Only the ‘worms that emerged from the carapace’ had hardened. Confirming this wasn’t difficult.
Even those shocked and flustered by the Second Awakening could see it if they looked carefully.
As the worms moved, thick skin continued to peel away from the holes in the carapace.
The impact created in the holes was causing fragments of the worms’ lower shells to scatter.
‘The interior is still soft worms. Well, they move like snakes inside, so it would be difficult for them all to harden.’
Moreover, because the worms had hardened like the head and legs, their movements were noticeably slower than before.
Considering that Ja-tan’s movement speed was already sluggish to begin with, this wasn’t surprising.
With my spatial awareness and leaps, it would be difficult but possible to evade.
Rather, the worms’ breath attacks from their mouths would be the more troublesome aspect.
Hardening.
It was a Second Awakening befitting Ja-tan, but paradoxically, that made it a manageable situation.
“The legs are still regenerating. Let’s focus on targeting the cracks as much as possible.”
As I spoke calmly, Chul-gi and Min-jae nodded in agreement.
“So it’s the same as before?”
“Right. We can’t deal direct damage, so Min-jae, disrupt the worms’ vision with flames or light.”
“I’ll focus on acrobatic flying rather than attacking.”
Kim Han-chul shook his head side to side, brushing the blood from his hair. The Hunters were lending their support, but the sheer number of mobs pouring from the Gate was overwhelming.
He was covered head to toe in blood, handling every mob that advanced toward Lee Shin-hee and Seo Min-jae entirely on his own.
“Min-jae and I will continue focusing on our mission.”
That was when the order came through.
-Dragon Guild, fall back for now and assess the situation….
Han Hye shook her head and cut off the transmission.
“No. Dragon Guild continues combat.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Her decision was already made.
‘Ja-tan. No matter how hard you are.’
I had absolute confidence that no one could outlast me in a battle of endurance.
All I needed to do was target that crack. If I kept trying, eventually an opening would appear.
‘My stamina is limitless.’
The vengeful fire I’d harbored for eleven years blazed up like a scorching flame that consumed even mana itself.
“Let’s go.”
“Right.”
Han Hye pushed off the ground.
* * *
‘The key is targeting that crack.’
Ja-tan’s second awakening made approach difficult, but it hadn’t sealed the crack we’d painstakingly created.
If I could just break through there, it wouldn’t matter if dozens of hardened worms thrashed about.
The problem was that to attack that crack, I had to pierce through the hardened worm first.
Its movements had become slower than before, but simultaneously far more durable, making it difficult to rely on Min-jae or Mister’s assistance.
“Damn it.”
“This bastard’s actually thinking!”
Worse, it had learned that the crack was its weak point. It would feign exposure, then quickly harden its worm-form to block whenever we approached.
And it used the remaining worms to target us as we advanced. It was using its own weakness as bait.
We were both predator and prey to each other. I’d tried attacking from a distance with scorching flame, but it wasn’t working.
The flame did catch on the cracked section….
“I’ve never seen something burn so poorly before.”
This creature’s flame resistance was absurd. I was beginning to suspect it possessed an S-rank flame resistance trait.
Perhaps because it was a land turtle that walked on water.
The scorching did damage the crack, but the pace was agonizingly slow.
And once the worm hardened, the damaged leg began writhing. This was why landing hits on the segments was so difficult.
‘It can’t walk like it did before, but its position keeps changing.’
This was the moment the colossal monster’s regeneration manifested. It seemed it would walk again soon. In other words, its recovery was faster than my burning it away.
The hardened worms made it difficult to target the legs again.
“What do I do!”
I’d charged forward with bold declarations to the people, but now I found myself hesitating at a distance, lost in thought.
‘Wait?’
I discovered the thread of the answer in the moment my attack failed once more, as I desperately tried to target the crack again.
I noticed the elongated worm that had been stretching toward me retracting back into its body.
-Crack!
I knew that when the worms moved, the hardened skin would fracture at the holes in their carapace. And when the worms shot back out, the skin would harden again over those gaps.
But there was roughly a one-second delay between these actions. In other words, if I targeted that brief window, I could sever one of the worms.
Of course, severing one wouldn’t open a path. There were countless worms writhing inside. But if I cut through the worm blocking the fissure…?
A path might appear. If not just me, but Mister and Min-jae also focused and helped, we could suppress the worms.
‘Opportunities won’t come often.’
This creature was using the fissure as bait, which meant it possessed some level of intelligence. It wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.
I had to be certain. The fissure was small to begin with. Should I risk injury to widen it first before proceeding?
‘Even if I get hurt, I can just get healed afterward.’
So should I take out a shield to absorb the impact?
Wait. A shield?
As I was thinking, a brilliant idea struck me from another angle. If I was going to take the risk anyway, I needed a shield.
But we had an exceptionally excellent shield, didn’t we?
I quickly used Leap toward the rear. I opened a Subspace right in front of Han Chul, who was slaughtering the approaching enemies.
Han Chul tilted his head in confusion.
“Han Chul. Could you switch shields with me for a moment?”
“Of course.”
He seemed slightly puzzled, but nodded readily.
I took Han Chul’s shield and leaped back toward Ja-tan.
‘Let’s see how you like a taste of Carnage Discharge that obliterated The Butcher.’
* * *
“It’ll be difficult for us to target it. It forms in almost a second.”
“Then I’ll give it a try.”
Han Hye quickly finished a tactical briefing with Choi Chul-gi and Seo Min-jae. It was a slightly modified plan from before.
Han Hye was better suited to severing the worms. She then checked the shield.
‘The accumulated damage isn’t that high.’
The most recent battle had been against the Übermenschen. There hadn’t been actual combat in the Underground Sewers.
Since Kim Han-chul had used Carnage Discharge during the battle with the Übermenschen, the accumulated damage on the shield wasn’t substantial.
-Boom!
But there was no problem. Every time she blocked an attack from the hardened worm, the damage accumulation skyrocketed.
Even Han Hye, who was receiving the blows, was astounded.
‘Each individual worm seems to be at The Butcher’s level?’
It made sense. These were monsters from a colossal Gate that had undergone a second awakening.
Han Hye, defending with the shield, wasn’t unscathed either. She was defending in mid-air with no ground beneath her.
-Whoosh!
Every time the shield took a hit, she was flung backward like she’d been slammed. She managed to avoid plummeting into the ground or the Han River with Leap, but her entire body ached.
Especially her arm holding the shield.
‘It’s fractured.’
Still, she was grateful that there was a healing facility inside the Subspace. She felt renewed appreciation for it.
‘The Previous Previous Master’s grace is as vast as the heavens….’
Even now, Han Hye had been fighting for days. But what if there were no healing facilities in this situation?
Even receiving Lee Shin-hee’s healing spells, it would take an enormous amount of time for my arm to regenerate.
-Whoosh!
Han Hye, who had recovered inside the Subspace, exhaled lightly.
“Phew.”
My condition was perfect. I’d rested and recovered using the healing facilities. Moreover, Calamity Discharge was fully charged.
“Mister! Min-jae! Are you ready?”
“I think we can do this!”
“Yes!”
While Han Hye gathered the power of Calamity Discharge, Choi Chul-gi and Seo Min-jae hadn’t been idle either.
They’d finished preparing to pierce through the hardened worm and strike the desired location.
Han Hye breathed lightly and steadied herself. She felt it through her shield.
The hardened Ja-tan was attacking with methods more straightforward and direct than before, so it wasn’t difficult.
“Then now’s the time!”
Wind brushed against Han Hye’s cheek. Yong-yong and Choi Chul-gi performed acrobatic flight at close range to Ja-tan. A simple distraction.
By now the creature had seen through it, but it didn’t matter. The goal was to make it respond the same way as before.
The moment Yong-yong soared skyward, Han Hye pushed off the ground. I felt the worms approaching through my spatial sense.
And just as before, when Han Hye approached, one worm extended to block the fissure.
-Snap!
I used my first leap. It was the worm that had stretched long to block the fissure just now.
Esirel flashed brilliantly.
-Screech!
I didn’t sever it completely, but the half-severed worm lost its balance with a dull thud.
The fissure opened in that instant.
-Boom!
From the sky, Choi Chul-gi unleashed the Dragon Scale Piercing Spear he’d been charging since earlier. The effect was perfect. The fissure widened further.
Choi Chul-gi felt deep regret.
‘The firepower….’
Unlike Han Hye, he couldn’t recover his stamina, so the mana contained in the Dragon Scale Piercing Spear wasn’t abundant.
But it was fine. Their objective wasn’t for Choi Chul-gi to pierce the fissure.
-Crack!
Another worm extended to block the fissure. It was Ja-tan, who knew of Han Hye’s leap.
However, Han Hye possessed spatial sense, so I could tell which worm had extended to block the fissure.
-Snap!
I severed the worm with my second leap. This time, it was Seo Min-jae who aimed for the fissure.
Magic focused on precision through a mage’s power. Lightning branched out like angular twigs and struck the interior of the fissure.
-Crackle!
Electricity flowed into the interior through the slightly widened fissure, and Ja-tan trembled microscopically.
A brief moment of paralysis. Han Hye exulted inwardly.
‘Done!’
It was instantaneous. Han Hye instinctively felt time slow around her.
‘What?’
The phenomenon occurred even though she was already using Swift Step. Was it because she was concentrating so intensely? There was no way to know.
She immediately activated Leap. The moment Ja-tan stiffened, unable to seal the fissure again.
Before Han Hye’s eyes as she leaped, the fissure gaped wider than before.
‘True Calamity Release…!’
And Han Hye brought her shield against that fissure.
-KWAAAAANG!
Just as when she had erased The Butcher, brilliant light consumed the Han River.

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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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