Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 284

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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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284. Rest of the Dead (2)
“What was that place like?”
“The Hidden?”
“Yes. From a defensive standpoint.”
After obtaining the Hidden, my plan was to hold out there or return to the Fortress. It’s a survival-type Gate where you must endure for 24 hours.
Fighting continuously for a full day in this open terrain isn’t easy, even for us. It’s not the enemy’s strength that becomes the problem first—it’s stamina and mana that deplete.
“From what I saw, the Fortress seemed better. There weren’t any defensive structures.”
“Then let’s search and come back.”
“Should I have just brought what I needed myself?”
“No. We don’t know what else might appear. It’s better if we move together.”
The next plan was decided. I moved quickly in the direction Mister pointed.
“It’s strange, though.”
Just as Lee Shin-hee said, the Gate’s landscape felt disconnected from reality. The entire world was ashen gray.
The sky had not a single cloud, yet it appeared hazy as if overcast, and the sun was nowhere to be seen.
The same was true of the land beyond the Fortress. The ground, devoid of a single tree or blade of grass, was composed of ashen gray powder like sand.
It wasn’t solid soil but rather felt like my feet were sinking slightly. With each step, the ashen gray powder cascaded downward.
“I wonder how that Fortress even exists in a place like this.”
Just as Mister said, having ventured outside once, that too was strange. I hadn’t noticed it while inside the small Fortress, but seeing it from outside made the incongruity strike me immediately.
Now that I thought about it, the ground inside the Fortress was ordinary earth, not this ashen gray sand.
From the outside, it felt like something that shouldn’t exist was standing there perfectly intact.
Perhaps because the Gate itself was named Rest of the Dead, its interior certainly had an eerie quality to it.
“Where are the enemies coming from?”
Min-jae’s question made sense—immediately around us, there was nothing visible except the small Fortress.
No trees, no grass, no buildings of any kind. The horizon was clearly visible.
“Last time, enemies were spawning from far away….”
As I took a step, the ashen gray powder cascaded down. That’s when the thought struck me suddenly.
“Wait.”
“What is it?”
“This ashen gray powder….”
I gazed down at the ashen gray powder beneath my feet. My companions’ eyes followed my gaze.
“Could it be bone dust?”
“…!?”
Lee Shin-hee’s eyes widened, and Min-jae looked slightly flustered.
“No, no way.”
“Doesn’t it look similar?”
“It does, but… all of this is bone dust?”
I understood Min-jae’s disbelief. The area around the Fortress was filled with ashen gray sand.
If all of this could become monsters, we’d face an endless stream of enemies. It would truly qualify as a ‘wave.’
“No. That’s likely the case.”
“I think that’s possible too.”
Lee Shin-hee and Han Chul supported my opinion.
“There’s nothing around the Fortress. If enemies came, they’d have to walk for quite a while, so why would they set it up that way? They could just make it happen here.”
“But that’s exactly why the Hidden might be there. Why don’t you search around while the enemies are approaching?”
Min-jae had a point, though it wasn’t entirely convincing. The problem was that the opposite logic could apply just as easily.
“It could be a Hidden that only reveals itself after breaking through countless enemies.”
Most teams would have started defensive preparations the moment they saw the Fortress. They’d set up makeshift barricades and position their members strategically.
We could block two entrances with my Subspace, so we immediately sent Yong-yong out to scout instead.
Of course, Min-jae could be right. I couldn’t be certain this was really bone dust either.
But my suspicion would be confirmed soon enough.
-Boom!
I felt a wave of magical energy rippling down from the distant sky. It was quite a powerful wave—strong enough to kick up a wind in an instant.
Grayish-white powder scattered in that gust, momentarily blurring my vision.
“Th-this!”
Something began writhing beneath our feet.
“Battle stations!”
I drew my sword and shouted.
-Pop!
My spatial sense detected something rising up through the sand. My hand grabbed Lee Shin-hee’s ankle.
“Eek!”
I spun around to help quickly, but there was no need.
-Crack!
Lee Shin-hee swung her sword and struck it. The skeleton’s arm flew back from the blade.
But the hand that had grabbed her still clung to Lee Shin-hee’s ankle. The grip looked quite strong.
“Ugh!”
Lee Shin-hee had to bend down and tear the hand away directly before she could break free.
“I-I’m fine!”
She quickly shook her head.
Even knowing this, I would have gone searching once I confirmed the Hidden. We had no other choice.
“Advance! Fight while advancing!”
“Formation Two!”
Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae in the center, with me, Han Chul, and Mister forming a triangle around them.
It was the simplest formation for protecting the rear.
“Hye, send Yong-yong upward!”
“Yes!”
If enemies were coming from all directions, it was better for Mister to protect from below rather than above.
Yong-yong was a smart dragon who could fight independently anyway.
“Yong-yong! Go up! Sweep freely!”
“Kraaaw!”
Yong-yong took flight eagerly, and at the same moment, the ground all around began writhing in earnest.
Skeleton hands emerged from the earth first. It felt similar to when we faced the sand soldiers last time.
Based on my spatial perception, the skulls weren’t beneath the ground. Those grayish-white sands were being composed into bone, powered by the earlier wave.
It was a phenomenon bordering on defying natural law, but inside a Gate, everything was possible.
-Whoosh!
I switched my sword to the Windflow Blade first, then sent a wind slash forward. This method was faster for dealing with the skeleton soldiers.
While doing so, I assessed the battlefield situation.
Were there only ordinary skeleton soldiers?
Considering the Gate’s level, that couldn’t be all….
-Boom!
The second wave emerged just as I was thinking that. The effect was immediate.
The first things I spotted were ghouls. Among the skeleton soldiers, grayish-white ghouls appeared.
They looked stronger than the ghouls we knew.
Instead of rotting flesh, they were composed of bone dust, forming outer shells as hard as bone itself.
“Rear guard! Death Knights appearing!”
“I’ve got Liches on my side!”
It didn’t end there. After the bone dust rose, it was being newly composed in mid-air, powered by the recent wave.
Before me now stood a Dullahan. A headless knight mounted on a grayish-white horse.
-Neigh!
Against enemies of this caliber, the Windflow Blade was pointless. I gripped Esirel again. Enemies surrounded us on all sides.
A grin spread across my face.
“How’s this! Is this the quantity everyone wanted?”
“Of course!”
Min-jae shouted, and Mister responded playfully.
“This wasn’t quite what I had in mind?”
“Even better. Let’s see that twilight rest at its peak!”
“Let’s do it!”
While we exchanged brief words, it was Yong-yong who initiated combat first.
“Grrraaawww!”
Apparently tired of just flying in the sky, he unleashed his breath upon the skeleton soldier formations ahead.
Fierce flames swept across the skeleton soldiers. Fortunately, since the ground was bone dust, there was no need to worry about secondary fires.
“Let’s move!”
We charged forward along the path of fire that Yong-yong had created.
* * *
-Zing!
Min-jae was the first to test the new skill in action.
The A-rank grimoire obtained from the Fortress of Glory was “Dissolving Ray,” which had a structure similar to Choin’s heat ray.
I’d seen Choin’s heat ray before, but personally, I thought Min-jae’s newly acquired Dissolving Ray was more powerful.
It wasn’t simply a matter of the skill itself. This one was an A-rank spell enhanced with a mage’s skill.
-Ziiing!
The Dissolving Ray extending from Min-jae’s staff was three times thicker than Choin’s.
With a range of 50 meters, its destructive power was beyond description.
“Brothers! Watch out!”
Min-jae swept his staff from left to right, passing between Han Chul and Chul-gi. The dissolution ray sliced through the enemies’ waists.
Skeleton soldiers and ghouls, naturally, but even the Death Knights charging forward had their waists severed and crumbled to pieces.
“Insane.”
“Wow….”
I’d given a brief demonstration at the Training Facility yesterday, but this was my first time using it in actual combat—the effectiveness exceeded my imagination.
Burning with fire or unleashing lightning had tremendous destructive power, but this was on a different level entirely.
True to its name, the dissolution ray melted everything it touched. I wondered if only something with the hide of a Catoblepas could withstand it.
Min-jae turned his head forward.
“Brother!”
“Let it rip!”
The staff unleashed another ray of light.
-Zzzzzing!
The path ahead was cleanly carved open. Of course, as many enemies as there were, they kept filling it back in, but the weapon’s superior performance was immediately apparent.
After using the dissolution ray several times, Min-jae caught his breath.
“I’ll recover my mana!”
“Understood!”
Normally in battles against large numbers like this, Mister and Min-jae would alternate projecting firepower.
Mister had Wyvern Island and Dragon Piercing Spear, but that wasn’t possible now.
Since Yong-yong was floating in the sky, all of Mister’s Dragon Knight skills were sealed.
I’d anticipated this from the start, so there was no problem.
“I’ll handle it! Mister, keep building up!”
“Thanks!”
We had to endure twenty-four hours here anyway. A prolonged battle. I needed to test Mister’s Twilight Rest power sequentially.
It made sense to check maximum firepower now, at the beginning.
-Whoooosh!
I ignited scorching flames with a fire talisman toward the approaching enemies. Fire that burned even mana itself.
Since there were no enemies with defensive power comparable to a Catoblepas or Ja-tan, they couldn’t even approach before melting away.
-Slash!
Those that advanced while burning were simply cut down at the precise intervals I gauged with my spatial perception.
I focused on processing enemies with spatial perception while keeping an eye on Mister.
-Whoosh!
It was fascinating. The description of Twilight’s Mane said that twilight spreads out each time the spear is swung.
I’d wondered how that would manifest… and it was exactly as described.
In the grayish-white world, each time Mister’s Twilight’s Mane pierced an enemy, the light of twilight gently spread around it.
It didn’t even fade. Now, some time after combat began, color remained only in the space around Mister.
“That looks cool.”
That was Min-jae’s observation.
“Tch. Maybe I should’ve picked up a spear instead.”
Magic’s destructive power was excellent, but Twilight’s Mane had a truly serene elegance to it.
Truthfully, I felt a twinge of envy myself.
‘Chun-bae. Do all S-rank blades come with features like that?’
-Huh?
Chun-bae seemed slightly flustered by my question.
‘No, I mean. That’s seriously cool, right?’
Every time he swung the blade, twilight spread across the space?
Of course, when I wielded inferno on my sword, flames would spread too. I’d actually used it against Liu Zhen.
But that was a one-time effect. The flame’s afterimage lingered. This—the twilight itself remained etched in the space itself.
Right now, Mister looked like a warrior of twilight.
-Not all of them. Objectively speaking, among S-rank weapons of the same tier, the absence of such effects is actually considered superior from a pure weaponry standpoint….
‘So some do have it, then?’
I wasn’t really listening now. Naturally, among S-rank weapons, the premium ones wouldn’t have such effects because that would be more refined as a pure weapon.
But. You could just use two of them, right?
Carry two S-rank blades—use one for style when needed, or use a truly exceptional blade instead.
-….
I decided to ignore Chun-bae’s silence. I was too eager to ask Mister about trying that spear right now.
Of course, I wasn’t so oblivious as to not notice. The twilight was approaching some kind of limit.
“This should be full now!”
“I agree. The light isn’t spreading anymore.”
“Then, let’s try it!”
-Whoosh!
Mister swung the spear and spoke softly.
“Twilight’s Rest….”
I wasn’t particularly fond of shouting skill names when using them, but combined with the surrounding environment, I had to admit it looked magnificent.
-Uuuung….
The scattered twilight fragments surrounding Mister converged toward the spear.
-Bang!
Then it spread outward in all directions like an energy wave. The grayish-white world was instantly dyed in twilight.
And the result was… beyond imagination.
-Thud!
-Thud!
Every undead around us collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.
“W-what is this?”
Even Mister, who had used the skill, was taken aback.

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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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