Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 299
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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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299. Gate of Poison Trial (5)
[Lv78 Space Mage, Han Hye]
Strength: 107
Agility: 107(+5, +1)
Stamina: 130(+7)(+1)
Spirit: 101
Mana: 160(+5)(+1)
Spare Points: 9
Skills: Subspace(S-rank) lv6, Scorching(S-rank)lv8, Severance(S-rank)lv7, Flame Resistance(S-rank)lv6, Leap(A-rank)lv7, Poison Resistance(A-rank)lv3, Domain(A-rank)lv4, Iron-Winged Duel Sword(A-rank)lv6, Universal Translation(B-rank)lv1, Swiftness(C-rank)lv8, Cold Resistance(C-rank)lv4
Seeing my Poison Resistance reach A-rank, I couldn’t help but smile. The skill level itself had dropped due to the rank increase, but that hardly mattered.
If I stayed here long enough, the skill level would rise naturally anyway. Just as Fist King had reached S-rank, mine would climb further.
Separately, after consuming the A-rank elixir called Thousand-Year Poison Wine, my mana increased by 5. Compared to other A-rank elixirs, it seemed weak, but…
Since my Poison Resistance rank had risen, it was more than sufficient.
‘I shouldn’t invest any more points in Stamina.’
When my Poison Resistance skill was lower in rank and level, I’d gradually invested points in Stamina to endure. Especially when I was poisoned by countless toxins earlier.
Adding a single Stamina stat point to escape poisoning crises had been a trick, but I no longer needed it.
Still, I didn’t remove the Poison Fox’s heart immediately. Fist King had mentioned that when he first entered here, he had A-rank Poison Resistance at level 5.
And that was after raising it during the Catoblepas encounter. Removing it now seemed risky.
‘Since I have Fist King as a reference point.’
Once my Poison Resistance reached level 5, I could repeatedly equip and unequip the Poison Fox’s heart while raising the skill level.
Or I could simply not wear it at all. Fist King had reached S-rank that way too.
“Damn, the effect is incredible.”
Since I wasn’t the only one witnessing the Thousand-Year Poison Wine’s effects, Fist King was grinning widely as well.
“Even at S-rank?”
“My skill level dropped when I reached S-rank, but I raised it right away, so it’s a net gain. Plus the stat boost.”
Fist King smirked and gazed at the foxes. The foxes, robbed of such a precious elixir, looked dejected.
“Look at these guys. They’re dying of regret, aren’t they?”
“Of course. I would’ve felt the same.”
“Right. An A-rank elixir, no less…”
That’s when the thought struck me. I felt genuinely grateful to these foxes. They’d tried to backstab me, but ultimately, wasn’t it thanks to them that my rank had risen?
-Whimper!
I opened a Subspace and pulled out various snacks. Why, don’t I have sweet treats? I wasn’t sure if the foxes would like them.
“Don’t be so regretful. Have some of this instead.”
Premium macarons and chocolates—items I’d kept stored to boost guild morale—so their taste was guaranteed.
“This?”
“What is this?”
The foxes accepted what I offered, hesitant and uncertain. They seemed rather suspicious.
“It’s not poisonous. Besides, even if there were poison in it, it wouldn’t work on you, right?”
“Oh, that’s true?”
Were they idiots?
It was the moment one of the older sisters took a bite of the snack I offered. Her ears perked up first.
“What, what is this?”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
And then came her tail. Her eyes widened too, but her tail shot up sharply.
“It’s so delicious!”
After just one bite, another older sister beside her took a bite and put the remaining chocolate in her mouth.
“Insane! I’ve never eaten anything like this before.”
“Hey! What if you eat all of it!”
“Wasn’t that what you left after taking a bite?”
“You tried it first and now you’re backstabbing me?”
From their reactions, it was clear they were completely hooked. Well, in a place like Poison Fox Valley, they’d only ever eaten things laced with poison.
The dishes they’d brought were just roasted poisonous animals, after all.
“Wait!”
The bickering older sisters looked at me and whispered to each other.
“Um, um… sir.”
“Sir?”
Being called “sir” because of Fist King made me let out a hollow laugh, and the older sisters quickly changed their form of address.
“Teacher?”
“Hmm. Yes.”
“Could you, could you give us a little more?”
I saw an opportunity here.
“Don’t you have anything like that thousand-year poison wine from earlier?”
“We don’t have any… we were keeping that really precious too.”
The older sisters answered dejectedly. Well, there wouldn’t be any more A-rank elixirs.
“I see? Then if you bring me good poison, I’ll give you more.”
“For eating?”
“For eating or for being bitten by. As you know, we’re in the middle of poison cultivation training.”
In reality, it was more about enduring poison than cultivating it, but this explanation would be faster for them.
“But they have to be good ones.”
“Of course! Please wait a moment! I’ll prepare them right away!”
It seemed I wouldn’t need to worry much about poison growth. I could just soak in this poison hot spring for a while.
Of course, that was a double meaning. The poison hot spring was strong enough that my skin was actually peeling.
* * *
“That’s a shame.”
Fist King clicked his tongue. Not encountering another person in all this time meant we were the only ones in the Gate.
“I wish I could’ve seen that Übermenschen bastard.”
“The leader?”
“It would be nice to kill him here and leave.”
This was a highest-tier Trial Gate. If Übermenschen had received a summons, he would definitely have entered.
“I suppose.”
However, my thoughts diverged slightly. Shin Chang had said that creature would be higher level than him.
Those were the words of the world’s top-ranked hunter. There had to be a clear reason he’d reached that conclusion.
And that level gap wouldn’t be a mere two levels. If it were, the creature wouldn’t have been able to enter this Gate due to the level restrictions.
Perhaps we might encounter it in a Gate in the 90s level range, but not yet. Well, we weren’t even sharing the Gate itself anyway.
[Your skill ‘Poison Resistance (A-rank)’ has increased in level.]
[Your skill ‘Poison Resistance (A-rank)’ has increased in level.]
Thanks to the snacks I’d pulled from the Subspace winning over the older sisters’ hearts, I didn’t need to worry much about skill growth.
The problem arose the moment my A-rank Poison Resistance reached level 5—the same instant Fist King stripped the Poison Fox’s heart.
[Gate ‘Poison Trial’ has been conquered.]
The message appeared. It seemed all the awakened ones who’d entered the trial besides us had exited.
“Heh heh. Beating us really is tough, isn’t it.”
Fist King chuckled, but I couldn’t share his amusement.
‘Why not!’
I still hadn’t reached S-rank Poison Resistance. Ugh, if only I’d held on a bit longer.
The other hunters had surely done their best, but an irrepressible sigh escaped me regardless.
“You didn’t make it to S-rank. What’ll you do about that?”
“There’s nothing I can do about it.”
I shrugged at Fist King’s remark. Though I sighed at not achieving my final goal, it was fine.
In truth, simply reaching A-rank Poison Resistance was already more than I could ask for.
Thinking deeper, Fist King had originally been A-rank and climbed to S-rank, so expecting me to reach that height from below seemed like excessive greed.
This was sufficient. And perhaps another opportunity would come someday.
‘Looking at Fist King’s condition, I won’t need to use the Poison Fox’s heart anymore.’
Unless the situation demanded rapid poison expulsion, it would be better not to use it.
I could aim for S-rank through natural growth like Fist King did.
“I’m really glad I came with you.”
Fist King smiled and patted my shoulder. A satisfied expression crossed his face.
“Right?”
“Without you, I wouldn’t have conquered the Gate or found the hidden reward.”
Fist King assessed the situation objectively. Had he come with someone else, he wouldn’t have endured either.
Given Fist King’s nature, he would’ve proceeded with the poison attack trial as planned, but fighting at full capacity without the Poison Fox’s heart would’ve been difficult.
Even if I hadn’t been there to exercise caution and thus met the older sisters, there was a high chance we’d have fallen to the Holy Poison Lord. Fist King hadn’t sensed its danger.
Of course, I felt grateful too.
“I was able to enter thanks to you as well. And I consumed an A-rank elixir.”
Without Fist King, I wouldn’t have come here.
“Heh heh. Both satisfied—a truly ideal hunter cooperation.”
That’s when the message appeared.
[You have gained experience.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
Objectively, the rewards were excellent, befitting a trial Gate. Gaining two levels without proper combat meant this Poison Trial Gate had been that grueling.
Without the heart of the Poison Fox, I would have had to use an escape secretary long ago.
And if I had been deceived by my older sisters and consumed the Holy Poison, I might have died right then and there.
Perhaps I could have endured it if the Poison Fox’s heart contained healing facilities within the Subspace.
[You have survived to the end of the Poison Trial.]
[The rank of ‘Poison’-related skills has increased.]
It was then that an additional message appeared. This wasn’t the end of the rewards?
Now that I think about it, something similar happened during the Trial of Flames Gate too. I broke into a broad grin.
“Wait, hold on! So you too…?”
“Yes. I’ve become S-rank.”
“How am I supposed to accept this? You survived through equipment alone and became S-rank? How am I supposed to live with this injustice?”
“Huh?”
Despite what Fist King said, he was genuinely congratulating me.
“What about you, Fist King?”
“I gained two skill levels.”
Since he had already reached S-rank, it seemed the rewards were directed toward skill levels instead.
“With this much, couldn’t you consume that Holy Poison now? Should we try opening it?”
“I’m not sure.”
I asked Chun-bae cautiously, but he didn’t give a definitive answer. After all, Chun-bae didn’t know everything either.
“It seems better not to consume it.”
“True. We don’t know how the Holy aspect would interact with it.”
The Holy was an unknown force in itself, and combined with poison? It was right to avoid something so unpredictable.
Still, with Fist King at his current level, wouldn’t he have become immune to all poisons except the Holy?
‘If I level up just a bit more, I’ll be the same.’
* * *
[Korea-Russia Alliance! Gate of Poison Trial Successfully Conquered!]
[Space Mage Han Hye! Another Trial Gate Conquered!]
[Fist King and Han Hye Emerge from the Gate Unscathed]
[The Appearance of Two Hunters Different from Others. What Happened Inside the Gate of Poison Trial?]
An article even appeared stating that I had conquered all the Trial Gates so far, but the focus of attention was elsewhere.
[Choin Exits the Gate Looking Emaciated….]
[Grand Mage Transported to Hospital Immediately After Gate Escape!]
[Sword King, Trial Gate Conquest Failed…]
This Trial Gate had been set based on Advance Team standards. It was natural that the top Advance Teams from each country participated.
If it had appeared in our country, Shin Chang and I would have entered.
But most of the Advance Teams quickly exited the Gate. They had no choice.
Even Fist King with A-rank poison resistance and I, wearing the Poison Fox’s heart, coughed immediately upon entering.
‘It must have been grueling for ordinary hunters to endure.’
No matter how elite the Advance Teams are, it’s rare to possess A-rank or higher poison resistance. At best, it would be around B-rank.
I can tell just by the fact that my cold resistance is still C-rank.
Of course, it grew quickly, but it wouldn’t have reached A-rank just from climbing steadily like this.
In any case, most of the Advance Team headed straight to the Hospital immediately after escaping the Gate. The Hunters who escaped first even had photographs taken.
They looked like they were on death’s door. The Hunters who came out after that weren’t photographed because the area in front of the Gate was cordoned off, but they probably looked similar. Perhaps even worse.
‘At least most of them made it out alive.’
It was natural for an Escape Secretary to be provided when the elite Advance Team entered a Trial Gate, so many Hunters survived.
However, there were Hunters who didn’t return. One of them was known to have excellent poison resistance skills.
“Guys at our level wouldn’t have failed to use their Escape Secretary because of poison.”
“Were they caught in an ambush, or did they consume divine poison?”
“Probably. It seems like the latter, but who knows. Those older sisters weren’t weak either.”
The Advance Team Hunters with decent poison resistance would have reached where we came from.
They were either caught by the Divine Poison Lord or ambushed by those older sisters. One or the other.
It was unfortunate, but all we could do was pay our respects. In any case, I finished the work and returned to Korea immediately.
Fist King said we should continue the sparring match we hadn’t finished, but hadn’t news of my being in Russia already spread?
‘The time adjustment inside the Gate did happen, but…’
It felt awkward to stay outside for too long in these times when the Übermenschen were around. I needed some rest as well.
With the Australia subjugation incident, followed by Choin, Bone Dragon, and Red Dragon, one thing after another had kept me busy.
When I returned to Korea and thought the storm that had been raging would finally calm down a bit.
An unexpected call came through.
“Yes?”
It seemed the world had no intention of letting me rest. A pressing matter had suddenly landed on my plate.
“A Gate exclusive to the Dragon Guild appeared?”
The moment I entered Korea, a Gate related to the Demon Grand Duke had been generated.
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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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