Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 317
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
317. Charity Quest (1)
“What nonsense are you spouting? We confirmed from the Singapore incident that we can artificially generate a dispersal-type Gate.”
“Huh?? We did that?”
“Temur. You were at that meeting too, weren’t you?”
“Me? I had a stomachache back then and stepped out for a bit.”
“……Idiot.”
“But it’s nothing unusual for me. Why does this stuff only come up when I’m not around?”
“Sigh.”
“So we’re using that this time, right?”
“We’re going all in. Since he’s taking direct action himself.”
“So we can capture them alive?”
“Probably? If their resistance is fierce, there’s not much we can do about it.”
“Heh heh. You’re not going to give me the Dragon Knight skill?”
“And have you hurling axes from the sky?”
“Why not! I could do it.”
* * *
[Dragon Team 2nd succeeds in Gate subjugation! Remarkable clearing speed!]
[Dragon Team 2nd emerges with bright faces.]
[Sword Dragon Kim Dong-hyuk, master of S-rank Sword Technique!]
Team 2 was growing smoothly, handpicked as they were. Dong-hyuk had even acquired a new epithet.
Sword Dragon—a remarkably cool title. The ripple effect of an S-rank Sword Technique must be quite formidable.
‘I’ll admit, though, it stings a little.’
I’d never acquired such a striking alias or epithet. I found myself wishing I had one like Fist King or Shin Chang or Sword Dragon.
Noticing my frustration, the old man chuckled.
“You can’t have one—you’re already cemented as Han Hye.”
In other words, since ‘Han Hye’ had already taken root as a nickname, nothing else could stick.
Truth be told, finding an appropriate epithet was awkward. My identity is the Subspace, isn’t it?
If I added ‘Dragon’ like Dong-hyuk, it’d just become the guild name, Dinosaur. And adding ‘God’ like Shin Chang felt off.
God-Space sounded strange, and Space-God… well, that carried the flavor of ‘god of studying,’ didn’t it?
“Or should I just go by Princess?”
Princess. Being called by my job title genuinely bothered me. There was a time when it went viral as a meme, and I’d avoid community forums altogether.
Translated to English, ‘Master of Space’ sounded rather impressive, but in Korean, the double meaning hit hard.
[Dragon Team 2nd catching up to Team 1 in growth rate?]
Team 2’s growth rate was drawing attention as well. They hadn’t quite matched Team 1’s pace yet, but it was distinctly rapid.
While the top-tier members took their month-long vacation, they’d entered Gates one or two times a week, grinding levels.
Though their clear count was high, they’d advanced through relatively easier Gates to build team synergy in the early stages.
Yet their growth speed was still accelerated—all thanks to Growth Acceleration, an S-rank skill.
‘On a mundane Gate, they’d normally gain one level, but they shoot up two instead.’
That observation sparked a different line of thinking.
Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad strategy to move through easier Gates consecutively, steadily reaching cruising speed.
True, avoiding risk meant they might fall behind in practical skill development, but stable growth was what Team 2 needed most.
I had no intention of forcing it, though. I’d bring it up once, and if they weren’t interested, I’d defer to their judgment.
“Team 2 is Team 2.”
Now it was our turn. A Gate recruitment opened for top-tier guilds finishing their vacation schedules.
Nothing spectacular turned up, but we weren’t empty-handed either.
[Perysica Ruins]
-Recommended Level: 71–85
-Entry Capacity: 15 persons
A Ruins Gate with a wide level range appeared. I was mulling over applying when Saebyeokbit reached out.
-Would it be okay if we enter this? We’re thinking of going in as a combined Team 1 and Team 2.
I’d heard that Saebyeokbit’s structure now meant Team 1 and Team 2 no longer had a significant level gap, so they’d go together in situations like this.
“Of course.”
I yielded without hesitation. We’d had a Gate before that we entered thanks to Saebyeokbit’s consideration anyway.
Perhaps because we’d been eating items so well lately—I didn’t feel much attachment to Ruins Gates anymore.
Especially with Daeup gone, the top tier had cultivated an atmosphere of mutual aid, so it was no loss for us.
If we found a Gate we wanted next time, we’d just mention it to Saebyeokbit or Iron Wall, and they’d yield.
-Thanks. When Daeup was around, it was seriously frustrating.
So now priority rights had largely lost their meaning among the top tier. In the past, even after using priority, Gates would allegedly slip to Daeup’s connections.
Now priority was used, but when necessary, negotiation and yielding took place. I’d somehow become an unwitting contributor to the future of Korea’s top-tier hunters.
[Charity Quest]
Recommended Level: 81–85
Entry Limit: 10 people
So we settled on the Gate described above. In truth, there weren’t many others to choose from. The number of Gates scales with both the Level range and the population of Hunters at that tier.
Isn’t the scarcity of Gates one of the great frustrations of top-tier Hunters?
With so few Gates available, we were sometimes forced to clear unpopular ones out of sheer necessity.
“It’s between a Charity Quest and the Forest Gate.”
“I’m not sure what a Charity Quest is, but wouldn’t this be better?”
“Right? Going to some interesting-looking Gate beats trudging through the Forest hunting for Hidden rewards.”
After consulting with the guild members, we decided on the Charity Quest Gate.
“A Charity Quest. Do we actually have to perform good deeds?”
The Gate’s name told us very little. We could only infer from the characters themselves.
Opinions were divided.
“Should we stock up on provisions before we go in?”
“Not a bad idea.”
The suggestion came from Shin-hee, and I found myself nodding. We’d once received a special Hidden reward at the Snow Field Gate after providing enough food for an entire Village to thrive, so the precedent was there.
There was no reason the Charity Quest Gate couldn’t work the same way. We might even discover a Hidden by bringing more supplies than expected.
“Or maybe we get thrown into some hellish place full of villains and our ‘charity’ is executing them.”
Min-jae had a point. Gates don’t play by normal rules, after all. Combat could easily unfold in that manner.
Even if it wasn’t literally a hell, the Gate could demand that we eliminate evildoers.
“Or it could be straightforward—we actually have to perform genuine acts of kindness.”
Taken literally, it could be surprisingly simple. Mister tilted his head at that.
“At our Level?”
“The difficulty of the charity itself might be extraordinarily high.”
“Give me an example.”
I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Well… an elderly woman is dying and needs medicine, but Red Dragon happens to be the one holding it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just a hypothetical I made up on the spot. Something along those lines?”
It was a rough sketch thrown together quickly, but the variations could be endless—cases where you had to procure some impossibly rare herb, for instance.
In treacherous terrain, difficult to find, swarming with enemies—that kind of feeling.
“We’ll know once we go in.”
“Right. Let’s prepare thoroughly. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
“Of course.”
How the Charity Quest Gate was actually structured would have to be seen firsthand.
* * *
“DINOSAUR! GUILD! FIGHTING!”
“HAN HYE! HAN HYE!”
Perhaps it was because my Level had briefly surpassed Choin’s.
For this Gate conquest to reclaim the top spot, far more fans than usual had gathered in Goesan, and they were cheering for us with even louder voices.
“Roaaar!”
“Rooaaarrr!”
We put on a demonstration with Yong-yong and Bone Dragon as fan service for everyone who’d come all the way out to see us.
Just exchanging light greetings had already filled our hands with gifts.
Snacks, potions, figurines, apple juice, nutritional supplements—so much of it that we stuffed it straight into the Subspace.
“Let’s go.”
What would the Charity Quest Gate truly be like? We stepped through, brimming with curiosity.
The first thing we saw was a peaceful, rural road—and standing on it was a middle-aged priest.
[Charity Quest]
—Assist the Priest of Charity and Benevolence in his charitable works.
The Gate’s objective left us rather taken aback. It aligned with what we’d anticipated, at least.
Truly, we were meant to undertake charitable deeds and help.
“There’s no time limit on this Gate?”
What caused our confusion was the absence of any countdown. We’d expected some time restriction.
But the answer came immediately. A message appeared.
[Charitable assistance can be ended by speaking with the Priest, but the Gate will terminate at that instant.]
So this Gate could be exited whenever we wished.
Time inside the Gate hadn’t started flowing yet.
Being a somewhat unusual Gate, it seemed we’d been granted a safety window to read the messages.
We quickly conferred with the guild members.
“So it’s an extremely safe Gate, at least for now?”
“I wouldn’t know. But judging by how secure this is, the content must be more than ordinary.”
Even without an escort secretary, I could leave if I just told the priest. But there had to be a reason I’d been assigned one.
Lee Shin-hee opened her mouth.
“Maybe it’s not that it’s difficult, but that the work itself is distasteful.”
“What about the reward? How is the reward calculated?”
“Isn’t it about how long you endure?”
Shin-hee answered the mister’s question.
“How long?”
“Since there’s no time limit, I don’t think the charity quest ends in one go.”
“Ah.”
“I suspect they’ll make us do dirty, annoying, exhausting work, and the reward increases the longer we endure it.”
Another line of thought occurred to me.
“Or maybe there’s an extra bonus hidden within that hardship.”
“Do good deeds, get presents?”
“Something like that. For instance, while searching for medicinal herbs, you might obtain an A-rank Spirit Medicine, that sort of thing.”
The discussion had been brief but thorough enough. For now, we had no choice but to help with the charity quest earnestly.
For gates of this type, the time ratio is adjusted from the outside, so it shouldn’t take all that long.
“Ah!”
As time began to flow, a middle-aged priest gestured toward us and approached.
“So you’ve come to help with the charity quest. It’s a pleasure. I’m Elena of the Charity and Benevolence Sect.”
“Hello?”
After we exchanged brief introductions, the priest explained what we’d need to do.
“A plague has broken out in the village of Berna ahead. They need a lot of Moonlight Herb for the cure, but we don’t have any…….”
“So we need to find some for you?”
“That would be greatly appreciated. The Moonlight Herb should be plentiful on the summit of Dark Mountain, behind us.”
The priest pointed behind us, where a black mountain stood against a landscape as peaceful as a country road.
“Powerful monsters live there, so please be careful, all of you who’ve come to help with the charity quest.”
At the priest’s words, Min-jae let out a sigh.
“This really is quite demanding work, isn’t it?”
“Tell me about it.”
“Fighting’s fine, but this kind of tedious grunt work is another matter entirely.”
I found myself agreeing with that to some extent.
“Still, you never know. There could be an A-rank Spirit Medicine up there.”
I said as much, but I doubted it. Based on the structure, this charity quest seemed designed to reward longer endurance more generously.
It was then the priest spoke up again.
“I did pass a merchant’s caravan on the way here selling Moonlight Herb, though they demanded an exorbitant price in gold. If you practitioners have ample funds, purchasing from them is also an option.”
“Excuse me?”
“The faster, the better. The plague in Berna Village is quite a serious matter.”
Wait. Setting aside the priest’s sudden pitch to spend money…….
This was a pay-to-win situation?
If so, I couldn’t possibly back out.
If my thinking was right, this was a structure where you could grind, but also solve it entirely with enough money.
Other hunters couldn’t do it. They don’t bring gold into gates.
But I’m different.
“But if we go up that mountain, there might be an A-rank Spirit Medicine…….”
Min-jae spoke, but I shook my head immediately.
“Instead of grinding for hours, wouldn’t doing more charity quests raise the value faster?”
I’m going to solve it with money. With the countless gold coins piled up in the Subspace.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————