Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 319
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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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319. Charity Quest (3)
The charity quest continued. Many tasks followed. One that particularly stuck with me was procuring bandages and medicine for the scattered soldiers.
The soldiers hiding in safe places wanted us to handle their supplies instead, so enemies wouldn’t spot them…….
“Hold on. There’s a Merchant Guild right here—what ‘safe place’?”
We simply bought everything from the Merchant Guild. It felt a bit forced.
The whole idea of “hiding” sounded absurd to begin with, and even if they were scattered soldiers, they were still military. If things were really that dire, wouldn’t they just raid the Merchant Guild themselves?
I’d picked up somewhere that scattered soldiers of old were no different from bandits, which made the whole thing feel off.
It seemed like tedious busywork had been forcibly grafted onto the charity quest structure.
That said, we didn’t resolve everything with coin.
When we encountered people whose farmland had been taken by monsters, we stepped in directly.
The Merchant Guild said we could hire mercenaries for a fee, but there was no real need.
We were getting a bit bored with the endless quests anyway, and our bodies felt sluggish, so we decided to handle it ourselves.
“Hmm. From what I can see, you’re looking better already?”
“Aren’t I?”
The monsters were strong enough, but not at the level we’d been facing. After all, the true nature of this was busywork from the charity quest.
It felt less about raw strength and more about sheer numbers and persistence—tedious to clear, but manageable.
Still, it wasn’t bad. I finally got a proper chance to test the Rooster-fighting Swordsmanship I’d learned from that sincere bout with Shin Chang.
It seemed the old man’s eyes registered the change in my technique favorably.
“It’s been ages since I’ve met people so dedicated to helping with charity quests.”
The shift came around the fifteenth quest. The Priest, who’d barely said more than “thank you,” suddenly became talkative.
“This fills my heart with such joy. May the God of Charity and Benevolence bless all of you…….”
Then divine radiance wrapped around us. The fatigue lifted somewhat, and our minds felt refreshed.
Was the fifteenth one the end? It felt too quick to be the stopping point, which made it unclear.
Or… not?
We’d moved fast because we were throwing gold at the Merchant Guild to speed things up. Without that, fifteen quests probably would’ve taken at least a month.
“Is the charity quest over?”
But it wasn’t over. The Priest’s eyes widened.
“Pardon? No, it continues. However, you may stop whenever you wish. The charity you’ve already given is considerable.”
“Pardon? No, that can’t be right.”
“Indeed, you truly are noble-hearted.”
The Priest’s sudden words carried clear meaning if the quest wasn’t ending.
We read it as a signal.
“This sounds like we’ve moved up to the next tier, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s like they’re telling us we’ve crossed into a new reward bracket.”
The other guild members shared the same thought.
“I hope we’re at least halfway there.”
“Fifteen, then thirty?”
“Honestly, forty-five or sixty seems completely unrealistic.”
“Hmm. That sounds reasonable.”
No matter how you look at it, forty-five or sixty is pushing it.
Without exaggeration, without a steady stream of gold, doing that many more would probably require another year inside the Gate.
“Still, it’s fine. We can see the goal now.”
It’s different to move forward aimlessly versus having a visible target.
If reality had a status window, people would probably work harder on exercise or studying. Seeing progress makes all the difference.
“This next charity quest should prove beneficial for you as well.”
But in the next quest, the Priest said something strange again.
* * *
“This next charity quest should prove beneficial for you as well.”
Coming right after we’d deduced a shift to a new reward tier, his words caught us off guard.
“What do you mean by that?”
“This quest is to help with a festival in a village where only the elderly live.”
Even after hearing the rest, I struggled to understand.
“What kind of festival?”
“The Carmen Festival. The Carmen Wildflowers bloom in a vast plain before the village. For the festival, you’ll need to gather the petals.”
The whole thing sounded ridiculous.
This counts as a charity quest?
“But how would that benefit us…….”
“Carmen Wildflowers are renowned for their beauty. Resting among them, you’d have time to yourself and recover. Don’t you think that would help restore your body and spirit?”
Was that what he meant? Picking petals. To be honest, it wouldn’t be bad to see something like that once…….
If it became labor, it seemed like it would be quite tedious. Besides, there didn’t seem to be a shortage of flowers for the festival.
I was thinking we could just buy them from the Merchant Guild when the problem surfaced. We still had plenty of Gate gold anyway.
That’s when the issue arose. When I asked where the Merchant Guild was, the Priest tilted his head.
“The Merchant Guild selling flower petals? I don’t think they’d sell something that’s scattered all over the plain in front of the Village. Besides, I haven’t seen any Merchant Guild while going back and forth through the Village.”
It was the first time since entering the Charity Quest that the Merchant Guild had failed to appear.
“Well, there’s nothing for it. Let’s just think of it as flower viewing.”
It was the old man’s comment, and that’s when I realized something was off.
“Wait—is there a Hidden Quest here?”
“A Hidden Quest? For the festival?”
The old man tilted his head.
“Not the festival itself. The process—picking the flowers.”
So my reasoning was straightforward. There’s no way they’d ask us to pick flowers for no reason.
And not while claiming it would help us, either.
“That makes sense.”
“I also think there’s a high probability that Han Hye’s theory is correct.”
While the Guild members nodded, other opinions followed.
“It’s just a theory, but maybe the reward hasn’t reached a certain threshold yet—maybe this is an intermediate reward.”
“An intermediate reward?”
A Charity Quest.
It was strange that after walking the path of charity, the Priest would suddenly gift us a precious treasure. Wouldn’t it make more sense to naturally acquire it—as if the God, moved by the Charity Quest, had bestowed a gift, or as if good deeds attract fortune?
We could make educated guesses about what might be in the flower field.
“Could there be Spirit Medicine in the flower field?”
“Spirit Medicine?”
“Or maybe equipment that’s hard to distinguish from the flowers… but Spirit Medicine seems more likely.”
“Eh, it could just be sitting right there in plain sight.”
“In the flower field?”
Whatever it was, we’d have to go and look ourselves to find out.
In any case, our task was straightforward.
“Carmen Wildflowers vary in color even within the same species. For the festival, we need a certain minimum quantity of all types of wildflowers.”
So we had to gather lots of colorful flowers, sorted by color.
“I see.”
“They really are beautiful.”
Even if there was no Hidden Quest, the Priest wouldn’t have said such things without reason. The sprawling plain stretching before the peaceful rural Village was packed with flowers of every hue imaginable.
It was simply a plain beneath a blue sky filled with blossoms, yet the sight was breathtaking.
“The plain itself feels like a festival, doesn’t it?”
“Right? I’m not sure we even need to pick the flowers.”
“Should we just take a look around for a bit?”
This was Lee Shin-hee’s suggestion.
“For a bit?”
“I’ve never seen such a vast flower field before.”
“That’s true. Me neither, really.”
The Priest had mentioned that enjoying the flower field was good for body and mind, so there was no need to start working right away.
Whoosh!
I opened the Subspace. The priority was to take out some comfortable chairs to sit on.
“Come on, everyone have a seat.”
Next came the coffee. Food doesn’t spoil when we carry it in the Subspace. We have a good variety of coffee too.
“For you and Han Chul—iced Americano? Min-jae, a latte?”
“Yes!”
“And you, Shin-hee?”
I, the old man, and Han Chul always went for iced Americano, and Min-jae always wanted a latte, but Lee Shin-hee varied her choice, so I had to ask.
“I’ll have an iced Americano today too.”
And so we had our tea time gazing out at that vast and beautiful flower field.
Hmm. Inside the Gate we’d always been fighting, eating poison, killing things—but this wasn’t bad at all.
* * *
In any case, we still had to work while searching for the Hidden Quest, so we held a brief meeting for efficiency.
“I’ll take the red ones, you take the blue ones. Han Chul will take the yellow, Min-jae the orange. Shin-hee, you take the white.”
“Understood. What about pink or purple…?”
“We’ll fill out the others first, then pick those. That seems like the best approach.”
It would be faster to pick one color per person rather than have one person shift between multiple flowers.
“Just call me whenever the sack is full, and I’ll toss it into the Subspace.”
“Got it.”
“It’ll be tedious, but please verify the name each time you pick a flower. I’ll do a bit more searching with my spatial sense.”
The flowers scattered across the plain bore the mark of Quest Items—[Carmen Wildflower] appeared above them.
If the Spirit Medicine hidden in this plain looked similar to the Carmen Wildflower, there was no choice but to identify it by name.
“Let’s begin.”
And so the harvesting of Carmen Wildflowers commenced. Han Chul had even pulled gloves from the Subspace to ensure no one’s hands would get injured.
It wasn’t so bad at first, but as the work dragged on, the tedium became inevitable.
It wasn’t a matter of admiring the flowers and plucking them—having to verify each one by name made the whole affair surprisingly taxing.
It was better than searching for a needle in sand, better than treasure-hunting in a flower field, though it was far from easy work.
“Huh!?”
To make matters worse, there were trap cards hidden throughout.
“What is it?”
At Min-jae’s cry, everyone turned their heads, but he shook his head with a disappointed expression.
“I thought I’d found something else growing among the Carmen Wildflowers, but…”
“Wasn’t it?”
“Just an ordinary different flower. Everyone, be careful.”
“Understood.”
Since they only needed Carmen Wildflowers, they had to filter them out as well.
What’s more, the Spirit Medicine showed no sign of appearing.
“Is it not here?”
By the time they’d nearly filled their quota, it still hadn’t turned up. Even when Shin Chang rode Yong-yong overhead to scout, the result was the same.
His spatial sense caught nothing unusual, and from above, no telltale marker was visible.
“Whoa!”
That was when Han Chul let out an odd sound.
“I—I found it!”
At Han Chul’s uncharacteristic outburst, the Guild members rushed over, initially taken aback.
What he held looked identical to the Carmen Wildflower. But when Shin Chang verified it, the commotion seemed entirely justified.
[Carmen Essence Flower (A-rank)]
-An essence that appears with extremely rare probability in flower beds where Carmen Wildflowers gather.
-Consumption rejuvenates one’s physical age and restores the body to health.
It was an A-rank Spirit Medicine—something I’d never been able to obtain, either when I first awakened or now.
I’d eaten one before, so I knew its effects better than anyone.
“Insane. If it’s A-rank, how much younger does your body get?”
The question nagged at me from another angle. I’d tasted the Youth Potion back at the Alchemist’s Garden.
But this was A-rank. I couldn’t even guess how many years younger it would make you. You don’t turn into an elementary schooler, do you?
“Should we exit now?”
The question came from Mister. With an A-rank Spirit Medicine in hand, honestly, leaving now would be a win. We’d resolved most tasks with money, so we hadn’t consumed much time.
We’d also gain Gate subjugation experience, making it a profitable venture. Yet my instinct shook its head.
“No.”
This is a place that gives A-rank Spirit Medicine at the midpoint. What awaits at the end of a Charity Quest?
“Wait a moment.”
That was when Lee Shin-hee raised her hand.
“The fact that this Charity Quest takes place in a village full of elderly people suddenly feels significant.”
“Hm?”
Mister tilted his head in confusion, but my thoughts had already gone elsewhere.
“Are we meant to donate this to the village?”
“It’s speculation. I think it might be a different kind of Hidden Quest. So if even discoveries like this become part of the charity, maybe the final reward scales up as Hidden?”
It was a plausible theory. And in fact, it made sense.
“You’ve found the Carmen Essence Flower?”
The Priest expressed admiration.
“I think it would be wonderful to share it with the elderly villagers. Even if the rejuvenating effect diminishes somewhat when diluted, many people could benefit from it.”
Even as I marveled at how Lee Shin-hee’s guess had proven correct, we found ourselves in a rather delicate situation.
Dividing an A-rank Spirit Medicine among many—would this turn out favorably?
No one could guarantee the outcome. The Guild members looked to me.
The choice fell to me as Guild Master.
“Hmm.”
And my choice was obvious.
“Let’s go all in and see what happens.”
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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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