Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 324

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

324. Pan Crete Ruins (2)
“It doesn’t seem to be moving for now.”
Two options came to mind immediately. The first was to explore the Ruins without disturbing the creature. The second was to eliminate it first, then explore.
The second approach seemed easier, but it wasn’t quite that simple. Both had their merits and drawbacks.
The first method offered relatively safer exploration. The downside was accepting greater risk.
‘If there are enemies inside and this thing joins the fight, things could get messy.’
The sheer size of the creature troubled me as well. What if it woke up while we were exploring the interior of this Fortress?
If we were in the middle of combat with enemies inside, we’d have no warning before the structure came down on our heads. I also had to consider the possibility that the creature grew stronger if triggered by something inside the Ruins.
Still, the second method wasn’t straightforward either.
This was a colossal monster that had destroyed an empire. Just defeating it seemed far from simple.
‘It looks tougher than Ja-tan.’
Even if I unleashed Severance and Burning, I couldn’t guarantee we’d actually bring it down.
Moreover, considering the creature’s size, there was a real risk the Fortress would be damaged during the fight.
On the other hand, if we managed to defeat it in the end, we could explore the Ruins afterward without worry or constraint—a significant advantage.
We had three days. That meant a quick council of war.
“Any estimates on that thing’s power level?”
“Hard to say. We’d need to engage it to know for sure.”
This was an enemy we’d never faced before. We couldn’t gauge how durable it was or what kind of destructive force it wielded.
“Then maybe it’s better to put it off for now.”
“Hmm.”
“What if I keep watch outside and signal you immediately if it stirs? You’d have a head start.”
Mister’s suggestion wasn’t bad.
“I think it’d be cleaner to deal with it first. What if we find something inside and it suddenly wakes up stronger? That could happen, couldn’t it?”
Min-jae had a point. If the creature was some kind of guardian, it might grow more powerful the instant we claimed treasure from within.
From what Chun-bae had told us, this seemed to be the monster that destroyed the place, but Gates didn’t necessarily repeat the past. Not always.
“That is a problem, but… isn’t it still better than being unable to do anything at all?”
“That’s true.”
If the creature was created with the intent that we shouldn’t wake it—if we were meant to navigate the Ruins carefully around it—then leaving it alone was the safest course.
“There’s no need to take unnecessary risks.”
That was when Han Chul raised his hand.
“There’s also a possibility the Ruins only unlock once we defeat that creature.”
This too held weight. But it wasn’t enough reason to attack first.
“Let’s do a preliminary sweep. If we find nothing, then we’ll consider engaging it.”
The brief council reached its conclusion: we’d proceed cautiously and scout the Ruins first. And we had contingencies in place, naturally.
“I’ll keep watch and signal you the moment it moves.”
“No.”
Mister moved to volunteer first, but I shook my head. I didn’t want all four of us moving around inside the Fortress because of that thing.
“Then what?”
“There’s another way.”
The Bone Dragon was precisely that.
“The Bone Dragon is quite clever, actually.”
While it couldn’t execute complex incantations, tasks like this were entirely within its capability.
“Right, I forgot about that.”
I promptly summoned the Bone Dragon from the Subspace. The instruction was simple.
“If that thing moves, let out a roar immediately.”
-Skraaaah!
The Bone Dragon answered with a chilling cry. The nameless colossal monster remained frozen like a statue.
The Bone Dragon hovered in the air above it, staring down with unwavering intensity.
“This eases my mind considerably.”
“Let’s explore the Ruins.”
Now it was time to investigate the interior. An 81–90 Level Ruins meant there might well be an S-Rank Item or two.
“I hope it’s not as complicated as last time.”
Mister spoke. Finding the Ruins hidden in the sky had been grueling work, even in retrospect.
“Given that creature’s stronger than the dragons, I doubt it will be quite that demanding…”
“Never know. The enemies could be just as strong and twice as troublesome.”
“Should we start by checking the sky?”
“Not a bad idea.”
Unfortunately, when we scoured the sky, we found nothing in particular. And when we looked below, there was no distinctive mural or marking to catch our eye either.
Unfortunately, when we scoured the sky, we found nothing in particular. And when we looked below, there was no distinctive mural or marking to catch our eye either.
Unfortunately, when we scoured the sky, we found nothing in particular. And when we looked below, there was no distinctive mural or marking to catch our eye either.
“There’s no way around it. Let’s go in.”
“Right. We’ve got your Space Sense, haven’t we?”
The old man laughed and patted my shoulder.
* * *
“Enemies… there aren’t any? Really?”
“No, not a single one? I didn’t check that direction over there, though.”
Before entering the Fortress, I’d flown low over it on Yong-yong, scanning from the air within the range of my Space Sense.
The idea was to get a quick look at what kind of enemies might be inside, but I found nothing.
“Is this really connected to that thing?”
“We should be able to find out by searching. To be honest, if something like that exists here, it doesn’t make sense for there to be monsters in the fortress right next door.”
Even if I were a monster, I wouldn’t live in a place like this. Searching comes first.
“Starting with this central Fortress?”
“Yes. If there’s nothing here, we’ll search the surroundings.”
That’s the standard approach to exploring Ruin Gates. From what I’d gathered reviewing all the Ruin Gate subjugation reports, items existed in remarkably varied ways.
Sometimes they were hidden away in corners no one would look, and sometimes they were left in places meant to be left alone, just as we’d seen.
But the conventional wisdom was to check ‘the most promising-looking place’ first. There were exceptions, of course, but that method proved most effective.
Hidden passages and the like usually turned up near where high-ranking people would have lived anyway.
“It’s empty.”
But the tall building at the center of the small Fortress was also completely vacant. The structure itself had an antique air about it, but there was nothing worth salvaging.
I’d felt a basement through my Space Sense and gone to check it, but that place was equally barren.
If Chun-bae knew this location correctly, I’d heard that the last survivors of an empire had made their final stand here….
Finding anything remotely useful was a struggle.
“What are you doing?”
“Just checking if there’s anything hidden between the cracks….”
Weapons and Armor were scattered throughout the building’s interior, but useful pieces were few and far between. They had the look of corroded, weathered equipment.
No message appeared telling me their grade or name, which meant they didn’t count as items at all.
The old man poked through them with his foot, but no treasure turned up.
To be honest, I was quite baffled.
“How can there be nothing like this?”
“Tell me about it.”
I’d held considerable hopes after hearing what Chun-bae had said.
A Ruin Gate.
And not just any Ruin Gate—the very place where the last survivors of an empire had made their desperate final stand during the final stages of Mana Erosion?
‘At least one S-Rank Item, naturally….’
I’d expected plenty of B-Rank items, even A-Rank items if we were lucky. This was where heroes of reversal had fallen, wasn’t it?
It wasn’t strange to think their legacies might remain.
“Or maybe they buried it somewhere like an underground vault?”
“I didn’t sense it when I was riding Yong-yong earlier, but should we take a closer look?”
At least this building wasn’t it.
The old man scratched his head at my suggestion.
“Actually, now that I think about it… maybe it makes sense that there’s nothing.”
“It does?”
“Wasn’t it a final battle? They’d have consumed any elixirs lying around. And they’d have fought with the best weapons they had, right?”
“That’s true.”
“If they died in battle, the equipment would’ve been trampled by monsters or whatever. Even if something survived, it’d probably be over there by the collapsed Castle Wall or somewhere.”
“Come on. Looking at the battle scars all the way here, this was definitely the site of their last desperate stand.”
One section of the Castle Wall was half-destroyed, and this building’s doors were smashed in. It was reasonable to assume the final battle took place here.
“There has to be something. That thing outside isn’t just standing there like a statue for no reason.”
“Let’s take another look around.”
And we didn’t have to search long before finding something that stood out.
* * *
“Shh. From here on, we move carefully.”
We were searching the area around the collapsed section of Castle Wall—in other words, near where the massive monster lay.
Worried that even the slightest sound from us might wake it, I was moving with utmost caution when I felt something off.
-Han Hye.
“Yeah. The mana….”
I sensed a change in mana density. Or rather, I should say it felt like magic was being actively applied?
When I’d been flying on Yong-yong earlier, I hadn’t noticed this because we couldn’t get close to this area on account of that massive monster.
“This is suspicious.”
“Found it.”
The guild members noticed the irregularity and moved in that direction immediately. It was a fairly large 1-story building.
The problem was that a Magic Circle was wrapped around the residence.
“We can’t even get inside…….”
It wasn’t a barrier, but a semi-transparent veil of sorts covered the entire building. Neither the windows nor the door handles would open.
What troubled me more was that my Space Sense couldn’t reach the interior. That’s when Chun-bae spoke up.
-This is the handiwork of a Grand Mage.
‘A Grand Mage?’
-Affirmative. They’ve cast an extremely high-level Barrier Magic on the entrance.
‘Can you dispel it?’
-It would consume considerable Sacred Power, and I can’t guarantee success.
The Grand Mage was clearly no ordinary figure. If it came to a gamble, I had no intention of relying on Chun-bae’s power.
-The Cardceus Key could open it.
The Cardceus Key, which could unlock any door, still had one use remaining.
I could save it and end up never using it, but it seemed wasteful to spend it now.
“What about Spatial Jump?”
I shook my head at what the mister said.
“I can’t sense what’s inside. And if it’s the work of a Grand Mage……it looks like they’ve woven Sacred Power into the magic itself.”
The Previous-Previous Princess had done the same with Sacred Power, so this was hardly unprecedented.
“Then what do we do?”
“There’s one method left.”
The remaining method was a Subspace.
My Subspace had already transcended the boundary zones designated by the Gate before. A combination of Sacred Power and magic wouldn’t matter.
Even though my Space Sense didn’t reach the interior, it didn’t matter. Though the interior wasn’t visible through the semi-transparent veil, I could gauge the distance.
I was going to create a Subspace that I could move through on both sides of the window.
-Whoosh!
And just as expected, a Subspace formed on both sides of the window.
“Hah. As expected.”
I heard the mister’s murmur of appreciation as I slipped my body into the Subspace.
“I’ll take a quick look around and come back.”
That was the moment I crossed through the Subspace and entered the interior.
“What is this…….”
The interior of the building was packed with resplendent Magic Circles. It was incomprehensible how they were still functioning.
And in the center of those Magic Circles, seated in a chair, was a figure. Or rather—it wasn’t a person at all.
‘Already dead.’
If I had to describe it, it was mummy-like. The figure wore armor fit for a mage, a cloak, and held a staff.
Yet those articles showed no signs of decay, emanating an otherworldly presence.
Whether this was a Hidden treasure or an original artifact of the Ruins, I couldn’t say…….
But I was certain I’d found something genuine.
[The Sovereign of Space briefly summons the past time from within the realm of space.]
A familiar message appeared then.
No—upon a closer look, it wasn’t a familiar message at all.
‘Briefly?’
The message I usually knew read like this.
[The Sovereign of Space summons the past time from within the realm of space.]
So “briefly” meant it wasn’t turning back time completely. Facing a situation I’d never encountered before, I hesitated for a moment.
The frozen time began to flow backward. What in the world was this place?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————