Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 326

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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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326. Pan Krete Ruins (4)
—Crack!
The protective barrier generated by my equipment shattered first. I might not have noticed if not for the sound. It was severed by my own Cutting the instant it formed.
I’d only ever dealt it before, never received it—and the eerie slicing force sent a chill down the back of my neck.
Is this what they mean by life flashing before your eyes?
I tried to use Dodge, but I could see it was already too late. Still, using it had to be better than nothing.
—Whoosh!
That was when the golden radiance bloomed before my eyes.
Invincibility.
It was the ability Shin-hee had just acquired that saved me.
I owed my survival in part to the fact that I was riding on top of the Bone Dragon alongside the Guild members, positioned to strike at the creature’s head.
—Scrape!
I heard the slicing sound, but nothing was cut through the golden radiance. The line dissipated within the light.
“Are you—are you okay!?”
Shin-hee asked urgently.
“I owe my life to you.”
Truly.
I never imagined my Cutting could be reflected back at me. Without Shin-hee, I might well have crossed the river by now.
“Hye!”
“I’m fine!”
The other Guild members, including Mister, had their eyes wide open in shock. They were staring at the lines etched across my body.
Mister in particular looked furious. He put distance between us—the third eye that had appeared between the creature’s brows was glaring down at us.
“This bastard didn’t even land a proper first strike, and it’s already counterattacking…”
There were two reasons for my shock. First, I had never anticipated that this thing possessed a Reflection ability.
Reflection? Wasn’t that some cheating power you only heard about as a kid?
Of course, it couldn’t work indefinitely. There had to be limits—no Gate spawned an enemy with no solution.
The second reason was, as Mister said, that we had planned to strike first.
‘I wasn’t just thinking about my Cutting—I was factoring in the combination attacks too.’
That’s where we got caught off guard.
“This was my mistake.”
To be honest, it was a failure of judgment on my part. Even if the Grand Mage had restrained this thing, a hundred years must have passed since then.
It wouldn’t be strange if something had come loose. Yet I was so certain our first strike would connect.
If I’d truly considered the worst case, I should have anticipated a counterattack coming first.
Maybe I couldn’t have predicted it would be Reflection, but I could have done something about it, couldn’t I?
“It’s not your fault alone. We all made the mistake together.”
“You’re right.”
The Guild members tried to comfort me, but this was one thing I couldn’t agree with.
“I’m the Guild Master.”
Having nearly died just now made it feel all the more clear. Rather than my heart racing or feeling flustered, my mind had gone cold.
“Let’s move past that. We’re alive, at least.”
“Yes. Let’s think about how to deal with this thing.”
“Apart from that reflection, it hasn’t moved at all?”
The ease with which we could talk like this was thanks to that. A third eye had materialized between its brows, but it still wasn’t moving.
“Shouldn’t we attack quickly?”
“Quickly?”
“Right. That reflection can’t work infinitely, can it?”
“Exactly.”
There had to be some constraint—cooltime, a limited number of uses, something.
If it reflected every attack, it wouldn’t be designed to be beatable at all.
“What if we attack before the cooltime resets?”
I’d considered the same approach Mister was thinking of, but we weren’t limited to just that.
“A half-hearted attack might wake it up.”
“Huh?”
It was risky to act carelessly. The problem was that it still wasn’t moving. But what if it could use Reflection while in motion?
If the mere act of striking its body could serve as a trigger, things would get far more complicated. We’d have to face something that could Reflect while attacking.
“That would be a headache.”
“Let’s think through our combat approach a bit more carefully.”
.
.
.
A brief meeting. In the end, we reached a conclusion.
We had to wake the creature up—unless we could kill it in a single strike.
The problem was its Reflection.
We needed to determine whether it reflected the first attack unconditionally, or only attacks that posed a significant threat to itself.
‘The issue is, if I try to experiment and the thing wakes up, we’re in trouble.’
If my first attack had prompted movement, I might have assumed there was no second Reflection. But now it was ambiguous.
“Or maybe we should just wake it up and fight it fair and square.”
“Honorably?”
“Yes. If we use a strong opening attack like we normally do, maybe it has a mechanic where it reflects.”
“That’s possible. Still, it’d be a shame to leave it as is.”
The conclusion we reached was surprisingly simple. It was Lee Shin-hee’s idea.
“What if we just keep using Cutting until it stops reflecting?”
“Until it stops reflecting?”
“You have a Subspace, so it’ll take time, but you can attack multiple times in a short span.”
It was the kind of straightforward solution I’d used often before. I’d gotten too fixated on Reflection to see it.
I’d been thinking only of blocking the Reflection in the Subspace or bouncing it back.
Since I’d just burned most of my magical power, I’d need to visit the Subspace once to recover.
Mister expressed some concern.
“But what if it reflects again? You don’t have Invincibility.”
The solution wasn’t difficult.
“We dodge with Leap.”
Cutting doesn’t strike the target’s body directly—it cuts through the very space itself. If I’d known and prepared, I would’ve dodged it. Ignorance is the most frightening thing of all. Once you’ve experienced something, the next time isn’t so hard.
Knowledge dispels fear; experience builds mastery.
“So we test it a bit, and if it keeps working, we wake it up and fight?”
“That sounds best. We’ll need to be careful of the Reflection even after waking it.”
Fighting while expecting my own attacks to come right back at me wasn’t easy, so I wanted to handle as much as possible in its current state.
A deep hum rang out.
After resting in the Subspace, I returned and used Cutting.
A sharp whistle cut through the air.
But the Reflection worked exactly as before. I dodged immediately with Leap, but a line was drawn through empty space.
Another whistle.
The next attempt, and the one after. All five tries were blocked by Reflection.
“In this state, it seems to keep using Reflection—like it’s taking advantage of being immobilized. Or maybe it only reflects skills.”
“We have no choice but to wake it. Should we try a light attack?”
The situation was pointing toward one conclusion: we couldn’t cheat our way through this.
“……?”
Suddenly, I noticed something about its eyes.
From the moment of the first Reflection, it had been staring at whoever attacked it.
‘That looks like a trigger.’
Lightning struck through my mind.
If I could keep its gaze fixed on me, maybe attacks from another direction wouldn’t trigger the Reflection.
There was a method: someone else could draw its attention while I used Cutting from behind.
But there was a risk—my Cutting might catch one of the Guild members. I needed a different approach.
“Mister, I’ve just thought of something.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll need your help, but I’m not sure if it’s possible.”
I explained the idea that had just formed in my mind to the others.
“We’re waking it anyway. Might as well try.”
“Right?”
“Let’s do it now.”
I left the creature and turned my attention to the Ruins.
“Then let’s search for what we need.”
* * *
Preparation didn’t take long. We tested the method before trying it on the creature.
“I think it’ll work.”
“You do?”
“The target’s pretty big. Hitting the head exactly might be tricky, but the torso should be fine.”
“Since we’re doing this anyway, let’s try for the head.”
“Alright. If it doesn’t work, I’ll aim for the torso instead.”
My plan was simple: if the creature was looking at me, I’d use Cutting at the same moment to bypass its Reflection.
And the plan was to drop a massive stone pillar from the sky at just the right moment.
A creature that size just standing there? That meant the target was enormous. Which meant I could pour a tremendous amount of gravitational force into the strike.
What we’d chosen were the giant stone pillars from the Urban City.
They’d been supporting the front of the Central Fortress—and we’d extracted two of them. It hadn’t been particularly difficult.
Our raw strength had already transcended the limits of human capability, after all.
-Whoooosh!
Once I’d remodeled the Subspace to accommodate the pillar, it was just a matter of shoving it through.
The Entrance itself had its constraints, but once one end of the pillar was in, a simple push did the rest.
The first stage was riding the Red Dragon high into the sky and extracting the pillar from the Subspace.
Naturally, Mister and Yong-yong handled the fine adjustments—nudging the descending pillar bit by bit as it fell.
-Crash!
When we’d drawn a circle on the ground to match the creature’s size and run test drops, the results had been promising.
There was no need to spend time obsessing over precision—if it missed, we’d simply try again.
“Ready?”
“Then I’ll open it.”
I rode Yong-yong up into the sky with Mister. We climbed to such a height that the enormous creature below looked small.
-Whoooosh!
Then I opened the Subspace at an angle and drew out the stone pillar.
“I’m heading down.”
“Right.”
The instant the pillar came free, I dropped straight down. I’d leave the fine adjustments to Mister.
Given the pillar’s mass relative to my own, the descent required continuous use of Leap.
-Whoosh!
-Whoosh!
Using Leap, I managed to reach a point directly above its head faster than the falling pillar. Now came the crucial part: neutralizing its Reflection.
Both Leap and the Subspace were critical here.
It could reflect even the stone pillar. But I’d prepared a countermeasure.
By using two Subspaces, I could reflect the enemy’s magic back at them. Cutting wouldn’t work on the creature, but the pillar could be reflected.
‘Just right……’
All I could do now was pray that Mister would drive it home. I watched him descend from above, then fixed my attention on the creature.
Standing motionless. Since I’d attempted Cutting multiple times before, even in the rush, it didn’t take long to execute.
From my earlier tests, I’d calculated the falling speed well enough to lock down the timing.
The moment I confirmed Mister’s position, I used Cutting.
-Screech!
The third eye fixed on me activates Reflection once more. But I was already used to dealing with it.
-Whoosh!
I dodge with Leap.
And simultaneously……
-Piercing whine!
A harsh sound tore through the air. The stone pillar, released from high above, descended under Mister’s precise control.
-Tremendous crash!
It struck the creature’s head dead-on. I’d worried about Reflection, but apparently it didn’t extend that far.
I’d suspected as much—it probably only reflected skills.
The creature’s head, impacted by the pillar, couldn’t withstand the force and was slammed downward.
A secondary shockwave rippled outward, dust erupting violently. And that’s when I froze in shock.
“Huh?”
“We, we did it!”
Mister let out a whoop of triumph. Driving something through that creature’s head, despite its size, was no small feat.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
Even as my vision blurred, my spatial awareness let me track the target precisely.
And if what I’d sensed wasn’t a mistake……
‘Did that third eye just get knocked out of its socket?’
The third eye that had been dislodged was still flying through the air.
-Whoosh!
I immediately used Leap to snatch it out of the air. Even with Reflection active, catching it wouldn’t trigger a counterattack.
[Briken’s Third Eye (S-rank)]
-A legendary relic from ancient times. The third eye that only opens when Briken senses a threat.
-Can reflect the target’s skills. *Shatters after one use.
-If you possess a living Briken’s third eye, it will pursue you in an even stronger state until death.
I’d unexpectedly acquired an S-rank item I never saw coming. I quickly stashed it in the Subspace.
“Shriek—aaaaahhhhh!”
The creature whose skull had been hammered by the stone pillar plummeting from the sky rose to its feet, wailing as though it had shifted into a second phase.
This was the moment the third explanation became viscerally real.
Crimson eyes flashed through the dust cloud. Trained directly on me.
It was hunting for the thief of its eyes.
‘There’s nothing I can do about that.’
I had no intention whatsoever of returning an S-rank item.

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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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