Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 53

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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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53. Yong-yong
After sending Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae away, I headed to a nearby empty lot with Mister. I needed to feed Yong-yong the growth elixir.
There was no way to know what might happen during the growth process. Besides, Mister couldn’t enter the Subspace anyway.
“I should probably tell Min-jae and Lee Shin-hee soon.”
“You’re right.”
Whether Yong-yong would grow or not remained uncertain, but it felt a shame that the guild members couldn’t witness it together.
They adored Yong-yong just as much as Mister and I did.
Even Lee Shin-hee, who rarely expressed emotions, would gaze intently at Yong-yong during rest periods at the Training Facility.
The secret surrounding the Subspace seemed to be creating a subtle distance between us and the guild members.
“Or is it? Am I jumping the gun?”
“You just said it would be better to tell them soon.”
“I’m just being cautious.”
Originally, I hadn’t planned to tell them now. We hadn’t known each other for very long.
That’s too short a time to trust someone completely. After all, there are con artists who deceive people over years, aren’t there?
Of course, I do believe Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae aren’t that type of people. Rationally speaking, the probability of the secret leaking is low.
Min-jae keeps receiving grimoires from me, and Lee Shin-hee would find it difficult to replace a teammate like us.
“I think it should be fine.”
For most matters, I could have told them long ago, but my abilities are simply too extraordinary to reveal carelessly.
There were moments when I considered telling them, but I had no choice but to exercise maximum caution.
“Right. We haven’t known them long, but they seem like good people.”
“They do.”
Min-jae has connections to Saebyeokbit, and Lee Shin-hee is a substantial chaebol heiress who has invested in us. They were definitely not strange people.
It would be awkward to call them back now, but it seemed I could find an opportunity soon enough.
“We’ve arrived.”
After confirming no one was nearby, I retrieved Yong-yong from the Subspace. The moment I pulled him out, he fluttered in my palm.
-Krrr!
Whether he wanted to fly or was asking to be released, he playfully nipped at my hand. It didn’t hurt because I’d trained him.
When I let him go, he fluttered as if trying to take flight, then rubbed his face against my body as if his skin itched. It resembled a kitten chasing its own tail—utterly adorable.
The sight was impossibly cute.
Next, as I went into the Subspace to retrieve the growth elixir, Chun-bae spoke up.
-To be safe, I recommend feeding him both. Growth does require a ‘catalyst,’ but we should be thorough about this.
Right. I still had the frost elixir I’d received from the Hunter Association, and I had cold-related growth elixirs as well. There was no problem giving both flame-related growth elixirs.
Since I was already in the Subspace, I also retrieved an ice-related growth elixir and handed it to Mister.
“This one is for you, Mister.”
“A growth elixir?”
“Yes. It doesn’t have immediate effects like a regular elixir, but if you keep taking it, you’ll gradually build up cold resistance.”
“Thank you.”
Sensing the heat emanating from the flame-related growth elixir, Yong-yong scratched at my calf from beneath my feet.
He was thrashing about, desperate for it, so I tossed it to him immediately.
-Crunch!
Yong-yong chewed away with determination. After finishing one, it immediately brought its mouth to the next one.
“Don’t you feel some heat?”
“Now that you mention it. Maybe it’s because it’s a flame-related elixir?”
-Grrr!
After consuming all the elixir, Yong-yong twisted its body as if tickled and rumbled contentedly.
That was the moment.
-Whoooosh!
Yong-yong’s body was engulfed in fierce flames. It wasn’t for nothing that we felt the heat.
Of course, the situation itself was quite startling. Mister was taken aback.
“Yong-yong!”
I hastily grabbed Mister as he rushed forward. Without attribute adaptation and separated from Yong-yong, it would be dangerous.
“Mister, calm down. Yong-yong is the Red Dragon. Right now, I haven’t even activated attribute adaptation.”
“Ah.”
Mister stopped in his tracks, belatedly understanding. We watched the flames in silence.
Even with my A-rank flame resistance, I could feel the heat. It was incredibly hot.
-Grrr!
Then, with Yong-yong’s cry, a change occurred within the flames. A black silhouette began to appear within the wavering inferno.
And the black shape grew larger and larger. It felt less like growth and more like witnessing an evolution.
Soon the flames began to subside. Unlike their sudden appearance, they gradually diminished in size.
It was as if they were being absorbed into Yong-yong inside. And then Yong-yong revealed itself.
“Huh? It got… it got bigger!”
It had definitely grown. Not quite the Red Dragon size I’d seen before. Not an adult, but more like an adolescent stage, I’d say?
Still, it was an enormous change.
It used to fit in Mister’s hand, but now it had grown to about human height.
-Grrrrr!
Yong-yong approached with a pleased rumble, and I could still feel a faint warmth radiating from it.
It rubbed its face against me, so I stroked it.
Even though it had grown a bit, it was still cute. That dragon from before was terrifying, but maybe because this one is someone I know?
“Yong-yong, are you okay?”
Mister reached out worriedly, and Yong-yong nuzzled its face into his hand as if to reassure him.
Mister was startled.
“Ouch, that’s hot.”
“Hurry and use attribute adaptation.”
Now that I think about it, the two of them had improved a lot too. At first, Yong-yong had smacked Mister’s hand with its tail.
Perhaps because we’d been using Dragon Unity so much and staying close, they got along quite well now.
Then Yong-yong began flapping its wings. It kicked off the ground and took flight. And it flew.
It had succeeded in flying!
“That’s incredible…?”
“It reminds me of Min-seok’s first steps. Hehe.”
“I heard babies fall when they take their first steps, but this one flew perfectly from the start.”
“But you know what?”
The old man looked at Yong-yong and spoke.
“If it’s this big, couldn’t we ride on Yong-yong?”
“Huh?”
Being human-sized in height meant it was quite wide as well. It seemed entirely feasible.
“Should we try right now?”
We hurriedly called Yong-yong. The old man mounted its back the moment it descended.
He was about to take off immediately when I suddenly grew worried.
“Be careful.”
If he fell by accident, it would be catastrophic. No matter how tough the old man was, falling from such a height would kill him.
The old man seemed to realize this belatedly, his expression stiffening slightly.
“Hmm. Still, with Dragon Unity, surely I won’t fall.”
“Yong-yong might not be able to handle it either. This is its first flight too. Low altitude, please—low altitude flying.”
After a moment of contemplation, the old man looked at me with a serious expression.
“Hye.”
“Yes?”
“Could you hold back from riding a dragon if you had the chance?”
The question was serious, so I thought about it seriously too.
“I don’t think I could hold back.”
“Right. Besides, I’m a Dragon Knight.”
And so it happened. The old man activated Dragon Unity, and Yong-yong took flight. Higher, ever higher.
Yet no sign of anxiety showed on his face.
“Wahahahaha! Hye! I’m flying! I’m soaring!”
I heard the old man’s hearty laughter. Watching this, one thought consumed me.
I want to ride too…!
“Come back down soon! Let me ride too!”
But my voice didn’t seem to reach the old man. He was already flying off into the distance.
“No! Where! Where are you going!”
About ten minutes passed. While the old man still hadn’t returned, the guild chat notification rang.
-Min-jae: Is that really happening, hyung?
-Lee Shin-hee: (question mark emoji)
-Me: What?
-Min-jae: Chul-gi hyung riding Yong-yong is on the news right now?
What? It’s already on the news?
How far did this old man go?
-Me: Yeah, it suddenly got bigger on the way home….
I had to do some damage control, so I gave a vague explanation.
Ugh, I wish I had been there with you too.
The old man returned a little later, oblivious to the chaos, scratching the back of his head.
“Phew. We’ll definitely need a saddle. I almost fell off several times. If it weren’t for Dragon Unity, I’d be dead.”
Normally, it wouldn’t fly to that extent. I didn’t say anything, thinking perhaps he carried some deep sorrow.
“Should we try contacting Seo-ung?”
But there was no need for that.
Seo-ung called first.
.
.
.
The growth of the world’s only Red Dragon.
And the Dragon Knight soaring through the city astride it.
It was only natural that they became the talk of the town.
[The Grown Red Dragon and the Ascending Dragon Knight]
-Is this real??
-The coolness is insane
-Didn’t everyone predict the Red Dragon’s growth would take years?
-I thought at least several years, and if long, tens or hundreds of years. But in less than half a year, what
haha
-Isn’t it just over 3 months, not half a year?
-This is insane
-Even if the Red Dragon was small, I thought it would be fine since the Dragon Knight skill could be used, but it actually grew and flies around?
-I’m genuinely so jealous, seriously insanely jealous
Everyone’s reactions were understandable.
When Yong-yong appeared and Mister made his return, not just Korea but people worldwide were ecstatic, but what they focused on was the ‘future’.
A hatchling Red Dragon and a low-level Dragon Knight wouldn’t display extraordinary feats immediately, after all.
What if the Red Dragon grew and the Dragon Knight’s level rose?
‘Many people were skeptical.’
Since Red Dragons didn’t exist on Earth, there was no information. In most fictional works, they said it took hundreds of years.
Even if it was tens of years, Mister was already quite elderly, wasn’t he?
But today’s events obliterated all those negative opinions.
“Lol, isn’t that SSS-rank, not S-rank?”
-A Dragon Knight riding a Red Dragon? That’s operating on a completely different level? What happens when that level rises?
-First of all, there’s never been a monster as large as a Red Dragon; it seems like it could solo everything
-Real talk, once the Red Dragon fully grows, you could send it alone to subjugate Gates.
Lol, because of that the military bases in Seoul went on Emergency alert over an unidentified flying object sighting
-Real?
-Yeah, it was chaos
Well, there was an incident, but it passed smoothly. Congratulations came from people I knew.
The same went for Shin Chang and Seo Seung-yeon.
-Shin Chang asked if he could ride it once? Of course, I want to ride it too.
“Ah, well… if the opportunity comes later”
-You promised!
* * *
Yong-yong had grown as well and immediately applied for promotion to C-rank Hunter. C-rank Hunters are typically levels 26–35, and we’re level 25, but that doesn’t matter.
It’s not purely about levels. It’s about performance and actual ability. Ordinary parties need to exceed level 26 to meet that standard, so that’s how it became the benchmark.
“Ah, that’s nice. There’s this cold sensation running through my body—it’s definitely not just some ordinary elixir, right?”
I was chatting with Mister after submitting the application when Seo-ung called right away.
As expected, he confirmed I’d passed C-rank. But the conversation didn’t end there.
-Would it be acceptable to receive the C-rank promotion payment in the form of a secret item instead of cash?
My contract was structured so that I received a promised sum whenever I advanced to a certain rank.
I had no objection. Besides, hadn’t I already received an elixir instead of cash during the first contract?
Truth be told, I wasn’t particularly greedy for money right now. I’d already secured a house near the Association Vicinity and owned a car. I had everything I needed.
I wasn’t the type to indulge in luxury, but even if I did, I had plenty of money.
‘It’s not like I’m planning to participate in overseas auctions.’
Overseas auctions are inherently difficult for individuals to acquire anything from. Most of the time, nations or corporations sweep everything up.
It’s all for the Hunters of their own countries or the heads of their corporations.
Regardless of domestic or international, even billionaires who haven’t awakened sometimes purchase elixirs for health maintenance.
I’ve heard they even smuggle in monsters and attempt to awaken by hunting them.
‘Competing with such nations and major corporations isn’t easy, even for most S-rank Hunters.’
That’s why it usually works like this—nations acquire items through auctions and distribute them to Hunters as payment instead of cash.
Since it resolves the hassle, it’s a structure Hunters prefer. Of course, what kind of secret item matters.
“What kind of secret item?”
-It’s a B-rank Swordsmanship secret technique.
“Give me a moment.”
The amount for reaching C-rank was 20 billion won. 20 billion for a B-rank Swordsmanship secret technique? That wasn’t bad.
No, it wasn’t just not bad. This was actually a profitable deal for me.
B-rank Swordsmanship techniques vary wildly in price, but I know they’re generally more expensive than 20 billion.
I’d been feeling the necessity to improve my swordsmanship lately, especially after sparring with Shin Chang and training combinations with the Apostle.
Empire Foundational Swordsmanship.
An E-rank skill—literally foundational swordsmanship. The ceiling was far too clear no matter how much I leveled it up.
‘Chun-bae.’
But I needed to confirm first. Chun-bae hadn’t told me in advance about information regarding the interior of the Subspace.
Who knows? There might be an S-rank Swordsmanship technique in the next Subspace.
‘The Association is offering a B-rank Swordsmanship secret technique. Should I take it? Or should I ask for an elixir instead?’
I posed the question to Chun-bae with anticipation.

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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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