Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 61

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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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61. Godmon Ruins (2)
“Everyone, hold on a moment before we enter.”
There was something I needed to do before venturing into the Ruins. It had a pyramid-like structure.
I had no idea what traps might be waiting inside. I pulled gas masks from my Subspace and distributed them to my teammates.
“Why the gas masks all of a sudden?”
Mister tilted his head in confusion.
“You know, in movies and stuff, toxic gases come out inside pyramids.”
“From what I’ve heard, real pyramids don’t actually have anything like that.”
“Really?”
Maybe movies exaggerate things. Well, it didn’t matter.
“But this isn’t a pyramid—it’s a Gate. We should be prepared anyway.”
“Hmm? You’re right.”
Mister nodded with a foolish expression. Sometimes he had surprisingly blind spots.
After putting on the gas masks, I pulled out a trap detector as well.
“Huh?”
As we advanced a bit further, my spatial awareness picked up a fairly expansive chamber ahead. Already? I thought.
When we got there, there really was a cavern. The peculiar thing was that the floor was made entirely of sand.
“There they are again.”
Moreover, sand soldiers stood upon the sandy floor. The number was twenty this time—different from before.
Exactly double. But that wasn’t the only change.
“They’re actually holding real weapons?”
“Yeah.”
Unlike before, they weren’t wielding weapons made of sand—they held genuine arms. Heavily rusted and blackened, but real nonetheless.
…Which made me even more afraid. If I got even slightly cut by those corroded blades, wouldn’t my skin rot immediately?
“The path behind us is blocked.”
“It probably opens once we clear them all.”
Behind the sand soldiers lay the passage we’d come through, and it seemed we could proceed once we dealt with this chamber.
-This is a Trial of Strength.
“A Trial of Strength,” Chun-bae and Lee Shin-hee said simultaneously.
A Trial of Strength. I understood what it meant. It wasn’t the official Gate designation.
It referred to a structure found in Ruins or Labyrinths that tested combat prowess instead of presenting complex traps.
Enemies appeared in each section, and you had to push through them—a relatively straightforward Gate structure.
Of course, only the structure was simple. Trials of Strength were proportionally difficult.
‘It varies depending on the difficulty of the enemies that appear, but they’re usually quite challenging.’
In essence, it was a trial of pure force against force.
The average enemy level had to be higher than in Gates with more complex structures.
For what it was, the sand soldiers weren’t particularly strong beings, but you never knew until you fought them.
Just now, they’d upgraded with the appearance of rusted weapons.
‘It seems like the sand soldiers keep growing stronger.’
Moreover, the sand soldiers had the property of regenerating even after being defeated.
Of course, I could have easily dismantled that section using my Subspace.
“If you were going to do this, you should have just dropped us in front of the Ruins from the start.”
Mister complained while looking at the sand soldiers.
“And you set up all those traps outside, plus sandstorms and everything.”
“Doesn’t that mean they’re granting us a trial of strength since we made it through?”
“Oh, you’re right. Han Hye, are you a genius?”
“I’m just not well-educated, but I’m smart enough.”
I’d spoken habitually, the way I normally talked with Mister, and immediately regretted it.
“….”
Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae were looking at me with slightly bewildered expressions. Min-jae quickly chimed in.
“You are pretty smart, though.”
“Just kidding, just kidding.”
I made excuses quickly, but my face grew warm. It felt like being caught having a casual conversation with a close friend by my coworkers.
I hastily drew out the Flowing Stream Sword.
“Anyway, let’s go.”
The fact that those sand soldiers from before were now wielding rusty weapons didn’t change the situation much.
I quickly dispatched the soldiers to escape the awkward moment.
Since I’d shoved all the sand into my Subspace, the soldiers didn’t regenerate.
“Are we done?”
“Huh?”
When I turned to Mister, he was grinning playfully. He’d been joking because I’d stuffed all the sand away.
“Are we done?”
The moment Mister spoke again with a laugh, the sandy ground suddenly trembled, and rusty weapons rose up through the sand.
Since I’d shoved the soldiers’ rusty equipment into my Subspace along with them when they fell, this was definitely not regeneration.
The sand soldiers had appeared once more. It seemed there were more hiding beneath the surface.
The group’s eyes widened as they stared at Mister.
“….”
“Hey, this isn’t my fault, is it?”
Mister panicked.
“I asked ‘are we done?’ but they would’ve come out anyway! Look at them!”
Mister pointed at the creatures.
“This time they’re even wearing armor!”
He was right. This time they wore armor in addition to weapons, all of it equally rusted and dingy.
Mister’s argument wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away.
“Sigh, we have to fight again because of you, Mister.”
“Right?”
Following my lead, Min-jae laughed and teased Mister, but what surprised me was that Lee Shin-hee, with her lips pressed together, also gave Mister a slight side-eye.
Considering her usual image, I wouldn’t have thought she’d participate in such banter, but I was wrong.
‘She’s not actively joking, but she does seem to go along with it when the moment calls for it.’
Perhaps because of the glint in Lee Shin-hee’s eyes, Mister visibly flustered.
“No, that’s not it… Ugh….”
In any case, after processing all the newly spawned creatures and consigning them to the Subspace, the next door opened with a resounding creak.
After advancing a bit further, a chamber of similar structure came into view. The situation was remarkably alike.
* * *
The sand soldiers numbered twenty again, but unlike the previous chamber, their weapons were intact.
Clean weapons rather than rusted ones, one might say.
Once we finished them off, this time sand soldiers emerged with their armor completely intact—twenty of them.
Mister even clapped and shouted.
“See! I told you they didn’t spawn because I defeated them!”
Of course, I didn’t let it slide.
“Sigh, you said ‘defeated them’ twice before, and now we’re fighting again because of it.”
Mister was exasperated.
In any case, now that they were properly equipped with armor, the sand soldiers were no longer trivial opponents.
Their armor was sturdier than expected, so they didn’t collapse from a light tap like the previous sand soldiers.
Their movements had also become noticeably more refined.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was difficult. Both Mister and I had absurdly high stats.
‘Even with many enemies, it’s not something to struggle over.’
All I needed to do was cut deeply with mana-infused strikes or target the areas their armor didn’t protect.
As I was processing a few of them, a thought suddenly struck me.
‘These creatures seem perfectly suited for sword training.’
And I wasn’t the only one thinking it.
-Han Hye, I recommend using this opportunity to master the swordsmanship you recently acquired.
Not only Chun-bae but even Mister advised against absorbing the sand into the Subspace.
“Hye, these guys are just the right level, yeah? Don’t absorb the sand.”
While both Mister and I could fight easily and breeze through without effort, we both felt the necessity to advance our martial skills, so we were of the same mind.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Since we’d already consigned ten of them to the Subspace, ten remained.
We were discussing whether to split them five each or reduce the number further when Lee Shin-hee interjected.
“Could I try facing one as well?”
Lee Shin-hee’s equipment was a mace and shield—standard armament for rear-guard units. Mages also required shields as essential gear.
After using a staff and shield, if mana ran out or close combat erupted, one would either hold out until the vanguard arrived or draw a secondary weapon.
“Oh, me too!”
As Lee Shin-hee joined in, Min-jae spoke up, unwilling to be left behind.
So in the end, Mister and I took four each, while Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae took one apiece.
‘I wonder if they’ll manage.’
Even though they were sand soldiers, the fully armored ones seemed like they might be difficult for the two of them to handle.
I’d occasionally seen them train with secondary weapons, but they weren’t quite at our level.
-Thud!
So I was prepared to use Leap to assist them at any moment, but they fought better than expected.
Though their approach was simple—blocking with shields and attacking with weapons—the sand soldiers weren’t complex either.
“We’re doing fine!”
Watching both of them handle their opponents with steady control, I focused on the sand soldiers in front of me.
Before long, I found myself fighting in complete silence, absorbed in combat.
‘This feels like a Guild training workshop.’
With even Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae, a healer and mage respectively, performing like this, the scene looked rather odd.
Of course, this Gate did have an excellent structure for this kind of training.
Since Cresea Swordsmanship was fundamentally a quick-draw technique, I trained by targeting the gaps in the sand soldiers rather than cutting through their armor with mana.
Moving fast and striking decisively, I fought while referencing Cresea Swordsmanship.
[Cresea Swordsmanship (Rank B) has increased in level.]
Thanks to that, there were results. The opponents were perfectly suited for training, making it easy to internalize what I knew intellectually.
After some time had passed like this.
“I’ll stop here!”
“Me too!”
Lee Shin-hee and Min-jae declared a break in the middle. Being in the rear guard, their stamina had worn out from the continuous training.
“I’ll pull the aggro from Shin-hee’s opponent.”
“Then I’ll take Min-jae’s.”
Drawing the sand soldiers’ aggro was simple—just hit them once when they respawned.
But as I stepped back, Min-jae suddenly raised a question.
“By the way, how many times are these things going to come back? I think we’ve defeated them about fourteen times already.”
“Yeah, seriously.”
I hadn’t noticed because I was so absorbed in training—or rather, combat. I’d defeated quite a few myself, yet they kept respawning.
When I put the sand into the Subspace, the door behind opened immediately, but.
“I don’t think the Gate was given this much time for nothing, right?”
The Mister who was listening spoke up.
“Trials of Strength don’t usually have long time limits.”
“That’s true?”
Normally, Trials of Strength have a simple structure of strength against strength, so the time given in a Gate isn’t long.
It’s natural since the result is either victory or defeat.
“Is it because we have to defeat so many sand soldiers?”
“At this rate, it’s not a Trial of Strength but a Trial of Stamina, isn’t it? Or both?”
Min-jae’s words seemed too accurate. Perhaps that’s why the sand soldiers’ level wasn’t that strong.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
I shrugged. Whether it was a Trial of Stamina or whatever, I had a way to deal with these sand soldiers.
The Mister chuckled as well.
“True.”
“Should we wrap this up and move on?”
“Let’s do it.”
Whether it was a Trial of Stamina or not, once the sand entered the Subspace, regeneration became impossible.
As expected, after defeating the soldiers and collecting the scattered sand into the Subspace, the situation ended.
Rumble—.
Behind us, a door opened.
“If it weren’t for you, hyung, this would’ve been pretty rough.”
“Of course. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.”
Min-jae and Mister spoke. Sand soldiers kept emerging endlessly, and there was no telling when they’d stop.
It would’ve been a problem physically as well.
“Everyone’s worked hard. Let’s rest for a bit before moving on.”
Since we didn’t know how many more sand soldiers we’d have to defeat next, even rest time felt burdensome.
Of course, that wasn’t the case for us.
* * *
The same structure repeated in the next chamber. There were slight variations.
The sand soldiers that emerged from the third chamber had better-quality weapons and different skill levels.
‘They were faster and stronger.’
Rather than simply swinging weapons, they attacked using sword techniques and spear arts, requiring much more attention.
Of course, after reducing their numbers appropriately, they simply became our training partners.
[Combat Technique (C-rank) level increases.]
The results were incredibly satisfying.
While using various methods, my Combat Technique skill level rose as well. That wasn’t all.
[Flame Resistance (A-rank) level increases.]
Continuously training in the Desert Zone, in such heat, even my Flame Resistance level increased.
Even wearing Arachne’s inner garment, I could feel it was slightly humid, which seemed to be the reason.
‘Without all this, it would’ve been quite brutal.’
It meant that without Arachne’s inner garment, Flame Resistance, or the Subspace skill, I would’ve had to engage in continuous combat under extreme heat.
Well, with all of that at my disposal, it was nothing to worry about.
“Now it’s the fourth chamber.”
In any case, the fourth space we arrived at was slightly different from the others.
“There are no sand soldiers?”
It was a wider area, but no soldiers were visible.
That’s when it happened.
The ground rumbled.
The sand floor began to tremble, and sand gradually started rising up.
By rough estimation, it felt like something quite large was being created.
Like the Flame Guardian I’d seen in Flame Valley before. Should I call it a Sand Guardian since it’s made of sand?
‘Wait.’
Something flashed through my mind at that moment.
What would happen if I deployed a Subspace on the sand where that creature was being formed?
A low hum resonated.
I immediately put the idea into action.

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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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