The Subspace Inventory was actually an extraordinary skill, even if it was granted to every Awakened.
The inventory existed in an independent dimension known as subspace, allowing it to store an almost limitless number of items regardless of their mass or volume. Items stored inside didn't even decay.
But did that make the Subspace Inventory all-powerful?
Not quite.
Although no one had managed to establish its precise rules, there was a distinction between items that could be stored in the Subspace Inventory and those that couldn't.
For instance, the Dead One's Resentment I'd obtained on the first floor could be stored in the Subspace Inventory, but hadn't it rejected the flowers I'd discovered in the Hidden Piece, the Seocheon Flower Garden?
Items obtained inside the Tower that could be stored in the inventory could be taken outside. However, there was no way to bring out items that couldn't be stored.
Apparently, even if you put them in your pocket or held them in your hands, they would disappear the moment you completed the mission.
There were several established rules concerning the Subspace Inventory, although they weren't quite definitive enough to be called laws.
Three of them were particularly straightforward.
First, living creatures couldn't be placed inside the Subspace Inventory.
Second, objects from the real world that had no connection to the Tower couldn't be stored.
And third, monster corpses couldn't be placed inside the Subspace Inventory.
"So doesn't that mean it won't work?"
That was the argument I presented to my Ancestral God.
And I wasn't merely talking.
I'd actually struggled to shove the Corrupted Basilisk's corpse into my inventory, but it wouldn't go in.
"See? It won't work. Shall we give up?"
No matter how miraculous my Ancestral God was, surely he couldn't know everything about the mechanisms of the Subspace Inventory.
Desperately ignoring my ominous premonition, I made a strong case for why it was impossible.
My Ancestral God responded.
─ Descendant.
"Yes, Ancestor."
─ The hide will go in.
"Pardon?"
─ I said the basilisk's hide can be stored in the inventory.
Unfortunately, my Ancestral God had an answer.
It just wasn't an answer I wanted to hear.
"Then we'll just store the hide?"
─ Yes.
"How?"
─ You will have to skin it, naturally.
"Ah."
As expected, my bad premonitions were never wrong.
Perhaps I possessed some remarkably powerful divine power myself.
"Come on, how am I supposed to skin something?"
─ You know how, do you not?
"Who even learns that sort of thing these days……"
My Ancestral God silently stared at me.
Removing an animal's skin was called skinning. Tanning was the process of treating the hide after it had been removed.
And the reason I knew that was……
***
"Hello. I'm Nu."
─ What are you talking about?
"It's a thing."
That's right.
I knew how to skin animals.
Nobody naturally acquired a skill like skinning, which meant I'd been taught how to do it.
─ Son, let me explain how to skin an animal……
My father hadn't taught me shamanism, but he had taught me how to prepare ritual offerings.
That was because my grandfather, who hadn't complained about my father refusing to teach me shamanism, had insisted that I absolutely had to learn how to prepare offerings.
For reference, animal hides were among the most traditional types of ritual offerings. As a descendant of the Divine Shaman Family, it was only natural that I had to learn how to skin animals……!
Reptile hides were among the more difficult types to remove because of their toughness.
SQUELCH.
The dagger sank into the basilisk's hide along its natural grain.
"Hup!"
RRRIP.
With a tearing sound, the hide began separating from the flesh beneath it.
The skinning was progressing more smoothly than I'd feared.
─ Ahem. I should at least provide this much assistance.
"……Thank you."
That was because my Ancestral God had infused the dagger with Spell Power through my Lending skill.
I wondered whether it was right for my Ancestral God to act so proud of himself when he was using my skill, but I couldn't deny that his assistance was helpful.
"Urgh!"
That didn't mean skinning was easy.
Turning over the massive basilisk corpse while removing its hide was nothing short of backbreaking labor.
Now I understood why he'd told me to bring a dagger.
It hadn't been meant for hunting.
It was for skinning.
As expected, my Ancestral God's preparations had been flawless.
Only after wrestling with the corpse for approximately thirty minutes did the Corrupted Basilisk's hide finally emerge intact.
"Phew. I'm done."
─ You have worked hard.
Gulp.
I was nervous.
If the hide wouldn't fit into the inventory after all that miserable effort, it would be a complete disaster.
No, actually, it would be a problem even if it did fit.
Because wouldn't that mean I'd have to keep doing this?
Whoosh.
"……"
The enormous basilisk hide vanished into the Subspace Inventory.
"It went in."
As expected, my Ancestral God had been right.
I couldn't tell whether this was good news or bad news.
─ I shall not ask for much. Let us skin only the ones we kill.
"……Yes, sir."
In other words, I had to skin six more basilisks.
***
With my miraculous Ancestral God beside me, I had nothing to fear on the second floor.
Jingle—jingle—jingle.
Whenever my Ancestral God used the Shamanic Bells to reveal a Corrupted Basilisk's Soul Meridian……
SQUELCH!
I stabbed it.
Although I didn't possess any particular offensive skills, I could mercilessly slaughter the Corrupted Basilisks with a single strike each.
Oh, actually, it wasn't as though I had no skills whatsoever.
[Passive: Nimble Movements]
The passive skill that had made my movements a little quicker while cleaning the shrine was also proving extremely useful during hunting.
The fact that my dagger could accurately strike the spot between a basilisk's eyes, and that the skinning was progressing faster than expected, both seemed to be thanks to that passive skill.
"Ughhhh."
─ Are you tired?
"Yes, I'm exhausted."
I'd said there was nothing to fear on the second floor.
I hadn't said it was comfortable.
Skinning was far more exhausting than hunting.
─ Take heart. You should consider yourself fortunate that you can make offerings using things obtained from the Tower.
"You're absolutely right."
My Ancestral God was benevolent, but he was a spiritual being.
Apparently, spiritual beings were bound far more tightly than humans by the principle of Causality.
In other words, if my Ancestral God was to continue exercising his divine authority, I needed to make offerings worthy of that power.
Considering how much money the Divine Shaman Cheon Family had spent preparing offerings for our Ancestral God during its heyday, my current labor was indeed a small price to pay.
"Hup!"
I plunged the dagger into the hide and applied force.
RRRIP!
The hide split apart.
SPURT!
SWISH!
"Oh."
Blood had sprayed toward me, but I'd instinctively dodged it.
Perhaps Nimble Movements was even more effective than I'd thought.
"Phew. Finished."
I'd completed the skinning more easily than the first time.
As expected, people needed to learn and practice to improve.
"Let's move on to the next one."
─ That way.
The second-floor climb continued for quite some time, although I couldn't tell whether to call it hunting or manual labor.
Jingle—jingle—jingle.
SQUELCH!
[Mission completed.]
At long last, the System notification announced the end.
Ah, of course, it wasn't actually over.
I still had to skin the bastard I'd just killed.
"Hrrrgh!"
A passive skill like 'Mighty Strength' might have been more useful than Nimble Movements.
Wouldn't that have made it easier to turn over the basilisk corpses?
"Phew! Finally finished!"
At any rate, the second-floor mission came to an end when I placed the last basilisk hide into my inventory.
─ Descendant.
My Ancestral God called out to me.
"No, Ancestor. Please, anything but that……"
Sensing something ominous, I tried to stop him before he could speak.
─ Let us do just one more thing before we leave.
But my Ancestral God continued without paying any attention to my protest.
"……Yes, sir."
I really must possess some kind of divine power.
***
─ That way.
"Yes, sir."
I walked endlessly, following my Ancestral God's guidance.
For reference, my Spirit Sight was still active through the Lending skill, and I was beginning to feel increasingly uneasy.
That was because the deeper I followed my Ancestral God's guidance, the thicker the aura of curses became.
The swamp traps, which had previously appeared only here and there, were becoming increasingly frequent.
And the cursed energy rising from those traps was growing correspondingly heavier and more oppressive.
"Grrrk!"
The number of Corrupted Basilisks wandering nearby had also increased.
Even a rough count put their number above ten.
If I accidentally drew their aggro and caused them to abandon their non-aggressive behavior, I felt certain they'd kill me without leaving so much as a single bone intact.
"I bet nobody's ever been here before."
─ Most likely.
I'd seen more than thirty basilisks on the way here.
There was no reason for anyone to venture this deep into a swamp riddled with traps when they could simply hunt basilisks and complete the mission elsewhere.
I continued walking for quite some time, lost in various thoughts.
Even while thinking, my eyes kept moving busily.
I had to avoid the traps visible through my Spirit Sight, and I also had to be careful not to step on a basilisk's tail or leg.
But then……
SPLASH.
"Huh?"
My foot sank into the swamp.
It wasn't because I'd been careless.
The swamp I'd just stepped into hadn't been emitting any poisonous cursed energy, so my Spirit Sight hadn't detected it.
GLUG—GLUG.
The swamp churned and began sucking in my foot.
[Sharing tips on escaping the swamp if you fall in while attempting Floor 2.]
Recalling the information I'd read sometime in the past, I immediately flattened myself against the ground.
Struggling would only make me sink deeper into the swamp.
I needed to lie flat to spread my body weight over a larger surface area……
─ Do not do that.
"Pardon?"
My Ancestral God stopped me from carrying out my quick response.
─ This is the right place.
And then he added those words.
"What do you mean, the right place?"
I tried to calm my rising anxiety as I questioned my Ancestral God.
─ You must descend beneath it.
"……"
Go beneath the swamp?
"You mean I have to let myself sink?"
─ You understood perfectly. Your mind truly is sharp.
In other words, he was telling me to sink into the swamp.
If anyone other than my miraculous Ancestral God had told me that, I'd have told the bastard to go fuck himself and shouted, "Escape!"
"I-I'll be all right, won't I?"
As time passed, the swamp continued swallowing my body.
I'd already sunk to my waist.
At this point, escaping through my own strength was practically impossible.
"I-I trust you?"
─ You will not die.
"Please don't say it in such an unsettling way."
─ You will be fine.
"……Yes, sir."
Faith in my Ancestral God.
That alone allowed me to endure the terror of sinking into the swamp.
At last, my face disappeared beneath the surface.
GLUG—GLUG.
I began to suffocate.
[You have entered the Hidden Piece - 'Basilisk Queen's Sealing Site'.]
I lost consciousness along with the System notification.
***
─ Those dogshit bastards. So this is the cheap hostage scheme they resorted to.
I regained consciousness to a strangely familiar scene: my Ancestral God was cursing at someone whose identity I didn't know.
"Huh?"
My appearance, which had been a complete mess from skinning the basilisks and sinking into the mud, was now perfectly clean.
That was fortunate.
It meant less laundry to do when I got home.
"Where is this……?"
According to the System, this was the Basilisk Queen's Sealing Site.
And that was exactly what it was.
An enclosed space, sealed off on every side.
A basilisk that appeared to be twice the size of an ordinary one was bound by strange chains.
"Grrrk."
Its size wasn't the only difference.
Unlike the Corrupted Basilisks, which had seemed to have lost their intelligence, the Basilisk Queen moved her vertically slit pupils between my Ancestral God and me.
The eyes of a reptile should have been chilling, but they weren't.
I didn't know why, but I could sense the emotions contained in the queen's gaze.
That's right.
At that moment, I was sharing the Basilisk Queen's feelings.
She was utterly exhausted.
─ Tsk. So they were wandering around the Cursed Swamp all this time, searching for their queen.
Perhaps finding the sight pitiful, my Ancestral God clicked his tongue.
"Grrrk—grrk."
The Basilisk Queen cried out weakly, her strength nearly exhausted.
─ She is asking us to kill her.
"Do we have to?"
I'd entered the Tower to kill its inhabitants and climb its floors.
But looking at the Basilisk Queen in such a pitiful state, I found myself reluctant to kill her.
I didn't understand how it worked, but the moment I'd begun sharing her emotions, I couldn't help feeling compassion for her.
─ There is no other way.
"……I see."
In this world, there were things one had to do even if one didn't want to.
***
─ You will have only one chance.
"Yes."
According to my Ancestral God, killing the Basilisk Queen wouldn't be easy.
That was because I was too weak.
With my current Spell Power, creating a single opportunity was the best my Ancestral God could manage.
─ Hup!
Wearing an expression I'd never seen before, my Ancestral God solemnly moved his hands.
For quite some time, hand seals too complex to recognize formed and dissolved in succession.
Jingle—jingle—jingle—jingle—jingle.
The Shamanic Bells rang violently.
HUMMMM.
At the same time, the dagger resonated.
Through the Lending skill, I could sense that the maximum amount of Spell Power my body could contain had settled into the dagger.
"Grrrk!"
The Basilisk Queen cried out.
She wasn't resisting.
Instead, she seemed to be willingly accepting the full force of my Ancestral God's Spell Power.
From the queen's perspective, it was no different from deliberately swallowing poison.
Finally……
Bulge.
A fragment of the Soul Meridian appeared between the Basilisk Queen's eyes.
Even though only a fragment had appeared, its presence was far more powerful than those of the Corrupted Basilisks, whose connections between body and soul had been loose.
─ Now!
WHOOSH!
At my Ancestral God's signal, I swiftly thrust the dagger forward.
The passive skill Nimble Movements added strength to my strike.
SQUELCH!
The dagger pierced the queen's Soul Meridian precisely.
"……Grrrk."
With a brief death rattle, the queen closed her eyes.
Those eyes had unmistakably conveyed her gratitude.
Once again, I wasn't given even a moment to dwell on the bitterness of it.
[The Curse Binding restraining the basilisks has been lifted.]
[The Corrupted Basilisks have been freed from their curses.]
[You are the first to clear Floor 2 of the Labyrinth Tower using the correct method.]
[Transferring to Reward Space.]
Once again, the second-floor mission had been cleared without my even declaring that the mission was complete.
My vision went dark.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in the Reward Space.
Reward notifications rang out in succession.
[Floor 2 mission completed successfully.]
[Rewards: Magic Crystal 15g, Cursed Crystal x88, Corrupted Basilisk Hide x7.]
[Level increased.]
[The player has been granted access to Floor 3.]
[Floor 2 of the Labyrinth Tower cleared using the correct method. 1 Achievement Point awarded.]
And finally……
[The Basilisk Queen has left behind a gift. The Basilisk Queen's Blessing permeates the body of Awakened Cheon Yeong-hwan.]
I had received an unexpected gift.