“Phew.”
For now, I was alive.
Once the door closed, I could no longer hear any noise. It seemed that Subspace was a space separated from reality.
Fortunately, I did not feel any particular mana consumption even while inside the Subspace.
There had been some when I opened the door, but once I entered, it seemed that no additional mana consumption was necessary. That was fortunate.
‘It’s too dark.’
I was in no position to complain, but the space I had entered was dark. Once I had a chance to catch my breath, that became more apparent.
Not a glimmer of light could be sensed, and I could not even tell where the ceiling ended and the floor began.
I took out the portable flashlight tied to my waist.
“Urgh!”
The sudden brightness stung my eyes a little. Still, it let me see the structure of the space.
The Subspace was a perfectly square room.
It was around six or seven meters wide, long, and high. In other words, the ceiling was absurdly high.
“Huh? What’s this?”
However, there were other objects inside the space. Beyond the dragon egg I had brought in.
There was a desk and two books, while a sword and staff lay beside the desk.
‘It looks like someone used this place.’
For a moment, I wondered if there was another Awakened besides me, but I soon shook my head.
The objects here all looked far removed from anything modern.
“What language is this?”
The writing on the book covers was unfamiliar at a glance. They looked like objects from some medieval era.
Even the paper was made from a material I did not recognize.
“What’s this? A lantern?”
There was something like a lantern on the desk. What was unusual was that a magic stone had been set into it in place of a candle.
The moment I touched it, mana suddenly drained away, and the lantern lit up.
“A mana lamp?”
I knew that mana-powered flashlights existed for Awakened.
But this was different from a modern one. I turned my gaze to the sword and the staff beside it.
[Windflow Sword (D-Grade)]
-A sword used by Curio, the Swordmaster of Bogtan known as the ‘Wind God’, in Curio’s youth.
-The power of wind dwells within the sword.
-If Strength and Agility are 15 or higher, Wind Cleave (Lv. 1) can be used.
[Advanced Red Mage Tower Staff (D-Grade)]
-A staff crafted by the Red Mage Tower.
-Increases mana efficiency when using magic.
-If the Mana stat is 15 or higher, the Mana stat increases by 3.
“……?”
I immediately recognized that this sword and staff were extraordinary. As a rule, D-Grade equipment cost at least tens of millions, going up to hundreds of millions.
What about a sword that could use a skill and a staff that raised stats? That meant they were worth even more.
Those items were in my Subspace. I did not know why they were here. But I knew one thing.
‘I don’t know who left them here, but…….’
They were mine now.
‘This is a jackpot.’
Even if my ability was this space itself, that would have been fine. As someone in the hunter industry, I knew the potential of this space.
But it even had equipment like this?
I did not know why, but this was not a simple inventory. Was that because it was an S-Grade ability?
I wondered what else there might be.
I turned my gaze to the bookshelf.
It was only natural to be curious about the books there. There were only two of them, but the equipment had been D-Grade, after all.
[Basic Swordsmanship of the Svinhood Empire (E-Grade)]
[Red Mage Tower Basic Spellbook (E-Grade)]
“Hmm.”
Perhaps because I had just seen D-Grade equipment, I felt slightly disappointed by the books marked E-Grade.
But in truth, these were quite valuable.
The books Awakened called ‘secret manuals’ appeared in entry-type Gates only at extremely low odds.
Their grades were generally not high, but even low-grade ones were precious.
Ten years had passed since the Gates opened. How much could Earth’s swordsmanship and magic have progressed?
If you learned swordsmanship at a dojo, you would generally end up with F-Grade swordsmanship. There was not even anywhere that properly taught magic.
Moreover, these secret manuals allowed you to acquire knowledge of martial arts or magic simply by reading them, so everyone wanted them.
After looking at the items for a moment, I knew for certain.
I did not know where these items had come from, but they were not from Earth.
The books written in an unknown language, the desk, and the mana lamp all made that clear.
‘What on earth is this?’
There were two books and two pieces of equipment, as though I had been given a choice between the two paths of sword and magic.
I did not know their origin, or the intention of whoever had left them here.
But one thing was certain…….
I had hit the jackpot. Even if I sold just that spellbook and sword, they would be worth at least two billion.
‘……Surviving comes first, though.’
For a moment, discovering the treasures had excited me, but my spirits soon sank.
Jackpot, my ass. It was time to return to reality.
What good was getting a sword and staff that could earn me an enormous amount of money just by selling them?
Outside was not a goblin, an orc, or a troll. It was a dragon.
Learning an E-Grade secret manual would not change the situation. It would be the same even if I had an S-Grade secret manual.
It felt as though the blood in my head had cooled.
‘This isn’t the time.’
Subspace was a special ability. It seemed not only to give me extra space, but also to hold secrets I did not know.
But all of that had value only if I made it out alive.
First, I decided to properly assess my current situation.
All I had was a single canteen tied to my waist and a lump of jerky in my pocket that I had kept as emergency rations.
‘The time…….’
I checked my wristwatch. Roughly six hours remained until the Gate ended.
If I simply stayed here, I could survive easily enough. But one problem remained.
‘What matters is whether time passing inside the Subspace also counts outside.’
Judging by the movement of the second hand on my wristwatch, time seemed to be passing here as well…….
But I could not know whether the outside shared this flow of time.
The thought had suddenly occurred to me because the items inside the Subspace were in far too pristine a condition. There was not even any dust on them.
And the fact that I could not hear the dragon also made it certain that this was a space separated from reality.
There was only one way to confirm it.
Open the door as I had before.
If time was not passing, the dragon that had just entered the lair would be exactly as it had been.
I prepared to open the door to the Subspace very carefully.
‘Just a little. Really, just a little.’
The door responded to my thoughts.
Earlier, I had opened it large enough for one person to pass through, but I could open it smaller than that as well.
WHUMMM—
I opened the door with my focus sharpened to the utmost. Light appeared in the dark space.
Just as I intended, a door a little larger than my fist appeared.
And through the brightened opening, I saw the dragon. It was exactly as I had last seen it.
THUD— THUD— THUD—.
At the same time, the dragon began coming closer. It charged at me, glaring with an enraged face.
It was right there.
“Fuck.”
Tension froze my body for a moment, but I quickly closed the Subspace. Cold sweat streamed down my face.
I took a deep breath and tipped my head back.
“I’m fucked.”
***
Time flowed differently inside and outside the Subspace. In other words, no matter how long I held out here, it was meaningless.
I had acquired good equipment and secret manuals, as well as a Subspace with hidden secrets, but I was still going to die like this.
‘That absolutely can’t happen…!’
I had clawed my way through life tenaciously. I was not just any orphan, but a Gate orphan.
That meant surviving had been truly shitty.
I had been treated like trash and begged, nursed bitterness, and received the kindness of rare good people.
Of course, I had made every effort to awaken.
Despite my lack of money, I had even learned kendo. I took ice-water baths in the dead of winter, and I had even passed out attempting a five-hour sauna challenge.
‘It didn’t work, though.’
Even so, I had not given up. I had lived as a porter while hoping that I would awaken someday.
And then, I had finally awakened—the awakening I had dreamed of.
Give up just because there was a slightly powerful reptile?
That was out of the question.
I could not die like this, if only because it would be too unfair.
‘If I’m going to die, I should at least do what I need to do first.’
Would I not have no regrets if I planted a knife in the monster that killed my parents at least once before I died?
But unlike my resolve, the answer did not come easily.
I thought hard for a long time, but I could not see a way out. Open it only one second at a time, so the dragon could not react?
How many seconds were there in six hours?
I calculated for a moment, then shook my head.
It was impossible. There was too much time left. The dragon would be far stronger and more agile than me.
‘Even if I open it just a little, if it fires its breath, I’ll die.’
After agonizing over it for a long time, I flopped down onto the floor of the Subspace in frustration. My head felt hot.
“Damn it.”
Had I thought too much? My mind felt stiff, and it would not work properly.
As I sighed again and turned my head slightly, I saw the dragon egg. At that moment, lightning struck my mind.
Wait a second.
Could I survive with that?
.
.
.
I thought over the idea that had come to mind. Of course, it was not anything grand.
The plan was simple.
First, I would open the Subspace as before, only as wide as my fist.
Second, I would place the dragon egg in front of that fist-sized opening to the Subspace.
Because the dragon egg was large, it would not be able to get out of the Subspace. Unless the dragon intended to break its own egg, that was.
What kind of madman would kill his own child to catch the person who kidnapped it?
It would not be able to do that. It would have to face off against the blackmailer.
‘Mana won’t be a problem, either.’
Opening the Subspace consumed mana, but that was fine. I could close the door and recover my mana inside the Subspace.
That meant I had plenty of time to rest.
I also had a bottle of water and jerky. It would take longer than six hours because I had to rest, but it was enough to hold out.
‘Am I a genius?’
I had not been educated because I was a Gate orphan, but I seemed to have had a good head on my shoulders since I was young.
However, this plan had a flaw as well. What if that dragon egg could withstand the dragon’s breath?
[Red Dragon’s Egg]
-An egg from a dragon that is close to hatching.
-Heat is required for hatching.
If an egg that needed heat for hatching could withstand the dragon’s breath, I would burn to death in the flames coming through the tiny gap.
I had heard that burning to death was the most painful way to die…….
That was the only thing I was worried about.
But there was no other way left.
If I remained inside, I would starve to death.
‘If I’m going to die anyway, I might as well try.’
It could have been a needless worry. If heat was needed for hatching, the dragon would have used its breath rather than brooding over the egg.
I remembered the breath that had melted the forest. There was a high chance that the egg would melt, too.
Steeling myself, I grabbed the dragon egg and prepared to open the door to the Subspace.
I held the egg in my left hand and the Windflow Sword in my right.
‘I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to use it, but…….’
Just holding it made me feel more at ease. Phew. I took a deep breath.
And I opened the door to the Subspace.
Just as before, I focused.
At the bottom of the space, a door slowly began to open. As cold sweat trickled down my face, I swallowed. GULP!
-GRRRRR!
A low roar rumbled through the air. The dragon was right before the open door. Those terrifying reptilian eyes glared at me.
I hurriedly placed the dragon egg in front of the entrance to the Subspace and pressed it down firmly with my left hand.
THUD—! THUD—!
Because the egg was oval, it could not completely block the entrance. There was a gap of about one centimeter.
Through that gap, I felt deafening sounds and faint vibrations. But they were not impacts striking the egg.
I had found a way.
I gritted my teeth and shouted.
“I’ve got your kid! Huh? Try attacking me!”
It was the sort of line a third-rate villain taking hostages would say.