The Lich's Subspace Becomes Mine
The interior was a medieval castle. More than half the outer walls had collapsed, and most of the inner buildings lay in ruins. Yet one small stone structure inside the inner walls still stood intact, its form untouched amid the surrounding destruction.
Elly gazed at the building and spoke. “The residual mana density is higher here. The internal concentration is more stable than outside. The structure resembles a small outpost from Elderium.”
“An outpost?” Arin tilted her head.
“Traces of civilization’s use. And signs of deliberate destruction.”
As we approached the building, I noticed inscriptions carved deep into the stone walls—not mere decoration, but integrated into the structure itself. Arin studied them for a moment before shaking her head.
“The meanings are fragmented. Destruction, protection, sealing… similar concepts repeat. More like functional markers than actual language.”
I ran my eyes over the etched lines. They hadn’t been made to be read.
“No ‘open’ command here.”
“It’s meant to keep things out,” Arin said, blinking once. “So… we’d need magic to unseal it—”
“No need for that.”
I channeled mana into my sword, forming a mana blade, and struck straight through the central inscription. The stone door split with a metallic ring and toppled inward.
Elly spoke first. “A lich. A mage who refused to accept death. Destroying the body might not be enough.”
At that moment, the skeleton’s jaw clicked. “Kek… kekekek… A human, after thousands of years….”
I frowned. “What’s it saying? Looks like it’s been waiting a long time.”
Arin tilted her head. “It says it hasn’t seen a human in ages. Seems quite pleased.”
The lich raised its staff. “Offer me your life force. For my experiments—”
“What now?”
“Hmm….” Arin cocked her head. “It wants to play with you.”
“What?” I looked back at the lich. “Is this skull-headed bastard insane?”
The lich chuckled low. “I shall claim your body and live eternally—”
“What’s it saying this time?”
“It wants your body.”
“……”
A wave of revulsion and fury surged through me. “That perverted skull bastard.”
The lich paused. “You there, fire spirit. What did that human just say?”
Arin narrowed her eyes. “Can you see me?”
The lich’s eye sockets flashed. “Both you and the water spirit laughing over there are clearly visible.”
“Higher-ranked than expected,” I muttered.
“Tell me what that human said. I couldn’t understand the words, but it was deeply unpleasant!”
Arin glanced at me and replied calmly, “He called you a perverted skull bastard and said he’s going to kill you.”
“What?! Perverted?!” The lich’s mana flared violently. “Calling a noble existence perverted! You… insignificant wretches who deserve to be ground to dust! I’ll make sure you can’t even twitch!”
Mana gathered at the tip of its staff.
“Arin.” I bared my teeth. “What did it say this time?”
Arin smiled. “It says it wants to hurry up and play with your body.”
“……”
Another surge of disgust and rage rose within me. “That damned bag of bones.”
I gripped my sword, flooding it with mana, and charged forward at full speed.
The lich raised its staff. The space ahead warped black as dark magic erupted. Arin and Elly reacted instantly—flames and water overlapped to form a barrier that clashed with the darkness. A deafening roar echoed as the impact rebounded.
I didn’t miss the opening. Wrapping mana around my body, I kicked off the ground and shot forward. In an instant the distance closed. Dark orbs grazed past me as I drove straight in. Psychokinesis seized the skeleton’s body, halting its bones midair with a rattle.
“Now.”
Still holding the lich with psychokinesis, I swung my sword. Horizontal slash across the neck, followed by vertical cuts. The skull shattered and scattered, yet black mana boiled up and the broken bones began reassembling.
“Kekekek… Not bad for a human. But it’s useless.”
The lich hurled dark orbs in rapid succession and raised a dark shield. I activated Flash Step, dodging what I could and slicing through the rest with my mana blade. The black mana dispersed, clearing my view, and psychokinesis yanked the skeleton forward again—more violently this time. I cleaved through its torso, then leapt atop the fallen bones, raining mana-infused punches. Dull impacts and the sound of shattering bone rang out repeatedly. I didn’t stop, stomping down until the cracked skull was crushed flat against the floor.
Even then, it didn’t feel finished. Black light began boiling between the broken bones once more. The shattered skeleton regenerated at terrifying speed. The moment its form restored, the lich used Blink and vanished, reappearing at a distance before launching another attack.
Space in front of me suddenly warped and split like a blade. I twisted reflexively, avoiding a fatal strike, but razor-sharp mana fragments grazed my side. I barely held on with psychokinesis and mana, yet pain followed a moment later as blood sprayed from the wound.
“Jihoon!” Elly reacted at once. Water infused with cold energy covered the injury. The chilling sensation pressed against the burning flesh, and the torn sensation gradually subsided. The bleeding stopped and the wound began closing at a slow but steady pace.
Irritation flared. Then Elly nearly shouted, “Jihoon, the gem embedded in its staff—something’s wrong with it. That looks like a life vessel.”
“What did that water spirit say?!” the lich snarled.
“Shut up!” Arin snapped back. “Jihoon, she’s right. It’s treating the staff like a treasure, and it flinched when Elly looked at it! The gem on its staff! That’s what we need to target.”
I surged forward without hesitation, seizing the lich’s body with psychokinesis and slamming it into the ceiling, then the floor—again and again. Before it could recover, I severed its wrist, snatched the staff, and drove it into the ground, crushing the gem beneath the blade.
—Crack!
The gem only dented. Gritting my teeth, I poured more mana into a mana blade and struck with all my strength.
—Shatter!
The gem exploded into fragments. Red energy burst outward as the lich screamed in agony, its skeletal form slowly dissolving.
“Aaaagh! To die… at the hands of such a foolish, arrogant human…!”
Silence fell. I watched the remains, checking whether the lich would rise again. Arin mimicked its voice with a pitiful expression. “Aah, what a shame. I wanted to play with you and pet you—apparently.”
I let out a hollow laugh and shuddered. I rubbed my arms without thinking. “I’ll pass on that hobby.”
Behind us, Elly finally burst into laughter she could no longer hold back.
I looked at the spot where the lich had fallen. A red light slowly rose from the remains, and a Dungeon Core emerged from the shattered bones, floating in midair and pulsing with a dull crimson glow.
“Been a while.”
I reached out and grasped it without hesitation. Absorption began.
At first it felt familiar—mana flowing into my body, a simple sensation of growing stronger. Then, the next moment, my head felt like it was splitting open.
“Ugh…!”
My vision warped. An unknown language embedded itself into my mind, structure first rather than meaning. Magic formulas, spell arrays, and subspace coordinates flooded in all at once.
“Aaaagh—!”
I couldn’t stay upright. Information and pain crashed over me simultaneously, my mind overflowing until it teetered on the edge of overload. My body wouldn’t hold. I clenched my teeth and activated the Harmony Heart Method, drawing up the lower mana holes around the central one and rotating the energies in both hands at once. I forced the opposing flows to mesh, channeling excess from one side to the other, containing the surge while still growing stronger.
Only after a long while did the headache subside. My mind cleared and my mana stabilized. Confirming absorption was complete, I exhaled roughly.
Arin approached. “Jihoon. Your energy feels much denser than before.”
Elly nodded. “I feel it too. The density has changed.”
I sank to the floor, leaning my back against the wall to catch my breath. Then one piece of unorganized information surfaced in my consciousness—a coordinate hidden among the lich’s magical memories. A subspace coordinate.
I immediately raised my mana and aligned the flow with that coordinate. Once the pressure stabilized, space opened and its internal structure registered in my mind.
Inside were far more items than I’d expected. Piles of unorganized mana stones—dozens of B-rank or higher mixed together. Metal boxes contained spirit stones, magical catalysts, and unidentifiable goods and equipment jumbled together.
“Whoa….” Arin clicked her tongue. “This is basically a personal vault.”
“Elderium-style storage,” Elly said quietly. “Common among mages who lost their territories.”
I stared at the contents in silence. The lich’s memories overlapped faintly. This space had been his. The final insurance he’d gathered over centuries and hidden for his survival. And now—
“It’s mine.”
I pushed my mana deeper. The sensation of the subspace’s ownership transferring reached me. There was almost no resistance. The lich’s will had already vanished; only the space itself remained, operating on habit.
I opened the subspace fully. It was far larger than I’d imagined—more like an airplane hangar, with items piled haphazardly. Equipment, items, gold ornaments, and jewels had been tossed about like luggage. When I dumped out the spirit stones piled in one corner, the sheer quantity rolling across the floor was considerable.
“Take whatever suits you,” I told the spirits. Arin and Elly exchanged glances, then moved without a word. Their selection criteria seemed simple: the feel of the mana resonance upon touch and the stone’s stability. They each stored their chosen spirit stones aside and returned the rest to the subspace.
Next came the items and equipment. I laid everything out on the floor. Though their exact functions were unknown, Arin and Elly could roughly assess condition just by holding them. Those with clear, stable mana were set aside; the rest went back into the subspace. I’d need to buy appraisal scrolls later for proper identification.
Strangely, I could faintly sense the purpose of the magic inscribed on the items—what they were meant to do. Looking at the organized goods in the subspace, I felt an inexplicable sense of fulfillment. For a brief moment, alongside the joy, I even felt grateful to that perverted lich.
Blink and other spatial magic were still beyond me. I hadn’t fully grasped the lich’s language, and the mana circuits etched in my mind remained intricately tangled. But the subspace was different. Storage, retrieval, concealment—this function suited me perfectly right now.
I closed the subspace and looked around once more. The dungeon hadn’t collapsed yet. Absorbing the core didn’t mean immediate destruction; it would take a little more time.
“Let’s head out for now.”
“We’ve taken everything we need,” Arin said with a nod. Elly gave the space one final adjustment.
As we walked toward the gate, I felt certain of one thing. I was still far from mastering all spatial magic, but with just this subspace, I had clearly stepped into a different realm than before. And this was only the beginning.
Stepping through the gate, the forest air wrapped around me once more. Feeling an odd sense of liberation, I left the break region behind. I got into the parked car, drove straight home, asked Elly to clean my equipment and body, and collapsed into sleep.