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Chapter 193: The Miracle Healer (7)
The first impression Oscar had upon entering the subspace was: "incomprehensible."
He couldn’t quite say why.
This space made entirely of white might have been monotonous, yes—but hardly incomprehensible.
“……”
Everywhere he looked, the space was white.
Even when he focused his mana into his eyes, nothing changed.
And strangely enough, there were no shadows cast anywhere.
‘What a ridiculous place.’
Oscar jumped high on the spot a few times and nodded to himself.
‘Gravity feels the same as reality, and sound works just fine too.’
It felt like a blank canvas.
An endlessly pure space, untouched by anyone’s hands.
“……”
There was a faint tickle in his chest.
It felt like he could draw something on this canvas, but… there just weren’t the right tools yet.
With a casual shrug, he sat down cross-legged on the spot.
He’d told Fran that he was going off for training, but he didn’t actually plan on doing anything grand here.
What he truly needed right now was the stabilization of his mana circuits.
And even that was being handled just by sitting still, thanks to his "Oscar-style breathing technique."
In other words, he came here purely to buy time.
‘This is a second-layer subspace, where time flows 100 times faster than in the real world.’
A week in reality translated to 700 days here—just shy of two years.
That should be more than enough to stabilize his fifth and even sixth mana circuits.
“Looking forward to working with you.”
Oscar greeted the white space where no one was listening, and slowly closed his eyes, falling into meditation.
* * *
A month had passed since he entered subspace.
Life here wasn’t exactly painful, but it was definitely boring.
‘Guess it’s about time I start running.’
To stave off boredom, Oscar made a rigid daily routine and followed it strictly.
“Huff, huff…”
From morning till noon (by outside-world standards), he ran nonstop.
One good thing about this place was that, with no roads, he could just run forward aimlessly.
“Hah, hah…”
After sprinting at full speed for 3 hours and 12 minutes, his stamina would be completely drained—almost unbelievably so.
When he first got here, he could only last 2 hours and 46 minutes, so his stamina had clearly improved.
“Clean.”
Afterward, he used magic to clean his dirty body and clothes.
Then he’d eat a bit of the rations and water he’d brought, and sit in meditation.
“……”
This part mainly involved image training.
Specifically, battle scenarios.
The enemies he summoned were mostly demons he’d encountered in his past life.
‘Hmm. With my current body, I can barely handle baron-level demons.’
Ironically, demons followed a nobility hierarchy similar to humans.
Out of the countless demons out there, only those starting from baron rank received a “name.”
Barons were about level 6 in human terms—not exactly terrifying powerhouses.
‘If that’s my limit, then viscount-level demons—around level 7—are still too much for me.’
If he was willing to risk death, maybe he could take them.
But he had no guarantee of victory.
He didn’t stop virtual battles after winning once.
He repeated them over and over, trying to find the most efficient way to kill the enemy.
In this process, Oscar rediscovered the joy of training.
‘How long has it been since I could focus on training without a single worry?’
At least since entering this body, this was a first.
He’d always lived under pressure and time constraints.
Not just in this life—even in his previous one, the last few years were too hectic to allow for this kind of time.
Looking back, it had probably been over 10 years since he last trained like this.
‘This place isn’t bad. Quiet too.’
He’d definitely come back if he ever got the chance again.
Time passed, and eventually, exactly half a year had gone by since he’d entered the subspace.
“Huff, huff…”
Now, it took at least four hours of sprinting before he hit his limit.
His image training had also improved.
Just a few days ago, his fifth circuit had stabilized, and now baron-level demons were easy to handle.
‘…The more time passes, the more finely tuned everything feels.’
Since entering young Oscar’s body, he hadn’t felt any particular discomfort.
If he had, he would’ve dealt with it first above all else.
But with this long and focused training, he finally realized something—
There had been a subtle misalignment between thought and action.
‘Better to realize it late than never.’
At least now, that error no longer existed.
Oscar was completely immersed in the joy of getting stronger—he lost all sense of time.
And just like that, the day he realized it had been 682 days since entering this place arrived.
“Hoo…”
Oscar let out a long, thin breath.
Finally, today, his sixth mana circuit had fully stabilized.
He smiled without even meaning to.
‘Beautiful.’
Even to his own eyes, it looked less like a mana circuit and more like a work of art.
Not just visually impressive, but functionally—
It was the ultimate form that any mage would dream of, optimized for maximum efficiency.
‘It’s a bit earlier than I planned, but I’ve achieved everything I set out to do. Maybe it’s time to head back?’
What he’d accomplished here was no small feat.
His stamina had increased greatly, and both his body and circuits had been optimized.
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The moment Oscar stood up with a refreshed mind, his eyes narrowed as he looked forward.
‘…What’s this?’
It was a strange sensation that hadn't been present in this space just moments ago.
A feeling of complexity.
The same indescribable complexity he had felt the first time he stepped into this subspace.
Only now, it was much more vivid and distinct.
To find the reason, Oscar drew upon his magic.
“Scan.”
Vwoooong!
The wave of mana radiated out from him, rushing through the white space in an instant.
And in the next moment, a strange expression crossed his face.
“Huh?”
Just moments ago, this space had been completely empty.
But now, the scanning spell was detecting an uncountable number of something.
As Oscar looked around with eyes imbued with mana,
he shivered without meaning to.
“…!”
He was overwhelmed by the visual information pouring into his eyes.
More precisely, overwhelmed by the countless threads that now filled his field of vision.
‘Those are… spatial threads?’
The moment he saw them, he understood.
How could he not?
Those threads were the very mediums used to manipulate spatial magic, which he had learned from Master Ado.
Looking more closely, each thread was trembling with its own unique frequency.
‘They’re all different.’
At first glance, they looked the same—but not a single one shared the same frequency.
What would happen if he pulled one?
After a brief hesitation, Oscar gulped and carefully tugged on one of the countless threads.
RIIIP!
A tear opened in the previously empty space, revealing a rift.
Through that rift, he saw—surprisingly—a beach with waves crashing against the shore.
‘No way…’
Oscar cautiously stepped through the rift in space.
The salty sea breeze hit his nose, and—screech, screech—
the loud cries of seagulls echoed in his ears.
“…”
Oscar stood there, dazed, for a long while.
He didn’t know exactly where this place was, but one thing was clear:
‘This is the ocean.’
Just moments ago, he had been in subspace.
Before that, he had been in the capital city, Caldium, at the heart of the continent.
Which meant… he had been thousands of kilometers away from the ocean.
Oscar approached a child playing in the sand and asked:
“Hey kid, sorry, but can you tell me where this is?”
“Huh?”
The child blinked at him curiously before replying.
“This is Barbara Beach.”
“Barbara Beach? You mean the one in the south?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Oscar turned around with a blank expression.
‘So I really traveled all the way from the capital to the southern edge of the continent in an instant?’
Of course, he had used up a fair amount of mana in the process.
Roughly one-tenth of his vast magical reserves were gone in an instant.
‘But still…’
This was spatial travel.
And not just a short-range blink, but long-distance teleportation across the entire continent.
“Thanks.”
Oscar ruffled the kid’s hair with enthusiasm.
“Hey! Quit that!”
When the child frowned and looked up—
Oscar was already gone.
* * *
Back in subspace, Oscar couldn’t contain his excitement.
This once-baffling white space now looked entirely different to him.
‘Finally, I think I’m starting to understand this space a little.’
Obviously, a place made entirely of white couldn’t exist in the real world.
Which meant this space existed somewhere beyond reality.
‘It exists everywhere, and yet nowhere at all.’
To put it simply, subspace was a gap between spaces.
That’s why it could be used as a kind of transit station, like it had just been.
Now, Oscar understood why he had instinctively found this place so complex at first.
‘Each of those countless threads must be connected to different locations in the world.’
Teleportation using the spell Blink was possible too,
but its range was limited to a few hundred meters at best.
To travel such an enormous distance using Blink would require unimaginable mana—
even consuming every magical herb on the continent for a lifetime probably wouldn’t be enough.
‘But if I use subspace as a transit stop in the middle, it becomes possible.’
And he could save a massive amount of mana doing it.
As Oscar wandered the space, he thought:
‘Did Master Ado know about this method?’
He must have.
After all, even history books mentioned that Master Ado could appear and vanish like a ghost.
‘…But then why didn’t he teach me?’
Was it because he was only a 4th-tier mage at the time and too early to learn this?
Or… did Master Ado believe Oscar would be able to figure it out on his own?
Oscar tilted his head, then looked up.
‘Originally, I planned to leave now that my circuits are stabilized, but…’
His mind had changed.
At the very least, he needed to figure out roughly where each of those threads led.
Oscar checked the time.
‘About 18 days left here… which is roughly 4 hours outside.’
Whether he left now or later, it didn’t make much difference.
Lifting his gaze, Oscar looked at the countless threads again, eyes gleaming.
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