Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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117. Heuji’s Labyrinth 4th Floor Path of Darkness (4)

Olive was feeling hurt when she suddenly slapped her own cheek.

Smack!

“No! Get it together, Olive! The god might have told us to go that way!”

“Eek.”

Ralph’s shoulders shrank as Olive slapped her cheek so hard, but a smile returned to her face.

“The Labyrinth God told us to take the Path of Darkness? Is that it? Huh?”

“Didn’t you say that the harder, more difficult, and more troublesome the path, the greater the reward?”

“I did say that.”

“Then this time we should take the Path of Darkness.”

“Why?”

Serena unfolded the magic map and displayed the 15th Floor layout.

“I don’t know if you saw it, but there are two giant crystals on the 15th Floor.”

Two crystals were conveniently drawn on the map as Serena explained.

“One is light and one is darkness. When we only walked the Path of Light, only the light crystal reacted and the darkness crystal didn’t respond.”

“Hmm.”

“We’ve only traveled the Path of Darkness so far. If the pure darkness we had gets clouded when light mixes in on the 14th Floor, what do you think will happen?”

“That’s bad.”

Ying immediately picked up on Serena’s words.

When the classical and cool-looking beautiful woman spoke expressionlessly, it sounded very serious.

“Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case?”

“I’m not finished talking yet.”

“There’s more? Huh?”

Olive seemed to be halfway convinced already, but Serena decided to drive the point home.

“Did you calculate the ratio of area that light and darkness occupy in the picture? You can’t tell at a glance, but when you calculate it, the proportion of the two is exactly half. So what if we move from the 11th Floor maintaining a 1:1 ratio of light and darkness to reach the 14th Floor? Wouldn’t that be harder, more difficult, and more troublesome?”

In return, the reward would be that much better too.

Olive opened her olive-colored eyes wide and looked at the Princess.

“Princess! How can you think of something so terrible? Huh? That’s not a strategy a person would think of!”

Of course. It was a strategy you’d only think of in a game.

A dungeon where you calculate the proportion of light and darkness?

Then focusing on one side to clear it twice, and matching it 1:1 to clear the dungeon once more was common sense(?) for those who dig deep into games.

Olive took the magic map and examined it from the 11th Floor layout, calculating routes, then trembled.

“It works! It really works! We can do half light and half darkness and hit the crystals as shown in the picture!”

“Then this time.”

“We’ll take the Path of Darkness and try the half-and-half next time.”

Tomorrow’s strategy plan was decided.

The party looked into each other’s eyes to boost their motivation and leaned against the wall to sleep for tomorrow, resting their tired bodies.

The next day. After filling up on sugar with honey-preserved jerky, the group reviewed their strategy before going down to the 14th Floor.

“Remember how we were chased by a horde of monsters on the 14th Floor and frantically ran down the stairs? Right?”

“Yes. The same thing will probably happen this time too.”

“The problem is that undead are scarier when there are many of them. Everyone knows that undead get stronger the more there are, right?”

It’s common sense that any monster becomes more dangerous in large numbers.

It’s a universal law that holds true even in other worlds – there’s no match for a group beating.

However, the more undead there were, the stronger their species'(?) unique negative energy became.

There are records of the morale emitted by an undead legion commanded by a famous lich being felt even from villages across mountains.

“Fortunately, the Princess’s magic works well on those bone bags. When they explode, they collapse in heaps and it takes time to reassemble. So here, we’ll protect the Princess from stray attacks while blasting magic when necessary as we proceed.”

Olive stood on her tiptoes and put her arm around Ralph’s shoulder.

“Knight, you must protect the Princess first no matter what. Zero and I will dodge well on our own.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Zero, just do what you do best.”

The archer armed with crossbow and longbow nodded.

Finally, the guide looked at the Princess.

“Princess~ I trust your judgment and wit, but~ when being chased, you might get frantic and start firing magic everywhere. First, hide well behind the knight and only use magic when I signal.”

“Understood.”

“If the Princess really thinks it’s dangerous, you can use it. If the knight thinks it’s dangerous, carry the Princess and run to the stairs.”

Olive made the party memorize the locations of stairs going from Heuji’s Labyrinth 14th Floor to the 13th Floor and trap locations.

“The locations of descending stairs can change, so it’s better to memorize the way up!”

Having an experienced labyrinth explorer plan battle strategies and provide retreat methods was truly reassuring.

Serena was grateful that such an experienced labyrinth explorer had come to visit Heuji.

It was actually Richard’s contribution, but let’s ignore the patricidal murderer.

“Let’s go!”

Serena and the assault team stealthily descended to the 14th Floor.

The monster horde that had chased the group when they previously tackled the 14th Floor was scattered throughout the 14th Floor.

Hitting the crystal would eventually expose their location, but it was better to be chased after hitting at least one rather than being chased from the start.

Since the guide’s words were correct, the group moved toward the location of the first crystal while suppressing their presence as much as possible, but.

Cluck!

Screech!

They were immediately discovered by a passing Labyrinth Chicken and a goblin riding on the chicken.

Screeech!

The goblin didn’t attack alone but summoned nearby kin.

An arrow flew and lodged in the center of the goblin’s forehead as it called for friends at the top of its lungs.

The dead goblin fell from the Labyrinth Chicken.

The Labyrinth Chicken that lost its rider cried noisily “cluck-cluck-cluck” and flapped in place.

“Why do we get discovered right after coming down!”

‘Sorry, it’s because of me.’

When will this damn curse finally lose its effect?

Serena desperately hoped the curse would lose its power after clearing the 6th Floor.

Despite having the shortest legs in the group, Olive ran the fastest and struck the crystal.

Clang-.

The light disappeared and the labyrinth’s eerie darkness descended.

A pile of bones appeared where the Labyrinth Chicken had vanished.

The bones rattled and assembled quickly, becoming a Skeleton Labyrinth Chicken and goblin.

The undead’s ominous glow shot hatred and hostility as it searched for living beings.

“Lower your eyes. You’re just fake corpses.”

A silver-plated axe smashed the skull of a skeleton that was still assembling.

But there wasn’t just one monster.

Clatter clatter. The sound of bone feet stepping on stone floor began to be heard.

The morale and negative energy emitted by the undead put the group’s nerves on edge.

Serena, sensitive to magic power, felt nauseous. Gripping her staff tightly calmed her down.

“We were discovered from the start, so what do we do now?”

“What do we do?”

Olive shrugged her shoulders.

“Run!”

Traps don’t activate on the Path of Darkness.

When the guide started running, the group hurriedly followed behind.

***

“Princess, magic to the left center!”

Boom!

“Behind! Right behind!”

Boom!

“Cast magic in front and break through!”

Boom!

The more they struck the crystal, the wider the area of darkness spread, increasing the number of undead monsters.

With undead monsters swarming from the entire 14th floor, the moving bones now completely packed the labyrinth corridors.

If skeletons had jobs, rush hour would probably look like this.

Fortunately, with no proper commander to give orders, the undead stupidly tangled bone against bone and got stuck against walls, unable to move properly.

“Haha! Idiots!”

“They’re really stupid!”

The Guide and Knight excitedly mocked the brainless bones.

But what’s good about undead? They can still move even when cut in half.

Despite being unable to move among themselves, the skeleton’s body collapsed as it charged straight ahead to attack the living.

Then hands, feet, and heads crawled or rolled around, approaching to attack the living.

“Ugh, disgusting things!”

Ralph protected Serena, while Olive stepped forward to smash the bones that tried to leap up from the floor or crawl over their bodies.

Whoosh!

The skeletons came in various types – those that shot poison darts, those that fired arrows, and even shamans that cast fireballs and curses.

Ralph blocked the incoming poison darts and arrows with his shield.

Serena, held in Ralph’s arms, felt nauseous even when gripping her staff, dry heaving every time she cast magic.

“What I desire is, urp.”

“Princess! Are you alright?”

“Ugh, an explosion to blow away enemies.”

Boom!

Serena endured her throbbing head and churning stomach, casting a mana explosion in the direction the party needed to go.

The skeletons’ joint connections weakened, turning them into a bone graveyard.

“The path is clear! Let’s go quickly!”

Ralph carried Serena with one arm, deliberately putting force into his legs to crush the bones piled on the floor as he advanced.

Seeing the fleeing party, a Goblin Shaman clattered its jawbone while chanting a spell.

Not just one, but five gathered together chanting the same spell simultaneously, causing mana to gather and clump, doubling the power.

‘That’s dangerous!’

She had to stop it before the spell was completed.

As Serena hurriedly tried to cast attack magic, bile rose from her stomach.

As she forced it down and tried to continue, she heard the archer’s voice, which was rarely heard.

“Leave it to me.”

Ying stopped and drew her bowstring.

Ying’s arrows never missed, but they had little effect on skeletons that didn’t stop even with holes in their bones.

‘I have to do something somehow…’

While being carried by Ralph and trying to concentrate somehow, Serena saw an arrow leaving the bowstring.

The arrow that left without even leaving an afterimage hit the center of the group of Skeleton Goblin Shamans chanting spells together.

One arrow alone couldn’t stop the skeletons’ joint spell, but.

When the power of darkness dwelt within it, the story changed.

Around where the arrow hit, a dense darkness spread even within the darkness.

Dark waves rippled out from Ying’s arrow as the center, and all skeletons within range collapsed.

The fallen skeletons could not rise again.

When Serena looked at the archer with surprised eyes, the archer put her index finger to her lips.

“Zero! What are you doing, not coming quickly!”

The position where the arrow flew was outside the lantern’s illumination, so Olive didn’t notice the undead massacre(?) that occurred in the distance.

“In the darkness, my arrows do not miss.”

“Instead of wasting arrows shooting at bones, just punch them!”

This archer was incredibly strong.

Ying obediently followed Olive’s words, moving forward to smash bones with her fists.

“The stairs! We’re here!”

The stair location was the same as when they went down to the 15th floor.

The party rushed frantically into the stairs. As they stepped on the stairs, the undead legion no longer pursued them.

“Ugh, let’s rest a bit, on the stairs.”

“Please drink some water.”

Serena drank water as Ralph suggested, then vomited it all up.

The ominous aura of the undead interfered with her internal mana, making her feel disgusting and terrible, like bugs crawling under her skin.

‘Damn. I keep thinking of mom.’

The ominous energy forced unpleasant memories to surface.

The purple hair that flowed down while vomiting was bothersome to her eyes.

Serena couldn’t tie up her hair that had fallen while vomiting, so she gathered and held it with her hand.

Then something that felt like bandages, not human skin or leather, touched the Princess’s hand.

When she released her grip on her hair, Ying gathered and tied Serena’s loose hair.

And Serena’s stomach felt comfortable.

‘I got better as soon as Ying’s hand touched me.’

Since it would be strange if her condition suddenly improved, Serena continued pretending to vomit.

Ying left and Ralph’s hand patted Serena’s back.

“Are you alright?”

“I vomited everything, so I’m fine now.”

“Here’s honey water.”

“Thank you, Sir Ralph.”

‘Thank you, Ying.’

Serena deliberately drank the light honey water with little honey added while giving Ying a grateful look.

Ying glanced at Serena and maintained her bow.

‘It would be really nice if you’d use your power openly instead of hiding it.’

When Ying imbued her arrow with the power of darkness to annihilate the undead, Serena saw it clearly.

The empty star above Ying’s head that suddenly filled with color.

At that moment, Ying was a brilliant 5-star.

‘Ying’s problem wasn’t equipment, but mindset.’

How could she persuade the Loyal Servant of Darkness to fully demonstrate her true abilities?

Serena drank her honey water while looking at the archer who had turned back into a 4-star with the yellow color drained away.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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