Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 126

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

126. Mimic Field (2)

While the Princess was distracted by her conversation with the Guide, the Alchemist and Knight investigated whether the chests were mimics or actual chests.

Both possessed remarkable concentration, but the victor was Count Landriole the Alchemist, who had cool intellect, reason, and extensive knowledge across various fields.

“I’ve got it! That chest over there and this chest are treasure chests, and all the rest are mimics!”

“Correct answer, Count!”

“Ugh! I was too late.”

Ralph, who had found one but failed to discover the other, looked dejected and regretted his defeat.

“As a reward, Count gets the chance to open both treasure chests! Waaah! Congratulations, congratulations!”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

If there had been just one mimic, he would have let others handle it for experience, but with mimics densely positioned everywhere.

Olive entered the stone chamber alone and began eliminating the mimics closest to her.

The mimics couldn’t even dare to try swallowing the approaching Guide and had to watch their kin die while waiting for their turn.

“Alright~ I left some distant mimics for Knight and Princess to handle! Hey! Maintain safe distance!”

Ralph remembered the mimic hunting method the Guide had shown before.

The Knight followed the Guide’s approach.

However, unable to move as stealthily as the Guide, he was spotted by the mimic while trying to get behind it and had to retreat without striking the weak point.

“Ugh.”

“That was dangerous~ You need to stab the weak point from behind when the mimic doesn’t notice you. Hey. Wait a bit and try again.”

At least Ralph was quick enough to dodge the mimic’s attacks.

Serena wasn’t confident she could avoid a mimic’s attack.

‘Can’t I attack from range?’

Serena maintained a safe distance and observed the mimic, trying to attack its weak point with magic.

But the mimic wasn’t an easy opponent.

The weak point of chest-type mimics is the hinge area.

Having witnessed its companions’ deaths, the mimic gradually shifted direction and pressed its hinge against the wall.

‘That makes it hard to attack.’

Whether with weapons or magic, it was difficult to target the mimic’s weak point in its current state.

She felt she could defeat it using powerful attack magic, but she didn’t want to do that.

‘It seems wasteful to waste mana on a monster that only needs its weak point struck.’

When she could catch it without expending mana and mental energy, wouldn’t it be wasteful to spam magic?

For reference, Serena was the type who wouldn’t use her best healing potions and consumable attack items even during the final boss battle when gaming, saving them instead.

‘Hmm.’

Serena looked for a way to change the mimic’s direction or find an opening.

Sewage had pooled in the stone chamber as well, lapping at the Princess’s ankle level.

‘I wonder if the rewards inside the treasure chests are okay?’

The Labyrinth’s treasure chests were mysterious chests that could produce rewards larger than the chest itself, so they must be perfectly waterproof.

‘Water, huh.’

Serena had a good idea and cast an ice arrow spell.

“Lady Serena. If you want to attack a mimic without hitting its weak point, you need at least 4th-tier magic.”

“I know that. I have something to experiment with.”

The Princess shot an ice arrow at the floor very close to the mimic.

Even with attack magic flying right next to it, the mimic didn’t budge and held its position.

The water around where the ice arrow struck froze and expanded in volume. Confirming the mimic was slightly lifted, Serena struck the monster’s side with one of her prepared mana bullets.

The mimic, lifted from the floor due to the ice, toppled over sideways more easily than expected.

Serena shot her remaining mana bullet at the mimic’s exposed weak point.

The mimic spread its mouth wide and died.

“It fainted.”

It didn’t die but fainted instead.

Even hitting the weak point, the mana bullet’s power was too weak to kill it in one shot.

Olive, who had been watching for Serena’s safety, threw a dagger to finish off the unconscious mimic.

“Using the surrounding environment to expose the mimic’s weak point. Not bad. Hey. Princess.”

“Truly an appropriate judgment. Lady Serena’s wisdom always amazes me.”

“I ended up subduing mine with brute force! Princess, you’re amazing!”

Since the mimic kept being wary of Ralph, he eventually shoved his shield into the mimic’s mouth and pushed with force to stab its weak point.

From Serena’s perspective, Ralph was more impressive.

The party recovered magic stones from the mimics and gave them all to the Alchemist.

The Alchemist, having collected 20 high-quality magic stones, raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.

“Now that we’ve collected all the magic stones, it’s time for the long-awaited! Treasure chest opening time!”

The two treasure chests in the stone chamber were surprisingly both rare grade.

Olive boasted that they should appreciate her for giving up rare treasure chests.

It was nice to see her trying to restore lost trust.

“All the chests are submerged in dirty water, but will the contents be okay?”

Ralph said exactly what Serena had been wondering.

“They’ll be clean.”

Count Randy explained that the Labyrinth’s mystery worked here too, then looked at the Princess.

“This achievement should rightfully be offered to Lady Serena.”

Count Randy showed the virtue of a retainer offering his earned reward to his lord.

“No. Wasn’t this all the Count’s achievement? It belongs to the Count.”

Serena also confirmed her loyal retainer’s ownership rights as a lord.

Offering and declining. After the tedious courtesy between lord and retainer ended, the Count yielded one chest to Ralph.

“Sir Ralph should open one.”

“Me? But I was slower than you, Count?”

“I don’t have that much more experience than you. Since this test was disadvantageous to you, this is fair.”

“Wow! Is that really okay?”

Ralph asked the others for permission with a beaming smile. Serena, Olive, and Ying all nodded.

“Count, thank you so much!”

“Knight, what do you hope comes out?”

“For ordinary treasure chests, I hoped detergent would come out. But I’m not sure about good treasure chests.”

“You need detergent?”

“Yes.”

Ralph revealed why he needed detergent.

“When we went to the 6th Floor earlier, Lavenda was worried that the smell wouldn’t come out of the clothes even after washing them.”

“Ah.”

Count Randy groaned with self-reproach.

“I only made soap and forgot about detergent. Detergent is fine since I can make it with the materials we have now. I can make it without magic stones or gold coins.”

The Alchemist could create soap and laundry detergent that even the Reincarnated One didn’t know how to make.

Serena felt slightly ashamed as a reincarnated person.

“I see. So detergent was needed.”

Even though he had revived a fallen house, Count Randy was ultimately of noble birth.

While he had knowledge that clothes needed washing, he had no interest in how to actually wash and dry those clothes.

Serena had been equally uninterested in laundry.

“If you had told me, I would have used magic on the laundry as practice for purification magic.”

“No, Lady Serena. That’s not right.”

Count Randy shook his head seriously at the Princess’s statement that wasn’t quite wrong but wasn’t right either.

“From Lavenda’s perspective, it would be more comfortable to ask me than to ask Lady Serena.”

‘Is that so? Well, a Count would be more comfortable than a Princess.’

“I understand. The Count speaks well to her, and since you treat Sir Ralph comfortably, please take care of it.”

“Yes, understood!”

‘I should tell Lavenda that she doesn’t need to be so cautious.’

Lavenda was doing more than her fair share of work. Even if she didn’t charge ahead like Olive, Serena hoped she would confidently voice her opinions as a member of the lobby.

‘But maybe that’s too much of a reincarnated person’s way of thinking.’

Even if Serena was fine with it, other nobles and royalty would find it displeasing.

‘Ah~ I wish only I could be treated as a princess while everyone else was equal~’

The princess, whose soul was half commoner, harbored such absurd thoughts.

From the position of benefiting from the class system, the hierarchy was both convenient and inconvenient, sometimes infuriating.

‘Of course, revolution is out of the question.’

Since she had been reincarnated as a princess, shouldn’t she enjoy the benefits until she died of old age?

She was repeating death for the sake of 100,000 people, so wasn’t she a decent enough royal?

Serena thought in her own convenient way while watching Ralph open the treasure chest.

“Glasses, perhaps? I’m not sure.”

Ralph lifted the item that came out as a reward from the treasure chest.

‘Those are goggles.’

While the shape seemed normal to Serena, Ralph appeared unfamiliar with goggles and sought wisdom from the alchemist.

“They look like safety glasses. Give them to me.”

Count Randy took the goggles from Ralph, held them up to his eyes, and examined them.

“They seem waterproof, and probably block toxic gas too. The lenses look dark but when you actually look through them, they’re not dark and you can see well.”

“Pretty useful~”

As Olive said, they were useful equipment, but it was somewhat disappointing for something that came from a rare-grade chest.

Ralph fiddled with the safety glasses and then held them out to Olive.

“Then I’ll give these to Miss Olive.”

“Me? You’re giving them to me?”

“Yes. You always work hard taking the lead, and this time you saw things you shouldn’t have seen.”

At Ralph’s thoughtful words, Olive covered her mouth with both hands and her eyes welled up with tears.

“Waaah, Knight. I’m really touched. I’m crying. This isn’t spit, these are real tears.”

When Olive showed her moist green olive-colored eyes, Ralph grinned.

“Actually, there are four more.”

The safety glasses in the treasure chest weren’t just one pair.

Ralph took out four more pairs of safety glasses and distributed them to the assault team.

“I prayed for items that would help with the assault, and the Minotaur God even matched the numbers!”

“I can’t believe I was fooled by Knight!”

The Guide staggered, shocked by the fact that she had been deceived by Ralph of all people.

Ralph shook his head vigorously.

“I gave them to Miss Olive first because I thought she had worked the hardest. Otherwise, I would have given them to the Princess first.”

“Even so! What a shock! Yo!”

The safety glasses fit well on Serena’s face even with her eyepatch, blocking external substances.

‘If there are selfish people, there are also altruistic people, and that’s how the world maintains balance.’

Serena expressed her gratitude to the knight with a joyful heart.

Ralph laughed sheepishly, his freckled cheeks turning red.

“Now that we have safety glasses, maybe we don’t need to make face guards…”

“What do you hope will come out, Count?”

“Well. I needed gold and silver, but since Chicken seems likely to provide gold, silver would be good. Metals rarer than silver would also be nice, but right now it’s silver.”

Count Randy stated his hopes and immediately opened the rare-grade treasure chest.

The chest was filled with silver ingots.

“Wow!”

You might have opportunities in life to see jewelry worn by nobles and pouches full of silver and gold coins.

But it’s not common to see a chest packed full of silver ingots.

Ralph’s mouth fell open.

“In stories and plays, there’s supposed to be light shining around at times like this, but there isn’t.”

“Gold and silver aren’t lamps, so they don’t shine by themselves. They only reflect light.”

Count Randy moved the silver ingots into his spatial bag with a pleased expression.

Since the silver ingots were quite heavy and there were many of them, everyone stepped forward to help.

“Wow~ As expected, once you pass the 20th floor, the rewards are generous.”

Olive picked up a silver ingot and was delighted, then became serious.

“Though it’s excessively generous for just a 21st floor reward. Yo. It’s because this is 8th grade, right?”

The Guide erased her playful smile and muttered with a serious face.

“There were rumors going around the Empire that an 8th grade labyrinth had been conquered. I thought it was just a false rumor because the content was so unbelievable, but it was real.”

“What kind of rumor was it?”

“Don’t even ask. Yo. An unknown labyrinth explorer conquered an 8th grade labyrinth all by himself. The Empire’s Grand Mage can’t even conquer labyrinths with the Imperial Army and is struggling desperately, so how could someone conquer an 8th grade labyrinth alone? Not even a famous adventurer, but someone who suddenly appeared out of nowhere? What is he, some legendary Sword Master… Huh?”

When Olive first heard this rumor, Sword Masters were legendary dream-like beings in her world.

But now. Olive knew that Sword Masters actually existed, and had even seen sword energy with her own eyes.

Olive looked at the Princess and said with a trembling voice.

“A legendary Sword Master. They exist?”

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