Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 141

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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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141. Emperor of the Sewers (2)

 

“Aim for the grain.”

 

The archer who had left the princess’s side shot bolts while luring the labyrinth alligator.

 

Serena grumbled while taking care of Count Randy, who was still dazed from being struck by the ice chunk.

 

‘Aim for the grain? Even if I aimed at monsters my whole life, I’d be lucky to spot a weakness.’

 

Thinking others can do what you can do is the arrogance of genius.

 

The 4-star archer and 5-star priest seemed unaware of ordinary people’s limitations.

 

Whoosh.

 

The arrow the archer shot high while dodging the alligator’s attack barely missed the ceiling before curving downward and hitting the monster’s back.

 

This time, perhaps missing the grain, the arrow bounced off the hide and fell weakly.

 

Serena felt disappointed, then frowned as something strange caught her eye.

 

‘What’s that?’

 

Where Ying had aimed. A dark spot was visible on the frozen alligator’s back.

 

Thinking she might have seen wrong due to something in her eye, she blinked, but the dark spot was still there.

 

The spot seemed to tempt the princess as if telling her to aim for it.

 

‘Could that be?’

 

What came to mind was the blessing she’d received from Ying.

 

She’d thought seeing well in darkness was the end of it, but apparently there were other abilities.

 

‘Nothing to lose by trying.’

 

Serena calmly cast an ice arrow spell.

 

“What I desire is a cold, sharp awl that can pierce dinosaur hide.”

 

Attack magic’s accuracy changes according to the caster’s mental strength, concentration, and magical proficiency.

 

Since Alligator Rius kept moving while fighting three opponents, Serena carefully waited for the right moment.

 

The Labyrinth Rat Leader attacked the party with electricity again.

 

Ralph, having experienced this before, pulled out the sword he’d embedded in the alligator as soon as he sensed the electrical attack coming.

 

The knight immediately embedded his sword again as soon as the electrical attack ended.

 

‘Now!’

 

The alligator’s movements had slowed due to using its area attack technique.

 

Serena thrust the ice awl she’d made as large and sharp as possible into the dark spot.

 

The ice awl, which normally would have only slightly pierced the hide, stabbed deep into the alligator’s body.

 

Kraaaang!

 

Alligator Rius shook its massive body in agony, then swung its severed tail while shaking its head left and right and sang a strange song.

 

Kroro. Kro. Kraaaang!

 

“This is bad! It’s trying to summon subordinates!”

 

One boss alligator was already difficult to handle, and now a pack of alligators would be added?

 

The party would be annihilated.

 

“We must stop it!”

 

Count Randy, whose eyes had cleared, threw an attack potion to Olive, who was closest.

 

Olive nimbly caught the potion and put it into the alligator’s snout.

 

The bolt shattered the bottle, and freezing cold that penetrated not just flesh but bone swept through.

 

Ralph struck the alligator’s snout, now frozen solid, with all his might.

 

“Hiyaaah!”

 

If Serena had seen the grain thanks to her blessing, Ralph aimed for the grain through training, experience, and talent.

 

The knight’s magic sword cut through the ice and also cut through the frozen alligator.

 

The party succeeded in defeating the 6th floor’s Floor Boss.

 

[You have defeated a Floor Boss. Shop 1 coins have been awarded.]

 

Despite using three attack potions containing elemental essence, the alligator the party caught was an ordinary Floor Boss that didn’t double as a Stratum Boss.

 

Even considering that the alligator was strengthened by serving as boss of the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd floors, the difficulty had increased significantly.

 

‘They said the 5th floor Floor Boss was caught by throwing just one bottle each. Going down one floor and we have to use three bottles and aim for weak points. The labyrinth is no joke.’

 

If it had been Serena rather than the count who was dazed by being hit in the head with ice, the battle would have taken longer and been more difficult.

 

Serena realized the importance of a helmet.

 

‘I should get a helmet made from alligator hide.’

 

The materials were more than abundant.

 

Olive gave up on cutting the hide and went into the alligator’s neck to search inside.

 

The guide pulled out a huge magic stone and grinned. It was high-grade.

 

“This is the first time I’ve seen such a big and beautiful high-grade magic stone! See! Large monsters are hard to fight but the rewards are good.”

 

“Hide, teeth, bones, and heart. All useful.”

 

Though some of the tail, back, and head hide couldn’t be used, Alligator Rius’s body was so large it didn’t matter.

 

Ralph looked curiously at the alligator tail that had been cut off like a lizard’s tail and the fatal wound on its back.

 

“Both Ying and Princess are amazing! How did you do it?”

 

To this innocent question that didn’t consider at all that he himself had cut through the frozen alligator’s snout, the archer answered.

 

“Darkness guided us.”

 

“Guidance my ass. It wasn’t a magic arrow, so it must be a magic bow?”

 

Olive showed interest in Ying’s bow.

 

When the archer remained silent, the guide’s interest turned to the princess.

 

“How did you do it, Princess? See? That hide shouldn’t have been pierced by an ice arrow.”

 

Serena hesitated about how to answer, then spoke honestly.

 

“Darkness showed me.”

 

“Is that so? Princess, you’re loved by the Deity of Darkness as well as the Labyrinth God! Amazing!”

 

Ralph was simply happy that more gods were looking after the princess, but the guide sighed.

 

“Even the princess is joking around? See?”

 

“You detected the monster’s internal mana and pierced its weak point. My master can similarly see through the weak points of monsters and various objects.”

 

Count Randy came up with a strange theory.

 

Ralph and Olive’s eyes became even more sparkling as they looked at the princess.

 

‘Monster mana detection? I don’t know, what’s that. Grand Mages are scary.’

 

Serena had just stabbed what she could see, but the party was starting to have strange misunderstandings.

 

“I don’t know how to detect things like monster internal mana. I was just lucky this time. Ying must have split the ice with skills built through experience.”

 

“Lady Serena. You shouldn’t just dismiss it as luck. You detected the monster’s weak point, but the sensation might be so faint you didn’t notice it. You should hone that sense.”

 

‘I just saw it. The Deity of Darkness spoon-fed it to me.’

 

A strange situation where even telling the truth would damage the honor of the Deity of Darkness who gave the blessing.

 

The princess had no choice but to mumble evasively.

 

‘I thought it was just a blessing that let me see well in darkness, but it shows weak points too. It’s a better blessing than I thought.’

 

Come to think of it, she did go through a somewhat grand ceremony when receiving the blessing.

 

‘If a priest is 5-star, that’s a High Priest. If it required a High Priest to personally kiss to bestow it, it wasn’t an ordinary blessing.’

 

She thought she understood why Count Randy wasn’t given a blessing.

 

‘It was such a good blessing that only one person could receive it.’

 

If one served the Deity of Darkness, there would be many blessings that grant night vision. Was there really a need to give a premium blessing with multiple functions?

 

‘It’s good for me though.’

 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Serena’s current hardships were proof of that.

 

‘I lived an ordinary life but was reincarnated as royalty, thought it was random luck. Turns out it was pay-later.’

 

Of course, they don’t forcibly collect payment for reincarnating as royalty.

 

The princess could stop conquering the labyrinth anytime.

 

It’s just that Serena’s conscience couldn’t bear to do so.

 

‘How can I pretend not to see 100,000 people.’

 

Similarly, the debt to the Deity of Darkness might have to be repaid someday.

 

Though she worried about what and how much would be demanded, Serena decided to fully enjoy the blessing until payment was due.

 

‘Let’s stab weak points to our heart’s content.’

 

After obtaining easy-to-get byproducts like magic stones, hearts, eyeballs, teeth and claws, hide and bones remained.

 

Count Randy brought out the golden scales for the first time in a while.

 

“Hmm.”

 

The alchemist who had taken out the scales pondered deeply.

 

He couldn’t bear to place the God of Gold’s sacred item on the floor where dirty sewer water was sloshing around.

 

“Is there somewhere clean and flat…?”

 

“I’ll get on all fours so you can place the scales on my back!”

 

Count Randy groaned at Ralph’s suggestion.

 

“A person’s back isn’t level enough.”

 

“Count, don’t you have something like a flat board? Put that on top.”

 

“Good thinking, Olive.”

 

As Ralph’s hands touched the floor, Count Randy placed a flat wooden plank on the knight’s back and set down the golden scales.

 

Since Alligator Rius was too large, they carefully placed part of the corpse on the scales.

 

After the alchemist completed the transaction, the giant leader alligator’s corpse disappeared, leaving behind well-tanned alligator hide and bones.

 

Since the alchemist’s subspace bag was too full to hold organs like eyes and heart that would spoil quickly, they decided to bring a cart from the lobby to collect the hide and bones.

 

While the group waited for the princess to open the teleportation room, the guide delivered bad news.

 

“Everyone, I have some slightly bad news.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“You see those two barred doors? One leads to the stairs going to the next floor, and the other should have the sealed door, right?”

 

“That would make sense.”

 

Serena had looked around the leader’s chamber earlier but hadn’t found the door glowing faintly crimson.

 

It seemed they’d need to go through the barred doors to see the sealed door.

 

Olive pointed at one of the barred doors and scratched her black bob cut.

 

“That’s not a door, it’s a huge mimic!”

 

The party’s faces instantly darkened.

 

They had struggled more than expected against 【Sewer King】 Alligator Rius, consuming much of their stamina and mana.

 

And now there was a stronger enemy hiding than the floor boss?

 

‘What if the maw had interrupted while we were fighting Alligator Rius?’

 

The party would have been wiped out.

 

Just imagining it was terrifying, and Serena pressed her forehead.

 

The other party members reacted similarly.

 

“If we feed it goblins like last time, won’t it leave?”

 

“The space here is wide, so it might charge at us wanting to eat us too.”

 

So the guide’s plan was this:

 

“Everyone goes through the barred door leading to the next floor, kills some time, then sends in a goblin.”

 

If they sent a goblin right away, there was a risk the treasure box maw would roam around looking for prey.

 

The group agreed to the guide’s plan and opened the barred door to enter.

 

After walking a bit, they found stairs leading to the next floor and a rare-grade treasure chest.

 

[You have discovered stairs leading to the next floor. Shop 1 coins have been awarded.]

 

Since the nightmare of the 5th floor was still vivid, no one suggested scouting the 7th floor.

 

Booooong-.

 

The princess blew the horn with all her might. A chunk of mana was consumed and an ordinary goblin was summoned.

 

Kereuk!

 

The goblin waited for its summoner’s command. Serena had it wait for now.

 

While killing time, the group decided to open the treasure chest.

 

Since making noise might alert monsters, Olive spoke quietly.

 

“Anyone want to open the chest!”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“I’m fine too.”

 

“Two.”

 

“I’m fine too.”

 

The rare-grade treasure chest went to Olive.

 

Before opening the treasure chest, Olive licked her lips and rubbed her hands together.

 

“It won’t be as good as Radiant, but I hope a weapon comes out. I haven’t been very active this time.”

 

“You’re contributing plenty as our guide.”

 

“A good labyrinth explorer should do 1.5 people’s worth of work, not just one person’s worth.”

 

The guide seemed to grumble, then started lamenting about her separated bag.

 

“Sob sob, my bag. I hope it’s doing well.”

 

Olive cried pitifully as she opened the rare-grade magic chest.

 

Again, a small item came out that couldn’t be seen from behind.

 

The guide bent down and pulled out a small, round object that fit in one hand.

 

“Is it a watch?”

 

“No, Lady Serena. That’s.”

 

It was round like a watch and had what looked like hour and minute hands, but actually the hands weren’t for time.

 

“It’s a labyrinth compass.”

 

The reward from the chest was a compass.

 

Olive turned the labyrinth compass this way and that, shrugging her shoulders.

 

It wasn’t the weapon she wanted, but it seemed like a decent reward from a guide’s perspective.

 

“Mm~ not bad.”

 

“How is a labyrinth compass different from a regular compass?”

 

“You know regular compasses break in labyrinths, right? Labyrinth compasses work perfectly fine, and here.”

 

The labyrinth compass had two needles.

 

One indicated direction, and the other had a small stair symbol marked on it.

 

“Like this, it shows the direction where stairs are. Better ones can show treasure chests and traps too, but this is the basic model.”

 

“Don’t labyrinths always have at least two sets of stairs – ones going up and ones going down? Which stairs does the compass point to?”

 

“It would be convenient if it showed each one separately~ but that’s not how it works. It only points to the nearest stairs. But.”

 

Olive moved closer to the nearby stairs.

 

Then the needle that had been pointing toward the stairs moved.

 

“When you’re very close to stairs, it points to other stairs. It’s for checking the direction of other stairs when you arrive at a new floor.”

 

While it didn’t show the path to the stairs, it at least indicated which direction to move, making it a useful tool for exploring labyrinths.

 

Figuring enough time had passed, Serena commanded the goblin to enter the maw’s mouth.

 

Splash splash. The goblin stepped through water that reached an adult’s ankles and a goblin’s calves, then slipped right into the treasure box maw’s mouth.

 

When the goblin touched the barred door, the maw closed its mouth.

 

The plan would end with the satisfied maw leaving its spot.

 

However, after what felt like 1 minute, then 3 minutes, then 10 minutes, the maw still hadn’t moved.

 

“Why isn’t that bastard moving?”

 

The guide, who had been anxiously watching the maw’s behavior, shook her legs nervously and cursed.

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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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