Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 182

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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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182. Labyrinth Library

The Young Knight seemed to have discovered something inside the fireplace and poked at it with a poker.

Serena immediately peered into the fireplace. Just as Ralph had said, she could see a sign with large letters mentioning something about a library.

Ralph used the poker to pull the sign out of the fireplace.

Part of the sign was burned and charred, making it difficult to see any letters other than “library.”

“Pour water!”

“Whoa, whoa!”

Contrary to before, this time the Alchemist stopped the Guide.

“If you pour water, the ink might dissolve. It would be better to first brush off the ash and wipe the soot with cloth.”

Following the Alchemist’s advice, the remaining letters on the sign gradually became visible.

“Library usage.”

“Count Ralph. Don’t read aloud.”

“Yes, I’m sorry!”

At Serena’s correction, Ralph was startled and covered his mouth with both hands.

‘Library usage rules, huh.’

Serena read the rules written on the sign from the beginning with her one remaining eye.

[1. Please be quiet in the library. (Conversations are allowed in the lounge)

2. Do not damage books. (Monsters are okay)]

Rules 1 and 2 were complete sentences, but rule 3 was charred by fire, leaving only the word “loan.”

‘Rules 4 and 5 are completely burned away.’

And below rules 4 and 5, there was a sentence written in red ink.

[※If you discover a book-eating fox, please inform the librarian. (There is a reward)]

Since it was marked with a separate symbol without a number, it seemed to be separate from the library usage rules.

“Rules 3, 4, and 5 are missing~”

“Haven’t we been noisy this whole time? Is that okay?”

“I think this place is the lounge, Sir Hanson.”

Serena agreed with Count Alpha’s words. Usually libraries prohibit food consumption, but the presence of tea and cookies was evidence.

‘Is this consideration to prevent death from the start?’

Since talking in the library wasn’t allowed, they placed a lounge right in front of the stairs so people could follow the most easily broken rule.

‘At least there’s some conscience.’

“Loan is… probably a usage rule related to book borrowing. Until we’re certain, it would be best not to touch any books on this layer.”

The party listened carefully to the Alchemist’s words.

“Setting aside the book-eating fox. The real problem is rules 4 and 5 that only have numbers left.”

“Hmm. I can’t tell if this is someone else’s doing or if it’s the original setting.”

“It’s probably not someone else’s doing.”

Ralph spoke confidently without a moment’s hesitation.

“Why?”

“There’s no way someone would deliberately burn such important information to prevent others from seeing it. Even bad deeds are done for profit, aren’t they? This gives no benefit at all.”

In the world, there are people who put others in danger out of malicious intent even without any benefit to themselves.

As the Guide seemed ready to inform the still innocent Young Knight of this fact, Serena slowly shook her head.

Olive seemed embarrassed and rolled her round eyes while touching the strands of hair sticking out from Ralph’s helmet.

“Yes, Sir Knight. Keep that heart for a long, long time.”

“Whether intentional, accidental, or part of the labyrinth’s design, keep in mind that there exists something capable of putting the sign in the fireplace.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

While others only nodded, Count Alpha alone placed his hand on his chest and answered earnestly.

The tension had eased, but he seemed newly tense due to the labyrinth atmosphere.

“Still, it’s fortunate.”

“What is?”

“The rules. Isn’t it fortunate that fighting monsters is okay?”

“The Count is right. According to Neet’s eyewitness account, book-shaped monsters appear on the 8th layer. If such monsters were also considered books that couldn’t be damaged, it would have been quite troublesome.”

“Come to think of it, we’ve been down here for a while but there are no monsters. When I heard Hana’s report, she said she encountered monsters as soon as she came down… Sorry.”

They say speaking of the devil makes him appear.

Before Count Randy could finish speaking, a nearby bookshelf shook.

Books packed tightly on the shelf came tumbling down, but instead of falling onto the soft carpet, several books fluttered their pages and floated in the air.

Flap flap. Flutter flutter.

The same thing happened at other bookshelves. Monsters that had been disguised as books and placed on shelves were moving to attack the party.

“It’s a Labyrinth Book! Zero!”

Click. Whoosh!

The Archer who had been prepared fired a bolt from his crossbow at the flying book.

The book that had been flying while fluttering its cover closed.

The bolt, flying at invisible speed, embedded itself in the book’s leather cover.

The Labyrinth Book staggered and weakly fluttered its cover before falling downward. The carpet was so soft that no falling sound could be heard.

“Lady Serena, it’s dangerous. Please quickly hide under the sofa or table.”

“Understood.”

Serena ran behind the sofa with Count Randy and crouched down.

After obtaining information that book-shaped monsters appeared on the 8th layer, the party had heard information about book-shaped monsters from Grey and discussed response methods.

Labyrinth Books were among the more troublesome monsters to deal with.

The monsters themselves were weak enough to die from a single arrow or bolt, but.

“Attack incoming! Everyone be careful!”

This was because their basic attack was an area attack.

The Labyrinth Book trembled, then spread its body wide open and snapped shut with force.

Then dozens of pages composing the Labyrinth Book flew like daggers. It wasn’t a metaphor—they were truly as hard and sharp as daggers.

Swish swish swish swish!

The Labyrinth Book’s pages flew and embedded themselves in the sofa, floor, and Ralph’s shield.

If she hadn’t hidden behind the sofa, Serena would have been cut to pieces while still alive, not after death.

She was curious about the battle situation, but couldn’t raise her head above the sofa. Count Randy mustered courage to lift his head but was scolded by Olive.

“Count! Do you want to die?”

Olive threw a dagger to take down one Labyrinth Book and hurriedly threw the next dagger.

“Sir Knight too! Cover your neck and face well with your shield! Don’t try to look for attack opportunities—just slash or stab when they come close!”

“Yes!”

“Black Knight! Protect the Princess and Count with your body!”

Though she couldn’t know the battle’s progress, seeing Olive use her characteristic speech pattern meant it wasn’t extremely dangerous.

Serena held her breath while pre-casting effective magic against the Labyrinth Books and maintaining the mental image.

‘For something calling itself a book, it gets weak when wet with water. If I could just avoid or block attacks, I could fight too.’

Since Serena’s neck could be severed by a single basic attack from a Labyrinth Book, hiding was her best option.

There were six Labyrinth Books that had attacked the party.

She would be able to tell how many remained by listening for sounds of them falling to the floor, but even that was difficult due to the soft carpet.

‘Water Explosion would wipe them all out, but it’s dangerous because it would damage other books.’

Between generating and maintaining water arrows and concentrating all her nerves on the invisible battle situation.

Serena, who hadn’t been paying any attention to the rear, was startled when Count Alpha, who had been in front of the sofa, suddenly leaped over it and landed in front of her.

“Eek!”

Count Randy, who was beside the Princess, was also startled.

“Kyaaah!”

“What’s happening!”

‘I thought my heart was going to drop!’

“It’s dangerous!”

Through the gaps in the black armor blocking Serena’s front, she could see a Labyrinth Book stealthily taking an attack position.

‘When did it get here?’

Presumably, it had disguised itself as a fallen book on the floor and crawled here without flying.

‘This crazy thing. It was secretly moving little by little because it wouldn’t be noticed if it stayed still? Does being a book make it intelligent too?!’

Should she look at the fallen book again?

Serena quickly shot a pre-prepared water arrow at the Labyrinth Book, but it was a bit too late.

The water arrow hit the monster right after the Labyrinth Book launched its pages.

The Labyrinth Book became soggy from the water, but the paper sheets flying toward the Princess were sharp and stiff enough to cut Serena’s slender neck in half.

‘I’m going to die after such a long time!’

Serena resolved that next time she should take out the guide board from the fireplace as soon as she arrived at the 8th layer, and squeezed her eyes shut.

While expecting an impact that would cut somewhere on her body, something unexpected enveloped the Princess.

It was a warm and heavy cloth. After that, the paper sheet attack that Serena had braced for came rushing in.

The thin but solid paper hit various parts of her body, but it only hurt and couldn’t cut through her body.

It was all thanks to the cloth that wrapped around Serena and Count Randy.

“Black Knight, well done! Yo!”

“Count Alpha, that was very clever!”

As the battle ended, Olive and Ralph’s voices grew closer.

Serena carefully lifted the heavy cloth and poked her head out, touching the thick and heavy cloth that had saved her and Count Randy.

“What is this?”

“It’s my cloak. Since I have armor, I should have given it to Your Highness the Grand Princess beforehand. My thinking was slow. I apologize.”

Count Alpha lowered his sharp, well-groomed eyebrows and apologized.

Count Alpha’s cloak was an excellent item that combined practicality rather than just style.

Thanks to Count Alpha quickly covering them both with his cloak, the Princess and alchemist avoided full-body lacerations and only suffered full-body bruises.

The hit areas hurt, but it was better than having their entire bodies cut and bleeding profusely.

“Thank you, Count Alpha.”

“Thank you very much.”

Count Randy blamed his slow reflexes for not being able to shield Serena with his body and returned the cloak to the knight.

“It would be better if Your Highness the Grand Princess wore this cloak.”

Serena received the heavy cloak, wrapped it around her body to try it, and shook her head.

“It’s too long and big, making it cumbersome to move around.”

“Can’t we make a robe or cloak for the Princess with that? Yo?”

“If you tamper with it, the magical effects imbued in the cloak will disappear.”

“Now that we have plenty of cloth, how about Your Highness crafting a robe or cloak with defensive effects?”

The alchemist showed reluctance.

“That’s also difficult. To imbue magic, the quality of the cloth is ultimately important. It’s impossible to craft with the cloth obtained from the 7th layer.”

“Then should we ask the next treasure chest for expensive cloth or some defensive gear for the Princess~”

Olive said something commendable while retrieving the dagger embedded in the book.

The Guide retrieved the dagger while tearing off the cover of the Labyrinth Book and only collecting the paper inside. Ying did the same while retrieving her bolt.

“Why are you collecting the paper?”

“Because it sells for a high price?”

When they’re busy entering the labyrinth and exploring, do they really need to know why monster byproducts sell for high prices?

Olive called Count Randy, the party’s verified brain.

“Count-nim!”

“The paper from Labyrinth Books is used as the main material when crafting magic scrolls.”

Labyrinth Book. Like Labyrinth Rats, Labyrinth Bats, and Labyrinth Condors, this monster with an uncreative name actually has a surprisingly logical reason for its naming.

‘They said it only appears in labyrinths.’

Labyrinth Books only appear in labyrinths and don’t appear outside of labyrinths.

Although it’s a monster with area-of-effect basic attacks, terrifying attack power, and even flight capabilities, labyrinth explorers liked this monster.

This time they couldn’t use water explosion for fear of splashing water on other books, but when appearing alone, it’s quickly neutralized just by splashing water on it, and the paper byproduct sells for a high price.

Wait a moment. One might wonder if it’s okay to catch it by splashing water when the paper needs to be sold.

The proven Labyrinth God protects labyrinth explorers, so to make Labyrinth Book paper into scrolls, the paper had to be dissolved in water and recreated as scroll paper anyway. It was fine for the paper to get wet.

“Oh, this is just a regular book.”

Olive skipped over a book that had fallen on the floor while searching for Labyrinth Books.

“Be careful, as Labyrinth Books might be disguising themselves. The monster that just attacked me also approached by crawling on the floor pretending to be an ordinary book.”

“Acting smart when it doesn’t even have ink?”

The most convenient way to distinguish between Labyrinth Books and regular books is to check the contents.

Labyrinth Books only look like books on the outside, so their pages are blank.

While Olive and Ying checked the contents of books fallen on the floor, searching for any Labyrinth Books that might be pretending to be dead, Ralph pointed to a spot on the floor a little distance away.

“Over there! A book is crawling away!”

“Nice try, nice try.”

Once its identity was discovered, the Labyrinth Book that had been slowly crawling on the floor flapped its cover and took flight.

Click, whoosh!

Ying’s bolt hit the spine of the Labyrinth Book that was fluttering like a butterfly.

As the monster crashed, it collided with a bookshelf. Books that had been precariously placed on the shelf, half-pulled out due to the Labyrinth Book, came tumbling down.

Ying, who had gone to retrieve her bolt, paused while looking at the books that had fallen below.

The Loyal Servant of Darkness who loved silence slowly turned her head and spoke to the group.

“It’s torn.”

“What?”

“Is this damage?”

“Since the monster collided with the bookshelf and spilled the books, the responsibility for damage lies with the monster.”

“Even if you damage books, it’s fine as long as you don’t get caught, right? Yo?”

Library rule number two: Do not damage books.

The party members, who were frustrated and flustered by unintentionally breaking the rule, each voiced their thoughts.

Serena was about to open her mouth to join in.

‘Huh?’

She suddenly covered her mouth and nose with her hand due to a fishy smell that wafted over.

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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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