Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 198
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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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198. Marble Quarry (2)
The Princess and her party emerged from the teleportation room and arrived at the peak of the 3rd Layer.
Low stuck out his tongue at the reality he couldn’t believe no matter how many times he experienced it.
Sesi was jumping up and down with joy when she suddenly accused Low.
“Princess! This muscle-head captain won’t let us use our elevator!”
According to Sesi’s accusation, he wouldn’t let them use the 2nd Layer elevator for round trips, only allowing them to use it once.
They finally got to use the 2nd Layer elevator, but only once.
For Serena, who had hated stairs since before she was born, this was incomprehensible behavior.
“Why did you do that?”
“Ah, surely you didn’t do it to train your lower body muscles? Then you should only use the stairs when going up, not down!”
Low shook his head at Ralph’s words.
“Hehe. I deliberately don’t use it. If young ones get a taste for elevators from the start, they develop bad habits. Yes yes.”
The answer that came back was different from what they expected based on Low’s muscles alone.
Because of habits. It was a somewhat old-fashioned reason, so she slightly frowned, but the old man nodded.
“Mm! Uncle Low is right! Elevators are rare in labyrinths, and teleportation rooms are truly miraculous! If you get used to elevators from the beginning, your mind can become lax. You need to do round trips to the 50th floor a few times without an elevator to know how precious elevators are.”
Even Low, who had first spoken up, was stunned by the deeply aged old-fashioned concentration that was hard to believe came from a child’s mouth.
Then he remembered Grey’s status that had spread through the lobby and regained his senses.
“Ah! Right. You said the young master’s grandfather is Duke Pein. Yes. Hehe, the young master is correct.”
‘What nonsense. If there’s something convenient, you should use it.’
Didn’t those who opposed calculators and typewriters also speak like that?
Serena looked at the two old-fashioned men with disdain and spoke firmly.
“Use the elevator from now on. If you suffer hardships when young, your body will ache in old age.”
Then the old man suddenly scolded.
“Hey! It’s not about being spiteful, but about building experience to keep you alive until old age! You empty-headed fools who only seek comfort!”
Grey, who had unleashed his old-fashioned power to his heart’s content after a long time, grinned broadly.
“Grandfather would have said that.”
Serena pinched Grey’s cheek, thinking he could get away with just adding “grandfather” to the end and smiling innocently.
“Aaah! Let go!”
The child’s cheek was plump, making it satisfying to pinch.
Count Randy frantically shook his head and hands behind Grey, begging for the Princess’s mercy.
Serena also held and shook the old man’s cheek with a kindly smiling face.
“Yes. You are a good and smart child who remembers and follows grandfather’s words well. How admirable.”
“Grr.”
Serena let go of his cheek before the old man exploded.
“If this were an ordinary labyrinth, I would have followed Duke Pein’s opinion, but now it’s a disaster situation. Use whatever convenient things are available.”
“Now that I hear it, Princess, you’re right. I’ll use the elevator from now on.”
“Yay!”
Sesi clenched both fists and cheered.
The party rode the zip line and waited for Sesi to tame the Labyrinth Condor.
Sesi, who had newly tamed a Labyrinth Condor, connected a net between the condor’s legs.
“If you ride this, you can fly right away, so it’s convenient!”
“Yes. That’s amazing.”
“Hehe.”
Sesi, who received Serena’s praise, covered her face with both hands and rubbed her cheeks like a squirrel washing its face.
Count Randy checked the strength of the net and also asked about the weight the condor could bear.
“The sisters and I, and the bald uncle can ride it too!”
“The condor’s strength is stronger than I thought.”
“Eagles can even carry full-grown sheep.”
It was just that the excellent archer wouldn’t allow the Labyrinth Condor to approach, but the 3rd Layer’s Labyrinth Condor possessed the monstrous strength to snatch up even Low and drop him from the air.
After Ying shot and killed all the Labyrinth Condors coming and going nearby, the party climbed onto the net.
‘Wow, how romantic.’
Flying through the sky on a net caught by birds. It was regrettable that the condor’s appearance was menacing and not pretty like a swan, but wasn’t it a valuable experience anyway?
Sesi and Low had ridden it several times, so safety was guaranteed, and if worst came to worst, she could just die and return to yesterday.
Serena grabbed the net with a slightly excited heart, then.
“You deceived me! You deceived me, Sesi!”
“Kyahaha! Fly faster!”
“Lady Serena! If you! Open your mouth! It’s dangerous! You’ll bite your tongue!”
She regretted it while clinging to the net that swayed with the condor’s wing beats.
“You deceived me!”
“Kyahaha, isn’t it fun?”
Safe and convenient my foot.
Since the Labyrinth Condor was a living creature, it moved independently even while receiving Sesi’s commands.
As each condor flapped its wings, the net also swayed irregularly.
Would a small boat caught in rough seas shake like this? The net carrying the party shook and swayed mercilessly every time the wind blew and every time the condors moved, chilling Serena’s heart.
Serena gritted her teeth and desperately clung to the net to avoid being flung off.
“Kyahaha! This is fun!”
Sesi seemed to have no liver at all, letting go of the hand holding the net and flapping both arms like a bird.
Serena ground her teeth while looking at the red-haired girl who looked joyful and happy.
‘I was deceived!’
She should have noticed when Sesi was dejected saying she couldn’t do anything, yet enjoyed riding the zip line.
‘This speed and shaking is enjoyable?’
There are two types of people in the world. Those who find roller coasters fun and those who find them boring and only scary.
Serena was the latter. Even though she had died once and been reborn, she still couldn’t understand people who were the former.
After great hardship, Serena reached the destination peak and immediately prostrated herself on the ground, welcoming the earth as soon as she got off the net.
Ignoring the dust and stones scratching her face, she lay flat on the ground and welcomed the land.
‘Romance is dead!’
Everyone else seemed fine except Serena, as their faces looked normal.
“Flying here was good because it was fast. At my walking speed, it would have taken quite a while. My stomach is a bit queasy though. Someone of grandfather’s age wouldn’t have endured it.”
Grey examined his young body here and there, newly appreciating how young, not just youthful, he was.
“That’s right. It was somehow bearable.”
“You know this is all thanks to grandfather’s lessons, right?”
“Of course. I’m moved to tears with gratitude.”
Count Randy wiped away tears of gratitude toward his master while looking at his nephew(?).
“Princess, are you alright? Would you like some water?”
“Thank you, Count Ralph.”
Serena enjoyed the coolness rising from the ground, then sat up and drank water.
Things she hadn’t been able to see because fear had narrowed her vision finally came into view.
The peak where the party had arrived was a place difficult to set foot on because there was no bridge.
There was a small crevice big enough for one adult to squeeze through, and the stones inside the crevice sparkled or changed color depending on the angle.
In fact, it was hidden so secretly that it was easier to detect by mana concentration than by the stones’ brilliance.
But it was far from the path, making it difficult to discover even by detecting mana.
The position and terrain made it impossible to know if there were magic stones unless you deliberately came to investigate in front of the crevice.
Grey seemed to think the same as Serena, looking inside the crevice and speaking.
The rock imbued with mana sparkled in various colors like opal.
“You found this well.”
“While flying! Something sparkled! When I went back to look, it wasn’t gold or gems, so I was about to leave, but the bald uncle said.”
“It’s not bald, it’s shaved. Hehe, I’ve seen magic stone quarries a few times, so I recognized it immediately.”
Squeezing through the crevice, that place was a paradise.
The softly glowing rock seemed to be for hiding the beauty inside, as the floor, ceiling, walls, and stone pillars all sparkled in brilliant colors without exception.
“It’s truly… truly beautiful.”
The sensitive young knight was mesmerized. The strength drained from his hand gripping the sword.
“It’s pretty even seeing it again.”
Sesi clasped her hands together in admiration, looking enchanted just by the sight.
Serena was also amazed. Though she had become accustomed to all kinds of gold and treasures after being reincarnated as a princess, this was her first time seeing such a spectacle.
You can see cross-sections of crystals and various minerals split open in museums or on the internet, can’t you.
It felt like being inside a massive crystal or gemstone.
Raw magical stones embedded everywhere glowed in various colors, and with magical power filling the air, it excited not only Serena’s vision but also her mood as she sensed the magic.
“It’s so beautiful that I really want to show it to Neet! Neet would never forget this scene for the rest of her life!”
Sesi mentioned her sibling who was the only one unable to see this beautiful scenery.
Grey pointed out reality.
“Sister Sesi. Neet would die immediately if she came in here.”
“Gasp. Cancel that.”
The old man’s cold tone brought Serena, who had been enchanted by the beautiful scenery and magical power, back to her senses.
Serena pointed to the magical stones embedded throughout the floor, ceiling, walls, and pillars.
“Can we mine all of these?”
“No. They’re only pretty to look at, but few are actually useful. The small ones scatter their magic when you try to mine them.”
Grey extended his hand to his uncle. Count Randy took out a small pickaxe he had prepared in advance.
Grey gently tapped and mined a magical stone attached to a pillar with the small pickaxe.
“Hmm.”
“How is it?”
The alchemist who spent magical stones like money asked in a tense tone. Grey handed the freshly mined magical stone to Count Randy.
“They’re all low-grade but not bad. With this scale, we could mine about 60 today, and about 30 each time it restores.”
“Ooh!”
Count Randy smiled brightly.
“If we clear it perfectly, we could stably mine at least 10 per week. The 3rd layer is too vast and complex, so it would be difficult. The difficulty is too high for the 6th floor…”
Grey trailed off. Serena could roughly guess what the old man hadn’t finished saying.
‘He was probably going to say it’s because I’m 10th grade, right? But he’s wrong! It’s because I got unlucky! Haha! Even the Grand Mage isn’t much!’
Serena was mocking the old man’s wrong deduction but stopped when she felt pathetic about herself.
“Your Highness Princess.”
“What is it?”
Grey called at just the right timing, startling Serena.
Grey didn’t notice the princess’s agitation and led Serena toward a pillar embedded with magical stones.
“You’ve gotten used to the magical power concentration, right? Try finding and mining magical stones that are safe to mine here.”
‘One demonstration and then real practice?’
Serena was dumbfounded, and Count Randy was flustered.
“Grey! Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?”
“Well, I don’t know much about it, but I heard that if you mine magical stones wrong, the entire mine becomes useless. We only touch magical stones that are really nice and easy to mine. What we showed you yesterday was also perfectly positioned and suitable, so we plucked it cleanly.”
Low was right. It’s common sense for non-experts not to touch magical stones because incorrectly mining them in magical stone mines and quarries could scatter the magical veins that are the source of magical stones.
Magical stone mines in labyrinths have restorative power so the mine doesn’t completely disappear, but it still takes considerable time to restore.
From the perspective of needing every magical stone, it was nonsensical for Serena to interfere with the quarry.
But Grey didn’t yield to common sense. He was always one who destroyed existing common sense and spread new common sense.
“That’s for people who can’t sense magical power. Your Highness Princess can sense magical power, so feel carefully and try mining.”
Grey pushed the princess toward the pillar. Serena gripped the small pickaxe and gritted her teeth.
‘Ugh. How would I know? Anywhere else would be fine, but the magical power concentration is too dense here.’
To find magical stones with properly condensed magical power while surrounded by magical stones.
It was like throwing someone into a ball pit and telling them to find balls with the right amount of air.
Thinking it would be easier to find by size, she widened her one eye, but a scolding came down.
“Hey! No eyeballing estimates!”
‘Fussy old man.’
Serena gritted her teeth desperately while concentrating on magical power detection.
“Knight. The princess outranks the young master, so why does she listen to him?”
“That’s because the princess is Gray Young Master’s student. Gray Young Master has excellent learning!”
“Ah.”
“Learning doesn’t discriminate between noble and common or age! I’m also always seeking teachings, following the princess’s example! There’s something I’d like to learn from Miss Sesi too.”
“Oh, from me? What is it? Dancing? Singing?”
“You balanced well on the net, I’m curious about the secret!”
‘Great.’
Far from concentrating, the conversation between the knight and monster tamer behind her kept entering her ears clearly.
‘No. It’s too early to give up, Serena. Focus!’
Hearing surrounding noise was due to lack of concentration. Serena took a deep breath to calm her mind and even closed her eyes to pour all her nerves into magical power detection.
Her efforts were paying off, and just when she felt she could grasp it with a little more concentration.
Aaaaaaaah!
A loud scream shattered the princess’s concentration.
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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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