Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 207
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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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207. Caw! (1)
The 1st Attack Squad of Heuji’s Labyrinth ascended to the 30th Floor of the 8th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth.
A moderately spacious circular space appeared—to put it simply, an area suitable for a boss battle.
Maintaining the library concept even in the Leader’s Chamber, the floor was covered with plush carpet, bookshelves were attached seamlessly to the walls, and books were inserted on the shelves behind the bookcases.
Books filled even the dome-shaped ceiling. The Young Knight’s head tilted back as he stared at the books stuck to the ceiling, defying the laws of physics.
In the very center of the 29th floor, a massive book with a gem-decorated cover displayed its beautiful binding on a reading desk.
The Party tensed up the moment they saw the reading desk. It seemed like the beautiful gem-studded book would bark like a dog and charge at them at any moment.
‘No chains either?’
The Gem Book didn’t even have chains to restrain its foul temperament.
It was literally an unbridled colt, a fierce dog without a leash.
Fortunately, whether to maintain the dignity of a Floor Boss or because it hadn’t noticed the attack squad’s arrival due to the plush carpet laid even on the stairs, the Gem Book remained docile on the reading desk.
Three doors were visible behind the reading desk.
‘Those are for later.’
If they couldn’t defeat the boss, those might as well be door-shaped murals painted on the wall.
Serena swallowed her saliva and gripped her pen tightly in preparation for the boss battle.
Now that she thought about it, the 8th Layer was truly a despicable layer.
‘Silencing a mage’s mouth. That’s too much.’
But if one could kill someone in front of them with an inch of tongue, then with a pen, one could kill someone at the edge of the continent!
Serena swallowed her dry saliva and steeled her resolve.
As the party gradually approached the Gem Book, the Gem Book began to stir.
They braced themselves for it to charge with barking sounds, but the Gem Book didn’t leave the reading desk.
Instead, it wriggled its body, then opened itself and flipped through pages dazzlingly.
Serena, who had been concentrating, detected magical power and warned the Party.
Unable to speak aloud, she had to move only her lips, but since it was two syllables, everyone understood.
‘Magic!’
The pages that had been fluttering suddenly stopped.
Letters made of light appeared one by one in front of the Gem Book.
‘It’s a magic spell!’
The easiest way to defeat a monster that uses magic is to kill the monster before it completes its spell.
The Archer’s arrow and the thief’s dagger flew through the air toward the Gem Book.
The two Knights also grabbed their weapons and charged at the Gem Book.
Clang!
Ting!
“Ugh.”
The Party’s attacks were blocked by a barrier.
A previously invisible barrier deflected the arrow and dagger and blocked the Knights’ approach.
When Count Alpha and Ralph touched the barrier, it glowed with red light.
The Party’s preemptive strike was completely thwarted. Now it was the Gem Book’s turn to attack.
The magic spell that had been forming letter by letter in the air was completed. Six flame arrows were generated around the Gem Book and attacked all members of the attack squad.
‘Aaaah!’
Serena screamed internally and ran toward the wall to dodge the flame arrow flying at her.
Then a bookshelf on the wall jumped up and blocked the Princess’s path.
‘You were a Mimic!’
The Princess couldn’t change direction at her running speed, so she threw herself to the floor and rolled.
Thanks to rolling with all her might, she barely avoided the Mimic’s attack.
Ralph rushed over and struck the Mimic targeting the Princess with his shield. As the Mimic staggered, he swung his magic sword to slash the Mimic.
While Serena was dizzy from rolling on the floor, she grabbed the Knight’s outstretched hand and stood up.
Perhaps because her eyes were spinning, Ralph’s face seemed slightly grimaced.
Meanwhile, after confirming the Princess’s safety, the remaining Party members tried their own methods to break the barrier.
Ying nocked a magic arrow purchased from the vending machine. Olive circled the barrier to check for gaps.
Count Alpha acted simply.
He raised his two-handed axe high and attacked the barrier with all his strength.
Serena saw it clearly.
The sight of red flames surging from Count Alpha’s two-handed axe as it struck down the barrier!
The barrier vanished the moment the two-handed axe touched it.
With the barrier gone, they could now attack the Gem Book directly.
For some unknown reason, the Imperial Knight, who seemed slightly flustered with a frown on his handsome face, charged at the Gem Book, and as Ying, who had paused momentarily, was about to shoot her bow again, the Gem Book rapidly flipped through its pages.
Blue. This time a blue barrier was generated to protect the Gem Book.
Count Alpha’s axe and Ying’s magic arrow hit the barrier almost simultaneously.
Though the massive axe, wreathed in red flames, struck the barrier, it didn’t budge and held firm.
The same was true for the fire arrow Ying shot.
A strange light flickered in the Imperial Knight’s eyes.
Ying approached Serena directly and signaled retreat, as if giving up on the battle entirely.
‘Retreat?’
Fortunately, the stairs going down were open without a door.
As the Party gathered to go down the stairs, a transparent wall blocked them as if asking how they could flee from a boss battle.
‘Damn it! How unfair!’
No matter how much Serena cursed internally, the transparent wall didn’t disappear.
The Party’s failed escape was an opportunity for the Gem Book. The Gem Book completed its second spell.
The completed spell emitted dazzling light and generated six ice arrows.
Six ice arrows rushed toward the Party. Since the Party happened to be gathered in one place, Count Alpha and Ralph stepped forward, enlarged their magic shields, and protected the Party.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
Serena, hiding behind Ralph, looked up at the trembling she felt through his armor.
The Princess’s single eye widened.
The hot-blooded Young Knight’s face was covered with frost, his lips were blue, and his body was shivering, unable to overcome the rapid drop in body temperature.
Count Alpha was in a similar situation. Though they had clearly blocked the magic with their shields, the damage the two Knights sustained was severe.
Count Randy took out recovery potions and tonics and fed them to the two Knights.
Since both Knights had become incapacitated in an instant, they wouldn’t be able to block if a second magical attack came.
Ying and Olive attacked again to break the barrier, but the blue barrier held firm and deflected the arrow and dagger.
Serena clearly saw that the arrow and dagger striking the barrier were wreathed in red flames.
‘What?’
When Count Alpha’s axe was wreathed in flames, she thought it was because it was a magic axe.
Let’s say Ying used magic arrows purchased from the vending machine. But Olive’s dagger wasn’t a magic dagger.
‘Then why the flames?’
Count Alpha, whose body temperature had recovered, gripped his axe tightly. Hot flames rose from the axe and melted the bodies of the two Knights who had become frozen.
But the Imperial Knight’s eyes watching the axe were filled with confusion and surprise. This meant the axe’s flames weren’t the Knight’s intention.
‘What? No. This isn’t the time. I need to block the magic spell. It’ll be completed soon!’
Magic that changed from fire to ice.
A barrier that changed from red to blue.
The flame axe that destroyed the red barrier.
Enough information had been given.
Monsters that attacked while changing attributes flashed through Serena’s mind like a panorama. There were too many to count.
‘As a gamer Reincarnated One, I’m certain! This is!’
The Gem Book’s magic spell was about to be completed. This time it was an ice explosion magic, one tier higher than ice arrows.
‘It’s too late for me to cast magic now!’
Instead of responding with magic, Serena reached for Count Randy’s waist.
Count Randy carried attack potions on his waist belt. Serena pulled out a cold attribute potion and threw it with all her strength.
‘Take this!’
Just before the Gem Book’s ice explosion magic spell was completed, the cold potion Serena threw hit the blue barrier and shattered.
A powerful cold burst exploded and swept through the entire Leader’s Chamber. At the same time, the blue barrier protecting the Gem Book disappeared, and the letters made of light crumbled, scattering light dust before vanishing.
The Gem Book tried to turn its page. The dagger firmly held down the page it was trying to turn, and an arrow pierced the center of the Gem Book.
‘Did we get it?’
Was it bad that she had only thought that?
The Gem Book writhed and tore its own paper body, forcibly turning the page.
A yellow barrier protected the Gem Book as new spell letters appeared.
‘Yellow? What attribute is that?’
Serena deduced the attribute while looking at the letters that appeared upside down from the Gem Book’s center.
From the long spell with unnecessary flowery language at the beginning, she identified the core attribute as electricity.
Serena reached for Count Randy’s waist again. She looked for an electric attribute attack potion, but there wasn’t one.
Serena urgently asked Count Randy, moving only her lips.
No electricity?
The Alchemist frantically searched through his subspace bag.
Serena was angry.
‘Why didn’t you take them out beforehand! You should have them ready to throw immediately by attribute!’
How could Count Randy have known they’d need to attack the Floor Boss by attributes?
Count Randy probably felt wronged too, but Serena had her own circumstances.
The characteristic of electric attribute attack magic was its fast speed. If there were ice arrows, fire arrows, and electric arrows, the electric arrow would fly the fastest.
‘The accuracy is lower instead, but Ralph and Count Alpha still can’t move.’
The cold hadn’t completely left their bodies yet, and when Serena used the cold potion, their bodies froze again.
If they got hit by electric arrows in this state, the two Knights would become corpses like failed frozen food – burnt on the outside and cold on the inside.
‘What should I do?’
Serena bit her lip, then picked up her writing board and moved her pen.
‘What do you mean what should I do. Whether I do this or that, I’ll die anyway!’
Serena wrote an electric arrow magic spell on the writing board.
Gritting her teeth and putting all her strength into writing the magic spell as punishment lines.
Crack!
She completed the electric arrow one step ahead of the arrogant Gem Book.
The magic cast by the Princess flew toward the barrier at lightning speed.
When the barrier hit by the electric arrow disappeared, the Gem Book writhed.
The Gem Book squirmed its entire body, struggling desperately to open the next page.
Of course, the Guide and Archer who had been waiting for the barrier to disappear didn’t miss the opening the Princess created.
Four bolts shot in an instant pinned the Gem Book’s limbs to the Reading Desk.
Olive ran as fast as the dagger she threw and slashed the Gem Book’s belly.
[You have defeated the Floor Boss. Shop 1 coins have been awarded.]
The welcome notification window appeared in the world of her left eye.
Serena massaged her right hand that had been gripping the pen so hard she’d lost circulation, and caught her held breath.
Olive, not knowing the Gem Book was dead, tore the book’s main text to shreds with her dagger.
The paper scraps that Olive tore and cut, throwing them behind her, scattered through the Leader’s Chamber like confetti celebrating the Party’s victory.
Serena didn’t wipe the warm blood flowing down her philtrum and savored the pleasure of victory.
Maybe because there was a time limit element in the middle, it was quite thrilling.
‘Time-limited games are shit games.’
This time she somehow succeeded by a hair’s breadth, but she never wanted to try again.
For Serena’s temperament and reflexes, turn-based games where you take one hit, I take one hit – preferably where only I get to hit – were perfect.
‘There were always those bastards who put time limits or mini-games requiring control skills in turn-based games or visual novels.’
Serena thought of several games where the strongest weapons could only be obtained through brutally difficult mini-games and was about to curse the developers, but stopped.
‘Curse resistance is precious.’
Serena was about to wipe her nosebleed with her sleeve, but remembering she was a Princess, took out a handkerchief and wiped it.
The Knights who had been frozen stiff were recovering their body temperature and seemed to be regaining consciousness, so it was time to.
‘It’s time to figure out why everyone’s weapons suddenly went out.’
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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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