Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 208

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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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208. Squawk! (2)

Count Ralph and Count Alpha briefly lost consciousness from hypothermia before regaining their senses.

Though their minds had returned, their hands and feet were still cold and their bodies trembled.

Fortunately, they could move with support from the side.

The stairs leading down to the 28th Floor had railings and were safe, so the party helped support the knights down to the lounge on the 28th Floor.

Ying supported the well-built Count Alpha, while Count Randy and Olive took turns supporting Count Ralph.

Serena was naturally excluded since she had even gotten a nosebleed.

‘Phew.’

The party arrived at the 28th Floor Lounge without major crisis.

The attack team seated Count Alpha and Ralph, whose complexions were still pale, in front of the wall-less fireplace.

Count Randy checked the contents of the kettle boiling vigorously in the fireplace, then poured hot tea into teacups and added plenty of honey.

Sweet and hot mint tea was complete.

“Th-th. Th-th-ank you.”

“Don’t overdo it.”

Ralph tremblingly blew on and drank the hot tea. As the warm tea entered his body, color returned to the pale Young Knight’s face as if he might live.

Count Alpha opened his mouth as soon as he confirmed his tongue and lips moved smoothly after drinking the tea.

“My axe is strange.”

Ralph was startled by what the Imperial Knight said.

“Count Alpha feels that way too? My sword is also strange!”

Olive joined in as if she couldn’t be left out.

“Me too! Something kept being weird when I threw my daggers! Yo!”

The Archer silently raised his right hand. It meant his bow was also acting strange.

Serena and Count Randy frowned and nodded, having expected their party members’ complaints.

“I saw it too. Flames were coming from your weapons.”

“What on earth happened? Is there a problem with the weapons?”

Count Alpha shook his head seriously.

“The weapons themselves are fine. The problem is the weapons’ attributes. I imbued my axe with earth attribute, but flames came out during the recent battle.”

“My sword too! It has light attribute but flames came out when I cut the Mimic. You saw it too, didn’t you Princess?”

‘I didn’t see it though.’

Serena had been rolling on the ground at that time. Instead, she nodded because she had witnessed the other party members’ weapons spewing flames.

“It wasn’t decorative illusion but real fire. Yo. My hand felt hot when throwing daggers. Yo.”

“Same here.”

Count Randy wore a blank expression at the incomprehensible story. The alchemist’s million-gold hands began stroking his chin.

“Truly incomprehensible. It sounds like everyone’s weapons were imbued with fire attribute.”

‘Isn’t it just that?’

The party considered the sudden fire attribute imbued in their weapons a more serious problem than the Floor Boss that changed attributes.

Because they couldn’t understand the cause.

‘We somehow managed to defeat the Floor Boss but nearly died. What’s the reason?’

“What on earth… Ah! Could it be!”

Count Randy, who had been stroking his chin in deep thought, shouted loudly.

“Count, do you know what happened?”

“The fox! The Book-Eating Fox blessed us! Since the Book-Eating Fox is a fire attribute spirit, it cast a blessing on us to strengthen fire attribute!”

“It cast a blessing, not a curse?”

The Princess’s head became confused by the immediately incomprehensible story.

Unlike Serena, Olive, Count Alpha, and Ying seemed to have finished understanding the Count’s story and wore troubled expressions.

“Aah! That damn fox bastard! It cursed us before leaving?”

“Hmm. This is a serious problem.”

“…Free fire arrows?”

Ying seemed slightly pleased.

“Please explain to me what happened!”

The Young Knight, who wasn’t ashamed of his ignorance and actively tried to overcome it, bravely requested a detailed and kind explanation.

“You understand that the damn fox bastard blessed our weapons to be imbued with fire attribute, right Knight?”

“Yes. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Aren’t magic weapons with imbued attributes something you can’t carry around because they’re so rare?

The Imperial Knight answered the Young Knight’s question.

“Count Hanson. Having an attribute imbued isn’t unconditionally good. What’s important is compatibility with monsters. Attacking fire attribute enemies with fire attribute weapons has reverse effects.”

“Ah, now that I hear it, that’s right!”

“The blessing probably wasn’t cast on the weapons. Count Ralph, would you swing your spare sword?”

Ralph swung Lucas’s sword, which he had been carrying only as a spare after obtaining the light sword.

Even though Lucas’s sword was an ordinary sword, flames fluttered along the sword’s trajectory.

“I see. It seems fire attribute enhancement and imbuing was cast on the entire party, not the weapons.”

“Ah! That’s why it was less hot when I blocked fire arrows with my shield!”

The Young Knight smiled brightly as if his question was resolved.

Count Alpha also resolved his question and groaned in a low voice.

“Indeed. So that’s why my body froze even though I blocked ice arrows with my shield?”

“Count Sirius’s guess is probably correct. As fire attribute defense and attack power increased, water or ice attribute defense decreased. Spirit attribute systems follow the rules of the spirit world.”

“Hey~ I don’t understand a word of what you just said. Yo.”

The Guide threw out a question while arbitrarily eating mint tea and cookies.

Though arbitrary, since the Guide judged it safe to eat, Serena also sneakily picked up a cookie.

“Hmm. A proper explanation would be long and complex.”

Serena, who knew about Eastern Five Elements and Western Four Elements, understood Count Randy’s dilemma.

Serena had also been confused trying to understand this world’s attribute concepts when she reincarnated into this world.

From Count Randy’s perspective, explaining concepts from the spirit world, which was a different world, would be very difficult.

This world had no concepts like Five Elements or Four Elements.

Only.

‘Divine social relationships exist!’

Fire and water are opposing? Four Elements concept? Nonsense!

That’s because the Fire God and Water God have a bad relationship.

Fire opposes metal? Originally fire burns and melts everything. That’s what fire is.

And this world’s Fire God.

‘Has a terrible personality.’

More precisely, the 1st Fire God had terrible nature.

His personality was so terrible that the gods united to chase him from the Fire God position and sealed him.

The detailed story wasn’t passed down to humans because it would insult the great beings residing in heaven, but one thing was certain.

The current Fire God was the 2nd generation and was busy cleaning up after his predecessor who had spread shit everywhere and picked fights.

Anyway, the world Serena reincarnated into was a world where gods actually existed in heaven.

Attributes were influenced more by divine social relationships than Five Elements.

But the spirit world was a different world from here. It had a system similar to the Four Elements that Serena was very familiar with.

Count Alpha was fine since he had related knowledge, but Olive and Ralph listened to Count Randy’s Four Elements lesson like they were literally hearing stories from another world before rapidly losing concentration.

“Ah~ I don’t know! Anyway, we’re weak to water and ice now, right? Yo?”

“Sigh. That’s right.”

“Then this damn fox!”

The Guide ground her teeth with a fierce expression.

“It deliberately cast a blessing to screw us over? It deliberately cast a blessing because we’d notice if it cursed us! Because it knew we couldn’t catch the Floor Boss if only fire attribute attacks came out! Ugh! This fox-like bastard!”

Is calling a fox a fox-like bastard an insult or praise?

Anyway, the blessing the Book-Eating Fox cast on the party was definitely effective.

If Serena hadn’t been active, the party would have been defeated without touching a single hair, a single page of the Floor Boss.

Olive put her hands together and made a coquettish voice.

“Oh my~ We would have all died if not for our Princess! How did you know to target the Floor Boss’s attribute? I also figured it out after seeing the Black Knight destroy the barrier, but I couldn’t convey it because I can’t speak, so it was frustrating! Princess is really a genius!”

“That’s right, Lady Serena. I didn’t notice until the third barrier was broken. How did you know?”

“I was fighting the monster and couldn’t figure it out even after breaking the first barrier, yet you realized it so quickly. You’re truly wise.”

Only Ralph, who had been frozen the entire time and didn’t know what the Floor Boss’s elemental weakness was, remained quiet.

Serena listened to the pouring flattery and praise with one ear and let it flow out the other.

‘I played the game that way. It would be a gamer’s shame not to notice.’

“It’s nothing special. The first barrier had no color, and from the moment the book started chanting spells, a red color was added to the barrier. The red barrier wasn’t destroyed by Count Alpha’s flame-wrapped axe, was it? The next barrier was blue, but it remained intact against Ying and Olive’s attacks. Just in case, I threw the Count’s ice attack potion.”

“That’s exactly why that thought is amazing! Usually people think ‘Ah~ daggers and arrows were weak! We need to smash it with an axe to break the barrier!'”

“I’m ashamed to say I actually thought that way.”

Count Alpha squinted slightly, looking truly embarrassed.

Count Randy had made all sorts of fuss as well.

‘Hmm. It’s not that impressive though.’

Mechanics where you need to match the same element or attack with the opposite element are basic fundamentals in games.

It’s a pattern that could lead to total party wipe if you don’t prepare various elements, but gamers didn’t mind much.

‘Because you can just reload.’

But this was reality. The assault team, who had nearly been wiped out due to the Book-Eating Fox’s blessing, praised the Princess as much as they were happy to survive.

Ralph, who learned the concept of elemental weakness, looked up to the Princess even more than before.

“There’s such a thing? To know just by looking! Princess, you’re truly amazing! So cool!”

“One thing is wrong.”

The archer, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up.

“What? Are you saying our genius Princess is wrong right now? Let’s fight!”

Olive glared with eyes ready to throw daggers instead of gloves. The others also glared at Ying.

Ying spoke calmly despite the party’s sharp reaction.

“Don’t judge elements by color. Judge by the monster’s magic.”

The archer’s objection was very logical and helpful for labyrinth exploration.

“Kuk. Now that I hear it, you’re right. I’ll cancel the fight.”

‘True. Judging elements by color is similar to guessing.’

“Your words are correct. I’ll be careful from now on.”

“So what do we do now? Will our weapons keep producing fire?”

“Flame swords are cool, but I prefer my original light sword!”

“The weakened water and ice defense is a big problem. If we had taken just one more ice arrow hit, both Count Hanson and I wouldn’t have been able to endure it.”

These were all questions and appeals that Serena didn’t know the answers to and couldn’t handle.

Fortunately, the Princess had someone to pass the party’s questions and appeals to.

‘I’ll have to ask Grey.’

Serena gathered mint leaves by the fireplace for the Old Man who would be waiting for the assault team in the lobby.

Count Randy also wrapped cookies in a handkerchief, perhaps intending to give them to his beloved wife.

Although the boss battle difficulty had increased due to the curse-like blessing, the party had won.

Now it was time to claim the spoils of war, the victor’s right.

Serena climbed the stairs diligently back to the 30th floor and naturally approached the Gem Book corpse in the center.

Someone’s hand landed on the Princess’s shoulder.

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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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