Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 209

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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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209. Conquering the 8th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth

Startled, I turned around to see Olive removing her hand from my shoulder.

Olive shook her head while wagging her index finger left and right.

‘Why? Shouldn’t I go?’

When Serena stopped walking, Olive stealthily walked toward the center as if telling her to watch carefully.

Then she suddenly attacked the floor.

Thud!

When the dagger the Guide had borrowed from the Archer cut into the soft carpet, something amazing happened.

The carpet that had been neatly laid on the floor began flopping around like a flounder dragged out of water!

Count Alpha, who had been vigilantly watching the surroundings near Serena, was surprised but remained calm and steadily did what needed to be done.

He brought down his axe to finish off the carpet.

Olive flipped over the dead carpet.

It was a Mimic.

‘There are carpet Mimics too?’

Serena couldn’t hide her bewildered feelings and expressed them through her eyes.

[You have defeated the Stratum Boss. 1 Limited Coin has been awarded.]

The carpet Mimic was even the Stratum Boss of the 8th Layer.

‘I would have nearly died if I had stepped on it while fighting the Gem Book.’

If she had unknowingly broken through the barrier and approached the Gem Book, she would have been ambushed by the carpet Mimic.

The fact that the close-combat members had been incapacitated early on turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

-Never let your guard down in the Labyrinth! Never!

Olive cut open the belly of the soft carpet Mimic, extracted the magic stone, and looked smug.

-How did you know? The color was identical.

It wasn’t an excuse from Serena—the carpet Mimic was the exact same color as the surrounding carpets. There wasn’t even a subtle difference in hue.

-The floor softness was different!

Olive spread out the Mimic’s corpse so people could easily compare it with the carpet.

Those who hadn’t noticed the carpet Mimic crouched down and alternately touched the carpet and the Mimic.

‘The fur texture is identical, so what’s different?’

When people couldn’t feel much difference despite their efforts, Olive beat her chest in frustration.

-You can’t just brush it! You have to press down firmly! Mimics are alive, so the elasticity is different!

‘Ah.’

Following Olive’s words and pressing down firmly, the pressure felt slightly different.

To notice such a thing in the brief moment of going to attack the Gem Book. The Guide’s senses were amazing.

‘It feels like I drew a winning card among 5-stars.’

For safety, the party also dealt with the remaining Mimics disguised in the Leader’s Chamber.

The Mimics disguised as bookshelves could only wait their turn, unable to escape while witnessing their kin being chopped to death by the axe.

The last Mimic breathed its final breath. Serena felt relieved and examined the dead Gem Book at the reading desk.

‘The cover is made of gold and gem craftswork. Not magic stones.’

The cover of the Gem Book seen up close was a gem artwork itself, crafted with great care by an artisan.

The entire cover was pure gold, and the embedded gems were beautifully crafted.

‘The God of Magic would love this.’

Since it was an artwork with much higher value as a crafted piece than as raw materials, she carefully placed it in the Alchemist’s spatial bag.

Next was the main text that the Guide had slashed up.

When the scattered paper pieces were put together, they contained the magic spells the Gem Book had used.

The Alchemist, who had been carefully turning the torn and cut pages with sparkling eyes, lowered his eyebrows.

-These are all magic scrolls.

-But nothing happened when I tore them?

-The monster was still alive then. Now that the monster is dead, they’ve become ordinary magic scrolls.

However, there weren’t many pages with intact paper. The Alchemist looked sad, apparently regretting the lost magic scrolls.

-In this state, salvaging a few pages is all we can do. What a shame.

-I tore. Scrolls? Those expensive ones? The ones we can’t get?

Olive slapped her cheeks with a sound and made an expression like a famous painting Serena had seen in her previous life.

‘Was the painting titled The Scream or Despair?’

Olive didn’t stop at abusing both cheeks and picked up the paper pieces scattered on the floor with teary eyes.

-Can’t we use them if we collect and paste them all together?

-No.

-I didn’t know! If I had known, I would have hit gently!

-Olive. Stop it. No one regrets the scrolls disappearing because of you.

-I regret it!

It wasn’t empty words—Serena really didn’t regret the scrolls the Guide had cut and torn.

‘As long as we survived.’

Even considering the struggle due to the Book-Eating Fox’s curse-like blessing, the Gem Book was a difficult monster to face.

It wasn’t an opponent to fight while keeping the paper intact and undamaged.

‘Novel protagonists from my previous life might be able to, but not me.’

If it were a novel protagonist, they would have killed the Gem Book with an unimaginable idea and monopolized hundreds of scrolls.

However, this was reality and Serena wasn’t a novel protagonist, so it was impossible.

-Wasn’t this monster placed assuming the scrolls would be lost in the first place? Consider it fortunate that we salvaged even a few pages.

The Alchemist agreed with the Princess’s words and collected the relatively intact scrolls.

Serena picked up scrolls with minimal damage from those Count Randy was discarding.

-Countess Nex might be able to repair them. Let’s take the ones with this level of damage.

-Ah! I see! Understood.

Having collected everything they could from the Gem Book, the party finally turned their attention to the door behind the reading desk.

The 30th Floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth had three doors.

The door in the center led to stairs going to the 31st Floor. They had been climbing from the 8th Layer, but this time it was stairs going back down.

The doors on the right and left were both sealed doors. Serena deliberately looked at the door glowing faintly crimson with an indifferent expression.

In front of the sealed doors, the party did nothing and looked at the Princess.

Count Alpha also carefully observed only the Princess’s complexion, as if he had received some hint from the Prince.

Serena sighed and diligently moved her pen against the slate.

-Didn’t I tell you not to depend on me?

-Aww.

-Stop fooling around and do your job.

Olive pretended to cry while examining the sealed door on the left first.

After copying the picture drawn on the door, the Guide pushed the sealed door. The seal didn’t break.

Each party member pushed the sealed door once. The seal didn’t break.

Since no one met the conditions to break the seal, it was time to test the keys they had.

The Guide took out a keyring with keys collected from the Labyrinth and inserted a previously obtained key into the keyhole.

It didn’t fit.

Next, she inserted the key the Shadow Tiger had given them. The key turned smoothly.

As if she hadn’t expected it, Olive’s round eyes became even rounder.

‘The tiger wasn’t lying after all.’

Olive raised the corners of her mouth high and opened the door to examine the interior.

The Guide’s mouth corners, which had been rising as if they would tear, dropped down. She was disappointed.

‘Is there nothing special inside?’

Since Olive signaled it was safe, the party including Serena looked inside the door.

There were books—the very things they had grown sick of seeing while conquering the 8th Layer.

‘Books again.’

The Guide let her shoulders droop and sighed deeply, openly showing her disappointment.

-Books are boring. I miss treasure chests. It’s been too~ long since I opened a chest.

The Alchemist had a different opinion from the Guide.

-Serena! This place is like a treasure vault! That book is a lost tome that can’t be found outside the labyrinth, and that book! My master would love to see it! Now that we have membership cards, we can check out books, right?

Count Randy said. The books in this archive contain more precious knowledge than those in the closed stacks.

As soon as Count Randy confirmed safety with the Archer, he rushed to the bookshelf and pulled out a book.

-The limit was 5 books per person. Since there are 6 of us, we can take 30 books!

-Count. It might be 5 books per membership card. Let’s safely take just 5 books.

-How could you!

Count Randy couldn’t bring himself to protest and made a sad expression.

The sight of an intellectual man with a haggard complexion and melancholy eyes was quite a sight to behold, but it didn’t work on Serena.

-And if we can check out books, first grab the herb encyclopedia and monster encyclopedia. Lavenda requested the herbs, and the latter is necessary for us.

The number of books Count Randy could check out was reduced to 3.

Here Ralph joined the battle.

-We also need grammar books for Hana, Duri, and Sesi!

-Encyclopedias are one thing. Such ordinary books aren’t here. They might be on other floors, but since we don’t know the location, how about getting them later?

-It’s fine! I know the location!

Ralph smiled brightly and received the magic map from Serena, pointing to the bookshelf where he found the basic grammar books.

Count Randy was so disappointed that he glared with bloodshot eyes to choose 2 books from the pile he had selected.

Olive mercilessly toppled the tower of books stacked in front of the Alchemist and put them back on the shelf.

-Come on. Don’t get enchanted by books at the last minute. Let’s check out later and go to the next sealed door.

Count Randy trudged out the door empty-handed like a college student who failed their thesis defense.

The party placed their hands on the sealed door on the right in order. The seal didn’t break, and there was no matching key.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the Princess. This time it was really Serena’s turn to step up.

Serena sighed softly and placed her hand on the sealed door that was gently emanating crimson light.

The light faded and the seal broke as the door opened.

Inside the door was a teleportation room with a teleportation magic circle drawn. They had successfully opened the 8th Layer teleportation room.

After spending half a day on the 28th Floor and consecutively conquering the 29th and 30th Floors, it felt like a whole day had passed.

The party looked around the 30th Floor to see if there were any missed rewards, excited about returning to the lobby to rest.

Then Ralph raised his hand and called the Guide.

-Monster corpses disappear after time due to the labyrinth’s restoration power, right?

-Yeah.

-But why does meat get preserved for several days?

-If people keep touching it, it won’t disappear.

-Then if we keep using that carpet, it won’t disappear either?

-Knight, do you want to take the carpet?

Ralph, caught in his true intentions, scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

-I think it would be nice to lay it in the lobby.

The carpet laid on the library floor seemed scary to tear off and take because the Librarian might roar at them for damaging the library, but since the Mimic was a monster, it was okay to take it.

-Does it rot because it’s a monster? Or does it become undead and dangerous?

-No, no. Mimics don’t rot and don’t become undead. Take it.

As soon as the Guide gave permission, Ralph rolled up the carpet Mimic corpse and shouldered it.

The brilliant light from the magic circle enveloped the group and then disappeared. As soon as Olive confirmed they had arrived at the 1st Floor, 1st Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth, she opened her mouth first.

“Wababuuburrrpuuugarrr! I thought I’d die from not being able to speak! That damn floor with no chests and difficult stair-making! I’m never going back!”

“I agree. Fighting monsters is better.”

“Black Knight thinks so too? Really, next time I hope there’s a floor with no traps, simple paths, and lots of treasure chests, but with strong monsters instead!”

At that time, the party couldn’t have anticipated.

That the Guide’s description of a mysteriously balanced labyrinth based on years of experience would become reality.

Even Olive, who had spoken up, regretted it and repented.

“My mouth runs too much. My mouth runs too much!”

“Olive! If you have time to run your mouth, come here and draw the monster’s attention!”

“Count Landriole. It’s dangerous!”

Crash!

Mooooooo!

A bipedal monster with a bull’s head and a gorgeously beautiful knight who didn’t yield in size and strength collided head-on.

Moo, moo. Mooooooo!

As the Minotaur exhaled rough breath and pushed the knight back, Count Alpha twisted his body to the side and attacked the monster’s flank.

Next to them, the Minotaur and Black Bear engaged in a 1-on-1 bloody battle.

Mooooooo!

Groooooar!

The Black Bear’s massive front paw struck the charging Minotaur’s head. There was no time to watch the thrilling battle between the two beasts in a daze.

Because.

“What I desire is!”

Serena’s location wasn’t the spectator seats of an arena.

“The thrilling sensation of stopping an enemy’s body!”

But inside the arena where the fierce battle was taking place.

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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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