Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 215

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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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215. The Experienced One

Prince Willow made salt and oil sauce to eat with the mushrooms, and grilled the rat meat after coating it with Empire-style seasoning.

People praised the Prince’s cooking skills, and Countess Nex brought up the story of the magical tablecloth that Sword Masters carry around.

Previously, when her deceased cousin sister’s story came up, she felt bitter, but now it was different.

Serena felt nothing even when hearing the deceased’s name.

‘Sister Lyla would have screamed if she saw what Richard is doing now.’

Saying he’ll kill them all.

She couldn’t dare imagine the pain of losing all family in one morning, but even so, wasn’t this going too far?

A bastard who conquers the labyrinth to kill people would be detestable and hateful if he had any appetite.

‘Such a bad guy should always have no appetite and be depressed. He should live miserably. He shouldn’t be happy. He shouldn’t be able to smell coffee, and coffee should taste like cigarette ash mixed in water.’

So Serena confidently stated her favorite pie.

“I like apple pie.”

“I like lemon cream pie.”

The maid joined in with her master’s conversation. Starting with the two of them, everyone revealed their favorite pies.

“We’ve never eaten pie before.”

“I’m curious what it tastes like.”

“Woof!”

“Cough. Is it different from bread with jam? Cough cough.”

Except for the Number Siblings.

At the story that the Number Siblings didn’t know the taste of pie, Lavenda and Ralph’s lips turned downward.

“I think they sold pies at the 25th floor cafe.”

“Pies and cakes required opening the glass case, so we didn’t touch them.”

“Hmm. If we had an oven, flour, and butter, we could make pies. What a shame.”

Prince Willow blatantly begged her to buy an oven. Serena ignored him.

“Next time we go to the 25th floor, I’ll buy pies and cakes.”

“Shouldn’t we save labyrinth coins?”

“Wouldn’t it be good if eating delicious desserts relieves stress?”

‘Let’s expand the lobby first once I collect shop coins.’

Even after diligent expansion, with various facilities added, it became crowded and bustling again.

The others were relatively fine.

But Prince Willow, who couldn’t leave the lobby, must be severely stressed being trapped in such a cramped and complex space.

‘The coins needed for expansion aren’t trivial either.’

The shop coins needed for the fourth expansion were 4 coins. Since she wanted to keep 10 coins as a reserve for unexpected situations, she could only expand the lobby after conquering the 9th layer.

‘After expansion, I need to buy exercise equipment and a kitchen. Sigh. Won’t they give me another guaranteed limited draw ticket?’

The labyrinth reflects desires, but shop coins don’t come out of treasure chests.

‘How petty.’

Even complaining couldn’t help it. Serena felt mental fatigue washing over her and entered the capsule bed with Philia.

Since they were long-time friends, this wasn’t the first time sleeping together. But it was the first time sleeping in such a narrow bed instead of a princess or noble lady’s bed that rivaled a decent studio apartment.

Even without deliberately clinging to each other, Philia giggled happily at how their bodies stuck together perfectly.

‘It’s warm and nice.’

Serena snuggled into her friend’s embrace somewhat like acting spoiled and went to sleep.

The next day. Seeing Heuji Jeolmi with better complexion than ever, glowing to the point of being dazzling, Olive exclaimed in admiration.

“Wow. Must have been good last night? Yo?”

“I resolved some of my accumulated deficiency.”

The Countess, in a good mood from sleeping with her friend, didn’t ignore the labyrinth adventurer’s words either.

Ying slowly clenched and unclenched her fist while looking at Serena. She seemed to be pondering how to judge what Olive had just said.

Since it was true that she had slept well relying on her friend’s body warmth, Serena showed mercy. The archer stopped her finger exercises.

“The small bed is fine too. Sometimes sleeping with you would be okay.”

“Really, my lady?”

Count Randy’s face was filled with joy.

Neet gave the 1st group attack team amulets folded in handkerchiefs as gifts after they finished preparing for exploration.

The party arrived at the 31st floor in an even more harmonious atmosphere than Serena remembered.

‘Don’t let my guard down. If there aren’t good chests, I’ll choose combat.’

The party was shaken by the information board at the first crossroads. When the guide requested a magic map, that was exactly when to start acting.

The Princess pretended to be surprised seeing the 31st floor map that even showed shortcut locations.

“This is!”

“Gasp! The map is perfect!”

“Princess! Don’t tell me the god again?”

“Her Highness the Grand Princess has performed another miracle!”

With precedent, the party believed Serena had received map information from the Minotaur God.

Serena seriously denied it. It was passionate acting of a different caliber from Grey’s poor acting skills.

“No. The Minotaur God said nothing to me. This seems to be a characteristic of this layer.”

“A characteristic, you say?”

“Yes. Look at the map.”

Serena traced the 31st floor map from top to bottom, which had many crossroads but no dead ends, all ultimately leading to the final destination, the Leader’s Chamber.

“Isn’t the structure a bit unusual? Doesn’t it look like it’s arranged so you can only choose one among several options?”

“Hearing Lady Serena’s words, it does look that way.”

“Moreover, there are excessively many treasure chests, and telling us in advance which paths have chests is also concerning. I sense an intention to deliberately lure labyrinth adventurers into danger by making them choose paths with chests.”

“I think the Princess is right!”

Party members who had been carefully listening to the Princess gradually agreed.

“I’m against the Princess! Yo!”

Except for Olive.

The guide had a strong rebellious streak. She wondered if she was deliberately opposing, but Olive had her own reasoning.

“Didn’t I say? Yo? That in the labyrinth, you should be faithful to your desires. Shouldn’t we faithfully follow the desire to avoid fighting and open treasure chests?”

“Hearing it, Olive’s words are also right.”

“Logical.”

The party had previously been thoroughly beaten when they ignored desires and split up.

Perhaps because of that, everyone except Count Alpha, who hadn’t been beaten, perked up their ears at Olive’s story.

“Of course, I have no intention of ignoring either desires or treasure chests. Since the map conveniently shows treasure chest grades, I’m suggesting we take only rare treasure chests and choose combat for the rest.”

In this type of game, sometimes the structure completely changes when retrying, but fortunately the labyrinth wasn’t that vicious.

‘Or is it? Games don’t risk lives, but the labyrinth does, so is this side more vicious?’

Anyway, since the structure, events, and even treasure chest grades were identical, it would be a great help for conquest. Serena resolved to make good use of the information gained through death.

“Didn’t you say, Olive, that even when following desires, you must maintain proper limits?”

“That’s right, Princess. Yo.”

Olive seemed to have much to think about, rolling her round eyes around. Serena didn’t rush her.

‘Right now she doesn’t know the path gets blocked, so there’s no point saying anything. Since the first treasure chest is rare grade, after opening that and seeing the path blocked, she’ll listen to me.’

Repeating regressions, she felt her skill at persuading companions with information only she knew had improved.

“Hmm~ I don’t know about chests, but the grades seem kinda like traps~ Should we first go to the sparkly sparkly sparkly thing shown on the map? Yo?”

In the labyrinth where carelessness, ignorance, and mistakes directly led to death.

The experienced guide carefully investigated the path and led the group, as if it was someone else who had nearly died to an assassin spider on the 2nd layer due to carelessness.

As Ying, walking at the back of the party, entered the crossroads, bars blocked the path just as Serena remembered.

The guide, who had cheerfully calmed the anxious party members, saw the rare grade treasure chest and smiled as brightly as if meeting separated family.

“Kyaah! It’s a sparkly sparkly sparkly chest! I call dibs on this!”

“Olive. We can’t see other paths, aren’t we trapped?”

“Black Knight, really! Don’t you know that in times like this, opening the chest opens the door? Yo?”

“Sometimes we really are trapped.”

Ying corrected the wrong information in a calm voice.

Regardless, Olive stroked the rare grade chest with a happy expression.

“My weapon! Or Princess’s armor! Preferably my weapon!”

Olive loudly shouted what she wanted and opened the chest.

Arrows came out of the chest. Befitting the rare grade, they were magic arrows. The quintessential magic arrows of fire and ice attributes were inside, 5 of each for a total of 10 arrows.

“Arrows!”

Ying rejoiced and strode over with her long legs to snatch up all the arrows. The archer wore a faint smile as the weight of her quiver, which stored only magic arrows separately, increased reassuringly.

‘Since there’s a lot of combat, magic arrows are good.’

Though it was regrettable that they were consumables, it wasn’t bad.

“Tsk. Why won’t my weapon come out! I’m getting nervous with just daggers.”

“Come to think of it, Olive is quite active in combat. Now that Count Sirius is here, wouldn’t it be fine for you to step back from battle?”

“Deep labyrinth adventurers like me and Zero do at least 1.5 people’s worth as a minimum. Hey. Radish also did 3 or 4 people’s worth together with his brother. Hey.”

“You’re already doing enough for two people, so don’t worry.”

At the second crossroads, the party chose combat unlike before.

The guide wanted a high-grade treasure chest, but Serena had suggested they balance things out.

The Princess left only the Goblin Shaman and Goblin Archer for the archer to handle and entrusted the battle to the two knights.

‘Arrows and the Count’s attack potions are consumables, and mana is hard to replenish. Stamina recovers quickly with a little rest.’

Even bulked up, a goblin was still a goblin. The goblins were no match for Count Alpha, who had three times their bulk.

When the battle ended, the guide searched the goblin corpses.

After collecting the Goblin Shaman’s gemstone necklace, she also stripped off the unusually flashy robe and thrust it toward the Princess.

“Princess, want to wear it? Hey?”

“That thing?”

Serena looked disgusted at the robe with colors as flashy as feathers of birds living in warm regions. It wasn’t Serena’s taste.

“I heard this through rumors too. They say wearing this increases curse resistance a bit. Hey.”

“Give it here.”

Even if it violated aesthetics, good performance was everything. Heuji’s precious daughter had long abandoned aesthetics with goggles and a crocodile leather helmet.

Serena obediently accepted the shaman’s robe.

“Wear the necklace too. I’m lending this to you. Hey.”

“Does this also have an effect?”

“That’s also a rumor, but they say magic attack power increases a little? But among the working mages, there are hardly any proper mages. Hey. If the Princess uses it and it’s effective, let me know. Hey.”

The gemstone necklace and robe reeked of the characteristic goblin stench. Serena hesitated while trying to drape the robe over her cloak.

“Count. Give me the insecticide.”

“Here it is.”

It wasn’t about being particularly fussy. When taking monster equipment to wear, thorough hygiene management was advisable.

‘There could be bedbugs.’

Fortunately, no bedbugs crawled out and died from the robe. Serena felt relieved and draped the cinnamon-scented robe over her cloak and wore the gemstone necklace.

Perhaps because there was much to gain from byproducts and spoils even when choosing combat, Olive didn’t object when Serena chose combat again.

Of course, at crossroads with rare-grade treasure chests, they chose the treasure chest.

“This ring has a legend. Hey.”

The Princess didn’t believe that legend. Anyway, seeing the Ring of Fate, Serena raised one eyebrow.

‘This came out again?’

Was this divine intervention or a product of coincidence?

Either way, it was certainly a necessary and useful item.

“What I desire is flames to burn that insolent thief!”

Whoosh!

The Princess completely incinerated the party composed only of Goblin Thieves, completing unnecessary revenge, and declared a rest.

‘Since we can rest comfortably at crossroads, we need to rest frequently and conserve stamina.’

A markedly slower pace compared to the first exploration when they had arrived at the leader’s chamber before lunch.

“Princess, are you tired? Hey?”

Taking frequent rests to the point where the guide found it somewhat puzzling, they arrived at the leader’s chamber.

Assault Team 1 of Heuji’s Labyrinth easily finished three consecutive battles.

“No way, monsters really come out from crossroads we didn’t choose?!”

“Without the Princess’s foresight, we would have had to fight 10 times in a row!”

“It was a peculiar labyrinth that taught us that while choice is free, the consequences of choice are also one’s own responsibility.”

“It was easy for someone like Serena who understands the importance of responsibility and duty, but it was a difficult layer for someone like Olive who only pursues immediate gain.”

“Strange. Why does that sound like an insult?”

“Because it is an insult.”

Olive, who had recovered magic stones from the goblins’ chests, shook off the green blood on her dagger.

“First let’s secure the shortcut shown on the map, and check if the path to the 30th floor opened. Also to see if other paths opened, for reporting.”

Securing a safe retreat route for the party was also the guide’s duty.

“Go, Knight! Shield swing!”

Instead of making Ralph-Ralph sounds, the Young Knight shouted “Hiyaah!” and struck the wall with his shield.

The wall crumbled and a hidden path was revealed. The shortcut ended at the second crossroads. The bars leading to the first crossroads were open.

“Treasure chest~”

Olive sang while opening the common-grade treasure chest.

Perhaps because she hadn’t hoped for much, inside was a money pouch mixed with a few gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins.

“Oh!”

“What’s wrong, Count Ralph?”

“The path won’t open!”

When the party entered the room with the treasure chest, the opposite path—that is, the path leading to the stairs going up to the 30th floor—still had its bars down.

They had expected the bars to rise when they opened the treasure chest, but the bars didn’t budge.

“Do we need to fight?”

The party hurriedly went to the center room and defeated the goblins. This time was the same. The lowered bars didn’t rise.

“Are we. trapped?”

The Young Knight’s voice wasn’t as energetic as usual and trembled anxiously.

“Nah. Trapped? We haven’t looked around the whole leader’s chamber, and there are many paths we haven’t taken, Knight.”

Again, the guide comforted the anxious party member with a lively tone.

Serena’s mind briefly froze due to the unexpected situation, but the archer, who had been quietly silent all along, spoke up.

“I remembered.”

“What?”

The Loyal Servant of Darkness doesn’t speak unless absolutely necessary. Since Ying had spoken up, important information would come out this time too.

“I’ve explored this kind of labyrinth before.”

‘Ying was experienced!’

It was disappointing that she had never played this type of game, but who knew there was someone with experience!

The party waited with sparkling eyes for the experienced player to share high-level information.

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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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