Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 216

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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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216. Red Sand

“Why didn’t you say this earlier?”

“It was long ago, so I forgot.”

“At least you remembered now. Speak quickly.”

“The stairs open when you defeat the final Labyrinth Rat Leader of the current layer.”

“Then we can’t return to the lobby until we clear this layer?”

When the archer nodded, the party expressed disappointment. Still, they weren’t too anxious.

Since the Princess had insisted on bringing plenty of supplies, they had enough food, water, potions, bandages, and other necessities for labyrinth exploration.

“Damn. They force combat and won’t let us retreat?”

“A labyrinth that’s easy to navigate, has no traps, and only treasure chests and monsters. Exactly what Olive wanted.”

Olive roughly tousled her black hair.

“I shouldn’t have said anything! My subconscious balanced the difficulty, and now we’re stuck in a layer that’s exactly like that!”

“It seems the Minotaur God heard your voice.”

“No, why does that god ignore everything else but listen to something like this?”

“Ying. Do you remember anything else?”

At Count Alpha’s serious question, Ying lowered her elegant eyes and fell into thought. The entire party, including Serena, watched the archer intently.

This taciturn labyrinth adventurer sometimes acted like she would answer, then completely shut her mouth.

Fortunately, she didn’t do that this time. Ying opened her mouth again, as if more memories had surfaced.

“The final leader’s chamber battle of the layer wasn’t consecutive fights.”

“We just need to defeat the Labyrinth Rat Leader?”

“Was the leader very strong? What was the monster composition like?”

The archer’s deep, dark eyes gazed steadily at the two knights who had asked questions. The two knights felt an inexplicable dignity and grew tense.

Ying’s refined lips moved.

“On the final floor, all the crossroads monsters appeared simultaneously.”

“How could anyone beat that!”

Shocked by this information, the guide couldn’t help but protest.

Serena’s hand instinctively went to her forehead. She felt dizzy.

“Olive. Calm down. Does that mean if we choose combat at every crossroads, monsters will swarm out?”

Ying shook her head, indicating that wasn’t the case. The party sighed in relief.

Count Alpha frowned on his handsome face and crossed his arms.

“Still, seeing that Ying survived, it must have been a manageable assault. We should be able to do it too.”

“Count Alpha is right!”

The young knight clenched his fist and tried to boost the slightly dampened morale, but Ying looked at them both as if asking what they were talking about.

“We were wiped out.”

“What? How did you escape, Miss Ying?”

“After confirming everyone’s death, I used a Blue Bird’s Wing.”

“How did you know the path would open if you defeated the floor leader?”

“After escaping, I provided information to another party to recover the corpses. That party succeeded in clearing it, so I heard it as payment for information.”

“You wanted to recover your comrades’ bodies, so why didn’t you accompany that party?”

“They said I was unlucky.”

“Puhaha! That’s so like Zero!”

Zero’s Ying. A nickname earned from disbanding every party she joined. Most of the reasons for party dissolution were total annihilation.

From the perspective of superstitious labyrinth adventurers, it was truly a nickname they wouldn’t want in a teammate.

The archer ignored the guide’s mocking laughter and revealed additional information.

“Even with many monsters, they all die if you just kill the floor leader.”

“So if you’re confident in your skills, choose the treasure chests. Interesting.”

“To safely escape this layer, we should choose combat as much as possible.”

“We should. We don’t have any doves either.”

The party checked if any new paths had opened, but the bars didn’t budge. Since attacking the bars was futile, they eventually took the direct route to the leader’s chamber.

“There are so many chests, but they’re all just mirages~ Is there anything hidden here?”

Before going down to the 32nd floor, the guide investigated the leader’s chamber again. She searched thoroughly, even the spectator seats, but found nothing.

“Ugh! How can there be no chests? Even if there were lots of chests on the way here, there should be some courtesy!”

Having learned that the treasure chests at the crossroads were mirages, the guide demanded courtesy from the labyrinth.

Serena kicked at the white sand on the floor and said casually,

“Who knows. There might be treasure chests buried in the sand.”

“Gasp! I never thought of that!”

Olive got excited as if she would dig through the sand immediately, then became disappointed when she realized it would be meaningless labor without knowing the exact location.

“Let’s go down.”

‘If there really were chests buried, there would be hints or items to show their location.’

Anyway, Serena had spoken without much thought.

Heuji’s Labyrinth 1st group attack team carefully descended to the 9th Layer’s 32nd floor.

At the first crossroads, the party could choose from 3 paths. This time too, it was composed of 2 treasure chests and 1 combat.

With advice from the experienced member, the party chose combat.

The monster composition that greeted the party in the combat room was similar to the 31st floor.

Ralph, who was collecting loot after an easy victory, found this strange.

“I thought the monsters would get stronger or increase in number, but since they didn’t, it’s odd.”

“You don’t understand, Knight. The difficulty here is incredibly high.”

“Really? Is that so?”

Olive, who had finished extracting magic stones from the goblin’s chest, washed her hands and dagger with water.

“We’re fine because we just came down from the lobby and only passed one floor, so we’re fresh. But imagine clearing it normally. From the 1st to 30th floor, never being able to leave, no supply replenishment, never being able to sleep peacefully, just going straight down.”

Olive made a disgusted expression as if just talking about it drained her energy.

“By at least the 20th floor, the delicious food would run out and you’d have to eat the tasteless labyrinth diet. Arrows and daggers would run low, and you’d have used lots of potions. In that state, could you ignore treasure chests? If you don’t resupply there, you’d die without even being able to fight.”

Though it wasn’t cold, Olive hugged herself and shivered. This was the opposite of usual, when Ralph would tremble at Olive’s words.

“Knight, honestly tell me. Did you think clearing the labyrinth would be this manageable?”

“What? N-no, I didn’t!”

“Hey. I can tell you’re right from how you can’t look me in the eye. But this isn’t such an easy task.”

Olive started to point at the alchemist and princess with her dagger, then realized it was very rude and flipped it to point with the handle instead.

“The Count is overpowered, but the Princess is even more so. This is beyond unreasonable—it’s a miracle bestowed by the Minotaur God himself. If the Empire’s Grand Mage could have the Princess join a labyrinth conquest, he’d prostrate himself in gratitude.”

He wouldn’t prostrate himself, but he kept trying to sell off his grandsons and the nation’s handsome men and beautiful women.

Unfortunately, since the Princess had Heuji Jeolmi as a friend and another Heuji Jeolmi as a sibling, his sales performance was lackluster.

“So the similar monster strength appearing in this layer is appropriate for difficulty balance. The monsters will gradually get stronger anyway. Instead of the crossroads monsters continuing to appear similarly, the floor leader might be a strong one.”

Olive sheathed her dagger.

“Anyway, what I want to say is this. Offer prayers of gratitude to the Princess and the Minotaur God every day. As a bonus, pray that the Princess wants to conquer just one more labyrinth with this precious Olive.”

Olive’s story ended as always with “please conquer just one more labyrinth with me.”

But since the preceding content was serious, everyone listened seriously and didn’t scold Olive.

Of course, Olive’s cool moment didn’t last long.

“Waaah! My shiny shiny shiny shiny chest!”

When choosing paths, the chest grades aren’t revealed. Instead, as if to make you regret your choice or to tease you, you could check the treasure chest grade after making your selection.

The party chose combat and missed a magic-grade chest. Olive reached her hand through the bars and cried pitifully.

Count Alpha seemed to have trouble accepting the extreme behavior shown by the renowned labyrinth adventurer, rubbing his face with a tired expression.

Combat over chests. Rest after combat.

The party prioritized safety and steadily advanced, breaking through the 32nd floor and clearing the 33rd floor too.

In the 34th floor leader’s chamber, they encountered a familiar face after a long time.

Moooooo!

They were reunited with the Minotaur that had wiped out the party in the 2nd Layer.

Though they had seen it beforehand at the crossroads, actually meeting it in the leader’s chamber felt refreshing.

Like the one from the 2nd Layer, it was smaller and unarmed, so weaker than a real Minotaur.

But even if smaller, it was still a Minotaur. The majesty of the bull monster was impressive to see again.

Moooooo!

The bull monster snorted and charged at the party, aiming its deadly horns.

Crash!

The young knight and the Minotaur collided. The Imperial Knight’s axe, no longer ablaze since the blessing had ended, struck the Minotaur’s neck.

Minotaurs have good physical defense, making their thick hide impenetrable to ordinary weapons.

Of course, knights specialized in monster subjugation know this fact. When the earth-attribute axe cut through the monster’s hide and provoked it, the bull turned its head toward the Imperial Knight, and a magic arrow pierced the crown of its head.

Though it was a large monster that could still breathe even with an arrow lodged in its brain, it was fine.

An ice spike shot by Serena pierced the Minotaur’s heart.

“Everyone did well! Leave the butchering to me! Yo!”

“We won. Tonight’s dinner is steak.”

Count Randy removed the goblin armor from his subspace bag and collected beef instead.

Since there was no longer a need to hastily craft weapons by extracting bull horns, they also obtained an intact bull’s head with horns.

Clang. The sound of bars opening was heard. The guide, who had been cheerfully collecting intermediate magic stones, shouted sharply.

“Another one’s coming!”

The party was startled. On the 34th floor, except for paths marked with “?” on the signboard, they had chosen all battles, so there should have been only one leader’s chamber battle. For reference, the “?” was just a clearing good for resting.

Whether the party was confused or not, another Minotaur walked out from the path where the bars had risen.

Its build was identical to the Minotaur the party had killed, but there was a difference.

“A hammer?”

The newly appeared Minotaur wielded a massive hammer like Count Alpha’s double-bladed axe.

Moreover, it wore metal armor on its upper body to protect its chest.

Moo moo. Mooooooo-!

The Minotaur let out a roar that shook the arena. The party’s ears rang and their feet became heavy.

The bull-headed monster looked directly at the princess with murderous eyes, as if it knew who posed the greatest threat.

Snort snort.

The Minotaur snorted while stamping its feet. The bull monster kicked up sand, targeting only one person – Serena.

Their movements had already become sluggish due to the sand, but with the status ailment inflicted by the Minotaur making their feet heavy, it was difficult to move on the sand.

Two knights enlarged their shields and blocked the path in front of the princess, who couldn’t flee far.

Crash! The two knights’ shields collided with the Minotaur. The 2-to-1 advantage for the knights was only momentary.

Mooooooo!

The heavy hammer aimed for the young knight’s exposed side. Ralph was sent flying without even letting out a scream and crashed into the arena wall.

“Knight!”

The armor that had been protecting the knight was dented and crushed like a car in a major accident.

While Serena, Ying, Count Alpha, and Count Randy faced the Minotaur, the guide ran to treat the knight.

“What I desire is sharp ice!”

An ice spike, completed by supplementing a crude incantation with powerful imagery, pierced the Minotaur’s snout.

Count Alpha’s axe struck the bull monster’s neck.

Unable to cut through completely in one strike, he swung his axe two, three times in succession, barely managing to split the monster’s neck bone.

“Huff, huff.”

The Imperial Knight calmly caught his breath and asked about his comrade’s condition.

“Is Count Hanson alright?”

“How is his condition?”

“I have more high-grade potions here!”

Serena and Count Randy walked with heavy feet, sinking into the sand, toward Ralph who had been struck by the hammer and sent flying with no word since.

Olive had reached Ralph first and examined his condition, but had nothing particular to say.

She didn’t pour potions, remove armor, or perform any treatment for the injured – she just stood still with her back turned.

‘No way.’

Her thoughts, always flowing negatively, predicted a terrible outcome. Serena tried to think positively, following the example of the always-positive young knight.

“Did Count Ralph injure his bones so we shouldn’t touch him?”

“He’s dead.”

The guide answered matter-of-factly, abandoning her characteristic sarcastic tone.

Upon hearing those words, Serena and the count stopped walking. Olive crouched down, removed Ralph’s helmet, and straightened his head that had been hanging forward.

A young face with blood at the corners of his mouth was revealed. The guide’s hand swept over his eyelids, closing the turbid eyes with dilated pupils.

“What a shame. He was the best knight I’ve ever met.”

Olive laid Ralph straight, who had been lying sprawled like a discarded doll.

“We’ll bury him in the lobby, right? Since we can’t return now, we’ll put the knight’s armor in the count’s bag, and the Black Knight can carry his body. If we carelessly leave him behind and his corpse mysteriously disappears, there’ll be too much empty space in the coffin which would be sad, and if we reunite with him as undead, it would be even sadder! Come on, let’s move!”

Serena moved again. Giving up on walking with heavy feet, she crawled on all fours and checked the knight’s pulse with sand-covered hands.

This wasn’t the first time she had seen Ralph’s death.

Yet strangely, she couldn’t take her eyes off the young man’s face, which had turned pale, making his freckles stand out.

Serena started to call for Ying but stopped.

‘Get it together, Serena. Ralph didn’t die.’

Ralph had died, but at the same time, he hadn’t died. If Serena died, all of this would become as if it never happened.

Serena could turn it back. So there was only one thing Serena needed to do now.

Not to kneel and stop before the knight’s death, but to get up and go to the next floor.

She just needed to gather as much information as possible and conquer the 9th Layer with minimal casualties.

“Your words are right. For Count Ralph’s sake too, we must quickly conquer this layer.”

As time passed, the feet that had become heavy from hearing the Minotaur’s roar became light again.

Serena frowned at the blood-soaked sand, then rubbed it with her foot and covered it with white sand.

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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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