Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 224

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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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224. The Magic Least Suited for a Princess in the World

‘The God of Magic is truly merciful.’

Among the great beings dwelling in the heavens, he deserved to be praised as the most merciful. For reference, the most fair deity is Death.

‘He warned me that Death was angry, told me not to do it, yet still taught me one death attribute spell and even pointed out the next magic I should learn. His generosity almost brings me to tears.’

Where else in the world could you find a deity who shows such consideration for lowly beings dwelling on earth?

‘Truly a popular deity. So thoughtful.’

Serena concentrated her mind to use the magic that this thoughtful deity had taught her instead of conversing with the messenger.

“What I desire is.”

Following what was implanted in her head, moving mana as she learned the theory, reciting the incantation and materializing the mental image.

“A powerful explosion.”

She couldn’t think of a proper incantation so she spoke roughly, but fortunately the magic succeeded.

The pirami corpse in the center of the clearing swelled up and burst with a pop. As the pirami exploded, scales and spines, flesh and organs scattered in all directions.

Debris rained down on Serena, who had distanced herself just in case, and the people who had similarly distanced themselves to watch.

“Ugh! Fish scales are attacking me!”

“Urk. The fishy smell.”

“Madam, hide behind me!”

“Wow! A spine got stuck in my body!”

“Slurp slurp.”

“Duri! Don’t lick up the splattered organs!”

Serena wiped away the fish scale that stung her cheek with her sleeve. Even though she had exploded a fresh fish, she felt disgusted.

‘I don’t know about the power. But if used on people, it would definitely lower morale.’

Corpse explosion’s difficulty and power change depending on the freshness(?) and size of the corpse.

Among the corpses currently available, the easiest to obtain and smallest in size were the pirami that could be caught in the 2nd Layer pond.

She had exploded a fish the size of Serena’s pinky finger, yet the fragments flew far and wide. For a 1st tier spell, it had considerable power.

‘It uses a lot of mana too. Is this really 1st tier?’

Death attribute magic commonly required large amounts of mana. Serena frowned as she confirmed how much mana had been consumed after casting the 1st tier spell several times.

Regardless of the Princess’s foul mood, the people around her celebrated the Princess’s successful magic.

Among the shower of flattery, there was one that felt particularly sincere.

“Cough. Am-amazing! I. Cough! No matter how hard I try, it won’t work!”

It was Neet, who like Serena had learned corpse explosion and was struggling to cast the acquired magic.

Despite perfectly mastering the theory, Neet found casting magic difficult. Because mana manipulation was hard and her mental imagery was unclear.

“I, I. Cough. No matter how much I imagine. Cough. I don’t know what a corpse exploding looks like. It’s difficult. Cough.”

“Now that you’ve seen the explosion, you’ll succeed this time.”

“Lady Serena has had a rich imagination since her young days. You used to conceive all sorts of mysterious objects and wonder if they could be created with magic.”

Rich imagination is a necessary talent for mages.

Countess Nex slowly closed her eyes, pleased with her disciple who hadn’t given up on magic and continued studying alone.

“Neet, you have such exceptionally good memory that conversely your imagination is poor. Follow Her Highness’s example and cultivate your imagination.”

“Yes! Cough!”

The people who had been celebrating the successful magic now praised Serena as the champion of imagination and creativity.

Serena closed her eyes pretending to be tired, avoiding people’s gazes.

‘That’s not it though.’

Serena’s creativity and imagination were quite poor for someone who was both a reincarnated person and a regressor.

However, in her previous life, she had many opportunities to encounter fakes that seemed more real than the real thing through sight and sound.

From corpses expressed in pixels, to animatronics, makeup and CG, and even documentaries showing real pig or whale corpses exploding. She had simply recalled and utilized such memories.

If there had been a deity in her previous world, wouldn’t the God of the Internet have been the most fair and generous deity?

She thought that, then corrected herself. The internet was only fair in countries with electricity and communication infrastructure.

“Uncle.”

“Yes.”

Count Randy placed pirami corpses from a bucket in the center of the clearing at Grey’s call.

Count Alpha watched the Count serving as an attendant with a complicated expression and unnecessarily looked back toward the lobby.

Originally, the Imperial Knight had intended to remain in the lobby with the Prince who couldn’t leave the lobby.

But Prince Willow had ordered him to be his eyes and ears, so he had no choice but to come to the clearing and watch the magic demonstration.

Count Alpha sighed and carefully observed everything so he could report what he saw and heard in detail.

“Now that you’ve seen Her Highness’s demonstration, there should be changes in your mental imagery. Try again.”

“Yes! Cough.”

After failing more than ten times, Neet finally succeeded in casting the magic.

Poof!

The pirami exploded and fish debris flew in all directions. Those who had failed to adjust their distance earlier stepped back to escape the explosion radius.

“I succeeded! Cough.”

“Miss Neet. Remember that sensation.”

Neet nodded vigorously. Grey left Neet to Countess Nex and approached Serena.

“Then Your Highness should come with me too. No, rather.”

The Old Man was acting impudent when he saw his aunt behind Count Randy with wide eyes and quickly changed his attitude.

“Your Highness. I have something to experiment with for the advancement of magic. Would you come with me?”

“Where to?”

“The 4th Layer. Aren’t you curious whether corpse explosion works on undead?”

Serena narrowed her brow. There were too many complications to simply say it wouldn’t work.

‘This is official magic recognized by Death, and all other undead are just necromancy. Maybe it’s surprisingly like Turn Undead and kills them in one hit?’

Priests of Death were rarer than necromancers, so few records remained. Instead, there was one widely known folk tale.

Priests of Death ignore the strength of undead and send them to Death’s side in one blow. They cast instant death spells limited to undead.

‘That’s a miracle used by priests, but what if magic is the same? What if the power of the official crushes illegal pirated versions?’

The temptation of ‘what if’ clouded Serena’s less than cool and flawed reasoning.

‘There’s nothing bad about experimenting, right?’

If it doesn’t work, that’s expected, and if it does work, that would be very good.

“Me! I want to see undead exploding!”

The Guide volunteered on the spot. Count Alpha also volunteered, and Ying quietly stepped forward. Count Randy also came along, perhaps his scholarly enthusiasm stimulated.

Grey naturally joined the party as the one who proposed the experiment. The hastily formed party leisurely moved to the teleportation room.

“Is it alright for a young child to go to a layer where undead appear?”

Count Alpha carefully worried about the evil influence that the undead’s miasma and corruption might have on the child.

The Imperial Knight had a serious personality despite his flashy and light appearance. He sent subtly reproachful looks, wondering how there wasn’t a single adult among them who worried about the child.

“Ah~ It’s fine. It’s fine.”

“Count Landriole?”

Count Alpha gave Count Randy, the guardian, an incredulous look. Count Randy patted Grey’s shoulder and laughed heartily, unlike himself.

“Haha! Our Grey is a brave child! He won’t be scared by mere undead!”

“But he’s scared of Aunt~”

“I respect Uncle and Aunt.”

Grey’s eyes sparkled as he smiled brightly.

The party took the zipline from the 3rd Layer, using the shortcut to enter toward the Path of Darkness on the 4th Layer.

Count Alpha trembled his thick eyelashes finely, perhaps afraid of returning to a layer with bad memories.

The deeper they went down the stairs, the thicker the darkness became.

The Labyrinth’s strange light and darkness. Grey, who had only heard about it and was seeing it directly for the first time, was amazed.

“Wow! Is this that strange darkness? Please turn on the lantern quickly! I’m scared!”

‘He’s not scared, he probably wants to observe the changes that occur when the magic lantern is lit.’

“Huh? Wasn’t our young master not scared at all?”

“I’m not scared of undead, but I’m scared I might step wrong on the stairs and tumble.”

Truly an Old Man. His logic was flawless.

The Guide admitted defeat in the war of words and lit the magic lantern.

How long had they walked in the Labyrinth’s mysterious darkness with the light of the magic lantern?

The Guide and Archer, and the two mages sensed the approach of undead.

“One chicken bone ahead.”

“Your Highness. Try using corpse explosion.”

I was planning to do that without being told. Serena nodded halfheartedly and prepared her magic.

The Skeleton Labyrinth Chicken, which detected life forms later than the party, approached the group with its white bones rattling.

Serena cast the corpse explosion she had prepared.

“What I desire is an explosion to shatter bones!”

Even though the magic succeeded, the spell was not cast. It was the same as when lightning was blocked by the ceiling.

‘What a waste.’

As expected, a priest’s divine magic was different from ordinary magic. It seemed to be a limitation of magic that only had an official partnership rather than direct subordination.

The Skeleton Labyrinth Chicken flapped its wing bones and approached the group in an instant.

Count Alpha tried to smash the skeleton with his axe, but a child’s characteristically high-pitched voice stopped him.

“Brother Sirius! Stop! Please hold out until Her Highness the Princess uses her new magic.”

Count Alpha furrowed his sharp eyebrows but complied with his attendant’s impudent request.

“Should I cast corpse explosion once more?”

“What? Of course not. The magic just succeeded perfectly but didn’t work. Then we need to change the experiment.”

“Wow. How can the young master be so insufferable?”

Olive expressed anger on behalf of Grey’s impudent words. Serena agreed inwardly and sent Grey a look that said ‘so what.’

“We confirmed that corpse explosion doesn’t work on intact undead, so now it’s time to experiment on damaged undead. Cast mana explosion and immediately attack with corpse explosion.”

Grey was insufferable, but his words were logical and worth experimenting with.

“Count Alpha. Be careful!”

“Understood.”

Serena burst her mana to collapse the Skeleton Labyrinth Chicken. Without resting, she immediately cast corpse explosion.

Rattle. The bones separated by the mana explosion began to find their places and stick together.

“The bones are attaching! You need to cast faster!”

Casting magic and immediately casting the next spell requires considerable concentration and talent.

Moreover, if the next spell to be cast is new magic learned less than a full day ago, it’s even more so.

‘My fists are crying.’

Serena, who was skillfully manipulating mana for her third casting, soon dismissed her other thoughts.

‘Did the required mana amount increase?’

The amount of mana required when casting magic just before and this time was different. Serena gritted her teeth and cast the corpse explosion spell.

Then something amazing happened. Something that probably only Grey, who led the experiment, had expected.

Some of the skeleton’s bones that had collapsed on the floor and were moving to find their places exploded.

Chicken bones that cracked and split like when Pirami exploded scattered in all directions.

The bones that didn’t explode were also caught in the explosion and fragmented and shattered. The Skeleton Labyrinth Chicken became completely incapacitated.

Count Alpha, who was close to the blast center, blocked the explosion impact and pouring sharp bone fragments with his shield.

“The explosion power is different from when we fought Pirami.”

Count Randy, who watched the explosion from a safe place, analyzed coolly.

“The bone fragments explode and attack the surroundings, and the power of the explosion itself is added to that. It’s a very frightening attack magic. To think this is 1st tier.”

“It doesn’t seem like just 1st tier. As much mana was consumed as casting 3rd tier magic.”

I thought a lot of mana was only needed when controlling undead, but considerable mana was also required to explode corpses.

“That explosion just now was death attribute. Since you can simultaneously perform physical and death attribute magic attacks, it’s very useful. The Master of Mysteries seems to have granted Your Highness the most useful magic.”

At Grey’s words, Count Alpha stared at his own hand as if understanding something. His gauntleted hand trembled uncontrollably, feeling overwhelming fear.

“It’s natural that Brother Sirius suddenly became scared. All life fears death. This is really.”

“It would be better when fighting people than monsters. You know. Getting angry about dead comrades, but if corpses explode, it would be really exciting. You know.”

Olive intercepted what Grey was about to say. Since the grinning guide hit the point exactly, the old man didn’t get angry.

“You can also freely control the explosion location with corpse manipulation.”

The genius alchemist came up with a cruel yet efficient strategy with his good head.

“Morale will hit rock bottom.”

Count Alpha’s handsome face was shadowed as if the mere imagination was frightening.

Serena resolved to definitely recruit Neet to Huji.

‘I only got permission for corpse explosion and it’s this much. Neet, who’s a real necromancer, would be stronger. I can’t let the Empire take her.’

Separate from learning useful magic, the path to conquering the 9th layer remains distant.

‘The explosion power is decent, but it attacks allies too… It’s better to use attribute arrow magic multiple times instead.’

Following the God of Magic’s advice, do I need to learn the 4th tier mana attribute magic called mana field and its applications to defeat the bull head?

‘But that would take too long.’

Serena knows herself well. Though she’s somehow managing with reincarnation and regression benefits, she’s actually just an ordinary person who’s stupid, lazy, and likes to play.

She learned 5th tier lightning immediately through mental imagery, but other 5th tier attributes would take at least a week to master one.

Serena pressed her forehead as her head ached. Count Alpha, whose hands had been trembling, wrapped his arms around himself.

“I’m, I’m sorry. The fear won’t easily go away…”

He was afflicted with a fear status ailment from the corpse explosion, and being on the 4th layer where he had bad memories, he couldn’t easily regain his composure.

“Since the experiment is over, let’s return to the lobby.”

“I’m, I’m sorry for showing such a pathetic appearance…”

The sight of a handsome, dignified knight unable to endure fear and trembling stimulated people’s hearts in various ways.

Olive covered her mouth. Through her spread fingers, you could see the corners of her mouth rising.

“I hate Imperial Knights, but I might not hate the Black Knight!”

“Olive. Apologize to Lady Alpha.”

“What’s Lady Alpha like? Is she pretty?”

When his wife was mentioned, Count Alpha reached inside his armor to grasp the pendant around his neck and closed his eyes.

It was a locket pendant perfect for containing a wife’s portrait or hair.

He seemed to be trying to strengthen his resolve by thinking of his beloved family.

‘Why does he wear something like that around. How ominous.’

Having a pregnant wife back home was already worrying, but to have a locket pendant too. Serena was uncomfortable with the Black Knight who was subtly accumulating death flags one by one.

‘Would secretly stealing that and making him lose it be a death flag, or would letting him keep it be a death flag.’

Grey also seemed worried about Count Alpha, who remained terrified, and approached closer.

“Strange. The armor should have status ailment protection enchanted on it.”

‘Cold-hearted old man. He was worried about the armor, not the person.’

“Since it’s for monster subjugation units, maybe they overlooked mental-type status ailment protection. Monster-inflicted status ailments are no joke either, so this needs to be corrected…”

Unable to take the zipline with someone trembling, the party waited on the 3rd layer for Count Alpha to come to his senses.

Count Alpha held his not-so-close attendant in his arms, feeling body warmth while trembling quietly. The old man skillfully stroked and patted the knight’s head.

‘The status ailment is stronger than I thought.’

Come to think of it, the fear inflicted by Shadow Tigers was no joke either. Except for the experienced Ying, didn’t everyone tremble?

Seeing the knight trembling from a status ailment reminded me of a game boss that was too strong for anyone to know how to defeat, but once its weak status ailment resistance was discovered, it instantly became a punching bag.

‘It got hit by all basic status ailment magic, so even though it was a turn-based game, you could win without getting hit. It was the easiest boss battle in the world.’

A boss that wasted its turn trembling in fear.

Serena, who was reviewing the corpse explosion magic with her eyes closed, opened her single eye when something occurred to her.

“Grey.”

“Yes.”

“Minotaurs have excellent physical defense but low magic defense.”

“That’s right. Why?”

“Why bull head? You know? Bull head appears on the 9th layer? You know? Are we eating beef?”

Olive brightened up and joined their conversation. Serena ignored the guide and asked Grey.

“Do they also get status ailments easily?”

Grey, who had been surprisingly gently comforting Count Alpha, chuckled as if it was a trivial question.

“Of course. Their heads are empty, so mental-type ailments finish them off.”

At that moment, the death of the 9th layer Minotaur was confirmed.

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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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