Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 24

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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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24. The One in a Hundred Thousand Man (7)

When the party trudged back to the lobby, Lavenda seemed to read the signs of defeat and welcomed them without complaint. She dampened a handkerchief with water and wiped Krom and Ralph’s faces.

“Lady Serena, what happened?”

Of course, she couldn’t expect such consideration from Philia. When Serena put her index finger to her lips, Philia’s lips twitched but she didn’t pry further.

“Oh my.”

Krom groaned and slumped to the floor. Among the party, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength running with the rustiest joints.

“Shall I give you a massage?”

“I’m dying of pain, you think fiddling around will help? It’ll just hurt more.”

“There are different types of massages.”

The two glanced at Sir Lucas. When Serena deliberately nodded vigorously, Lavenda laid Krom down on a blanket.

When the masseuse began something like a sports massage, Krom made dying sounds.

“This old man’s dying!”

“I told you it’s effective.”

Leaving Krom to Lavenda, Serena entered into discussion with Sir Lucas.

“Why didn’t you attack the Minotaur?”

When it was blinded, couldn’t you have stabbed or slashed its neck or belly? At Serena’s question, Sir Lucas made a troubled expression.

“I once told you that three knights and one mage are needed to capture a Minotaur without casualties.”

“I remember.”

“The Minotaur’s hide is tough and resilient, and its muscles are like steel, making it difficult to wound with ordinary weapons like swords or spears.”

“It certainly deflected my spear!”

“Yes. It also deflected the spear that guard thrust. It would have been the same if I had attacked with my sword.”

“But wouldn’t a sword be different since it has cutting power?”

“It’s useless unless it’s a magic sword. When joining the Royal Knights, you can choose between a magic shield or sword, and I chose the shield.”

Sir Lucas showed the small shield attached to his left wrist.

“Your prowess was remarkable.”

“It was thanks to the auxiliary magic on the shield. Attacking the head would have worked, but.”

Sir Lucas spoke as if it was truly regrettable.

“Princess made a sound and…”

Knights in novels always took full responsibility when something went wrong, but Sir Lucas was really good at blaming others. It was true that Serena had made a sound and given away their position, so it wasn’t wrong.

‘I know, but it still feels bad.’

Even correct words can be unpleasant depending on tone and attitude. Though Serena had a high commoner content, she was angry at Lucas’s continuously insolent attitude.

‘I’m only tolerating it because he’s capable.’

“Minotaurs are strong against physical attacks but very vulnerable to magic, so Princess, perhaps.”

“Impossible. I haven’t learned 2nd-tier magic missile.”

To fire offensive magic at enemies, one must learn magic missile to master the process of firing and targeting.

Serena hadn’t learned magic missile, so her magic could only be fixed in place or move slowly at best.

“What? But can’t you use 3rd-tier ice creation?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I only learned what I wanted.”

“Is that… possible?”

Sir Lucas asked if that wasn’t like running right after crawling, skipping walking.

Here, let me briefly explain magic in this world.

All magic in this world is divine magic from Serena’s past life perspective. Because magic must be learned from the God of Magic.

Without offering sacrifices to the God of Magic and performing rituals, no matter how much personal mana one has or how much magical theory one studies, magic cannot be used.

If magic must be learned from a god, isn’t that divine magic? This was Serena’s perspective from her past life, but people in this world see it differently.

In this world, the God of Magic’s magic and other gods’ divine magic are clearly distinguished.

‘It uses mana and depends on talent.’

Other gods’ divine magic is god-centered. Mana isn’t necessary. Regardless of personal talent, one can only use magic granted by the god, and if the god permits 10 units of power, only 10; if 1 unit, only 1.

What’s important for increasing power isn’t personal talent but faith and divine favor.

The God of Magic is cooler than other gods.

He made it so anyone with talent and mana could use magic. It costs a lot of money, but there’s no discrimination or favoritism.

To become a mage in this world, one must first sense internal mana and contact the God of Magic through ritual. Success means becoming a mage, failure means retry.

Those who succeed in one try are so rare, maybe one per century. Usually, fewer failures indicate more talent. Serena succeeded in three tries and was called a genius.

Contacted the God of Magic? Now it begins.

First, prepare appropriate offerings. Perform a ritual offering them to the God of Magic and choose the desired magic to learn. Sometimes the god decides ‘you should learn this’ and assigns magic.

Here talent matters again.

The God of Magic teaches magic to mages, but obviously, gods aren’t kind private tutors who guarantee results. Few people learn new magic in one go.

The ritual must be repeated until the God of Magic’s automatic response-like will says ‘you’ve learned this magic sufficiently. Go forth.’

Fortunately, senior mages left theory in magic books, making preliminary study possible. But ultimately, handling mana is personal ability.

Since offerings are required, it costs a lot of money, depends on talent, and requires study skills, so learning takes a long time. That’s why mages were rare.

However, mages have an overwhelming advantage. Priests serving gods can only use magic in their god’s domain.

Earth god priests can only use earth-related magic, river god priests only water-related divine magic.

But mages have no such restrictions. If they learn it, they can use magic from all schools.

‘I heard the God of Magic is the ultimate social butterfly in the divine world.’

To be on good terms with all gods enough to cross domain boundaries freely, he must be an incredible super social butterfly.

‘An MBTI test would probably show ESFP.’

Serena trembled at the God of Magic’s greatness. Being close to an introvert herself, just imagining it was overwhelming.

Anyway, if one is well-versed in theory and the God of Magic permits, it’s possible to learn only one 2nd-tier magic and then learn 3rd-tier magic.

Thanks to our social butterfly god’s flexibility, Serena could learn 3rd-tier ice creation after learning only one 2nd-tier temperature control.

‘Normally you should learn more 1st and 2nd-tier magic.’

Serena nodded.

“The God of Magic is quite generous.”

“That’s… impressive in a way.”

Magic shouldn’t be learned like Serena did. Lacking foundation means repeating rituals many times.

Of course, Serena had no intention of wasting precious taxes, so she studied theory thoroughly before performing rituals. Thanks to this, she succeeded in 3rd-tier ice creation in just two tries.

‘He cried when I said I’d stop learning.’

Serena’s magic tutor kept repeating ‘Princess has overflowing talent for magic! You mustn’t stop here!’ before being dragged away. He wasn’t a bad teacher.

Sir Lucas seemed to think Serena had wasted offerings dozens or hundreds of times due to rituals. His eyes, which had become respectful after seeing the bread tree miracle, turned insolent again.

“I see… magical attacks are impossible…”

“Blinding attacks like before are possible. I just need time.”

Using magic on moving targets while moving also requires special training.

“Has the Labyrinth God perhaps given you new revelations?”

Sir Lucas spoke with a slightly hopeful tone. When Serena shook her head with a gloomy expression, Sir Lucas nodded.

“Could you give me some time to think?”

Sir Lucas moved to a corner of the lobby to find a solution for dealing with the Minotaur.

Serena repeated the regret she’d had dozens of times since falling into the labyrinth.

‘I should have studied magic harder!’

I thought it was unnecessary since I was a princess, but the genre was labyrinth escape! Couldn’t they have laid some foreshadowing? I thought it would be a psychological drama, makjang drama, or political thriller!

As Serena screamed silently, Philia approached with quick steps.

“Lady Serena learns magic quickly, so couldn’t you learn magic missile?”

“I don’t have offerings.”

“Would this work?”

Philia opened her pouch to show the gold, silver, and jewels inside. Gems are offerings the God of Magic prefers, but.

“He does like gems, but magic stones and mana herbs are essential. We have magic stones but no mana herbs. And is ritual even possible in the labyrinth?”

“Good point.”

“We might just waste precious offerings for nothing. Even if the ritual fails, the offerings don’t remain.”

Even if contact with the God of Magic fails, offerings used in the ritual disappear. Magic was a field that required spending money like water if talent was lacking.

‘Our forces are insufficient.’

Serena opened her left eye to find her own solution. The currency available for gacha was still 0.

‘How do I get gacha coins? What are limited coins used for?’

We defeated the boss rat that served as both Floor Boss and Stratum Boss, earning shop coins and limited coins.

However, I didn’t know how to obtain gacha coins that could pull one person out of 100,000, and I didn’t know where to use the limited coins.

‘They’ll appear later, right? They will. I believe in you, Labyrinth God!’

It’s human nature to want what you see. Even without money, seeing products makes you want them more. Serena looked at the product list and created a wish list.

“Ouch!”

At the sudden loud sound, she opened her right eye and turned her head.

“You’re killing me!”

“I told you this would make you feel refreshed.”

Lavenda was sitting on top of Krom, grabbing his legs and pulling them up to bend his back.

‘Is that okay? Isn’t that a wrestling move?’

I think I saw a similar technique in the wrestling shows my grandmother loved watching in my previous life?

But Lavenda was a massage expert who had crossed the continent after receiving a partnership proposal from a boss. She must have had a plan.

“Ow ow ow!”

“Feels good, right?”

She has a plan, right?

***

Unable to find a breakthrough, Serena finished creating her wish list focused on supplies and thought about other things.

‘The difference between star grades is bigger than I thought.’

Lord Lucas, whom she had considered at the level of the Royal Knights because he had the same number of stars as the seeds (presumably), was stronger than expected. The ability difference according to star grades seemed larger than Serena had anticipated.

‘Then is he really that strong?’

Serena stared intently at Ralph. That freckle-faced uncle of the quadruplets was the same level as Lord Lucas?

“Hanson.”

“Yes, Princess!”

“Try picking up a wooden sword instead of a spear.”

“Yes, understood!”

Ralph picked up the wooden sword next to Krom. The transparent star filled with yellow and became 2 stars. Serena’s prediction was correct.

“Lord Lucas! This may be rude, but could you lend your sword to Hanson for a moment?”

“Pardon?”

“Just for a moment.”

Even Serena thought it was a rude request. When she deliberately bowed her head, Lord Lucas didn’t hide his displeasure but still unfastened his scabbard from his waist and handed it to Ralph.

“Th-this is a Royal Knight’s sword!”

Ralph trembled with his hands, overwhelmed at suddenly holding a Royal Knights’ sword.

‘This works.’

Three yellow stars sparkled above Ralph’s head. Ralph couldn’t even try swinging it once and just trembled before returning the sword to Lord Lucas.

‘He’s the same level as Lord Lucas? Really?’

Since there are big differences between grades, there must be differences within the same grade too, but they’re both 3 stars anyway. Ralph even had two more stars, though they were gray.

‘Does that mean he can become stronger by two more stars? But if that’s the case.’

Serena looked at Philia, who was sitting by the fountain whining about wanting to wash her hair. If you just muted the sound, she was like a silver fairy sitting by the fountain itself.

One yellow star and four gray stars behind it.

‘What is she really? Our Philia is 5 stars?’

When she changed equipment, the transparent star became yellow. What would need to be changed to make the gray stars yellow?

Just in case, she had Philia hold a spear, wooden sword, and kitchen knife. There were still four gray stars.

“Do I have to fight on the 2nd Floor too? I’ll protect you, Lady Serena!”

She only heard Philia’s determination. While Serena was breaking out in a cold sweat trying to keep Philia from following, Lord Lucas, who had been meditating in a corner, gathered everyone together.

“Everyone, please gather around.”

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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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