Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 266

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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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266. Click Clack

When creatures have full stomachs, their temperament becomes relaxed. This was a biological instinct.

The Princess and Prince quietly ate their meal, cleared the accumulated resentment, and set out to find their respective parties.

Mine-type labyrinths can cause even skilled guides to lose their way. In fact, Seraph had taken wrong turns several times.

A guide cannot always find the correct path, the right way. When mistakes are made, quickly recognizing them and returning to the original position is also a virtue of a guide.

Seraph surprisingly readily admitted his mistakes and quickly turned back. Since he had chosen the path himself, he didn’t even resort to his specialty of blaming others.

Monster attacks were becoming more frequent, but they were carefully proceeding while trusting such a Seraph when the Prince suddenly stopped. It was a dead end.

“We should go back.”

Muffin turned around without hesitation, but the guide who should be leading the party didn’t move.

“Seraph?”

“No.”

Seraph furrowed his brow and stared at the end of the path.

“What’s wrong? Is there something suspicious?”

Serena sensed mana. Due to the mine’s characteristics, with metals and gem ores scattered throughout, subtle mana existed throughout the entire tunnel, interfering with mana detection.

“This is strange. This path is correct.”

“The paths are so complex, it’s easy to get confused. Let’s quickly go to the crossroads.”

“No. This path is right. I’m certain.”

Seraph alternately looked at his self-drawn map, tattered from frequent revisions, and the dead end, wrinkling his handsome face.

If the path were blocked by various debris, one would think the tunnel had collapsed and the original path was cut off. But the dead end before the party now was a flat wall.

Fresh traces of pickaxes and shoveling on solid bedrock were vivid. The color was slightly different from the walls on either side, which seemed to be due to different types of stone.

Muffin made a punching motion.

“If Seraph tells me to hit it, I’ll hit it. But I can’t rot that stone.”

“Tsk. Never mind. Let’s go back.”

Seraph turned around, continuously clicking his tongue as if displeased with himself for taking the wrong path. Serena, who had yielded the path to the guide, walked at the rear of the party with the Bald Man and looked at her sibling’s back of the head.

‘His attitude of immediately admitting mistakes and errors is commendable. But isn’t he admitting and giving up too quickly? If this were the Royal Palace, he would have stubbornly insisted he was right even if death was imminent.’

Quickly admitting mistakes and errors, from another perspective, also meant lacking confidence in one’s own abilities.

‘Should I have suggested investigating more?’

Seraph was walking ahead, but Serena felt lingering regret and glanced back. The dead end was right there behind the party.

‘Looking at it again, it’s just an ordinary dead end.’

Still, next time they took a wrong path, let’s suggest investigating more. The Princess was making this resolution when she felt a strange sense of unease and looked back again.

Behind the party was a dead end. An extremely ordinary dead end. Serena, who was about to turn her head and look forward, soon realized the source of the unease.

‘The distance is the same!’

The party was continuously moving, yet the distance between the dead end and the party remained identical each time she looked back. Serena urgently called the party’s strongest dealer.

“Muffin! Break the wall!”

“What? I can’t rot that stone!”

While adding words to the Princess’s command, Muffin’s body faithfully followed the instruction.

Saying she couldn’t rot the stone was just an exaggeration. The 5-star monk took a stance and tried to strike the wall with the momentum to break rocks.

“Huh?”

“The wall!”

Then something amazing happened. The bedrock that had marked the end of the path trembled and moved. The stone wall shook while maintaining distance from Muffin. It was exactly the distance where her fist couldn’t reach.

The party exchanged glances. The Bald Man exclaimed in surprise.

“Ho ho. Even stones make an effort to avoid being broken!”

“It can’t be a stone! Muffin!”

Seraph, who had figured out the stone wall’s identity, excitedly called Muffin. Muffin also got excited and delivered a powerful kick to the stone wall.

“Die!”

The stone wall tried to escape the kick’s range, but Muffin was faster. The stone wall, hit by the corruption kick, scattered dust and sand as it slowly toppled forward.

Thud. The heavy weight wasn’t fake, as considerable vibration and noise occurred when it fell. The party stuck out their tongues seeing the large mouth behind what had appeared to be the tunnel wall.

“It was a Mimic?”

“I knew this path was right!”

“Ho ho ho. If not for the Princess, we would have been fooled.”

“Now they’re even disguising as walls. From now on, we need to be careful of walls with different colors from the surroundings.”

If Serena hadn’t noticed the unease, they might have died crushed by the heavy monster or been seriously injured while off guard.

While Serena was surprised by the Mimic possibility, Seraph suddenly held his head.

“Ugh!”

“Seraph! What’s wrong?”

“Places where there seemed to be paths but were blocked by walls with different colors from the surroundings…! There were many!”

What if all those walls were Mimics? What if they had missed better paths by being deceived by Mimics?

Seraph was visibly distressed. The Prince glared at the dark tunnel as if he wanted to immediately return and strike down the Mimics.

“These insolent things. Fake monsters dare to deceive me?”

“Ho ho ho, isn’t the effort of the labyrinth and monsters to catch adventurers admirable? We must also make an effort not to be caught.”

“Honestly, I’m angry too, but what can we do about what’s already passed. Let’s quickly reunite with the others.”

“Serena is right. Now that we know they’re Mimics, we can punish all the Mimics that appear from now on.”

“Tsk.”

Seraph grumbled while splitting the Mimic’s back to extract the magic stone. Not making others do it but doing it himself looked admirable to Serena.

Seraph naturally pocketed the magic stone from the Mimic’s body. Having cleared the fake wall that was blocking the path, the party advanced vigorously.

***

“High Priest Hazel, Priest Rihua! Knight Marin!”

Serena and her party, having defeated the Mimic that had despicably disguised itself as a dead end and advanced vigorously, reunited with High Priest Hazel’s group faster than expected.

“Priest Muffin! The Prince and Princess, and even the Effort Priest! Thank goodness you’re all safe!”

Muffin spread both arms and ran to the priests, embracing the Priest of Light who was similarly running with arms spread.

While the two girls enjoyed the joy of reunion, Serena greeted High Priest Hazel. High Priest Hazel bowed to the Princess with a benevolent smile.

“We caused trouble with our mistake. I’m glad you’re safe.”

Serena was about to say this incident was her sibling’s fault, not the priests’ fault, when the Fire Knight spoke up.

“The High Priest of Earth called the Prince’s mistake everyone’s mistake. O Fire, your knight agreed with High Priest Hazel’s opinion. Because failing to stop the Prince was indeed all our fault. As a sinner, I couldn’t face the Princess and was looking at the ground when I discovered something that shouldn’t be missed. That was! The injury the Princess sustained on her leg! O gentle Fire, your servant thought: That needs to be broken and reattached. But since I specialize in cutting, who should I entrust the breaking to!”

“Hehe, please leave it to me. It would be better to move locations. Princess, please lean on me.”

High Priest Hazel extended his arm and embraced Serena with one arm, like when climbing over walls on the 5th Floor. Serena didn’t refuse and leaned into the High Priest of Earth’s embrace.

High Priest Hazel’s embrace after so long smelled slightly of earth, but was still warm and comfortable. Even the earthy smell felt refreshing.

The happy time wasn’t long. The High Priest of Earth carefully set the Princess down at their campsite.

Serena looked around the campsite as she sat. It was a small cavity with one entrance. In different terrain, it would be a good resting place, but the monsters from the 11th Floor were the problem. Labyrinth moles and earthworms could emerge anywhere there was soil.

“Was it okay without traps?”

“Hehe, I reinforced the walls with the Earth’s blessing. Monsters can’t break through, so please don’t worry.”

‘Wow. As expected of a 5-star priest.’

This wasn’t just anywhere but underground, so there were infinite things an Earth priest could do. The 11th Floor was literally High Priest Hazel’s domain.

“Ugh, High Priest Hazel is so lucky. Corruption is useless.”

Sure enough. The Priest of Corruption blasphemed against her own deity while envying another deity’s priest. Muffin’s blasphemy seemed new each time they heard it, making the young priests tremble.

The experienced priests who didn’t tremble gathered around Serena. High Priest Hazel knelt before Serena and personally reached for the Princess’s shoes. Serena was surprised and tried to stop him.

“There’s no need. I’ll take them off.”

“No. Please relax and stay comfortable.”

High Priest Hazel personally removed even Serena’s socks and examined her ankle. Priest Rihua, having calmed her shock, frowned seeing the bizarrely twisted delicate ankle.

“How much pain must you have endured…”

“O gentle Fire! I could say nothing seeing the Princess’s ankle that had healed while grotesquely bent. How difficult and painful it must have been to walk on that foot! Imagining that, your servant could say nothing!”

For someone who repeated “could say nothing” twice, Knight Marin’s mouth never rested. Muffin’s grimace was surely due to Knight Marin, not from seeing Serena’s ankle.

“Hmm.”

The High Priest of Earth let out a contemplative sound. It wasn’t a good sign.

Serena held back the urge to wiggle her toes from anxiety.

“What’s wrong? Is it difficult to heal?”

Seraph, who had been pretending not to care about Serena’s ankle while only glaring at the sole entrance, frowned. The High Priest of Earth relieved the Prince’s worry with a trustworthy voice.

“That’s not the case. However, the Princess will experience some discomfort.”

“Could you explain in detail?”

“The bone hasn’t set properly. I’m sorry, but we’ll need to break the bone twice.”

“Hmm.”

A groan escaped from Serena’s lips as well.

“Twice?”

“Yes. I’m truly sorry.”

“Find another method.”

“I’m fine. Proceed.”

Seraph and Serena spoke simultaneously, their words overlapping. The siblings looked at each other’s faces and raised their eyebrows.

“Are you crazy? Do you enjoy pain?”

“You’re the one who can’t grasp reality. Be grateful that it can be healed.”

“Ah, fine then. Do whatever you want.”

Seraph shrugged his shoulders dramatically and turned his body away openly. Serena gave High Priest Hazel a meaningful look.

“Break it.”

“Princess, please bite down on this.”

Priest Rihua placed a handkerchief in Serena’s mouth. As soon as Serena bit down on the handkerchief, High Priest Hazel’s hand moved. It was decisive and unhesitating, like snapping a branch to throw into a campfire.

‘Aaagh!’

Her ankle broke. She thought they would break it once more immediately, but that wasn’t the case. Priest Rihua healed Serena’s ankle with divine magic received from the light. Then High Priest Hazel broke the newly healed ankle again.

‘Aaaaagh!’

Serena bit down hard on the handkerchief and screamed to her heart’s content in her mind.

Rather than breaking her ankle twice, wouldn’t it have been less painful and more convenient to ask them to use that strength to snap her neck instead, die, and start over again?

Regret was useless now. Serena’s ankle had already been broken twice. Including the 11th Layer, her ankle had been broken three times total, and the Priest of Light and Effort Priest used divine magic on it.

“Light!”

“Hehe, make an effort!”

Just like phantom pain remains after death, the pain from the ankle breaking was vivid, but the broken bone was cleanly mended.

High Priest Hazel rotated Serena’s ankle this way and that.

“Try moving it.”

Serena did as instructed. Her ankle moved smoothly and well. It was hard to believe it had been broken once, healed strangely, then broken again.

“Thank you.”

The priests stopped the Princess as she tried to stand up.

“Though we healed it with the grace given by the great ones of the Heavens, you need to rest. It would be best not to use your ankle today.”

High Priest Hazel used a dagger sheath as a splint to secure Serena’s ankle. Priest Rihua covered Serena’s body with a blanket.

“Princess, please rest here.”

“Thank you.”

She wanted to go search for their separated companions as soon as possible. But if the bone set incorrectly, she would suffer continuously.

Serena accepted their kindness and lay down comfortably. With a tremendous vibration, the chamber shook and stone dust poured down from the ceiling.

The Princess sat up in surprise.

‘You said it was safe!’

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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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