Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 31

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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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31. The Mystery of the Labyrinth (1)

The group followed Olive in bewilderment at her casual attitude, as if she were just going to buy snacks. Philia and Lavenda also somehow joined the party.

The group quickly arrived at the 1st Floor Captain’s Room that led to the stairs.

Olive was humming when she saw the corpse of the Labyrinth Rat Leader and frowned.

“Ugh, I really hate undead. They’re impure, they damage weapons, they’re just beggars. There’s nothing to gain from them. I thought it would be at least the 3rd floor since undead Labyrinth Rats appeared.”

“Don’t undead appear when the floors are low?”

“Usually they appear after the 10th floor, Sir Knight. This is it, this is it.”

Olive raised the right corner of her mouth and smiled. Her eyes were cold.

“The difficulty of this labyrinth is no joke, right? But considering that this guy serves as both Floor Boss and Stratum Boss… isn’t it over Grade 5? What do you think, Zero?”

“Too early to judge.”

“That’s true, but we should prepare our hearts in advance so we won’t be as surprised when strong enemies suddenly appear, right?”

True to her boastful promise to chatter away so they should just deal with it, Olive didn’t rest her mouth for even a moment.

“Princess, Countess, Mysterious Stranger, please be careful on the stairs!”

“Wait. I shall create light.”

As Serena was about to create a light orb with magic, Olive and Ying bounded down the steep, high stairs where the floor was barely visible. They were more like mountain goats traversing cliffs than rabbits.

Ralph stayed at the rear for Philia, who was slow.

“Lady Serena, let’s go together.”

“We’ll wait for you, so come down slowly.”

Olive and Ying also didn’t complain about the group’s slow pace and waited at the bottom of the stairs.

When Serena created light with magic, Olive’s round eyes became even rounder.

“Princess, you really know how to use magic? Really?”

“How impudent from earlier! Lady Serena is!”

“Quietly come down!”

Serena cut off Philia before she could mention genius and spoke honestly. They would find out anyway when they saw Lucas and the Minotaur’s corpse.

“Don’t expect too much. I only learned ice creation to make shaved ice in summer. The only attack magic I can use is ice arrow.”

“That’s 3rd tier! I thought you were just playing around with a few 1st tier basic magic spells at most, but you can use 3rd tier?”

Wow. While Olive was genuinely exclaiming in admiration rather than teasing, Philia finished coming down the stairs. Ralph, who had been helping Philia from the rear, stepped forward.

“I’ll take the lead from here.”

“But shouldn’t the guide take the lead?”

“Since Miss Olive has no weapon, please stay behind me.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Olive grinned and stood behind Ralph. Labyrinth spiders attacked the group several times, but Ralph handled them all. Ying shot down the labyrinth spiders that attacked from behind with her bow.

Each time the labyrinth spiders died, they made cute sounds like small birds, creating an eerie atmosphere.

“They chirp like chicks.”

“It’s disgusting…”

Lavenda and Philia, who were coming down to the 2nd floor for the first time this round, were creeped out. Serena warned the faint-hearted women in advance.

“Soon we’ll see the corpses of Krom, Lucas, and the Floor Boss here. Prepare yourselves mentally.”

“If you really can’t bear to look, hide behind this wall.”

“It’s okay. I’ll do it together.”

“I cannot let Lady Serena see such terrible things alone.”

The two faint-hearted people steeled their resolve, each stating their reasons.

After passing through the angular path where pillars and walls were about half restored, a wide circular space appeared. Serena checked if the three corpses were still there. They were all intact.

She was especially worried that Olive might have looted the Minotaur corpse thinking ‘what a windfall,’ but it was perfectly fine.

‘No. She might have wanted to loot but couldn’t because she had no tools like a knife.’

Serena’s suspicion ended with Olive’s scream.

“Crazy! Why is a Minotaur here!”

Olive jumped in place upon seeing the Minotaur’s corpse. Ying, who had been silently guarding the rear of the group, also left formation and approached the bull monster’s corpse.

“What do you mean? Didn’t you say you came up from this floor to the 1st floor? Didn’t you see this corpse while coming up?”

Let’s say Olive and Ying couldn’t see the human corpses because they had no lighting tools like lanterns. But the Minotaur corpse was large enough that it would be hard to pass by without seeing it.

‘There’s also the smell of blood.’

The burnt smell had faded, but the smell of blood hadn’t. Rather than just passing by thinking ‘of course there’s a smell of blood since it’s a labyrinth!’ it would be normal to check what had happened.

“It’s possible not to see it. Right?”

Olive crossed her arms and stood on one leg. Her posture was very delinquent while simultaneously balanced.

“How should I explain this. In labyrinths, you see. Just because everyone entered the same labyrinth doesn’t mean they entered the same labyrinth.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is something I actually experienced.”

Olive scratched her black curly hair as she explained.

“Say Party A and Party B enter a labyrinth. Party A entered 10 minutes before Party B. Then you’d think the two parties could meet inside the labyrinth, right?”

“If there’s only a 10-minute difference, they should be able to meet. Wouldn’t they encounter each other on different floors at least?”

“But that’s not how it works! Labyrinths aren’t like that! Right?”

Olive clapped her hands and focused the group’s attention.

“Come on, gather around. Right. This is really important. Labyrinths have completely different concepts of time and space from the outside. We were on the 2nd floor, but the 2nd floor we were on and the 2nd floor the Princess’s group was on are different places. We were in the same but different places!”

The others seemed not to understand, but Serena roughly grasped it. Thanks to her knowledge from her previous life.

‘For 100,000 people being swallowed, there were few people we encountered, so I wondered where everyone went… They’re all wandering separately.’

It’s similar to instance dungeons in games. When someone enters a labyrinth, only that person exists in that labyrinth. Others wander alone in identical or similar labyrinths.

“So you’re saying each person has their own labyrinth.”

“Right! That’s it, Princess! As expected of the Princess! An intellectual! An educated person!”

The people trapped in the labyrinth that Serena needs to save are all wandering in their own individual labyrinths.

‘When I draw people from the gacha, those wandering people get transferred to my labyrinth.’

Where are people before being drawn? After solving that mystery, a new question arose.

‘Then what about people who die while wandering before I draw them?’

Serena had already spent two days in the labyrinth. If people with mobility issues or newborn babies were dropped alone in the labyrinth, it was enough time for them to die and become cold corpses.

When she drew Lucas, it was right after he fell so he was fine, and Olive and Ying were labyrinth experts so they were okay. But what about the others?

‘Surely they don’t die if I don’t draw them quickly.’

Wasn’t the number of people available for drawing gradually decreasing without her noticing?

Serena hurriedly looked at the gacha window with her left eye. It only showed over 100,000 without detailed numbers, so she couldn’t tell if people were dying.

She became a little anxious.

“How long did you wander on the 2nd floor? Do you know how much time has passed since being swallowed by the labyrinth?”

“There’s nothing more stupid than keeping time in a labyrinth. Right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you. Time and space are different in labyrinths.”

Olive looked at Serena’s group’s disheveled appearance and the battle traces on the 2nd floor and guessed.

“Princess, you’ve been here for several days, right? We walked for about 10 minutes. Right, Zero?”

Ying nodded in agreement with Olive’s words. People who were still digesting the story about different spaces suffered when time was added on top.

“So you’re saying time also flows differently in labyrinths?”

“It definitely flows differently on each floor. This is a somewhat exaggerated rumor to emphasize the mystery of labyrinths, but~”

An adventurer party entered a labyrinth and didn’t come out for 10 years. Everyone thought the party had been wiped out.

But one day after 10 years, the adventurer party emerged from the labyrinth in healthy condition. Despite 10 years passing, they looked not much different from when they entered the labyrinth.

When people asked what they had been doing for 10 years, the adventurer party was shocked. They answered the people.

“We only spent a month.”

Though it was said to be an exaggerated rumor, Serena had heard similar stories. Indeed, Lavenda’s complexion was pale.

“Excuse me, but it’s just a rumor.”

Lavenda brought up stories about Messa Labyrinth among the rumors she couldn’t tell due to Lucas’s reign of terror.

“The story that island residents from 200 years ago are still alive in Messa Labyrinth, could it be…”

“Hmm~ I’ve never been to Messa Labyrinth because the Empire forced unfair contracts. But I’ve heard similar stories. Zero, have you been there?”

“It was Grade 9.”

“I know that too. Anything else?”

Ying rolled her black eyes for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“I saw the opposite.”</Human: You are an ELITE PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATOR for Korean web novels (COMMERCIAL QUALITY).

“The opposite?”

“A party that came out after a week of entry testified they had been in the Labyrinth for over a year.”

“You heard that? There are opposite cases like this too~”

“The higher the Labyrinth’s grade, the more severe the spacetime distortion becomes. If you act individually or split the party, it would be good to keep this in mind.”

Throughout her long explanation, Ying looked straight at Serena. It felt like a warning specifically telling her, as the party’s leader, to keep this in mind.

“Then! While Lady Serena was on the 2nd Floor, could there have been a time gap between me and Lady Serena?”

Philia grabbed Serena’s arm tightly with a pale face.

“Let’s stay together from now on! We must!”

“That’s not quite right either, Countess.”

Olive looked at Philia and grinned. She had been smiling whenever she looked at Philia, which was perfectly natural considering Philia’s beauty.

“You’ve heard that the Labyrinth reflects desires, right? Everyone must have heard this. This is also true, so even if you’re on different floors, if the Countess strongly desires to be in the same time as the Princess, it can be reflected.”

It wasn’t empty words to separate Philia who would interfere with combat. Olive seemed to genuinely think so.

“Reflecting desires…”

“Right? Look at the treasures that come out of the Labyrinth. They’re all things people want! Gold and silver treasures, elixirs of immortality, magic swords, and even that Bread Tree on the 1st Floor! How many people would want a tree that bears bread like fruit? Where else would you find treasure that so honestly reflects desires?”

Olive warned the group.

“The Labyrinth reflects human desires. When opening treasure chests, you should think as honestly as possible about what you want and desire it – that increases the chances of actually getting what you want. This is real, you know? You know what happens if you pretend to be a person without desires and act coy?”

Everyone swallowed nervously and focused on Olive’s story.

“What happens?”

“The Labyrinth becomes nasty. The paths get all twisted, monsters become stronger, and traps become vicious, making everything chaotic. So if you all want to survive!”

Olive looked at each person as she spoke.

“Let’s be people faithful to our desires! That’s all!”

Having finished her valuable advice as a Labyrinth expert, Olive hummed a tune.

“Now then~ time to dismember the corpse~”

Olive demonstrated the Labyrinth survival method of ‘being faithful to desires’ through her actions. The guide hummed while searching through Krom’s corpse.

“Kyaa! This is a carving knife! I call dibs!”

“Th-the shoes should go to Lady Serena!”

Perhaps because she was always faithful to her desires, Philia adapted the fastest.

Watching the fairy-like wealthy lady struggling to remove the drug dealer’s shoes, Serena let out a long sigh.

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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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