Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 326

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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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326. The Condition is Reading Over 100 Books

There’s a secret room in the floor but we don’t know how to enter it. So I tore up the carpet and found a door!

‘This actually works?’

They say ignorance breeds courage. No, in this case would it be closer to doing what you can rather than overthinking things?

Serena, Olive, and Count Alpha were naturally speechless, and even Ralph, who handled dreams and hope in the party, was surprised. Ying was originally quiet anyway.

“Wow! It’s a sealed door!”

The surprise was brief. Ralph looked at the sealed door and cheerfully rejoiced.

“There were no books about discovering secret rooms this way! Miss Hana, you’re amazing!”

The Young Knight sent admiring looks at Hana, who had achieved great merit by discovering not only the secret room but also the sealed door.

Though she was older on paper, they were actually similar in age, and it seemed amazing that she had accomplished something he couldn’t even imagine.

“Hehe, it’s nothing special.”

Instead, Hana found it strange that the party hadn’t thought to tear up the carpet.

“If there’s a secret room in the floor, shouldn’t you search the floor first? That’s why I tore up the carpet.”

‘Right. If this were outside the labyrinth, I really would have torn up the carpet first. The thought of a library in the labyrinth made my thinking too narrow.’

This is why you sometimes need to listen to non-experts’ opinions too.

‘They say even a three-year-old has something to teach.’

Serena and Count Alpha abandoned the prejudice they had harbored against Hana, the delinquent student who hated studying.

Ralph’s praise poured down on the embarrassed Hana. Watching this scene, Serena felt a strange sense of unease and looked at the Guide.

Hana had surpassed her twice now. With Olive’s personality, it would be normal to lament why she didn’t have such abilities, or cry out ‘Argh! My pride is hurt!’

But somehow Olive was quiet. It was ominous when a talkative person suddenly became quiet.

Serena quietly turned her eyes to the Guide. Then she gasped in surprise.

‘She’s not smiling!’

The smile had disappeared from Olive’s face. Even the corner of her mouth, which had been raised on one side even when her eyes weren’t smiling, now lay flat.

Olive knew that Serena was surprised to see her, but didn’t change her expression and quietly called Hana.

“Hey. Compass.”

“Yes?”

“Who told you to stick a sword in the carpet?”

There were no highs and lows in the Guide’s voice. It seemed she was holding back in her own way, with all emotion drained out, making it as bland as boiled chicken breast.

Hana, who had answered lightly, changed her posture. Without Olive even telling her to, Hana knelt down and bowed her head.

“I was wrong!”

“It’s not like anyone doesn’t know how to tear carpet, right? We’re being careful because this is a floor with rules. Carpet, you can tear it. That was a good approach. But you should have told the party before doing it. Doing it first and then asking permission isn’t asking permission. It’s asking for forgiveness.”

Olive crouched down and placed her hand on the back of Hana’s head.

Hana’s shoulders, with her forehead pressed to the floor, trembled slightly. Seeing this, Serena and Ralph’s shoulders trembled too.

“You almost got us all killed just now. It’s no use making excuses that you didn’t know because you’re stupid. Being reckless and stupid in the labyrinth is a sin.”

The Guide’s hand pressed down firmly on the back of Hana’s head. Hana didn’t make a peep.

“Being stupid is fine, but use your brain when you live. Got it?”

“Yes. I won’t do it again.”

“Good. I know you’re actually a cunning one, so let’s do well. Got it?”

“Yes.”

Olive pressed down on Hana’s head one more time before standing up. Her mouth corner seemed to rise from the left first, then she giggled and hopped.

“Then shall we try opening the sealed door? Hm? Oh right. Before that, we need to handle the Old Man’s request first~”

Olive hummed a tune while taking out her notebook. The Guide diligently copied and drew the patterns that made up the sealed door.

With good manual skills, copying the patterns was quickly finished. Olive looked around at the group with a bright smile.

“Now it’s time to check the conditions! Huh? Why is everyone huddled together? Hm?”

Because Olive’s anger was so scary, Serena and Ralph were clinging to each other, and Count Alpha was standing in front of the two to protect them. Olive gestured to the three who were wary of her.

“Come quickly! Hm! If you don’t come, I’ll have to go first~”

The Guide placed her palm on the sealed door on the floor. The seal didn’t break.

“Aw, it doesn’t work for me. Compass!”

“Yes! Compass is here.”

“Put your hand on the sealed door.”

“Yes!”

Hana, now thoroughly disciplined, crawled on all fours to Olive’s call and placed her hand on the sealed door. The seal didn’t break.

“What are you doing? Come quickly. Hm.”

At Olive’s urging, the only one who wasn’t scared, the Archer, moved without a sound. As Ralph, who sensed he would be called after Ying, gulped nervously—

“Huh?”

“Gasp!”

“The seal!”

Something none of the group had expected happened. The seal was broken!

Even though Ying had broken the seal herself, she didn’t seem surprised or happy and calmly removed her hand.

“Wow! Zero! You broke the seal!”

“So it seems.”

“Would it kill you to be happy!”

Olive seemed displeased that Ying remained calm after breaking the seal and lightly hit her back. Then she giggled and rejoiced.

“Wow, I’ve seen it happen a few times before, but it’s still so amazing! What could the condition have been? Zero! Do you have any guesses?”

Though its meaning had faded due to Serena’s presence, who could unconditionally open sealed doors. Originally, the labyrinth’s sealed doors were like lottery tickets – jackpot if you could open them, ordinary if you couldn’t.

Thanks to this, Olive’s mood seemed completely restored as she kept poking the Archer’s side.

“What does Zero have that Compass and I don’t? We’re all women, so the unlock condition isn’t gender.”

The unlock conditions and number of conditions required by sealed doors differ from door to door.

Sometimes traps were laid with shocking conditions like having killed a relative, deliberately placed where they were easy to find to induce cracks in the party.

“Height? Surely it’s not about wearing bandages?”

Olive started with easily recognizable physical characteristics. Seeing the Guide giggling, Serena’s tension eased slightly.

“Books.”

“Why books?”

“Since it’s a library, wouldn’t it be a condition related to books?”

“Ah~ That sounds plausible. Having read 10 books or something like that?”

In other words, Olive had never read more than 10 books either.

“Opening the door. Okay?”

The original plan was just to find out how to enter the secret room and return to the lobby, but the Princess didn’t stop the Guide. She had just gotten over being upset and didn’t want to provoke her.

“Doors in the floor like this can make you fall like a trap if opened wrong. So even when breaking seals, you must always touch them from outside the door.”

Olive shared labyrinth information that would be useful to know while carefully opening the door.

The Guide’s lips, which had been moving to share labyrinth information, pressed tightly shut when opening the door.

Opening the door revealed stone stairs leading downward. Olive and Ying, the most experienced in the group, went ahead of the others down the stairs.

Since the secret room was right below the lounge but it was uncertain whether it belonged to the lounge, the two Labyrinth Adventurers even breathed quietly.

Even after stepping on the last stair, Olive didn’t turn around to signal the group to come down. The two disappeared from the group’s view.

How much time passed? The Guide and Archer returned to the group’s view.

More cautiously than when going down, but swiftly, they climbed the stairs and without a word to the group, closed the door, and as if that wasn’t enough, spread out the carpet Hana had torn to cover the door.

“Phew.”

“Whew.”

The two Labyrinth Adventurers, having completed their actions swiftly and precisely, let out the long breaths they had been holding.

‘What’s down there that makes them act like that?’

As Serena was about to ask a question on behalf of everyone, Olive beat her to it.

“There’s no secret room on the 8th Layer. Okay.”

For someone saying something that existed didn’t exist, her smile was quite refreshing. She overflowed with the qualities of a con artist.

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“We didn’t even see a sealed door on the floor. Right, Zero?”

“That’s right.”

None other than Ying agreed with Olive’s lie. Both shuddered similarly and then gathered up the bundles of Labyrinth Book paper they had prepared in advance.

“Come on! Let’s go back quickly!”

“Let’s go.”

Olive, carrying her bundle, grabbed the rope that connected up to the 30th floor.

“What? Going without any explanation?”

“Olive. Shouldn’t you at least explain what happened?”

Serena thought the same, but decided to trust the Guide and Archer’s judgment for now.

“They wouldn’t act like that without reason. It’s best to do as they say for now.”

“…Understood.”

The Imperial Knight suppressed his displeasure and politely tied the Princess to the rope.

Unlike going down the rope, Count Alpha couldn’t carry Serena when going up.

Ralph, who climbed up the rope after Olive, pulled the rope from above. Serena bumped into the wall and railings every time the rope swayed. The silver fabric undergarment lessened the impact to her torso, but her arms hurt.

‘I’ll definitely bring a rope ladder next time!’

She deeply regretted not being able to bring a 3-story rope ladder due to its bulk and weight, since they didn’t have the Alchemist’s subspace bag.

Even after barely reaching the 29th floor and Ralph pulling her up to untie the rope around her body, Serena couldn’t regain her composure.

By the time she barely regained her senses, the entire party had climbed up to the 29th floor and gathered the paper bundles.

Olive gestured with her lips that they should go first and she’d explain in the lobby.

As the party rushed toward the stairs to the 30th floor Leader’s Chamber, a small furry bundle came running and stopped in front of them.

Kek!

The Book-Eating Fox, apparently still holding a grudge, once again bestowed its curse-like blessing upon the party and ran away.

‘Good thing we encountered it while leaving.’

If they had received the blessing that makes everything catch fire from attacks while coming to collect Labyrinth Book papers, paper collection would have been much more troublesome.

After confirming that everyone had entered the Teleportation Room, Serena selected the 1st floor. Brilliant light burst from the magic circle and enveloped the party.

In the blink of an eye, Serena and the party arrived at Heuji’s Labyrinth 1st Floor, 1st Layer. Serena opened her mouth to resolve her postponed curiosity.

“What exactly did you see down there?”

“Haa. Don’t even ask. Princess. We should just pretend that doesn’t exist.”

“So what did you see that made you and Ying cause such a commotion? Explain properly.”

Olive couldn’t speak immediately and gulped down water. She even took deep breaths.

“There’s a tiger nest there.”

The information was so shocking that it took time to interpret what the Guide had said. After a brief pause, Serena asked again.

“Could the monster Hana sensed be.”

“Yes! Exactly that! Not Labyrinth Books, not labyrinth rats, not monster books, not Gem Books or Mimics, but exactly exactly exactly exactly exactly Shadow Tigers!”

They discovered the secret space, opened the sealed door, and went down excitedly humming, only to lock eyes with a Shadow Tiger.

“Really. For real, if it wasn’t me and Zero, we would have screamed in surprise and been wiped out. Wow, my heart is still pounding.”

Tiger eyes are so terrifying that there are stories of weak-hearted people dying just from seeing their eyes.

Olive pointed to her goosebump-covered arms, saying she was scared to death.

“Look at this. All the hair on my body is standing up. You can see how shocked I really was.”

“That must have been really scary! I don’t even want to imagine it!”

“Right? I couldn’t even speak because I was afraid the tiger would pop out if I opened my mouth. How frustrating it was to hold it all in!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“No, no. That’s understandable.”

Olive, who would normally seize any opportunity to find fault and satisfy her personal desires, generously forgave Count Alpha.

It meant she was that scared and shocked, so Serena was about to comfort the Guide and Archer when Olive’s green eyes sparkled as they looked at Hana.

“Compass. Can’t you distinguish between tigers and other monsters with your ability? Do you know how shocked I was when I went down thinking it was at most a Gem Book and saw a tiger?”

“Huh? How would I know that? I only know what’s trying to hit me.”

“No! Humanly speaking, you can’t classify tigers and Labyrinth Books the same way! You should feel the difference!”

“I can’t do that!”

“Don’t say you can’t, make an effort to develop it further!”

As expected of someone who received pocket money from the Effort Priest. The thief scolded the pickpocket to make an effort.

“Do you know how scared I was when the Shadow Tiger was playing around rolling a pink head? This is going to appear in my dreams!”

‘What is the tiger playing with?’

At the unmissable word combination, Serena’s eyes widened, but someone reacted even faster.

“The tiger is playing with Shullen’s head?”

It was none other than Countess Nex. She must have come out to meet the conquest team because of the commotion near the Teleportation Room, but unfortunately heard something bad for her mental health.

“Aah…! The head!”

Sure enough. The bone-only noblewoman collapsed, complaining of a headache. Olive scratched her cheek with an awkward expression.

“It’ll probably appear in the Countess’s dreams too? Sorry.”

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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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