Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 37

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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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37. Heuji’s Labyrinth 2nd Floor (1)

“I’ll show you what real labyrinth explorers’ dungeon clearing looks like. Don’t be too surprised.”

Olive swung the horn weapon she had reinforced with rope from yesterday’s box like a conductor’s baton.

“Let’s go.”

Ying, who also held a horn weapon, announced their departure.

After finishing a simple lunch, Serena, Ralph, Olive, and Ying set out to conquer Heuji’s Labyrinth. As Serena pretended to pray to the statue while updating her regression point, Philia approached.

“Lady Serena, shouldn’t you stay here since we have labyrinth experts?”

Philia made her request with tears in her blue eyes that could rival the clear autumn sky. She looked like a wife trying to stop her husband from going to war.

“I have to go.”

“You’ve been strange ever since falling into the labyrinth. You weren’t like this before. You used to hate moving… You were someone who wouldn’t leave bed for a whole week if you could help it.”

Serena also wanted to lie on the grass (though it was a grave) and just receive reports about the labyrinth conquest. She wanted to run auto-hunt like the novel protagonists from her previous life.

But then it would be difficult to utilize the advantages of being a regressor.

“Then I want to go with you too.”

“No. Don’t cause trouble and wait quietly.”

“Huuk!”

Philia burst into tears. Serena wiped the tears flowing down her fair cheeks and left the lobby.

As they approached the leader’s chamber, Olive, who had been walking ahead, slowed her pace with a mischievous smile.

“What’s the relationship between the Princess and the Countess? That kind of relationship?”

“What? The Countess is married! That’s a rude question!”

Ralph was shocked, but Serena didn’t mind Olive’s rude question. It was a question she often heard since many people had misunderstood from before.

“As Sir Ralph said, Philia is married.”

“Oh come on~ I heard nobles have affairs even after marriage. They’re all political marriages anyway.”

“Countess Randy had a love marriage. She gets along well with her husband. And I’m not into adultery.”

“A love marriage, huh. Well, with that beauty, even if it were a political marriage, anyone would fall in love. Is her husband handsome too?”

“He’s not ugly. He has outstanding qualities too.”

“What, what?”

“He’s rich.”

“Ha! Well! That’s a fantastic quality!”

“If we safely escape this labyrinth, Count Randy will reward us.”

“Wow, my work motivation is overflowing.”

The party quickly reached the 2nd floor circular space. Some parts of Lucas’s dismembered corpse were missing. It seemed the monsters that appeared on the 2nd floor had eaten them or they had been cleaned up due to the labyrinth’s restorative power.

“Now, the stairs going down are this way.”

Serena walked toward the passage Olive was guiding them to, then passed by the elevator shaft. Seeing the deep, bottomless hole, she suddenly remembered the rope that had come out of the box this morning.

“Wait a moment. Even if we can’t use the elevator, couldn’t we use the elevator shaft? The rope is long, so we could hang it down and use it.”

“That’s a good idea! I’m confident in climbing ropes!”

Ralph was confident he could easily handle the height of a 5-story building even while wearing plate armor. Olive gave a bitter smile.

“If only it were that simple.”

Olive looked around and picked up a fairly large stone. She dropped the stone on the floor. When the stone hit the floor, it made a loud noise.

“Listen carefully.”

Olive picked up the stone again and threw it into the central empty space. They waited for a while, but no sound could be heard.

It might not be audible due to the distance, but they still couldn’t use the rope. Going down such a deep place with a rope would be dangerous? It would be a suicide attempt.

‘I spoke unnecessarily.’

Serena apologized awkwardly.

“Right. There must have been a reason you don’t use this place. I brought up something pointless. I’m sorry.”

“No.”

While Serena was blaming herself, Ying expressed disagreement. Her words were still short.

“Zero. If you’re going to comfort the Princess, speak properly. This path doesn’t work, but sometimes there are paths that do work, so don’t give up before trying.”

Olive and Ying could roughly guess through experience. This experience was ultimately acquired through repeated trial and error of the things Serena had asked about.

Ying wanted to say that Serena had done nothing wrong, so she shouldn’t apologize. Her intention was good, but her words were too short. But asking her to speak at length felt burdensome.

‘What if her chuunibyou comes out again.’

Having witnessed fragments of chuunibyou once, even her current short speech seemed quite chuuni. The black bandages wrapped around her hands were hard to look at directly, like a chuunibyou meme compilation she had seen on the internet in her previous life.

They simply dealt with the spider attacks and reached the stairs leading down to the 3rd floor.

Serena carefully descended the stairs to avoid falling. The stairs from the 1st to 2nd floor were about 2 stories high, but the stairs from the 2nd to 3rd floor seemed to be about 3 to 4 stories high. Serena’s legs were already trembling.

***

“3rd floor arrival!”

Serena’s party arrived at the 3rd floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth. The 3rd floor had a similar atmosphere to the 2nd floor. The stone materials forming the interior were of the same quality, and it was equally dark with spider webs scattered everywhere.

“When the atmosphere is this similar, we call it the same tier. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s a high probability that spiders will appear here too.”

“It’s convenient to think that other monsters will be added to the monsters that appeared on the upper floors.”

The party soon discovered traces of a new type of monster. Unlike the 1st floor where spider webs were spread on the floor or ceiling, on the 2nd floor the spider webs blocked the path and hindered passage.

The multi-layered spider webs were created by swarms of small spiders, only fingernail-sized, smaller than the spiders seen on the 1st floor.

When the party stopped due to the spider webs, the small spider swarm scattered and fled, and cute crying sounds could be heard from behind.

Squeak squeak!

A large spider that cried cutely like a small bird attacked the party. The spider died after being punched by Ralph.

“It’s sticky. We could break through, but it’s better to burn it.”

Olive examined the spider web and came to a conclusion. Serena used fire magic to ignite the spider web. The spider web blocking the path burned up and disappeared in an instant.

“That was convenient, but save your mana from now on.”

“This much is fine.”

“Really? All the mages I’ve seen only thought about not using magic, saying they had no mana.”

“I heard I have a lot of mana, so it should be fine.”

She thought it was the usual flattery given to a princess, but she had been fine even after using many 3rd-tier spells when dealing with Lucas.

‘How many times did I use it then? I think it was more than five times.’

She could only use exactly one 3rd-tier spell, but in one day, and in a short time at that, she used it more than five times and still didn’t run out of mana. Rather, her stamina ran out faster.

‘I should meditate occasionally from now on.’

Since she would increasingly need to use magic, she needed to increase her mana capacity through meditation and learn other spells too.

‘Ugh, I hate studying.’

The princess, who hated studying second only to labor, gritted her teeth since she couldn’t show it outwardly.

“I can see the elevator structure over there!”

After passing through spider webs that frequently blocked the party and attacks from large spiders, they finally reached a wide circular space like the 2nd floor. In the center was the elevator structure Olive had mentioned.

“Originally, the Minotaur used that to roam around the entire 2nd tier hunting for prey. But thanks to the Princess and the Knight’s hard work, we can now move around comfortably. Thank you?”

It was closer to mockery than gratitude. Serena resisted the urge to smack the back of Olive’s small head.

They had suffered greatly to defeat it, so it was fortunate there was at least this much reward.

***

Squeak squeak!

Thud.

Squee-.

With the spiders’ screams as background music—which sounded like tormenting chicks if you closed your eyes, making you feel guilty—they walked as Olive insisted they should go.

Olive confidently led the way at a slightly fast pace, as if taking a stroll through her hometown neighborhood. It was a speed that was difficult for Serena, who had finished her daily exercise just by going down the stairs, to follow. Serena held back her urge to groan.

All attacking spiders were left to Ralph and Ying, while Serena burned the spider webs blocking the path.

Olive had the leisure to draw a map during combat. Since the Labyrinth Spiders weren’t really formidable enemies, it could be said to be proper role distribution.

“Stairs to the 4th floor arrival!”

After following diligently until her calves and ankles hurt, they had arrived at the stairs leading down to the 4th floor before they knew it.

Ooh!

Serena and Ralph opened their mouths in unison like a chorus. Having labyrinth explorers, especially one who specialized in pathfinding, in the party certainly made a difference.

“You know if you get separated from the party by bad luck, you’ll have to make it back to the 1st Floor on your own, right? So make sure you memorize the way back properly.”

“I’m not confident I can do that…”

Ralph confessed gloomily.

Olive showed the young knight her hand-drawn map and the magic map Serena had been carrying, guiding him so he could easily find his way. She also told him about trap locations while she was at it.

“Fortunately, this floor has the elevator in the center, so if you use that as a reference point, it’s relatively easy to get your bearings and find your way. If you get lost, always return to the center first, then find your path from there.”

Squeak!

“Yes, aaah!”

Ralph, who had been responding, was startled when he saw a small spider descending on a web. Surprised, he quickly moved his hands to catch and crush the spider.

“This is the first time such a small one has attacked.”

Until now, large spiders had attacked the party, while small spiders had blocked paths by spinning webs.

‘It seemed like it was just coming down to spin a web rather than attack.’

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. Serena warned Ralph.

“Be careful, Sir Ralph, as it might be poisonous.”

“Yes, understood.”

“We don’t have any antidotes, do we? Zero?”

Just as Olive’s pants pocket seemed to contain something, Ying’s waist pouch also appeared to hold something. Olive looked at the archer with hopeful expectation.

The archer with zero words and zero arrows in possession answered briefly.

“No.”

“Sigh. What kind of hardship is this for both you and me.”

What kind of misfortune was this when they should be unpacking their luggage in an inn room and comfortably drinking? Olive lamented repeatedly.

“Well~ at least we have potions. Sigh… my Landriole potions… they should be safe, right?”

“Do you use Landriole Workshop potions?”

For potions, Landriole. The potions of Landriole, the Empire’s genius alchemist, were famous for their tremendous efficacy and correspondingly tremendous price.

Ralph seemed to have heard about it during his squire duties.

“My master once told me that Landriole Workshop’s potions are naturally expensive due to limited supply, and they consider the buyer’s reputation and skills. You must be an amazing adventurer, Miss Olive!”

“Well, it’s nothing special. While working, they asked if I wanted to purchase first.”

Olive boasted while tucking her short black olive-colored veteran hair behind her ear.

‘For something that’s nothing special, she seemed to regret it quite a bit.’

“Princess, if you’re done massaging your legs, let’s head to the 4th Layer!”

After chatting about antidotes and potions, she had noticed Serena’s calf muscles were swollen and given her rest time.

‘Competent.’

Olive was definitely a competent Labyrinth Explorer, skilled enough for Landriole Workshop to offer her first purchase rights. The 5-star guaranteed draw ticket hadn’t been wasted.

“Would you like to hold my hand?”

“I feel better after resting a bit. Let’s go down.”

Serena and the party descended to Heuji’s Labyrinth 2nd Floor 4th Layer.

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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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