Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 42

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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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42. The Privilege of a Princess Beloved by the Gods

“This is a mimic. Look here, look here, it’s only the 5th floor and a mimic already appears? It’s a floor boss reward treasure chest but it’s a mimic? What a truly despicable labyrinth. Zero, what do you think?”

“6.”

“Right. This despicableness is higher than 5.”

The labyrinth experts had a conversation only they could understand.

“What is a mimic?”

“Don’t just talk among yourselves, explain it to us too.”

In the labyrinth, lack of information meant death. It was a space where the saying “if you don’t know, you must die” couldn’t end as a joke.

“A mimic is a monster that disguises itself as other objects, like that treasure chest you see now, and waits for prey. Usually they take the form of treasure chests, but sometimes they disguise themselves as statues, fountains, or very rarely as bread trees. In labyrinths, it’s best not to touch anything carelessly.”

“Is it a strong monster?”

“It’s not that strong, but it’s annoying~ annoying~ annoying! You get excited thinking it’s a treasure chest and open it, but it’s a monster! The reward is fixed as magic stones. A high-grade magic stone comes out so it’s not bad, but there’s no fun in opening the chest, so it’s boring~ annoying~”

“If it’s a monster that targets people when they let their guard down, it must be dangerous. Is there a way to identify them?”

Olive noticed it was a monster right away after a brief observation, but to Serena’s eyes, there was no visible difference from the treasure chest she saw in the secret room on the 1st floor.

“Come here. Here. Look here. Don’t get too close or stick your head in because it’ll bite you, so keep your distance. I’ve seen hundreds of people who lost their heads and arms to mimics, really.”

Olive made Serena and Ralph maintain a proper observation distance, then moved around to the back of the mimic.

“There are triangles arranged like decorations around the closed part of the chest. See? Those are the mimic’s teeth.”

When she focused her one eye and looked carefully, she could see the part Olive mentioned. Even after being told they were teeth, they still felt like ordinary decorations.

‘I would have died opening it without knowing, but since Olive is here, I wouldn’t have fallen victim to the mimic.’

Olive, who had gone behind the mimic, slit the mimic’s throat with her dagger.

“For treasure chest-type mimics, this hinge-disguised part at the back is the weak point. Keep your distance and go around properly to stab or slash. If you don’t maintain distance properly, the mimic will jump and bite, so be careful.”

“Yes, thank you for telling us.”

“This isn’t information I’d normally share so easily, but I’m telling you because it’s so outrageous.”

Olive clicked her tongue while spinning the dagger that had slit the mimic’s throat.

“What kind of mimic appears from the 5th floor? Despicable, despicable.”

“Olive. Are the numbers you and Ying have been mentioning the labyrinth’s grade?”

“Yes. I thought it was at least grade 5, but I’ve revised it to at least grade 6! Congratulations, Princess. You’ve become the owner of a nation with at least a grade 6 labyrinth!”

How nice it would have been to hear this news at the royal palace. How wonderful it would have been to hear this report from a maid while eating cool sherbet in a comfortable position, half-sitting and half-lying on a lounge chair.

From the position of having to personally conquer rather than receiving reports on labyrinth conquest progress, the news that the estimated grade had increased was not welcome.

‘I expected the grade to be high since all of Heuji City was swallowed, and it seems like it might be even higher than grade 6… but hearing it directly makes me sad.’

“Does the expected number of floors also increase when the grade goes up?”

“The number of floors isn’t exactly fixed. Anyway, it’s still at least 50 floors.”

“It’s going to become increasingly difficult to go back and forth.”

As the number of floors increased, monsters would become stronger, traps more dangerous, and paths more complex. On top of that, returning to the 1st floor lobby and going back down would also become more difficult.

Olive opened the dead mimic and took out the high-grade magic stone inside. It was a high-quality magic stone comparable to the one in Philia’s pouch.

“Mm~ It’s lustrous.”

Olive hummed contentedly while Ying muttered regretfully in a small voice.

“Arrow.”

“Hey! Don’t jinx it!”

Olive scolded Ying and rubbed her fingers together.

“Then shall we try some fire play!”

‘There’s been no problem up to this point. Did she really get seriously hurt or collapse while playing with fire?’

While Serena’s question remained unresolved, Olive tried to set fire to the spider webs. Serena stopped her and cast ignition magic on the spider web swing where the frog was hanging.

As soon as it caught fire, the spider web burned away quickly and disappeared, and the frog fell to the floor. Olive closed the door, worried that the fire might spread.

A sealed room on fire. Opening the door would cause powerful flames to burst out explosively.

‘What do they call that? Flashback?’

Serena moved far from the door just in case. Olive and the others didn’t worry about it at all, and after some time passed, they opened the door.

There were no powerful flames that Serena had worried about. There was no toxic gas that would knock down the party either. The interior of the leader’s chamber was clean except for the frog corpses, with all the spider webs gone.

“My sword is safe!”

Whether the slimy and moist frog mucus protected them from the fire, both the longsword and dagger were unharmed. The frog corpse was also quite intact except for some mucus having evaporated, making it drier.

Olive cut open the Labyrinth Rat Leader’s belly to find the magic stone. A magic stone smaller than the one from the mimic but of decent quality came out. Olive’s pants pocket bulged as if it might burst from the magic stones inside.

“Tonight’s dinner is frog meat.”

“The hind legs of frogs are delicious.”

“That’s for ordinary frog meat, but this one is so big that the hind legs might be too tough to eat?”

Olive and Ralph discussed which part of the Labyrinth Rat Leader would be most delicious.

‘Will Philia be able to eat frog?’

While Serena was trying to remember what the frog leg sticks that occasionally appeared at buffets tasted like, she discovered something strange on the wall of the leader’s chamber where the spider web wallpaper had disappeared.

It was a faintly glowing door, similar to what she had seen on the 1st floor.

‘Was it called a sealed door? There’s another one here.’

This time too, the faint light didn’t seem visible to the others’ eyes.

‘It’s awkward to say I discovered it. How should I naturally guide them to it?’

Should I jump into the [frog. which part tastes best] discussion? Or should I pretend to trip around here? Should I go back and forth there and pretend it’s marked on the magic map?

As she tried to wander near the door, she felt a gaze. It was Ying. Ying blinked her unusually deep and dark eyes, then walked toward Serena.

“What’s the matter?”

“Olive.”

Ying passed by Serena and approached the wall where the door was.

“Let’s give up the hind legs and take the front legs. Honestly, the hind legs are too big and heavy.”

“But the hind legs are the life of a frog. I can’t give them up.”

“Then will you carry the hind legs up 5 floors, Sir Knight? Is that possible? Aren’t your arms trembling from blocking that frog’s kick head-on earlier? I can see everything.”

“My legs are fine! I’ll do my best!”

“Are you showing off your thigh and waist strength to your big sister? Is that what this is?”

“What? Th-that’s not it!”

“Olive!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s a sealed door.”

At the mention of a sealed door, Olive, who had been teasing the innocent young knight, quickly rushed over. Olive examined the wall closely and nodded.

“It is a sealed door. To discover it faster than me, not bad. As expected, Zero.”

“Frog hind legs are delicious.”

“You’re saying that too. I know that, but this one is so big it’ll probably be tough, and it’s heavy to carry, I’ve said it several times.”

Olive quickly found the keyhole. Naturally, there was no key to insert, and they didn’t know the conditions either. The door didn’t open even when Olive tried pushing it as a test.

Ying and Ralph placed their hands on the door. The door remained immovable.

“Princess?”

Olive sent a slightly expectant look. Serena thought of the empty stone chamber on the 1st floor and pushed the door without much expectation.

The door opened.

“Is this really religion-related? Or divine blood?”

Olive questioned the conditions for unsealing the door while examining the interior of the opened door.

“It’s empty?”

“It’s an empty room.”

“It’s exactly like the 1st floor. There’s nothing here.”

“No, how does this make sense?”

Olive strode into the empty room.

“I’ve opened sealed doors before, and I’ve heard of them being opened. Every time, brilliant treasure chests or powerful magical tools came pouring out. People say everything they consider good came from sealed doors. But I’ve never heard of a leader’s chamber sealed door being opened. They say there’s no history of them being opened. But then! Two leader’s chamber sealed doors have opened and both are empty rooms? Are you kidding? Is this real? Really? Could this actually be a nightmare? Isn’t a nightmare mocking my dreams and hopes? What if this is actually a nightmare? What if I’m actually sleeping in an inn room? What if Zero is also having the same nightmare in the next room? What if the Princess is also having a nightmare after dozing off during a massage?”

Hoping this was a realistic nightmare would be the wish of everyone trapped in the labyrinth. Also, being disappointed by an empty room wasn’t something only Olive felt.

‘Damn it, another empty room, how petty.’

Serena was also disappointed. If it was going to be an empty room like this, why did it emit light at all?

An empty room was more serious than an empty lunchbox or empty water bottle. If an empty lunchbox dampened one’s will to live, an empty room seriously dampened one’s will to conquer the labyrinth.

A faintly glittering door? What’s the point of opening it when it’s empty inside anyway? Let’s ignore it since it’s a waste of time. This is how it significantly dampened the motivation to conquer the labyrinth.

“Olive. Calm down now.”

Ralph and Ying had already entered the room and were comforting Olive. Serena was last. Serena stepped into the room to help calm Olive down.

Then light burst forth from the floor of the room.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a teleportation magic circle!”

This time, the light wasn’t only visible to Serena’s eyes. Surprised, Ying and Olive tried to rush out of the room, but it was too late.

Serena’s party was engulfed in light and disappeared. Only an empty room remained after the light faded.

***

“Damn it! What do we do if we all got pulled in! Someone should have stayed outside!”

“Agreed.”

“Princess! Are you alright?”

‘Is this it? Is this why the party couldn’t come?’

As the light subsided, Serena opened her tightly shut eyes. Looking around, it was similar to before being engulfed in light. It was an empty stone chamber.

“It’s a teleportation magic circle. Just how many floors did it throw us to?”

Olive gritted her teeth and gestured to Serena. She was asking for the magic map. Serena took it out to give to Olive, then blinked. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“This place!”

“What, does the map show which floor this is? Yo?”

“This is the 1st floor. Inside the sealed door on the 1st floor that had nothing.”

“What? That can’t be!”

Olive snatched the magic map from Serena’s hands and looked back and forth between the map and the stone chamber. Even without looking at the map, there was evidence everywhere that this was the 1st floor.

“Isn’t this where you carved with your chisel, Olive?”

“There are chisel marks over here too.”

She had worked so diligently that even though the labyrinth’s restoration had progressed, chisel marks remained scattered throughout.

The anxiety and fear of being dropped on a random floor of Heuji’s Labyrinth by the teleportation magic circle turned into joy and relief.

“What kind of trap is inside a sealed door!”

Olive was angry. Serena agreed with her sentiment. What kind of trap did they set up like the ancestors of House Huaim? Wasn’t this too malicious?

‘Wait a minute.’

The light on the stone chamber floor had faded, but something was still glittering on the wall. Serena approached and examined it closely.

‘An arrow? Could this be.’

Serena pressed the downward arrow just in case. Then a guidance window appeared.

[Which floor would you like to go to?]

[5th Floor]

She immediately selected the 5th floor. Then dazzling light burst from the floor and engulfed the party again.

“Aaah! Again!”

“Damn it! We should have gotten out quickly! Huh? Here.”

Olive, who had been cursing rapidly about what kind of trap had such a short reactivation time, regained her composure and informed the party of their arrival location.

“This is the 5th floor from earlier, right?”

“Everyone can relax!”

“How can we relax about this! Princess? Don’t tell me?”

Serena calmly assumed a dignified posture and expression and informed the party.

“With this, we can easily travel between the 1st and 5th floors.”

There was no need to struggle up stairs that were equivalent to 3 or 4 floors of villa stairs per level. The party now had a teleportation device!

“How, how? How do you use it? Yo?”

“Can you not see these arrows? Hmm, I see. Only I can use it.”

“Again? You can do it again. Yo? Is it possible? Yo?”

Serena selected the 1st floor. In the blink of an eye, the party arrived at Heuji’s Labyrinth 1st Floor.

“Woooow! Princess! Amazing!”

“Is this real? It’s not a dream, right? Zero, hit me.”

Ying punched Olive in the solar plexus. When Olive’s eyes widened, Ying said.

“You hit me too.”

Olive jabbed Ying’s solar plexus with her elbow. Ying clutched her stomach in pain.

“Cough, it’s reality.”

“That’s quite an aggressive way to check reality. But this is actually real. Wait a minute. Both are sealed doors to leader’s chambers. Then could it be!”

If there were teleportation devices in every leader’s chamber sealed door they discovered from now on? It would be the very dream and hope that any labyrinth explorer would dream of.

“Sorry for cursing it as an empty room! I repent! I was wrong!”

Olive knelt down and apologized to the Labyrinth God. Serena joined in.

‘Sorry for being disappointed that it was an empty room! You had a plan all along!’

They had defeated the leader monster without anyone getting hurt and opened the teleportation device. What was needed now?

‘A save!’

Serena sprinted at full speed to touch the statue.

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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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