Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 75

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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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75. Frog Side Dish

When they opened the Sealed Door, there was a pond where Labyrinth Frogs were playing.

Around the pond, wetland grass grew abundantly, and various aquatic plants in the water swayed with the ripples.

Except for the size of the Labyrinth Frogs, it looked like an ordinary wetland and pond.

‘There was frog foreshadowing after all.’

I had complained about why frogs suddenly appeared on the 5th floor, but it turned out there was foreshadowing laid on the 4th floor. The Guide had found the stairs too well, so we passed by without noticing.

“Wow, frogs were hiding here.”

“The frogs came out and I felt betrayed, but they had given us a preview.”

The combat members who had felt betrayed by the sudden appearance of the Labyrinth Rat Leader seemed relieved, as if a weight had been lifted.

Ribbit ribbit.

There were a total of five Labyrinth Frogs swimming and leisurely playing in the pond.

Besides the frogs, shadows of creatures swimming underwater were visible.

Count Randy observed the streamlined shadows moving freely underwater and deduced.

“They look like fish or fish monsters. My wife would love this.”

“Right. Philia likes fish.”

The Labyrinth Frogs were so absorbed in playing that they hadn’t noticed the party’s arrival yet.

When Ying tried to kill them all with arrows, Grey raised his hand to stop her.

“This works out perfectly. Your Highness, practical lesson.”

“What?”

Grey said that and pushed Serena toward the pond.

Serena found herself facing the Labyrinth Frogs without any vanguard to protect her.

Ribbit?

Fortunately, even though Serena had moved nearby, the frog was rolling its eyes in all directions and failed to notice the enemy right in front of it.

Serena hurriedly recited the magic missile spell quietly.

Ribbit ribbit!

The frog that belatedly focused and noticed the enemy’s presence alerted its companions to the enemy attack.

Serena fired the completed magic missile into the Labyrinth Frog’s mouth.

Riiiibbit!

The Princess succeeded in hunting one Labyrinth Frog.

There was no experience points, and instead a continuous battle with four cooperating Labyrinth Frogs began.

‘Pushing a mage forward without a vanguard! Where did your conscience go!’

Serena gave up on combat and retreated backward.

She trusted that her reliable companions would handle it, but was blocked by the conscienceless brat.

“Getting hit by Labyrinth Frogs will only hurt a bit, so don’t run away and fight!”

“Then you try it!”

As soon as Serena finished speaking, four magic missiles formed around Grey and hit the four Labyrinth Frogs charging at the Princess.

Grey’s lips were tightly closed and didn’t move.

‘Silent casting?’

The Princess, who had been about to pinch the brat’s lips, felt slightly deflated.

The Labyrinth Frogs screamed and fell backward. The expectation that all the frogs were dead was brief. The fallen frogs wriggled and regained consciousness.

“There. I’ve increased the distance for you, so lure them one by one and fight. Pretty easy, right?”

Behind the brat’s head, the vision of the nostalgic afro-haired painter uncle from YouTube appeared.

‘Easy my ass!’

Serena looked at her companions who couldn’t come out from behind Grey.

“Princess, fighting! Go!”

“Be careful when getting hit! Just be careful not to break any bones! Princess, you can do it!”

The Guide cheered excitedly, and the trusted Knight betrayed Serena’s faith by overestimating the Princess.

“Good luck.”

Even the archer had no intention of saving Serena and raised her thumb.

She seemed to be planning to watch Serena’s training, ready to shoot arrows to kill the Labyrinth Frogs at any moment.

Grey warned the Princess who kept looking back.

“Fight, Your Highness. If you don’t hurry, the frogs will cooperate again.”

The Princess wanted to laze around and eat, not fight!

To laze around, she had to survive first. Serena reluctantly threw herself into battle.

Serena first fired a magic missile at a Labyrinth Frog that hadn’t gotten up yet, killing one.

But perhaps because she didn’t attack immediately, the three Labyrinth Frogs that had fallen from Grey’s attack regained consciousness and croaked ominously.

Ribbit ribbit ribbit ribbit X 3

The frogs’ chorus gathered moisture from the wetland, forming water spears that flew toward Serena.

Serena was startled and tried to dodge but got a cramp in her calf and fell.

“Ugh!”

Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!

The three Labyrinth Frogs excitedly attacked the fallen Princess.

The frog kicks were weaker than her father’s punches and bearable.

Slap slap!

But the tongue attacks were sticky and slimy, making her feel disgusted.

Being prone and getting hit by three frogs also hurt her pride.

“The attacks aren’t that strong! You need to endure and prepare attack magic or evasion magic!”

‘Grey is banned from fruit snacks for a week!’

Serena decided on revenge too petty to inflict on a growing child, and cast magic using her resentment and anger toward her little teacher as motivation.

“Go, Ice Arrow!”

“Magic missile would be enough, why use 3rd tier magic? The spell casting takes longer and consumes more mana!”

Grey didn’t know what he was talking about. For Serena, Ice Arrow was easier to cast than magic missile because she was more familiar with it. The casting speed was similar to magic missile too.

Indeed, the Ice Arrow pierced through two Labyrinth Frogs that had clustered together to hit the Princess. The remaining Labyrinth Frog made a “croak!” sound, turned around, and ran away.

Serena had no time to tend to her throbbing injured areas and fired a magic missile.

The frog hopped to dodge the magic missile and splashed into the pond.

“Die!”

The annoyed Princess used Ice Arrow to pierce the frog trying to dive into deep water.

The frog’s corpse floated up, and thin ice formed on the pond before melting away.

“That Ice Arrow casting just now was very good. Fast and accurate, you need to bring magic missile up to that level too.”

Grey nodded and rambled about the shortcomings.

He talked so much that if you collected the saliva he sprayed while speaking, you could probably complete another pond.

“And it was also wrong to create only one magic missile or Ice Arrow at a time. With Your Highness’s mana, you should be able to create and maintain two or three Ice Arrows simultaneously, but you keep generating only one. You need to practice and work on increasing the number.”

Serena, unaware of how dangerous a situation she was in, flexed her fingers to grab Grey’s collar as he approached.

Then Count Randy, standing behind, shook his head with a desperate expression.

‘Even considering the Count’s face, I can’t forgive this.’

As the Princess was about to grab the child’s collar, Count Randy rubbed his hands together and pretended to be in pain.

The scene the Princess had witnessed the night she drew Grey and Count Randy came to mind.

Uncle and nephew with a firm hierarchy. Strangely, the nephew was the higher-ranking one.

‘There did seem to be something.’

They said even the 5th Prince knelt, so Grey had something. Plus silent magic casting.

Serena decided to let it slide this time and recorded one strike against Grey’s name in her mental death note.

“It’s lacking enough to make me yawn, but I’ll give you a passing grade based on your Ice Arrow casting speed. Remember it’s a pass, not a good grade. And Uncle.”

Count Randy, not expecting his name to be called, quickly changed his expression.

“Yes, yeah!”

“Later, please make a magic staff that Your Highness can carry around.”

“Got it.”

When the battle ended, the people who couldn’t enter because of Grey also came to the pond.

“Are those fish or fish-shaped monsters? Zero, can’t you catch fish with arrows?”

“Can you catch fish with a dagger?”

“Of course I can’t.”

“Me neither.”

Ralph took off his military boots, rolled up his pants and sleeves, and stepped forward.

“Please leave it to me. I used to play with my friends catching fish bare-handed in streams.”

“It gets suddenly deep here, so be careful~”

Ralph, who had been targeting shadows swimming among the water plants in the shallow part of the pond, successfully caught the owner of the shadow with his bare hands.

Flap flap! The scaled creature caught in the young boy’s hands gasped with its mouth and gills while frantically flapping its entire body.

The identity of the streamlined shadows darting around the pond was not monsters, but fish.

“I caught it!”

“Wow! Well done, Knight! Is it an edible fish?”

Serena couldn’t tell by looking, and Count Randy made the edible judgment after observation.

“It’s trout. You can eat it.”

“Yes! Fish side dish!”

“Since we have frogs, it would be better to catch fish next time.”

“Then I’ll release this one.”

“Ah, Serena-nim.”

When Ralph obediently tried to release the fish, Count Randy glanced at the Princess. Serena added words for her fish-loving maid.

“Since Sir Ralph rolled up his sleeves and caught it, let’s take that fish.”

“Yes!”

Ralph threaded water plants through the fish’s gills and mouth and submerged it at the pond’s edge so it wouldn’t die and spoil.

It was a pond inside the Sealed Door, so there couldn’t be just frogs and fish.

Believing this, the party searching inside had their guide discover a treasure chest.

“Isn’t that shimmering thing deep inside a treasure chest?”

The archer, who sometimes boasted better eyesight than the guide, nodded in confirmation.

“I’ll dive down and tie it with rope, so pull when I signal.”

Before the others could even answer that they understood, Olive quickly stripped off her clothes and dove into the deep part of the pond.

She swam down to the depths with a frog stroke, and before long, she tugged the rope to signal the party.

“Pull together. One, two!”

Excluding Serena and Grey, Ralph and Ying grabbed the rope and pulled. At first, only the rope stretched taut while the chest didn’t budge, making Serena wonder if she should help.

But once the chest separated from the bottom, it came up as the rope pulled. It was a gold-rimmed chest painted with colors and gold trim around the edges.

“A subspace bag won’t come out~ Ah~ Prince~ I’m so envious~”

Olive sang a song of jealousy, seemingly envious of Seraph who had obtained a subspace bag on the 3rd Layer.

“Ha, this isn’t the time to be negative. This is a good treasure chest, so everyone forget about daily items! Pray for something good to come out!”

Olive looked at Serena without opening the treasure chest, then turned her gaze to Grey.

“Shall we test Young Master’s luck this time?”

“I won’t decline.”

Grey readily stepped forward and stood before the treasure chest. Olive asked as if conducting an interview.

“What would Young Master like to come out?”

“A magic tool.”

“Good thinking.”

Small hands opened the treasure chest. What came out was a staff longer than the chest size.

The head had a magic stone embedded in it, and the staff part was made of smooth metal material.

It was light enough for Grey to lift, perhaps because it was hollow inside.

Grey swung the staff, which was almost as tall as he was, checked its center of gravity, and nodded.

Again, he seemed unsatisfied, but didn’t hide his feeling that it couldn’t be helped.

“Your Highness can use it.”

Grey held out the magic staff with one hand. Serena was so used to the child’s natural attitude that she forgot it was rude and accepted the staff.

The cool touch of the metal material settled perfectly in her palm.

‘I thought the center of gravity would lean toward the head, but it doesn’t.’

She had expected the weight to lean to one side since there was a magic stone attached to the head and just a long staff below, but it wasn’t so.

Both the length and weight were moderate enough for the physically weak Serena to carry around.

At least with this, she probably wouldn’t have been gang-beaten by Labyrinth Frogs.

“It’s not mithril, but silver or silver-plated? Not bad.”

“It looks magnificent!”

Though she had gained a free staff, it didn’t give much excitement to Serena, whose magical identity was weak.

What made the Princess happy was something else.

[You have perfectly conquered the 2nd Layer. 10 shop coins are awarded.]

She had hoped to receive 10 coins per floor, but that wasn’t the case.

It seemed that layers consisting of multiple floors only gave perfect conquest rewards when every floor was thoroughly searched.

‘No wonder they gave so much.’

With this, Serena’s coins became 7 death coins, 12 shop coins, and 1 limited coin.

Serena reflected on her past impulse purchases and decided to only buy the Alchemist Workshop and save the rest.

‘Considering Seraph and the priests will join, I shouldn’t summon people. Our forces are comfortable too.’

“The 2nd Layer has been perfectly conquered.”

“Your Highness, did God tell you again this time?”

“Yes.”

“Then perhaps… is there a reward this time too?”

“You’ll find out when we return to the lobby.”

“Yahoo!”

The Princess took the fish back to delight Philia, purchased and installed the Alchemist Workshop to please the alchemist as well, listening to the couple’s praise until her ears were calloused.

And four days later.

“Then shall we go to the Undead Lair!”

Serena and her party set out for the 4th Layer of Heuji’s Labyrinth.

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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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